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DENNIS O’NEIL & THE SILVER AGE

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No.123

ALSO, BEGINNING:

AMY KISTE NYBERG’S

SEAL OF APPROVAL THE HISTORY OF CENSORSHIP & THE COMICS CODE!

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March 2014

Edited by ROY THOMAS The first and greatest “hero-zine”—ALL-NEW, focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America], MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY’S Comic Fandom Archive, and more!

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ALTER EGO #112

ALTER EGO #113

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

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!

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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 Fantastic Four #1, 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!

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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 MMMS 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, BOB OKSNER, HOWARD PURCELL, 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!

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Vol. 3, No. 123 / March 2014 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

If you’re viewing a Digital Edition of this publication,

Comic Crypt Editor

PLEASE READ THIS:

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artists

Neal Adams, Pat Boyette, Michael W. Kaluta, & Mike Sekowsky

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With Special Thanks to: Kris Adams Neal Adams Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Richard J. Arndt David Bachman Rodrigo Baeza Bob Bailey Robert Barrett Alberto Becattini Rod Beck William Biggins Jerry K. Boyd Bernie Bubnis Nick Caputo Dewey Cassell Chet Cox Brian Cremins Dillin Family Jeff Dreischer Joey Eacobacci Mark Evanier Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Glenn ---Jennifer Go Stan Goldberg Keith Hammond R.C. Harvey Mel Higgins Chuck Hines (website) Allan Holtz Sean Howe Bob Hughes M. Thomas Inge Will Jarvis Joyce Kaffel Jim Kealy Richard Kyle

Batton Lash Mark Lewis Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Kim Metzger Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Ken Nadle Amy Kiste Nyberg Dennis & Marifran O’Neil Jake Oster Denis Parry Barry Pearl Jennifer Pederson Gary Perlman Jay Piscopo Robert Policastro Dave Reeder Jenny Reibenspies Trina Robbins Al Rodriguez Steven Rowe Randy Sargent Pat Sekowsky Randy Scott Mitchell Senft Vijah Shah David Siegel Neal Slowick Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Mark Trost Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael Vance Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Lynn Walker Mike Zeck Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Lee Ames & George Gladir

Contents

Writer/Editorial: The Missouri Breaks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “I Feel Like My Career Has Gone Full Circle” . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Dennis O’Neil talks to Richard J. Arndt about his first decade in comics as a writer & editor.

Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code. . . . . . 53 Beginning our lushly illustrated serialization of the 1998 book by Amy Kiste Nyberg.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: Now That’s A Fan! (Part 2) . . . 59 More nutty fans—both inside & outside comics—studied & prodded by Michael J. Gilbert.

Tributes To Lee Ames & George Gladir . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 68 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America] #182 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 An Otto Binder special hosted by P.C. Hamerlinck and featuring Brian Cremins.

On Our Cover: It’s not that writer and editor Dennis O’Neil didn’t turn out a lot of quality work that wasn’t done in collaboration with artist Neal Adams… but when we began to ponder which heroes to feature on this issue’s cover, the first three who came to mind were, of course, Batman, Green Lantern, and Green Arrow—and we tossed in Black Canary for good measure, all drawn by Neal. Add to the mix a Mike Sekowsky Wonder Woman, a Michael W. Kaluta Shadow, and a panel from the Charlton classic “Children of Doom” by Pat Boyette, and all we needed as the icing on the cake was a good photo or drawing of this issue’s interview subject. And no photo could possibly be as iconic for Denny’s first ten years in comics as the portrait Neal Adams (him again!) drew in 1971 on the occasion of O’Neil and himself winning ACBA Awards for their groundbreaking “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” comic. Thanks to layout supervisor Chris Day for putting it all together! [The Shadow TM Conde Nast; other art elements © DC Comics.] Above: In the final “Doctor Strange” episode drawn and plotted by Steve Ditko—in Strange Tales #146 (July 1966)—near-neophyte scripter Denny O’Neil got the opportunity to give a moniker to a mysterious and beautiful woman who’d been involved in Doc’s other-dimensional adventures off and on for the past year or more, but whom neither Steve nor scripter/editor Stan Lee ever got around to giving a name! Denny chose “Clea,” the title character in one of the celebrated Alexandria Quartet of novels written by Lawrence Durrell. She’s more than made a name for herself in the years since! [© 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

The Missouri Breaks

rom a personal standpoint: if I had been responsible for nothing else in my professional life other than bringing into the field the trio of writers whom some used to call (with myself making # 4) the “Missouri Mafia,” I feel I’d have made a lasting contribution to the comic book field. Denny O’Neil. Gary Friedrich. Steve Gerber.

