Roy Thomas’ Green-Lighted Comics Fanzine
Special Issue!
THE MARK OF
GIL KANE
$
9.95
No.149
In the USA
November 2017
SOME MYSTERiOUS FORCE iS COMPELLiNG ME TO DRAW A PORTRAiT OF THE MAN WHO WiLL
The Life & Times of
JOHN BROOME!
GL cover art TM & © DC Comics Caricature © Marie Severin
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And Beginning:
82658 00103
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CONTROL MY DESTiNY!
Vol. 3, No. 149 / November 2017 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
Contents
Cover Artists
Writer/Editorial: Gil & Me—& John Broome, Too! . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Art & Times Of Gil Kane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding Gil Kane, Joe Giella & Marie Severin
Cover Colorist
Dan Herman of Hermes Press writes about the life and career of the legendary artist.
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With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Ger Apeldoorn Rodrigo Baeza Bob Bailey Alberto Becattini John Benson Dominic Bongo Christopher Boyko Alan Brennert Matt Brooker Peggy Broome Ricky Terry Broome Bernie Bubnis David Burd Mike Burkey Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo Dewey Cassell Bryn Cimino John Cimino Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Chet Cox Karen Craft Brian Cremins Mike DeLisa Al Dellinges Anthony DeMaria Howard Devore Sean Dulaney Gerald Edwards Jim Engel Darryl Etheridge Mark Evanier John Fahey Sean Foley Jared Gardner Jeff Gelb Janet Gilbert Golden Age Comic Book Stories (website) Ron Goulart Alex Grand Grand Comics Database (website) Richard Halegua Jack C. Harris
Heritage Comics Auctions Daniel Herman Sean Howe Jennifer A. Hulshizer Alan Hutchinson Glen D. Johnson Elaine Kane Sharon Karibian Bennett Kashdan Jim Kealy Todd Klein William Lampkin Paul Levitz Mark Lewis Alan Light David Lloyd Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Will Murray Joe Musich Mike Netzer Michael Norwitz Barry Pearl Joe Petrilak Jay Piscopo Gene Reed Ralph Reese Steve Ringgenberg Charlie Roberts Trina Robbins Al Rodriguez Bernice Sachs-Smoller David Saunders Eric Schumacher Marie Severin Dann Thomas Steven Tice Paul Trimble Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Jim Van Hise Hames Ware Richard Whitaker Ted White Who’s Who of American Comic Books (website) Mike Zeck
This issue is dedicated to the memory of
Gil Kane, John Broome, & Richard Kyle
Bypassing The Real For The Unreal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Gil Kane’s 1974 essay on comic art from Winsor McCay to Jack Kirby.
“An Old Ballet Dancer Like Me...” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 A 1986 interview with Gil Kane about his work—and the artists who influenced him.
My Life In Little Pieces – Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Beginning: a serialization of a memoir by Golden/Silver Age writer John Broome.
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! – The PAM Papers (Part 2) . . . 67
Michael T. Gilbert & Glen Johnson with the secrets-revealing letters of artist Pete Morisi.
Ted White On Comics – Part 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 The SF writer and editor tells Bill Schelly about EC fandom and comics’ Silver Age.
Tributes to Richard Kyle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 81 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #208 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Brian Cremins & Gerald Edwards on C.C. Beck & Captain Marvel.
On Our Cover: One of the coolest cover ideas that artist Gil Kane and editor Julius Schwartz ever came up with was the one for Green Lantern #19 (March 1963), in which a “mysterious force” compels GL to draw an image of himself being defeated by the villainous Sonar. The illustration was inked by Murphy Anderson. For this special issue dedicated to Gil, we substituted for the GL-vs.-Sonar image one which has always been a favorite of Ye Editor’s: Marie Severin’s masterful caricature of Gil done circa 1969 for the cover of Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #10. The result, we think, is a real winner—on which, for a change, the Silver Age Green Lantern is drawing Gil Kane! [Green Lantern cover art TM & © DC Comics; caricature © Marie Severin.] Above: Equal time for Marvel—and for Ye Ed Roy Thomas, who scripted the above panels. Penciler/ co-plotter Gil Kane (who else?) was known to say how much he enjoyed the “King Kong” takeoff the two of them did in the above-excerpted Amazing Spider-Man #104 (Jan. 1972) and the preceding issue. And no wonder, since it was his suggestion that the two of them do such a story while regular writer/ editor Stan Lee was off scribing a screenplay with French New Wave film director Alain Resnais. Inks by Frank Giacoia. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter Ego TM is published 6 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. Six-issue subscriptions: $65 US, $102 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only. 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.
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writer/editorial
I
Gil & Me—& John Broome, Too!
don’t suppose it’s exactly the best-kept secret around—but I really liked Gil Kane.
