Alter Ego #142 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Conventional Comics Fanzine

SUPER-FAN DAVID SIEGEL ON BRINGING HORDES OF

GOLDEN AGE ARTISTS TO SAN DIEGO!

8.95

In the USA

No.142 SEPT. 2016

STARRING:

RAMONA FRADON CHAD GROTHKOPF HARRY LAMPERT CHUCK CUIDERA SHELDON MOLDOFF CREIG FLESSEL

All hero art TM & © DC Comics.

& MORE!

PLUS: HOW SILVER AGE STAR

JOHN BROOME

GOT TO THE CON! 1

82658 00056

Vol. 3, No. 142 / September 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 Artists

Chuck Cuidera, Creig Flessel, Ramona Fradon, Chad Grothkopf, Harry Lampert, & Sheldon Moldoff

Cover Colorist

Tom Ziuko, et al.

With Special Thanks to:

Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Ger Apeldoorn Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey John Benson Jon Berk Dominic Bongo Alan Brennert Gary F. Brown Robert Brown Bernie Bubnis Mike Burkey Larry Byrd Bill Cain Mark Cannon Dewey Cassell Bob Cherry Shaun Clancy Pierre Comtois Chet Cox Gerry Conway Brian Cronin Craig Delich John Ellis Jim Engel Shane Foley John Gentil Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database Bob Greenberger Arnie Grieves Larry Guidry Heritage Comics Bob Hughes Dave Hunt Tony Isabella Charlie Jackam

Eric Jansen Michael W. Kaluta Jim Kealy Jay Kinney Henry Kujawa Tim Lapslay Robert Lorick Mark Lewis Alan Light Robert Lorick Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Mark Luebker Doug Martin Bruce Mason Robert Menzies Kenneth Moldoff Matt Moring Ron Murphy Jim Murtagh Nick Perks John G. Pierce Jay Piscopo Charlie & Joan Roberts Randy Sargent Vince Schmitt David Siegel Howard Siegel Keif Simon Anthony Snyder Scott Stewart Dann Thomas Paul Trumbull John Trumble Jim Van Hise Michael Vance Joe Wise

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Alan Kupperberg,Frederick Hillel Iger, Dexter Taylor, & Rich Morrissey

Contents Writer/Editorial: Fans & Prose & Cons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Tracker Of The Golden Age Artists! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

David Siegel talks to Richard Arndt about getting 1940s artists to the San Diego Comic-Con.

Clean Sweep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 Rich Morrissey on how Golden/Silver Age legend John Broome got to San Diego in 1998.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Fatman, The Lost Issue (Part 2). . 45 Michael T. Gilbert takes a look at Lightning Comics’ Human Flying Saucer.

Comic Fandom Archive: RBCC ’s Last Great Days – Jim Van Hise, Part II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Bill Schelly presents Part 6 of a salute to G.B. Love & his important comics adzine.

Tributes: Alan Kupperberg, Frederick Hillel Iger, & Dexter Taylor . . 61 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 65 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #201 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck & John G. Pierce postulate a Shazam! revival published by—Marvel Comics?

On Our Cover: Since this issue’s lead interview is with David Siegel, the comics fan who made it his special mission for a decade and a half to find a way to get legendary 1940s/50s artists invited as guests to the San Diego Comic-Con, layout supervisor Chris Day, publisher John Morrow, and I decided to utilize the work of six artists in a miraculous montage: The Flash by Harry Lampert, Blackhawk by Charles “Chuck” Cuidera, Batman by Sheldon Moldoff, The Sandman by Creig Flessel, Aquaman by Ramona Fradon, and Captain Marvel Bunny by Chad Grothkopf. But they’re only the tip of an incredible iceberg of Golden Age talent awaiting you this time around. [Characters TM & © DC Comics.] Above: One very special guest that Rich Morrissey, Dave Siegel, and others managed to bring to the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con, for his one and only comics convention appearance ever, was Golden/Silver Age writer John Broome. Pictured above are panels from the first story of the new “Flash” that Broome ever wrote—the second tale in Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956), penciled by Carmine Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert. Reproduced from the hardcover The Flash Archives, Vol. 1. [TM & © DC Comics.]

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.

writer/editorial

Fans & Prose & Cons

or once, the focus of an issue is divided almost equally between fans and pros—and the principal interface between them in these pages is, as it has so often been in reality, the comics conventions that over the past half-century have become a prominent part of the landscape. It began with Bernie Bubnis and his fandom friends getting Steve Ditko, Tom Gill, Flo Steinberg, and a now-faceless Marvel “intern” to attend that first true comics con in 1964. The next year, Dave Kaler—who would himself soon enter the pro ranks as a scripter on Charlton’s Captain Atom—upped the ante by getting a dozen or so comics artists, writers, and editors to attend, with many of them taking part in severalperson panels that helped set the tone for future gatherings.

Other New York (and out-of-state, such as Detroit) cons soon followed, and in 1970 the San Diego Comic-Con was founded by Shel Dorf and associates, heralding the beginning of the end of the Big Apple’s dominance in that arena, at a time when the comics industry itself still remained mostly centered in Manhattan. Then, nearly three decades ago, even as it was becoming apparent to anyone who paid attention that the first generation of comic book creators were beginning to pass from the scene, David Siegel (as well as Rich Morrissey and a number of other dedicated fans, many of them mentioned in this issue) began to move heaven and Earth to see to it that honor was done to these pioneering giants while they were still around to enjoy it. It’s a story that manifestly deserved to be told, as Dave, Rich, and interviewer Richard Arndt do in these pages… and the fact that it gave us a chance to feature photos and artwork of so many Golden Age pros was just the icing on the four-color cake. We owe those “super-fans”—and a bunch of people like them— a debt of gratitude. Had they not done what they did, when they did, an opportunity would have been missed for all time.