Steve, whom I met in the early 1960s when he was a teenager in the St. Louis suburbs and I wasn’t all that much older, is remembered today as the primary creator of Howard the Duck, as well as for his individualistic writing of “Man-Thing” and other series, mostly for Marvel. (He also contributed Thundarr the Barbarian, among other things, to television animation.) Gary, my best friend ever since we worked together as teenagers at the Palace Theatre in Jackson, Missouri, joined me in Manhattan only a few months after I’d moved there in mid-1965, and went on to co-create the motorcycle-riding Ghost Rider and to script a memorable sequence of Sgt. Fury issues, as well as other notable Marvel stories. And Denny, the first person I cajoled into the comics industry once I myself was safely ensconced therein, has had a distinguished career writing and editing for both DC and Marvel. In the late 1960s, he and artist Neal Adams teamed up to make Batman an exciting, innovative comics concept for the first time since the ’40s—then crafted, almost immediately, a remarkable early-’70s run of Green Lantern (aka “Green Lantern/Green Arrow”) which, while not quite staving off the mag’s cancellation, has been justly celebrated ever since as one of the high-water marks of late Silver Age super-hero material. Add to that his long tenure later as editor of the “Batman” titles, plus his other scripting and editing for the “big two,” and you have a body of work with few parallels in the decades since first Julius Schwartz, then Stan Lee, revitalized the comics field.

Of course, lest I risk breaking my arm in patting myself on the back, I should state up front that all I really did in the fall of ’65, when Stan Lee asked me to help him find a new editorial assistant and scripter, was to send Denny the fabled “Marvel writer’s test” and get out of the way. (And even then, I hedged my bets by sending it to two talented acquaintances, the other being fan-writer Tom Fagan—who lost out to Denny that time, though he got an outright offer of a Marvel job from me a few years later.) It wasn’t that Denny and I were pals, exactly, the way Gary and I were. But we got along, we were of a similar age (Denny’s about a year older), and in 1965 I felt his articles for the major newspaper published in my home county (see pp. 5-7) were some of the best I’d seen on comics up to that point. In the end, I suppose we never had enough in common to really become close chums… and over the decades we even had a fairly serious altercation or two, which I’m happy to say we’ve both gotten way beyond… but now we find ourselves a couple of elder statesmen in a field not known for being particularly kind to those who are unlucky enough to age (i.e., pretty much everybody but Stan Lee). To give Denny something resembling his due in this issue, alas, I had to slightly shortchange the debut this issue of another near and dear project—the serialization of Amy Kiste Nyberg’s 1998 book Seal of Approval —so that it won’t really go into high gear till next issue. But it’s good to know there are creators (like Denny O’Neil) and subjects (like the history of comic book censorship) about which there’s still something new and intriguing to reveal, as comics move steadily and assuredly into their second century. To me, that’s always been one of the things that keeps history one of my primary interests: Every year, there’s a little bit more of it! Bestest,

COMING IN APRIL HERB TRIMPE

124

& The Marvel Age Of Comics! The Early Career Of One Of Ol’ Greenskin’s Essential Artists!

Hulk & Wolverine TM & ©

• New, previously unpublished Hulk/Wolverine cover by TRIMPE! • HERB TRIMPE fills in interviewer RICHARD ARNDT about guys like The Hulk, Phantom Eagle, Iron Man, Kid Colt Outlaw, Nick Fury – Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Fantastic Four, Killraven, Son of Satan, and the origins of Wolverine—not to mention LEE, KIRBY, ROMITA, THE SEVERIN SIBLINGS, EVERETT, FRIEDRICH, THOMAS, WEIN, MOENCH, McGREGOR, BUSCEMA, GRAINGER, & others! • Continuing our rhapsodic re-presentation of SEAL OF APPROVAL: THE HISTORY OF THE COMICS CODE by AMY KISTE NYBERG—lavishly illustrated with all sorts of lurid (and other) visuals! The early anti-comics crusades—and the industry’s response! • FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America)—MICHAEL T. GILBERT presents DR. M. THOMAS INGE on Communists and American comic books—BILL SCHELLY—& MORE!! racters, Inc.

