Alter Ego #151 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Wise Old Comics Fanzine

9.95

& GOLDEN AGE GREAT

FRANK THOMAS

by Michael T. Gilbert PLUS: The Golden & Silver Age Super-Heroes of DELL & GOLD KEY by Stuart Fischer

No.151

82658 00111

March 2018

Characters TM & © the respective owners

In the USA

Vol. 3, No. 151 / March 2018 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

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

Comic Crypt Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreaders

Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist

Frank Thomas (colorist unknown)

With Special Thanks to: Doug Abramson Rob Allen Heidi Amash David Armstrong David Bardeen Jim Bardeen Nancy Bardeen Rod Beck Alberto Becattini Chris Beneke Ricky Terry Brisacque Aaron Caplan Cartoon Brew (blog) Mike Chomko John Cimino Comic Art Fans (website) Comic Book Plus (website) Comic Vine (website) Chet Cox Dial B for Blog (blog) Al Doshna Sean Dulaney Jim Engel Mark Evanier Stuart Fischer

Shane Foley Steven Friedt Janet Gilbert Ron Goulart Grand Comics Database (website) Jim Kealy William Lampkin Mark Lewis Art Lortie Samuel Maronie Doug Martin William Mitchell John Orlando J.C. Preas, Jr. Ken Quattro Gene Reed Al Rodriguez David Saunders Mac Schick Dan St. John Jeff Taylor Mike Tiefenbacher Dann Thomas John Workman Dr. Michael J. Vassallo John Wells Yocitrus

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Len Wein, Rich Buckler, John Calnan, & Doug Fratz

Contents Writer/Editorial: Of Centaurs & Owls—& Others! . . . . . . . . . . 2 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!: Frank Thomas Cartoon Scrapbook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Daughter Nancy Bardeen tells Michael T. Gilbert about the 1940s artist of The Owl & The Eye.

Those Unforgettable Super-Heroes Of Dell & Gold Key . . . 29

Stuart Fischer’s overview of icons of the comics empire & aftermath of Dell/Western— with a special preface by Mark Evanier.

My Life In Little Pieces – Part III . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 More of the “off-beat autobio” of Golden & Silver Age writing great John Broome.

Ted White On Comics – Part 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 Concluding Bill Schelly’s talk with the SF fan, writer, and editor.

Tributes: Len Wein, Rich Buckler, John Calnan, & Doug Fratz . 76 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 83 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #210 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Mike Tiefenbacher on the Captain Marvel ©opyright ©risis.

On Our Cover: “The Eye Sees” and “The Owl” were the two major comicbook accomplishments of Golden Age artist (and writer) Frank Thomas—the first for the nearly forgotten Centaur group, the other for Dell/Western in its near-infancy… so we combined the artist and his two major four-color brainchildren (plus Billy & Bonny Bee) on our calamitous cover. See the story of the cover’s evolution on p. 83. [Art © the respective copyright holders; photo © 2018 Nancy Bardeen.] Above: Never heard of “Phantasmo, Master of the World”? Never saw a comicbook Captain Midnight in brown aviator gear before? Then you haven’t seen the early-1940s issues of Dell/Western’s The Funnies, which for a time featured both those heroes. Learn all about them in Stuart Fischer’s article on Dell, Gold Key—and then Dell again! Cover of The Funnies #57 (July 1941)—depicted by a woefully forgotten artist. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.] 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, $99 Elsewhere, $30 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. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Roy Thomas or TwoMorrows. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890. FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Of Centaurs & Owls—& Others!

or Marvel? Marvel or DC?

For more than a half-century now, that has been the question. Mainly because, ever since Marvel christened itself in 1963, that has been the primary choice of flavors for those who find something particularly exhilarating and rewarding in the concept of the super-hero.

By 1963, Fawcett’s heroes had been gone for a decade… Quality’s for half that long… the Archie group’s super-heroes (except for Simon & Kirby’s contributions, circa 1959) had shown it should stick to the high-school antics it did so well… and, over the years since, newcomers like Tower and Malibu and Dark Horse never really stood a chance, whatever their characters’ virtues. In the 1940s, however, the situation was quite different. DC ruled the roost super-hero-wise pretty much from the start in 1938-39… but Marvel-precursor Timely Comics wasn’t even #2. That spot would’ve gone to Fawcett, courtesy of the original Captain Marvel and his over-extended Family… while several other hero-oriented companies like Quality and Nedor and pre-Archie MLJ were also in the running for a time. (Dell/Western actually became #1 in comicbook sales during this period, but after the early ’40s without benefit of super-heroes, unless you counted Tarzan.) Alter Ego, despite its desire to celebrate various companies and creators prior to 1975, has succumbed somewhat to the temptation to treat DC, Marvel, and (because of each issue’s FCA section) Fawcett as a Golden Age “Big Three”… because that’s how it looks in retrospect. The more so since DC long since purchased the major assets of both Fawcett and Quality. But there were other contenders for the super-hero crown in the early, frenetic days of super-hero comics, and two of them are showcased in this very issue. The first is the Centaur group (shorthand for 2-3 successive

