Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

No.4SPRING2000

Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

Featuring Rare Art & ARTIFACTS BY:

Joe Kubert

Shelly Moldoff

Harry Lampert

Gardner F. Fox

Robert Kanigher

Carmine Infantino

Michael T. Gilbert

Lee Elias

E.E. Hibbard

Moebius

Featuring Rare Art & ARTIFACTS BY:

Joe Kubert

Shelly Moldoff

Harry Lampert

Gardner F. Fox

Robert Kanigher

Carmine Infantino

Michael T. Gilbert

Lee Elias

E.E. Hibbard

Moebius

Sixty Years

Have Gone By In

A FLASH--and

HAWKMAN’sBeen There

All Along!

SPECIAL SALUTE TO

THE SIXTIETH

ANNIVERSARY OF

FLASHCOMICS

REMEMBERING

THE LATE GREAT

GIL KANE

Sixty Years

Have Gone By In

A FLASH--and

HAWKMAN’sBeen There

All Along!

SPECIAL SALUTE TO

THE SIXTIETH

ANNIVERSARY OF

FLASHCOMICS

REMEMBERING

THE LATE GREAT

GIL KANE

Hawkman, Flash & Shadow Thief TM & © DC COMICS

$5.95In the USA

THE FLASHby Harry Lampert

C o n t e n t sWinged Lightning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2Writer/Editorial celebrating 60 years of Flash(es) and Hawkmen. What hath Superman and Flash Gordon wrought?

re:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Only space for a few corrections, due to our last-minute Gil Kane tribute.

A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A candid interview with Golden Age artist Sheldon Moldoff about Hawkman, Batman, Moon Girl… and EC.

Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas talk with the only man to draw the Winged Wonder in both the Golden and Silver Ages.

Joe Kubert and Me . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Al Dellinges writes about his half-century-old obsession with the art of one of comics’ most honored illustrators.

The Life and Good Times of Gardner F. Fox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Letters and records from the late co-creator of The Flash and Hawkman.

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26What? No regular title for Hawkman? Bill Schelly tells how comics fandom reacted to that fact in the 1960s.

Remembering Gil Kane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32A very personal reminiscence of the late great comic book creator by his friend and collaborator Roy Thomas.

Special Flash Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About our cover: Kubert’s dynamic Hawkman graced the cover of Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #1, and nowJoe’s generously allowed us to print—for the first time ever in color—his Hawkman vs. ShadowThief drawing done for the 1977 Bay Con (San Francisco). Whenever the Feathered Fury starred ona Flash Comics cover in the 1940s, it sported a cameo image of the Fastest Man Alive—and viceversa—hence Harry Lampert’s Flash here. [Hawkman and Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

™HAWKMAN Section

Background image: A detail of the Winged Wondersfrom Joe Kubert’s cover of the Fox/Kubert

trade paperback collection from 1989.[©2000 DC Comics, Inc.]

Volume 3, No. 4Spring 2000

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorBill Schelly

Design & LayoutJon B. Cooke/GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

Janet Sanderson

Consulting EditorsJohn MorrowJon B. Cooke

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Contributing EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry G. BailsRonn Foss, Biljo WhiteMike Friedrich

Special Kubert ConsultantAl Dellinges

Cover(s) ArtistJoe Kubert

Cover ColorTom Ziuko

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

And Special Thanks to:

Mike W. BarrLamar BlaylockJerry K. BoydLynda Fox CohenRay A. CuthbertChris FossJeff GelbDavid HamiltonMark HanerfeldRoger HillTom HorvitzCarmine

InfantinoRobert KanigherJoe & Muriel

KubertHarry & Adele

LampertRandy & Jean-

Marc Lofficier

Dave ManakScott McAdamEugene L. MeyerMoebiusSheldon & Shirley

MoldoffRich MorrisseyAlbert MoyJerry OrdwayEthan RobertsKurt & Dorothy

SchaffenbergerRobin SnyderTom StewartMarc SwayzeDann ThomasJoel ThingvallMike VosburgJerry WeistMarv Wolfman

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. RoyThomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803)826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is aTM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. The

Atom, Batman, Batwoman, The Black Pirate, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Don Caballero, The Flash, Ghost Patrol, Green Lantern,Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Ibis, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Kid Eternity, The King, Marvel Family, Mary Marvel,The Ray, Red, White & Blue, The Ring, Rose & The Thorn, Sargon, Sgt. Rock, Steve Malone, Superman, Viking Prince, The Whip, Wildcat©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Moon Girl ©2000 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. The Golem ©2000 Protestant Digest. Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert. LoriLovecraft ©2000 Mike Vosburg. All-Winners Squad, Angel, Blazing Skull, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Fin, Hulk, HumanTorch, Iron Fist, Morbius, Patriot, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super Rabbit, Terry Vance, Thing, Toro, Vagabond, Venus, Vision,Warlock, Whizzer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan ©2000 Conan Properties, Inc.; Flash Gordon ©2000 KFS. Mr. Monster ©2000Michael T. Gilbert. Droopy ©2000 Harry Lampert. Pogo ©2000 Walt Kelly Estate. The Flame, Samson, U.S. Jones ©2000 Fox Publications.Magno & Davey, Raven, Unknown Soldier ©2000 Ace Magazines, Inc. The Wizard ©2000 Archie Comics Group. Flyin’ Jenny ©2000 BellSyndicate. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

For me, one of the greatest things about bringing back Alter Egoafter three decades has been re-establishing contacts, even friend-

ships that had lain dormant for years… or simply to give me an excuse toget in touch with old friends, or (hopefully) to make new ones.

That renewed contact, of course, is a double-edged sword, as detailed below… but first:

In 1939—the year Flash Comics #1,whose heroes Flash and Hawkman thisissue of A/E celebrates, made its debut—events must have been seen as moving very fast indeed.

Adolf Hitler, six years into his proclaimed “Thousand Year Reich,” had established Nazi Germany as a powerto be respected, or at least feared, by oldfoes France and England. In September,only weeks after abruptly signing a peacetreaty with the hated Joe Stalin and theU.S.S.R., Der Führer sent troops storminginto neighboring Poland, overwhelming itswiftly in what became known asBlitzkrieg.

“Lightning War.”

By late 1939 things were movingquickly in the lesser world of comic books,too.

Only a year-and-a-half after he hadflung his first flivver on the cover of Action#1, Superman’s attributes had already beencloned by a whole passel of imitators: FirstWonder Man, then Captain Marvel andMaster Man, matched the Man of Tomorrowpower for power; Batman borrowed the costume and secret identity; Human Torch andSub-Mariner mutated his ability to survive fire andthe briny deep into specialties of their own.

And over at All-American Comics, a new companyallied with Superman’s publisher, National/DC, two moreof his attributes—speed and flight—would be spun off into separatecharacters by writer Gardner F. Fox,editor Shelly Mayer, publisher M.C.Gaines, and a few talented artists.

Mentioning my esteemed correspondent Gardner Fox brings meback to the first two paragraphs above. Perhaps I simply had to wait untilI had grown old enough myself (I turned 59 last November, incredible asthat seems to me) to be able to fully appreciate the notion of “time in itsflight.”

Since the early-’98 revival of Alter Ego, it’s been a real pleasure—ifoccasionally a bittersweet one—to again have an excuse to question bothmy contemporaries and my elders. After all, they, and only they, cantruly document a world that is now, every bit as much as Margaret

Mitchell’s antebellum South, “gone with the wind.”

It all makes me wish I’d brought A/E back years ago… or that I hadmore time.

But don’t we all?

For, the flight of time is, indeed, swift—Hawkman and TheFlash, put together.Winged lightning,indeed.

As I readied thisissue, time caught up with

two friends of mine—one theconsummate comics

professional, the other a long-time fan just as devoted to comicsin his own way.

From 1959-60 forward, Gil Kane became one of the artistickingpins of the Silver Age, aftertwo decades of laboring in theshadow of other artists. AfterGreen Lantern, then The Atom,and later a significant body ofexcellent work for Marvel, DC,and other companies (includingpublishing on his own, morethan once), he never againstood in any artist’s shadow.

Gil, whom I was privileged to call friend for justover thirty years, passed awayon January 31, 2000, after thereturn of the lymphoma he hadstaved off more than a decadeearlier.

Though news of hispassing came as this issuewas in the final stages of

production, I’ve written a memoir of ourfriendship and collaborations whichappears in the issue. And in June, asalready planned, A/E will feature oneof Gil’s last interviews, which dealswith the early days of comics.

Another who has left us too soon was Mark Hanerfeld.I’d known him since the late ’60s, when he palled around with Marv

Wolfman, Len Wein, et al. in New York, winding up as an assistant editor(and occasional scripter) for DC, and as the model for Abel, the host ofThe House of Secrets.

As Mark Evanier detailed in Comics Buyer’s Guide #1367 (1/26/00),Mark H. was a lifetime booster of comics. Indeed, he’d planned to writefor A/E about the Silver Age Flash, with the cooperation of his admiredfriend Carmine Infantino; and a Kubert Hawkman sketch which Mark

2 Writer/Editorial

Winged Lightning

Gil Kane (1926-2000) was justly proud of the oft-overlooked run ofSuperman stories he and Marv Wolfman produced during the 1980s. This

powerful sketch reminds us why that work should not be forgotten.[Superman ©2000 DC Comics, Inc.; courtesy of Jeff Gelb.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Under his quasi-pseudonym Shelly, SheldonMoldoff would be the Hawkman artist from Flash Comics #2-61 and inAll-Star Comics #1-23. But Shelly’s accomplishments go far beyond eventhe Winged Wonder.]

ROY THOMAS: Shelly, you and Irwin Hasen [the second regular artistof the Golden Age Green Lantern] are about the same age, and youseem to have one of the very same major influences: sports cartoonistWillard Mullin.

SHELLY MOLDOFF: Irwin and I onlyfound that out maybe twenty years later.When I got out of school—or I may have evenstill been in school—I admired Mullin’s sportscartoons. Their strength was his ideas, and hislittle sketchy cartoon characters, which Iloved. So I got on the subway and went downto the New York World-Telegram office andjust introduced myself, and he was very nice.This had to be about 1936 or 1937, or maybe ayear earlier.

I would go watch him work. Sometimeswhen I was there he’d be stuck and he’d say,“I’ve got to do something on baseball. Gotany ideas, Sheldon?” And I’d say, “Howabout this or that?” Several times he did takemy suggestions, and he’d let me just sit thereand watch him, and it was great. I think Ilearned a lot just from the way he moved hislittle cartoon characters.

RT: It’s no surprise that you list Hal Fosterand Alex Raymond as influences—everycomics artist back then admired those two,and Milt Caniff—but I’ve read that in yourhigh school yearbook in 1937 you listed WaltDisney as the man you most admired.

MOLDOFF: I was the staff cartoonist on thehigh school paper, and I thought animationwas fantastic. I remember when Snow Whiteand the Seven Dwarfs came out, and everybody said to me, “Oh, a full-length cartoon? That’s ridiculous… it’ll fall on its face!” I said, “No, thisis going to be a classic!” Sure enough, it opened in the Radio City MusicHall in New York, and it played to sell-out crowds for weeks and weeksand weeks! He proved it could be a great new art form and story form.

In those days, we wanted to be cartoonists, and we didn’t even knowwhat super-heroes were. My ambition was to learn how to draw, andthen have a funny cartoon character and sell it to a newspaper. I neverthought in terms of straight adventure.

And then, when Flash Gordon started to make an impression on

everybody, I adapted that style to comic books, because I thought it wasthe best. I really loved comic books when they started, not only becauseof the medium it was—a complete story, which was terrific—but thefact that it was a chance to sell work. Because if you had to wait for anopening in a newspaper or syndicate, you could wait forever! There areonly so many strips that a newspaper carries.

RT: Some people still think of the comic strip as being automaticallysuperior; but when you realize a comic book can do five-, ten-, even100-page stories—that makes it a whole different medium, and just as

valid in its own way.

MOLDOFF: That’s why the comic bookbecame so successful. It wasn’t a cliffhanger.You didn’t have to wait till tomorrow to seeanother four panels, and the next day anotherfour panels. You sat down, and you read acomplete eight- or ten-page story.

RT: I understand another well-known comicbook artist had something to do with yourstarting cartooning… Bernard Baily [artist of“Hour-Man,” “The Spectre,” et al.].