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“I Feel Like My Career Has Gone Full Circle”

Award-Winning Writer & Editor DENNIS O’NEIL On His First Decade In Comics

Interview Conducted by Richard J. Arndt

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Denny O’Neil began his career in comics in 1965 as a scripter for Marvel Comics. However, he was soon doing most of his early work for Charlton, under the name “Sergius O’Shaugnessy.” In 1968 Charlton editor Dick Giordano moved to DC Comics, taking with him a number of writers and artists, including O’Neil, who soon found himself writing the likes of Beware The Creeper, Wonder Woman, Justice League of America, and, by 1969, “Batman” stories with artist Neal Adams. Their five-year collaboration on Batman and Detective Comics (with Adams spelled by artists such as Irv Novick and Bob Brown) and their simultaneous run on “Green Lantern/Green Arrow” were revolutionary in terms of how all three characters were perceived. O’Neil also revamped Superman for the 1970s, reducing his powers and making him more human. Following these ventures, he worked as an editor/writer at various times for both DC and Marvel, scripting dozens of both companies’ most important characters and contributing such landmarks as the 1970s adaptations of The Shadow with artist Michael Kaluta and Superman vs. Muhammad Ali, again with Neal Adams. O’Neil was the editor of Daredevil during Frank Miller’s tenure on the character. In addition to his comics work, O’Neil scripted several episodes of the highly acclaimed Batman: The Animated Series on TV and has written a number of novels, including one about Richard Dragon, a martial arts master, which also appeared as a comic novel at DC. This interview took place by phone during July of 2011.

Denny’s Ditko Daze Denny O’Neil in 1969 (top of page), and with his charming wife Marifran (right) in a photo taken specifically for the interview at 4:36 p.m. on Aug. 13, 2013. Thanks, guys! On p. 24 of this interview, Denny opines as how “It’s been my fate to rain on Steve Ditko’s parade time and again.” As Exhibits 1-3 of same, below we present the splash pages from three stories scripted by O’Neil (twice as “Sergius O’Shaugnessy”) and drawn by Ditko (two of which the artist also plotted) at the three color comic book companies for which Denny worked during his first decade in the field: “Doctor Strange” for Marvel’s Strange Tales #145 (June 1966)… the middle splash of a three-part tale illustrated by a trio of artists for Charlton’s Space Adventures #2 (July 1968)… and DC’s Beware The Creeper #3 (Sept.-Oct. 1968). Thanks for the scans to Barry Pearl and Jim Ludwig. [“Dr. Strange” page © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Space Adventures #2 page © the respective copyright holders; Beware The Creeper page © DC Comics.]

Award-Winning Writer & Editor Dennis O’Neil On His First Decade In Comics

“I Did A Couple of [Newspaper] Stories On [Comics’ Big Resurgence]” RICHARD ARNDT: Can you tell us about your early life? DENNIS O’NEIL: I feel like my career has gone full circle. My first entry into the comics field came with Alter Ego back in the 1960s, and now here I am 50 years later talking with one of Roy’s reporters. About three years ago he and I went to a convention in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and I had the weird experience of being interviewed by the paper I worked for when Roy re-introduced me to comics. RA: What [news]paper was that? O’NEIL: It was, and still is, called the Southeast Missourian. It was a conservative paper when I worked for it and is, I think, today, very conservative. But that’s okay. I didn’t see the article, if any, that they wrote. They also interviewed Roy and Gary Friedrich. We were the big cheeses that weekend. But, getting back to your question, I grew up in North St. Louis, a blue-collar neighborhood. I went to a military high school, [laughs] which has been the bane of my life. People who now know me can’t believe that I ever went to a military high school. I’m not sure that I can believe it, but I have pictures. I actually did. I went to St. Louis University, majoring in English and minoring in creative writing and philosophy. I went into the Navy, participated in the Cuban blockade [in 1962]—my little sliver of history—and just moved around for a period of about a year. I did some substitute teaching, picked up a load of groceries for my father once a week. I lived with a bunch of people in a big old house near Forest Park in St. Louis. Then I decided I wanted to write again. I’d been a journalist in the Navy. I’d been the editor of my Junior Achievement newspaper—a paper boy—that’s a good point on your résumé. [laughter] I answered an Editor & Publisher [magazine] ad for a beat reporter in Cape Girardeau. One afternoon my father drove me the 120 miles and I talked with the editor for a bit and he decided to hire me. Almost immediately I alienated almost everybody that I depended on to do my job. I made a joke—this was a very racially turbulent time. My girlfriend was a Catholic Worker and I’d become involved in the peace movement and the civil rights movement [which were very intertwined at the time]. I was never a major player but I attended some of the demonstrations, and the people, my friends I hung out with, [were involved]. Cape Girardeau was a mixed place when it came to stuff like that, soooo, one day I made up a phony AP story: “Martin Luther King is coming to Cape Girardeau to stage a rally.” I slipped it onto the clipboard that all of the cops had to read before going on duty and the s*** really hit the fan. I finished my beat—I had to go around to the firehouses and the hospitals –and I got back to the office and a radio reporter called me and said, “I don’t know if you put that