companies), which had some of the weirdest super-heroes ever. When a fellow high school teacher first told me in 1961 about Centaur’s crazy crew of characters, I thought he was kidding! A giant flying eye that fought hoodlums? A guy who lived beneath the 1939 New York World’s Fair and emerged only to clobber criminals? Plus—an actual centaur? But the Centaur group was real—and we’re particularly proud and happy this issue that, through the good offices of Mr. Monster’s buddy Michael T. Gilbert, Nancy Bardeen is sharing the story of her father, Frank Thomas (no relation), who wrote and drew “The Eye Sees” for all of its one-year history, plus a couple of other stalwarts for that company. This has fired us up to see the in-depth story of Centaur told one of these days, though Lee Boyette made a valiant start over the course of A/E #85, 87, & 91—still available wherever A/E back issues are sold (i.e., from TwoMorrows Publishing). The second contender is Dell Comics—really the comicbookfinancing partner of Western Publishing, as Mark Evanier and Stuart Fischer explain roughly 25 pages from now—which most comics aficionados associate more with Donald Duck and Roy Rogers than with super-powered crime-fighters. And yet, for Dell & Western, the aforementioned Frank Thomas redefined “The Owl,” a hero very much in the Batman mold who usurped the covers of their Crackajack Funnies from 1940-42. And, as Stuart F. recounts over some three dozen pages, The Owl had enough company at Dell—Phantasmo, Captain Midnight, Magic Morro, The Voice, Masked Pilot, Supermind and Son, even a Marvel Man from another world—to have started a Justice Society all its own. While, in the ’60s and ’70s, Dell and Western (by then traveling separate publishing paths) launched such offbeat super-heroes as Magnus, Robot Fighter; Nukla; Dr. Solar, Man of the Atom; Werewolf; and Dr. Spektor, he of the Occult Files. Never heard of some of the above? Then get set for a treat in the next 65 pages…

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Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Frank Thomas: The Early Years by Michael T. Gilbert

Introduction #1

n the nearly twenty years I’ve produced Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, I’m particularly proud of having spotlighted some terrific, sadly neglected cartoonists. Fred Kelly, Abe Kanegson, Bob Powell, Pete Morisi, and Al Walker are a few of those whose personal lives were shared in these pages. These cartoonists are long gone, but their friends brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters provided rare insights, art, and photos. Today we continue that tradition with a delightful, personal scrapbook celebrating the life and career of Frank Thomas, courtesy of Frank’s daughter, Nancy Bardeen. Our thanks to the great detective work of Chris Beneke, Rod Beck, and Yocitrus for bringing Nancy to our attention. For the uninitiated, Mr. Thomas was one of comics’ earliest pioneers, having begun his comicbook career in 1939 for the Centaur Comics group. Thomas had a delightfully understated cartoony style that was quite engaging. He was also a solid writer, with a clever sense of humor. One of his most famous creations (and certainly his most bizarre!) was “The Eye.” The Eye was literally a floating eyeball that wreaked swift vengeance on various evildoers. Thomas also drew “Solarman,” “Dr. Hypno,” and “Chuck Hardy” for Centaur. Undoubtedly, the most famous of Thomas’ signature features was “The Owl,” drawn for Dell’s comicbook line back in the very early 1940s. According to author/historian Ron Goulart, cartoonist Bill Baltz first drew the avian hero, who debuted in Dell’s

Paging Dr. Hypno! (Above:) Another bizarre Frank Thomas hero—this one from Centaur/Comic Corporation of America’s Amazing-Man Comics #14 (July 1940). It’s quite likely that Thomas wrote all (or nearly all) of the super-hero work that he illustrated during the Golden Age, though that fact is not ultimately provable. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Crackajack Funnies #25 (July 1940), before moving to the company’s Popular Comics. Frank Thomas took over the strip with the second episode in Crackajack #26, drawing and (presumably) writing every subsequent Golden Age story. At Dell, Thomas also drew “Billy and Bonny Bee,” beginning with a Sept. 1942 issue, as well as the “Buddies” and “Don Bugaboo” series and a single story featuring “The Beetle in the Battle of the Bug Battalion.” He also provided scripts and layouts for such popular features as “Little Lulu,” “Andy Panda,” and “Woody Woodpecker.” Thomas left comicbooks in the early ’50s, feeling increasingly uncomfortable with the unsavory reputation with which the industry was becoming saddled.

He subsequently made a career in commercial art, editorial cartooning, and syndicated strips. His newspaper strips included Going West (later renamed Hossface Hank) and Francis the Talking Mule (which he didn’t create). Earlier strips included his unsold Dinky. In the ’50s Thomas began ghosting the popular Ferd’nand and There Oughta Be a Law series.

Frank Thomas Cartoon Scrapbook

Frank Thomas passed away in 1968 at age 54, a victim of esophageal cancer. That’s enough preamble. Now let’s see what Frank’s daughter has to say about her dad. We begin with an e-mail from Nancy, sent to me shortly after I contacted her, asking about her father.