MOLDOFF: Yeah, he lived in the sameapartment house I did in the Bronx. He was afew years older than me; he went to JamesMonroe High School, and he was also hisschool’s newspaper cartoonist. He was a verygood-looking guy, and I think he was classpresident. I was drawing in chalk on the side-walk—Popeye and Betty Boop and otherpopular cartoons of the day—and he came byand looked at it and said, “Hey, do you wantto learn how to draw cartoons?” I said,“Yes!” He said, “Come on, I’ll show youhow to draw.”

So we went across the street and sat on abench in the park, and he showed me how tostart with a circle, and how to make the body,and how to make a smile, and the proportions

for cartoons. He said, “Keep practicing. I live on the fourth floor, and ifyou want to show me some of your work, I’ll be glad to look at it.” Sowe became friendly, and I’d periodically go up and show him my stuff,and he would help me and criticize me.

Then he moved away while I was still in high school, and then a fewyears later I was at National bringing in some filler pages for VinSullivan and in walks Bernard Baily! He looked at me, and he said,“Sheldon?” I said, “Yeah, Bernie, how are ya?” He said, “Well, youmade it, huh?” [laughs] I said, “Yeah, yeah, thanks to help from you andother people, I’m a cartoonist!”

4 A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk—

A Moon... A Bat... A HawkA Candid Conversation With Sheldon Moldoff

Interview Conducted and Edited by Roy ThomasTranscribed by Jon B. Knutson

Shelly Moldoff with a recent re-creation of his firstHawkman cover for Flash Comics (#8), and what he

calls “my favorite cover.” [Photo courtesy of SheldonMoldoff; Hawkman, Flash, Johnny Thunder, Whip,

King, and Cliff Cornwall ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

The same thing happened when I was admitted into the NationalCartoonists Society in the early ’40s. At a meeting, when theyannounced the new members, I stood up… and you get a little round ofapplause and greetings… and who comes out of the crowd but WillardMullin! He came over to me and said, “Shelly, I’m so glad to see you’rehere! You’re one of us now.” Irwin Hasen had a similar experience.

RT: Although the recent “Millennium” reprint of the first issue of Action Comics [1938] listed the author of the sportscartoon in that issue as “Unknown,” that was your work,wasn’t it?

MOLDOFF: Yes. I did those things because of my interestin sports and because of Willard Mullin’s advice. The onein Action #1 was one of the earliest things I sold. I alsosold such filler pages to several of the other magazines. Itwould be sports oddities, or movie oddities, or “Believe It orNot” Ripley-style facts. Vin Sullivan and I got along great,and I sold many, many pages to him. That’s how I beganin comic books.

RT: One area of your career we won’t deal with muchhere, because it was covered in A/E, Vol. 2, #5 [flip sectionof Comic Book Artist #5], is one of your first jobs—assisting Bob Kane on “Batman” back in ’39.

MOLDOFF: He had just started “Batman,” and he needed help,because he was also doing a strip called “Clip Carson” and another

funny cartoon strip, “Rusty and His Pals.”

RT: How much professional comics work had you done by this stage?

MOLDOFF: Maybe a couple of filler pages… no strips [i.e., stories].Someone told Bob about me, and he called me, and I went over to see

him in the Bronx—we both lived in the Bronx—and I started work-ing for him. I met Bill Finger there, and we were gung-ho.

A lot of people have asked me, “Should Bill Finger’s namebe up there [on “Batman”]? The only thing I can say is, atthat time, we were all excited that we were working, youknow? Bill Finger was a frustrated writer. There were nottoo many markets. Then, all of a sudden, here’s Batman,and his friend Bob needs as many scripts as he can provide.As soon as he finishes one, he’s got another one to do. All

of a sudden, we’re making money!

RT: After all, that was the tail end of the Depression. And Iremember what Jack Nicholson said when he won anOscar for One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest: “I’m still getting used to working steady!” [laughs]

MOLDOFF: That was the main thing, you know?Nobody thought “Batman” was going to go for sixty

years and be the industry that it became. All we wanted to do was makea couple of bucks, plus we’re in print—which is every writer’s or artist’sambition, to be in print—so we were satisfied at the time.

No moon in sight, but bats and hawks we’ve got! This beautiful 19” x 14” color commission piece, done in 1991, is from Ye Editor’s private collection.[Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman, Hawkgirl, Batman, Batwoman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

From Shelly’s high school yearbook. Even then, he

knew what he liked! [courtesy of S.M.]

RT: How long did you work for BobKane that first time?

MOLDOFF: Oh, I’d say a couple ofmonths. But I wanted to do my ownwork, and Sheldon Mayer offered methe chance. So I started drawing“Cliff Cornwall” [in Flash #1]. It waswritten by Gardner Fox, who wasSheldon Mayer’s main writer. Also, Ikept doing “Clip Carson.”

RT: “Clip Carson” and“Cliff Cornwall”… howdid you keep themstraight?

MOLDOFF:Well, one is inthe jungle andthe other is adetective![laughs] “CliffCornwall”lasted a fewmonths in Flash,but that was a period of great changein comic books. All of asudden everybody wanted super-heroes.

RT: As of Flash #3, Dennis Neville,the first “Hawkman” artist, was gone,and Harry Lampert had left “TheFlash,” and you and E.E. Hibbardwere doing those features. Did youever find out why these big changes?

MOLDOFF: I had met M.C. Gaineswhen I first walked into Sheldon Mayer’s office, and he tooka shine to me. I started working. Later on, I did specialthings that Gaines had me do… not in comic books, but publicity-type things. He’s the one who said, “We’re goingto put you on ‘Hawkman,’ and do whatever you want withit. Do a good job; I know you can do it.” And that was it!

RT: How did the idea come to you to employ the AlexRaymond approach? Neville hadn’t done the strip that way.

MOLDOFF: No, his version was completely different. But when I looked at “Hawkman” andread a couple of stories, I said to myself, “Thishas to be done in a Raymond style.” I couldjust feel it, like Raymond—or Foster.

RT: How did you work it? Had you kept a collection? Because you obviouslycouldn’t go out and buy a collection ofFlash Gordon or Prince Valiant in 1939the way you can now.

MOLDOFF: Oh, I saved those Sundaypages and the daily papers for years!There isn’t an artist around that doesnot have a file… a “morgue.”

RT: Arlen Schumer discovered, whilecomposing a cover for A/E V2#5, that

even the very first “Batman”cover by Bob Kane [forDetective Comics #27, 1939] wasa Flash Gordon swipe—whichnobody ever seems to havenoticed before! Kane’s cartoonierstyle hides it, but the pose is aswipe. Which is okay.Everybody uses swipes; there’snothing wrong with that.

MOLDOFF: As a matter of fact,I met Albert Dorne early in mycareer; he had a cousin my agewho introduced me to him. Atthat time he was considered thetop commercial artist in NewYork City. He did ads for every-body; he was unbelievable. Hehad several different styles. Hehad a tremendous drawingboard, and on it were tacked different swipes. When he got ajob from an agency, regardless ofwhat it was, he’d first get swipes.That would bring him up to dateon every possible angle thatwould benefit the illustration.Then he went to work! Dornewas a master craftsman, but hefound that, using swipes, youhad something to lean on, and itcould enhance your work! Itcould be photographs, it couldbe drawings, it could be color, itcould be anything! But it helpsyou to get a better finished product.

RT: What was the first cover you did?

MOLDOFF: It was for More Fun Comics. A scene of ahunter being attacked by two wolves. Another early one

was a pirate cover for Adventure Comics. [See illustrationson p. 8.]

RT: What quality do you think your work had—like thatof Creig Flessel, Howard Purcell, Irwin Hasen, a fewothers—that made DC’s editors say, “We want you, rather

than the interior artist, to do the cover of FlashComics #1 or the first Green Lantern cover on

All-American [#16]?”

MOLDOFF: As I said, M.C. Gaines took ashine to me. He liked my style; he liked

the realism. We were competing with thenewspapers. When he picked up the

Sunday papers, he saw Flash Gordon,Prince Valiant, Terry and the Pirates.When he picked up a comic book,there was a tremendous difference inthe quality of the art.

And then, all of a sudden, he sawme… an 18-year-old coming around,and I’m almost a student ofRaymond, and by God, the stufflooks good—it looks like Raymond!

6 A Moon… a Bat… a Hawk—

Shelly in 1938, with the sports filler which appeared in that first epochalissue of Action Comics. (And he got a credit byline, too!) [Photo courtesy of

Sheldon Moldoff; art ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

In 1939, Shelly was serving as Bob Kane’s assistant on “Batman”; sixtyyears later, he did this Kane-style commission piece for fan/collectorJerry Boyd. [Art ©2000 Shelly Moldoff; Batman ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

Conversation One: Kubert/Dellinges[ED. NOTE: Al Dellinges has spent years studying and even tracing thecomic art of Joe Kubert. The following interview, conducted by mail, waspreviously printed in Al’s self-published volume Joe Kubert: A GoldenAge Index, in 1978, and dealt primarily with his art during the 1940s,when Kubert was in his teens and early twenties.]

AL DELLINGES: In Flash Comics #62, your first Hawkman job in thatmagazine, it looks as though you misspelled the name of Hawkman onthe splash page.

JOE KUBERT: That was apparently the act of a young, over-zealouscartoonist. And you’re absolutely right, Al—I did misspell the titlename. This must be a “first” of some sort. Boy, am I red-faced!

AD: The quality of the artwork in Flash #71 is quite superior to anyprevious issues. Did you feel you finally arrived at your potential withthat story?

KUBERT: It’s very difficult to look at these things in retrospect. I doknow that I entered into each job with the hope and desire that it’d bebetter than the last. I still do, even today. Incidentally, do you notice theback-slanted lettering in the strips? These were my first experience inlettering—at the behest of Sheldon Mayer, my then-editor.

AD: The splash pages of the next five issues of Flash Comicsretain the same quality as #71; however, some of the artworkwas tight, while some appeared loose. Was mood a factorduring work on these jobs?

KUBERT: I might have been the subject matter that dictatedthe style and approach I used. I don’t really know. All I doknow is that, looking at some of this material—thedistortions and the bad drawing—gives methe shudders!

AD: Did you work at home orat a studio?

KUBERT: Most of theyears I’ve spent in thebusiness have involved myworking at home. At onetime or another I’veworked at “studios” whichwere set up by a group ofguys including myself, fellows like Alex Toth,Carmine Infantino, HyRosen, Howie Post.

AD: The splash page of Flash#75 is the only one in whichHawkman did not appear.

Any reason whyyou didn’t includehim?

KUBERT: I tried mybest to have the splasheslook as different as possible, design-wise.Other than that, I’ve no idea why Ididn’t includeHawkman.Incidentally, if I’mnot mistaken, thelettering (exceptfor the first caption letters) was done by someone named Sol Harrison—now president of National Periodicals—and one of my dearest friends.

AD: Most of your covers and splash pages show Hawkman on the leftside of the page. Any particular reason?

KUBERT: Yes. We [artists] were given to understand that the magazineson retail display racks usually showed the top [title] of the cover and theleft-hand side. So we tried (and still do) to design/plan the cover with

the star character on the left-hand side.

AD: How do you account for the marked improvement inyour work within a relatively short time? For instance, theartwork in Flash Comics up to issue #70 was okay, but Flash#71 was a professional achievement in every respect.

KUBERT: That’s a matter of your own personal judgment,Al. As I mentioned before, looking at all this work today

makes me cringe. But I believe it’s a good idea for thework to be shown, if for no other reason than to

allow those people who are trying to breakinto the business the opportunity to see

and learn from my early and mostamateurish efforts.

AD: Flash #76 has the finest totaloverall quality of all issues tothat point. I know it was a longtime ago, but were you excep-

tionally proud of the job you didon that one?

KUBERT: I think perhaps you’re more affected by the story than theillustrations, Al.

AD: Hawkman in Flash #85 lacked thequality that was present in Flash #76,and Hawkman began changing in style

Two Short Conversations with

JoeKubertConducted by Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas

Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert 15

Hawkman head by Kubert, done for a ’70s San DiegoComic Con program. [Art ©Joe Kubert; Hawkman

©2000 DC Comics Inc. Thanks to Al Dellinges.]

Photo of Joe Kubert in the 1970s. [Courtesy of Muriel Kubert]

and costumes. Any feelings you care to express concerning these?

KUBERT: I think I tried to get a little too “cutesy-pie” on this cover,and I guess it didn’t come off.

AD: Was time, or a lack of it, a major element in determining the manner with which you handled Hawkman in the later issues, say #88through #104?