Switching subjects: when I was a comics fan just starting to publish my own edition of Alter Ego back in 1964, I was lucky enough to establish contact with one of the most important writers of the Golden Age—Otto O. (“Eando”) Binder. Otto was every bit as generous with his help and encouragement as Julie Schwartz and Gardner Fox, A/E’s other two “patron saints,” sending private photos and unpublished scripts and comic strips (including six dailies of Mr. Tawny Tiger) that helped elevate the tone and historical tenor of the zine. In the 1930s, Otto had been a well-respected and groundbreaking science-fiction writer… in the ’40s he had become the most important of the writers of Fawcett’s “Captain Marvel” and “Marvel Family”… and in the latter ’50s he had transmuted himself into a valuable scribe of “Superman,” “Supergirl,” and the like. In 2003, Bill Schelly—moderator of the “Comic Fandom Archive” segment in most issues of A/E—wrote a critically acclaimed (and rightly so) biography of Binder, published by his own Hamster Press. Its smallish print run soon sold out, even though the book was neither profusely illustrated nor about a prominent artist. (Indeed, Otto had only rarely received a byline on any of his comics stories. He gained his well-deserved reputation by word-of-mouth, just as Carl “the good Duck artist” Barks did.) Now, happily, Bill’s tome is back in print from North Atlantic Books, under a new title: Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary. (See ad on p. 59.) Do yourself a favor and buy it. Bill has written two invaluable comics-related biographies since, with Joe Kubert and Harvey Kurtzman as his worthy subjects… but his Binder book deserves to be as widely read and celebrated as either of those. Otto Binder was indeed a visionary… and no one could have told his story better than Bill Schelly has done! Bestest,

COMING IN OCTOBER

143

DON GLUT

Art © Random House, Inc.,

Sorcery At Gold Key—Horror At Warren— Super-Heroes At Marvel!

ia, LLC, under license to Classic Med holders. or the respective copyright

• DON GLUT tells RICHARD ARNDT all about his Silver/Bronze Age comic book work— and some of the most far-out amateur super-hero films ever! The Occult Files of Doctor Spektor—Dagar the Invincible—Twilight Zone—Tragg and the Sky Gods—Creepy— Vampirella—Captain America—The Invaders—What If—Kull the Destroyer, etc.! Art by SAL BUSCEMA • ESTEBAN MAROTO • RUDY NEBRES • HERB TRIMPE • GEORGE TUSKA • ALAN KUPPERBERG • JESSE SANTOS • CHIC STONE • ERNIE CHAN, et al.! • SAL AMENDOLA & ROY THOMAS present a very informal history of the Academy of Comic Book Arts, the 1970s association of comics pros—with photos of STAN LEE, NEAL ADAMS, DICK GIORDANO, ARCHIE GOODWIN, JOE ORLANDO, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, and more of comics’ heaviest Silver Age hitters! • Plus FCA—MICHAEL T. GILBERT—& MORE!!

TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

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The Tracker Of The Golden Age Artists!

An Interview With Super-Fan DAVID SIEGEL Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: David Siegel is and has been for many years a taxi-cab driver—but he is also an enthusiastic comics fan who, beginning in the late 1980s, made it his mission to track down, invite, and find the financial means to bring long-missing Golden and Silver Age artists to the San Diego Comic-Con. Without use of the Internet, without belonging to any of the San Diego Comic-Con committees, and despite living on the opposite side of the country from many of the artists and writers for whom he searched, Siegel’s efforts between 1987 and 2005 located dozens of Golden Age greats, allowing the formation of many greatly enjoyed and wellattended panels done

at San Diego, hosted by, among others, Ron Goulart and Mark Evanier. For many of the artists whom Siegel found, it became their first convention appearance and brought the realization that they actually had fans for their decades-old work. Siegel received an Inkpot Award for his efforts in 1996, despite never having written or drawn a comic book. He also was involved in getting guests to WonderCon (in the San Francisco Bay area), and helped organize one of the largest Berndt Toast cartoonist meetings ever. I found Dave Siegel to be a very enthusiastic and dedicated fan and greatly enjoyed talking to him. This interview was conducted in Dave’s home in Las Vegas on May 16, 2015....

Siegel Surrounded! David Siegel as he likes it best—surrounded by talented cartoonists, some of whom he helped bring to the San Diego Comic-Con, and by comic art by two iconic illustrators. (Left to right in undated main photo:) Dave… Gill Fox (Quality Comics editor & cover artist)… Creig Flessel (Sandman)… Chad Grothkopf (Hoppy the Marvel Bunny)… Fred Schwab (many cartoons, including the cover of the 1939 Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1)… Bob Weber (1960s comic strip Moose and Molly)… Vin Sullivan (cartoonist who edited Action Comics #1 and Detective Comics #27, later founded both Columbia Comics and Magazine Enterprises). Thanks to DS and Charlie Roberts for the 1990s photo. Below that image are photos of the San Diego Convention Center, all decked out for the Comi-Con—and two primo pieces of comic art that hang in Dave’s Las Vegas home: Batman and Robin by Bob Kane, and Captain America by Jack Kirby—a pair of artistic giants who’d hardly have needed Dave’s help and encouragement to get to San Diego. But lots of others did—and it’s a story well worth the telling! Pics by Richard Arndt. [Batman & Robin TM & © DC Comics; Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

An Interview With Super-Fan David Siegel

“The First [Comic Book Convention] I Attended Was Back In 1977”

“Wayne Boring Had Never Been To San Diego”

RICHARD ARNDT: David, let’s start out with some remarks on your early life—where you came from, how your interest in comics came about.