Nancy Bardeen Remembers Dear Michael, I remember my father very well. I was born a month after Pearl Harbor, and have only a couple of memories of the war. My father’s Golden Age Comics period was over with the war. He commuted to the city from our rented house a block and a half from the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn. He had Top Secret clearance and worked as a draftsman, drawing planes for (I think) the Air Force. He was a wonderful father. Every payday he stopped by a Woolworth’s and bought some little piece of furniture for my shoebox doll house. I’d be jumping up and down, of course, as soon as he came through the front door, and he’d start searching through all his pockets for what he’d bought for me. Couldn’t find it. Oh NO! He’d LOST IT! I was going crazy. One pocket after another. (He wore suits and vests and a hat those days—lots of pockets.) FINALLY, he’d produce the item. Whew!

Rock ’Em, Sock ’Em Robots! (Above:) Frank illustrated this striking cover featuring Centaur’s Fantom of the Fair—his only work on the character—for Centaur Publications’ Amazing Mystery Funnies, Vol. 2, #11 (Nov. 1939). The masked hero (whose other identity was never revealed) lived beneath the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair grounds. After the end of 1940, Centaur continued business as the Comic Corporation of America—but for convenience’s sake, we’ll mostly refer to the company as “Centaur.” [© the respective copyright holders.]

After he hung up the hat, etc., he settled down in his chair to read the Telegram newspaper, with me in his lap to keep me out of my mother’s hair while she cooked dinner. That is how I learned to read before I went to school. (Good thing—the schools were very bad in that neighborhood at that time.) I distinctly remember the eureka moment I had when I got the idea that the “a” on the page was when you said the “a” in “a table.” He’d point to words suitable for sounding out, and so I learned to read from the World-Telegram. On bad schools…

Oh My! The Eye! How many teenage boys dreamed of peeking into a sexy lady’s boudoir as The Eye does here? From Keen Detective Funnies #18 (March 1940); the official name of the Frank Thomas-created feature was always “The Eye Sees.” The Grand Comics Database attributes the script as well as art to Thomas, though the former part of the equation must be mostly an educated guess. [© the respective copyright holders.]

When I started first grade there, I was getting picked on, big-time, so he tried to teach me to box. How you tuck your thumb inside your fist so it doesn’t get injured when you jab, how to hold your arms, look for an opening.... I can still hear my mother’s reproachful voice from the kitchen doorway, “Frank, she’s a GIRL!” Dad had graduated from a very tough high school in Erie, PA. He wasn’t the place’s standard issue of big and tough, and he had an artist’s hands, and worst of all he liked to draw.

Answering An Incessantly Asked Question

Dell was no longer telling them what to publish. A lot of comics fans make the mistake of trying to view the 40+ years of comics with the Dell logo as one continuous company. From the standpoint of financing and distribution, it was. But if ones cares more about continuity of creative staff and characters, it makes more sense to view all the Western Publishing product (Dell up until ’62, Gold Key thereafter) as one company… and the post-’62 Dell Comics as a brand-new, separate line.

Come To The Carnival! The (rarely seen) wraparound cover of 1933’s 36-page Famous Funnies: A Carnival of Comics, a collaboration between Dell and Eastern Color Printing that is more often considered by historians to be “the first true American comicbook.” It was distributed through the Woolworth five-and-dime store chain—either for free or for a sum not printed on its cover. Bud Fisher’s famous Mutt and Jeff are featured. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Dell was not Western’s only client for comicbooks; Dell had an exclusive deal for conventional newsstand-type comics, but there were other markets. For example, Western produced a comicbook called March of Comics that was one of the most widely circulated comicbooks in the history of mankind. It was a giveaway premium item—I used to get it when I was a tyke and my folks bought me shoes—and some issues reportedly were printed in quantities of five million and up. But try and find ’em today. Western produced those comics—usually using the characters they’d licensed from Disney, Warners, and others— and sold them directly to chain stores and other clients. They also produced educational comics like Donald Duck Teaches Kite Safety. Dell was not involved with any of those books. In 1962, following a dispute about money, Dell and Western parted company. Dell hired editors, writers, and artists and started a comicbook division from scratch. Western kept what was essentially the same comicbook line going, financing it themselves, putting a “Gold Key Comics” logo on covers… and making the changes they thought wise, since

Eastern Is Eastern, & Western Is Western Another Dell/Eastern Color team-up: Famous Funnies: Series 1, from early 1934— with Mutt and Jeff, Joe Palooka, et al. The editor was M.C. Gaines, later the publisher of the All-American Comics line. After this single issue, Dell and Eastern Color went their separate ways, with Eastern continuing Famous Funnies as a regular title and Dell later hitching up with Western. [© the respective copyright holders.]

