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Roy Thomas’ Hard-charging Comics Fanzine

WOULD YOU BELIEVE...

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ROY THOMAS IN THE ’90s!

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No.139 May 2016

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CROSS PLAINS, TOPPS, DC, & MORE!

Vol. 3, No. 139 / May 2016 Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor)

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Proofreaders Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist & Colorist Rafael Kayanan

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard Ashford Jon Berk Rick Beyer Dominic Bongo Roberto L. Brazziell Eliot R. Brown Frank & Kisara Brunner Rich Buckler John Caputo Shaun Clancy Carla Conway Pete Crowther Tina DeZuniga Sean Dulaney Michael Dunne Shane Foley Ira Friedman Stephan Friedt Nate Furman Janet Gilbert Enrico Guevara Larry Guidry Jay Harford Steve Harford Fred Harper Janis Hendler Jane & Freeman Henry Heritage Comics Auctions

Ed Jaster Rafael Kayanan Jim Kealy Stan Lee Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier Jim Ludwig Fredrik Malmberg Mark Marderosian Ron Marz Pat Mason Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Hoy Murphy Barry Pearl Joe Petrilak David Roach Mike Rockwitz Francis A. Rodriguez Don Rosick Randy Sargent Elizabeth Sayles William Sayles Stanley Taffet Dann Thomas Leona Thomas Maggie Thompson Carol L. Tilley David Tosh Steven G. Willis Jay Zetterberg

Contents Writer/Editorial: On Not Going Gentle Into That Good Night . . 3 Conan, Cthulhu, Cross Plains, Kryptonians, & Cadillacs . . . . 4 Roy Thomas talks to Jim Amash about freelancing in the 1990s – Part 2.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Stanley Taffet Interview . . . . . . 75 Michael T. Gilbert presents Shaun Clancy—and a 1940s comics fan’s nightmare!

Comic Fandom Archive: A Finger In Every Plot!. . . . . . . . . . 81 Bill Schelly & Roy T. showcase Jerry Bails’ 1965 unveiling of Batman co-creator Bill Finger.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 85 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #198 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 P.C. Hamerlinck shines an eerie spotlight on Golden Age artist Ray Harford & the Ghost Army.

On Our Cover: Since some of the most significant artwork on display this time around was done by the incomparable Rafael Kayanan, artist of Marvel’s Conan the Adventurer and art director of the late1990s Cross Plains Comics, we were doubly delighted that we were able to use a beautiful barbarian illustration by him as our cover. It wasn’t specifically drawn to represent Conan the Cimmerian, but it captures the essence of the sword-and-sorcery that is such a major part of this issue of Alter Ego. Thanks for sharing it with us, Raf! [Art © 2016 Rafael Kayanan.] Above: Writer RoyThomas was fortunate to work on some great projects, and with some excellent artists, during the several years he wrote for Topps Comics—but nothing was more sheer fun than Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, adding adventures to the Xenozoic Tales world created by Mark Schultz. And Roy was especially fond of the three-issue “Man-Eater!” series illustrated by Claude St. Aubin & Allen Nunis. These climactic panels are from C&D Vol. 2, #6 (Aug. 1994), as Jack Tenrec desperately tries to save his young pet allosaur, Hermes, from a mutant tyrannosaur. [TM & © Mark Schultz.] 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: $67 US, $85 Canada, $104 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.

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!

EISNER AWARD Winner Best Comics-Related Periodical

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

ALTER EGO #129

ALTER EGO #130

DIEDGITIIOTANSL E

BL AVAILA

ALTER EGO #126

ALTER EGO #127

ALTER EGO #128

Second big issue on 3-D COMICS OF THE 1950s! KEN QUATTRO looks at the controversy involving JOE KUBERT, NORMAN MAURER, BILL GAINES, and AL FELDSTEIN! Plus more fabulous Captain 3-D by SIMON & KIRBY and MORT MESKIN— 3-D thrills from BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, JAY DISBROW and others— the career of Treasure Chest artist VEE QUINTAL, FCA, Mr. Monster, and more!

