Roy Thomas' Spider-Happy Comics Fanzine
STEVE DITKO REMEMBERED
No. 160 September 2019
$9.95
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82658 00373
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Art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
In the USA
Vol. 3, No. 160 / September 2019 Editor
Roy Thomas
Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash
Design & Layout
Christopher Day
Consulting Editor
Contents
John Morrow
FCA Editor
P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor)
Comic Crypt Editor
A brief bird’s-eye view of a remarkable artist—and storyteller—by Nick Caputo.
Steve Ditko Interview—1968 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Michael T. Gilbert
Editorial Honor Roll
Mike & Richard Howell and Mark Canterbury, from the pages of Marvel Main #4.
Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich
Proofreaders
Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding
Cover Artist
“A Very Mysterious Character” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 An essay on Ditko by Yancy Streeter Barry Pearl.
A Life Lived On His Own Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Bernie Bubnis tells of his personal encounters with Spider-Man’s co-creator, 1962-2017.
Two Visits to Steve Ditko’s Studio/Sanctum Sanctorum . . . 45 Russ Maheras on meeting the elusive artist.
Steve Ditko
Steve Ditko . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Cover Colorist
Craig Yoe on Ditko, himself, and the Muppets.
Glenn Whitmore
With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Roger Armstrong Bob Bailey J. Ballmann Nancy Bardeen Mike W. Barr Robert Barrett Michael Barrier Alberto Becattini Ricky Terry Brisacque Bernie & Lucille Bubnis Bart Bush Nick Caputo John Cimino Comic Book Plus (website) Pierre Comtois Chet Cox Brian Cremins Austin English John Fishel Shane Foley Stephan Friedt Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database (website) Karen Green
Writer/Editorial: Steve D., We Hardly Knew Ye! . . . . . . . . . . 2 Steve Ditko: A Life In Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Clizia Gussoni Mike Howell Richard Howell Eric Jansen William B. Jones James Kealy Paul Levitz Mark Lewis Art Lortie Jim Ludwig Russ Maheras Robert Menzies Brian K. Morris Frank Motler Will Murray Eric NolenWeathington Jake Oster Barry Pearl Bob Rozakis Randy Sargent Robin Snyder Bryan Stroud Dann Thomas Mike Tiefenbacher Qiana Whitted Yocitrus Craig Yoe
This issue is dedicated to the memory of
Steve Ditko, Vince Argondezzi, Fred Patten, & Hames Ware
Steve’s Secret . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Paul Levitz remembers collaborating with—and knowing—Steve Ditko
Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! First Love . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Michael T. Gilbert examines the very first art and stories by the great Steve Ditko.
“I Did But See Her Passing By…” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Part XI of the 1998 memoirs of Golden and Silver Age master scripter John Broome.
Comic Fandom Archive: Bart Bush, Then & Now—Part 2 . . . 69 Concluding our talk with the co-founder of OAF (The Oklahoma Alliance of Fans).
Tributes to Vince Argondezzi, Hames Ware & Fred Patten . 75 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 80 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #219 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Brian Cremins’ look at Ditko in This Magazine Is Haunted.
On Our Cover: For several years in the mid-1960s and perhaps even after, a Photostat of this Spider-Man drawing, especially prepared by Steve Ditko (with editor Stan Lee’s name also appended), was mailed out to readers who contacted Marvel Comics asking for a pin-up—or perhaps a lock of Stan’s hair or a frame from Steve’s eyeglasses. Though Ye Editor has retained his own copy all these years, this issue’s actual cover was scanned for us by Nick Caputo—for which thanks! This primo piece of art may well have appeared in color before somewhere—maybe even in Amazing Spider-Man, we forget—but it was colored especially for this issue by Glenn Whitmore. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: The art of the oft-wonderful Steve Ditko first drew the notice of 19-year-old Roy Thomas with the debut of “Captain Atom” in Charlton’s Space Adventures #33 (March 1960), 2½ years before Amazing Fantasy #15, in stories written by co-creator Joe Gill. This splash panel and the origin story depicted Cap mostly in shades of blue—though on the cover his outfit was red and yellow, which would supersede the former hues in early future issues. Years later, after a costume change, the hero was purchased by DC and has been around ever since. Reproduced from DC’s 2004 hardcover The Action Heroes Archives, Vol. 1. [TM & © DC Comics.] 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: $67 US, $101 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. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890. FIRST PRINTING.
writer/editorial
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Steve D., We Hardly Knew Ye! knew Steve Ditko—and yet I didn’t ever know him, not really.