Sketch 22 A talented young artist did this color sketch of Dennis O’Neil (on right) and Roy Thomas at a small comics convention held in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, circa 2007-2008. Another major con guest was fellow writer Gary Friedrich, who’d set up shop across the aisle from where Denny and Roy signed comics and collected money for the comics industry’s Hero Initiative charity, on whose Dispersement Board they’ve both sat since its inception. All three writers had lived in “Cape” at one time or another; both Gary and Roy grew up in nearby Jackson, the county seat. The artist got Denny and Roy to autograph the original sketch—but alas, though he gave RT his verbal okay to use it in Alter Ego, he neglected to sign it… so we can’t give him proper credit till he contacts us! [© 2014 the respective copyright holder.]

Martin Luther King story on the clipboard. I don’t want to know, but if you did, don’t admit it under any circumstances.” So I went through my day and was going to my apartment that night and saw one of the two police detectives that I got reports from leaving my apartment. He’d been evidently been searching for drugs or evidence of God knows what. I don’t know why I made up the joke. I don’t know what I hoped to gain. I made instant enemies of everybody that I depended on to do my job. So… the next day I was no longer on the police beat, no longer the cop reporter. I was a district news editor. RA: I guess you were lucky to keep a job. How did Roy get you reacquainted with comics? O’NEIL: One of my jobs was, twice a month, to fill a children’s page, which ran on Saturdays. This was during the summer, and there was very little in the way of school or children’s activities to write about. But… I was beginning to see comic books again. I was commuting back and forth to St. Louis a lot, spending some time in bus stations, and, because I knew practically no one in Cape Girardeau, it was pretty lonely. I was standing around looking at newsstands a lot. On impulse, I bought some comic books and read them. I thought that they were way different and way better than the books I remembered reading when I was a kid. Comics were a major part of my life when I was a little kid. Once a week my father bought me a comic book after Sunday mass when he stopped to pick up milk for the family. I traded them with the other kids. I really loved reading them, but they just went out of my life totally when I was about ten years old. I was dealing with high school and girls, and I thought maybe I wanted to be an actor, so I was doing a lot of amateur theatre stuff and just had no reason to think about comic books. Suddenly, here they were again. I did some very rudimentary reporting and found out that my hunch was right. Comics were in the middle of a big resurgence. I did a couple of stories on that and Roy Thomas got in touch with me. His parents were subscribers to the paper. They lived in Jackson, Missouri… eight miles away. So, one Sunday, coming back from my weekly visit to St. Louis, I stopped off in Arnold, Missouri, and interviewed Roy. I was just captivated. For two hours he opened up this whole sub-culture I had no inkling had ever existed and that I was really responding to. My girlfriend was not responding similarly, [laughs] but I was just knocked out by the whole bit. Roy [Continued on p. 8]

“I Feel Like My Career Has Gone Full Circle”

3-PAGE INTERLUDE:

A St. Louisan In The Southeast Missourian

Saturday, May 15, 1965 This is the first of the three articles related to comics that Denny O’Neil wrote in 1965, while a reporter for the Cape Girardeau Southeast Missourian (though his last name got misspelled in his byline). It and the two that follow it have been reprinted by special arrangement with the newspaper. The newsstand photo that originally accompanied the piece did not reproduce well on the photocopy supplied by the paper, so we’ve covered it with the Curt Swan/George Klein cover of Superman #179 (Aug. 1965), an issue on sale around the time the articles were printed. [Article © Southeast Missourian or successors in interest; Superman cover © DC Comics.]