RA: So that explains your love for comic-cons, as well. What got you started looking for the Golden Age artists?

DAVID SIEGEL: I was born in Los Angeles. In 1962 I started going over to my cousin’s house. He was much older than I was, but he let me look at his comic books. He was a huge DC fan, so that sort of rubbed off on me. The influence of DC on me was huge. That redone cover behind your head for Batman Annual #7 (Summer 1964) by Sheldon Moldoff, which he did as a commission for me, was one of the covers that just fascinated me. In 1964 I bought my own very first comic book, an issue of The Flash, and that got me started as a big reader of comics. [chuckles] That never left me.

SIEGEL: Way back in 1985, former “Superman” artist Wayne Boring was doing commissions. I happened to look in one of the San Diego souvenir convention books, where they listed all the Inkpot winners, and it dawned on me that Wayne Boring had never been to San Diego or won an Inkpot Award. I had a very good friend named Mark Stadler, who was involved with the Comic-Con there, although I’m not certain now what title, if any, he had. I asked him if he could bring up the name of Wayne Boring to the committee that invited guests for 1986’s con.

RA: When did you go to your first comic book convention?

He did that for me, and the Comic-Con refused. They didn’t give a reason for the refusal. Boring passed away in February of 1987. If they’d invited him, he could at least have had the honor of being invited to the San Diego Comic-Con, even if he couldn’t have attended. That made me very angry inside. I swore that I was

SIEGEL: The first show I attended was back in 1977. It was a small one, out in Los Angeles. I remember it was in the Marriott—on Century Boulevard by LAX [L.A. Airport]. I followed that up by attending a Star Trek convention later that same year, and I was hooked! There was a comic book dealer there by the name of Irving Bigman who had all these cool Golden Age comics that I started wheeling and dealing for. He had a son, Larry, who was also a big comic book fan. Larry, in later years, became an advisor for the Overstreet Price Guide. I bought a fair chunk of his Golden Age collection when he was selling it. I visited my first comic book store in 1974, and there were Golden Age books there, as well. There were influences all around at the time. In 1979 I finally had the money to attend my first San Diego [Comic]Con. The Con was established in 1970, and while it wasn’t anything like what Wayne Boring. it has become, it was still the biggest West Coast comics convention. That was the first time I really talked to comic book artists. I talked to Jim Steranko, who told me his all-time favorite comic book character was Captain America. The most exciting thing for me, though, was meeting Jack Kirby. I thought that maybe he’d be interested in doing an art piece for me. He told me I had to talk to his wife Roz, so I went over and found out that Jack and Roz lived in Thousand Oaks, which was only a thirty-minute drive from my home. The end result was them inviting me to come over to their house to talk about the commission. So, after the Con, I went up to his house to work out the deal for the art piece. Like Steranko, my all-time favorite Kirby character was Captain America. So I wanted Cap, and I’d always liked Baron Zemo. Kirby suggested adding The Red Skull, and the result was that piece on the wall. [NOTE: As seen on p. 3. —RA.] Talking with Jack while I was sitting in his combination living room/drawing room made me want to pinch myself. What was I doing here? We talked about New York. We both loved Jewish delicatessens. We made a connection there, talking about delis. [laughs] The initial price of the piece was to be $300, but it ended up $50 more for the color.

Look! Up In That Comic Book! The “Superman” splash page from Action Comics #342 (Oct. 1966), penciled and inked by Wayne Boring; script by Jim Shooter. Throughout the 1950s and into the ’60s, before being gradually replaced by Curt Swan, Boring had been the Man of Steel’s most important penciler. He’d started out in 1939-40, ghosting the Superman newspaper strip for creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. It was the disinclination of the San Diego Comic-Con to invite Boring to be a guest in 1986 that led Dave to begin his personal crusade to find ways to bring Golden Age artists to the con. Thanks to Doug Martin. [TM & © DC Comics.]

The Tracker Of The Golden Age Artists

Comics Cast & Crew (From Above Left): One of Dave’s favorite photos shows him flanked by artist Creig Flessel and his wife Marie on the left, and by his friends Charlie and Joan Roberts on the right, at a WonderCon, circa 2004. Charlie Roberts is an active fan and collector, who took a number of the pics that accompany this interview. For more about Creig Flessel, see A/E #45—and read on in this issue! Thanks to DS. Shel Dorf, one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con, pictured at the con in 1982. Photo by Alan Light. Jerry G. Bails in 1997, courtesy of Bill Schelly. In 1961 he’d founded both Alter Ego and, in a sense, super-hero comics fandom—and in the 1970s he’d published and edited the original print edition of the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, which was co-edited by Hames Ware.

