Alter Ego #120 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ X-uberant Comics Fanzine

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Featuring Their FirstDecade Definers: LEE • KIRBY • ROTH THOMAS • ADAMS • HECK TUSKA • FRIEDRICH DRAKE • BUSCEMA KANE • COLAN COCKRUM

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Edited by ROY THOMAS The greatest ‘zine of the 1960s is back, ALL-NEW, and focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America, featuring the archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcett artist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR. MONSTER, and more!

2013 EISNER AWARD Nominee Best Comics-Related Journalism

Other issues available, & an ULTIMATE BUNDLE with all issues at HALF-PRICE!

ALTER EGO #111

ALTER EGO #112

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #108

ALTER EGO #109

ALTER EGO #110

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art! DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, TUSKA, SEKOWSKY, TALLARICO Part 3, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Spectre/Hour-Man creator BERNARD BAILY, ‘40s super-groups that might have been, art by ORDWAY, INFANTINO, KUBERT, HASEN, ROBINSON, and BURNLEY, conclusion of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH, MIKE PEPPE interview by DEWEY CASSELL, BILL SCHELLY on “50 Years of Fandom” at San Diego 2011, FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PÉREZ cover, and more!

SHAZAM!/FAWCETT issue! The 1940s “CAPTAIN MARVEL” RADIO SHOW, interview with radio’s “Billy Batson” BURT BOYAR, P.C. HAMERLINCK and C.C. BECK on the origin of Captain Marvel, ROY THOMAS and JERRY BINGHAM on their Secret Origins “Shazam!”, FCA with MARC SWAYZE, LEONARD STARR interview, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

ALTER EGO #113

ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

GOLDEN AGE NEDOR super-heroes are spotlighted, with MIKE NOLAN’s Nedor Index, and art by MORT MESKIN, JERRY ROBINSON, GEORGE TUSKA, RUBEN MOIRERA, ALEX SHOMBURG, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and part II of JIM AMASH’s interview with Golden Age artist LEONARD STARR! Cover by SHANE FOLEY!

SUPERMAN issue! PAUL CASSIDY (early Superman artist), Italian Nembo Kid, and ARLEN SCHUMER’s look at the MORT WEISINGER era, plus an interview with son HANK WEISINGER! Art by SHUSTER, BORING, ANDERSON, PLASTINO, and others! LEONARD STARR interview Part III—FCA—Mr. Monster—more 2011 Fandom Celebration, and a MURPHY ANDERSON/ARLEN SCHUMER cover!

MARV WOLFMAN talks to RICHARD ARNDT about his first decade in comics on Tomb of Dracula, Teen Titans, Captain Marvel, John Carter, Daredevil, Nova, Batman, etc., behind a GENE COLAN cover! Art by COLAN, ANDERSON, CARDY, BORING, MOONEY, and more! Plus: the conclusion of our LEONARD STARR interview by JIM AMASH, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

MARVEL ISSUE on Captain America and Fantastic Four! MARTIN GOODMAN’s Broadway debut, speculations about FF #1, history of the MMMS, interview with Golden Age writer/artist DON RICO, art by KIRBY, AVISON, SHORES, ROMITA, SEVERIN, TUSKA, ALLEN BELLMAN, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER and BILL SCHELLY! Cover by BELLMAN and MITCH BREITWEISER!

3-D COMICS OF THE 1950S! In-depth feature by RAY (3-D) ZONE, actual red and green 1950s 3-D art (includes free glasses!) by SIMON & KIRBY, KUBERT, MESKIN, POWELL, MAURER, NOSTRAND, SWAN, BORING, SCHWARTZ, MOONEY, SHORES, TUSKA and many others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by JOE SIMON and JACK KIRBY!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

ALTER EGO #116

ALTER EGO #117

ALTER EGO #118

ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

JOE KUBERT TRIBUTE! Four Kubert interviews, art by RUSS HEATH, NEAL ADAMS, MURPHY ANDERSON, MICHAEL KALUTA, SAM GLANZMAN, and others, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY’s Comic Fandom Archive, FCA’s Captain Video conclusion by GEORGE EVANS that inspired Avengers foe Ultron, cover by KUBERT, with a portrait by DANIEL JAMES COX!

GOLDEN AGE ARTISTS L.B. COLE AND JAY DISBROW! DISBROW’s memoir of COLE and his work on CAT-MAN, art by BOB FUJITANI, CHARLES QUINLAN, IRWIN HASEN, FCA (Fawcett Collector’s of America) on the two-media career of Captain Video, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, Cat-Man cover by L.B. COLE!

AVENGERS 50th ANNIVERSARY! WILL MURRAY on the group’s behind-thescenes origin, a look at its first decade with ROY THOMAS, STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, THE BROTHERS BUSCEMA, TUSKA, ADAMS, COLAN, BUCKLER, ENGLEHART, MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, Golden Age Blue Beetle artist E.C. STONER, unused Avengers cover by DON HECK!

MARC SWAYZE TRIBUTE ISSUE, spotlighting FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)! Salutes from Fawcett alumnus C.C. BECK and OTTO BINDER, interview with wife JUNE SWAYZE, a full Phantom Eagle story from Wow Comics, plus interview with 1950s Dell/Western artist MEL KEEFER, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a SWAYZE Marvel Family cover art from the 1940s!

X-MEN SALUTE! 1963-69 secrets, rare ‘60s BRAZILIAN X-MEN stories, lost ‘60s XMen “character sheet” by STAN LEE, ROY THOMAS on the 1970s revival, art and artifacts by KIRBY, ROTH, ADAMS, HECK, FRIEDRICH, and BUSCEMA—plus the MARVELMANIA fan club story, interview with Golden Age writer ED SILVERMAN, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, and JACK KIRBY’s unused X-Men #10 cover!

