Alter Ego #122 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Buyer-Guiding Comics Fanzine

No.122 $

January 2014

8.95

In the USA

A TRIP THROUGH COMICS FANDOM HISTORY WITH:

ALAN LIGHT MURRAY BISHOFF MAGGIE & DON THOMPSON BRENT FRANKENHOFF MARK EVANIER

TONY ISABELLA

82658 27763

& DOZENS OF OTHER TBG/CBG ALUMNI!

COMICS BUYER’S GUIDE Remembered!

Art © John Fantucchio • Characters TM & © their respective owners.

PETER DAVID

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 #112

ALTER EGO #113

DIEDGITIIOTANSL BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #109

ALTER EGO #110

ALTER EGO #111

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!

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!

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

ALTER EGO #114

ALTER EGO #115

ALTER EGO #116

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!

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!

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

ALTER EGO #117

ALTER EGO #118

ALTER EGO #119

ALTER EGO #120

ALTER EGO #121

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!

GOLDEN AGE JUSTICE SOCIETY ISSUE! Features on JOHN B. WENTWORTH (Johnny Thunder), LEN SANSONE (The Atom), and BERNARD SACHS (All-Star Comics inker), art by CARMINE INFANTINO, PAUL REINMAN, MART NODELL, STAN ASCHMEIER, BEN FLINTON, and H.G. PETER, plus FCA, Mr. Monster, and more! Cover homage by SHANE FOLEY to a vintage All-Star image by IRWIN HASEN!

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

Vol. 3, No. 122 / January 2014 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

Contents Editorial: A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Buyer’s Guide(s) . . . . 2 Comic Fandom Archive: Fandom Before TBG . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Proofreaders

Bill Schelly’s brief overview of comics adzines prior to the dawn’s early Alan Light.

An overview of the Buyer’s Guide, 1971-2013, by Brent Frankenhoff & John Jackson Miller.

TBG/CBG: A Pocket History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

John Fantucchio

Cover Artists Tom Ziuko

Heidi Amash Bob Bailey Ward Batty Terry Beatty Cliff Biggers Murray Bishoff Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo Robert Carter Peter David Jim Engel Mark Evanier John Fantucchio Chuck Fiala Shane Foley Brent Frankenhoff Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Jennifer Go Larry Guidry George Hagenauer R.C. Harvey Fred Hembeck Bob Ingersoll

Alan Light on how he created, built, and eventually sold fandom’s most successful adzine.

The Buyer’s Guide For Comics Fandom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Cover Colorist

Tony Isabella Batton Lash Mark Lewis Alan Light Johnny Lowe John Lustig Russ Maheras Doug Martin Mark Martin Jim McPherson John Jackson Miller Michelle Nolan Jerry Ordway Neil Ottenstein Barry Pearl John G. Pierce Charles R. Rutledge Steve Sansweet Randy Sargent Mitchell Senft Craig Shutt Andrew Smith Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson

With Special Thanks to:

WINNER

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Don Thompson

Murray Bishoff illuminates his time as Alan Light’s go-to guy on TBG.

Remembering The Buyer’s Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26 Maggie Thompson recalls her and Don’s days as co-editors of CBG—and way before!

“Beautiful Balloons,” Volume 3, #1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 15 short memoirs by Brent Frankenhoff, Terry Beatty, Stephan Friedt, Russ Maheras, Fred Hembeck, John Lustig, Bob Ingersoll, Batton Lash, Mark Evanier, Cliff Biggers, Ward Batty, Andrew (“Captain Comics”) Smith, Charles R. Rutledge, R.C. Harvey, & Johnny Lowe.

Bountiful If Brief Reminisces of TBG & CBG . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Michael T. Gilbert relates his own sojourn with both incarnations of the long-lived adzine.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt Buyer’s Guide Scrapbook. . . . . 55 Regular columnists Tony Isabella, Michelle Nolan, Craig (“Mr. Silver Age”) Shutt, & Peter David present material that would’ve been in CBG #1700—if they’d had the chance!

Four Easy Pieces Created for CBG #1700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 P.C. Hamerlinck presents tributes to—and a hilarious story by—TBG‘s Alan Jim Hanley.

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #173 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

On Our Cover: One of the most popular fan-artists of the 1970s was John Fantucchio (b. 1938). While he furnished his ornate and idiosyncratic drawings, with their distinctive signature and singular qualities, to fanzines like TBG, RBCC, et al., for only a few years—moonlighting from his job as an illustrator for the CIA, of all things—we could think of no art more fitting for this issue’s cover than his for the very first issue of TBG in 1971, which spotlighted Golden Age heroes Major Victory, U.S. Jones, Uncle Sam, Man of War, Captain Freedom, and The Fighting Yank, and which has never before been seen in color. (James Montgomery Flagg, of course, did the large Uncle Sam in the background). John himself prefers to see his artwork reproduced in black-&-white, and you can see it that way, though considerably smaller, on p. 7. Thanks for your blessing, John. [Heroes TM & © the respective copyright holders; other art © John Fantucchio.]

Above: We had so many reminiscences about the TBG & CBG this issue that they crowded out even a truncated “re:” letters section—but not the terrific homage to John Fantucchio’s work drawn by Shane Foley and colored by Randy Sargent, utilizing our miraculous “maskots.” Thanks, guys! We weren’t gonna let all that work go to waste! [Alter Ego hero TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas – costumed designed by Ron Harris; Captain Ego TM & © Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly – created by Biljo White.]

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

A Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Buyer’s Guide(s) his is going to be a weird issue.

Weird because, for the first time in 122 issues of Alter Ego, Vol. 3, the theme—the combined history of Alan Light’s adzine The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom and its successor, Krause Publications’ Comics Buyer’s Guide—was suggested to me by John Morrow, who is ordinarily content with his lofty position as publisher of A/E. It turned out to be a very good idea. Thanks, John.

Weird, too, because it covers the full 42-year period of its/their life, instead of either adhering to A/E’s usual mid-’70s cut-off point or dealing with the checkered career of Ye Editor.