going to do whatever I could to prevent that from happening to other people. I wanted to make a difference out there. I wanted to change the course that the Comic-Con committee was on. Like the old saying goes, “If you want to get something done, you’ve got to do it yourself.” Believe me, everything I wanted to do was going to be my way. The first thing I had to do was learn how Comic-Con worked. This is where planning comes to play. I had to work this thing out, find out what I had to understand. Mark Stadler was a huge help in this. He and another gentleman on the committee, by the name of Barry Short, explained to me how the basics worked. I found out that the organization was made up of different committees and so on. It took me a year or more to process. The other thing was how to figure out how to actually find artists. There was no Internet. Many of these people I wanted to find had left the comics industry years, even decades, earlier. The comics companies had no idea where these people might be. My friend Charlie Roberts introduced me to Shel Dorf, who was one of the co-founders of the San Diego Comic-Con. I explained my concept to him and asked where one could find Golden Age artists. Well, Shel was friends with Dr. Jerry Bails, who’d written the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, and probably knew more about comic book artists than I ever would. I asked Shel if I could contact Jerry Bails, because he knew where everybody was at. I was really trying to do the opposite of what everyone else in comics fandom was doing at the time. Most of these people were writing articles and reviews of comics, mostly current comics, and that was not my forte. I’m not a writer. I wanted to do the flipside of what comics fandom was doing. They were writing their opinions of the comics, but I wanted to see the human side of the comics. I wanted to actually bring the creators to Comic-Con. I was an admirer of Phil Seuling’s East Coast conventions, and I’d read how he’d brought artists of the Golden Age to his shows. However, I had no guide of who Seuling had invited to his cons, so my own

guide became that list of Inkpot Award winners. My goal was not to repeat people who’d already been to San Diego. I wanted to get people who’d never been there before. There was a time-frame to consider as well. I was dealing with artists, many of whom had been born before 1920, who would have age problems, health problems, economic problems, so I realized that I was racing against the clock. These people were very much a senior crowd. I wanted to honor as many of them as possible. So Shel Dorf got me in contact with Dr. Jerry Bails and I got to talk to him on the phone to explain my plan. Jerry Bails sent me a page of addresses. At this point, after studying how the committees worked and such, it was 1990, and I was preparing possible guests for the 1991 Comic-Con. I had concluded that if I had to join any of the committees it would be, for me, a nightmare. It would take up a lot of time that I needed for searching and I felt that I would be dealing with people who might not understand or care for what I was doing. I wasn’t looking for contemporary artists. I was digging into the past for the first generation of comic artists. Many comic fans can’t really deal with that.

“[Sheldon Moldoff] Was A Giant Of The Golden Age” RA: Partly because they don’t actually know the history, and partly because for many readers comics history started when they personally picked up their first comic… SIEGEL: Exactly. It became detective work in a way as to who was still out there and who I could find. The very first artist I tried to contact from that list was George Papp, an artist I admired very much. Papp was best known for his 1960s work on Superboy, but in the 1940s he co-created “Green Arrow and Speedy” with Mort Weisinger in More Fun Comics.

Clean Sweep Or, How JOHN BROOME Got To San Diego In ’98 by Rich Morrissey Rich Morrissey

John Broome

with his Welsh Springer Spaniel, Joanna); photo courtesy of Patricia Floss.

at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con. From the Internet.

A/E

EDITOR’S NOTE: The story of how the co-creator of the Silver Age Green Lantern and the major writer of the Silver Age Flash became a guest for the first and, as it happened, only time at a comics convention is interesting in and of itself. It also sheds additional light on John Broome and his charming wife Peggy. The talented and devoted comics fan Rich Morrissey wrote this piece not too long before his untimely passing in 2001. Our sincere thanks to his friend Patricia Floss for giving us her blessing to print it here, even if necessarily in a slightly abbreviated form.

have made return appearances in subsequent years. But, as Dave told me in 1998, fewer and fewer of the convention-organizers seem really interested in the old pros each year, being much more interested (or, perhaps, feeling that most of the attendees were more interested) in the “hot” younger talent. In many cases, he admitted, private individuals were chipping in on behalf of old pros: “It’s just impossible to afford the expenses for some people. John Broome would be all ready to go, but the airfare is too high for the con committee.” “John Broome?” I asked, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice.

“Well, he lives overseas,” David explained. “He and his wife go back and forth between t all started in early 1998, Paris and Tokyo. It wouldn’t cost with a call from David that much to bring them over, Siegel. since they’re usually in Paris in the summer, where the fares to David is a former California America aren’t nearly as high, “The Exhibition Is Just About To Open…” fan now residing in Nevada, one and they’re both senior citizens. …and our cast of characters is moving into place: Rich Morrissey of whose ruling passions (which I And Mrs. Broome would really and John Broome, flanking the Broome-scripted splash page from happen to share) is comic books the second story in Showcase #4 (Oct. 1956). Robert Kanigher had scripted like to see California, since she’s of the Golden and Silver Age. In the first, which included the origin. Both were penciled by Carmine never been there. But it’d still be an era when more and more Infantino and inked by Joe Kubert. Thanks to Bob Bailey for the “Flash” close to $2000 round trip for comics trade publications tend to scan. [Showcase page TM & © 2006 DC Comics.] them both, since he wouldn’t concentrate either (like The want to go alone. And nobody Comics Journal) on the avantcan really afford that, what with getting Joe Simon and Paul S. garde comics of the limited press or (like Wizard) on the newest, Newman to come this year.” flashiest comics, writers, and artists, David is dedicated to remem-