First, of course, as a comics reader, I was enamored of the artwork he produced starting in 1959-61, when he began his fabled runs on DC’s rejuvenation of Green Lantern and The Atom. Held back by editorial restraints, it was far from what he was capable of doing, but it was still good work, especially his treatment of Hal Jordan in flight and of the size-relationships of Ray Palmer. Next, in the latter ’60s, even as he was revitalizing his work at DC with all the dynamic anatomy he could sneak past the editors, I admired his toe-in-the-water jobs for Marvel, particularly his “Incredible Hulk” in Tales to Astonish. After we first collaborated on Marvel’s Captain Marvel in 1969-70, we found we enjoyed working together; and over the next two decades we did so on Ka-Zar and Conan the Barbarian—on Amazing Spider-Man (four gloriously atypical issues!)—co-creating Warlock and Iron Fist—coming up with enough Marvel cover sketches to paper Stan Lee’s wall—even on Kipling’s Jungle Book (as Gil recounts on p. 55, and bless his heart for remembering!)—and, as a grand finale to our cacophonous collaborations, the four-issue, four-opera Ring of the Nibelung for DC! Along the way, we also became friends. Oh, not truly close friends, I suppose… but friends nonetheless. We got along—our second wives (Elaine and Dann) got along—and we shared some good times, too, over coffee, just the two of us. Or with Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, that ’80s morning in Brentwood, CA, when, in a crowded coffee house, we spotted that legendary pair looking haplessly about for a place to sit and invited them to join us at our table. (As I wrote those words, I was suddenly struck by the fact that I’m the only person left alive who has a memory of
that minor episode.) And I recall with a warm glow the wonderful afternoons and evenings spent at the palatial residence Gil and Elaine had leased-with-an-option-to-buy up in rural Connecticut, where I sat around the pool chatting with legends like Al Jaffee, Dik Browne, and Harvey Kurtzman... and of course Gil Kane. In the course of this issue, I felt compelled to use my editorial prerogative to counterbalance a few of the statements Gil makes— as I’d have done if he were sitting across from me when he made them—but none of that diminishes my affectionate memories, and long-lingering respect, for the comics giant who was Gil Kane. I didn’t know John Broome well at all, of course. Like a number of other American fans and pros, I met him first and last at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con (a happening covered in detail back in A/E #142). But I’ll never forget what a thrill it was for me to meet the original author of the Silver Age Green Lantern—the main scripter of the Silver Age Flash—and, most of all (for me personally), the writer of twenty out of the 55 feature-length “Justice Society of America” yarns back in the Golden Age All-Star Comics. To be able to present to a larger audience, for the first time ever, John’s 1998 “Off-Beat Autobio” is a distinct privilege—and I’m eternally grateful to his daughter Ricky Terry for giving us the chance to do so. It’s issues like this that remind me why I wanted to revive Alter Ego back in 1998-99! Bestest,
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3
The Art & Times Of GIL KANE by Daniel Herman
Left-To-Right Landmarks Cover of Showcase #24 (Jan.-Feb. 1960), the third tryout issue starring the Silver Age “Green Lantern.” Pencils by Kane; inks by Joe Giella. The cover of Showcase #22 was depicted in our previous issue. [TM & © DC Comics.] First Kane cover for Amazing Spider-Man: #96 (May 1971). Pencils & inks by Kane for this first of the notorious non-Comics Code “drug issues.” This and the previous cover are from the Grand Comics Database website. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Kane art used for the cover of a 2003 Ace paperback reprinting of the first year (1977-78) of Kane & Ron Goulart’s newspaper comic strip Star Hawks. [TM & © United Media, USA, or successors in interest.]
I
f you’ve been watching the most recent big-screen incarnations based on the comic book heroes of DC Comics or Mighty Marvel, the ol’ “House of Ideas,” then, dear reader, you know how the much-maligned comic book has become the object of international renown and commerce. There have been many notable writers and artists responsible for creating the mythology which is the basis for these films. Foremost among the purveyors of the art of comic book storytelling—with a career spanning almost sixty years—was Gil Kane, the subject of this brief rumination.
Gil Kane at the 1970 New York Comic Art Convention. Pic courtesy of Mike Zeck via Pedro Angosto.
Kane’s work for DC and Marvel established characters and story lines that are still used by other writers and artists today. Kane’s highly charged, elegant, athletic style of composition continues to be relevant and influential to today’s comic book artists. Indeed, Kane’s career reads like a history of the American comic book. Kane, who was born Eli Katz in Riga, Latvia, in 1926, emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1930. He grew up in the
Jewish immigrant neighborhood of Brownsville, in Brooklyn, New York. As with other artists who would eventually work in comic books, his first exposure to art and motivation to draw came from his experiencing, first hand, what is often referred to as the “Golden Age” of comic strips, which eventually laid the foundation for comic books. Every day and every Sunday, Kane read and studied such strips as Prince Valiant, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Dick Tracy, Little Orphan Annie, Terry and the Pirates, and Red Ryder. The art and stories of these newspaper strips, combined with radio, pulp fiction, and the movies, all fired Kane’s imagination and inspired him to seek out work as an artist in the fledgling comic book industry.
Kane started his career in comic books at the ripe old age of sixteen in the comic book “shops” of New York City, in 1942. His first work in the business was cleaning comic book pages penciled by other artists, and he quickly progressed to creating pages and then entire stories.