Award-Winning Writer & Editor Dennis O’Neil On His First Decade In Comics

Charlton Premiere # 2) 1967; Farthest-Out Fairy Tales 1967-68; Ghostly Tales 1968; Go-Go c. 1966-67; Hercules 1967-68; The Man Called Lobo 1968; The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves 1960s; Paul Mann (SF series) 1967-68; The Prankster 1967; The Sentinels 1967; Space Adventures 1967-68; Strange Suspense Stories 1967; Thunderbolt 1960s; Wander (in Cheyenne Kid) 1968-69 DC Comics: Adam Strange 1970; All-Star Western 1971; Armageddon 2001 1991; The Atom 1969; The Atom and Hawkman 1969; Azrael 1995-97; Bat Lash 1968-69, 1978; Batgirl 1970; Batman 1970-80, 19881997; Batman and Robin 1970; Batman and Green Arrow: Poison Tomorrow 1992 graphic album; Batman: A DC Movie Special 1989; Beyond the Farthest Star mid-1970s; Beware The Creeper 1968-69; Black Canary 1972; Black Lightning 1978-80; Bomba the Jungle Boy 1968; Catwoman 1997; Challengers of the Unknown 1969-70; The Creeper & Wildcat 1975; Doc Savage 1987-89; Fabulous World of Krypton 1971; Fafhrd and The Gray Mouser 1973; From Beyond the Unknown 1970-71; Glenn Merritt 1970; Gotham City 1979-80; Green Arrow 1977, 1979, 1988-89; Green Lantern 1968-69, 1971, 1973-80, 1998; Green Lantern and Green Arrow 1971-73, 1976-79; House of Mystery 1977; Iron-Wolf 1973-74; Isis 1976; The Joker 1976-76; Justice League of America 1968-70, 1975; Justice League Task Force 1993; Justice, Inc. 1975; Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth 1976-77; Madame Xanadu 1980; Martian Manhunter J’Onn J’Onzz 1977; Mr. Mxyzptlk 1980; The New Gods 1976; Nightmaster 1969; Nightwing 1995; Pellucidar 1973; The Phantom Stranger 1970; The Private Life of Clark Kent 1972; The Question 1987-92, 1997; Richard Dragon, Kung Fu Fighter 1976-77; Robin 1991; Scooter (uncertain); Secret Origin: Batman 1989; Secret Origin: Robin 1990; The Shadow 197375; Shazam! 1973-76 (Captain Marvel) & 1975 (The Marvel Family); Sherlock Holmes 1975; The Spectre 1969; Strange Adventures 1970;

From Strange Tales To Space Adventures To Strange Adventures Denny at Phil Seuling’s 1971 New York Comic Art Convention—and the lead splash page of Strange Adventures #222 (Jan.-Feb. 1970), with art by Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson. Thanks to Mike Zeck, Pedro Angosto, & Sean Howe for the photo, and to Bob Bailey for the art scan. “Adam Strange,” of course, had for years been a feature written by Gardner Fox, penciled by Carmine Infantino, and inked by Anderson. [Page © DC Comics.]

Strange Sports Stories 1973-74; Super Friends 1979; Superman 197172, 1980; Superman & Batman 1970-72, 1979-80; Superman vs. Muhammed Ali 1978; Superman (various team-ups) 1971-72, 197980; Tales of Gotham City 1980; Tarzan 1976-77; text 1974; Three Musketeers 1976; Tim Trench 1976; Time Warp 1979-80; The Unexpected 1980; Who’s Who in the DC Universe (entries) 1985-86; The Witching Hour 1969; Wonder Woman 1968-72, 1977; Young Fafhrd the Barbarian 1973 Eclipse Enterprises: Real War Stories 1987 Marvel Comics: Bizarre Adventures 1982; Doctor Strange 1966, 1968; Dominic Fortune 1980; Epic Illustrated 1980-81; Indiana Jones 1983; Iron Man 1982-86; Kid Colt Outlaw 1967-69; Last of the Dragons 1982-83; Luke Cage and Iron Fist 1981-82; Millie the Model 1965-67; Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. 1966; Patsy and Hedy 1966; Rawhide Kid 1966-68; Savage Tales (w) 1971; (a) 1986; The Shadow 1988; Spider-Man 1980-81; text 1974, 1980, 1982-83; Two-Gun Kid 1967-68; Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction 1975; The X-Men 1970; X-Men: Heroes for Hope 1985 Warren Publications: Vampirella (non-lead features) 1971-72

In And Out Of Africa Denny O’Neil used his “Sergius O’Shaugnessy” nom de plume for what may have been the last time on this occasion, because by now he was working primarily for DC Comics—when Roy T. got him and editor Stan Lee together so Denny could write a feature with artist Gene Colan for Marvel’s black-&-white Savage Tales #1 (May 1971). [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Seal Of Approval The History Of The Comics Code

A/E

by Amy Kiste Nyberg

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: With this issue, after a decade of attempting to acquire the rights to do so, we begin at last our serialization of Dr. Amy Nyberg’s 1998 book Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. This groundbreaking study was originally published by University Press of Mississippi as part of its Studies in Popular Culture series, under the general editorship of M. Thomas Inge. Amy, since 1993 a professor in the Department of Communication at Seton Hall University in South Orange, New Jersey, has a prior background as a professional journalist. She is married to comic book artist John Nyberg… who, by sheer coincidence, was the inker of an Elric of Melniboné series or two I scripted for First Comics circa 1990.