The combination of Dell and Western made for what was, in its time, a much more successful comicbook publisher than most fans today realize. At a time when there was absolutely no speculator market—no one buying more than one comic, no one buying for investment purposes— they had many titles routinely selling in the millions. Comicbooks were more popular then, and Dell’s distribution was easily the most efficient in comicbook history. (One title—which through a series of All In Four Color For A Dime complicated maneuvers The first issue of the long-running Dell/ was created and printed Western Four Color title featured reprints by Western, distributed of Chester Gould’s popular Dick Tracy newspaper strip, dated Sept. 1939. This by Dell, but “published” initial Four Color series ran for 25 issues— by a company called K.K. after which a second series began with Publications—was a sales a new #1 and ran for 1331 issues! monster. Walt Disney’s [Dick Tracy TM & © the respective trademark Comics and Stories often & copyright holders.] sold over two million, sometimes three million per month. There are successful comicbook companies today that do not sell three million copies a month of all the titles they publish, combined.) In the early 1970s, both Dell and Gold Key were experiencing great problems in getting their comics distributed. Dell gave up in ’73, but Western persisted for a time, largely by distributing their comics—usually in plastic bags of three—in toy and department stores. For a year or so, most of their comics were printed in two editions… some with the Gold Key logo for the declining conventional newsstand distribution, some with a Whitman logo for the retail shops. The editions were otherwise identical. Eventually, they gave up on the newsstand market and, when demand for the Whitman editions subsequently collapsed, they ceased publishing comics altogether. ’Twas a sad end for what had once been the most successful comicbook company of all time. Mark Evanier is a veteran comics and TV writer. In comics he has especially been identified with DC’s 1980s Blackhawk comic (drawn by Dan Spiegle) and with his and Will Meugniot’s independent comicbook DNAgents. This piece first appeared on his blogsite www.newsfromme.com, and we thank Mark for his permission to reprint it.

Dell, Western, Gold Key—& Dell Again!—Part II

Those Unforgettable Super-Heroes Of DELL & GOLD KEY An Overview by Stuart Fischer

ell Comics and Gold Key’s parent corporation, Western Publishing and Lithographing Company, were partners, at least until they made the decision in 1962 to go their separate ways. It was a collaboration between two very successful companies that had begun in 1938. Let’s take a look at both companies, and at who and what they were before their collaboration began. Western Publishing and Lithographing Company was founded in 1907. One thing that helped make Western successful was its Little Golden Books series, which featured illustrated simple stories for children. In the 1930s, Western decided to get into the comicbook business and did so by striking up a partnership with Dell Comics, a unit of Dell Publishing Company.

Dell Publishing was launched in 1921 by George T. Delacorte, Jr., to publish pulp magazines, paperback books, even hardcover books. Dell became enthusiastic about the new medium of comicbooks and was involved with them from 1929 to 1974. Dell enjoyed its greatest success in the comicbook business while teamed with Western Publishing from 1938 to 1962. Western produced

The Puppy & The Publisher (Above:) One of the most famous of Western Publishing’s Little Golden Books for children is The Poky Little Puppy, first issued in 1942 and virtually never out of print since. [TM & © Western Publishing or successors in interest.] (Left:) George T. Delacorte, Jr.,

the comics that Dell would founder (and quasi-namesake) finance and distribute. It was of Dell Publishing. a beautiful and innovative collaboration, because both companies were very good at what they did, and the teaming lasted a quarter of a century.

Western was heavily into licensed product. It forged important and lasting relationships with many of the Hollywood studios, ranging from Walt Disney to Universal to Hanna-Barbera, producing comicbooks based on the studios’ television series and motion pictures. That company also had close Say Uncle! relationships with newspaper comic strip syndicates Probably the most famous such as King Features, United Features, and the Tribune hero created specifically Company, and reprinted in comicbook form such strips for Dell/Western is Uncle as Dick Tracy and Tarzan, among numerous others.

Scrooge McDuck, who was originally developed as a supporting character for “Donald Duck” stories by writer/artist (and ex-Disney animator) Carl Barks. Scrooge made the jump to his own series with Four Color #386 (March 1952), aka Uncle Scrooge in Only a Poor Old Man, and only began to appear in animated Disney shorts some decades later. All of the Barks Scrooge material, and a considerable amount by Barks’ successors, has been reprinted over the past few decades. [TM & © Disney.]

Dell and Western really were the eyes of America; they knew what America was seeing at the movies and on television and in newspapers. Any TV series or film that they believed could be profitably adapted into comicbooks, they would arrange with the rights-owner for them to translate into the comics magazines they published. The Dell/Western comics, and later those from Gold Key, were extremely faithful to the original incarnations upon which they were based. After the Dell/Western Publishing relationship ended in 1962, both companies remained in the comicbook business, only as separate entities. Dell continued to produce comics on its own until the early 1970s but did not fare as well as they had hoped and eventually opted to get out of the business. The company was still very prosperous with its book

An Overview

and magazine lines, especially their crossword puzzles; eventually Dell Publishing was sold and is now part of the huge Random House group. In 1962, Western Publishing formed its own in-house comicbook company, called Gold Key Comics, and pretty much continued in the same fashion as before with Dell, except that now they decided to create their own characters in addition to licensing from others. For the rest of the 1960s and into the ’70s, Gold Key actually did quite well with a mix of original comicbooks and licensed titles. During the Silver Age of Comics, Gold Key even produced a few reasonably successful super-heroes and related characters, such as Magnus, Robot Fighter; Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom; and Mighty Samson. It also picked up where Dell/Western had left off with Turok, Son of Stone.