Touches of Silver

bering the history of the field and the people who produced the comics that influenced so many of us. He’s made a concerted effort over the years to bring an earlier generation of professionals to the major conventions, especially the San Diego Comic-Con. It’s largely thanks to him that such people as Vincent Sullivan, Harry Lampert, Ramona Fradon, George Tuska, Jim Mooney, Bob Haney, and many others had been able to attend in years past. Many of these people enjoyed their visits so much that several

I thought hard. Ever since I’d read the index to Silver Age “Flash” stories in the 1963 Flash Annual #1... the first time I’d stopped to realize that comic books actually had writers... I’d been fascinated by the three men (John Broome, Gardner Fox, and Robert Kanigher) who, it turned out, were the stars of the Silver Age of DC and a good deal of the Golden Age. The fascination became ever greater since, right around the time I was first getting into organized fandom, the names of the first two of these were

Clean Sweep

fading from DC’s credits. The very first time I’d met Julie Schwartz, the original editor of The Flash, Green Lantern, and Justice League of America, I’d asked him where John Gil Kane Broome and With thanks to Dewey Gardner Fox Cassell. were. Broome, he told me, was in Tokyo (a place far beyond my budget at a time when I was still saving up to go to London and see the then-love of my life for the summer), but Fox was in Yonkers, NY, a more accessible locale. I wrote to Fox, he wrote back, eventually I went to see him (bringing along Ken Gale, Al Turniansky, and Mark Gruenwald, who would go on to become a major writer and editor for Marvel); and the following year, in Batmania #23, I published what turned out to be one of a relatively small number of Fox interviews.

A Super-Hero Who Definitely Wasn’t Yellow John Broome wrote both “Green Lantern” tales in Showcase #22 (Sept.-Oct. 1959), which introduced the second GL and was another major milestone in the nascent Silver Age of Comics. Art by Gil Kane—and, all-important both to “The Flash” and “Green Lantern,” editing (and the idea of revamping/updating the hero, in both cases) was the domain of Julius Schwartz. [TM & © DC Comics.]

In the early ’80s, I talked The Comics Journal into letting me interview Robert Kanigher. Robin Snyder, a fellow-member of CAPA-Alpha and Interlac at the time and one of the few fans Kanigher would speak to, helped make the contact; he and my friend Al Turniansky came with me. The resulting interview was published in two parts in TCJ with a fine cover by long-time Kanigher collaborator Joe Kubert.

Only one was left to provide a clean sweep of classic Flash writers met. (Or of any Silver Age Flash writers met, with the exception of the late Frank Robbins, who wrote a handful of stories in 1968 and, like Broome, spent the last decades of his life outside the United States. I’d met E. Nelson Bridwell, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, Len Wein, and Mike Barr, who, together with those mentioned above, pretty much complete the list of Barry Allen’s writers in his own book.) No, I desperately wanted to meet, and play a part in interviewing, John Broome. But $2000 was a lot of money to raise alone. “Why don’t I give it a try?” I asked David. He enthusiastically promised to chip in, but since he was already helping to pay for the attendance costs of Joe Simon and writer Paul S. Newman, he couldn’t promise more than $100. I knew I’d let myself in for it, but I already had a good idea whom to ask. There would be a meeting of HEAT very soon.…

Taking the HEAT In the years immediately before what would ultimately be John Broome’s final visit to the country of his birth, his most famous godchild had fallen on bad times. Although he had written for many of the most famous characters in comic books...including

Captain Marvel, Superman, Batman, Flash (both Golden and Silver Age versions), Green Lantern (ditto), and The Justice Society of America, Broome’s actual creations Julius Schwartz had tended From the Julius Schwartz toward the Collection, with thanks to more obscure: Bob Greenberger. characters like Detective Chimp, Captain Comet, The Atomic Knights, and Star Hawkins. Broome had been the head writer on the Silver Age Flash, Barry Allen, and had created almost all his classic Rogues’ Gallery and such important supporting heroes as The Elongated Man and Kid Flash (Wally West, who would succeed Barry as The Flash); but Barry himself had officially been created by Robert Kanigher, a writer who stayed with the character for only a short time.

However, Broome’s other major character of the ’60s was to be almost entirely his own creation: Green Lantern. Although that hero’s name and basic powers were derived from his Golden Age namesake created by artist Martin Nodell and writer Bill Finger (Broome had scripted the original Emerald Gladiator in the late 1940s), and science-fiction stories, especially Edward E. Smith’s “Lensmen” series, had possibly provided inspiration for many of the details, the Silver Age “Green Lantern” series was otherwise entirely the creation of John Broome, working with artist Gil Kane and editor Julius Schwartz. Together, that trio created the immortal Guardians of the Universe, their Green Lantern Corps, and Hal Jordan, the fearless test pilot who became the first Earthman to wield the green Power Ring in the cause of justice. It was also Broome who created and fleshed out Hal’s important supporting cast: his lovely female boss Carol Ferris (who soon had a subconscious alter ego of her own as the alienpowered dominatrix Star Sapphire), his mechanic, biographer, and sole confidant Thomas “Pieface” Kalmuku, Tom’s devoted wife Terga, Hal’s brothers Jack and Jim, the inquisitive Sue Williams (ultimately to become his sister-in-law), and a wide selection of other Green Lanterns that ranged from the exotic (the avian TomarRe, the glamorous red-skinned Katma Tui, and many others) to his occasional Earthly backups, the pugnacious Guy Gardner and the dedicated actor Charles Vicker. Schwartz, Broome, Kane, and inker Joe Giella launched “Green Lantern” in Showcase #22 in 1959, and after three consecutive issues (“The Flash” had taken four issues spread out over two years) continued the new “GL” in his own title. From time to time, they would be spelled by other inkers (including Murphy Anderson, Wally Wood, and substantial runs inked by Sid Greene and Kane himself), other writers (usually Gardner Fox, in later years occasionally Denny O’Neil or Mike Friedrich), and occasionally

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Fatman... The Lost Issue (Part 2)

by Michael T. Gilbert

.C. Beck was one opinionated S.O.B.