Weird, three, because virtually the entire issue deals with that theme. Bill Schelly begins with a look at the precursors of TBG and CBG… Michael T. Gilbert deals with his own relationship to them… P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA spotlights TBG artist Alan Jim Hanley’s work… and the rest of the issue is written by those who wrote and/or drew and/or edited for TBG and/or CBG. Through no desire of our own, there’s not even a letters section to take your mind off that theme for a page or two. So many people who’d been associated with the adzine wanted to say goodbye to it in print—and had been denied the chance to do so—that we basically stripped the issue to the walls to squeeze everything in. We’re particularly overjoyed that founder Alan Light, his early righthand man Murray Bishoff, and regnant editors Maggie Thompson and Brent Frankenhoff are well represented, as is Maggie’s late coeditor and husband Don Thompson… to whom this issue is respectfully dedicated, in honor of his own dedication to CBG and to the highest standards of journalism.

This issue, then, is devoted to the four decades of the adoriented newspaper/magazine that debuted in 1971 as The Buyer’s

Guide for Comics Fandom and metamorphosed in 1983 into Comics Buyer’s Guide. In both incarnations, it was the major source of ads for comic book back issues, and to some extent for new comics, as well. The publication went from bimonthly to monthly to weekly, and eventually back to monthly again as the Internet began to siphon off much of its revenue and raison d’être.

Unfortunately, CBG was cancelled abruptly after #1699, with issue #1700, much of the material for which had been completed, destined never to see print. Several of its columnists had already written celebrations of what would’ve been its latest milestone… celebrations they felt they now had to either put online or else let go forever unseen. Some did one thing, some the other… but neither was as satisfying as seeing said piece in print in the publication for which it was intended. We’re hoping this edition of Alter Ego, while not purporting to be CBG #1700 or anything much like it, will soothe some of their melancholy… and perhaps our own, as well.

For I was a subscriber (often unpaying, I’ll admit, but still a subscriber) of TBG/CBG pretty much from first to last… and I wanted the opportunity to say goodbye, too. Farewell, Comics Buyer’s Guide. You’ll be remembered, both by those who wrote and drew and edited for you… and by those who merely read you. Bestest,

P.S.: Perhaps a fourth weirdness is that very few of the ads that appeared in a publication whose main purpose was to carry advertising are reprinted in this issue. Those ads, of course, were by their nature ephemeral. So we preferred to share the artwork and writing that appeared in the publication.

COMING IN FEBRUARY The Silver Age Of DENNIS O’NEIL!

123

The First Pro Decade Of One Of Comics’ Most Acclaimed Writers & Editors! • Cover montage of the writer’s early comics work with some top artists! • DENNY O’NEIL talks to RICHARD ARNDT about his work from 1965-75—scripting for Marvel, Charlton, and DC! We’re talking Dr. Strange—Daredevil—S.H.I.E.L.D.—“Children of Doom”—Prankster—Hercules—Wander—Batman—Green Lantern/Green Arrow—Wonder Woman—Superman—and that’s just for openers! Art by ADAMS • DITKO • KALUTA • KIRBY • SWAN • ANDERSON • APARO • NOVICK • SEKOWSKY • GIORDANO • AYERS • BOYETTE • GLANZMAN • GOLDBERG • HARTLEY • CARDY • COLAN • WRIGHTSON • BECK • GRANDENETTI • BROWN • DILLIN • CHAYKIN • SIMONSON, et al.! • Beginning this issue! A complete reprinting, for the first time ever, of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s 1998 book-length study of comics censorship—SEAL OF APPROVAL: The History of the Comics Code—illustrated by art from the 1940s/50s crime and horror (and even super-hero) mags that drove Wertham & company crazy! Conde Nast. ics, except The Shadow TM • Plus—FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on more wide-eyed comics fans—& MORE!! Characters TM & © DC Com Edited by ROY THOMAS • SUBSCRIBE NOW! Eight issues in the US: $60 Standard, $80 First Class • (Canada: $85, Elsewhere: $107 Surface, $155 Airmail). • NEW LOWER RATES FOR INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS! SAVE $4 PER ISSUE!

TwoMorrows. A New Day For Comic Fans! TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: store@twomorrows.com • www.twomorrows.com

Comic Fandom Archive

Fandom Before TBG A Quick Look At “The Way We Were” Before Alan Light Launched The Buyer’s Guide For Comics Fandom by Bill Schelly

omicdom was established long before The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom began arriving with clockwork regularity in our mailboxes. Indeed, TBG’s debut in spring of 1971 occurred almost exactly ten years after the spring 1961 debuts of Alter-Ego #1 and Comic Art #1. Thus, the beginning of fandom’s second scintillating decade was marked by the appearance of Alan Light’s phenomenal new publication.

How did comics fans get along pre-TBG, without a weekly or biweekly advertising vehicle? Since fandom developed not by any organized plan, but organically to fill the needs of aficionados and collectors of comic books and strips, it’s worth reviewing our history to see how that growth led to TBG (which, of course, eventually became CBG)….

The most basic force that fueled the formation of comic (or comics) fandom in 1960 and 1961 was fans’ desire to read and collect old comic books.

That, in turn, fueled the craving for information about comics of the past, because collectors needed to know the titles, dates, key issues, and contents of those sought-after, elusive issues.

Thus, when Jerry Bails (with a certain rascally co-editor) published the first, then-hyphenated issue of Alter-Ego on March 28, 1961, he was met not only with letters from fans hungry for more articles and data—but also with requests from fans to run their want lists and “for sale” lists in the next issue. And so, in A-E #2 in June, there appeared an ad for old comics sent in by Claude Held, who had been dealing funny-books for several years from his base in Buffalo, New York. Other advertisers were Frank H. Nuessel of Chicago, Red’s Book Shop of Dayton, Ohio, and Charles Crum of Jacksonville, Florida.

Indeed, Jerry was overwhelmed by the number of incoming advertisements of one type or another, and in August 1961 (with a Sept. cover date) he launched a spin-off called The Comicollector. This first adzine to originate in comicdom provided that much-needed marketplace, on a more frequent publishing schedule than Alter-Ego could offer.

A slightly different progression occurred for the editor of The Rocket’s Blast, which debuted in December 1961. Initially conceived as a newsletter (as A-E itself had originally been) and gradually inundated by incoming advertisements, G.B. Love didn’t start a new zine just to solicit ads. He simply bowed to popular demand and made room for them, using those revenues to keep his fanzine going. Before long, the number of pages with ads outnumbered those with editorial matter. While Love’s early issues were relatively crude, they appeared frequently. As fans realized this, it enhanced Rocket’s Blast’s value as a reliable advertising vehicle. Love’s circulation increased gradually over the 1962-63 period,

Comic Collectors, Meet The Comicollector—And Comics Dealers!

until it became a worthy rival to The Comicollector.