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

Vol. 3, No. 120 / September 2013 Roy Thomas

Editor

Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Associate Editors Christopher Day

Design & Layout John Morrow

Consulting Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

FCA Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Comic Crypt Editor Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Editorial Honor Roll

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Proofreaders

Jack Kirby & Chic Stone

Cover Artists

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With Special Thanks to:

Richard Kelsey Kris Adams Henry Kujawa Neal Adams Mark Lewis Heidi Amash Jim Ludwig Mark Arnold M. Luebker Rod Beck Sammy J. Maynard II Gary Brown Jeff McLaughlin Aaron Caplan William “Red” Nick Caputo Mohler Dewey Cassell Brian K. Morris Shaun Clancy “movielover” Digital Comics Will Murray Museum Ken Quattro Scott Edelman Barry Pearl Don Ensign John G. Pierce Mark Evanier Rich at Gerson Fasano “coollinesart” Jim Fern Herb Rogoff Jeff Gelb Jesse Rubenfeld Janet Gilbert Ed Silverman Grand Comics Dann Thomas Database Mort Todd Roberto Guedes Michael Vance Larry Guidry Jennifer Hamerlinck Dr. Michael J. Vassallo John H. Haufe, Jr. Tony Isabella

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Roy Ald, John Severin, Norman Fruman, & Sid Couchey

Contents Writer/Editorial: Not X-actly X-static, But... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Will Murray tells of the roots and first decade of “The Strangest Super-Heroes of All!”

The Extraordinary But Star-Crossed Origins Of The X-Men . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The secret 1960s history of the mutants south of the Equator, revealed by Roberto Guedes.

Made In Brazil: The X-Men!. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 Richard Kelsey chronicles the glorious rise and fall of Marvel’s very first official fan club.

“The M.M.M.S. Wants You!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Shaun Clancy interviews radio/TV journalist (and short-time comics writer) Ed Silverman.

“I Kept All The Comic Book Stuff In A Separate File” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Michael T. Gilbert details more of the Mad creator’s influence on comic book artists & writers.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Men Who Would Be Kurtzman (Part 2) . . . 53 Concluding our associate editor’s own panel at San Diego 2011, conducted by Gary Brown.

Comic Fandom Archive: Spotlight On Bill Schelly – Part II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Tributes to Roy Ald, John Severin, Norman Fruman, & Sid Couchey . . . 66 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 P.C. Hamerlinck ushers in Otto Binder, “Red” Mohler, & Captain Marvel Jr.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #179 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

On Our Cover: What better way to celebrate a half-century of The X-Men, and particularly their first decade, than to lead off with a “rejected” cover by none other than Jack “King” Kirby himself, as inked by Chic Stone? Of course, back in 1965, “rejected” was a relative term. There’s a good chance that editor Stan Lee approved Jack’s sketch for this take on The X-Men vs. Ka-Zar… an even better chance that, at the very least, the two men talked over the idea before Kirby penciled it… but either Stan later had second thoughts, or else publisher Martin Goodman nixed the finished product very late in the game, as he was occasionally wont to do. So we get two X-Men #10 covers instead of one! [© Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: Recognize this circa-1970 X-Men cover? Us, neither! But it’s the “X-Men” cover drawn by an unidentified artist for the Brazilian comics title Ediçðes GEP #14. See still more art and story from this rapturous Rio rarity—on p. 31! Thanks to Roberto Guedes. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $85 Canada, $107 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Not X-actly X-static, But... he day that I became the second scripter of The X-Men was a very big one in my life.

Since coming to work on staff for Stan Lee the previous July, I’d been writing steadily, and I suppose that to some extent I’d already climbed my way up the food chain: from the two “Millie the Model” mags, to my first crack at a Marvel super-hero (Gene Colan’s “Iron Man” debut)… to dialoguing a pair of Steve Ditko’s “Dr. Strange” yarns before Stan moved me on to something else and even-newer-comer Denny O’Neil inherited that series… to becoming the regular writer of my first book-length series, Sgt. Fury. No complaints there.

Still, the thing I most wanted to write—and that Stan had hired me to eventually write—was superhero stories. So I was excited when, circa January of 1966, he handed me the twice-up original art for the entire 20th issue of The X-Men, which Werner Roth had drawn (only his third full-pencils job), and told me he wanted me to “write” this story. (Gradually, comics writers would evolve into using the word “dialogue” as a verb in this context, but I don’t think Stan or I ever used that term, at least not for several years.)

DC’s Justice League of America and Marvel’s Fantastic Four and early Avengers. This could be fun!

Also, I managed to put the kibosh on an arrangement Stan had made with Werner Roth, out of my hearing. Stan had told Werner that he (as penciler) would plot the X-Men stories and I’d just add the “copy” later. I objected strongly about that to Stan as soon as I heard it. If I was to be the writer, I wanted to control the storyline. He decided I was right, and he reversed his decision.

That settled, I had a fair amount of fun with The X-Men over the next year or so, even though Stan never thought Werner’s work reached the proper pinnacle of excitement. Well, I was no Stan Lee in the dialogue department, either, and I’m sure that, had he stayed on the title, he would’ve gotten better work out of Werner than I did. But then, Stan usually met with Werner to go over the art before I saw it, so that wasn’t really my responsibility at that stage. Stan continued to try to light a bit more of a fire under the talented middle-aged artist, but somehow, though the comic was always well-drawn, the art and writing only rarely soared. The XMen had been one of Marvel’s weaker titles even under Lee and Kirby, and it declined a bit, although not precipitously, under Thomas and Roth.