4
Dan Herman Writes About The Life & Career Of The Legendary Artist
He began his career in the comic book business near the very beginning, when comic books, for the most part, were packaged by businessmen to be sold to publishers. The emphasis was on getting the product finished and ready on schedule. Formula was the rule and the turnover of artists was high. Comic books attracted unemployed artists, illustrators who could not sell their work, and aspiring youngsters such as Kane. He was in good company; many who would become the stars of the second generation of artists to work in comic books started with him. In addition to Kane, the alumni of these shops reads like a “who’s who” of artists from the Silver Age of comic books: Carmine Infantino, Joe Kubert, and Alex Toth, to name but a few. Kane was enthusiastic about working as an artist of comic book stories and was unrelentingly persistent, traits necessary in a business that at the time was more craft than art, but which, as Kane and many others realized, had the potential to become much more. These qualities, coupled with Kane’s desire to continually develop his art, marked his career. Although his enthusiasm got him in the door, his appreciation of the history of comic book and newspaper strip illustration and storytelling, an ability to be devastatingly self-critical, and an aptitude to grow beyond his influences helped to establish him as his career progressed. In his first year in the comic book business he went from shop to shop, looking for work. He was hired and quickly fired. He was rehired and fired, but he kept pitching himself and his samples and getting more work. Finally, he was interviewed by Jack Kirby, who gave him work pencilling pages for Simon and Kirby stories at DC Comics. Kirby was building an inventory of stories for his DC assignments, as he anticipated he would be drafted to fight in the Second World War. Finally Kirby received his draft notice. Kane was given a script and assigned a “Newsboy Legion” story, which he penciled and returned, only to learn he was fired. In 1943 Kane quit high school to dedicate himself, full time, to work as an artist. A year later, he was drafted into the Army and went off to fight in the war. When he returned, he went back to work in comic books, ready to make a name for himself. During his apprenticeship as a comic book artist Eli Katz had used a number of pen names, and he finally settled on one: Gil Kane. Kane, however, needed to hone his skill as an artist and storyteller and he used the next decade to do just that. By 1949 he had found steady work at DC Comics with editor Julius Schwartz. At that time DC had attracted, through the good judgment of DC editors like Shelly Mayer, artists who helped define methods and conventions of comic book storytelling which influenced every artist in the business. The ranks of artists at DC Comics boasted
Star Spangled Banter Eli Katz (the future Gil Kane), in the early or mid-1940s—and a Katz/Kane-drawn page from the “Newsboy Legion” adventure in Star Spangled Comics #35 (Aug. 1944). Scripter unknown. Thanks to Dan Herman & Elaine Kane for the photo, and to Eric Schumacher for the art scan. [SSC page TM & © DC Comics.]
the talents, among others, of Alex Toth and Dan Barry. Toth was preaching the gospel of inking, composition, and lighting scenes using strip artist Noel Sickles’ work as a prime example (Sickles’ partner and friend, Milton Caniff was also a pervasive influence on every artist picking up a pencil, brush, or pen to create a comic book story). Barry, whose pencils were clearly influenced by Flash Gordon strip artist Alex Raymond, also drew the attention of his fellow artists for his clean, elegant storytelling. Kane drank all of this in and continued to develop his own personal style of storytelling. During the 1950s he worked in just about every comic book genre. Science-fiction material, romance, mystery, crime, and Westerns: Kane drew them all. It was during the late 1950s that Kane finally became identified with several of the strips he had been consistently pencilling for DC Comics: the “Johnny Thunder” strip featured in All Star Western and The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog. Kane began to establish a vocabulary of stock shots for his stories that would become part of his signature style. He would acrobatically choreograph his characters as they literally glided in and out of their panels in tales of swashbucklers, cowboys, and super-heroes. He also continued to work on simplifying and refining his approach to the movement and anatomy of his characters. It was now possible to identify his stories by their look
The Art & Times Of Gil Kane
5
and dynamics, even though he was rarely credited as the artist, as it was not DC Comics’ policy to give artists a by-line. Finally in 1959 Kane was presented with an opportunity to help create a strip that would firmly establish him as a comic book storyteller for the rest of his life. Editor Julius Schwartz picked him to draw the Green Lantern character in Showcase #22. Schwartz was spearheading a revival of 1940s super-heroes and “Green Lantern” was his second reintroduction. Kane designed the look of the character and his costume, and helped define the tone of the strip. The feature ran in three successive issues of Showcase and was so well-received that in 1960 the strip became a regular DC Comics title, first as a bi-monthly magazine and later as an 8-time-a-year “monthly.” Kane, who had been periodically allowed to ink his Western strips, also wanted the chore of “finishing” his stories for Green
Mavericks & Mutts (Top left:) Kane’s “Trigger Twins” cover for All Star Western #91 (Oct.-Nov. 1956). Inks by Joe Giella. (Above:) This splash from The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog #30 (Nov.-Dec. 1956) was inked by Bernard Sachs. Script by John Broome. Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © DC Comics.]
SOS—The Comics Industry! Test pilot Hal Jordan was hijacked by a dying alien who wanted to give him super-powers in the first of three “Green Lantern” stories in Showcase #22 (Sept.-Oct. 1959). Script by John Broome; inks by Joe Giella. The other two splash pages from that issue were seen last ish. Resuscitated titles like The Flash, Green Lantern, and Justice League of America gave DC Comics a new lease on life in the late 1950s and early ’60s. Thanks to Art Lortie. [TM & © DC Comics.]