As I’ve often recounted, I first encountered Steve at the Marvel offices at 625 Madison Avenue in Manhattan. I can’t swear that I recall the exact occasion of that initial meeting, but it was almost certainly sometime during July of 1965, in the first week or three after I went to work for Stan Lee and Marvel Comics. Even before that, however, production manager Sol Brodsky, who was great about showing me the ropes and telling me anything that Stan would want him to tell me—and absolutely nothing that Stan wouldn’t want him to tell me—took me aside and explained to me that Stan and Steve “don’t speak to each other anymore.” ’Sfunny… I don’t specifically recalling meeting Ditko himself, but I very clearly recall Sol filling me in concerning the odd situation that then existed between the company’s editor and main writer and the artist/plotter of Amazing Spider-Man and Strange Tales’ “Doctor Strange”! I learned no more, I recall, than that this impasse had come about because Stan and Steve had found they were arguing more and more about stories and the direction of the Spider-Man series. It never occurred to me to ask whose idea the no-speak situation had been; but of course, common sense dictated that it had to have been Stan’s decision. As editor, he was technically Ditko’s superior. Years later, in writings for his friend and partner Robin Snyder’s newsletter The Comics!, the artist confirmed that obvious assumption. And indeed, for pretty much the remainder of 1965, I witnessed that four-color version of a restraining order in operation. From time to time, Ditko would walk into Sol’s production office, which I shared with him and secretary Flo Steinberg—I don’t recall if there was any special day of the week that he was more likely to pop in, like Jack Kirby on Fridays, but
I doubt it. It was pretty much dependent, I think, on when he finished either the pencils or inks for a particular story—or perhaps when Sol (or Flo) phoned to tell him that penciled, Stan-scripted pages had come back from a letterer so he could come pick them up and ink them. I’m pretty sure pages were rarely if ever mailed directly to his studio by Artie Simek or Sam Rosen, let alone by Stan or Sol. I don’t remember many of my brief conversations with Steve at the office (really, they were usually just a “hello/goodbye” kind of thing), but I do know that he seemed friendly and distant at the same time, so I never tried to push. I had kind feelings toward him, of course, not just because I had been an admirer of his artwork ever since he’d started drawing “Captain Atom” for Charlton half a decade before (and even more so because of Spider-Man), but because after I published my initial issue of the first volume of Alter Ego (#7, Fall of ’64), he’d sent me, totally unsolicited and unexpected, an ornate black-&-white cartoon. It depicted a sort of hybrid pencil & brush (wearing glasses) transforming over what amounted to a 10-panel horizontal page to Peter Parker to Spidey to Aunt May to Dr. Strange to Jonah Jameson to an ink bottle—which in the next panel had tipped over and spilled ink, so that little pawprints (from some unknown, invisible critter) led to Ditko’s signature and a pile of letters that contained most of the vowels and consonants of his name—followed (after a scribbled “or,”) by an ink blob. The copy, running between the panels—well, you can read that on the facing page, in a reprinting of that sheet, which has been specially colored (for the first time I can recall) for this issue of A/E by Randy Sargent. Five Ditko artistic creations—in a cartoon sequence—and somehow I managed to let someone talk me out of it, decades ago, in a trade that was surely the worst idea I had since I sold my spare copy of Fantastic Four #1 for half a buck. I do recall one occasion, at least the second or third time he’d dropped by Marvel after I started work there, having him say to
COMING IN OCTOBER
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A Full-Issue Tribute To
STAN (The Man) LEE!
ers, Inc.
TM & © Marvel Charact
• Vintage Galactus cover art by JACK KIRBY & VINCE COLLETTA! • STAN’s cataclysmic & continuing contributions to comics honored, from 1941 to 2018—with special tributes and reminiscences by ROY THOMAS, MARV WOLFMAN, GERRY CONWAY, JIM SHOOTER, STEVE ENGLEHART, JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER, et al.—plus annotated 21st-century e-mails between STAN & ROY—studded with rare photos and raucous art by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, JOE MANEELY, JOHN ROMITA, BILL EVERETT, MARIE SEVERIN, JOHN BUSCEMA, GENE COLAN, MOEBIUS, & many others! • Special STAN-Sections by MR. MONSTER & MICHAEL T. GILBERT—BILL SCHELLY—& even P.C. HAMERLINCK’s FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America]! And that’s not all—not by a long shot!
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“Steve D., We Hardly Knew Ye!”