When DC hired him to help revive Captain Marvel in 1973, they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. While Beck’s art was as delightful as ever, Charles Clarence Beck fancied himself a de facto writer and editor as well. This was the case during his stint at Fawcett, where Beck’s editorial expertise was appreciated. Not so at DC. After butting heads with editor Julius Schwartz over scripts he found deplorable, Beck and DC parted ways after a mere ten issues.

Second Cousins? Beck’s heroes must use the same tailor. Any similarity between Captain Marvel and Fatman is purely on purpose! From Captain Marvel #100 (Sept. 1949) and Fatman #1 (April 1967). [Fatman © 1967 Milson; Captain Marvel © 2016 DC.]

I’d always figured that C.C.’s main complaint was that Otto Binder wasn’t scripting the new Shazam! comic. Binder, of course, was his old Golden Age Captain Marvel writing buddy during the good Captain’s glory days. However, Schwartz preferred to use his own stable of writers, which was just as well since Binder was no longer writing comics. So Julie enlisted Denny O’Neil, Elliot S! Maggin, and E. Nelson Bridwell to do the honors. Beck got along with the new guys like oil and water. But Beck’s troubles started even earlier.

The Write Stuff! Last issue we talked about how Beck and Binder re-united in 1967 in order to produce the Captain Marvel-inspired, 64-page Fatman comic for Milson Publications. Otto Binder scripted all three issues, with C.C. Beck providing the art. Beck and Binder hadn’t worked together since Fawcett ended its comic line in early 1954. Both were excited to be collaborating again, under publisher Will Lieberson, one of their Fawcett editors during the Golden Age.

Recently Gary Brown sent me a copy of the remains of an unpublished fourth issue of Fatman, consisting of two completed scripts and xeroxes of partially finished art. I was surprised to discover that Binder didn’t script any of the stories in that aborted fourth issue. Instead, there were stories by former Fawcett editors Rod Reed (who had written “Captain Marvel” tales in the ’40s) and Wendell Crowley. So where was Otto Binder? One possible answer came to mind immediately. The comic would have been cover-dated October 1967, meaning the finished art would most likely have been due that July or earlier. I recalled that Otto’s only daughter Mary (whom Otto had named after Mary Marvel) had died in a tragic auto accident on March 27, 1967. The teenager was walking home from school when a car jumped a curb, killing her. Ironically, Mary was mentioned in an Otto Binder biography in Fatman #1, mere months before her death: “Where Binder’s superheroes roam the world and whole universe, he himself sticks in one place, having lived in his Englewood, N.J., home for over 20 years. His one daughter, age 14, has been his #1 ‘fan,’ reading every word of his total comics production since 1939––and that’s some 3,250 scripts!” The lighthearted paragraph is chilling in hindsight, knowing how soon tragedy would strike the Binder family. Otto never really recovered from the loss of his beloved daughter.

It’s tempting to pin his quitting Fatman to that event. Fatman #3, Binder’s last, was cover-dated August 1967. Otto

Fatman... The Lost Issue (Part 20)

probably handed in that final script shortly before Mary’s death in late March, so the timeline fits. On the surface, Binder’s decision to quit after that seems more than coincidental.

One Opinionated S.O.B! But while corresponding with Fawcett expert P.C. Hamerlinck (who edits Alter Ego’s Fawcett Collectors of America section), I discovered that Binder’s departure may have occurred even sooner, due to conflicts with Beck. In retrospect, the seeds to their creative tensions can be seen in that same Fatman #1 editorial page. It starts off innocently enough. “Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer, can be called the ‘all-Beck book’ as far as art is concerned, for he did not only the stories but the lettering, the cover, and the color-guides! And he makes changes in the story-line and dialog at times that the writer, Binder, always finds an improvement. That was how they worked together in the old Fawcett days, with a close meeting of minds and ‘compatible’ approach to comics.” Apparently, things quickly got a lot less compatible. P.C.H. explained the situation at Milson in a 12/1/15 email: “For whatever reason(s), Binder was done with FM after #3. Beck plotted and Crowley wrote one of the scripts for #4, and Rod Reed wrote the other story for the aborted issue.

A Sketchy Proposition! Beck’s partial pencils illustrating page four of Wendell Crowley’s “The Mystery of the Moon Stealers!” Here, mean moon miners are about to dismantle Fatman in his flying saucer guise! [© 1967 Milson.]

“Crowley was brought in on FM #3 to be the glue and keep things as much like the old ‘Captain Marvel’ stories as possible, but Beck and Binder had already had their falling out, and that was that. According to Beck, at the time Otto was drinking heavily, even before Mary Binder died.” Indeed, Crowley had already written one of the “Fatman” stories in issue #3. P.C.H. went on to suggest the root of Beck’s conflicts with Binder: “Beck’s main squabble with the FM scripts was that Otto was pushing for more modern/Marvel Comics-like elements to be used, with page after page of extended fight scenes and opponents exchanging insults back and forth.” So it seems Beck’s script complaints were there years before his fights at DC, and not even Binder was immune to his criticisms.