Comicollector #1 (September 1961), published by Alter-Ego founder Jerry Bails (early-1960s photo on far left), was the first comics adzine—while fan John McGeehan, by virtue of having his want list on page 1 of that issue, was its first advertiser. Claude Held (seen at near left in mid-1960s photo), who had been dealing in old comic books and strips through the 1950s, advertised even earlier, in A/E V1 #2. [Page © Estate of Jerry Bails.]

In contrast to G.B. Love’s steadiness at the editorial helm, the editorship of The Comicollector bounced from editor to editor. After its first year, Ronn Foss took over as editor and publisher (handling #7 through #12), then passed it on to Biljo White. But the task of typing up page after page of number-laden advertisements was no fun, especially for artistic types like Foss and White. So when Love offered to merge the two fanzines into one and fulfill the subscription obligations of the former publication, the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector was born. The first issue under that title was RBCC #29, dated April of 1964.

Once fandom only had one major adzine, it becomes easy to trace the growing need for such a publication, because Gordon

TBG/CBG: A Pocket History An Awesome Overview of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom & Comics Buyer’s Guide by Brent Frankenhoff & John Jackson Miller A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Before we plunge into the individual reminiscences of and articles and art by the all-star lineup of TBG/CBG editors, columnists, and cartoonists, we’re fortunate that Brent Frankenhoff, who co-edited CBG with Maggie Thompson in its later years, has teamed up with CBG historian par excellence John Jackson Miller to give us a fascinating look at the entire panorama of the publication(s), from beginning to end.

omics Buyer’s Guide began life in the basement of a comics fan in 1971 and, for many years, was the largest marketplace for comics sales by mail, also serving as the leading news source for many fans during the weekly era of its run.

Much about the history of comics, both as a hobby and as an entertainment medium, can be seen in the pages of its 42-year history. It was a history that was filled with highs, lows, and many changes. Some changes were the result of external events; others, of moves by its owners.

The Alan Light Years (1971-1983)

Comics Buyer’s Guide began life when Alan Light, then 17, launched his own newspaper, The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom, in February 1971. Fandom was in full swing then, with Robert Overstreet’s first Comic Book Price Guide having just been published. Fanzines were providing most of the mail-order connections for comics collectors, and Light’s addition was crafted as a so-called “adzine,” charging $30 for its full-page ads. The initial circulation for the broadsheet newspaper was 3,600 copies, and subscriptions were available free to requesting readers. (Ads in that first 20-page issue included two different copies of The Amazing Spider-Man #1—for $11 and $4, respectively!)

(Above:) Co-authors John Jackson Miller (on left) and Brent Frankenhoff in the CBG offices a few years back.

called the “George and Martha Washington of comics fandom,” Don and Maggie had produced the first general-interest comics fanzine (Comic Art) in spring of 1961 and had produced a comics fan newsletter (Newfangles) from March 1967 through December 1971. The Thompsons had first appeared in TBG #14 to continue the fan awards they’d started in Newfangles—and Light brought them in as columnists in #19 (Aug. 15, 1972). Their “Beautiful Balloons” column then ran in alternating issues.

“The TBG”—as people referred to it, despite Going Gentle Into That Good Night? the article already being in the acronym—shifted There’s a reason alternating from bimonthly to monthly with its second issue. (Above:) The cover of what became, unexpectedly to issues were often the only place to most of its readers and contributors, the final issue of Editorial content was scarce in the early issues find editorial content in the early Krause Publications’ long-running Comics Buyer’s (although later regular Mark Evanier had a oneTBGs. It was only there at all Guide, dated March 2013. Thanks to Brent shot column in the fourth issue). With artists because, with the Dec. 1, 1972, Frankenhoff. [characters TM & © the respective including Klaus Janson and P. Craig Russell issue (#26), TBG stopped being copyright holders; other content ©2012 Krause providing some of the earliest covers, circulation free and became a paidPublications, a division of F+W Media, Inc.] topped 4,000 by early 1972. With issue #18 (Aug. subscription publication—$2 for 1, 1972), it went biweekly. That issue included the 23 issues. When it changed from a publication’s first convention photo feature: on the 1972 New York requestor publication to one circulated under Second Class Mail Comic Art Convention. rates, the Postal Service required that advertising could fill no more than 75% of the magazine’s pages in every second issue. So #26 As TBG grew, Murray Bishoff joined Light as an assistant, and included regular news sections, including “Now What?” by the magazine brought in the couple who would later become Bishoff. synonymous with it: Don and Maggie Thompson. Sometimes

TBG/CBG: A Pocket History

And the newspaper had long provided a venue through which smaller publishers could reach readers. Underground publishers Rip Off Press and Last Gasp began advertising in 1973, and many more alternative publishers followed. Jack Katz’s First Kingdom was featured in 1977, one of many indie spotlights. People advertised to sell and find all sorts of things—including subscriber Walter Koenig of Star Trek, who was trying to expand his comics-character pinback-button collection. The 1970s TBG also covered collectors’ issues, including the price spikes on such early “hot comics” as Conan the Barbarian #1, Howard the Duck #1, and Red Sonja #1. It also warned of the publication of the first counterfeit comic book: a copy of Warren’s Eerie #1, in 1976. (CBG would also later warn of the Cerebus #1 counterfeit, among others.)

The Guide-ing Light TBG founder Alan Light in 1971, working away in the DynaPubs office (aka his parents’ basement)… and the cover of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom #1, featuring art by fan favorite John Fantucchio (1970s photo at center). Although TBG #1 had no official cover date, Alan writes: “I always thought of it as February, 1971, because there was a two-month interval between #1 and #2, and the second issue’s ad deadline was April 1, 1971.” Photos courtesy of Alan Light. [Art © John Fantucchio.]

And there was a lot of content. Such Golden Age creators as Bill Everett were eulogized. Marvel’s expansion in the early 1970s was covered. Articles on attempts to censor comics appeared as early as 1973, with an article on the arrest of Direct Market pioneer Phil Seuling for selling underground comix. Coverage expanded when the publication went weekly with #87 (July 18, 1975) and added media topics. A movie called The Star Wars [sic] was announced as a Christmas 1976 release in TBG #97 (Sept. 26, 1975). San Diego Comic-Con co-founder Shel Dorf later provided TBG readers with one of fandom’s only interviews with Harrison Ford. Big news stories appeared throughout the 1970s. Superman co-creator Jerry Siegel spoke out in fandom for the first time in a piece that ran in TBG #105 (Nov. 21, 1975): “The Victimization of Superman’s Creators.” The magazine aggressively covered the drive to get pensions for him and Joe Shuster and was able to announce their settlement in #113, two months later.