1940s WILL EISNER/”BUSY” ARNOLD letters between the creator of The Spirit and his Quality Comics partner, art and artifacts by FINE, CRANDALL, CUIDERA, CARDY, KOTZKY, BLUM, NORDLING, and others! Plus Golden Age MLJ artist JOHN BULTHIUS, more of AMY KISTE NYBERG’s History of the Comics Code, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, cover by DANIEL JAMES COX and JASON PAULOS!

CAROL L. TILLEY on Dr. Fredric Wertham’s falsification of his research in the 1950s, featuring art by EVERETT, SHUSTER, PETER, BECK, COSTANZA, WEBB, FELDSTEIN, WILLIAMSON, WOOD, BIRO, and BOB KANE! Plus AMY KISTE NYBERG on the evolution of the Comics Code, FCA, Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLEY, and a new cover by JASON PAULOS and DANIEL JAMES COX!

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

ALTER EGO #131

ALTER EGO #132

ALTER EGO #133

Edgar Rice Burroughs adventure heroes in comics! With art by FOSTER, HOGARTH, MANNING, KANE, KUBERT, MORROW, GRELL, THORNE, WEISS, ANDERSON, KALUTA, AMENDOLA, BUSCEMA, MARSH, and YEATES—with analysis by foremost ERB experts! Plus, the 1970s ERB comics company that nearly was, FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover by TOM GRINDBERG!

CAPTAIN MARVEL headlines a Christmas FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) Fantasmagoria starring C.C. BECK, OTTO BINDER, MARC SWAYZE—and the FAWCETT FAMILY (presented by P.C. HAMERLINCK)! Plus: Comic book/strip star artist DAN BARRY profiled, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more! Cover by C.C. BECK!

GERRY CONWAY interviewed about his work as star Marvel/DC writer in the early ‘70s (from the creation of The Punisher to the death of Gwen Stacy) with art by ROMITA, COLAN, KANE, PLOOG, BUSCEMA, MORROW, TUSKA, ADAMS, SEKOWSKY, the SEVERINS, and others! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more!

75 YEARS of THE FLASH and GREEN LANTERN (a crossover with BACK ISSUE #80)! INFANTINO, KANE, KUBERT, ELIAS, LAMPERT, HIBBARD, NODELL, HASEN, TOTH, REINMAN, SEKOWSKY, Golden Age JSA and Dr. Mid-Nite artist ARTHUR PEDDY’s stepson interviewed, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY on comics fandom history, and more!

Gentleman JIM MOONEY gets a featurelength spotlight, in an in-depth interview conducted by DR. JEFF McLAUGHLIN— never before published! Featuring plenty of rare and unseen MOONEY ART from Batman & Robin, Supergirl, Spider-Man, Legion of Super-Heroes, Tommy Tomorrow, and others! Plus FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

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

ALTER EGO #134

ALTER EGO #135

ALTER EGO #136

ALTER EGO #137

ALTER EGO #138

Celebrates SOL BRODSKY—Fantastic Four #3-4 inker, logo designer, and early Marvel production manager! With tributes by daughter and Marvel colorist JANNA PARKER, STAN LEE, HERB TRIMPE, STAN GOLDBERG, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT, TONY ISABELLA, ROY THOMAS, and others! Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover portrait by JOHN ROMITA!

LEN WEIN (writer/co-creator of Swamp Thing, Human Target, and Wolverine) talks about his early days in comics at DC and Marvel! Art by WRIGHTSON, INFANTINO, TRIMPE, DILLON, CARDY, APARO, THORNE, MOONEY, and others! Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MR. MONSTER’s Comic Crypt, the Comics Code, and DAN BARRY! Cover by DICK GIORDANO with BERNIE WRIGHTSON!

BONUS 100-PAGE issue as ROY THOMAS talks to JIM AMASH about celebrating his 50th year in comics—and especially about the ‘90s at Marvel! Art by TRIMPE, GUICE, RYAN, ROSS, BUCKLER, HOOVER, KAYANAN, BUSCEMA, CHAN, VALENTINO, and others! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’s Comic Crypt, AMY KISTE NYBERG on the Comics Code, and a cover caricature of Roy by MARIE SEVERIN!