3
[Characters TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art © Estate of Steve Ditko.]
any other time, to either Sol or Stan, as to why he was quitting. (I knew it wasn’t over a page rate, since Sol had at that time, on his desk, a memo he had intended to mention to Steve that gave him a $5 a page raise, not a totally inconsiderable sum in those days. It was probably a 10% increase or thereabouts.)
me as he was about to leave that he’d be back with another story soon. I smiled and joshed, “So there’s gonna be another one, huh?” or words to that effect. After he had departed, Sol called me over and said to me in a hushed voice that I should be very careful about saying such things to “Steve” (he never called him “Ditko,” even when he wasn’t there). When I professed my puzzlement, Sol explained his reasoning: “A guy like him”—whatever that meant— might get halfway back to his studio and suddenly wonder, “What did he mean by that? Does he know something I don’t?” Somehow, the notion that Steve Ditko might be worried that Stan Lee or Marvel was going to fire him just didn’t compute with me, but I recall watching my words more carefully the remaining time or two he came in after that day. Anyway, I never made any attempt to see Steve socially or visit him at his office—I sensed he wouldn’t have appreciated it; and besides, I was totally wrapped up in the demands and delights of my new job as first “staff writer,” then “editorial assistant,” at Marvel. The next memory I have is of Steve coming in one day to drop off and/or pick up pages from Sol, breezing in and out as usual while Stan, utilizing some kind of radar sense that would’ve made Daredevil envious, as usual managed to remain in his office until the artist had left, so that in all my life I never saw the two of them together. As my wife Dann likes to point out to me, as far as I knew, they could’ve been one and the same person, leading some kind of perverse double life! But on this occasion, I quickly learned—after Stan did, from Sol—that Ditko was quitting, that he’d informed Sol he would complete the “Spider-Man” and “Doctor Strange” stories on which he was currently working, and that would be it for him and Marvel. Apparently he gave no particular reason that day, or
Stan, for his part, seemed genuinely sorry, though not sorely distressed, at this turn of events, but it couldn’t have been totally unexpected, given the prelude. Over the next few days he moved John Romita over from drawing Daredevil to drawing Spider-Man, and within a few days the two of them were spiritedly plotting away—not just the next issue or two, but the general flow of events for several months to come, with me called into Stan’s office to observe and take notes, for the benefit of both gents. My next encounter with Steve came some weeks later—I don’t remember how many—at a housewarming party thrown by my erstwhile Lower East Side roommate Dave Kaler (then writing for Charlton, after I had recommended him to new editor Dick Giordano) at his new Upper West Side digs. Steve was there, probably since Dave was currently scripting the new Blue Beetle comic which Ditko was illustrating, and I remember Steve and me winding up sitting side by side on a sofa at some point. The only thing I recall clearly was finally summoning up the nerve to ask him why he’d left Marvel—I assured him I wasn’t speaking for Stan, and wouldn’t even repeat his answer to Stan if he didn’t want me to. (That’s a promise I’m not sure I’d have been able to keep, but I meant it when I said it, so I’d like to think I would have.) Steve replied, “Well, you know, when a guy’s working against you…” and then his voice kind of trailed off and he never finished his sentence. I felt it best not to pursue the matter, and soon moved on to talk to others. Colleagues like Flo Steinberg, Gary Friedrich, and Denny O’Neil, among others, were also present that evening. Fast forward at least three or four years, and I happened to run into Steve on E. 86th Street, where I’d moved in late 1968 with my new bride Jeanie. We were throwing a party in a few days, so I spontaneously invited him, and he accepted. He turned up, though I recall nothing else about his being there. For some reason I feel that may have been the same night and party at which DC writer Mike Friedrich suggested to Denny and me that, as current writers of Justice League of America and The Avengers, we should find a way to do a surreptitious crossover between our two groups…
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writer/editorial
which led to my creating and designing the Squadron Sinister, forerunners of the visually identical Squadron Supreme. But Steve had nothing to do with any of that. I sincerely believe that was the last time I ever saw Steve Ditko, although we did exchange brief letters from time to time, always at my initiation. When I revived Alter Ego at the end of the 1990s, I managed, through the good offices of his friend Robin Snyder, to gain permission to reprint the piece he’d written on his memories of working with Stan on the creation of “Spider-Man” in 1962, and even to reprint his drawing of what he recalled Jack Kirby’s earlier version of the web-spinner’s costume as looking like. Other than that, however, my few attempts to communicate him were less successful. When he and I worked together on the Secret City Saga