As the 1980s began, TBG had grown into its role as a focal point. Cat Yronwode had taken over Bishoff’s news column with TBG #329 (March 7, 1980), naming her feature “Fit to Print,” and many players in what would be the modern Direct Market were in place. But, after publishing 481 issues comprising 33,000 pages, Alan Light (then just 29) decided to sell his creation to Krause Publications of Iola, Wisconsin.

The advertising base continued to grow—from the longestrunning continuous advertiser Bill Cole (who started his run in TBG #31) to Steve Geppi, today of Diamond Comic Distributors, whose testimonial ad for TBG ran in #71 (Mar. 1, 1975). As a result, the newspaper continued to expand—some issues had as many as four sections—with the Thompsons’ column expanding to take up nine full pages of the newspaper by 1976. (The largest issue of TBG was #190, the July 8, 1977, issue. It ran 148 pages, including a 52page catalog from Mile High Comics.) And pure entertainment features were added, with Fred Hembeck launching his Dateline cartoon.

The industry was changing, with editorial upheaval at Marvel, runaway cover-price inflation, and troubles in the newsstand market filling many discussions. News of layoffs at Charlton reached readers in 1976. TBG #257 (Oct. 20, 1978) reported the publication of Cancelled Comics Cavalcade, a consequence of the “DC Implosion.” But, with its circulation topping 10,000 copies in 1977, TBG was also reporting on the nascent comics-shop market, its ads connecting start-up distributors to start-up retailers. Seuling’s first ad introducing Sea Gate Distributors appeared on the back of TBG #207, the Nov. 4, 1977, issue.

Fifth Column? That’s For Pikers! This montage of the mastheads of a number of regular TBG columns was compiled by longtime reader/researcher Russ Maheras. [© the respective copyright holders.]

An Awesome Overview of TBG & CBG

• #1678 (June 2011): The publication’s 40th anniversary was celebrated. • #1682 (October 2011): Fifty years of comics fanzines were spotlighted.

• #1687 (March 2012): Peter David’s “Fan/Pro Bill of Rights” appeared.

• #1689 (May 2012): CBG’s writers told readers what their favorite find for their collections had been and noted what item(s) they were most seeking.

The Last “Centenary” Celebration The cover of CBG #1600 (Jan. 2005). As it turned out, there were only 99 issues to go. Art by Jim Lee. [Superman art © DC Comics; text & other elements ©2004 Krause Publications, Inc.]

• #1692 (August 2012): The reader responses to CBG’s “Favorite Finds” were published.

• #1697 (January 2013): Stan Lee’s 90th birthday was celebrated with a special focus on “The Man.”

• #1698 (February 2013): The final “Year in Review” feature was published.

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• #1699 (March 2013): This was the final issue of CBG.

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The Buyer’s Guide For Comics Fandom The Birth & Thriving & Eventual Sale Of Fandom’s Most Successful Adzine by Alan Light

A/E EDITOR’S INTRO: We are privileged to have the founder of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom, the 1971-1983 predecessor to Comics Buyer’s Guide, on hand to relate to us firsthand the backstory of the original magazine—and how and why it metamorphosed into the juggernaut that it became. So we’ll just get out of his way and let him do it….

ack in 1968 there was a 15-year-old boy I used to know whose dad and uncle owned the neighborhood tavern in small-town Rapids City, Illinois. On weekends the boy would help out his dad by mopping and buffing the floor and carrying heavy cases up from the basement to re-stock merchandise. He sorted empty smelly beer bottles that had been sent down a chute to the basement. For working three hours every Saturday and again on Sunday, his dad paid him $12.00.

In The Beginning… A teenage Alan Light holds up the original John Fantucchio art for the cover of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom #1, which debuted in early 1971. Photo courtesy of Alan.

was illegal, tearing off and returning the top third of a cover to get a full refund on unsold copies from the distributor and then selling the comics, which were supposed to have been destroyed.)

One day in September of 1968 he spent the full 12 cents for the latest issue of Adventure Comics, #374. Inside was an article headlined “The Wonderful World of Comics” that told about something called comics fandom and explained that “fanzines” were amateur fan magazines about comics. The article recommended a fanzine by the name of Comic Crusader, for 25 cents. When it arrived in his mail box, the kid was hooked, and his life was forever changed.

That’s how he could afford to buy his comic books. He bought them mostly at the Ben Franklin five-and-dime store in East Moline, Illinois. At that time, he bought only DC comics (never Marvel) for the cover price of 12 cents. Once in a while the store would have a shopping cart piled high with all sorts of comics that had the titles mysteriously sliced off—and they cost only a nickel!

(The kid didn’t know that what the store was doing

...And Before The Beginning This is where it all started for Alan: an article about comics fandom in Adventure Comics #374 (Nov. 1968), and the copy of Martin L. Greim’s fanzine Comic Crusader #3 (Fall 1968) to which it pointed him. Adventure cover art by Curt Swan & Mike Esposito; CC cover by Greim. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the comics text page, and to Aaron Caplan for the CC scan. [Adventure cover © DC Comics; Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; other CC art © Martin L. Greim.]

“Beautiful Balloons,” Volume Three, #1 by Maggie Thompson s a long-time comics collector, I should note at the outset that I loathe keeping track of series that count themselves by volume and then number. Just how many were in Volume One? In Volume Two? For some reason, that information can be hard to come by—and sometimes even the originators don’t know. (Air Fighters Comics messed up their own count, for goodness’ sake.) But “Beautiful Balloons”—the column that Don and I began with The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom #19—well, yes, it has had three separate identities over the years. And, no, I have no idea how many releases there were in each volume (although, as noted elsewhere in this issue of Alter Ego, John and Brent say there were 147 in Volume One).

Before Volume One

Don and I met in 1957 at a picnic, in the course of which we talked about an incredible variety of popular culture in an ongoing geekfest (this at a time in which the terms “popular culture” and “geekfest” were yet to be coined). Fanzines were an integral part of the world of science-fiction fandom, and Don was already involved with Ballast, a science-fiction fanzine published by students at Penn State. We (separately) attended the World Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh in 1960, and (though we didn’t realize it then), it was clearly Comics Time. Dick and Pat Lupoff circulated the first issue of Xero there, and it included a nostalgic article on Captain Marvel less than eight years after the last issue of Whiz Comics. At the con banquet, Don and I decided to do a fanzine devoted to all aspects of comics: comic books, comic strips, animated cartoons, magazine cartoons, and the like. The following spring saw publication of Comic Art #1. We announced at the beginning that it would be published on a determinedly irregular schedule, and we kept that pledge.