As per my usual method at that time, I taped transparent sheets over the artwork and indicated the balloons and captions as I wrote them, both after hours at the office By the time I dropped X-Men and at “home” on my Smithfor some other assignment, with Corona portable. On the splash Stan turning it over to my old page, like Stan, I hand-lettered the buddy (and new staffer) Gary actual text. When he saw the Friedrich, I didn’t really mind pages, and with me standing on relinquishing it—but I looked back his left, Stan did a fair amount of with some pride on having corewriting on that busy splash page; created The Banshee (who Like A Banshee Out Of Hell in fact, my recollection is that he should’ve been a female mutant, Gil Kane never drew a story or even a cover in the original 1963-70 even added a “word balloon” or but Stan vetoed that idea), Factor X-Men series, but he did a bang-up job with The Banshee for the cover two coming from bystanders. Three (my response to of the otherwise-reprint issue #76 (June 1972). Inker uncertain. There wound up being two S.P.E.C.T.R.E., U.N.C.L.E., and [© Marvel Characters, Inc.] captions, one arrow, and ten word other alphabet-soup spy groups), balloons on that page. Still, Stan The Locust (Archie’s Fly as a liked my basic script, and I suspect it was he who used the phrase villain), Grotesk (inspired by the old Fawcett Captain Marvel “skillfully scripted” for my credit. (I don’t believe I’d have had the baddie, King Kull, with a name suggesting that of Dick Tracy’s old nerve to write that myself at that stage.) movie foe, Gruesome), the “X-Men Origins” back-up feature, and individualized costumes—along with bringing that great Golden The X-Men hadn’t been a favorite title of mine, not even under Age flop, Red Raven, into Marvel continuity. I was proud, too, that Stan and Jack, except for the three-part “Sentinels” storyline a Stan allowed me to use Spider-Man as a full-fledged guest star, at couple of issues earlier. Still, I was happy to have the gig. Not only a time when no one else had written the web-spinner but himself. was it a super-hero title, not a “Millie the Model” or even a “Dr. Strange,” but it was a group book, and those were always favorites Bad moments in that first stint? My “X-Men Meet Frankenstein” of mine, from the beloved All-Star Comics of my youth through

writer/editorial

story (I liked the idea, but not my execution)… the time when I neglected to make certain the two halves of a double-page spread would actually face each other in the story (#37)… other things big and small and too numerous to mention. When I left the title, it was probably less strong than when I had inherited it. Nor would things improve over the next year, despite the best efforts of Gary and Arnold Drake and a succession of artists (although Jim Steranko breathed a bit of life, at least artistically, into the series for a couple of issues).

When Stan decided, after some months, that I should return as scripter to try to improve the mag’s sales, I wasn’t sure that I could… or even that he could have. (In retrospect, though, I rather suspect he could have.) But then, as fate would have it, the young artist-phenom Neal Adams came waltzing in to draw and co-plot the title. I’ve never been convinced X-Men was slated for cancellation in two issues as Neal recalls Stan telling him (with publisher Martin Goodman, a mag would simply be on the schedule one day and off the next—that’s the way he worked). Still, there’s no denying that X-Men was in a dead heat with Dr. Strange and S.H.I.E.L.D. for the bottom of the Marvel heap, saleswise.

Neal came in as I was revving up some Egyptian plotlines and trying to develop Scott Summers’ newfound brother into a viable (mutant) character. My concepts and dialogue inspired Neal somewhat… and his drawing and added elements inspired me a lot… and we did some good work together over the ensuing months. Despite the false start and bad feelings all around when Goodman nixed Neal’s first cover (because he’d drawn the heroes strapped to the mag’s logo, rendering it hard to read), we soon turned The X-Men into a must-read for at least the more sophisticated Marvel readers—and we bumped up the sales a bit, too. Not quite enough to stave off eventual cancellation, but I persist in

believing that said cancellation was more a failure of the publisher’s judgment than an astute business move. As I’ve often said: there has to be a reason that, of the various Marvel titles cancelled in that era, only X-Men was swiftly brought back, even if only as a reprint title.

There followed The X-Men’s several “years in the wilderness,” in which, in addition to reprints, they occasionally guest-starred, while The Beast briefly had his own series. None of which quite worked.

And then came the happy accident (related more fully elsewhere) that led me to propose, in the summer of 1974, that The X-Men be brought back with several of the original cast plus several new mutants from different countries… so that they returned with a vengeance in 1975 and have never been out of the limelight since.

If I couldn’t quite “save” The X-Men the first time around… well, at least I had a hand in jumpstarting their four-color career a few years later. I hung around long enough to have a good idea… and to get lucky. Lucky for me… far luckier for Marvel.

But that was my job, right? To sell comic books, as writer or editor or both.

From a lackluster start… through the stellar team-up with Neal… to the revival of the “new, international X-Men.”

It’s good to know I got better at handling The X-Men as I went along! Bestest,

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• JSA cover with a twist by SHANE FOLEY, adapting a classic by IRWIN HASEN! • Art- & photo-studded interviews with the kith & kin of three Golden Age JSA talents: JOHN B. WENTWORTH, writer/co-creator of Johnny Thunder! LEONARD SANSONE, original inker of The Atom (plus photos & info re Atom co-creators BEN FLINTON & BILL O’CONNOR)! Major Golden & Silver Age artist BERNARD SACHS, who inked whole All-Star Comics issues penciled by ARTHUR PEDDY! Plus rare JSA-related art & other surprising revelations about comics’ first and greatest-ever super-hero team! • P.C. HAMERLINCK’s FCA presents OTTO BINDER (part 3) & “Captain Marvel Joins the Army!”— MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the nutty 1940s heroes of Ace Comics—BILL SCHELLY showcases LANDON CHESNEY’s classic 1963 parody of Earth-Two (in color!)—& MORE!!