mini-series for Topps Comics in the early ’90s, utilizing concepts devised by Kirby, I wrote him a letter asking if I could possibly buy a page of original artwork from the series as a souvenir. I received a rather curt, handwritten reply turning me down and stating that “I’d prefer not to get into that market,” whatever that meant. I took the hint, though I may have attempted (unsuccessfully) from time to time through Robin to get permission to reprint something of his that had run in The Comics! I’ll confess that little of Steve Ditko’s post-1960s-Marvel work has any special appeal for me, though he remained an interesting and individualistic artist to the very end in the middle of last year. Beware The Creeper and The Hawk and The Dove seemed to me like pale echoes of Amazing Spider-Man, although naturally I purchased them and somewhat admired the art. His later mainstream efforts from “Starman” to Shade the Changing Man to Speedball had even less appeal to me, and I doubt that I bothered to buy every issue. Still, I remain convinced that his rendering of Amazing Spider-Man
was the most important Marvel comic ever that hadn’t been penciled by Jack Kirby. I recall, a couple of decades ago now, when Stan had been wrapped up in a lawsuit with Marvel over the Spider-Man movie money, I suggested to him that if he won a big settlement, it would be a great gesture to offer some of the dough to Ditko. Stan brushed that aside; he never saw himself and Ditko as joined at the hip as creators of the arachnid. And, despite his oft-reprinted letter in which he acknowledged Steve as the “co-creator” of Spider-Man, it was clear to me, and probably to most people, that he didn’t really mean it. That was something I always disagreed with Stan about, just as much as I take umbrage at Ditko saying, in a piece reprinted in this very issue, that he considered Stan merely the “dialoguer” of Spider-Man. Even after Steve took over full plotting, I maintain that there was nothing “mere” about Stan’s dialogue, least of all with respect to the wall-crawler’s sales. Perhaps even more so than Stan and Jack Kirby, Stan and Steve were on opposite pages on just about everything after a while. It’s a shame, because they made quite a team… and between them produced two of the most important comicbook features of the 1960s. And if they’d produced only one (you guess which one!), that would still be just as true. Well, at least one thing is relatively certain now. They won’t be arguing over Spider-Man plotlines any longer. Rest in peace, both of you. You were two of the greats.
Bestest,
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STEVE DITKO: A Life In Comics
A Brief Bird’s-Eye View Of A Remarkable Artist by Nick Caputo
S
teve Ditko was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on November 2nd, 1927, where he spent his childhood and teenage years. After high school he joined the post-World War II Army, and upon his return to civilian life became a student at the Cartoonist and Illustrators School in New York City. There he was taught by comicbook artist Jerry Robinson, one of the early (and renowned) contributors on “Batman.” Ditko was greatly influenced by Robinson, along with many other comicbook and strip artists, including Mort Meskin.
story was “Paper Romance” in Daring Love #1, cover-dated Sept.Oct. 1953, for Stanmor. Other 1953-executed stories include the even earlier “Hair Yee-eeee” (signed “SS,” likely a collaboration with fellow student Sy Moskowitz) in Strange Fantasy #9 (Dec. 1953; Farrell) and at the Simon & Kirby studio, assisting on Captain 3-D # 1 (Harvey) and the unpublished second issue (primarily as background inker) and as full artist on “A Hole in the Head,” a 6-page thriller in Black Magic, Vol. 4, #3, for the Prize group.
Ditko’s entry into the comicbook field began with a number of small publishers. While his first sale, scripted by Bruce Hamilton (“Stretching Things”) for Ajax-Farrell, appeared in Fantastic Fears #5 (Jan. 1954), his first full-art published
Steve Ditko in one of the most-reproduced of the relatively few photos of him known to exist—flanked by the splash page of the most famous story he ever drew, the origin of “Spider-Man” from Amazing Fantasy #15 (Sept. 1962), scripted by Stan Lee—and a splash featuring his most personal creation, “Mr. A,” from witzend #3 (1966). Thanks to Bob Bailey and Jim Kealy, respectively, for the two art scans. [Amazing Fantasy page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; “Mr. A” page TM & © Estate of Steve Ditko.]
In addition to more Black Magic stories and Ditko’s first Western for Timor [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See p. 33], 1954 launched a long and creatively rewarding association with Charlton Press. In his first year with the company, Ditko
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STEVE DITKO
Interview–1968 Conducted by Mike & Rich Howell and Mark Canterbury
A/E
EDITOR’S NOTE: This interview, which was conducted by mail, first appeared in the fanzine Marvel Main #4 (Oct.-Nov. 1968). It has been reprinted with the permission of Mike & Rich Howell. At our request, Mike wrote the new introduction below, which immediately precedes the interview. Alas, Mark Canterbury, who asked a few questions of his own, passed on several years ago. The interview was retyped for Alter Ego by Eric Nolen-Weathington.