Ever since I first read Seal of Approval, I’ve wanted to make it available to Alter Ego’s audience in an illustrated format—since there were very few reproductions of comic art and no photos whatsoever in the original edition. I wish to thank Tom Inge for his considerable help in arranging for this book to be reprinted over the course of several issues of A/E. The text is © 1998 University Press of Mississippi; the book is still

Signed, Sealed, & Delivered (Clockwise from top center:) Dr. Amy Kiste Nyberg—the Comics Code seal—and the cover of the University Press of Mississippi edition of her 1998 book Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code. The cover illustration is by John Nyberg; photo courtesy of AKN. [Art © 1998 University Press of Mississippi.]

available through them at www.upress.state.ms.us. My thanks to William Biggins and Vijah Shah, the University Press’ past and present acquisitions editors, for their help, as well. Seal of Approval, being an academic work, is heavily “footnoted”— though in the MLA style that, instead of placing small raised numbers after pieces of text, lists book or article titles or author names and page numbers between parentheses: e.g., “(Hart 154-156),” which refers to pp. 154-156 of whichever book by an author or editor named Hart is listed in the bibliography. When the parentheses contain only page numbers, it is because the name of the author, editor, or work is given in the main text almost immediately preceding the note. Nyberg’s bibliography will be printed at the conclusion of our serialization, some months from now. In addition, there are a handful of notes in the book that are treated as footnotes in the more traditional sense. Those are reprinted in this serialization with the footnoted text at the bottom of the page on which the number appears. One final note: We have, by and large, left the author’s spellings of terms and names just as they appear in the University Press of Mississippi edition—e.g., “superhero” rather than the “super-hero” ordinarily used in this magazine; the non-capitalization of the term “comics code” (though we did capitalize that term in our captions); and “E.C.” instead of the period-less “EC” we ordinarily use (though we’ve kept them in our captions). Seal of Approval refers to “DC” Comics without the use of periods, so we’ve left that spelling, as well. Where we’ve felt a need to point out a possible error of fact or two in the book (though we certainly didn’t find many!), we have done so in accompanying art captions, leaving the original text intact. Not so incidentally, a thank-you to Brian K. Morris for retyping the entire book specifically for Alter Ego. And now we turn the floor over, as indeed we should, to Amy Kiste Nyberg, who begins with an introductory overview, which will then be greatly expanded and illuminated in the ensuing chapters in future issues….

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ALL-NEW FULL-COLOR ADVENTURES —NOW PLAYING ON AN INTERNET NEAR YOU!

Devil-Doggone Funny! John Severin drew this amusing cover for Devil-Dog Dugan #2 (Sept. 1956). [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Now That’s A Fan! by Michael T. Gilbert Comic book readers are an obsessive lot. You’ll find us slabbing dog-eared Big Boy giveaways, buying 40 variant covers of the latest Superman reboot, and braving tornadoes on new comics day. But that’s nothing compared to the fanatics you’ll find in the comics themselves!

Cookie An’ The Commies! Take for example the Dave Berg-illustrated “Cookie an’ the Commies!” from Combat Kelly # 16. This joker’s so busy reading the latest issue of his brother-inarms, Combat Casey, that Cookie barely notices a bloodthirsty Red about to shishkabob him! No worries, though. Cookie not only massacres his attacker, he also slaughters about six-dozen buck-toothed Commies. He probably thought they were trying to steal his comics! By story’s end, Cookie’s resting with a copy of his beloved Combat Casey comic. “He ain’t afraid of nothin’!” sighs Cookie. “I wish I was like him!” I’m guessing that, over in his own book, Combat Casey’s thinking the same thing about Cookie! Now that’s a fan!

This’ll Kill Ya! Mad Magazine’s Dave Berg drew “Cookie an’ the Commies” for Combat Kelly #16 (Oct. 1953). Seen here are its splash and final two panels. [© Marvel Characters, Inc].