Horse Operas & Space Operas Need Not Apply While a case could easily have been made for including them in this overview, it was decided not to include most cowboy or science-fiction features from Dell/Western, including even these two primo refugees from such media such as pulp magazines, radio, comic strips, movies, and TV. (Left to right:) The Lone Ranger, whose first comicbook stories were in Four Color #82 (1945 – artist unknown) & TV’s Tom Corbett, Space Cadet, who premiered comicswise in Four Color #378 (Feb. 1952); cover painting by Alden McWilliams. [Lone Ranger TM & © Lone Ranger Television, Inc., or successors in interest; Tom Corbett TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

In the licensing area, Western maintained good working relationships with the major studios such as Disney and Warner Bros., whose characters such as Donald Duck, Uncle Scrooge, Mickey Mouse, and Bugs Bunny continued to sell well. In addition, Gold Key had its eye out for TV series and motion picture properties. Along with adaptations of prime-time TV shows such as Happy Days and Adam-12… and of daytime television, such as Saturday morning cartoons and such weekday shows as Dark Shadows. The MGM and Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters also did very well for Gold Key: The Flintstones and Scooby-Doo, to mention just two. Western continued to be the eyes of America because its powers-that-were knew what Americans were viewing on television and at the movies and what they were reading in newspapers and books, and they tried to capture it all. Western also maintained its relationship with Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., and continued to publish Tarzan and even added a spin-off title, Korak, Son of Tarzan. As they had during their partnership with Dell, Western/Gold Key remained very faithful to all of the characters they licensed. One characteristic of Gold Key (continued from Dell/Western) that set it apart from most other comics publishers is that many of its covers were painted. These made its covers stand out from the line art utilized by most of its competitors. Gold Key ceased publishing comics in the early 1980s, due to lax management, strong competition from DC and Marvel, and new companies that were emerging in the 1980s and were taking their share of the market.

Another factor in Western’s ceasing to publish comicbooks was problems with distribution. Fewer newsstands were carrying comics, and the comicbook specialty stores did not sell enough of Gold Key’s product to keep Western satisfied. Eventually, it got out of the comics business. After a few corporate takeovers, in 2001 the company was dismantled and its assets were sold off to various buyers, primarily Random House and Classic Media. Still, no one can deny the enormous impact and contributions the company made during its 94-year history. Golden Books are now being published by Random House through an imprint called Random House Golden Books, and new deals have been made by Random House and Classic Media in the past two decades or so to bring back Gold Key heroes such as Turok, Dr. Solar, and Magnus, Robot Fighter, keeping these decades-old creations alive, but in a more contemporary form. It is Dell’s and Gold Key’s super-heroes and related “action heroes” (though, with one exception, we’ve skipped Western heroes, even the mask-wearing and iconic Zorro and Lone Ranger— and we had to leave out a science-fiction entry or two as well) that are the subject of the following article. We’ll examine them, one by one, in alphabetical order….

Those Unforgettable Super-Heroes Of Dell & Gold Key

Brain Boy Dell Comics - 6 issues: Four Color #1330 (Apr.-June 1962) & Brain Boy #2-6, (July-Sept. 1962 – Sept.-Nov. 1963) Brain Boy was not your typical super-hero series—not even for Dell Comics. The so-called “Brain Boy” was actually a lad named Matt Price. While his mother was pregnant with him, his parents were in an automobile accident that killed his father. Matt was born with great mental powers, due to the automobile having smashed into an electrical tower, with results that somehow altered the mind of the unborn infant. He soon discovered he was not like other kids, having the powers of telepathy and levitation and the ability to control the minds of others. After graduating from high school, Matt was recruited by another telepath, who convinced him to join a secret government agency, where he could use his mind powers to fight the enemies of America’s freedoms. Comics are a reflection of our society, and this comicbook came out at a time when America was recovering from the “Red Scare” of the 1950s; there were many people who believed the country was in danger from Communists at home and abroad. Matt’s mission was to fight all such foes of the U.S., who were using their own telepathic agents to bring down the West. “Brain Boy” was only a code name, a nickname. Matt never did wear any kind of costume. He first appeared in Four Color #1330 in 1962. Following that, the series began with “#2” and lasted until the sixth issue.

Gil Kane

That’s Using Your Brain, Boy! Brain Boy exercises mental control over his opponents in Four Color #1330 (April-June 1962). The dusky skin tones on his part are part of a clever disguise. Script by Herb Castle; art by Gil Kane. Reproduced from the hardcover Dark Horse reprint volume. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Writer Herb Castle and artist Gil Kane created Brain Boy for his Four Color debut. Frank Springer did the artwork for the regular series. This was not a saga of super-strength or super-speed or the ability to fly, such as American comics readers had been used to. The creators attempted to portray what one could accomplish using only a greatly enhanced mind as a weapon in and of itself. Little is known about writer Herb Castle, but “Brain Boy’s” first artist, Gil Kane (1926-2000), was already noted as the original illustrator of DC’s 1960s series Green Lantern and The Atom, and would also do significant work for Marvel beginning in the mid-’60s, as well as later on the newspaper strips Star Hawks and Tarzan. Frank Springer (1929-2009) had worked from 1953-60 on the Terry and the Pirates comic strip. The regular Brain Boy series was his first assignment at Dell. Later, he would do controversial work with writer Michael O’Donoghue on Phoebe Zeitgeist for Evergreen Review magazine. He would also work for DC Comics on “Batman,” etc., and for Marvel on “S.H.I.E.L.D.,” “Spider-Woman,” et al.