KUBERT: Not really. I’d say I spent at least as much time on all thework I do and have done. As a matter of fact, one of the stories thatpleased me (at the time) was “The Ghost.” So, you see—it’s all a matterof personal taste. Generally, I try to do the kind of work that pleasesme, rather than anyone else. If it pleases others, as well, that’s great.

AD: Your next assignment after Flash #76 was Flash #85, a lapse ofabout twelve months. Do you recall what other art jobs you did during

this period?

KUBERT: I really don’t recall. But, at one timeor another, I’ve worked for possibly every[comic book] publishing house in the business.There were 25 to 30 different publishers, asopposed to today’s three or four. It was a veryexciting time.

AD: How long did it require to complete a nine-page [Hawkman] story?

KUBERT: The time that it takes to complete apage varies tremendously, depending on the subject. Some pages may take two to three hoursto complete (pencil and inks). Others may takeall day. Working “by the clock” can be terriblyself-defeating, I think.

AD: Judging from the amount of details in yourbackgrounds, I get the feeling you were neveroverly concerned in the amount of time youspent on each sketch.

KUBERT: I guess that’s true—and remains true.

AD: Your drawings contain a good deal of extraartwork like pictures on the walls, frame mould-ings, fireplugs, bricks in buildings, and manyother items that enhance your illustrations. Thismust have required a lot of extra time.

KUBERT: Again, time was not (and is not) thecriteria. Backgrounds and detail are multi-purposeful. To enhance an illustration, and tolend credence and believability to the story. Ifmishandled, those details can destroy the illustration/story.

AD: Your angle shots are great. Your shadoweffects create beautiful designs. Any particularcomments on how you handled these?

KUBERT: The artist/cartoonist is casting director, director, and cameraman all rolled intoone. Design and composition are tools to be utilized to keep a pace—transition—and impactthat will be accepted by the reader.

AD: How do you approach anatomy?

KUBERT: The mistake is made by many aspiringyoung cartoonists that anatomy may be learnedfrom comic books or syndicated strips. Wrong!

These are exaggerated (and often incorrect) examples. Figure drawingfrom life (both nude and draped) is absolutely essential to a knowledgeof anatomy to be applied to any form of art in which the human figureis portrayed.

AD: Animals—how about those lizards?

KUBERT: I dunno, I guess I had a sort of “thing” for creepy-crawlythings. I never realized it until I looked through these old stories. Seemslike I stuck ’em in every conceivable place. And some places thatweren’t conceived.

AD: Do you recall any outstanding remarks or comments made to youby your peers on jobs such as “The Golem,” “Alabam,” and“Hawkman”?

KUBERT: Not really, Al. “The Golem” meant a great deal to me

16 Two Short Conversations with Joe Kubert

While Joe may not think much of his art from 1944-49, Al Dellinges and Roy Thomas beg to differ! This page from “Land of the Bird Men” in Flash #71 (May 1946) even has Hawkman in all seven

panels. [©2000 DC Comics Inc. Original art from R.T.’s collection; both purchased from Joel Thingvall,acting as agent for Jon Chester Kozlak.]

As a youngster I just loved Hawkman.

At some point, however, I switched my loyalty over to The Atom,and that’s where I stayed—until the mid-1940s, when I first encounteredJoe Kubert’s artwork on the Hawkman character, which seems to havehad a lasting effect on me.

I think it’s safe to say that I am probably Joe Kubert’s biggest fan.

My qualifications are that I have copied/traced nearly every comicbook story he ever worked on. In the beginning, I thought that if Ibecame more familiar with his style of drawing, my work wouldbecome just like this. My problem was, I never learned to draw wellenough to be able to incorporate his style into mine.

But it wasn’t a total loss. I found enormous pleasure in tracing hislines, and the better I got at it, the more fun it was.

It would be nice to find some newKubert art to copy every day, but that type

of thing stopped turning up long ago. SoI just keep copying the same storiesover and over, trying to improve eachnew attempt.

In 1973 or thereabouts, I had thepleasure of working with Joe on a projectthat I found most rewarding.

DC wanted to reprint the Tor storiesJoe had originally done for St. John Publishing

Company in the early 1950s. As faras I knew, he still had his originalart, but preferred not to use it, andasked me to copy the pages fromthe original comic books, which hewould provide for me on loan. (Ialready had issues #1 and #3.)

The way I copied the pages was to take a 35 mm color slide of eachcomic book page and project it onto the wall at the desired size, whichwas about “twice up,” or 200%, of the size of the printed comic. Then Iwould attach a piece of illustration board to the wall and ink the imageson the wall with a brush.

It took me about eighteen hours to do each page. Joe had the let-tering done later—by one of his sons, I believe. He paid me $15 a page,which was fine with me, as I valued working with him. I was in myearly forties at the time and found the entire project enlightening.

I copied three complete Tor stories and one “Danny Dreams” story(from the first and third St. John issues of One Million Years Ago/Tor);these were printed in issues #2, 3, and 4 of DC’s Tor in 1974. Aroundthat time I published the Joe Kubert Golden Age Index, so it was a goodtime for me.

After I finished the fourth story, Joe told me they had found

another wayto reproducethe rest of theartwork theywanted to use,so I was nolonger needed,and I moved onto other pro-jects.

Later, Iworked with Roy Thomas ontwo Kubert/Hawkman-relatedprojects for DCComics.

First came a“reprint” of the“Land of the

20 Joe Kubert and Me

Joe Kubertand Meby Al Dellinges

You name it—Joe Kubert’s probably done it—and Al Dellinges has publishedsomething about it! Joe drew a special cover for Al’s Joe Kubert: The War Yearsin 1990; and Al created a montage of early JK work for his Joe Kubert: A Golden

Age Index in 1975. [Art ©2000 Joe Kubert and Al Dellinges, respectively; Sgt.Rock, Hawkman, Flash, Viking Prince, Sargon, Wildcat ©2000 DC Comics Inc.;

Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert; Tarzan ©2000 ERB Inc.]

Al once wrote that “This is theonly drawing Kubert sent me that

I never used somewhere.” Nolonger, Al! [©2000 Joe Kubert.]

[NOTE: As anyone who has been following Alter Ego (Vol. 2-3) and/orthe DC Archives series knows, Gardner F. Fox (1911-1986) was both oneof the most prolific and one of the most important writers in the morethan sixty-year history of comic books. While Michael T. Gilbert (with abit of help from Mr. Monster) has been digging through the Fox papers at the University of Oregon (Eugene) from time to time, this issue of A/E would seem to be the place to take a closer look at the co-creator of The Flash, Hawkman (twice), Doctor Fate, The JusticeSociety of America, Adam Strange, The (Silver Age) Atom, et al.

The following missive from Gardner to comics fan JamesFlanagan, dated March 26, 1979, was printed in RobinSnyder’s History of Comics, Vol. 2, #2, Feb. 1991. In some places Gardner appears to be answeringspecific questions posed to him earlier by his correspondent; the reader can generally surmisewhat those questions were. A few editorial noteshave been added for clarity.

The letter is ©2000 by the Gardner Fox estate. Now, here is Gardner in hisown words:]

To start with, I got into comicsbecause the law, back in those

Depression Days, was not something atwhich to get rich, so when a good friendof mine—Vin Sullivan, whom I’d knownsince the secondgrade of grammarschool—suggestedI try my hand at writing comics (acompletely newthing, back inthose days), I fellin with the idea.I’d written a lot. Iwas on the highschool paper, the college newspaper(I wound up beingEditor in Chief ofthe college paper in

my junior year), and the idea sounded good.

I have since discovered that I was the very first writer hiredto do comic book writing—I beat Otto Binder by about six

months. Using my law school background, I invented SteveMalone, District Attorney, and a story about him was myvery first comic book yarn. I followed this with a Zatara,and I was on my way.

The pulps I read ’way back then were Argosy, AllStory, Amazing, and some of the sports pulps.My favorite authors were A. Merritt, Edgar RiceBurroughs, and in the mystery field, JohnDickson Carr. There was also Harold Lamb,

Jeffrey Farnol, and one or two others.

I was in at the early stages ofFlash Comics. I worked with SheldonMayer, boy-editor at the time, andcame up with the Flash, Hawkman,King Standish (based on FrankPackard’s Grey Seal novels, if I

recall correctly), and Cliff Cornwall. Ialso wrote the short stories which Flash

Magazine carried in those days. All in all, Ihave written over four thousand comic

book stories. Mymind reels at thiswhen I stop tothink about it. Ifyou figure that Iwrote in the spanof thirty years, andbreak it down,you’ll see what Imean.

I workedfrom the beginningwith the JusticeSociety stories,though the idea of

creating the Justice

22 The Life and Good Times of—

THE LIFE AND GOOD TIMES OF

GARDNER F. FOXA Letter from the Co-Creator of Flash and Hawkman

“Steve Malone,” from an early issue of Detective Comics, drawn by Don Lynch.[©2000 DC Comics Inc. Courtesy of Jerry Bails.]

Gardner Fox in retirement, probably late 1970s or early‘80s. [Photo courtesy of daughter Lynda Fox Cohen]

Art ©2000 Sheldon Moldoff; Hawkman ©2000 DC Comics, Inc.

Focusing on the drive by 1960s comics fans to persuade DC Comicsto award Hawkman and Hawkgirl an ongoing series, as epitomized byone of the Hawks’ most ardent fans, Mike Vosburg... with an assist fromRonn Foss and others.

by Bill SchellyI. FIRST FLUTTERINGS

The hero revivals by DC Comics (then National PeriodicalPublications) catalyzed the formation of comics fandom in the early

1960s. New versions of The Flash and Green Lanternwere received enthusiastically, and the

introduction of a re-tooled Justice Society(as the Justice League) would inspire fansJerry Bails and Roy Thomas to launchthe first super-hero comics fanzine,Alter-Ego, in early 1961. Everyone wondered—who would be the next herofrom the First Heroic Age of Comics in

the 1940s to be brought forward to the eraof John F. Kennedy’s “New Frontier”?

When DC editor Julius Schwartzannounced that Hawkman would bethe next of the classic heroes to return,

he was already cognizant of the new breed of older, more sophisticatedsuper-hero fans. Since the re-birth of The Flash in Showcase #4 in 1956,Julie had received first a trickle, then a steady stream of correspondencefrom high school and college students, teachers, and other unusuallyknowledgeable, perceptive readers.

He valued their opinions enough to send them advance black-&-white photostats of the Winged Wonder’s debut story, which was scheduled for The Brave and the Bold #34 (Feb.-March 1961),“Creature of a Thousand Shapes!,” written by Gardner Fox and illustrated by Joe Kubert. This way, the fans’ letters would be receivedin time to appear in a letter column in the very next issue of B&B,which would feature a second Hawkman adventure.

The reception of the four “guest critics” was, overall, highly enthusiastic. Jerry Bails wrote, “There could have been no better selection of an artist for Hawkman than Joe Kubert. His drawings aresuperb.” Ronnie Graham was congratulatory: “I’m happy to seeHawkman revived after all these years. He should be more successfulthan Green Lantern, and possibly Flash.” Ron Haydock added, “Thischaracter has got to hit again!” Roy Thomas described the issue as“excellent,” and concluded, “I hope that your great new Hawkmancomic runs a hundred issues or so.”

In that same letter column, Kubert provided a capsule autobiogra-phy, which included the fact that he had drawn the original Hawkmanstrip starting in 1945, when he was just eighteen years old. “A few

months ago [Julius Schwartz] asked me if I would be interested in drawing Hawkman again,” Kubert wrote. “My answer was a resoundingyes! I believe Hawkman will benefit from my experience of two decadesin the comic book business. I feel I can apply things I couldn’t evenvisualize 15 years ago. I sincerely hope that the readers will enjoy reading Hawkman as much as I will enjoy drawing him.”

Alter-Ego #1 (March 1961) and the third Hawkman try-out issue(Brave and Bold #36, cover-dated June-July 1961) appeared within amonth of each other. Comics fandom was born, and so, too—itseemed—was a new crime-fighting career for the Hawks. There was little doubt that DC had struck paydirt again. The assumption amongmost fans was that Hawkman’s progression to his own magazine wasassured.

Wheet! Wheet! Calling all fans of the Winged Wonder!Rally ’round to hear about comic fandom’s first fabulous cause extraordinaire:The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

26 The “Save Hawkman” Campaign

The world’s first look at the Silver Age Hawkman came in The Brave and theBold #34. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; repro’d from photostat of original art]

Mike Vosburg, 1963. [Photo courtesy of M.V.]