Comic Art brought us a wealth of contacts and insights. Comics creators who had received little adult attention until then were generous in their

Don & Maggie Before They Were “The Thompsons” (Above:) Don Thompson and Maggie Curtis a few weeks before their wedding—and, if we’re not mistaken, the tandem launching of their groundbreaking fanzine Comic Art. With thanks to Bill Schelly, from his aptly named seminal book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom. (Below left:) The cover of Comic Art #3 borrowed a panel from the wonderful late and lamented comic strip Sam’s Strip by Jerry Dumas (and, anonymously, Beetle Bailey creator Mort Walker) to illustrate the point that CA was published on what was actually a stubbornly irregular “schedule.” In fact, though this issue came out sometime in the early 1960s, there’s no date on it at all! [Sam’s Strip art © Mort Walker & Jerry Dumas.]

responses to a couple of curious admirers. We reveled in every bit of information we—and our contributors—uncovered. We also continued our unfocused focus, while many other comics fanzines proliferated (led by Alter-Ego), almost all of them concentrated on costumed and/or super-powered heroes.

Then, as now, I lazily enjoy letting others do the work; if someone is already releasing a product I like, I’m happy to buy it. On the other hand, I tend to obsess on providing for myself something I can’t easily find elsewhere. So it was that Don and I eventually saw a need for another sort of comics fanzine: a newsletter to connect comics fans who cared about the activities of other fans. So, a decade after we met, we began to produce such a newszine on a regular schedule: Newfangles was born in 1967. How did the Thompson & Thompson Team work? Often, in the early days, Don did the writing and I did the art. Eventually, though, I simply wrote when Don didn’t; it literally reached the point at which one of us could begin a sentence and the other finish it. Material was composed on

“Beautiful Balloons,” Volume Three, #1

Newfangles For Old The first page of the Thompsons’ newsletter Newfangles #27 (Oct. 1969) featured word of the cancellation of The X-Men (though, contrary to the analysis there, sales of the Marvel mutant feature actually had improved somewhat under the team of Roy Thomas & Neal Adams)—and the information, startling to A/E’s editor when he re-read this page in 2013, that the hero/villain “Starr the Slayer” whom he and Barry Smith were introducing around that time as Marvel’s first sword-and-sorcery character had originally been slated to appear in one of their Daredevil collaborations instead. Roy has no memory whatever of that situation, but it sounds not unreasonable. Another example of the truism that journalism is the first draft of history. The Uncle Scrooge drawing is by future comics pro (and now Dick Tracy strip artist) Joe Staton. [Uncle Scrooge TM & © Disney; text © Maggie Thompson.]

Volume One

OK, maybe we weren’t that tired. In TBG #19 (Aug. 15, 1972), we joined the others who provided non-advertising material to Alan’s publication. John Jackson Miller and Brent Frankenhoff have covered those years in eye-glazing detail elsewhere in this issue. I’ll add only a couple of details.

In suggesting I provide this attenuated memoir, Roy Thomas asked me how we came to work for the magazine, how we divided our duties, and what it was like to upend ourselves from Ohio and move to Wisconsin to assume the editorship and turn it in fairly short order into what it became.

mimeograph stencil (not ditto with its purple and attendant hues), and whoever was sitting at the typewriter was the one in control. (Note: I was the only one who cut the non-typed content; for some reason, tracing art onto a mimeograph stencil is no longer a skill in high demand. But, if it’s needed, I can still do it. You supply the stencil, stylus, and backing sheet.)

Fast-forward to 1971. We’d been publishing Newfangles on time for months and months—and the novelty had worn thin. Our network of contacts had expanded our coverage, and we included reviews and news of current comics. As the publication grew, it also became more time-demanding. And we decided we’d had enough of the venture. However, we were disturbed at what we saw from many other fan publishers: They’d produce a number of issues, collect a chunk of change (sometimes literally) from subscribers, and then never publish another issue. So we decided to show folks how we thought it should be done: We announced that #54 (December 1971) would be our last issue. Go on, folks, we said: Replace us. In the meantime, we refunded all subscription funds past that issue and didn’t accept payment past #54.

How it happened: We began the column for Alan (who had invited us to join in the fun pretty much from its inception). We sent him camera-ready layouts, which he then laid into the pages of the issue. (Our layouts consisted of four sheets of legal-length paper, typed individually and then taped together to provide the dimensions that were appropriate for Alan’s format.) When we ran newspaper articles, we rubber-cemented them onto the page. When an incredible number of terrific artists sent us filler illustrations, we rubber-cemented those contributions onto the page in the same way. As noted earlier, we switched off writing the material; whichever of us was free to write did so. It tended to be me, because Don had a full-time job at The Cleveland Press. But (at a guess) the introductory installment was by Don. (I say, “at a guess,” because I really don’t know whether he wrote it all. We adopted first-person-plural style because we were first people plural.) Hey, I think I just covered “dividing our duties.” Onward!

The reaction was all that we’d hoped. A couple of young fans (Paul Levitz and Paul Kupperberg, to be specific) were producing an excellent newsletter, and we recommended that our readers turn to that duo for a replacement. Whew! That chore was soon to end for us! But there was another young fan who wasn’t to be handled the same way. We didn’t want the hassle of the subscription list and the layout and the publishing and the other annoying details? This lad would supply all those services; all we had to do was provide the content. Great idea, right?

We said no. We said we were tired. We said we had had enough of fan-writing deadlines. Heck with it. So the guy took the hint and went away. But he still had a yearning to publish some sort of comics publication, and he’d saved the money to do it.

He was Alan Light. And what he came up with was The Buyer’s Guide for Comic Fandom.

Voila—It’s Iola! Don and Maggie (or, to put it another way, Maggie and Don) hard at work on The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom in 1983, soon after being hired by Krause Publications. Photo by Alan Light.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Buyer’s Guide Scrapbook! By Michael T. Gilbert

e and the Buyer’s Guide go back. Way back.

Our relation? Well, it’s… complicated. Kinda like my memories of my college girlfriend. We were sweeties who even lived together for a time. Then we drifted apart, broke up, moved away from each other, and got together again. But just as friends.