Lantern, a request that was motivated by his desire to control the look of the strip and to make more money, as he’d be paid an additional fee for finishing the strip. Schwartz would not accommodate Kane and assigned Joe Giella and Murphy Anderson to ink the strip (occasionally during the first years of the strip, inker Frank Giacoia lent a hand as well). Although it was standard practice in the comic book trade to have one artist pencil a story and another ink the artwork, Kane’s artwork was not generally well served by either inker. Both Giella and Anderson turned in serviceable work but the quality of their inking varied from story to story. Anderson’s inking was the most consistent; however, too much of his personality was put into the finished artwork, which stiffened Kane’s figures and composition. Giella, although inconsistent in his handling of the strip, on occasion accurately echoed Kane’s pencils, preserving the dynamics of the drawing. During the mid-1960s the look of the strip consistently improved as Kane’s style matured and with the addition of inker Sid Greene. As the sales of super-hero comic books picked up, DC Comics cancelled many of its Western titles which had provided steady work for Kane, leaving him with less monthly income. In an attempt to drum up more work, Kane took the initiative to pitch his own strip based on two shelved DC Comics properties. By combining a character DC Comics had acquired from Quality
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17
Bypassing The Real For The Unreal by Gil Kane
A/E
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article first appeared in The Harvard Journal of Pictorial Fiction (April 1974), pp. 898-903. The HJPF was published in the first half of the 1970s by the Harvard University Comics Society, whose chairmen were Charles Wooley and Michael C. Young; it was, according to an online description, “dedicated to the scholarly treatment of comics as a narrative art form.” By 1976 the magazine had metamorphosed under a different publisher into Crimmer’s: The Journal of the Narrative Arts. Among pieces published in the original series were interviews with classic Tarzan artist (and art-anatomy teacher) Burne Hogarth and Mad creator Harvey Kurtzman. Circa 1973-74, comic book/graphic novel artist Gil Kane, however, elected to pen his own article for the magazine. There were a few minor false steps in the article’s original publication which had to be addressed when reprinting it in Alter Ego (with the kind permission of Gil’s widow, Elaine Kane). For one thing, probably through a proofreading error, following the editorial introduction which is reproduced beginning in column 2, the article proper as printed began with the sentence “Writing in an expansive, highly accessible style, Mr. Kane begins his exposition [etc.],” which obviously was part of the editorial intro, not Gil Kane’s opening to his text. In addition, for some reason, the editors chose to print the first half or so of the article with no interior headings or divisions… then, roughly halfway through the piece, such breaks suddenly appear. We have left those as they were. In addition, there is the singleton phrase “Kurtzman’s Unique Humanism” that pops up at the end of a paragraph for no discernible reason, preceding a short section on Kurtzman’s work. We’ve assumed those three words were originally meant to be yet another interior heading, and have repositioned them as such. These few items, however, are minor glitches compared to the intrinsic value of the article itself, which in many ways seems a follow-up to the groundbreaking interview EC fan John Benson conducted with Gil circa 1968-69 for the tenth issue of Vol. 1 of this magazine; that interview was reprinted in the 1997 trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, which was reissued by TwoMorrows Publishing in 2008. Many of Gil’s tenets are certainly worth debating— and Ye Editor, who used to argue good-naturedly with him from time to time over some of the same points, has noted his disagreements here and there in accompanying captions; but neither viewpoint should be taken as the final word on any matter, of course. Special thanks to Barry Pearl for supplying us a copy of the text from his digital work The Essential Marvel Reference Project: Newspaper and Magazine Articles, to Aaron Caplan for a bit of textual help, and to Brian K. Morris for retyping it for editing for this magazine.
The Barbarian & The Prince (Above right:) Kane’s cover for the April 1974 edition of the Harvard Journal of Pictorial Fiction was a Kane-inked version of a figure he had penciled for the “Conan the Barbarian” tale in Savage Tales #4 (May ’74); the two magazines would’ve gone on sale around the same time. The Marvel version was inked by Neal Adams & “Diverse Hands,” with gray tones by Pablo Marcos. Since the Journal printing contained only a handful of illustrations, we’ve selected our own… and rather more of them. [© Estate of Gil Kane.] (Above left:) Gil Kane (on our left) interviews Harold R. Foster, noted creator/illustrator of the King Features Syndicate Sunday strip Prince Valiant, at a luncheon held at Phil Seuling’s New York Comic Art Convention over the July 4th weekend in 1970. Thanks to the formerly named Golden Age Comic Book Stories website. This photo originally appeared in the con’s 1971 program book.
O
RIGINAL INTRODUCTION FROM THE HARVARD JOURNAL OF PICTORIAL FICTION (April 1974): Our distinguished guest author is one of the most respected and articulate artists in comics. Winner of the National Cartoonists Society Award for Best Comic Book Artist in 1972 and 1973 and an ACBAS [sic] special award for his book Blackmark, Mr. Kane was a visiting lecturer at New York University in 1973. Among his most acclaimed work are Johnny Thunder, Green Lantern, The Atom, His Name Is Savage, Spider-Man, and of course Blackmark. Writing in an expansive, highly accessible style, Mr. Kane begins his exposition with a consideration of film’s relationship to comics as its narrative “big brother.” The differences between the two art forms suggest that the unique nature of comics—a combination of visual storytelling and literary technique—is perfectly suited for fantasy material. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: All italicized paragraphs, as opposed to individual words, in the following article are the addition of the editors at HJPC, inserted into Gil Kane’s text from time to time. We’ve chosen to set those italicized comments apart from the main text above and below it, for reasons of clarity.]