II. HAWKMAN FAILS TO SOARThen came a startling announcement in On the Drawing Board #4,

10/7/61, Jerry’s A-E spin-off featuring pro comics news. “The latestword is: Hawkman will have to have another three-issue try-out. No schedule date yet….”

Suddenly the future of Hawkman was in question.

Sales, according to Schwartz, had fallen short of expectations.Partly to please the vociferous older fans, partly because of his ownbelief in the character, Schwartz committed to a second try-outseries beginning in B&B #42 by the same creative team, starting over with an expanded telling of their origin.

By the time the second series began appearingon spinner-racks, from April to August 1962,comics fandom had experienced a dramaticinflux of members. Jerry Bails’ mailing list hadswelled to over five hundred names by theend of ’61, and the growth accelerated inthe following year. Some fans specializedin researching data from old comicsbooks; others preferred to buy and sellthose rare earlier editions; anothergroup, those with a creative bent,contributed to the burgeoningnumber of amateur magazinesdevoted to the medium.

III. ENTER: “VOZ”One of the most active of

this new wave of enthusiasts was a15-year-old comics fan living inPontiac, Michigan. His name wasMike Vosburg, or simply “Voz.” He,more than any other fan, wouldbecome the driving force behindthe “Save Hawkman” campaign.

Voz was an aspiring comicscreator who produced his ownhand-drawn comic books. Hecalled them his “two-minutecomics” because they featured figures who were little more thanstick-men, drawn in a blinding rush.In later years, Mike became a successful comics artist on features asdisparate as John Carter of Mars,Master of Kung Fu, American Flagg,She-Hulk, and Cloak and Dagger. He latergained eminence as an animation storyboardartist for G.I. Joe, Gem, and The Bionic Six, andwon an Emmy Award for directing an episode of theanimated Spawn series.

But in the summer of 1962 Mike was (by his owndescription, in a recent interview) “a nerdy kid, terrified of girls, veryquiet, not an athlete,” who took to fandom like a fish to water.

Upon laying eyes upon the early ditto issues of Alter-Ego, Vozinstantly began planning to publish his own fanzine devoted to theresurgence of costumed heroes. Mike recalls, “Once I saw the stuff thatJerry put out, I thought, “Great! I can do one of those!” He called hispublication Masquerader (or Mask, for short).

While there’s no doubt that Vosburg responded strongly to thecharacters of Hawkman and Hawkgirl (she wasn’t Hawkwoman then),he was first and foremost a Kubert fan. Mike remembers, “The first

The “Save Hawkman” Campaign 27

The late Mark Hanerfeld has written: “This shot of Hawkman by Joe Kubertwas done to be auctioned in support of the Metrocon (Washington, DC) in

1971. It is reproduced using the photocopy machine’s capability set at adarker setting to allow the (supposedly unprintable) blue pencil shadingand lightning behind the figure to show… I brought the piece down to

Washington to be auctioned off.” Mark wound up buying the treasured art-work himself! Except for the comic art fanzine CFA-APA, to the best of our

knowledge it has never been printed before, and we wanted it to head thisarticle on fans of comics, Joe Kubert, and Hawkman—because Mark,

bless ’im, was all three. [Art ©2000 Joe Kubert; Hawkman ©2000 DC ComicsInc.]

[NOTE: Two issues ago, I transcribed some personal thoughts about Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. He and Gil Kane were far andaway the two Golden Age comics talents with whom I’ve had the closestrelationships over the years, partly because I’m a decade or so youngerthan most of them. The following piece was much harder to write thanthe one on Bill Everett… for Bill has been gone from us for more than aquarter of a century, while, as I type these words, Gil’s passing is lessthan two weeks past. Perhaps a bit of time, a bit more perspective, wouldbenefit this memoir.

[However, after being deluged with requests to say something abouthim for widely disparate publications, I decided to delay a couple ofitems originally scheduled for this issue and to write about Gil, instead. I apologize for the fact that, with the deadline looming, I was unable to polish this piece as much as I might have liked, or to put everything in strict chronological order, or to provide precise times and dates foreverything.

[As in the case of the Everett piece, this article is in no way anattempt at a biography, even a brief one, of Gil Kane. His more thanhalf-century career has been covered in many articles and interviewsover recent years, with doubtless more to come. I myself was probablyone of the last to interview him, in an hour-plus phone conversation inmid-1999 which was intended by mutual consent to discuss not Gil’scareer per se, but the Golden Age of Comics as it manifested itself atvarious companies. The part of that talk dealing with Timely Comics inthe ’40s and ’50s appeared last issue; the remainder, covering Gil’s

memories of DC and other places he worked in hisyouth, will appear next issue. —R.T.]

I. PREFACEFor some reason Gil Kane and Bill

Everett are linked together in my mind,at least in certain ways.

In point of fact, although both werefriends and collaborators of mine

whose careers at Marvel over-lapped during the late 1960s andearly 1970s, they barely kneweach other.

The closest they came to“working together,” I believe,

was on a cover or three—as whenBill inked a last-minute cover Gilhad penciled for Avengers #97,the final chapter of the Kree-Skrull War. For that illustration,

which featured severalTimely Golden Age

heroes including Sub-Mariner, inker Bill impulsively designed a jointsignature in which their elongated initials (“GK” and “BE”) overlapped.

And yet, when I sat down to write a reminiscence of Gil Kane,whom I knew for more than thirty years, one of the first things Ithought of was an incident which occurred shortly after Bill’s death atage 56 in February 1973.

Gil told me, with some incredulity, that someone in the comicsfield had suggested that he write an article about Bill’s life and career,with the hope that a major newspaper or magazine might print it.

Gil scoffed at the very idea. “What could I say that they’d possiblywant to print?” he asked me rhetorically (I’m paraphrasing his wordshere, but fairly closely). “That he was a comic book artist and createdThe Sub-Mariner? That’d mean nothing to anybody outside the comicsfield.” He never wrote the piece.

It was notthat Gil didn’trespect BillEverett’s talent.He merely feltthat even TheSub-Mariner, oneof the first greatcomic booksuper-heroes, wasnot well enoughknown by thegeneral public fora newspaper likethe New YorkTimes to be interested inprinting morethan a short obit-uary. And he wasprobably right,given the times.

What mightGil have said hadhe known that, 27years later, theTimes would printa several-hundred-word article headlined “Gil Kane, Comic-Book Artist, Is Dead at 73”—or that I, andothers, would be fielding phone calls from U.S. News &World Report,among other publications, for information and quotations about Gil’scareer and even about his and my work together.

I know he would have been surprised.

I suspect he might have been secretly pleased, even though he mightnot have admitted it.

32 Remembering Gil Kane

Remembering GilA Very Personal Reminiscence of Gil Kane by Roy Thomas

Gil Kane thumbnail for a Green Lantern cover.[©2000 DC!Comics, Inc.; Courtesy of David Hamilton.]

Gil Kane (1926-2000). Now he belongs to the ages: Golden, Silver, Bronze,Modern, and Beyond. Photo of the master holding court at the 1997 San

Diego Comic Con. [Courtesy of Tom Stewart.]

Somehow, the mere thought of Gil, upon some heavenly cloud, looking down oncoverage of his passing in the nationalmedia, reminds me of a remark he madewhen, a decade ago, he was asked to pencilthe final issue of the Green Lantern serieshe had begun in 1959-1960.

Oh, he was going to do it, allright—because itwas payingwork—but he disparaged the very notion that heshould feel honoredabout being asked toillustrate this book-end to his Silver Agework.

I insisted that itwas “fitting” that hedraw this last issue ofthe GL series.

“I must tell you, my boy,” he said in thatpatrician tone he affected,“that I think of it more asironic.”

For, though this maysurprise some who didn’tknow him, Gil never reallyliked having it thought or saidor written that the apex of hiscareer was Green Lantern.

He never cared much for that work, or for any of the DC comics of the early 1960s whichbrought him to the attention of early fandom and which originally made his reputation.

After all, beginning in the latter half of the ’60s with his “return” to Marvel on such strips as“The Incredible Hulk,” “Captain America,” and then Captain Marvel, et al., all his early JackKirby influences and his meticulous striving after dynamic yet accurate anatomy had suddenlyfound a chance to emerge—and he was far happier with that work, and with the art he did afterward for Marvel, DC, and others, than he could ever be in looking at his earlier product.

All the same, the cold hard fact remains: Gil Kane will forever be more identified with thesecond Green Lantern than with anything else he ever drew.

II. THE LIFE AND TIMESThe New York Times article by Douglas Martin gives a fairly accurate rundown of his life,

and by the time this issue of A/E comes out, most comics fans will have read it or some relatedaccount. A few salient facts, if only in order to add Gil’s and/or my own take on them:

Born Eli Katz in Latvia on April 6, 1926, he came to New York with his family at the age of three.

Early on, he became not only a fan of swashbuckling movies and of pulp magazines, butalso of comic strips and comic books. In A/E V3#3, when I asked if he recalled the debut ofTimely’s flagship title in 1939, he answered without hesitation: “My bedroom was being painteda light color of blue when I got the first issue of Marvel Comics. I remember reading it on thebed….”

At that time he would have been 13… well above the age of the typical comics reader.

At 15 he dropped out of vocational high school to become a comic book artist. His first job

Remembering Gil Kane 33

Right: Storytellers in the story. Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, as depicted by the artist in the back-up“Tales of the Hyborian Age” strip featured in Conan the Barbarian #12. [©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

After a brief Kirbyesquestint on “Hulk” and

“Captain America,” Gilreturned to Green Lanternwith renewed vigor—andmore dynamic anatomy.

Splashes from GreenLantern #52 (Apr. ’67) andTales to Astonish #88 (Feb.‘67). [Hulk ©2000 MarvelCharacters, Inc.; Green

Lanterns ©2000 DC ComicsInc. GL repro’d from origi-nal art, courtesy of Jerry

G. Bails.]

Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

Joe

Kubert

Shelly

Moldoff

Harry

Lampert

Gardner

F. Fox

Robert

Kanigher

Carmine

Infantino

Michael

T. Gilbert

Lee Elias

E.E. Hibbard

Moebius

60 YEARS

HAVE GONE

BY IN A

FLASH!

--THANKS TO

THIS ISSUE’SARTISTS &ARTISANS:

Roy Thomas ’Legendary Comics Fanzine

Joe

Kubert

Shelly

Moldoff

Harry

Lampert

Gardner

F. Fox

Robert

Kanigher

Carmine

Infantino

Michael

T. Gilbert

Lee Elias

E.E. Hibbard

Moebius

60 YEARS

HAVE GONE

BY IN A

FLASH!

--THANKS TO

THIS ISSUE’SARTISTS &ARTISANS:

All This Plus C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze, and Kurt Schaffenberger In

No.4SPRING2000

$5.95In the USA

THE HAWKMANby “Shelly”

Hawkman, Flash, Rose & Thorn TM & © DC COMICS

C o n t e n t s“Quick As a Flash” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2A (hopefully not too brief) history of Flash Comics by Rich Morrissey

Flash and Fantasy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13A candid conversation with Harry Lampert, original artist of “The Flash,” about his life and many, many careers.

Two Roses and One Thorn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Robert Kanigher talks about his two versions of “Rose and Thorn”—with Kubert art from the 1940s story DC never published.

Crash the Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster ask us the burning question of 1942: Who the hell is Abner Sundell, and why is he telling us how to write super-hero comics?

The Moebius Silver Surfer Sketches—Plus One. . . . . . . . . . . . 35Jean-Marc Lofficier walks us through unseen art ofMarvel’s Sentinel of the Spaceways by the fabled French cartoonist.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #63 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37P.C. Hamerlinck introduces another fabulous Fawcett foray.

“We Didn’t Know... It Was the Golden Age!” (FCA). . . . . . . . 38Golden Age artist Marc Swayze tells us how he left New Yorkfor Louisiana in 1944—and what he took with him!

From Soup to Nuts (FCA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42More facts and opinions from the pen of the late C.C. Beck, original artist of the Big Red Cheese.

Fawcett Friendships (FCA). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48More photos from Kurt and Dorothy Schaffenberger, recalling the days when Captain Marvel wasindisputably the World’s Mightiest Mortal.

Special Hawkman Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About our cover: So The Flash isn’t running like mad in this picture. Would you, with a pair ofbeautiful women on both sides of you? Thanks to Robin Snyder (and to the late E. Nelson Bridwell)for preserving the third and unpublished Golden Age “Rose and the Thorn” tale drawn by JoeKubert. This image is from the splash page. [The Flash, Rose and The Thorn, Hawkman ™&©DCComics, Inc.]