Incredible interview with JIM SHOOTER, which chronicles the first decade of his career (Legion of Super-Heroes, Superman, Supergirl, Captain Action) with art by CURT SWAN, WALLY WOOD, GIL KANE, GEORGE PAPP, JIM MOONEY, PETE COSTANZA, WIN MORTIMER, WAYNE BORING, AL PLASTINO, et al.! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more! Cover art by CURT SWAN!

Science-fiction great (and erstwhile comics writer) HARLAN ELLISON talks about Captain Marvel and The Monster Society of Evil! Also, Captain Marvel artist/ co-creator C.C. BECK writes about the infamous Superman-Captain Marvel lawsuit of the 1940s and ‘50s in a double-size FCA section! Plus two titanic tributes to Golden Age artist FRED KIDA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

(100 FULL-COLOR pages) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95

(84 FULL-COLOR pages) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95

Article Title Topline writer/editorial

On Not Going Gentle Into That Good Night

ot really a lot I can say re this second half of Jim Amash’s interview with me on my 1990s comics writing—except to observe that, looking back, I feel I’d gotten better at my craft… but that turned out not to be the point.

I’m well aware that my 1960s-70s work at Marvel—however secondary to Stan Lee’s accomplishments—is better remembered than my ’80s DC work on All-Star Squadron, etc., which in turn had more impact than my ’90s Marvel scripting on Conan, Avengers West Coast, et al., at a time when Alan Moore, Frank Miller, and a few other very talented guys had sent comics careening off in directions where I wouldn’t have cared to follow even if I could’ve. I suppose that’s inevitable. When I entered the field in 1965, there were just a few super-hero writers of importance—Stan, Gardner Fox, John Broome, maybe Arnold Drake and a couple of “Superman” scribes. By 1990, the field was more crowded, both with newcomers and with the rest of the aging Bronze Age crowd. Besides which, I admit, by the late ’70s I’d lost much of my interest in writing comics for commercial purposes, even if I still loved the genre and the subject matter. My work had to read as if aimed at readers younger than my own nigh-40 years… but it really wasn’t. After my first stint on Conan had opened me up to new possibilities, The Invaders had become my first stab at doing a comic purely because I wanted to, not because I foresaw huge sales. By then, I just wanted to write what I wanted to write; I wanted readers to follow my interests, not vice versa. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. In the end, that contributed to my becoming more marginalized. All-Star Squadron was never a huge hit after the first year or so; Arak, Son of Thunder, with its mix of sword-&-sorcery and history, was pre-destined not to be as big as Conan. When I returned to Marvel in the late ’80s, I became a utility outfielder, given Dr. Strange when another team ran out of steam… offered Avengers West Coast when John Byrne split… plugged into F.F. Unlimited when the original writer walked. Much

of that work is, I feel, in terms of pure writing, heads and shoulders above what I did the first time around… but in the ’90s I was no longer leading the majority of 20-something readers in a direction they wanted to go… nor had I any real interest in the roads they were taking… so I consider myself just lucky to have stayed fully employed in the field through age 60, with decreased forays since then. If I had it all to do over again, I’m not sure I’d do it differently. If I don’t care to read the so-called “dark” comics that’ve trended since the 1980s, why (except for money—always an acceptable motive, I’ll admit) would I want to write them, even if I could get my mind around it? So I veered off into a second incarnation of Alter Ego, which plays to my mutual loves of comics and history… I was fortunate to drop a line to Stan just when he was looking for someone to work with him on the Spider-Man newspaper strip… and my earlier key position in the field made me viable for being offered the opportunity to write the occasional book about comics. Would I love to write a monthly comic again? Sure, long as I could do it my way, with just a nod to changed tastes. Invaders… All-Star Squadron… Conan… even some modern-day hero, if the editor and I were in synch (meaning: doing it not just his/her way, but our way). Meanwhile, I’ve got a few new series ideas on my plate, just awaiting the time to develop and market them. But, failing that… well, for me, Alter Ego and the historical books are their own reward… my own equivalent of a once-bestselling author teaching writing at a university in his later years. There’ve been enough career high points along the way… maybe not a multitude of them, but a few, anyway… that I don’t feel the need to apologize for not catering to the needs and tastes of 21st-century readers any more than they feel like catering to mine. Now, if they happen to like what I want to do… that’s something else entirely. Bestest,

COMING IN MAY

140

IRWIN HASEN

THE LITTLE GIANT OF COMICS’ GOLDEN AGE!