Oh, we’d keep in touch. But months, even years, would go by without contact. Regardless, the good memories never faded. That’s how I feel about The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom, forerunner of the recently canceled CBG.

The Guide and I hooked up at a 1971 New York SeulingCon. I was nineteen and ready for some serious four-color sensory overload. In the convention hall, a skinny blond kid called me over to his table, gave me a copy of his new adzine, and made me an offer I couldn’t refuse. “Sign up now and get a free subscription for life!” The paper looked fairly slapdash. Beautiful it wasn’t. Badly hand-lettered ads were mixed in with typeset ones. But did I mention it was free? So I signed up (this was around issue five).

Alan Light was the skinny blond kid, assisted by his henchman, Murray Bishoff. Light was even younger than me, maybe 17 or so. I didn’t take the offer too seriously. Why would anyone mail me a free newspaper? But sure as shootin’, the paper showed up monthly in my mailbox. Then every two weeks. By 1975 TBG was published weekly. Son of a gun!

Free For Life?

My suspicions weren’t entirely unfounded, though. Within a year, “free for life” morphed into “subscription only,” setting me back a cool $2 for 23 issues. Eeek! But by then I was hooked.

My sub started while I was still living with my parents in Commack, Long Island, and commuting to nearby Suffolk Community College. I transferred to SUNY New Paltz in upstate New York in 1972, eventually graduating with a BA in Art Education. But teaching was just a pretense to keep my parents happy. All I really wanted to do was draw comics.

It wasn’t always easy being a collector in New Paltz. Not in 1972. A couple of years later Peter Maresca would open the town’s first comic shop, The Crystal Cave. But back then all we had was a hippie bookstore that sold undergrounds, and two small drugstores.

Sometimes they only ordered one or two copies of the latest Barry Smith Conan or Wrightson Swamp Thing, so you had to grab fast! My pal Harvey Sobel at nearby SUNY Albany would mail “care packages” stuffed with comics I couldn’t get locally. As you can imagine, reading my Buyer’s Guide filled in the gaps.

I’d check out the latest ish and drool over rare comics and original art. The prices seem ridiculously cheap today, but I was working my way through school and most of those goodies were way out of my reach. Still, I did find the occasional deal. When I did, I’d dutifully send cash or a money order, and then I’d wait.

Doggone Nice Of Him! This Fred Hembeck TBG column was devoted to Gilbert’s “The Wraith.” This page was scanned from the original art. [The Wraith TM & © Michael T. Gilbert; Hembeck character, art, & text © Fred Hembeck.]

And wait. And WAIT! If I were lucky, I’d get my precious comics. If not, I’d get a refund. Arggh!

In these days of instant gratification, anyone with the cash can buy almost any comic with the click of a mouse. But back then, conventions aside, TBG was the only game in town. Well, there was also the adzine Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector, an early forerunner to TBG. But it was more expensive and published less frequently.

The Guide helped me score a few great comics, including a batch of four mint EC Picto-Fictions for $12 total, part of a great warehouse find. Another Buyer’s Guide ad got me in touch with a collector selling the very first Haunt of Fear. It was too pricey for this college kid, but we arranged a trade for some early Marvels I‘d bought off the stands years earlier. I still remember the glorious moment it arrived in my mailbox, chock full of early Wood, Kurtzman, Feldstein, and Craig. Thank you, Buyer’s Guide!

Buyer’s Guide Scrapbook!

But, on the plus side, they began adding features to qualify for cheaper mailing rates. I’d look forward to Murray Bishoff’s “Now What?” comic news column, Don and Maggie Thompson’s “Beautiful Balloons,” and Fred Hembeck’s “Dateline: *!!?#.”

Mixed Feelings

Still, even then I had decidedly mixed feelings about the paper. In the Guide’s early years, another fanzine publisher described dirty tricks that Alan Light and Murray Bishoff allegedly used to kill the competing adzine. Sometimes you’re better off not knowing how sausages are made.

Then there were the ever-escalating subscription rates. I can recall an editorial in which Light explained how he was forced to charge more because the paper kept getting bigger. But wasn’t it getting bigger because they were selling more paying ads? The same issue even included a pitch to potential advertisers bragging about how their fantastic circulation made a Buyer’s Guide ad a great buy. Talk about having it both ways!

The Thompsons’ column had comic reviews and opinions. Fred’s strip featured fractured comic book history, terrible puns, and tributes to his favorite comics and cartoonists—all drawn in Fred’s delightful “squiggly-knee” style.

(A few years after I’d begun my cartooning career, Fred devoted one of his columns to a gushing review of my Wraith series. When I was starting out, such praise was rare and welcome. Fred was kind enough to gift me the page, which I still treasure. But I’m getting ahead of myself.)

The Terror Of Trezma! Alan Jim Hanley (no relation to comic shop owner Jim Hanley) had a continuing feature in TBG called “Hanley’s Comics History,” which focused on obscure Golden Age heroes. This page appeared in the Sept. 19, 1980, issue, three years before Michael T. Gilbert revived Fred Kelly’s Mr. Monster. (See A/E #118.) Sadly, Hanley never got to see the new version. He died in a car crash in the winter of 1980, shortly after this page appeared. The black-&white original printing has been colored by Michael T. especially for this issue. [Art © Alan J. Hanley; Mr. Monster TM & © Michael T. Gilbert.]

“Who Was Who In The Four-Color Funnies” DC’s Animal House by Michelle Nolan

A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Michelle Nolan began her fandom writing career as a compiler of major indexes of Nedor, MLJ, and Timely superhero comics. From 2005 (following the demise of Comic Book Marketplace magazine, in which her column “Nolan’s Notebook” had appeared since 1995) through issue #1699 in 2013, her “Who Was Who in the Four-Color Funnies” was a regular part of CBG. The following column, while not an “anniversary” piece as such, had been prepared for Comics Buyer’s Guide #1700, and we are grateful to her for allowing it to be printed here for the first time….

“S

ome of Superman’s best friends are squirrels!” touted a long series of house ads in early 1950s issues from DC Comics, showing the Man of Steel shaking hands with Nutsy Squirrel. Indeed, at one time DC published so many different funny-animal characters that it would have taken a super-kid to keep up with all of them, not to mention a multitude of dimes from Uncle Scrooge’s money bin to buy them all.