Steve Ditko & Richard Howell The former, on left, in the mid-1960s—and the latter, on right, in a more recent photo (though, alas, we have none of his brother Michael or of Mark Canterbury). Above them is Rich’s cover for Marvel Main #4. [Heroes TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]
Part I - Introduction
How Steve Ditko Talked To Marvel Main by Mike Howell, founding editor of Marvel Main
T
he summer of 1968 was one of the most historic in American culture. Along with assassinations, demonstrations, and presidential elections, another, quieter, bit of upheaval was taking place: Steve Ditko was bringing out new characters and often-polarizing stories. News of this tectonic change in the national comics industry was spread by the Blue Blazer Irregulars who made up the nascent comic fan community through their network of choice: the fanzine. Through a combination of idle determination, sincere respect for Ditko’s work, and an elevated sense of mission, I directed my self-published mimeographed fanzine, Marvel Main, toward trying
to get a “big name” interview. And we got a beauty, from Steve Ditko. How difficult was that? you might wonder. Well, if you were a sheltered, suburban 14-year-old it was really quite a challenge. To start, I had no idea where (although New York City was a starting guess) or how to locate Ditko. My trips to the big city of Boston helped me learn the subway system and become familiar with Filene’s Basement and its automatic markdown policy that was catnip to my mother. When my brother Richard and I accompanied her there, we almost always were rewarded with a Tintin book, so braving the crowds had its perks, but that didn’t get us any closer to Steve Ditko. A bit of background. Our core fan group was very tightly held: myself, my brother Richard, and our next-door neighbor, Mark Canterbury. We shared a delight in comics and absurdist humor and quirky corners of what would grow into America’s pop culture. The fact that we all sucked at sports and that dating, etc., seemed decades away helped with our hermetic association. Our impulse to keep ourselves amused led each of us to found a self-published
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From Marvel Main #4
I think it would be more interesting and revealing to ask comic readers why they didn’t buy it. RH: Are there any plans to revive “Blue Beetle” and “The Question,” and will you do them? DITKO: Only Charlton Press can answer that. MARK CANTERBURY: There is a strong similarity between “The Question” and “Mr. A.” Is this intentional? Why? DITKO: I had been thinking about a type of character that would be different, or that would be a step ahead of what was being done ever since the early Spider-Man days. The kind I decided on was the Mr. A type. When Blue Beetle got his own magazine, they needed a companion feature for it. I didn’t want to do Mr. A, because I didn’t think the Code would let me do the type of stories I wanted to do, so I worked up The Question, using the basic idea of a man who was motivated by basic black and white principles. Where other “heroes’” powers are based on some accidental super element, The Question and Mr. A’s “power” is deliberately knowing what is right and acting accordingly. But it is one of choice. Of choosing to know what is right and choosing to act on that knowledge in all his thoughts and actions with everyone he deals with. No conflict or contradiction in his behavior in either identity. He isn’t afraid to know or refuse to act on what is right no matter in what situation he finds himself. Where other heroes choose to be self-made neurotics, The Question and Mr. A choose to be psychologically and intellectually healthy. It’s a choice everyone has to make. MC: Would you give us some person data? Age, marital status, children, etc.?
Spaced Out!
DITKO: It’s like you said… a man of mystery!
Ditko enjoyed doing non-series stories for the likes of Warren’s Creepy and Eerie—as he had for Charlton’s Space Adventures #11 (May-June 1954). Thanks to Frank Motler. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
in the type of story they do (romance, war, super-heroes, etc.). Some types demand more or less imagination, or draftsmanship (war, fantasy), and the artist has to be judged accordingly. The artist has to be separated from the popularity of the strip, personality, etc. He can only be judged by his artwork, and that has to be broken down into storytelling, draftsmanship, composition, imagination, rendering, etc. Some artists are good in some phases, poor in others. You have to weigh the separate parts with the total effect, then try to separate the art (in black and white as the artist does it) from the effects or appeal of coloring (that the artist does not Beetle-mania do and is not responsible for). So it’s much simpler for anyone Interrupted to pick his own favorites—the ones that give him the most Ditko—and enjoyment—and let the serious art critics struggle with the his most burden of deciding who is the better artist. enthusiastic RH: What inspired the new Blue Beetle? Why do you think it didn’t sell? DITKO: I was looking over the first Blue Beetle that Charlton Press put out, and it was terrible. I began thinking how it could have been handled. The ideas I had were good, so I marked them down, made sketches of the costume, gadgets, the bug, etc., and put them in an idea folder I have, and forgot about it. A year or so later, when Charlton Press was again planning to do super-heroes, I told Dick Giordano about the Blue Beetle” idea I had. He was interested in trying it, so it came out of the idea file, and into the magazine.
fans—enjoyed his work on Charlton’s revived Blue Beetle, but alas, it ended with this issue, #5, cover-dated November 1968. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © DC Comics.]
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“A Very Mysterious Character” An Essay On STEVE DITKO by Barry Pearl Barry Pearl seen some years back, when his older brother Norman was teaching him to read. Thanks to BP.