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• Classic Justice Society cover by HASEN, as adapted by SHANE FOLEY! • A titanic transcription of Irwin – A New York Story, DAN MAKARA’s documentary film about the late great IRWIN HASEN, artist of 1940s Green Lantern, JSA, Wildcat, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Johnny Thunder, Sargon the Sorcerer, Cat-Man, Green Hornet—and co-creator/artist of the venerated 1955-83 comic strip Dondi—with added art & artifacts by CARMINE INFANTINO, ALEX TOTH, JOE KUBERT, IRV NOVICK, JULIUS SCHWARTZ, ROY CRANE, JULES FEIFFER, GUS EDSON, et al.! • Plus FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America] with RAY HARFORD & the WWII Ghost Army, Part 2—MICHAEL T. GILBERT presents SHAUN CLANCY tracking down the origins of MLJ’s Black Jack—BILL SCHELLY on G.B. LOVE, cont’d—& MORE!!

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Conan, Cthulhu, Cross Plains, Kryptonians, & Cadillacs (Or, “You’ve Got To Play All The Cards You’re Dealt!”)

ROY THOMAS On Freelancing In The 1990s – Part 2 Interview Conducted by Jim Amash Transcribed by Brian K. Morris & Sean Dulaney

High Five Roy Thomas and his 1990s muse, Gonzo the aracari (smaller kin to a toucan—photo by Dann Thomas)—floating above pages RT scripted for the five comics referred to in the title above. (Left to right, onto bottom row of facing page:) Marvel Comics’ Conan the Adventurer #13 (June 1995)—pencils by Rafael Kayanan; inks by John Floyd. This Robert E. Howard-based series took place before and during events chronicled in early-’70s issues of Conan the Barbarian. [® & © Conan Properties International LLC.] Millennium Publications’ H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu: The Festival, Book One (1993, no month)—art by Brian Bendis; co-scripting by Jean-Marc Lofficier as “R.J.M. Lofficier.” This final page introduces an HPL protagonist made notorious by Stuart Gordon’s 1985 cult film Re-Animator. [© Millennium Publications.] Cross Plains Comics’ Red Sonja: A Death in Scarlet (1999, no month or number)—art by Steve Lightle. Set early in the career of the swordwoman developed by Roy and others from a one-shot Howard heroine. [TM & © Red Sonja Properties, Inc.] [continued on facing page]

NTERVIEWEE’S INTRO: Once again, Ye Ever-Ebullient Editor welcomes you, on behalf of interrogator Jim Amash and myself, to the second half of our (admittedly somewhat one-sided) conversation recorded in 2015, picking up here where A/E #136 left off. In Part I, the talk centered around my late-1980s and 1990s freelance writing for Pacific, First, Heroic, TSR, Dark Horse, and Marvel’s superhero titles. That left, for this issue, the various Conan comics published by Marvel during the ’90s before it relinquished its licenses on Conan, Kull, Solomon Kane, and Red Sonja—plus Stan Lee’s neverrealized Excelsior line for Marvel—as well as Cross Plains Comics, the new company that picked up Sonja and some “lesser” Robert E. Howard characters; Topps, the bubble-gum and trading-card giant that took a nigh-decade-long fling in the four-color field; DC Comics, for whom I wrote a handful of graphic novels starring major heroes; Millennium, with its H.P. Lovecraft connection—and a couple of other small companies for which I did one or two things. Continuing from the talk about Marvel superheroes in Part I, we begin this time with…

The Foley Follies A pair of on-target Shane Foley cartoons to get things rolling: (Left:) Interviewer Jim Amash as Shamash-Shum-Ukin at the Well at the Center of Time, from Savage Sword of Conan #7 (Aug. 1975). (Right:) Shane sent this sketch as a cover idea for A/E #136. Roy and layout guru Chris Day ran with the idea—though minus Conan, since he’d be covered in this issue. [Conan ® & © Conan Properties International LLC.; other art © 2016 Shane Foley.]