Personally, I’ve always found the intensity with which Beck fought with his editors about the scripts a bit odd. In various essays, he seemed to scoff at the very idea of comics being art, or that he was anything more than a good carpenter doing his job.

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Alter Ego’s Multi-Part Tribute To G.B. Love & RBCC – Part 6

RBCC ’s Last Great Days G.B. Love.

Chatting With JAMES VAN HISE – Part II

(1939-2001) Photo by Robert Brown.

Introduction by Bill Schelly

hapters of our multi-part salute to Gordon Belljohn Love and his important and influential fanzine/adzine Rocket’s BlastComicollector (more generally known simply as RBCC) have previously appeared in Alter Ego #133-135 and in #140-141. We began in #133 with the first part of our chat with Love’s eventual partner and successor in RBCC, Jim Van Hise. There was too much ground to cover to get all of our talk with Jim into one issue, because Jim edited and published RBCC for close to a decade after G.B. left the fanzine and moved to Houston. How did that come about, and what was the arrangement between Love and Van Hise for the continuation of the venerable fanzine? I talked with Jim Van Hise on October 8, 2012; our talk was transcribed by Brian K. Morris.

G.B. Moves To Houston SCHELLY: What was G.B.’s personality like? What kind of a person was he?

Jim’s The One In The Middle! Jim Van Hise visits the set of the 1988 movie Return of the Living Dead II. He says it “wasn’t as violent” as the first one. We’ll take his word for it. Thanks to JVH.

VAN HISE: Well, he was very politically conservative. His father was, too. SCHELLY: So he probably didn’t view the hippie and counterculture thing that was going on at the time very positively. [chuckles] VAN HISE: No, he would be probably the opposite of that. He was also very, very tight with a dollar, although he was making decent money from the Rocket’s Blast. He got involved doing some conventions with some friends in Texas, and he made money from that. And that’s where he got enough extra money to move to Texas. At that point, he’d saved enough that he didn’t need to do anything like the RBCC or other publishing. He would work on a Texas convention or two each year, and made enough profit to live on for the rest of the year. SCHELLY: How did it happen that he moved to Houston? VAN HISE: There weren’t a lot of conventions in those days [the early 1970s]. Dallas and Houston had conventions, and they happened to have more of them in the Midwest there, in Oklahoma and in Texas. In those days, conventions showed a lot of movies, like the old serials that weren’t seen any more. Only rarely in certain parts of the country did any of those serials ever get shown on TV. But at conventions, they would show all twelve or

Hangin’ With Don Newton Don Newton’s Hangman cover for RBCC #68, circa 1970. Newton was one of the foremost artists contributing regularly to RBCC, and would soon turn pro. [Hangman TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.]

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Marvel Comics Had Been The Publisher That Revived The Original Captain Marvel? by John G. Pierce Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck AUTHOR’S INTRODUCTION: Okay, we all know what really happened. About how Fawcett Publications relinquished its comics line in late 1953, and signed an agreement with National (DC) not to publish, or allow anyone else to publish, Captain Marvel and Family. And how, in 1966, Myron Fass published a character who stole Captain Marvel’s name, but that inevitably didn’t last long. And how, shortly thereafter, in 1967, Marvel Comics came out with its own hero named Captain Marvel. (The first of several that company has done.) And how, in 1972, DC brought back the original Captain Marvel, but because Marvel now owned the trademark on the name, they had to call their magazine Shazam!, although inside the book the character could still be referred to by his rightful name. But—what if history had gone a little differently? What if Marvel Comics had been the ones to revive the original Captain Marvel? Let us journey from Earth-Real to some other Earth —we’ll call it Earth-Maybe-Marvel— and observe what might’ve been….

The Giants Of Marvel The 1960s titans of Marvel Comics—and the old master of the original “Marvel”—Captain, that is. (On left:) Stan Lee and C.C. Beck at MiamiCon II, which took place at the Miami Holiday Inn, April 1979 … and Jack Kirby (background above) and Beck at the San Diego Comic-Con held at the El Cortez Hotel in July 1977. (Some guys named Kurtzman, Kubert, Barks, and Caniff were also part of the 4,000 attendees at the latter.) Both photos were deemed significant enough by Beck to be included in his personal photo album—from which they have been directly scanned. Seen at left is a detail from the cover of The Comic Reader #100 (the final issue produced by Paul Levitz), featuring Kirby’s mighty rendition of the World’s Mightiest Mortal. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

t was Jack Kirby who first suggested, in 1972, that Marvel try to obtain the rights to Captain Marvel. Jack’s mind was always bursting with ideas, so much so that he once ran his car into a ditch because his mind was so preoccupied with new notions! (Indeed, in 1970 he’d almost left Marvel for DC so that he could develop some of them there,

FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America]

“All in Color for a Dime” section of the science-fiction fanzine Xero, as well as his own Alter Ego (the first volume). Roy didn’t need any persuading to join Jack’s mini-crusade to get Captain Marvel into the hands of the Marvel Bullpen. And he had his own way of persuading Stan. “Look, I like what Otto Binder and C.C. Beck and others did with the original,” he told Stan, “but I don’t think that approach will work nowadays. I can bring the hero back, make him recognizable, but still turn him into a modern-day Marvel character. I think he’d make a great addition to The Avengers!” So, finally, Stan was convinced, and Martin Goodman set about having Marvel’s lawyers pursue the due diligence required to bring the original Captain Marvel to Marvel, which included not only negotiating with Fawcett but also with Myron Fass and DC. And so, through some previously overlooked loophole (the arcane