O
“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view…until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” —Atticus Finch, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird.
ne day a man will ring your doorbell and offer you CELEBRITY! He will offer you fame and fortune and recognition. He will fight your battles for you and gear up the troops to go after your perceived enemies.
And all you have to do is give him everything you have… your privacy, your intimate moments, your private thoughts, your old artwork, your new artwork, and details from events fifty years old. You’ll be expected to show up at conventions and sit and autograph comics that someone will sell tomorrow on eBay and sit in on panel after panel examining your work from fifty years ago and dismissing what you are working on now. There are those who accept the offer, love the money and attention, but then complain about the lack of privacy and the wave of criticism. Those who don’t take it are called eccentric, outsiders, has-beens, and hard to work with. With their subject out of the limelight, people can write newspaper articles and books saying outrageous things that bring publicity onto themselves, knowing
their subject will not bother to respond. They will tell you that they tried to get Ditko to cooperate with them, but it is never unconditional. They want something from him: his opinions, his personality, and most of all his approval. They will have people who never meet him write about him, make claims about him, and, by keeping him out of it, they seem to validate their own absurd remarks. This is not journalism; in fact, it is not even common sense. Some people’s work speaks for itself. In the world of serious comicbooks, no one’s work speaks more for itself than Steve Ditko’s.
Steve Ditko Here’s a rare photo of the artist in 1963 with his nephews Mark (on the left) and his older brother Steve—yep, another Steve Ditko! With thanks to Mark Ditko, via John Cimino. This pic came in just before we went to press.
The Marvel Age of Comics was built on Jack Kirby’s creativity, Steve Ditko’s ingenuity, and Stan Lee’s continuity. Jack Kirby gave wonder to the Marvel Universe. Steve Ditko gave it awe. Kirby externalized the quest for knowledge, Ditko internalized it. On a journey to the Infinite, Kirby took us to the outer reaches of the universe. On a journey to find Eternity, Ditko took us into the minds of the Ancient One and Doctor Strange. In Doctor Strange’s first adventure in Strange Tales #110, Ditko introduces us to Nightmare, a villain that personifies an anxiety that we all share. Ditko places us in another dimension, one that exists in all of us, where the laws of physics are not relevant or even observed. Soon, this will be developed into the intangible home of Dormammu and all that follow. The Hulk is a great example of Ditko recognizing what made a character work and what didn’t. When Kirby introduced him, his change was caused by external factors, dusk and dawn, and later a machine. Ditko’s Hulk changed that to an internal issue, uncontrollable anger. This made the Hulk unique among
He Rode A Blazing Western! The Rawhide Kid (as re-conceived by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in the early 1960s) and Peter Parker/Spider-Man may indeed have had similar origin stories as Barry suggests. But Steve Ditko never drew Rawhide Kid, so we’ll just toss you the splash page of a Ditko-illustrated “Utah Kid” story from Timor Publications’ Blazing Western #1 (Jan. 1954). Barry’s buddy Nick Caputo, who supplied it, says that the “Utah Kid” references are “crudely lettered” (like, the “H” looks ready to fall off!)—and he does bear more than a passing resemblance to Timely/Atlas’ Ringo Kid—so could this have been an art sample that went astray and wound up at another company? We’ll doubtless never know. [© the respective copyright holders.]
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An Essay On Steve Ditko
really didn’t change his environment. He still had Flash Thompson in his classroom, antagonistic as always, and blonde Liz Allen was replaced by blonde Gwen Stacy. Ditko probably did not want this change, because he did not want to lose his characters, so he kept them despite the change in locale from high school to college. What, for instance, was Flash Thompson, in college on an athletic scholarship, doing in the same science and chemistry classes as (science major) Peter Parker? No one held his ear to the ground to sense what the fans were thinking more than Stan Lee. Comicbooks had begun losing their adult male audience in 1945, when WWII ended. Now, on college campuses, Marvel was getting them back, as evidenced by Esquire’s choosing Spider-Man and the Hulk as two of the people who counted on campus in 1966. Stan Lee wanted to keep his characters relevant and popular in this new market. In 2015, in the Robin Snyder/Steve Ditko Four-Page Publication, Ditko clearly explains why he left Marvel in November 1965. It had nothing to do with The Green Goblin.