Dell, of course, was far and away the leader in the field of finanNolan & Nedor cially successful anthropomorphic antics Michelle Nolan, as caricatured by Golden Age artist Creig Flessel in the drawing she used for during the ten-cent era years as the masthead of her long-running of comics, which “Nolan’s Notebook” column in Comic Book expired at the end of Marketplace magazine (1995-2005). 1961. Dell, though, was [Art © Estate of Creig Flessel.] a piker when it came to creating dozens of characters over a relatively short time. Nobody, but nobody, was more prolific than DC at putting words in the mouths of just about every animal a kid could think of.

All told, DC published 726 funny animal issues from Funny Stuff #1 (Summer 1944) through 1961. By the time comic books went to a 12¢ price point, however, the only funny-animal title remaining in the DC stable was The Fox and the Crow—the strip that lingered through most of the 1960s and was always the company’s bestselling humor concept.

When my collection of DC funny-animal issues surpassed 700, I decided to have a little winter fun and create a character index, with help from the estimable comic historian-collectors Dan Stevenson and Stan Molson for the few issues I don’t have. The result of my research, as Crawford Crow (or maybe Fennimore Frog) might have said, was “stupendous and stupefying.”

I discovered there were 76 different strips, with many featuring two primary characters as foils, in those 726 issues! In the issue total, I counted “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer,” who was featured in 13 one-shot issues produced for the Christmas season from 1950 through 1962 (the last was a now-rare 25¢ giant). But, of course, DC merely licensed Rudolph from creator Robert L. May, so I didn’t count him as one of the 76 strips.

And if you count the regular supporting cast in those 76 strips, DC created more than 200 different funny animals! In the 1940s, when DC began six funny-animal anthology titles on a bi-monthly basis, the contents were more or less stable from issue to issue. But for about a five-year period in the 1950-1954 era, when newsstand comics were at their peak, five of DC’s six funny-animal anthologies never carried the same contents in any consecutive issues!

…But Don’t You Dare Tell Batman! This full-page house ad ran in a number of DC comics, including in Funny Stuff #55 (July-Aug. 1950). That’s quite possibly an Al Plastino Superman shaking hands with Nutsy Squirrel, as drawn by an unidentified artist. Thanks to Michelle Nolan & Robert Carter. [© DC Comics.]

DC’s Animal House

The exception was Real Screen Comics #1-138 from 1945-1961 (which finished as TV Screen Cartoons with #129-138). Perhaps by no coincidence, Real Screen was one of DC’s most successful titles in any genre and the only consistently monthly funny-animal title from the firm throughout most of the 1950s. All 138 issues featured “The Fox and the Crow,” “Flippity and Flop,” and “Tito and His Burrito” (which appeared under several different titles and logos, including the politically incorrect “Tito and Hees Burrito” for several years).

You always knew what you would get when you purchased Real Screen, which was a marvelous comic book indeed. If you haven’t read “The Fox and The Crow,” or “Flippity and Flop” for that matter, you have missed one of the great treats from the world of vintage funnies.

But in the 1950s, you never knew what you would get, other than the consistent lead characters, when you purchased Funny Stuff (later The Dodo and the Frog), Leading Comics (later Leading Screen), Animal Antics (later Movie Town Animal Antics, then Raccoon Kids), Funny Folks (later Hollywood Funny Folks, then Nutsy Squirrel), and Comic Cavalcade, which, like Leading Comics, had begun as a super-hero title in the 1940s.

In fact, in the 325 funny-animal issues of those five anthologies, no fewer than a staggering 157 features appeared—and this does not count single-page strips. Of course, many of those features appeared in more than one anthology. No comic book company in history ever came close to this character count in any genre with only five titles.

This is also, by the way, one reason they’re so much fun to collect. In addition, DC obviously tried to capitalize on the early television cartoon craze, but the only DC funny-animals I’ve heard of appearing on any screen were “The Fox and The Crow,” who had debuted in early-1940s theatrical cartoons from Columbia, about four years before their four-color incarnations began to cavort in the DC comic book forests. So, unlike at Dell, you’re mostly reading funny animals who appeared nowhere else.

In addition to “The Fox and the Crow,” who held forth in more than 1,000 stories in 242 issues of their own title along with Real Screen and Comic Cavalcade, plus “Flippity and Flop,” who mimicked Tweety and Sylvester in 187 different DC issues, there were four other stars. They were “Nutsy Squirrel” in Funny Folks, “The Dodo and The Frog” in Funny Stuff (from #18), “Peter Porkchops” in Leading (from #23), and “The Raccoon Kids” (in Animal Antics).

from its very first one, Funny Stuff #1 (Nov. 1944), through the 1944-45 “business split” between DC and the affiliated AllAmerican Comics company (at which time DC and AA each listed only its own titles on inside front covers), and again after the AA line was officially absorbed by National Comics (DC) late in 1945.

In all, Mayer’s unique visions appeared in 220 stories of “Dizzy Dog,” “Doodles Duck,” and “Bo Bunny” (also including six stories of “Lil’ Chick-a-Dee,” not to be confused with Chick-fil-A!). These hilarious stories ran in staggered fashion in the anthology titles (except Real Screen) from the second half of 1950 through 1956, plus Peter Porkchops (with Mayer’s work first appearing in that title with #30 in 1954).

In 1956, Mayer began drawing entire issues of the new bimonthly Sugar & Spike and Three Mouseketeers titles, leaving him little or no time to continue his magical funny-animal work. In turn, Mayer’s funny-animal work began in 1950 after his regular bi-monthly Scribbly comic book ended with #13 in 1950 (there were two more issues of it following a hiatus of more than a year). However, Mayer’s funny animals continued in the bi-monthly Peter Porkchops through 1957 along with one later issue, plus single stories in the final issues of The Dodo and the Frog and Nutsy Squirrel in 1957. These nine stories may have been created before 1957.

At any rate, Mayer’s prolific funny-animal output over a sixyear period—in the range of 1,000 pages over those 220 stories— was nothing short of phenomenal, especially considering he both wrote and drew all the strips. In all, Mayer’s remarkably amusing and touching comic book stories were on newsstands continually from 1948 (with Scribbly #1) through 1971 (with Sugar & Spike #98). (He began his career in the second half of the 1930s and drew “Scribbly” and his wild entourage first for Dell and then for AllAmerican through 1944, in All-American Comics.)

There were numerous other comedic geniuses in the DC funny animal line—Jim Davis, Rube Grossman, and Otto Feuer, to name the most prolific—so the issues without Mayer’s work are also highly enjoyable. Those three usually had multiple stories in most issues, enhancing DC’s quality considerably.