(Above left:) DC Comics’ 1999 graphic novel Superman: War of the Worlds – art by Michael Lark. An Elseworlds adventure pitting the Man of Tomorrow against H.G. Wells’ malevolent Martians. [TM & © DC Comics.] (Above right:) Topps Comics’ Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Vol. 2, #2 (March 1994)—art by Dick Giordano. Roy christened this dino a “gaberlunzie” (it means “wandering beggar”), named for a group of teenage slackers—Roy, fellow future comics scribe Gary Friedrich, and several others—who tooled around together in Jackson, Missouri, in the late ’50s. Circa 1962, it became the name of Gary’s rock ’n’ roll band, in which Roy was vocalist. [TM & © Mark Schultz.]

Roy Thomas On Freelancing In The 1990s—Part 2

It’s In The Cards! Alter Ego #136, in which the first half of this Amash/Thomas interview saw print, also dealt with Roy’s first half-century in comics (1965-2015) and with his 75th birthday last November 22—so Ye Editor thought it not inappropriate to print a pair of hand-drawn birthday greetings he received from a couple of A/E regulars and friends. (On this page:) Artist Frank Brunner and his lovely wife Kisara sent Roy a card emblazoned with original, colored cover art by Frank of Dr. Strange (whose exploits he chronicled with writer Steve Englehart under editor RT in the early ’70s)—plus inside art of Red Sonja, whom Frank has drawn on covers. The photo was taken at Sea World in San Diego in 2013. [Dr. Strange TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Red Sonja TM & © Red Sonja Properties, Inc.] Frank’s now accepting art commission for covers, splash panels, or pin-up recreations; minimum order $150. Visit his website at www.frankbrunner.net

Kisara & Frank Brunner

Conan, Cthulhu, Cross Plains, Kryptonians, & Cadillacs

(On this page:) Shane Foley of Australia, who so ably does “maskot” and other illos for A/E, created a birthday card with art on all four sides. [Hawkman, Atom, Arak, Flying Fox, & Valda TM & © DC Comics; Scarlet Witch, Union Jack, & Ultron TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Conan ® & © Conan Properties International LLC; Alter Ego hero TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas & Ron Harris; Red Sonja TM & © Red Sonja Properties, Inc.; Captain Thunder TM & © Roy & Dann Thomas.] It’s impossible for Roy to thank Frank and Shane enough for all the effort they put into these wonderful cards! He and Dann would love to frame them—but that would mean that one or more drawings would always be facing a wall!

Shane Foley

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Introduction by Michael T. Gilbert

ometimes I’d find a name on an old Golden Age comic’s letters page and think, “Wonder what ever happened to that kid?” Or I’d spot some young contest-winner’s photo from decades past and wonder what was it like to be published in a comic book way back when.

Well, Shaun Clancy did more than wonder. He tracked down one of the kids seventy years later and asked him. Stanley Taffet was that boy, and his story includes an EC-style shock ending you won’t want to miss! And now, without further ado, we present...

Stanley Taffet Interview by Shaun Clancy (2/4/11) SHAUN CLANCY: This is gonna be a weird phone call for you, but I found your name in an “Archie” comic book from 1943. Did you collect comics as a child? STANLEY TAFFET: Yes. SC: The reason I bring that up is you supposedly won the Top Notch Laugh #36 contest. In it, they drew your picture. TAFFET: Right.

A Top Notch Entry! Top Notch Laugh Comics #36 (May 1943) printed Stan Taffet’s portrait (see next page). Art by Don Dean. The hyphen in “Top-Notch,” incidentally, never appeared in the comic’s indicia. [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

SC: So, you do remember this? TAFFET: I was eleven years old at the time. SC: I’m writing a book on Archie comics and I wanted to see if the people they mention inside here are real people or not. You’re the first person on my list to call, and the only Stanley Taffet in the phone book. TAFFET: Taffet is an unusual name. When I was a kid, I used to read comic books avidly. SC: You remember this particular comic book after all these years because… TAFFET: Yes, because I won the contest. I remember I entered the contest and sent a little postage-stamp-sized photo, and I ran with my mother to the newsstand to pick up this comic book. It was called the Readers Page, if I recall. I went to that page and I’m looking down at the bottom of the page and said, “Ma, it’s not here. My picture’s not here.” And she said, “Of course not. It’s on top of the page. You won it.” [mutual laughter] SC: Did you see the picture they drew of you?