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The Extraordinary But Star-Crossed Origins Of THE X-MEN The First Decade Of “The Strangest Super-Heroes Of All!” by Will Murray

(Above:) X-Men #1 writer/editor Stan Lee— and penciler/co-plotter Jack Kirby, both from the 1964 Marvel Tales Annual #1. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“X” The Unknown—At Least Till Next Month! (Above left:) Curiously, although we now know that The X-Men #1 was planned to debut at roughly the same time as Daredevil #1, and that The Avengers #1 became a last-minute replacement for the latter (as detailed in A/E #118)—and though both Sept.1963-dated team comics went on sale on the very same day in July of ’63—Fantastic Four #18 (Sept. 1963) featured a full-page house ad for Avengers #1, while the X-Men logo was merely squeezed onto the bottom of a page advertising two Annuals. (Center:) Even in the “Special Announcements Section” on FF #18’s letters section, mention of X-Men played second fiddle to Avengers. (Well, okay, so Stan Lee wrote that The X-Men were “merely the GREATEST!”—but what did you think he was gonna say?) (Right:) It wasn’t until FF #19 (Oct. ’63) that X-Men #1 got the full-page-ad treatment, by which time it had been on sale for a while. On the actual printed cover of #1, the levitational energy lines emanating from Marvel Girl’s head were deleted. Art by Kirby and (probably) Reinman. Thanks to Barry Pearl for all three scans. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.] P.S.: Because the entire 1963-70 X-Men series is in print in various Marvel Masterworks and Essentials editions, we’ll be reprinting few pages or panels from those comics in this issue. We prefer to concentrate instead on rare art materials.

The Extraordinary But Star-Crossed Origins Of The X-Men

“Something X-tra”

n July 2, 1963, Marvel Comics simultaneously released The Avengers and The X-Men, the former being their (latest) answer to DC’s Justice League of America, while the latter was an attempt to duplicate the success of Marvel’s own Fantastic Four—with maybe a touch of Spider-Man teenage angst thrown in.

Tagged “The Strangest Super-Heroes of All Time!” The X-Men was more subdued than the FF and darker than The Avengers. Up to this point, most of the heroes of the Marvel Universe had been radiation-created mutations, whether born of cosmic rays, gamma radiation explosions, or, in the case of Spider-Man, radioactive accidents. Daredevil, in the works at the same time as The X-Men (see A/E #118), would share the latter theme with the wall-crawler.

This time, however, writer-editor Lee modified the successful formula by offering up a team of super-heroes who were born with their special powers, thanks to the radiation effects of atomic experimentation.

“What if I just made them mutants?” Lee was quoted in Douglas Martin’s essay “The X-Men Vanquish America” (The New York Times, Aug. 21, 1994). “There are mutants in nature, and with all the atomic explosions they’re more likely than ever before.”

Lee wanted to title the book The Mutants, but publisher Martin Goodman objected on the grounds that young readers would not understand the term.

As Stan related in the 1975 Simon & Schuster collection Sons of Origins of Marvel Comics, “Mutants have an extra power, extra ability, some extra facet or quality denied a normal man. The word ‘extra’ was the key. Mutants are, in a sense, people with something extra. And, if we think of the word ‘extra’ in phonetic terms, we might think of that phrase as ‘people with something x-tra.’ And a man with something x-tra could conceivably be called an x-man! Therefore, since we were discussing a whole group of mutants, why not call the book The X-Men?”

Goodman accepted the new title. Perhaps he half-recalled the cover story to a 1937 issue of his old pulp magazine Star Detective, N.V. Romero’s “The X-Man.” (Although that particular title character had been an undercover G-Man, not a super-hero.)

Both Lee and artist Jack Kirby, predictably enough, claimed credit for originating the concept in later years.

“As with all superhero teams, I had to have an excuse for putting them together,” revealed Lee to Tom DeFalco in Comics Creators on X-Men (Titan Books, 2006). “The Fantastic Four were essentially a family, the Avengers were a club. What could the XMen be that would be different? I figured if they’re teenagers, what’s more natural than a school?”

“I created X-Men because of the radiation scare at the time,” asserted Kirby in Comics Feature in 1986. “What I did was give the beneficial side. I always feel there’s hope for the human condition. Sure, I could have made it real scary. We don’t know the connotations of genetics and radiation. We can create radiation but we

Martin Goodman.

Putting All Your “X” In One Basket The cover and opening pages of the March 1937 issue of Red Circle’s Star Detective pulp magazine, published by Martin Goodman (seen in photo). The cover is by J.W. Scott, the interior “double-truck” illo by Earl Mayan. Nothing is known about bylined author N.V. Romero. It seems unlikely that Stan Lee, who’s always said he came up with the X-Men name after Goodman nixed The Mutants as the title of the comic, ever saw the pulp story. After all, he didn’t go to work for Timely until nearly four years later—though he could have bought the mag off the newsstand, of course. Thanks to Will Murray for the interior scans and artist ID. The photo of Goodman is a blow-up from the famous 1942 photo taken at the so-called “Bambi” dinner. [Art © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations! Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation! Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $150)

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Made In Brazil: The X-MEN! The Secret History Of The Mutants South Of The Equator by Roberto Guedes A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: The story of the first volume of Marvel Comics’ The X-Men seems fairly concise and knowable: a mere 66 issues, published from mid-1963 through the turn of 1970, plus a few guest appearances in other heroes’ mags… and, if one wants to count them, a handful of new covers done for reprinted 1960s issues beginning in late ’70. But that’s not quite the entire X-Men oeuvre from the ’60s. To learn of nearly 100 additional pages of original “X-Men” yarns, produced primarily in an approximation of the artistic style of Jack Kirby, we must migrate momentarily to South America….

n 1967, when the U.S. Marvel Super-Heroes animated cartoons series (from Grantray-Lawrence) began to appear on TV stations around Brazil, publisher Adolfo Aizen seized the opportunity to put out comic books starring The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, and Captain America—and, some time later, Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and Daredevil, as well—through his EBAL imprint. Aizen was initially only interested in the characters

The Red Iceman Cometh! (Above:) The Jack Kirby/Chic Stone cover for GEP’s X-Men #1 (1968), which actually reprints stories from the U.S. The X-Men #7 (Sept. 1964). Although author Roberto Guedes reports that the official name of the comic, which alternated material from The X-Men, The Silver Surfer, and Captain Marvel, was Ediçðes GEP, the cover logo here is clearly just X-Men—minus “The” or any Portuguese-language equivalent. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.] Note the, shall we say, creative coloring. Apparently no one told the Brazilians (or else they didn’t care) that the mutants were wearing uniforms, not costumes. But surely it can only be a failure to communicate that caused Iceman to wind up colored red! All art & photos accompanying this article were supplied by Roberto Guedes. (Left:) The splash page from the back-up story in GEP’s X-Men #1, featuring The Beast, was less Kirbyesque than most.

who had appeared in TV cartoons (except, curiously, for Daredevil) and ignored the other Marvel heroes.