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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!
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Golden Age great IRWIN HASEN spotlight, adapted from DAN MAKARA’s film documentary on Hasen, the 1940s artist of the Justice Society, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Wildcat, Cat-Man, and numerous other classic heroes—and, for 30 years, the artist of the famous DONDI newspaper strip! Bonus art by his buddies JOE KUBERT, ALEX TOTH, CARMINE INFANTINO, and SHELLY MAYER!
From Detroit to Deathlok, we cover the career of artist RICH BUCKLER: Fantastic Four, The Avengers, Black Panther, Ka-Zar, Dracula, Morbius, a zillion Marvel covers—Batman, Hawkman, and other DC stars—Creepy and Eerie horror—and that’s just in the first half of the 1970s! Plus Mr. Monster, BILL SCHELLY, FCA, and comics expert HAMES WARE on fabulous Golden Age artist RAFAEL ASTARITA!
DAVID SIEGEL talks to RICHARD ARNDT about how, from 1991-2005, he brought the greatest artists of the Golden Age to the San Diego Comic-Con! With art and artifacts by FRADON, GIELLA, MOLDOFF, LAMPERT, CUIDERA, FLESSEL, NORRIS, SULLIVAN, NOVICK, SCHAFFENBERGER, GROTHKOPF, and others! Plus how writer JOHN BROOME got to the Con, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, FCA, and more!
DON GLUT discusses his early years as comic book writer for Marvel, Warren, and Gold Key, with art by SANTOS, MAROTO, CHAN, NEBRES, KUPPERBERG, TUSKA, TRIMPE, SAL BUSCEMA, and others! Also, SAL AMENDOLA and ROY THOMAS on the 1970s professional Academy of Comic Book Arts, founded by STAN LEE and CARMINE INFANTINO! Plus Mr. Monster, FCA, BILL SCHELLY, and more!
MARK CARLSON documents 1940s-50s ACE COMICS (with super-heroes Magno & Davey, Lash Lightning, The Raven, Unknown Soldier, Captain Courageous, Vulcan, and others)! Art by KURTZMAN, MOONEY, BERG, L.B. COLE, PALAIS, and more. Plus: RICHARD ARNDT’s interview with BILL HARRIS (1960s-70s editor of Gold Key and King Comics), FCA, Comic Crypt, and Comic Fandom Archive.
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ALTER EGO #147
ALTER EGO #148
40 years after the debut of Marvel’s STAR WARS #1, its writer/editor ROY THOMAS tells RICHARD ARNDT the story behind that landmark comic, plus interviews with artists HOWARD CHAYKIN, RICK HOBERG, and BILL WRAY. Also: MR. MONSTER looks at “Jazz in Comics” with MICHAEL T. GILBERT—the finale of BILL SCHELLY’s salute to G.B. LOVE—FCA— and more! CHAYKIN cover.
DOUG MOENCH in the 1970s at Warren and Marvel (Master of Kung Fu, Planet of the Apes, Deathlok, Werewolf by Night, Morbius, Moon Knight, Ka-Zar, Weirdworld)! Art by BUSCEMA, GULACY, PLOOG, BUCKLER, ZECK, DAY, PERLIN, & HEATH! MICHAEL T. GILBERT on EC’s oddball “variant covers”—FCA—and a neverpublished Golden Age super-hero story by MARV LEVY! Cover by PAUL GULACY!
Giant-size Fawcett Collectors of America special with Golden/Silver Age writer OTTO BINDER’s personal script records and illos from his greatest series! Intros by P.C. HAMERLINCK and BILL SCHELLY, art by BECK, SIMON & KIRBY, SWAN, SCHAFFENBERGER, AVISON, BORING, MOONEY, PLASTINO, and others! Plus MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and a C.C. BECK cover!
Relive JOE PETRILAK’s All-Time Classic NY Comic Book Convention—the greatest Golden & Silver Age con ever assembled! Panels, art & photos featuring INFANTINO, KUBERT, 3 SCHWARTZES, NODELL, HASEN, GIELLA, CUIDERA, BOLTINOFF, BUSCEMA, AYERS, SINNOTT, [MARIE] SEVERIN, GOULART, THOMAS, and a host of others! Plus FCA, GILBERT, SCHELLY, and RUSS RAINBOLT’s 60-ft. comics mural!