A Captain Marvel Is A Captain Marvel Is A… We don’t have to imagine what a collaboration between Roy Thomas (story plot) and Gil Kane (artwork) on the original Captain Marvel would’ve been like, because it really happened!—in DC Comics Presents Annual #3 (1984), although RT got too busy to dialogue it and Joey Cavalieri wound up handling that end. (But of course the story would’ve looked, and largely even read, the same way, whoever wrote the dialogue and captions.) You can enjoy the thrilling adventure once again in the 2013 trade paperback Superman vs. Shazam! Of course, the Thomas-Kane team had earlier worked on Marvel’s “Mar-Vell” version of its Captain Marvel. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

but Stan Lee had kept him aboard by giving him an increased say in Marvel’s creative affairs.) Jack, after all, believed not only in coming up with fresh concepts, but in dusting off old ones. And since he had worked on the original character, way back in 1941, even though for only one issue, Captain Marvel had a natural appeal to him. Ah, but selling the idea to the bosses—that was the problem. It was here that Jack played his ace. “This was the top-selling superhero of the 1940s,” he pointed out. “For a while he outsold even Superman, and his own title was published bi-weekly.” And since publishers are in the business to sell books and make money, the appeal was obvious. Martin Goodman was sold on the idea. Stan Lee was skeptical, however. Captain Marvel was different from anything that Marvel was doing at the time. Not that Stan was really all that familiar with the original. He knew about the Fawcett line of comics from years ago, and had some vague idea of the original Captain Marvel. But it wasn’t difficult at that time (late ’60s) to obtain some 1940s Fawcett comic books and go over some of the stories. Nonetheless, Stan just wasn’t sure it could be made to work. However, this is where Stan’s right-hand man, Roy “the Boy” Thomas, entered the picture. Roy unabashedly confessed to having been a great fan of the character in his youth. He’d even written articles about Fawcett characters for various fanzines, including the

Next Stop: Captain Marvin Adventures! Who says Roy Thomas doesn’t have a sense of humor? C.C. Beck did, but many of the readers of “Where Stomps the Scent-ry!” in Marvel’s Not Brand Echh #9 (Aug. 1968) by writer RT, penciler Gene Colan, & inker Frank Giacoia might disagree. This ticklish tale starring “Captain Marvin” spoofed Marvel’s then-new Captain Marvel comic and featured a few surprise comedic cameos by the original Big Red Cheese and cohorts. Billy Batson, the Seven Enemies of Man, and even Mr. Mind popped up in other panels in the yarn. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

What If... Marvel Comics Had Been The Publisher That Revived Captain Marvel?

With One Magic Hammer… On Earth-Maybe-Marvel, the Mighty Thor and the World’s Mightiest Mortal find they have much in common, particularly in this two-page extravaganza by Nick Perks (nick-perks.deviantart.com), where the two heroes are transformed into a singular amalgam during a clash with the menacing Red Skull. Mr. Perks had a desire to draw something “epic,” as well as to honor the late Captain Marvel artist Marc Swayze by imbuing into his piece Marc’s personal philosophy of creating dialogue-less storytelling art “that even a child who couldn’t read yet could get a story out of it.” [Billy Batson ^& Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics; Thor TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art ©2016 Nick Perks.]

details of which are beyond us ordinary mortals who are not equipped with Juris Doctorates, so we shall not go into them here), Marvel cleared the way to revive Captain Marvel. There was little question as to who would write the new series. As associate editor, Roy held the highest rank among the Marvel Bullpenners, except for Stan himself, who wasn’t interested in writing it. If others had expressed any interest, Roy would simply have steamrolled over them. “No one could have talked me out of doing it,” Roy exulted. But then came the challenge of finding the right artist. If anyone gave any thought to contacting C.C. Beck, Captain Marvel’s original and defining artist and in essence the co-creator of the character, to do the job, the idea was never voiced. Roy felt that Jack Kirby “would’ve been a natural,” but Jack wasn’t keen on the idea of working with Roy, because of the latter’s stronger plotting style and dialog-heavy stories. At that stage, if he wasn’t going to write the story himself, Kirby would have shared a byline only with Stan Lee himself. Luckily, Marvel had a lot of good artists available to them at the time, including Rich Buckler, the Buscemas, and Jim Starlin.

Ultimately, the job went to an artist who, like Roy, had been a fan of the original character and of C.C. Beck’s artwork, the incomparable Gil Kane. Beck himself later said of Kane that “he is a great cartoonist, but he tends to put tremendous action into every panel.” Gil Kane had already won fame for his work at DC, some years earlier, in reviving Green Lantern and The Atom (although the latter was so different from the earlier Golden Age version that he was essentially The Atom in name only). Kane eschewed the use of capes and belts in his costume designs, feeling that they “break up the flow of the body.” (As someone once stated, Gil might as well have said that clothing breaks up the flow of the body!) He’d been forced to utilize a belt on the Silver Age Atom’s costume because the controls for Ray Palmer’s size changes were located in his belt, according to the scripts, but had somehow managed to prevail over legendary editor Julius Schwartz’s preference to give the Silver Age Green Lantern a cape. As with the original versions of Green Lantern and The Atom, Captain Marvel had worn both a cape and Kane’s other great bugaboo, a belt, or more specifically a sash. So it is not too surprising that this became an area where Roy and Gil had some