Thus, the original X-Men series by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby came to this tropical country in 1968, thanks not to Aizen but to the GEP Company (an acronym for “Gráfica Editora Penteado”) operated

The Secret History Of The Mutants South Of The Equator

[Continued from p. 27.]

EG #14 – “Fireman” – Uncredited. Good art. Many workers have disappeared in the uranium mines of Koonklide. Professor X orders The X-Men to investigate the case. Upon their arrival at the site, an explosion occurs in the mine and the heroes fall to the center of the Earth. There they encounter Fireman, a giant flaming creature who is responsible for the disappearance of the workers. After a fierce fight, Iceman and Beast freeze the monster, with the latter smashing him using his enormous feet. Jean says that other Firemen exist, but they will not attack the men on the way to the surface. Curiosity: this villain resembles Equinox, the enemy of Iceman, Human Torch, and Spider-Man who would emerge years later in Marvel Team-Up. Unlike the others, this back-up adventure became the basis of the cover of Edições GEP, rather than the original American art.

Roberto Guedes (b. Dec. 18, 1965) is a Brazilian comic book writer, editor, and magazine columnist. He is the creator of Meteoro, a teenage super-hero. He has also authored several books, including most recently A Era de Bronze dos Super-Heróis (The SuperHeroes’ Bronze Age) and Stan Lee, O Reinventor dos SuperHeróis, which tells “the story of the creator of the Marvel Universe.” He wishes to thank Gerson Fasano for several of the scanned images that appeared with this article. Roberto Guedes and the cover of his recent book on the Marvel work of Stan Lee. Cover art by Seabra. [Marvel heroes TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © 2013 the respective copyright holders.]

“The M.M.M.S. Wants You!” The Glorious Rise And Fall Of Marvel’s Very First Fan Club by Richard Kelsey

t started with four initials.

Those initials, “M.M.M.S.,” suddenly appeared in ads, in bulletins, and on the letters pages in Marvel comic books in issues published in 1964, along with a challenge for readers to guess what the initials meant.

What they meant, it would turn out, was the beginning of Marvel Comics’ multiple attempts to start a club for fans. In all, four different clubs spanning almost three decades and generating different membership kits, magazines, and all sorts of merchandise including buttons, figurines, posters, T-shirts, decals, stationery kits, and portfolios came and went.

Today, only the memories and merchandise, now prized collectibles, remain of the clubs. Not one of those four attempts lasted, in spite of a large and enthusiastic response for each club. And it all started with four initials.

The answer to the tease concerning what “M.M.M.S.” might stand for was given in the letters pages of Marvel’s December 1965 issues, as seen in the first art spot on the very next page:

Marvel, I felt it should have a lighthearted, tongue-in-cheek feeling to it. Even the name should be slightly outrageous.”

Lighthearted? The detailed description of the membership kit in a full page ad in the February 1965 issues certainly was that, as it proclaimed that, for $1, you could get:

(1) A membership button measuring three inches in diameter which showed the Thing carrying a flag with the words “The Merry Marvel Marching Society” emblazoned on it and depicting Spider-Man and The Human Torch alongside. Above the M.M.M.S. flag were the words, in all caps, “I BELONG.”

(2) “A whole mess of absolutely useless M.M.M.S. stickers which you can paste onto your bookcovers, attaché case, or the hubcaps of your Sting-Ray!” The ad didn’t show all of the stickers nor specify the exact quantity that “a whole mess” meant.

The MERRY MARVEL MARCHING SOCIETY

As Stan Lee wrote in his 2002 autobiography Excelsior! The Amazing Life of Stan Lee: “Naturally, I wanted to make it unusual, as different from other fan clubs as possible. As with everything

Fan-tastic Notions (Left:) Stan Lee devoted a half page in Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963) to acknowledging various Fantastic Four fan clubs that had spontaneously sprung up around the country. At this time, the cover box referring to the company as the “Marvel Comics Group” was only two months old. Art either by Jack Kirby—or by Sol Brodsky or someone imitating Jack. (Above:) Over the course of the next year, though, Stan got an idea he liked better than merely plugging fans’ groups. The last paragraph in the “Special Announcements Section” of the letters pages in FF #32 (Nov. 1964) teased readers with the letters “M.M.M.S.” Clearly, publisher Martin Goodman had a hand in the new club, as well… but Stan maintains the club was his idea. Seems to Roy T. like Stan told him once that Merry Marty wasn’t really that sold on the idea—but maybe he changed his mind when all those dollar bills came floating in! Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scans. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

“I Kept All The Comic Book Stuff In A Separate File” An Interview With The Very Versatile ED SILVERMAN Conducted 3-29-10 & Transcribed by Shaun Clancy

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Ed Silverman is, as per the bio contained in his memoir Brief Encounters with the Famous, the Near Famous and the Not So Famous, “a distinguished broadcast journalist and documentarian.” That is actually a bit of an understatement when applied to a man who has won 11 Emmy Awards, the Freedom Foundation Award, the Albert Lasker Foundation Award for Medical Journalism, and various other accolades over the years. Among his most notable broadcasts for ABC radio (and later television), he was the first on the air for that network about the November 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy, served as network pool correspondent at Guantanamo during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, anchored the Man in Space broadcasts, covered the March on Washington and the admission of African-American James Meredith to the University of Mississippi, was beaten and tear-gassed during the ensuing riots, covered the trial of Lee Harvey Oswald murderer Jack Ruby, and participated in many other major journalistic moments. He has won numerous industry awards, and in the 1970s he served in the administrations of New York City mayors John V. Lindsay, Abe Beam, and Ed Koch.