But there were a dozen other significant characters who appeared in more than 50 issues but fewer than 100. Yet how many of you remember “Blackie Bear,” “Goofy Goose,” “Nip and Chip,” “The Hound and the Hare,” “Bernard the Brave,” “Roly and Poly,” “Blabber Mouse,” “J. Rufus Lion,” and “The Tortoise and the Hare”? Those nine worthies—all of whom had some pretty darned funny stories—have long been forgotten. There were, of course, the one-shot not-so-wonders, such as “Rube the Rodent” (Funny Stuff #20) and “Mike the Mole” (Comic Cavalcade #57), along with lots and lots of characters who frolicked for fewer than 50 stories, often a lot fewer, then disappeared into comic book limbo forever.

There were, however, three other such frequently appearing characters (all with 70 to 90 appearances) who will never be forgotten because they were created and drawn by the inimitable genius Sheldon Mayer: “Dizzy Dog,” “Doodles Duck,” and “Bo Bunny.” Mayer did not draw the earliest “Doodles Duck” stories for three years beginning in 1947; the notably talented Howie Post signed 21 of them. But Mayer edited all the DC funny-animal titles

It’s Good To Be The Editor! On the inside front cover of Funny Stuff #5 (Summer 1945), editor Sheldon Mayer printed a photo of himself surrounded by his own versions of all the various features in the mag, and announced that he’d decided to draw (and maybe write?) the entire issue himself, “to get it out of my system.” The regular artists returned in #6. [© DC Comics.]

“Good Garbage!” “Goodguy” Artist ALAN JIM HANLEY & “The Limbo League Crimes”

lan Jim Hanley’s personality and ardent affection for the Golden Age of Comics (and for Captain Marvel, in particular) was unashamedly translucent within his mirthful, good-natured comic strips produced for numerous ’60s-’70s fanzines—predominantly found inside the pages of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom and his own magnificent self-published Comic Book.

I enjoyed an all-too brief correspondence with Hanley before meeting him at a 1979 convention in Minneapolis. The affable and amiable artist—with his omnipresent pipe and array of drawing utensils bulging from his shirt pocket—was as open and gracious as his Captain Marvellike creation, Goodguy.

(Notably, another important individual from the Chicago comic fan contingent, Bernie McCarty, met with Hanley one early-’70s Sunday afternoon to figure out a way to revive the old Captain Marvel Club of their youth—a meeting which eventually materialized into the creation of… FCA!)

An article on Hanley by John G. Pierce was featured back in A/E #48 (May 2005). In this issue—before re-presenting for the first time in full color a complete “Goodguy” adventure (reprinted from Chuck Fiala’s FVP #5, 1972)—we honor the man and his talents with these earnest declarations from a handful of Hanley devotees. —P.C. Hamerlinck

My most vivid personal memory of Jim Hanley is watching him eat his first lobster at age 40. The year was 1979 and he had driven down to the TBG offices in his VW van to visit me for the first and only time. I took him to an upscale restaurant to treat him and to thank him. When he saw lobster listed on the menu, he mentioned he had never tasted it. I convinced him to order it, and I still remember his almost childlike delight when it arrived.

Jim was the most prolific TBG artist. His first contribution was the cover of issue #21 (Sept. 15, 1972), and for the next eight years I was pleased and honored to be in a position to pay him and distribute his material to a wide fan audience. Jim was a positive, upbeat, and generous man, which comes through in his work. He took great pleasure creating his universe. —Alan Light

gious—both in person and through his great fanzine Comic Book. It’s no wonder then that I dedicated the first issue of my fanzine Maelstrom (published in 1974) to Hanley. —Russ Maheras

In a just world, A.J. Hanley would have had the opportunity to both write and draw Captain Marvel. Certainly, with his tales of Goodguy, Hanley showed that he understood the essence of Captain Marvel, while not being totally tied to the past; his earlier stories, at least, and with a little tweaking, could have been right at home as part of the CM canon. Alas, ours is a world in which our favorite features are corporately owned… a world which is inimical to the type of personal vision that was enjoyed and employed by Hanley. Fortunately, he found his niche in the world of fanzines where, in his own world (what today might be called the “Hanleyverse”), both nostalgia and social consciousness sprang forth in pleasant guises. —John G. Pierce

When I was about 15 years old, I was already an Alan James Hanley fan by the time I first met him. I loved everything about Hanley’s characters, stories, and artwork; every issue of his fanzine Comic Book was an absolute treasure. For a ’60s kid eager to know anything he could know about the Golden Age of Comics, Hanley’s characters were especially appealing because they were based on many yet-to-be revived Golden Age heroes. His stories weren’t completely straight, nor were they totally humorous: they were a wonderful combination of both, usually with a timely moral, commentary, or poignancy.

As a person, Jim Hanley was Goodguy… a warm-hearted, very accessible human being, with a strong moral character, and a great sense of humor. I still miss him, and I still regard his body of fanzine work as classics—every bit as important to me as anything that ever appeared in “real” comics. Maybe more so. —Jim Engel

Jim always encouraged me in my fanzinecreation endeavors, supplying original comics and information about reliable local printers. For many of us, Jim Hanley was the local expert on drawing comics and cartoons. In the nomenclature to that era’s fandom in the Windy City, Jim was a “big-name.” —Chuck Fiala

I first met Alan “Jim” Hanley circa 1970 while buying comics out of Joe Sarno’s basement on the north side of Chicago. Hanley was a talented, prolific artist whom all of us younger cartoonist wannabes in the area looked up to. Hanley mentored me and other Chicago-area artists in the art of self-publishing, and his fanzine-publishing enthusiasm was conta-

Must Be “Bring Your Daughter To Work Day” Alan Jim Hanley at the drawing board with his daughter Kim in Chicago, 1974. Also seen is his cover for TBG #71 (12-1-74). Photo & cover provided by Russ Maheras. [Art © Estate of AJH.]

“Good Garbage!”

Mark Lewis, who also drew and colored the cover of this edition of FCA, rendered this Hanley story, “The Limbo League Crimes,” into color for the first time ever. It was no trick for Mark to identify the three Golden Age heroes featured in the splash panel on this page: “They’re Robotman; Target (of Target and the Targeteers); The Guardian.” [Robotman & Guardian TM & © DC Comics; other art & story © Estate of Alan Jim Hanley.]