Now That’s A Fan! (Part 2)

The Raving Maniac! Kids love comics. But parents? Not always so much. Such was the case with “The Raving Maniac” in Marvel’s Suspense # 29. Stan Lee’s four-pager was a spirited defense of comics back when Fredric Wertham and his crew were blaming them for everything from juvenile delinquency to the heartbreak of psoriasis. The story begins with every editor’s worst nightmare: an angry dad bursting into his office! “Are you the editor of these miserable magazines?!!” screams the guy. “You’re lucky I don’t break your head!” He accuses our boy of ruining his kid. Stan counterattacks, peppering him with lame Millie the Model-style jokes. Bam! Pow! When that fails to diffuse the situation, Lee tries to reason with the guy, explaining that kids’ literature has always been violent. “At least our readers know our stories aren’t true,” says Stan. “But you can scare yourself to death reading newspaper nowadays!!” The guy still refuses to listen. But before they come to blows, two men in white coats come to take the raving maniac back to the funny farm from which he escaped! Afterward, Stan snuggles with his own baby daughter and tells her a funny bedtime story about a nut that hated comics. Little Joanie Lee was one lucky little girl! But the maniac’s kid was the real lucky one. With his dad safely locked up in the loony bin, he can read all the comics he wants. Now that’s a fan!

The Unknown Comic! Here’s one that maybe you comic experts can help me out with. I recently found a few torn panels from some unknown Marvel comic. I haven’t a clue what title it was—probably some long forgotten Lee-scripted monster comic. If you know where this story originally appeared, please tell us. Talk about obscure! Even Roy is stumped on this one. Regardless, you have to admire the down-onhis-luck teenager featured here who finds a rare Golden Age Sub-Mariner comic in a dingy flophouse. Instead of selling it and getting a decent room, the plucky lad reads it! All I can say is...“Now that’s a fan!”

Dissatisfied Customer! (Above:) Stan Lee’s worst nightmare, from Suspense #29 (March 1953). Joe Maneely illustrated Lee’s story “The Raving Maniac.” [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Bowery Boy! (Right:) This lucky but unidentified lad finds a rare Sub-Mariner comic in a flophouse. Artist and title unknown. [© Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America)

on paper, the inked drawings go to the engraver and printer, which is a vast new story in itself. Visit an engraver’s plant sometime and watch this fascinating process, a triumph of modern technology. That reminds me, I must go myself sometime.

UGHs & ULPs Binder also explores in Memoirs the gamut of sounds released by various hooligans when thumped, whether it was Minute-Man hitting Hitler in Binder’s “One Minute With Minute-Man” (Master Comics #46, Jan. ’44; art by Phil Bard) or Spy Smasher bashing Dr. Blizzard in Binder’s “The Blizzard Blitzkrieg” (Spy Smasher #9, Dec. ’42; art by Alex Blum). Both scripts by OOB. [Minute-Man, Spy Smasher TM & © 2014 DC Comics.]

understand a word of it, the stupid fellow. I took one look at it and said, “Why, it’s simple. It means …” I stopped. You know, I couldn’t make heads nor tails of it, either. I don’t know to this day what it means. I must give you the lexicon of sound-symbols we use for crooks, when socked by the hero. Now this set of sound-symbols takes great study and care, and must not be misused by the writer. First, as the hero approaches, the villain always says “Ulps!” or for variation “Gulp!” Also “G-G-Gulp!” Notice the delicate added drama in that last variation. “G-G-G-G-Gulp!” Doesn’t that just make it all come alive, how the villain is quaking in his boots as the dauntless hero comes dashing? The impact sounds of fist on chin are legion but these samples will suffice: POW! SOK! BAM! WHAM! WHACK! WHACKO! KABAM! BOP! REBOP! THUD! KERSMASH! Oh, there are endless variations. But note, they must also be used with discrimination and a sense of drama. For a weak sock you would use POW! For a harder blow: BAM! (WHAM! is harder than BAM!, then. Didn’t you know?) And, of course, for an all-out Sunday punch you must use something terrific like KABOOM! I’m telling you, it takes deep study and care. A WHAM! in the wrong place can just ruin your story, when WHACKO! is called for. Also, the noises emitted by thugs when struck are a whole new research in themselves. Where do you use “YIIIIII!”? At what point is “GHAAAAAA!” infinitely better than “AGHHHHHHH!”? Does “ERKKKKK!” denote more or less discomfiture than “AWRKKKK!”? See if you can figure it out for yourselves. And the writer is never an expert until he knows at what crucial crisis in his story it should be “GHAAA!” or “GHAAAAAA!” or “GHAAAAAAAAAAA!” A couple of letters too few or too many and the story is hopeless, just hopeless. Anyway, there you have some of the inside story of how comics are made. After the writer and artist have poured out their genius

Now, let’s say a final word about the comics. Good or bad, I think they are here to stay, like rain and taxes. They are estimated to have a sold monthly circulation of fifty million, and a total reader audience—counting exchanged copies—of at least double that. Best-selling books sometimes hit a million copies. There are comics magazines that sell a million every month of the year. I’m still trying to think of a final word to say about the comics. Oh well, let’s just say “GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Next: WHITHER! WHITHER! WHO’S GOT THE WHITHER?