Graduation Day J. Jonah Jameson gives the graduation speech to Peter Parker’s high school class in Amazing Spider-Man #28 (Sept. ’65), by Lee & Ditko—or Ditko & Lee, if you prefer. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]
In the New York Herald Tribune’s magazine at the turn of 1966, Stan said: “I don’t plot Spider-Man any more. Steve Ditko, the artist, has been doing the stories. I guess I’ll leave him alone until sales start to slip. Since Spidey got so popular, Ditko thinks he’s the genius of the world. We were arguing so much over plot lines I told him to start making up his own stories. He won’t let anybody else ink his drawings, either. He just drops off the finished pages with notes at the margins and I fill in the dialogue. I never know what he’ll come up with next, but it’s interesting to work that way.” There have been many articles and references over the years regarding Ditko and his identification with Spider-Man and Doctor Strange. Well, he did name Doctor Strange Stephen, didn’t he? Many assume that Ditko identified with his heroes. If so, did J. Jonah Jameson, a cheap, penny-pinching publisher who insisted that all stories be written from his point of view, represent Martin Goodman or Stan Lee or an amalgam of both? Of course, if this is true, does that make Flo Steinberg the model for Betty Brant, J.J.J.’s secretary and Parker’s first girlfriend? J.J.J. was to become a direct threat to Spider-Man. Earlier, J.J.J. worked in the background to encourage villains to stop Spidey. This changed with issue #25. This was the first time J.J.J. became the actual face of a villain when he manned the Spider-Man-seeking robot. Perhaps Ditko felt that was just what Goodman and Lee were doing. But Lee and Ditko had stopped talking to each other about one year before Ditko left Marvel. He would draw the pages and send, or bring, them in for Lee to add his dialogue. By issue #35 (Apr 1966), Peter Parker is deserted by friends, threatened by unseen enemies, and feeling isolated. Steve Ditko was plotting the books by himself and there is none of Lee’s exuberance or optimism in the character or the stories. If there was any regret in Spider-Man for me, it was the way his graduation and entrance to college took place. It was common in comics to have change without really having change, to give the appearance that something is new and different but it kind of stays the same. When Parker went to college, it changed the scenery but it
Steve Ditko: “I always picked up pages from Stan, he’d tell me about anything to change, add, etc.” Until one day, he continues, “I went to the Marvel office. Silent Sol [Brodsky] handed me the pages to ink… NO comment about anything. I left with the pages. I inked the pages, took them in, Sol again took the pages from me and into Stan’s office—came out saying nothing—and I left…. I always wrote down any ideas that came to me about the supporting characters, any possible, usable story idea. At some point after they had been dialogued and lettered, I got my original, penciled pages back and inked them. That became our working system on S-M and DS. One day I got a call from Sol. The next S-M annual is coming up.… I asked myself, “Why should I do it?” Why should I continue to do all these monthly issues, original story ideas, material, for a man who is too scared, too angry over something, to even see, talk to me?...at some point, I decided to quit Marvel.” In 1975, Stan said in the Fantasy Advertiser: “Steve was a very mysterious character. When he first started he was the easiest character we ever had to work with. I used to think that if everybody was as easy to work with as Steve, it would be great. I would call him in the middle of the night with an emergency ten-page script and Steve would bring it in the very next day without a complaint. He was just beautiful. But, little by little, he became tougher and tougher to work with. After a while he’d say to me, ‘Gee, Stan, I don’t like those plots you are writing for Spider-Man.’ So I’d say okay, because I couldn’t have cared less, Steve was so good at drawing stuff, I said, ‘Use your own plot, I’ll put the dialogue in.’ So he’d do his own, and I’d switch them around, and I’d put the dialogue in and make them conform to what I wanted. Then he’d say, ‘I don’t like the sound-effects you’re putting in.’ So I told him to use his own, I didn’t mind. I’d bend over backwards to accommodate him, because he was so good and the strip was so successful. But it was like Chamberlain giving in to Hitler; the more I appeased him, the harder he got to work with. Finally, it reached the point where he didn’t even come up to the office with his artwork—he’d just mail it in. Then, one day, he said he was leaving. You now know as much about it as I do. What bothered him, I don’t know.... He’s another guy I’d take back in a minute, but I have a feeling he’d be impossible to work with.” Ditko influenced many artists, but none could ever re-create his world, try as they might. Ditko was an essential, irreplaceable part of the foundation of the Marvel Age. He was able to take a concept or character, new or old, and develop it into something completely fresh and different, even unrecognizable from its first germ of an idea. I will remember him, and miss him, for that.
Up Close & Personal With Steve Ditko!—Part 1
A Life Lived On His Own Terms
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Encounters With Spider-Man’s Co-Creator, 1962 to 2017 by Bernie Bubnis
Bernie Bubnis with a cosplay Spidey at the New York Comic Con in October 2017—and, because this article is partly the story of Bernie’s long “hunt” for essence of the elusive Steve Ditko, an image of the iconic cover of Amazing SpiderMan #34 (May 1966). Thanks to Bernie for the photo, which was taken by his wife Lucille, and to the Grand Comics Database for the cover scan; note his “Comicon 1964” button. [Cover TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]
I
first met Steve Ditko in 1962. The last time I saw him was October 2017, and that is where this story begins.