Frank Springer Float Like A Butterfly… The young hero shows off his powers of levitation. Script by Herb Castle; art by Frank Springer. Thanks to Comic Book Plus website. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

My Life In Little Pieces – Part III

Continuing The “Offbeat Autobio” Of Golden/Silver Age Writer JOHN BROOME A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: In Alter Ego #149-150 we commenced our serialization of this 1998 memoir by Irving Bernard (John) Broome, noted for his Golden Age comicbook scripting but even more so for his writing of DC’s Silver Age Flash and Green Lantern. He was the original co-creating scribe of the latter, under his friend and editor Julius Schwartz. Our thanks to John’s daughter, Ricky Terry Brisacque, for permission to reprint her father’s short book; thanks to Brian K. Morris for retyping it for us. Here, following his previous remarks concerning his wife Peggy, some of the peculiarities of living in Japan (where he taught English for the last two decades of his life), and his love of the English language, Broome takes time to reminisce about his feelings about Man’s Best Friend….

dogs. At that time, we were living in a sparsely populated country area in New York State. On the two-mile walk to the village, every dog along the way had to retreat to kennel or house as we went by. If they persisted in sticking their nose outdoors, Bunk charged them and drove them inside. He would clean up each place carefully, sometimes including chickens, before proceeding on to the next house that might be on that road a distance away. I don’t believe Bunk hated those fellow creatures he attacked: it was just that, considering his extraction, he thought that ﬁghting was the best way of showing strong mutual respect.

A Prayer A dog for walking A friend for talking A child for laughter And God hereafter l once met a man on the street and stopped to admire his dog. “Yes,” said the man, looking down at his pet, “he’s a nice dog. He’s a good dog.” Then raising his eyes to meet mine, he said evenly, “He’s a pest.”

Dogs Like People Dogs like people are different the world over. Not only so but in national characteristics, dogs take after their masters to a marked degree. The dogs of Ireland are very good-natured. They will walk up to an utter stranger, wagging their tails. Almost, they seem to be asking you to step in and have a drink with them, or to come sit down in the parlor for a nice chat. I once had an Irish Kerry Blue Terrier. Bunk was his name (after Bunk Johnson, the early jazz trumpeter). These dogs are bred for pit-ﬁghting in Ireland and Bunk, you might say, was well-bred. He was a big black dog with a chest like John L. Sullivan’s. He loved people, slobbered over them. But he was sheer misery on other

Twin Team-Ups (Left:) John Broome (on our left) with 1980s DC writer and editor Mike W. Barr, at the 1998 San Diego Comic-Con. Courtesy of MWB. (Above:) The Flash guest-starred in Green Lantern #13 (June 1962)—script by Broome, pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Joe Giella. Broome, of course, was the major Silver Age scripter of both heroes, though Robert Kanigher had scripted the origin of the second Flash. Thanks to Doug Martin. [TM & © DC Comics.]

John Broome Memoir—Continued

which could make life momentarily easier for them—one chap I remember had donned a species of ragged khaki uniform and appointed himself guardian of parked cars, in the zocolo of Cuernvaca, claiming a modest reward each time a shopper returned to ﬁnd his or her vehicle still there and miraculously intact. But—you might care to inquire—what about Japanese dogs? Well, I’ve noticed in my years in Japan that the dogs there do a lot of barking, but the puzzling thing seems to be that only gaijins living nearby hear the racket they make. To all appearances, their Japanese owners and the neighbors as well don’t hear the noise at all. I’ve mulled over this anomaly for a long time, but I confess myself stumped. Confucius is reputed to have said that it was not until his 62nd year that he was able to get his ears to obey him. But l can hardly believe that the mass of ordinary Japanese citizens can have attained such an elevated degree of satori as to be able to select from the multiplicity of sounds around them only just what they want to hear. So there must be another answer and perhaps it lies in an area suggested by the experience of an acquaintance, a young English teacher here in Tokyo who was waked up every morning at 5 AM by the ear-splitting vocalizations of the dog next door. At length, this chap couldn’t stand it any longer and one morning a little after ﬁve, he knocked on his neighbor’s door and when a sleepy-eyed Japanese in night clothes appeared our man registered his complaint. “Can’t something be done about your dog?” he asked after carefully excusing himself and bowing politely. “He’s driving me crazy.”

Going To The Dogs (Above:) John Broome did a lot of writing about dogs for DC Comics, since he was a major scripter for its long-running (and long-titled) series The Adventures of Rex the Wonder Dog. Here, appropriate for an article that mentions “the canines of Mexico,” is a splash panel featuring Rex and some hostile resurrected Aztecs (or so it seems), in Rex #14 (March-April 1954). Pencils by Gil Kane, inks by Bernard Sachs. Thanks to Jim Kealy. [TM & © DC Comics.] (Right:) They may call it an “Irish Kerry Blue Terrier”—but a lot of them are black. They don’t really look as tough as Broome describes them, but we’ll take his word for it!