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95
(100-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $9.95 (Digital Edition) $4.95
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“An Old Ballet Dancer Like Me…”
33
The Legendary GIL KANE On His Own Art— And Others’ 1986 Interview Conducted by Steve Whitaker
A/E
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: “This interview was conducted by Steve Whitaker at 1986’s UK Comic Art Convention on the Sunday afternoon, with Dave Proctor, Dale Cole, and numerous devotees sitting in.” The foregoing was the only preface attached to the following lively conversation with artist Gil Kane when it was first printed in the British fanzine Fantasy Advertiser, not long after the actual event. We’ve followed the main text just as Whitaker transcribed and edited it… except that we’ve altered the punctuation (and Americanized the spelling) in places, since both punctuation and spelling are, naturally, an arbitrary feature in a transcription of a taped or digitally recorded interview. Our special thanks to Steve’s brother, Richard Whitaker, for permission to reprint this insightful talk ...and to Steve Tice for retyping it. Oh, and a P.S.: As one who collaborated and/or socialized with Gil for more than two decades between 1969 and 1991, first in New York City, later in Los Angeles, and who regularly spoke with him by phone till very shortly before his death in January 2000, I find it difficult if not impossible to believe that he actually used the word “whilst” in the several instances where it appeared in the interview as printed; so I changed that word to the more American-vernacular (and thus far more likely) “while.” The meaning of the text, of course, is in no way affected by these slight changes. Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the interview is that at no point in the proceedings did Gil ever refer to Steve Whitaker as “My boy”… or, if he did, Steve chose to edit the phrase out of the printed version…. STEVE WHITAKER: Gil, I’ve always wanted to ask someone from DC about the big dispute that happened around 1965, where suddenly a lot of people disappeared from National Periodicals. GIL KANE: They were cleaning house; it wasn’t a dispute. Some people went onto pension very early. I remember one of the writer/editors, George… er… his brother became treasurer of the company…. DAVE PROCTOR: George Kashdan? KANE: Kashdan! Of course—he was one of the prominent guys who was forced into retirement. I mean, he was fired, so he
Just Between Friends… Gil Kane’s self-portrait and montage of the most prominent comics heroes he’d been associated with up to that time was drawn as a surprise gift for his collaborator (and de facto editor) Roy Thomas in 1970. It was utilized as the flip cover of Alter Ego, Vol. 2, #2, which was published as part of Comic Book Artist #2 (Summer 1999)… and colored by Tom Ziuko. [Batman, Atom, Johnny Thunder, & Green Lantern TM & © DC Comics; Captain America, Hulk, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, & Rick Jones TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; The Shield TM & © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.; Blackmark & Savage TM & © Estate of Gil Kane. or successors in interest.]
immediately took advantage of the fact that he’d built up 15 or 20 years and began to collect his pension. Now, what happened back then was that Carmine Infantino came in as art director, then editor, then publisher and editor… for a while he was even president (of
68
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!
The PAM Papers (Part 2) by Michael T. Gilbert
L
ast issue we published a sampling of correspondence between veteran comic book creator Pete Morisi and his pen-pal, Glen D. Johnson. We have more letters for you this time around, edited for clarity. Glen, a retired teacher, is also a long-time fan and a former editor of the venerable fanzine The Comic Reader. I recently wrote to Glen requesting info on how he met PAM. He replied in a letter dated 2/17/17: “While [I was] teaching on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico in 1964, Ronn Foss visited me. He showed me an issue of a Charlton Lash LaRue and asked if I knew the artist. One quick look and I told him it was George Tuska. ‘Wrong!’ was Ronn’s answer. ‘It’s Pete Morisi.’ Ronn showed me where it was signed ‘PAM.’ I later found out that an editor told Pete he needed a more stylized look for his artwork. At the time, he was sharing an art studio with George Tuska and other artists. Pete asked George if he would mind if he drew in George’s style, and of course George said it was all right with him. Pete said many times when he met with a group of artists he would yell across the room to George Tuska, ‘Hey George, you still stealing my stuff?’ “I started corresponding with Peter in 1964 on a regular basis until his death. I visited him in New York City on three different occasions; the last time was in 1993.
Separated At Birth? (Above:) Pete Morisi’s art was often mistaken for George Tuska’s. Here’s a Tuska page from Crime and Punishment #64 (Nov. 1953). (Below:) And here’s a Pete Morisi crime page from Comic Media’s Dynamite #2 (July 1953). Kinda similar to Tuska, no? Both scripters unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
“Pete always looked forward to retiring so he would have more time to spend on his artwork. With his job as a cop, he was always rushed. However, once he retired he never found very much work. Pete was very stubborn. He didn’t want to do art unless he could pencil and ink. He could have found lots of work at DC if he was willing to pencil or ink, but not both.” Pete, who passed away in 2003, enjoyed discussing his profession. It’s fascinating to hear his thoughts on the comic book scene of the ’60s on, as well as on his fellow cartoonists and Charlton editors. PAM was also a hardcore comic art enthusiast, and his informal, chatty letters are similar to the gossipy emails I share with my own cartoonist pals. Let’s start off with a bit of comic history, courtesy of PAM!
Lashing Out! (Left:) A Pete Morisi panel from Charlton’s Lash LaRue #82 (Feb. 1961). Scripter unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
Glen Johnson in 1964. Courtesy of Bill Schelly.