™Flash Section

Background image: Classic image of the GoldenAge Flash by his first artist Harry Lampert. [Art

©2000 H. Lampert; Flash ©2000 DC Comics, Inc.]

Volume 3, No. 4Spring 2000

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorBill Schelly

Design & LayoutJanet SandersonJon B. Cooke/GREAT SWAMP GRAPHICS

Consulting EditorsJohn MorrowJon B. Cooke

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Contributing EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry G. BailsRonn Foss, Biljo WhiteMike Friedrich

Special Kubert ConsultantAl Dellinges

Cover(s) ArtistJoe Kubert

Cover ColorTom Ziuko

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

And Special Thanks to:

Mike W. BarrLamar BlaylockJerry K. BoydLynda Fox CohenRay A. CuthbertChris FossJeff GelbDavid HamiltonMark HanerfeldRoger HillTom HorvitzCarmine

InfantinoRobert KanigherJoe & Muriel

KubertHarry & Adele

LampertRandy & Jean-

Marc Lofficier

Dave ManakScott McAdamEugene L. MeyerMoebiusSheldon & Shirley

MoldoffRich MorrisseyAlbert MoyJerry OrdwayEthan RobertsKurt & Dorothy

SchaffenbergerRobin SnyderTom StewartMarc SwayzeDann ThomasJoel ThingvallMike VosburgJerry WeistMarv Wolfman

Alter EgoTM is published quarterly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. RoyThomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803)826-6501; e-mail: roydann@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is aTM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. The

Atom, Batman, Batwoman, The Black Pirate, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Don Caballero, The Flash, Ghost Patrol, Green Lantern,Hawkman, Hawkwoman, Hawkgirl, Hourman, Ibis, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Kid Eternity, The King, Marvel Family, Mary Marvel,The Ray, Red, White & Blue, The Ring, Rose & The Thorn, Sargon, Sgt. Rock, Steve Malone, Superman, Viking Prince, The Whip, Wildcat©2000 DC Comics Inc.; Moon Girl ©2000 William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc. The Golem ©2000 Protestant Digest. Tor ©2000 Joe Kubert. LoriLovecraft ©2000 Mike Vosburg. All-Winners Squad, Angel, Blazing Skull, Bucky, Captain America, Captain Marvel, The Fin, Hulk, HumanTorch, Iron Fist, Morbius, Patriot, Silver Surfer, Spider-Man, Sub-Mariner, Super Rabbit, Terry Vance, Thing, Toro, Vagabond, Venus, Vision,Warlock, Whizzer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan ©2000 Conan Properties, Inc.; Flash Gordon ©2000 KFS. Mr. Monster ©2000Michael T. Gilbert. Droopy ©2000 Harry Lampert. Pogo ©2000 Walt Kelly Estate. The Flame, Samson, U.S. Jones ©2000 Fox Publications.Magno & Davey, Raven, Unknown Soldier ©2000 Ace Magazines, Inc. The Wizard ©2000 Archie Comics Group. Flyin’ Jenny ©2000 Bell Syn-dicate. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING

by Rich MorrisseyI. TWO FLASHES OF LIGHTNING

The year was 1939, and comic books had become, in only a shorttime, one of the greatest success stories of American publishing. The format had been around for years, but not until the astounding successof the Superman-starring Action Comics the previous year had publish-ers, both old and new, begun to jump onto the comic book bandwagon in droves.

The race was on to come up with new and successful characters—and with strong and punchy titles for their new magazines.

So it was hardly surprising that two different publishers came upwith the same title—Flash Comics—at virtually the same time. After all,one of the most popular heroes in newspaper comics at the time wasAlex Raymond’s science-fiction strip Flash Gordon!

In a more surprising parallel, both comics cover-featured a herodrawn in a relatively cartoonish style—each with a bright red shirtadorned by a yellow lightning bolt!

But maybe even this wasn’t so unusual a parallel, given the times.Red was a preferred color for super-heroes’ outfits; primary colorsworked best with the printing processes of the day, and Superman wasalready garbed mainly in blue, as was Batman. The title Flash suggestedlightning; and yellow, generally used for costume trim since as a maincolor it rendered the page too easy to see through, was the traditionalcolor of lightning—even though real lightning is actually white or blue-white.

Lightning is accompanied by thunder, so the lead feature of Fawcett Publications’ Flash Comics was named Captain Thunder; andAll-American Comics’ Flash Comics featured The Flash as a leadcharacter, backed up by a more tongue-in-cheek characternamed Johnny Thunder.

Fawcett Publications, a Minneapolis magazine publisherinspired to expand into comic books by Superman’s success,

assigned the projected magazine to one of their regular editors, BillParker, and to staff artist Charles Clarence Beck. They produced theashcan edition of their Flash Comics completely by themselves, lateradding another staff artist, Pete Costanza, to flesh it out into a complete64-page comic with multiple features.

The copyright office, however, decided that All-American’s ashcanedition of its Flash Comics had come in first, so Fawcett had to find adifferent title. It changed Flash Comics briefly to Thrill Comics, and bythe time of actual publication to Whiz Comics (re-christening it after thecompany’s seminal publication, the post-World War One joke-bookCaptain Billy’s Whiz-Bang).

For quite different reasons, Captain Thunder became Captain Marvel and went on to his own paramount place in comics history.

“Quick asaFlash”A (hopefully not too brief)history of Flash Comics

The two top stars of Flash Comics, drawn by their principal Golden Age artists for issue #40, April 1944:The Flash by E.E. Hibbard, and Hawkman by Sheldon Moldoff. [©2000 by DC Comics Inc.]

2 Quick as a Flash

Quick as a Flash 3

II. MAX AND SHELLY, THE ALL-AMERICAN BOYSBy contrast, All-American Comics had older ties to the field. It

|had been launched months earlier by Max C. Gaines, who is generallyconsidered to at least have co-invented the comic book format in 1933and who had already started up lines of comics for several different publishers.

After a few years as a consultant with DC Comics, he had set up apartnership in 1938 with one of DC’s owners, Harry Donenfeld, as All-American Comics. The new line bore the DC logo, advertised andwas advertised in DC comics like Action, Adventure, and Superman, andwould go on to cross over its characters with those of the DC titles from time to time. All the same, AA was legally a separate entity withdifferent editorial offices… much like Milestone Comics in more recentyears, and the Wildstorm imprint of today.

Gaines, who reportedly brought the Superman strip to DC’s attention, was understandably eager to make his own line a success, andto create and (co-)own other characters who might approach or even

equal the success of Superman. With hisexperience and with access to the

same talent pool that had turnedSuperman into comics’

greatest success story andhad then come up withBatman, as well, Gainesstood a good chance ofachieving his goal.

Most of the earliestcomic books had consist-

ed of reprints of successfulnewspaper comic strips.

By the late 1930s, and withthe entry of major syndicates into comicbook publishing ontheir own, most of the

most popular strips were already taken, forcing come-lately publisherslike DC to rely on new material, mostly produced by creators whoseideas had been rejected by the syndicates.

Superman (whose creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, had tried tosell him as a newspaper strip for years, ironically doing so only afterAction Comics had become a big hit) was the first such feature to provemore successful than any strip reprints. This indicated to publishers thatthey could succeed in the business even without paying hefty licensingfees to the syndicates.

More established publishers like Dell, for which M.C. Gaines hadlaunched Popular Comics in 1936, could afford established strips, butoften filled out the pages with original material. Popular had featuredmostly characters licensed from the Chicago Tribune Syndicate, such as Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, and Terry and the Pirates, butGaines had cut costs by purchasing, at a much lower cost, occasionalunpublished strips.

One such strip-turned-comic-book-feature was “Scribbly,” which starred a struggling teenage cartoonist, produced by a real-lifestruggling teenage cartoonist named Sheldon Mayer. Mayer proved to be knowledgeable about the comics field, and in tune with what contemporary kids liked (being, Gaines may well have figured, hardlymore than a kid himself), and he became Gaines’ assistant first at Dell,then at DC. It’s been said that he was the one who first brought theSuperman strip to Gaines’ attention, leading Gaines in turn to promotethe idea to Harry Donenfeld at DC.

So, when Gaines launched his first comic book in early 1939—All-American Comics, the namesake of his company—he chose ShellyMayer to be its editor.

For their initial offering, Gaines and Mayer combined conceptsfrom all the successful comic books of the day. Gaines used his syndicatecontacts to purchase reprint rights to a fewcomic strips not yet tied up (likeSkippy and Mutt and Jeff), andMayer segued his “Scribbly”feature over into its pages.

All-American #1also contained adventure features ofthe kind that seemedto be catching on,including “Red, White,and Blue,” a stripabout servicemen fromthe Army, Navy, andMarines initially writtenby Superman creatorJerry Siegel. Siegel, however, was being keptvery busy by the regularDC line (Superman wasbeing spun off into hisown title, and more characters such as The Spectre were in the works),and “Red, White, and Blue” never rose above backup status.

III. THE QUICK BROWN FOXGaines’ and Mayer’s next AA title, Flash Comics, was conceived as

a super-hero/adventure title from beginning to end.

To produce an entire comic book on relatively short notice, ShellyMayer turned to two writers, neither well-known even in the limitedfield of comics; both, however, had proved reliable, imaginative, andpossessed of a sense of humor—an important factor to an editor whosefirst love was humorous comic strips.

Gardner F. Fox was a young lawyer, a childhood friend of originalDC editor Vincent Sullivan, who had been less than successful to date inhis law career. Offered a chance to write several features for the DC line,Fox had done well with such minor features as “Steve Malone” and“Cotton Carver,” had turned “Zatara the Magician” (originally writtenas well as drawn by creator Fred Guardineer) into the main backup inAction Comics, and may even have co-createdthe moderately successful Sandman forAdventure Comics.

(An Aside: Gardner told meonce that he did create TheSandman, basing him on apulp hero called The GreySeal—of whom I wouldhave heard by then if I haddone more than skim overthe chapter on pulp magazines in The SterankoHistory of Comics. Othersare at least equally certainthat artist Bert Christmanwrote as well as drew thefirst “Sandman” stories. ButI’ve found that many earlycomics creators simply haveunclear memories of eventswhich, after all, took placesixty or more years ago. Atany rate, Fox was soon writing “Sandman.”)

Comics pioneer M.C. “Max” Gaines, circa 1942.

Sheldon Mayer, circa 1945. Yeah, we know weran this photo in A/E V3#1, but see our ShellyMoldoff interview this issue for another one.

Gardner F. Fox—one of comic books’ semi-nal writers—though here a bit older thanwhen he co-created The Flash, Hawkman,

Dr. Fate, and The Justice Society. This cari-cature is by Dave Manak and comes from(as well as all the images on this page)

The Amazing World of DC Comics. [©2000DC Comics, Inc.]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: I first met Harry Lampert at the 1996 San DiegoComics Convention. It was a great thrill for me, because I knew that notonly had he drawn the first two adventures of the original Flash in 1939, butthat in 1946 he had also illustrated an “Atom” chapter in All-Star Comics#34, as well as humorous gags and stories which appeared in various DCcomics in the late ’40s. Harry was surprised to see the bound volume of All-Star #33-41 I was carrying, but graciously signed the inside front cover, ashad Julius Schwartz, Robert Kanigher, Martin Nodell, Irwin Hasen, and several other JSA artists, writers, and editors before him. Thus, when I decid-ed to do an issue of Alter Ego honoring the sixtieth birthday of Flash Comics#1, it was inevitable that Harry Lampert would be one of the people I wouldmost want to talk to—and the experience proved even more enjoyable andrewarding than I had expected. For he has been a man of many careers andaccomplishments, as the following interview reveals.—R.T.]

ROY THOMAS: If you don’t mind, I’ll start by asking about the twoComic Cavalcade covers I mailed you—#23 and #27, from 1947-48.Alex Toth drew Green Lantern, Flash, and Wonder Woman on them,

but I was curious if you drew your character “Cotton-Top Katie” onthem, or if the three kids are by Shelly Mayer.

LAMPERT: No, I didn’t do these particular drawings. I think Iremember everything I did. I would say, first of all, there’s an aspect

of the drawing that’s like mine, but the way hedid the hair—that’s not me.

RT: Most likely Mayer, then. Anyway, revertingto something resembling chronological order: You

were born in 1916?