Otto Binder’s Magic Words

The Writer’s Plan to Save Captain Marvel Adventures

by Brian Cremins Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

ver the course of their illustrious crime-fighting career, Billy Batson and Captain Marvel saved the world—and often the universe—from countless villains: the terrible Ibac, the devious Mr. Mind, the diabolical Black Adam. Once they even saved Dr. Sivana and the lovely Beautia from Attila the Hun and his awful table manners (in Captain Marvel Adventures # 20, Jan. ‘43). By 1952, however, Billy and the Captain were struggling. No magic word or talking tiger could save them from the crime, horror, and romance comics that had been growing in popularity since the war. And while Fredric Wertham’s Seduction of the Innocent would not appear until 1954, The Marvel Family and Fawcett Publications had another, more immediate threat to face: the ongoing legal battle with DC Comics and its allegations of copyright infringement.

Deadly Times By the time “Captain Marvel Battles King Kull and the Seven Sins” appeared in print (Captain Marvel Adventures #137, Oct. 1952; art by C.C. Beck) the tale’s writer, Otto O. Binder, was already contemplating the course of the Captain’s continuing exploits… but the hero’s journey was destined for an ill-fated end. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

With the help of a magic word, Billy and his alter ego managed to solve even the most complex problems. But who would rescue Billy, and Mary Marvel, and Captain Marvel Jr., and Mr. Tawny? Would Fawcett’s writers and artists bring new life, energy, and momentum to The Marvel Family? While the boy reporter and the World’s Mightiest Mortal were busy with King Kull and the Seven Sins in the October 1952 issue of Captain Marvel Adventures (# 137), Otto Binder set out to answer those questions. How might he, C.C. Beck, and editors Wendell Crowley and Will Lieberson save the fantastic world they’d created for Fawcett Publications? Binder didn’t speak a magic word, but he did the next best thing: he sat down at his typewriter. While Binder may not have succeeded in reviving Captain Marvel’s fortunes, he did leave behind a list of ideas for Beck and

Literature Out Of This World In the early 1950s, Sam Moskowitz, editor for Hugo Gernsback’s magazine ScienceFiction Plus, hired Otto Binder to write new stories under his “Eando Binder” byline. A Binder tale appears in the \March 1953 issue of SFP, which features a painted cover by another comic book legend, Alex Schomburg. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.]

for the Fawcett editors. That typewritten list of ideas, stapled to a copy of a letter Binder had written to a science-fiction editor, survives in the Otto Binder Collection at Texas A&M University’s Cushing Memorial Library and Archives. It has never before been published. This past summer, I requested and read copies of several Binder items of correspondence and manuscripts from Cushing Library… the Memoirs of a Nobody text, various postcards and letters to family and friends, and query letters to magazine publishers. I’d also asked to see Binder’s letters to science-fiction fan and historian Sam Moskowitz. In the early 1950s Moskowitz served as the editor for Science Fiction Plus and asked Binder to contribute new stories under the “Eando Binder” byline, the joint pseudonym Otto and his brother Earl had invented in the 1930s. Moskowitz, according to Bill Schelly’s Words of Wonder, “specifically wanted stories that harkened back to the ‘good old stuff’ like the Eando tales of the 1930s.” Binder and Moskowitz’s friendship was more lasting than the short-lived magazine. As Schelly points out, Binder left most of his papers, notably those concerning his brief career with Otis Adelbert Kline’s literary agency and his work as a science-fiction writer, to Moskowitz. Binder’s letters to Moskowitz offer fascinating insights into the Captain Marvel writer’s creative process. These letters also reveal his pragmatic approach to the comic book and science-fiction markets. As I finished reading the digital scan of Binder’s October 15, 1952, letter to Moskowitz, I found a typewritten list of seven items. Someone, maybe Binder himself, had taken a pencil and

Alter Ego #123