The PAM Papers (Part 2)
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Twice-Told Tales? Two different villains. Two different stories. Same photo swipe! Imagine Pete’s chagrin, when both stories wound up in the same Charlton comic! Above, a Joe Butana/”Kid Montana” story—and, at left, one starring “The Man Called Loco,” both of which showed up in Texas Rangers in Action #78 (June 1970). Scripters unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
2/12/70 Dear Glen –– Yes, [Alfred] Andriola did Capt. Triumph for the old Quality comic group—he was “between strips” at the time and needed some loot— then came ‘Kerry Drake’ and big money. His past strips were ‘Dan Dunn’ and ‘Charlie Chan.’ I still consider his Capt. Triumph to be good art—Andriola did a job on that one. $5.00 for an ‘X-9’ sounds like a good deal. $100 for a Raymond ‘Kirby and X-9’ is too steep. Texas Rangers #78 is the issue I’d like you to see. Loco [MTG NOTE: Charlton’s “The Man from Loco” series] is featured as the front story, and a “Kid Montana” story (that was changed to suit the Texas Rangers title) is the back story. I used the same villain in both stories, figuring they’d be printed in different books, and months apart—but Sal [Gentile, Charlton editor] goofed. (The villain was taken from photos). Saw Dick [Giordano, DC editor] a few weeks ago and he gave me part of a Toth job from Witching Hour and an Adams penciled page printed in the same issue (#8). Also spoke to Toth on the phone when he was in town and we kicked around old times. A trade for Andriola—[Dan] Barry sounds okay to me, but I don’t have any “Deadman” Adams pages. Just finished a “Winnie the Witch” thing, and am now doing a ‘Mr. Dedd’ strip, which is fairly well written for a change. Sal promised me a steady Dr. Graves feature some time ago, but hasn’t kept his word. It’s a little annoying but I don’t intend to get ulcers over it. See ya, Pete In the next letter, Pete refers to a Steranko love comic story that appeared in Marvel’s Our Love Story #5. The other big comic news at the time was Jack Kirby’s defection from Marvel to DC to begin his famous “Fourth World” titles. 4/2/1970 Dear Glen –– Didn’t see the Steranko “love” art—but I did like the Morrow art I saw. Yes, I spoke to Dick last week and mentioned that Kirby was with National –I’m looking forward to his stuff. National, incidentally, is on the borderline of financial trouble. It seems that the Kinney outfit that owns National bought the outfit when it was a going concern (each
Crack Artist! PAM was a fan of Kerry Drake artist Alfred Andriola, who co-created “Captain Triumph” for Quality’s Crack Comics. Here’s a splashy Andriola page from the Captain’s first story, in Crack Comics #27 (Jan. 1943). Scripter unknown. [© the respective copyright holders.]
month’s profit better than the last), but now that the superhero phase is about over, and all comics are in limbo, they’re getting annoyed with a stand-still outfit. That’s why National seems to be trying everything under the sun to get a hot item or trend going. Dick said, “we’re getting close to the panic button.” I’m still doing romance—a 10 pg. “Dear Diary” thing right now. My Dr. Graves should be in the next issue of T.M.G.O.D.B. [MTG
Celebrate KIRBY’s 100th birthday with
KIRBY100
TWOMORROWS and the JACK KIRBY COLLECTOR magazine celebrate JACK KIRBY’S 100th BIRTHDAY in style with the release of KIRBY100, a full-color visual holiday for the King of comics! It features an all-star line-up of 100 COMICS PROS who critique key images from Kirby’s 50-year career, admiring his page layouts, dramatics, and storytelling skills, and lovingly reminiscing about their favorite characters and stories. Featured are BRUCE TIMM, ALEX ROSS, WALTER SIMONSON, JOHN BYRNE, JOE SINNOTT, STEVE RUDE, ADAM HUGHES, WENDY PINI, JOHN ROMITA SR., DAVE GIBBONS, P. CRAIG RUSSELL, and dozens more of the top names in comics. Their essays serve to honor Jack’s place in comics history, and prove (as if there’s any doubt) that KIRBY IS KING! This double-length book is edited by JOHN MORROW and JON B. COOKE, with a Kirby cover inked by MIKE ROYER. (The Limited Hardcover includes 16 bonus color pages of Kirby’s 1960s Deities concept drawings)
(224-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $34.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-078-6 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 (The LIMITED EDITION HARDCOVER is SOLD OUT!)
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HERO-A-GO-GO! New book by MICHAEL EURY, editor of All characters TM & © their respective owners.
Welcome to the CAMP AGE, when spies liked their wars cold and their women warm, good guys beat bad guys with a pun and a punch, and Batman shook a mean cape. HERO-A-GO-GO celebrates the camp craze of the Swinging Sixties, when just about everyone—the teens of Riverdale, an ant and a squirrel, even the President of the United States—was a super-hero or a secret agent. BACK ISSUE magazine and former DC Comics editor MICHAEL EURY takes you through that coolest cultural phenomenon with this all-new collection of nostalgic essays, histories, and theme song lyrics of classic 1960s characters like CAPTAIN ACTION, HERBIE THE FAT FURY, CAPTAIN NICE, ATOM ANT, SCOOTER, ACG’s NEMESIS, DELL’S SUPER-FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA, the “Split!” CAPTAIN MARVEL, and others! Featuring interviews with BILL MUMY (Lost in Space), BOB HOLIDAY (It’s a Bird … It’s a Plane … It’s Superman), RALPH BAKSHI (The Mighty Heroes, SpiderMan), DEAN TORRENCE (Jan and Dean Meet Batman), RAMONA FRADON (Metamorpho), DICK DeBARTOLO (Captain Klutz), TONY TALLARICO (The Great Society Comic Book), VINCE GARGIULO (Palisades Park historian), JOE SINNOTT (The Beatles comic book), JOSE DELBO (The Monkees comic book), and many more!