And take Bali, for instance. There is something strangely demonic about this island. The grotesque, diabolically ecstatic statues that abound on bridges and temple grounds, the astonishing mass dances like the famous Monkey Dance that I saw in Ubud; all give the impression of a deity-inﬂamed society a touch off its rocker. And the dogs? Well, they are absolutely demented, xenophobic— hydrophobic! Screaming, howling, roaring, writhing at the first glimpse of an oncoming stranger, they made one visitor conclude that here, indeed, was dire need for a mass on-the-spot exorcism. The contrast between the Bali dogs and the canines of Mexico encountered a couple of decades earlier could hardly be greater. Listless, dispirited, drooping hounds in infinite numbers, the dogs of Mexico struck one as panhandlers to the manner born. Eking a precarious livelihood from tourists on the basis of their deeply mournful eyes and mangy befrazzled coats, they were, these four-footed sad sacks, the canine counterparts of the small-fry bureaucrats of the land who—at least it was that way then—kept one eye ever open for mordida, the extra, the tip, the petty bribe

The Japanese man looked at him with the utmost sympathy and understanding. “I know,” he nodded, sighing sadly. “He bothers me, too.” And that, one must report, was that. Finally, as one small salt-and-peppery specimen of American dog, I’d like to present Smoky. This was before the era of Bunk in our lives and I used to walk the two miles to the village from our place alone almost every day. Smoky would spy me from near the porch of his house and with a bloodcurdling yell—half screamer bomb and half war whoop—would head for me on the dead run. He would snap at my ankles and pants legs, frothing with hatred and a well-nigh unbearable distaste for my person. He made my life so miserable that I began to think I either had to brain him with a piece of fence or stop walking that road, except there was no other road. Sometimes when I came along he seemed asleep on his porch and I’d try to slip past without waking him, but old Smoky never slept, he only bided his time waiting for me (I’m sure I was the high point of his day). I’d be pussyfooting along on the macadam and one of his ears would stir, then stiffen to full alert, and one eye would bolt open. Instantly he’d scramble up—explode would be more accurate—and fly down at me yelling blue murder. Although the situation looked hopeless, I somehow conceived the notion I might make friends with Smoky. In the beginning, this was as farfetched an idea as a covenant between Israel and Syria, say, but little by little, over a period of weeks, we actually reached a stage where he allowed me to pet him, to my considerable relief.

Fawcett Publications & Its Complicated Legal Legacy – Part I by Mike Tiefenbacher

sales—felt considerable consternation at the slow boil of contempt FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: They have saved the world a hundred times comicbooks were receiving from parents concerning violent and over… but an even greater challenge for super-heroes has been facing sexual content in what was perceived as a children’s medium, at often-dubious copyright and trademark plights ever since the birth of the contentious Senate hearings led by Estes Kefauver, and perhaps the comicbook industry in the 1930s. Notably, any discourse attempting most tellingly, at the amount of money they were paying lawyers to to comprehend the original Captain Marvel’s complicated copyright litigate the lawsuit National/DC had filed against their flagship title complexities, in particular, usually concludes in a convoluted clutter fourteen years earlier—and decided Fawcett Publications didn’t of confusion and uncertainty. In this first installment of a three-part need to be in the comicbook business anymore. presentation, comics historian Mike Tifenbacher courageously steps By the point at which it ceased, the forward to investigate and, God willing, Fawcett line had, in the space of one bring clarity to these ponderous legalities Slow Death Funnies year, shrunk from 26 titles (in issues surrounding the World’s Mightiest Mortal The death of Fawcett Publications’ Marvel Family was so dated March 1953, released in January) and many other characters caught in similar gradual that it was almost like organ failure. First to go to 22 in March, 12 in May, 11 in July, mucky predicaments battled not by the was Master Comics (#133, April 1953; cover art by Kurt eight in September, and just five in heroes themselves, but by politicians, judges, Schaffenberger), then Captain Marvel Jr. (#119, June, November. and attorneys. —P.C. Hamerlinck 1953; art by Bud Thompson), followed by Whiz Comics

t would have been so much easier all around if they hadn’t waited twenty years to do it.