A/E

and they had a long (and, as you’ll see, tumultuous) relationship. He was also teamed later with another sports-broadcasting legend, Howard Cosell. Hence the unusual amount of space devoted in the following interview to sports, not ordinarily a center of focus in this magazine.

In the early 1950s, Ed Silverman also wrote material for a number of comic books… and we are pleased to welcome him to the pages of Alter Ego….

“Ed Cronin Wrote Back A Note…”

SHAUN CLANCY: The Who’s Who in American Comic Books 1928-1999 website, which attempts to list all the people who ever worked in comics, does not list your name in it as a contributor. Did you use a different name when writing for comics?

ED SILVERMAN: No, no… I submitted my work under my own name. I did work for both Ziff-Davis and Hillman.

His career at ABC radio began with his becoming writer, producer, and on-air reporter-interviewer for Bill Stern’s Sports Today nightly network program,

Silverman, Stern, & Sports Comics Ed Silverman, seen a few years back amid his many honors and awards—flanked by two moments associated with mid-20th-century sports-broadcasting megastar Bill Stern, of whom more in the course of this interview: a photo of the two radio-men on the air (Ed’s on our left) and the splash page of one of probably several stories he scripted for Ziff-Davis’ comic Bill Stern’s Sports Book #2 (Summer 1952). Photos courtesy of Shaun Clancy & Ed Silverman. [Page © 1952 Approved Comics, Inc.] The artist of “Man o’ War – Saga of a Champion” in BSSB #2 is uncertain (the Grand Comics Database has only skeletal info on the issue); but Silverman says he was the writer. The portrait of Stern, which appeared on every cover and splash panel of all three issues, was done by a different illustrator, perhaps Gerard McCann or Everett Raymond Kinstler, both of whom drew material for the interiors of Ziff-Davis comics. Splash page repro’d from a bound volume of Z-D issues on loan from one-time Z-D editor Herb Rogoff.

“I Kept All The Comic Book Stuff In A Separate File”

Cronin The Adventurer It was Hillman Periodicals comics editor Ed Cronin who bought Ed Silverman’s first actual comic book story. For Vol. 2 of the recent PS Artbooks hardcover collection Roy Thomas Presents The Heap, erstwhile cartoonist Herb Rogoff—who edited comics in the early 1950s for both Hillman and ZiffDavis—drew this caricature of his Hillman boss. This “recollection,” he says, will give modern readers some notion of what Cronin looked like: “I do know that his collar, tie, and the pin are all accurate. The rest of him is, after 60+ years, what I came up with.” Since no photos of Cronin are known by us to exist, Herb, we’re glad you did! [© 2013 Herb Rogoff.] Also depicted are the Cronin letter that Ed quotes elsewhere on this page— and a Hillman envelope sent from Cronin to Silverman on Oct.10, 1951. Thanks to Shaun Clancy & Ed.

He was always in the market for new writers or new ideas. I made a submission, and his boss Ed Cronin liked the stuff. The first thing I submitted to them was one of those one-page fillers, which was a narrative rather than a picture story. SC: You mean those 1- or 2-page text stories you find in the middle of comics that get comic books classified as media postage?

SC: Did you ever submit work to any other comic book publishers and maybe not have it published?

SILVERMAN: I did some early submissions to Will Lieberson over at Fawcett, but there was a little family conflict of interest, so I decided I didn’t want to get involved with them. Will Lieberson was the husband of my first wife’s cousin, and I didn’t want to get into that favored-family position where I would owe him favors.

My relation with Herb Rogoff had been one of working together professionally at Sports-Week. Later, when Herb was editing for comic books, I would work mostly through him. We stayed in touch after Sports-Week, and he later suggested that I work for him.

SILVERMAN: Right, and they always had a need for those fillers. When I submitted the first one, Ed Cronin wrote back a note. I have it right here. It’s dated “10-18-51” in green ink, and it reads: “Dear Ed, We can’t use the story as it is. It’s a very good yarn [which he underlined], and here’s what I’d like you to do with it. I’d like you to make a regular picture story of it [he underlined the word “picture”] about 5 pages in length. I’ll pay you $8 per page, 3 panels on page 1. The splash, which starts the story, plus 2 panels then 4 more pages of 6 or 7 panels per page, preferably 6 panels [which he underlined]. This would make a good 5-page picture story and I’d like to have it. Keep copy short [underlined the word “short”]. Don’t use any more captions than necessary. I like this yarn [all underlined], so please let me know if you are willing to do this. See you, Ed Cronin.” As you can see, he was being instructive and not critical. SC: Do you remember the yarn he speaks of? Was it sports-related?

SILVERMAN: No, it wasn’t a sports story. I think it was a spy story.

SC: You’re probably the only person who still has anything written by Ed Cronin left, and you found it in less than five minutes in all your stuff, thinking today was going to be an interview on your radio career. Amazing.

SILVERMAN: I kept all the comic book stuff in a separate file, as I have closets full of stuff. I’ve been going through trying to clean it out. I’m not getting any younger, so I figured I might as well start now.