LAMPERT: November 3, 1916, in New York. Ilived up in Washington Heights, and attendedGeorge Washington High School. I was going tograduate in June, and my friend Henry Spiegel says,“My brother George, who’s a graduate of PrattInstitute, went up to a place called Fleischer Studiosand he couldn’t get a job there—they said they wanted cartoonists. Harry, you’re a cartoonist; whydon’t you go up there?” So I stayed up all night and

did two full pages of drawings, and I got a job. Itwas 1933. I was 16-and-one-half years old.

RT: Did they know how young you were?

LAMPERT: They didn’tcare. I worked there for fiveyears. I started out as an inker,and soon became the assistanthead of the inking department.

What’s happened was, I’d getsomething from the PlanningDepartment. They’d say, “Dothis, but you have to trace thishead seven times and retrace it.” Isaid, “No, why can’t we put thison the top cel, and make the otherone the middle cel, and save allthat drawing?” “That’s a goodidea, Harry.”

And then another one came

H.L.’s Cotton-top Katie and chumsstand in for the Big Three of ComicCavalcade—courtesy, most likely,

of editor/artist Shelly Mayer. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

Harry Lampert—alongside a re-creation of his most famous Golden Agehero. [Art and photo ©2000 by Harry Lampert; Flash ©2000 DC Comics

Inc.; from the collection of R.T.]

“Flash and Fantasy”

A Conversation with Harry LampertCo-Creator of The Flash

Interview Conducted by Roy ThomasTranscribed by Jon B. Knutson

“Flash and Fantasy”—A Conversation with Harry Lampert 13

up, and after a while, all the stuffwould come to me first, and I’m17 years old! So in an hour, ahalf hour, whatever, that I spenddoing this, I saved three or fourdays’ work for the department!

There were a number offuture cartoonists there. Gill Fox[later a comic book artist andeditor] and I used to sit rightnext to each other. Hal Sherman[later the original artist of “TheStar-Spangled Kid”] was withme, and Frank Engli, whobecame assistant to Milton Caniff on Terry and the Piratesand Steve Canyon. We were allso jealous of him, because manyof us didn’t feel animation wasour thing. I could have beenwhatever I had set my mind tobe. But I was thinking all thetime of doing cartoons outsidethe animation field.

My first professional cartoonappeared in the New YorkAmerican newspaper in October1934. While I was working atFleischer’s, I did a cartoon thatshowed the World Series goingon. There’s a guy in the first seatof the bleachers fast asleep, andthe guy behind him is saying,“He stayed up all night to be thefirst one in to see the game!”

RT: Did you continue to sell to newspapers while working for DC?

LAMPERT: No. After I left Fleischer’s, I went into the comic bookfield. Actually, I went down there because I knew Shelly Mayer. He andI had worked together as apprentices for a fellow named Ving Fuller. Hewas a cartoonist who had a strip going in the New York Daily Mirror.Shelly and I were both in high school at the same time. I graduated ayear earlier than he did and I got that job at Fleischer’s; and when hegraduated, I recommended him for a job there. Did you know Shelly?

RT: We only exchanged a letter or two, and maybe one phone call.

LAMPERT: He was one of the biggest kidders in the world, you know.He really was a character. Of course, in a place like animation, whereeverything’s so staid and routine, factory-line—he was asked to leave.[laughs] And he was so down. But I said, “Shelly, this could be the bestthing that ever happened to you in your life,” and it turned out to be,because he then got in on the ground floor of comic books.

When Fleischer’s decided to move their operation from New York to Florida, they offered very good benefits—one month of free rentdown there, and a guarantee that if you didn’t like it they’d pay yourtransportation back—but I decided I wanted to go into another area.That’s how I wound up in the comic book field, at DC’s offices onLafayette Street. I started up a couple of strips there. I worked at assisting some of the artists.

RT: You’ve said that you worked on the first issue of Action Comics.[NOTE: See the accompanying sidebar for another view of this minorbut controversial point.]

LAMPERT: I did the first appearance of Superman in the comics, ever.All I did was: I was given the job to take the proofs that Siegel andShuster had sent to the syndicates and hadn’t been able to sell; I tookthem and put them into comic book form. I cut ‘em up, pasted them upfrom daily strips into full-page stuff. Where things didn’t fit, I’d makelittle extensions…you follow me?

RT: Yes. You can tell where there’s a change of surface. There’ll be a little white space where the pen kind of skipped, going from the Shuster

paste-up to what was added.

LAMPERT: Blame me for that. I made a joke about it: In the first appearance of “Superman,” the onlyoriginal artwork was mine. [laughter] Everything elsewas proofs!

RT: Would Vin Sullivan, the original editor of ActionComics, have been the one to hire you to do thepaste-up work on that first Superman story?

LAMPERT: No, no, no, I was hired by Gaines.

RT: Were Shuster and Siegel still back in Ohio then?

LAMPERT: No, they were there in New York. Andwhen they came in, you could feel an aura in the air.The people down there knew they had something.

I did the paste-ups for a dollar a page. I was afreelancer; I was never on the payroll. When theygave me that job, I did it. Whether it was an inkingjob on “The Green Lantern,” or that time I did “TheAtom”—whenever they had a crisis—

RT: There you were!

LAMPERT: Yeah, I did everything.

RT: The earliest DC comics work you’re listed as

THE SUPERMAN/HARRY LAMPERTCONNECTION?

Did Harry Lampert work on cutting up Superman newspaperstrips for Action Comics #1 in 1938—or perhaps on Superman #1 in 1939,which contained primarily reprintsof the first four Action stories—oreven on Superman #2?

The matter has been debatedthese last few years by aficionados,though none has ever impugnedHarry’s motives; it’s merely anargument over memory andchronologies. Harry’s earliest storywork in comics was on “Spot Savage” in All-American Comics #1(April 1939), which would havebeen drawn in late 1938, whileAction #1 had been prepared morethan half a year earlier.

In response to my query, comicshistorian Jerry G. Bails writes: “Thismatter has been discussed at somelength on the GCD [Great ComicsDatabase] Chat list. If I recall theupshot correctly, it was decidedthat Harry was remembering doingpaste-ups on Superman #1, notAction #1. I haven’t checked, butothers who have checked say therewere enough differences in thesequences in Superman #1 [fromthe original versions in Action #1-4]to make sense of the conflictingassertions. Many people who werein contact with Shuster |continue to insist that Joe did all the rearranging for Action #1. This mayreconcile the apparent conflicts.”

Still another possibility wouldbe that Harry pasted up (andadded art to) the lead “Superman”story in Superman #2. That adventure, which lacks even a truesplash panel, is quite obviously onedrawn originally for newspaperstrip syndication—but, unlike thosein Superman #1, had not appearedin Action.

The matter remains unresolved. Certainly Harry Lampert doesn’t need credit onAction #1 to establish his bona fidesas one of the true comics pioneers!

—RT.

14 “Flash and Fantasy”—

Spot Savage was H.L.’s first published comic work. [©2000 DCComics Inc.; courtesy of Harry’s nephew, Eugene L. Meyer.]

Two Roses and One Thorn 23

Two Rosesand One Thorn...and Other Errata

byRobert Kanigher

With a Postscript by Joe Kubert

and an Index byRobin Snyder

Robert Kanigher, flanked by scenes from The Flash’s first two RK-scripted encounters with The Thorn—from Flash Comics #89 (Nov. 1947) and #96 (June 1948), as drawn by Joe Kubert. The caricature by Dave Manak of RK is from The Amazing World of DC Comics #14, 1977. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.; thanks to Al Dellinges]

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Robert Kanigher, of course, is one of the premierwriters in comics history, having begun with Fox Publications circa 1940but moving on swiftly to Fawcett, to MLJ—to DC, where from 1943 onhe became first a major writer, then a writer-editor. He is most noted forhis tales featuring Flash, Hawkman, Green Lantern, Justice Society, BlackCanary, Wonder Woman, et al. in the latter ’40s, and since then for“Viking Prince” and such classic DC war series as “Sgt. Rock,” “EnemyAce,” etc.

[The following article has been compiled, with RK’s permission, froma letter he sent Ye Editor in late 1999 and one he wrote in 1992 for thenewsletter Robin Snyder’s History of the Comics (now Robin Snyder’sThe Comics). The portion dealing with RK’s twice-lived concept “Roseand the Thorn” was originally published in RSHOC, Vol. 3, No. 7, July1992, and is ©1992, 2000 by Robert Kanigher.

[At the end of the article, also concerning “Rose and the Thorn,” havebeen added a brief note by Joe Kubert and an index by Robin Snyder;both are from RSHOC Vol. 2, #7 (July 1991), and are ©1991, 2000 by Joe and Robin, respectively, and are used with their kind permission.

[And now, RK in his own words—and if there is ever any sense of a bitof discontinuity between one thought and another, the fault is due to theediting, and not to RK himself, who fires off ideas like they were bullets:]

You surprised me with “Kanigher on Kanigher” [in A/E, Vol. 3, #2].

I didn’t expect it.

Nice hemstitching. One error: You said I called National/AA“Arco.” Wrong. Arco were the publishers next door to Shelly [Mayer]’soffices. The highly qualified Ben Raeburn, whom I knew socially,became the managing editor of Arco Publishing. Ben introduced me toShelly Mayer.

[About his work:]

I never kept a record of what I wrote or where it appeared. I didn’tkeep a single copy. What has been recognized is that I didn’t bringcomics to comics; but my own world.

[About proofreading:]

Although I do not consider proofreading part of an editor’s responsibility, I did proofread every book of which I was the editor,because I didn’t have an assistant to train. I wrote every feature.Designed every cover.

Almost every illustrator signed his cover. If he drew the feature, hisname was on the first or second page. When I made out a voucher for a

check for every script, cover, artwork, etc.—the freelancer’s name wason it. Thus, he automatically received credit for his or her work. I chosethe backups. And the “funny” one-pagers from [Harvey] Kurtzman to[Irwin] Hasen. Whit [Ellsworth] told me he hated Kurtzman’s and Krigstein’s work, but I kept them on until Harvey drifted away of hisown accord. I always thought the letters pages should be an extension ofthe book they were in, as interesting as a story—when they were boring,statistical, not personal, I took over “Take Ten!”

[About fairy tales:]

I believe in fairy tales. I’ve even written them. Not for comics,although to be illustrated:

The Sneezing Skyscraper.The Lonely Locomotive.The Secret of the Dolphins.Philip, the fly that saved Hollywood.

[On the circumstances of his writing and editing Wonder Woman beginning in themid- to late-1940s. After recounting how hewas lured into an office job by Shelly Mayerand Jack Liebowitz, as per A/E V3#2, he goes on:]

I relieved Shelly of the Amazon he hated, and the manner in which he chose me confirmed my belief that he was moreperformer than creator, despite the adulationof every illustrator from Hasen to Toth,deserved though he was according to theiryardstick. Not mine.

Whether [Wonder Woman co-creatorWilliam Moulton] Marston was alive or deadwhen I took over, I do not know. I did mybest to create real human beings of Diana andSteve. A maelstrom arose. Everyone from theBronx to Bombay had his/her idea of howWW should be handled. It wasn’t mine. Awoman spent a fortune calling me for an hourfrom somewhere in California, every Friday,telling me how the Amazon should be produced. The great mystery is why didn’tLiebowitz fire me or at least take me off thebook, during all the years I handled her?

Only once Jack handed a complaint fromMrs. Marson to Whit, who told me to “Takethe old lady out to lunch and smooth herfeathers.” I went to Mrs. Marston’s office in a huge company’s huge building on Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street. She wasvery gracious to me. She took me to lunch inher company’s restaurant. She never uttered aword of complaint and even invited me tospend a weekend in her Westchester home.

I discovered later that the complaint arose because I wrote a real romantic storycoupling Diana and Steve. I made themhuman instead of the mishmash of mythologythat Marston had concocted. Nothing came ofit and Marston’s name continued to be onevery WW story.

This reminds me of the “Sam GoldwynPresents” signature on every movie coming out of his studio, and “StanLee Presents” on every story coming out of Marvel even if he was at theNorth Pole. Did they take the bricks with the applause?

I met Stan once at Marvel. He was very amiable and complimentaryat my attitude to, and performance in, comics. But I found his mono-lithic presence had reduced everyone to worker bees in their individualcubbyholes. Stifling.