TAFFET: Now wait a minute. That picture was a photo, but enlarged rather than the postage stamp and my essay.

Stanley Taffet Interview

Hey, Ma! I’m Famous! Stan believes that, after he won the MLJ contest, he used the original art from this “Red” Holmdale portrait as a dartboard! From Top Notch Laugh Comics #36 (May 1943). [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

SC: Did girls send you their pictures? TAFFET: About 95% were girls, because I was eleven years old at the time, but the picture showed I had a jacket on with the collar up. I looked like I was seventeen. The ones I wrote to, I said, “I’m not as old as I look. I’m eleven years old.” I never heard from them again. [mutual laughter] SC: How long after the comic came out did the picture show up in the mail? TAFFET: Maybe months later. SC: And you never wrote to them again, right? TAFFET: No. SC: Did your friends also submit ones and not win? TAFFET: No.

Winners Galore! (Above:) Here’s another contest winner, Carl Oscar Graves, as drawn by Paul Reinman for Top Notch Laugh Comics #34 (March.1943). I don’t know which character he voted for, but it was Archie Andrews who eventually won the company’s popularity contest… surprise, surprise! [TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

[E-mail follow-up:] SC: Here’s the drawing of you in the following issue! Here’s where you actually won the contest. TAFFET: I can’t thank you enough for the Top Notch photos and drawing of me. Please keep in touch… I want to read that book. SC: Here’s the comic book cover to help identify it. TAFFET: Thank you for this beautiful piece of nostalgia. The End

Ch-Ch-Changes! Top Notch Comics #1 (Dec. 1939) featured an Edd Ashe cover that showcased The Wizard. By issue #28 (July 1942) the mag had morphed into Top Notch Laugh Comics, featuring mainly humor strips (with The Black Hood tagging along for the ride!). From issue #46 to #48 (Summer to Winter 1944), it changed into Laugh Comix (yes, with an “x”), starring Archie’s also-ran predecessor, Wilbur Wilkin. Then Archie himself took over when the title became Laugh Comics in Fall 1946—with Laugh Comics #20 (not #49!) becoming the first issue in the new series, since the company chose to continue the numbering not from the previous series but from Black Hood comics! See why these things drive collectors crazy? [TM & © Archie Comic Publications.]

Our thanks to Mr. Stanley Taffet for sharing his memories, and to Mr. Shaun Clancy for some... er... Top Notch detective work. Mr. Taffet went on to an acting career. And while it’s sad that the Archie contest ended so badly for young Stanley, getting left back inspired the boy to take school a lot more seriously. Darned if it doesn’t sound like a typical “Archie” plot! Till next time...

A Comic Fandom Archive Special

A FINGER In Every Plot! The 1965 JERRY G. BAILS Article That First Pointed A Finger At The Co-Creator Of Batman Guest Introduction by Roy Thomas – Presented by Bill Schelly

n the September 15, 2015, edition of The Hollywood Reporter, DC Entertainment stunned any comics fans who read that entertainment-industry trade paper by announcing that, beginning with the Warner Bros. TV series Gotham and the forthcoming film Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, Bill Finger would receive credit for his “contributions” to Batman, whom DC has long heralded as having been created solely by artist Bob Kane.

referred to him as “the unindicted co-conspirator in the 1939 creation of Batman, working with originator/artist Bob Kane”; but even if that’s true, it was at most a minor milestone along the way… the amazing thing being, perhaps, that that phrase made it into print! Probably just slipped by.)

dunno—that the first time Finger was acknowledged in anything like that role in a publication from DC Comics itself was in my introduction to the 2005 hardcover The Robin Archives, Vol. 1, where I

Recently, however, CFA editor Bill Schelly and I realized that, although Bill had quoted from Jerry’s article when spotlighting Kane’s letter, Alter Ego itself had never reprinted Jerry’s simple two-page piece that started the ball rolling for the eventual recognition of Bill Finger’s rightful place as the co-creator of Batman.