(272-page FULL-COLOR TRADE PAPERBACK) $36.95 • (Digital Edition) $12.95 ISBN: 978-1-60549-073-1 • NOW SHIPPING!
It Crept From The Tomb Just when you thought it was safe to walk the streets again, FROM THE TOMB (the UK’s preeminent magazine on the history of horror comics) digs up more tomes of terror from the century past. IT CREPT FROM THE TOMB (the second “Best of” collection) uncovers atomic comics lost to the Cold War, rarely seen (and censored) British horror comics, the early art of RICHARD CORBEN, GOOD GIRLS of a bygone age, TOM SUTTON, DON HECK, LOU MORALES, AL EADEH, BRUCE JONES’ Alien Worlds, HP LOVECRAFT in HEAVY METAL, and a myriad of terrors from beyond the stars and the shadows of our own world! It features comics they tried to ban, from ATLAS, CHARLTON, COMIC MEDIA, DC, EC, HARVEY, HOUSE OF HAMMER, KITCHEN SINK, LAST GASP, PACIFIC, SKYWALD, WARREN, and more from the darkest of the horror genre’s finest creators!
(192-page Trade Paperback) $29.95 • ISBN: 978-1-60549-081-6 • DIGITAL EDITION: $10.95
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89
“A Fabric Of Illusion” C.C. Beck’s Critical Circle & His Theory Of Comic Art
A
by Brian Cremins
UTHOR’S NOTE: I presented Everybody’s A Critic! a version of this essay, which is (Left:) The old wizard himself, based in part on the introduction C.C. Beck, snapped in 1977 and first chapter of my book Captain Marvel at his Lake Wales, Florida, home. and the Art of Nostalgia (University Press of [© Charlie Roberts.] Mississippi, 2016) at “Canon Fodder! A Cartoon (Right:) Back in the Golden Age, Crossroads Columbus Scholarly Symposium” artist Beck and writer Otto Binder at the Ohio State University on October 14, had Captain Marvel contemplating comments from “His 2016. I’d like to thank Trina Robbins and Carping Critics” in Whiz Comics Paul Hamerlinck for generously sharing their #45 (Aug. ’43). Cover by Beck. memories of the Critical Circle as well as copies [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.] of these letters and essays. I’d also like to thank Jared Gardner at Ohio State for giving me the opportunity to present this material last fall, and FCA reader (and fellow teacher) Joe Musich for his kind and encouraging feedback on my work. As all faithful FCA readers know, Paul has published some of the Critical Circle articles in these pages over the last couple of decades. What a pleasure that, as readers, we get to experience the insights of this small group of friends who shared ideas on politics, life, and comics three decades ago. Given the world that we now live in, we could learn a lot from the curiosity, kindness, and optimism of Beck and his Circle…. I’m sure you know this story. It’s an old one, courtesy of Bill Parker and C.C. Beck: Billy Batson, a homeless young man who sells newspapers to survive, meets an old wizard in the shadows of a strange subway tunnel. The old man offers Billy a gift: a magic word that will grant him great power and restore a life stolen from him by his heartless uncle. The boy says “Shazam!,” the old man disappears, and Captain Marvel— Fred MacMurray in a bright red suit with a yellow lightning bolt across his chest—soon confronts and defeats a mad scientist named Dr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana. In a 1974 interview, over three
“We’re Looking For People Who Like To Draw!” C.C. Beck and Trina Robbins were both immortalized in the Famous Cartoonist button set from 1975. Art by Beck & Robbins, respectively. [Art © the respective artists.]
decades after our favorite hero’s 1940 debut, Bruce Hamilton asked Beck to provide fans with “a capsule autobiography” for a collection of Golden Age Captain Marvel comics. Writing in the third person, Beck stressed that he “was never an editor or an idea man. He is an illustrator. Give him a set of blueprints of a building you have in mind and he’ll make you a fine ‘artist’s rendering’ of what it will look like when finished” (qtd. in Hamilton). Despite his insistence that, as a trained artist who had studied at the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts in the late 1920s, he served merely as “[a]n extension of the writer” (qtd. in Eisner 73), Beck was a prolific critic who wrote extensively about the theory and practice of comic book art until his death at the age of 79 on November 22, 1989. Although he ceased working as a cartoonist in the early 1970s after a stroke affected his vision (letter to Robbins, August 25, 1989), Beck remained active in comics fandom in the U.S. and proved himself to be more of “an idea man” than he cared to admit. In the last two years of his life, he created and corresponded extensively with what he called the Critical Circle, a group of fans and fellow comic book professionals with whom he shared his unpublished essays, some of which eventually appeared