Who towered over DC? Nobody. When Shelly took early retire-ment, what happened? Nothing! Editors Nadle, Schwartz, and Kanighertook over National. When Whit finally vanished, what happened?Nothing! Editors Weisinger, Schiff, and Boltinoff continued producing

24 Two Roses and One Thorn

Page 2 of Kanigher and Kubert’s third “Rose and Thorn” story, complete with lettering marked for rewriting. Of this tale, mostly unpublished by DC, Robin Snyder writes: “The photostats I used [in my

publication] came from Nelson Bridwell [longtime DC editor]. In one of our moves he was about to throw apackage of stats in the wastebasket; can’t recall why. Anyway, I asked for them, and he obliged.” See the

ad elsewhere this issue for how to receive Robin’s excellent newsletter, Robin Snyder’s The Comics. [Flash ©2000 DC Comics Inc.; special thanks to Robin Snyder.]

28 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents—

Only the professional writer knows what the other half reads.There are several million who don’t read at all; they only laugh

at the pictures.

Every large newsstand is a cross section of America, and there, foranyone who is interested, is the effect of all our repressions, our hopes,and fears. We read not only to learn but to gratify our cravings.

As the son is father to the man, so the literature of our childhood isthe father of our future.

Several million people, most of them children, buy a comic magazineevery month. Over 100 comic magazines represent, in paper, printing,engravings, salaries to writers, editors, and artists, and income to newsdealers, a huge multimillion dollar business. The comics today are influencing the reading tastes of tomorrow, just as surely as HoratioAlger influenced the thinking of every adult today.

Any intelligent writer who tries can make a living writing for thecomics. Let’s examine their stories, beginning with the hero.

THE HEROComic heroes are the apex of heroism, with all the prerequisites

of strength, brains, handsomeness, and appeal to women, that areincumbent upon juvenile heroes.

All comic characters live in their own world to the complete

exclusion of all other comic characters. Consequently, Batman, in hisstrips, is the total of heroic qualities; however, if Batman were to becompared with Superman, in the same story, Batman would immediatelybecome a subservient character. Therefore the writer must create hisown world for his heroes, a world in which his hero is the only hero.

Comic heroes must be treated by their writers with respect. Toooften a writer thinks, “Well, he’s just another comic-mag hero, the kidshave seen a hundred of them.” This type of mental reactionresults in the breakdown of character and wasresponsible for the failure ofSamson, one of the earlycomic magazine successes.

Samson and David, clad inlion skins, would stroll thestreets, casually, looking fortrouble, waiting for things tohappen. This casual attitude wasreflected by response of people inthe streets to Samson and Davidand was carried to the readers. Thereaction was, “Well, if the people in

Crash the Comics! 29

The red-black-&-white cover of the 110-page The Writer’s 1942 Yearbook.

[©1942 Writer’s Digest]

the story aren’t impressed by Samson and David, why should I be?”

For contrast note the treatment of Captain America or Batman.Whenever these characters appear, panels are spent with crowds drawing back in amazement, with people cheering. The reader feels the importance of these heroes and his reaction becomes the same.

Since the hero is the smartest, the strongest, the most excellent of allbeings, his appearance upon the scene of the story should mark the endof the villain’s worst crimes. From this point forward the villain feels the pinch of opposition, and he changes his actions to remove the hero.Therefore all violent killings, all crimes in which the villain runs rampant, should occur before the hero becomes involved with the plot.Consequently we allow the villain to run wild in the opening of thestory. From the time that the hero takes over, however, all crimes are theresponsibility of the hero.

The villain can plot actions that allow him to accomplish a murder ortwo with the hero on the scene, but these must be clever enough so thatthe reader feels there are extenuating circumstances, and the crimes werenot the fault of the hero. Careless writing results in situations, as in“Magno and Davey,” where these two heroes go to a masked ball to

protect it from the Cobra, and while they are there standing aroundbeing useless, the villain strikes and kills sympathetic characters. Magnoand Davey failed, not because they were captured or rendered helpless,or even because they were sidetracked by the villain, but through sheerinability.

HOW TO INVOLVE THE HERO IN THE PLOTToo often the hero walks down the street and something happens,

whereupon the hero jumps in and is involved with the plot. Cut thisdown to essentials and the hero is just minding someone else’s business.For a few stories this may be acceptable, but after a while the reactionsets in that the hero has no real motivations for his entry into the plot.The reader vicariously pictures himself as the hero. Consequently, if the hero has a strong personal reason for entering the plot, then themotivation becomes so much stronger. Even in the instance where thehero is a detective assigned to the case, the plot should develop so thatthe hero has more than just a duty motivation.

For example, The Flag, who is a symbolic character, becomes deeply involved in a story because anyone whistling “The Star-SpangledBanner” immediately sets up a call within The Flag himself. A blow atthe flag or the things it represents becomes a blow at the character TheFlag. Or the Lone Warrior must fight not only to stop the Nazis, but toclear his own name as well, thus giving increased motivation to hisactions. It also adds suspense. The thought arises—will he be able toclear himself? We know he’s not going to be killed or badly hurt, butwill his good name be injured?

The elementary method of tying the hero’s role in the story is onethat depends wholly on the strength of the villain. The Joker plans awhiz-dizzer crime; a honey. But he has been around before and heknows that Batman and Robin are always gumming up his parade. So hemakes his plans. When this story starts he plots a fiendish method ofgetting our heroes out of his path. He takes the first swing at them.From there on it’s their fight. This method is very simple and easilyoverdone; and if your villain is not the strongest possible, his actionsconsequently are not the strongest possible, either. So handle this typegently.

Another method is to utilize the powers of the hero in a manner thatbrings him inadvertently into the case. The Clown has just murdered aman in public view without anyone realizing what has happened. Hecan’t get away, but he can get rid of the swag which would be evidenceagainst him. He places the money in a toy dirigible with a magneticmotor and sends it directly (at least he thinks so) to his hideout. ButMagno and Davey, who know nothing about this crime, are in anotherpart of the city amusing themselves by playing magnetic tug of war.They set up a wall of magnetism that crosses the path of the toy dirigible and bring The Clown’s swag directly to them. They’re in thestory now and due to their own efforts.

30 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt presents—

By 1942 Abner Sundell had already worked on such comics as Wonderworld,featuring The Flame. [©2000 Fox Publications; unless otherwise noted, all art

accompanying this article courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert, who found themamong dog-eared old comics in his personal collection.]

By Godfrey, Abner was right! The crowd watching Samson fly off does lookbored—or maybe that’s just the way artist Alex Boon drew excitement!

[©2000 Fox Publications]

The Moebius Silver Surfer Sketches 35

[NOTE: Over the past decade-plus since The Silver Surfer: Parable,by Stan Lee and Moebius was first published by Marvel Comics, theFrench artist has drawn numerous sketches, at comics conventions andelsewhere, of the “sentinel of the spaceways.” Here for the first time,accompanying a short piece on that epic collaboration, is a collection ofsome of these sketches, courtesy of Moebius and of Jean-Marc andRandy Lofficier, his partners in Starwatcher Graphics. One or two ofthe sketches, it will be noted, are in an even more purely “Moebius”style (if that’s possible) than his illustrations in the work done withStan Lee. —R.T.]

I first discovered Moebius in the early 1960s.

At that time his western series, Lieutenant Blueberry, doneunder his real name of Jean Giraud (or, more accurately,signed “Gir”), was as much a staple in Frenchcomics as, say, Batman was in the UnitedStates.

At the same time, being an avid science-fiction fan, I also admired the work of an artist who wasdoing a wonderful job illustrating s-f short stories in theFrench edition of Galaxy magazine. That artist signed his work“Moebius,” and I didn’t realize he and “Gir” were one and the sameuntil writer Jacques Lob spelled it out in his Anthology of Comics.

Like many fans, I then often wondered why “Moebius,” rather than “Gir,” didn’t do actual science-fiction or fantasy comicbook stories. I didn’t have to wonder for long. In 1973, with the publication of “The Detour” (a rather appropriate title) in the weeklymagazine Pilote, Moebius finally arrived on the comics scene. (Thisstory was reprinted in Dark Horse’s Arzach collection.)

A year later—in 1974—Moebius and Philippe Druillet and a couple of other artists went the self-publishing route, and created themagazine Metal Hurlant. It’s hard to explain, to anyone who wasn’tthere, the impact that Metal Hurlant had on the French comics scene.

Up to that point, the entire French-language comics industry (with a few exceptions, such as Barbarella) was totally dominated byjuvenile adventure series. In the space of a year or two, not only hadthat domination ceased, but mighty publishing empires were forcedto adapt—or disappear.

Eventually, I metMoebius in 1985, when

he was living in Los Angeles. He and his then-

wife Claudine had just created acorporation called Starwatcher

Graphics to handle his businessaffairs; and, a few months later, they

both asked my wife Randy and me tocome aboard.

One of the very first actions we took was to set up a completereprinting of all the Moebius stories at Epic, Marvel’s division of creator-owned projects, in versions newly translated and (sometimes)recolored. Soon afterward, we met Stan Lee, who, upon discoveringthat The Silver Surfer was one of the few characters Moebius had readavidly (when it was published in France in Fantask by Editions Lugin the late ’60s-early ’70s), convinced Moebius that the two of themshould do a Silver Surfer story together.

“Stan is so full of creative energies that it was hard to say no tohim,” commented Moebius in an interview we did at thetime. “But it sounded like a lot of fun. We all got veryexcited. I had no idea at the time how difficult it wouldprove to be. I was in a state of total panic formonths. Even up to the last pagebefore I had to draw theSurfer himself, I didn’t knowwhat I was going to do. It’s very hard to inherit acharacter which already has agiven look that you mustrespect, and yet you wantto, no, you must draw him the way you feel him. I had never donethat before. That was very hard.”

The MoebiusSilver SurferSketches

...Plus One!

by Jean-Marc Lofficier

Silver Surfer ©2000 Marvel Characters, Inc.

PHANTOM EAGLE

P.C. Hamerlinck's

PHANTOM EAGLETHE

Rendered circa 1948-50 by Marcus D. Swayze from his personal sketchbook.

no. 63

FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: From 1941 through 1953, Marcus D.Swayze was a major artist for Fawcett Publications, being the first illustrator to visualize Mary Marvel, but primarily working on CaptainMarvel and, later, The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, as well as Fawcett romance comics. His ongoing professional memoirs have been animportant part of FCA since #54 in 1996. This chapter chronicles eventsthat took place in 1944, after Marc was discharged from the armybecause of a knee injury. In it, Marc remembers Captain Marvel, Jr.artist Mac Raboy, and the deals Marc himself set up with Fawcett (andwith the Bell Syndicate) before leaving New York City to freelance from

his home in the South.—Paul C. Hamerlinck.

Iwas working on the Prince Ibis art for Whiz Comics #59 in myhotel room when I received a phone call from Mac Raboy.

“Let’s have lunch,” was all he said.

During the noon hour we discussed everything under the sun exceptwhat was on our minds: The split that had occurred between C.C. Beckand me at the Copacabana. Mac mentioned it only to the extent of letting me know that he had heard about it. The lunch ended with Macinsisting that I have dinner that evening with him and his wife.

I had never before been to the Raboy home and I doubt if many people in the business had. That assumption is based on Mac’s retiringspirit, not on any lack of courtesy or hospitality. Mac’s wife Lulu was,as I already knew her to be, charming. As the three of us talked in theirliving room a young son of school age appeared, was introduced, andquietly withdrew. Mac proudly showed me a handsomely bound, heavyvolume that his father had authored… printed in a language other thanours.

I think there is much about Mac Raboy that we don’t know… and,admiring him as so many of us do, we ought to know. He was not acomic strip artist… not at heart. He was an illustrator and a craftsman.He treated each comic book panel as a challenging work of art, not as astep in moving his characters on toward their fictional destinations.

Once again my hat is off to Al Allard, Eddie Herron, and RalphDaigh, who recognized this genius and who, instead of attempting toblend him in with, say, an assembly-line arrangement, assigned to himonly the quantity of work that allowed time for his meticulous style.

From the art standpoint, Fawcett Publications in the Golden Agehad the mostest of the most in comics. In C.C. Beck they had the foremost in cartoon-style storytelling featuring a super-hero. In MacRaboy they had the supreme in beautiful comic book illustration.

Another element they had, that has received little or no attention,

was a top-drawer distribution system, intact and in place, ready andwaiting to add comic books to their fifty or so established publications.From the start, Captain Marvel was assured a respectable place on thenewsstands, where rivals might have been struggling to get on the racks.