Sometime in 1953, Fawcett Publications executives looked at their

(#155, June 1953; main art by Schaffenberger), Captain Marvel Adventures (#150, Nov. 1953; art by C.C. Beck) and finally, the entire Marvel Family (#89, Jan. 1954; art by Schaffenberger). The covers of CMJr #119 and Marvel Family #89 have always seemed so perfect as “last-issue covers” that they seem almost to have been designed specifically for that purpose… but they probably weren’t. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

Its horror, crime, and romance lines, for reasons probably having to do with a desire not to tarnish the main line with the censorship controversies surrounding those genres, not only were never listed in the masthead

Summer Re-runs You’d think that long-established non-Shazam-endowed Fawcett stars would’ve populated Charlton’s comics, after that company bought them… but such sightings turned out to be rare birds, indeed. Whiz Comics refugee Ibis the Invincible made one cover appearance (Danger and Adventure #22, Feb. 1955), as did Lance O’Casey (D&A #23, April 1955). Master Comics and solo comic star Nyoka had a respectable Charlton run of 15 issues (debuting with Zoo Funnies #8, Oct.Nov. 1954), but she was licensed from Republic Pictures. More prevalent were reprints of non-series fare such as Negro Romance (#4, May 1955), really just a second printing of Fawcett’s #2 from August 1950 with a new cover replacing the original photo. Nearly all reprints of other companies’ stories ceased in ’55 when the Charlton plant in Derby, Connecticut, was flooded and virtually all original and Photostatic artwork was lost. [Ibis TM & © DC Comics; Nyoka TM & © Bill Black; other art © the respective copyright holders.]

printed in every Fawcett comic, or in the group’s house ads, but by this time, were not even labeled “A Fawcett Publication” on their covers. The Marvel family of titles, likely still the sales leaders of the line, had died off incrementally during the year: Master Comics ended in February with #133, Captain Marvel Jr. in April with #119, Whiz Comics likewise in April with #155, Captain Marvel Adventures in September with #150, and The Marvel Family in November with #89. Aside from the last-named title, the only other Fawcett comics to reach November were three Westerns (Lash LaRue Western, Rocky Lane Western, and Tex Ritter Western) and Funny Animals (whose resident, Hoppy, had ceased being “The Marvel Bunny” at the end of 1950). This precipitous fall in the space of one year was probably attributable to Fawcett using up completed inventory after it decided to end the line, rather than being cancellation decisions based on sales. But Fawcett undoubtedly knew the value of their trademarks, their titles, and their second-class mailing permits. The familyowned company’s decision to cease publishing comics must have been made early enough that, when they did end it all, two other publishers could step in to continue some of its still-commercial titles without a long absence from the stands. One of them was just down the road from their Greenwich headquarters, a mere 35 miles to the northeast in Derby: fellow Connecticut-based resident Charlton Comics. Charlton was a shoestring operation with sales which were undoubtedly a fraction of Fawcett’s, and product that even Charlton must’ve known was inferior to theirs. It was so eager to take advantage of the Fawcett connection that, in addition to picking up ongoing 1953 titles Funny Animals, Gabby Hayes Western, Lash LaRue Western, Monte Hale Western, Nyoka the Jungle Girl, Rocky Lane Western, Romantic Secrets, Romantic Story, Six-Gun Heroes, Strange Suspense Stories, Sweetheart Diary, Sweethearts, Tex Ritter Western, and This Magazine is Haunted, it also brought back Cowboy Western, Don Winslow of the Navy, I Love You, Negro Romance, and Young Eagle (and adopted the Fawcett-style masthead listing on page 1 of their 1954 issues as well).

Notable among these continuations is the fact that, with the exception of Funny Animals and Young Eagle, none of these titles featured any Fawcett characters. There were several Fawcett-owned properties that did make the jump to Charlton, albeit in other titles: TV Teens featured several issues of “Ozzie and Babs” reprints… both “Ibis the Invincible” and “Lance O’Casey” reprints were featured in Danger and Adventure, and Lance also showed up in Don Winslow, Terry and the Pirates, and TV Teens… “Golden Arrow” appeared in a Range Busters reprint and in new stories in Cowboy Western… and “Crime Smasher” (the successor to “Spy Smasher”) appeared in issues of Badge of Justice and Crime and Justice. Reprints starring Republic Pictures’ “Nyoka” appeared in Zoo Funnies before her adventures went all-new and the title was changed to Nyoka the Jungle Girl. New “Young Eagle” adventures appeared in Davy Crockett, Cowboy Western, Wyatt Earp, and Texas Rangers in Action… while new “Hoppy” stories were also done after the reprints (some of which were retitled “Happy the Magic Bunny”) had ceased. Some “Hoppy”/“Happy” stories filled out Charlton’s “Atomic” funnyanimal line: Atomic Mouse, Atomic Rabbit, and Atomic Bunny. Aside from Rocky Lane, Lash LaRue, Gabby Hayes, and Tex Ritter, reprints also included some miscellaneous Western, crime, and science-fiction/horror stuff (Down with Crime reprints in Crime and Justice, and the movie adaptation of Destination Moon in Space Adventures, which was reprinted twice in two years!). Even the use of Dr. Death, the narrator of This Magazine Is Haunted, was a temp job, replaced by Dr. Haunt when the Comics Code was instituted in 1955. By mid-1958, though, no further reprints of Fawcett stories appeared, and no Fawcett-owned characters were appearing—with a single exception, which may have been due to an oversight. Fawcett’s Hot Rod Comics was too close in title to Charlton’s own ongoing title, Hot Rods and Racing Cars, which had been launched the same month, for them to continue that title. Charlton apparently coveted Fawcett’s ongoing series “Clint Curtis” from Hot Rod Comics enough to add it to their own Hot Rods title. But, after a