Comic Fandom Archive

Spotlight On BILL SCHELLY – Part II Alter Ego’s Associate Editor’s Own Panel At San Diego Comic-Con 2011 Panel/Interview Conducted by Gary Brown

NTERVIEWEE’S NOTE: This piece, the second half of the “Bill Schelly Panel” held at the San Diego Comic-Con in July 2011, represents the conclusion of our year-long coverage of the major events related to that Con’s “50th Anniversary of Comic Fandom” celebration. Last issue’s installment dealt with my early comic book reading experience, my discovery of comic fandom, my time away from the hobby and return in 1990. I also recounted the publication of my first book, a biography of silent film comedian Harry Langdon, and the “origin story” of my book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, from its humble beginnings as contributions to the comics amateur press alliance (apa-zine) CAPA-Alpha to it’s being self-published under my Hamster Press banner. —Bill.

GARY BROWN: Was the Hamster Press experience a good one for you? Would you recommend somebody going into self-publishing if they had no other alternative?

BILL SCHELLY: It was most definitely a good experience for me. It allowed me to get The Golden Age of Comic Fandom and other fandom history books in print when no established publishers were interested. Would I recommend it? [chuckles] These days, I’d tell people that self-publishing in the print arena, as I did, has gotten much more difficult. For one thing, the cost of paper has gone up. The second thing is, when I began 20 years ago, I got a special, very low discount from Diamond Distributing. Then, too, people tell me it’s more difficult to get your product into the Diamond catalog if you are a new, small publisher. For me, the 1990s was a unique moment in time when I could do it, and only because I was fine with just breaking even. If you have an idea, go for it, but these days I would suggest either “print on demand”—where books are only printed when an order comes in—or digital publishing. Also, it’s much easier to get published digitally than in a hardcopy book. You can start at square one with something online, and if you generate enough interest, then consider a print edition if you feel that’s important. A lot of young people, and not-so-young people, are perfectly happy with digitalonly publishing. That avenue wasn’t available to me when I started. If you want to write, or draw, or whatever, I encourage you to pursue it and consider all avenues. Like I said before, “make

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris something happen,” because no one will do it for you.

GB: If I’m not mistaken, the next two projects were The Best of Alter Ego and The Best of Star-Studded.

SCHELLY: Well, no, they came in this order: First was Fandom’s Finest Comics, which reprinted a lot of the best amateur strips from the professionally printed fanzines like StarStudded Comics and Fantasy Illustrated. Then came Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, co-edited with Roy. We are working on a sequel to that one right now. There was a second volume of Fandom’s Finest Comics, and later the Comic Fandom Reader and the Best of Star-Studded Comics. Um.... I might be forgetting something. GB: You also published some comic books, didn’t you?

SCHELLY: Yes! I did publish two black-&-white comic books. One was The Eye #1 with my own take on Biljo White’s fandom character, and Heroes Vs. Hitler, which brought a whole bunch of those heroes together. Roy had a hand in that one, as he did in several of my books. I got to have my pencils inked by Dick Giordano on Heroes Vs. Hitler, which was a real thrill. He sure made me look good! (I also wrote an homage to the Finger-Moldoff “Robin Dies at Dawn” for Image around the same time, A Splash Panel and that was the extent of my Photos of Gary Brown (left) and “pro” comics work.) Let’s Bill Schelly at the Bill Schelly panel at see... I wrote a fannish the San Diego Comic-Con, July 2011. memoir called Sense of Thanks to Aaron Caplan. Wonder: A Life in Comic Fandom, which was published by TwoMorrows. I think there are about 10 books in all about fandom. And, um.... where were we? [chuckles]

GB: Well, then came the biography of Otto Binder, certainly one of the legendary writers.

SCHELLY: Oh, yeah. I started working on the Binder biography around the time we hit year 2000. It was, like the fandom books, a real labor of love.

Spotlight On Bill Schelly – Part II

The Fandom Menace A montage from a few of Bill Schelly’s Hamster Press publications. (Clockwise from top left:) Fandom’s Finest Comics [Vol. 1], which reprinted amateur strips from several fanzines, including StarStudded Comics and Alter Ego. [Art ©1997 the respective copyright holders.] One of “fandom’s finest” amateur comics is an adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ “The End of Bukawai” in the book Jungle Tales of Tarzan. It was reprinted in FFC V1 from Fantasy Illustrated #3 (1965) with the permission of Danton Burroughs. The story was adapted by editor/publisher Bill Spicer and illustrated by Harry Habblitz. [©1965 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] The opening sequence of The Eye #1 (Summer 1999), penciled by Bill Schelly and inked by Bill Black, featuring the hero created by Biljo White. [©1999 Bill Schelly.] Art penciled by Bill and inked by Dick Giordano, from the centerfold of Heroes Vs. Hitler (2000). It starred some of the best of fandom-created heroes. [Character art ©2000 the respective copyright holders; other art ©2000 Bill Schelly & Estate of Dick Giordano.]

A Beautiful Rut An Interview With Mac Raboy Assistant WILLIAM “RED” MOHLER by John G. Pierce

he majestic and meticulous artwork of celebrated “Captain Marvel Junior” artist Emmanuel “Mac” Raboy frequently required assistants to smooth the progress towards completing comic book art pages starring the World’s Mightiest Boy. The principal artists who lent their support to Raboy at Fawcett Publications during the 1940s included Bob Rogers (nee Rubin Zubofsky), Gene MacDonald, and William “Red” Mohler, whom FCA correspondent John Pierce interviewed back in the mid-1970s after discovering that he and the artist resided in the same county. The outcome of their conversation is published here for the first time. Unfortunately, we were unable to come up with a photo of “Red” Mohler. Mohler’s birth and death dates are not known; the entry for him in the online Who’s Who in American Comic Books 1928-1999 contains no information except that he is alleged to have worked for the B.W. Sangor comic art shop in 1946. —PCH.

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

JOHN PIERCE: Could you give us a brief rundown of your career in comics?