During dinner with the Raboys, Mac described his “in town” studioand suggested that I use it. He was doing his work at home, he said, andinsisted that my presence at the location would be an aid to him. Sortinghis mail, he said… calling him if any of it struck me as important. Hedidn’t need me there. It was just Mac’s awkward, modest way of beingwhat he was… a generous, modest, kind, considerate soul. I am truly

thankful for having known Mac Raboy.

I worked at his 42nd Street place until I left New Yorklater in the year. It was a comfortable layout with three, Ibelieve, drawing tables. One was Mac’s, sectioned off to provide a degree of privacy, at which I worked. Another wasoccupied by amicable Red Moeller, assistant to Mac. Occasionally an attractive young lady with Oriental featurescame in and did lettering… excellent work, by the way. I hadthought Gene McDonald also was in that office but have beentold recently he was not with Raboy at the time. It must havebeen on a later visit to the City that I knew Gene.

“Just exactly what is it you want?”

When Ralph Daigh spoke, he looked you dead in the eye.Some may have assumed the purpose was to intimidate, but I don’tthink so. To me it meant, “I’m laying it on the line and I expect you todo the same.” I could deal with that.

Daigh had been with the Fawcett organization before the move from Minnesota. As editorial director of all the Fawcett magazines, he

“I was working on the Prince Ibis art for Whiz Comics #59…” Here’s theentire splash page of that story; only the splash panel itself was shown

last time. [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

38 Fawcett Collectors of America

(c) mds[Art & logo ©2000 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

generally remained aloof from those of us in the ranks. I was surprisedwhen told he wanted to see me. On the way to his office I went over asubject that had occupied my mind in thearmy hospital… my future.

“What I want,” I said, seated across from him, “is a regular assignment that I canprepare and mail in from my home in theSouth… an assignment that will assure anadequate, dependable income that willenable me to marry, have a home, raise afamily.”

“Don’t like the City, eh?”

“I love New York City, and think highlyof all the friends I have here,” I said, “butit’s time to go home.”

“We have no arrangements like whatyou’re asking,” said Daigh. “Our policy isthat our freelance people be right at handwhere they can work closely with the editors.”

I was aware of that.

“Look at it this way,” I said. “I’m pretty well educated, with professionalexperience… I can write as well as draw…and I’m associated with one of the world’sforemost publishers. Now, with that combination, if comics won’t provide thereasonable lifestyle I expect of myself, thenit’s time to find that out… and, if necessary, time to move on to something else.”

I recall distinctly those final moments with Ralph Daigh, probablybecause I look back upon them as a turning point in my life. As hestared at me, I realized he had already spoken with art director AlAllard about the matter.

“I like the way you talk,” he said. “Go in and tell Willie [Lieberson,executive editor of Fawcett Comics] to give you whatever it takes tomake you happy!”

I have regretted never revisiting with RalphDaigh… or Al Allard… since those days. Itmight have meant some satisfaction to themto be reminded of the years of good, solidworking relationship that followed. Notonly had my own intentions been fulfilled,but, to borrow the later words of editorWendell Crowley: “When those pagescame in from Louisiana they were always

on time, and absolutelycamera-ready…

never a need forcorrections ortouch-ups ofany kind!”

Daigh’s office

was at the south end of the 22nd floor, Lieberson’s at the northeast corner. It was close to noon and if I got all the way down the hall, I’d

end up having lunch… and enjoying it…with some of the editors or the old bunchfrom Allard’s art department. At the reception room I turned toward the elevators. There was an Automat near 5th Avenue that had fabulous peach pie.

I needed time to think.

The same question asked by Ralph Daighcame to mind: “What exactly was it that Iwanted?” Not Captain Marvel, not Mary. Inearlier talks with Al Allard, that issue hadbeen made clear. Either would havedemanded constant attention to whateverwas going on “at headquarters.” And itwould have been senseless to discount thepossibility of such a selection resulting in arepercussion that might have been heardaround the world… the Fawcett world.Could have resulted in the scuttling of thenice arrangement I had with Daigh.

I didn’t want a masked hero. Masks hid facial features, and I liked to draw facial expression and felt it was one of mystrong cards.

I didn’t want a super-hero. A recentlycompleted Mr. Scarlet story was enjoyable,but the thought of doing any knit-suited,

caped, booted, often masked, invulnerable star… month after month…was not a pleasant one.

When Superman first came out, a certain party—me—predicted thefeature would never last. The old short story pattern where you gotyour main character in a jam, then extracted him/her by means ofhis/her own abilities, just wouldn’t work. Nope, the feature wouldnever last.

Of course, it did last… and how! Shows that no matter how brilliantone may look, sound, or act, one can be wrong. What my little countrymind had not opened up to was that you could get the good guy’sfriends, or any nice people, in a jam, and your boy could use his talentsto get them out.

Regardless… the idea of writing for a super-hero blew me cold!

I suppose it was clearer, the things I didn’t want, than what I wanted.It was gradually coming around, though. By the time a second go at thepeach pie was finished, I was convinced I would be most comfortablewith a feature that allowed creative impact… adventure and action, to be sure, but, more so, characterization, emotion, expression, humaninterest. I still maintained aspirations toward a syndicated feature of myown, but I must have realized the choices to be made on this particularday involved a potential lifetime career. On the long-term basis I wantedto draw and write about people… not super-people but real people, incontemporary surroundings.

There was no question but that the most likely features to meet such standards would not be the front-of-the-book stars or the highlypromoted heroes on the covers.

What about Prince Ibis the Invincible? I had just finished the art onan Ibis story, and he was an interesting character… easily drawn and in atoday setting. He pulled off some super-power stunts with that Ibistickof his, but he wore a suit that might have come from the men’s store

“We Didn’t Know… It Was the Golden Age” 39

Mac Raboy’s classic cover for Master Comics #27 (July 1942). [©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

“What exactly was itthat I wanted? NotCaptain Marvel….”

[1999 art ©2000 MarcSwayze; Captain Marvel©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

EDITOR’S NOTE: FCA is proud to present another previouslyunpublished essay by Charles Clarence Beck, the original chief artist of“Captain Marvel.” During the 1980s I was a member of The Critical Circle, a mailing group Beck formed for roundtable debates on essays hewould send to each member (others members being cartoonist Trina Robbins and former Mad magazine associate editor Jerry DeFuccio). More of these essays will appear in future issues of FCA.—PCH.

I. PRELUDE AND OVERTURE

One of the clearest pictures in my memory of my childhood is ofmyself and my younger brother Willis riding our tricycles (our folks were too poor to buy us bicycles) across our hometown of Zumbrota,Minnesota, to visit a kindly old couple who saved their Sunday comics forus (our folks were too poor to buy the Sunday papers, too).

Newspaper comics were in their heyday when I was young. Each onefilled a whole page in those days—they weren’t the cramped little thingsthey are today. Happy Hooligan, The Katzenjammer Kids, Little Jimmie,Bringing Up Father, Polly and Her Pals, Mutt and Jeff, many more fascinating, funny characters cavorted through the panels doing all sorts of improbable, impossible things. The best comics of today are drawn bycartoonists who follow the style set back in the days when comic stripswere big, bold, and drawn by masters of the medium.

Although my folks were poor, we had some fine illustrated books onour bookshelves. Milton’s Paradise Lost, Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, and theLambs’ Tales from Shakespeare were profusely illustrated with woodcutsand engravings. I still have some of these books. A copy of the completeworks of Shakespeare printed in 1839 has some fascinating woodcuts in it.I pored over these books—and still do today—wondering how in theworld anyone could know so much about things and be able to make pictures of them as these marvelous artists did.

In school I breezed through my lessons with no trouble at all becausethey all seemed like child’s play to me. I never had to do any homework(even in college in later years) and thus had plenty of time to devote totrying to become an artist.

There was very little art instruction in the small-town school I attended, and no artists except a sign painter to teach me anything lived inour town. I had to teach myself from books on art, and when I was 16 or17 I took a correspondence course in commercial art from a Chicago firm. Later I attended art schools in Chicago and Minneapolis and got agood, basic training in the history and principles of art. I never studiedcartooning, though. Cartooning is only one form of art, not a separatediscipline. Without a knowledge of all forms of art, no one can make cartoons of any value.

My first job was as a letterer for a syndicated cartoonist in Chicago. I have always liked to do my own lettering whenever possible, as I maintain that good lettering is far more important than the drawingswhich accompany it. The copy is what tells the story; the pictures are justthere to make it clearer. The most beautiful pictures are wasted in books

or comic strips if the copy is not handled properly. Cartoon copy comesfirst; if there is any space left, the artist fills it. Many comic book artistsand editors go at things the wrong way around, with disastrous results.

My second job was in a lampshade studio, where I learned how todraw in cartoon style from established comic strips. We had permission toreproduce the leading comic strip characters of the day on our handmadeshades, and I made tracings of Smitty, Barney Google and his horse Spark-plug, Harold Teen, Tillie the Toiler, and Little Orphan Annie and her dogSandy, which I punctured with little holes and transferred to the lamp-shades with charcoal pounce. Then I finished the drawings with Indian

42 Fawcett Collectors of America

From Soup to NutsAn Essay by C.C. Beck

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

Combining humor and adventure in one outstanding tale which many consid-er one of the Big Red Cheese’s best, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel are easilyoutsmarted by Sivana, in “The Plot against the Universe” from Captain Marvel

Adventures #100 (Sept. 1949) by Otto Binder, C.C. Beck, and Pete Costanza.[©2000 DC Comics Inc.]

ink and water colors. Some people say that it is wrong to copy or traceother artists’ work, but that’s the way to learn. All the old masters, andthe best of today’s artists, learned from established artists. Those whostart from scratch end up merely re-inventing the wheel—and usuallytheir wheels are so poorly put together that they won’t work.

In 1933 I got a job with Fawcett Publications, where I continued towork as a copyist and tracer of old comic pictures. Fawcett had a habit oflosing artwork after it had been reproduced and printed, and wheneverthey wanted to re-run an old cartoon it was easier (and cheaper) to haveme redraw it than to call in the original artist or to look for the originalart. Although line drawings can be picked up and made into printingplates, tones or colored pictures can’t with any clarity. The dots in themform interference patterns which are very annoying to the eye. Todaythere are ways to get around this problem, but back in the ’30s thereweren’t. The pictures had to be redrawn.

Cartoon magazines like Fawcett’s Hooey, Smokehouse Monthly, andWhiz Bang were on their last legs in the late ’30s, and comic books werebeginning to take their place. They didn’t really take over the marketuntil those two unknown fellows Jerome Siegel and Joe Shuster set thepublishing world on fire with their Superman comic character—whichDC ran as a filler in their Action Comics. Fawcett decided to get into thecomic book field in late 1939.

I was 29 years old at the time, and Bill Parker, a Fawcett editor whowas given the job of creating Fawcett’s comic characters on his type-writer, was about the same age. It is not generally known that comiccharacters, like characters of any kind, are created by writers, not byartists or actors or inexperienced amateurs. Parker was an experiencedwriter and I had ten years of experience at the drawing board myself. But

I didn’t create any of Fawcett’s characters; I was just the first person toput them into visual form. They were conceived in Parker’s mind; I wasjust the doctor who held them up and slapped them on their bottom tomake them draw their first breaths.

Parker created all the characters in Fawcett’s Whiz Comics, which first appeared in May 1940 [with a cover date of January 1940]. I drew“Captain Marvel,” “Ibis the Invincible,” and “Spy Smasher” in that issueand in several of the following issues. In just a few months, “CaptainMarvel” was far ahead of all the other comic book characters in sales(even “Superman,” much to DC’s alarm), and other artists took over“Ibis” and “Spy Smasher” while I devoted all my time to drawing “TheWorld’s Mightiest Mortal.”

II. TO BE OR NOT TO BE

I have never had, like Hamlet, to dither around trying to make up mymind about things... at least not about things connected with art. It wasalways perfectly clear to me that a character who appeared in a comicbook should be a comic character. Fine art and realistic drawing don’tbelong in comic books. They are as out of place there as stuffed animalsin living rooms instead of where they belong, in museums, or plasterstatues on front lawns instead of in churches (and maybe not there).

There is some confusion about the meaning of the terms “comic” and“cartoon.” Many people think that “comic” means “funny” and that“cartoon” means “a drawing made by a rotten artist who never learnedto draw any better.” Nothing could be farther from the truth than thesetwo common misconceptions.

The Captain and C.C. Beck in the early ’80s—oddly enough, holding up an issue of Captain Marvel Adventures with a cover drawn by Marc Swayze![Captain Marvel ©2000 DC Comics Inc.]