Happily, some of those same sources that tipped the hat to Nobleman and Barr That announcement have also pointed out left in limbo, however, that this “movement” the question of when— really began in 1965, or if—Finger, who died when Jerry G. Bails, the on January 18, 1974, original editor/ would receive similar publisher of Alter Ego, credit on DC’s Batmanprinted his article “If related comic books. the Truth Be Known, or, ‘A Finger in Every Happily, not many Plot!’” It appeared in weeks afterward, though the 12th issue of his accompanied by no spirit-duplicator apa fanfare whatsoever, (amateur press alliance) Finger was given a “cofanzine CAPA-alpha, creator” byline in the soon after the night comic books Batman and Jerry, Dave Kaler, and I Robin Eternal #3 and visited Bill in his Batman: Arkham Knight Greenwich Village Genesis #3, with more to apartment at the time of follow. Hurrah! the 1965 New York You Can’t Draw Drawing! comics convention— While not in any way claiming that Bob Kane wasn’t the co-creator of Batman, we’re overjoyed Various sources have and instantly aroused to see Bill Finger finally receiving his overdue credit. If not for Finger, Kane wouldn’t have had rightly given some of the the wrath of Bob Kane. anything to draw in this undated Batman and Robin sketch, which was sold several years ago credit for this dramatic by Heritage Comics Auctions. Thanks to Dominic Bongo. [Batman & Robin TM & © DC Comics.] Kane wrote a seething turnabout (I’m tempted 6-page letter that Biljo to call it a “dawn of White felt obliged to print later in ’65 in his own fanzine, Batmania. justice”) to Marc Tyler Nobleman’s recent and excellent book Bill In the winter of 1999, Kane’s vitriolic letter was reprinted in full in the Boy Wonder, as well as to veteran comics writer (and then DC Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #3 (which was a flip section of Comic Book Artist staffer) Mike W. Barr, who back in the 1980s aroused the wrath of V1#3), then later in the TwoMorrows trade paperback Alter Ego: his so-called superiors by championing the cause of recognizing The Comic Book Artist Collection. In A/E V2#5, also reprinted in that Finger as Batman’s co-creator. (Someone told me—rightly or Collection, we featured Jerry’s lengthy rebuttal to Kane’s screed. wrongly, I

Bob Kane

Bill Finger

We hereby remedy that situation on the following two pages, by reproducing that article from scans of the actual pages of CAPAalpha [k-a] #12. Jerry made a couple of errors in his recounting, but the appeal nonetheless stands as a landmark in the history of comic books….

The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books 1928-1999 Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com – No password required

Sonja reminds us all why she’s called the “She-Devil with a Sword” in Red Sonja: A Death in Scarlet, from Cross Plains Comics (1999) Script by Roy Thomas; art by Steve Lightle. [TM & © Red Sonja Properties, Inc.]

Fawcett Artist RAY HARFORD & The Ghost Army Part I – From Binder Barn To Battle by P.C. Hamerlinck

C.C.

Beck called him the closest of any of the Fawcett artists to matching his art style.

Ray Harford was one of the integral Fawcett comic book artists who had a hand in pre-war “Captain Marvel” artwork, and later he went on to use those same artistic abilities to dupe the enemy in a top-secret Army unit during World War II.

Pratt Pals Raymond Dell Harford was born on July 21, 1920, in the Paramus, New Jersey, area. He enrolled at Pratt Institute, located in Brooklyn, New York, to study illustration, beginning in the autumn of 1938. It was there that Harford met friends Bob Boyajian, Vic Dowd, and Ken Bald. Harford’s new classmates were also studying illustration. They would soon refer to themselves as “The Four Musketeers.”

Rays Of Hope Ray Harford in 1942, with his ever-present pipe, working at Fawcett Publications illustrating a “Captain Marvel” story (specifically, page 24 from America’s Greatest Comics #3, for which see p. 94). Seen at left are Harford’s cover for America’s Greatest Comics #4, (Aug.-Nov. 1942), along with a scan of his original black-&-white art. [Shazam hero, Spy Smasher, & Bulletman TM & © DC Comics.]

Alter Ego #139