“RED” MOHLER: In December of 1942, I was hired on a sixmonth trial basis as an inker for Mac Raboy. I worked with Mac only on “Captain Marvel Junior.” We worked in a main room. C.C. Beck, who had a large staff, was in the next room. The draft kept people coming and going. Gene MacDonald and I were hired on the same day. I was fired six months later. Raboy left and opened an office. Gene and I went with him. He started branching out. At Fawcett, there were 15-18 people in a room, doing paste-ups on True and other magazines. Mac, Gene, and I were in a corner. We did relatively few scripts, perhaps one per month. JP: What you can tell us about Raboy himself?

MOHLER: He got $35 and later $50 per page for his work. He did a page a day. Mac was a quiet, gentle, kind, neurotic, lovely man. Though he was a well-liked person, he was not a very happy person, and kept to himself. I liked Mac’s work.

JP: What were your impressions of the comics industry itself?

MOHLER: The comics were a sweatshop. Most of us hated it, and were ashamed of it… kind of a low thing. The creators felt differently, but mostly it was bad stuff. There were no attempts at quality, except for Raboy. Unfortunately, publishers didn’t want quality. They wanted volume. Some people got $60 a week, a huge salary back then, and it went to their heads.

JP: Did working with Raboy influence your own style?

MOHLER: No. I didn’t like doing comics. I should have gone down to an ad agency and gotten a $12-a-week job instead.

Up, Up, And Anchors Away! The lifting cover to Master Comics #37 (April 1943), just one of the many masterworks artist Mac Raboy (seen in photo) created during wartime at Fawcett Publications while working on “Captain Marvel Junior.” William “Red” Mohler, one of the two artists hired at the same time to assist Raboy, said that he and Gene MacDonald were asked to learn to draw like Mac “…but there was no way!” The photo of Raboy was seen in full in the FCA section of A/E V3#6 back in 2000, courtesy of Roger Hill. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.] In an attempt to locate a photo of Mohler, Roy Thomas e-mailed Roger, who had written about Raboy and his assistants in the aforementioned issue of A/E, and informed him of this upcoming interview. His response: “Wow, I didn’t know anyone had ever talked with ‘Red’ Mohler; in fact, I don’t think I ever knew his first name was William. I wasn’t aware of his contributions to Fawcett Comics until either Bob Rogers or Gene MacDonald mentioned his name to me. But neither of those guys had photos of ‘Red.’ I tried to track down ‘Red’ many years ago but never could find him (because I didn’t have that first name)…. . “Oh, someone told me along the way that ‘Red’ was married to a woman named Helen, nicknamed ‘Duffy,’ Mohler. I got a listing on her over 15 years ago, living in New York City, and called her phone number countless times, only to get an answering machine. I left many messages on her machine, but she never called back. I eventually gave up, assuming she just didn’t want to talk about those days. I tried the number again a few years ago and it was disconnected. I think she’s probably gone now, like most of those folks. Too bad. Good luck on it, Roy.”

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

JP: Describe your working environment.

MOHLER: Gene MacDonald, Mac, and I worked in a corner of our room. Gene and I were supposed to be learning to draw like Mac, but there was no way! I admired Mac’s work. He had a photographic memory, and thus started copying himself. He would do similar poses over and over. It got a little static after a while. Mac could draw an arm without They Also Serve… reference. He made me want to sit down (Above:) A 1980s photo of and draw and draw. He was in a Mohler’s fellow Raboy beautiful rut, but still a rut. [Photo]stats assistant, Gene were used a lot on Captain Marvel MacDonald. Courtesy of Junior figures. In penciling, I would read Bob Rogers; a fuller version appeared in a script several times before starting on A/E V3#6. it. JP: Do you think Raboy was capable of doing better for himself?

MOHLER: Mac’s ability should have been channeled up for a higher purpose, instead of drawing a simple little kid flying through the air. His work belonged in museums.

JP: Some feel that Raboy was strongly influenced by Alex Raymond.

Dam Yankee! “Red” Mohler recalled Raboy being in “a beautiful rut” by drawing similar poses over and over of Captain Marvel Jr.; eventually, Photostats of CM Jr. figures were adhered to the art pages, such as in this series of panels from “Liberty for the Chetniks” (Master Comics #36, Feb. 1943), produced during Mohler’s tenure as art assistant to Raboy. Scripter unknown. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

MOHLER: Alex Raymond was a take-off point for Mac’s work. But he had pride in his own ability and had no need to copy from Raymond. It was probably an unconscious influence, at best. He also admired Roy Crane’s Wash Tubbs, especially the placement of blacks and design. It was lovely.

JP: Was there a problem with missed deadlines? MOHLER: Not that I know of.

JP: [Fawcett comics editor] Rod Reed once told me that “We didn’t know we were living in some sort of Golden Age, or we would have made notes.” What would you say to that?

MOHLER: If I’d known then of the later interest, I would have made an effort to acquire originals, and keep more information in my head. At the time, it was just a means to live. My own main interest was in magazine illustration, but I never really did that, except on a minor scale in Canada. Photography hadn’t quite begun to supplant the illustrations. JP: What else did you do?

Tanks For The Memories! Above is the high-flying opening to “The Secret Weapon” (script: Otto Binder; art: Mac Raboy) from Master Comics #38 (May 1943), produced during Mohler’s tenure working alongside Raboy. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

MOHLER: I started freelancing after Raboy left. It was mostly short-term work for people who had paper [i.e., could obtain paper for printing comics during wartime rationing]. There were always places to get work. Word-of-mouth contact helped. I worked for [Charles] Biro, [Bob] Wood, and [Lev] Gleason… mostly realistic stuff. Captain Marvel Jr. was the only super-hero I ever did. There were lots of crime, adventure, mostly junk; some strips were about detectives or photographers. [When] Raboy was doing “Kid Eternity,” he didn’t have time to work on it, so he sent me over [to help him]. JP: What else?

MOHLER: I left New York—and the [comics] industry—at the end of 1946, and went to Toronto until 1953, then came to Columbus