The New York Comic Con at the Javits Center was a circus of people. I was flipping through some original artwork stacked on two tables. Every other second, someone bumped into me, and it was getting crowded. So crowded that it started to bother me. A guy in a Spider-Man costume offered to climb onto my shoulders so my wife could get a better photo. Just take the photo with him next to me, please. I was ready for lunch. My wife and I left Javits and headed to a restaurant on West 52nd St. that we remembered from years ago (please, please make it still be there). Victor’s Cuban Cafe was, and it brought
back memories of joining a conga line led by Roberto Duran (Victor’s boxer cousin) and dancing into the night. Honestly, remembering a good moment in your life is a magic pill, and that led me to start remembering a lot of good moments with artist and writer Steve Ditko. Wasn’t his studio just around the corner? I had corresponded with him over the years, but those letters were too few and far between. My last in-person meeting with him had been in August 1964. I was growing up, and life’s responsibilities took control of my time. Our correspondence became more consistent in 2014, the year the NYCC would host a panel called “Survivors of the 1964 Comicon.” I knew he would want to be there... hey, what do I know... I’m a dreamer. He didn’t, but his handwritten letters would make me wait patiently for the next envelope from him to arrive in my mailbox (please, please make him answer his phone).
Boxed In Bernie and Lucille Bubnis at Victor’s Cuban Cafe that 2017 day—and a portrait of boxer Roberto Duran that hung there. Bernie recalls joining the fighter there in a conga line years earlier. Thanks to the Bubnises for both photos. We’re informed by Bernie that Roberto Duran “is still an icon to a lot of people. This portrait was in the bar area of the restaurant, and they were redoing the floors. When I showed interest in taking the photo, two workers built a shaky platform and then stood on it to take this photo for me. That is true love.”
His hearing is bad and he admits it. Mine is bad and I don’t admit it. My wife took the phone and let him know we would be coming by. His studio/ apartment was located at 1650 Broadway, and the entry was from West 51st Street. A guy at the front desk asked if we had an appointment and pointed us to the elevators. Before his floor, the doors opened and in steps someone I knew. “Steve, it’s me, Bernie!“ He looked confused, so my wife increased the volume, “IT’S BERNIE BUBNIS FROM THE 1964 COMICON!” He stared and said, “You look different.” I didn’t know if he was kidding, and I started laughing, “It’s been
44
Up Close & Personal With Steve Ditko!—Part 1
Trudy, Madly, Deeply Trudy Ross was the secretary who, in the latter part of 1962, briefly preceded Flo Steinberg as Stan Lee’s secretary—and, incidentally, the person who had suggested to Bernie Bubnis that he might try looking up Steve Ditko’s phone number in the NYC directory (which he duly did). To try to help us out with regard to info about Ms. Ross for A/E #153, Bernie dropped Ditko a line: “I asked him if he could remember a Trudy Ross at Marvel. He answered [on 2-27-18, about four months before his death] and took a parting shot at his former employer. Mr. Ditko has left the building.”
Somehow, in early 1964, I trapped myself into a dangerous corner. Numerous attempts by my fandom friends to organize a “convention” devoted entirely to comicbooks would always hit a brick wall. Well, I decided to finally break that wall. Unfortunately, I decided to use my head instead of a hammer. Ouch. Fellow 1964 Comicon organizer Ron Fradkin told Steve our plans and he agreed to attend. His only request was that he did not want to give a speech or appear as a speaker of any kind. We just wanted him there. Period. Thank you, Mr. Ditko. Just show up... please. The original location for this event was to be a YMCA in Newark, New Jersey. Ethan Roberts knew that was a mistake and offered his father’s union hall in lower Manhattan as a substitution. This last-minute change confused a few people (no kidding), so I wanted to make sure Steve had the new address. I knew this Ditko stare. Holy crap. He told me he had a new deadline and would not be able to attend. Holy crap. We’re gonna hit that wall. You can’t say you’re coming and then change your mind. You can’t do this. Everyone we thought would attend has said no. Kirby, Schwartz, Gil Kane, you name ‘em. No one thinks this is real. You can’t do this. I never asked you for anything. Please, please, you’ve got to help us. He sat quiet at his desk and watched as I begged. I must have gone on for a solid ten minutes. He said nothing. It was over and I knew it. I opened the door to leave. As I closed it behind me I heard, “I’m sorry...” So was I. Our plans went ahead without him. Tom Gill, the Lone Ranger artist, had guaranteed us that he would attend. He really was the only professional who took us seriously. Stan Lee sent over a knowledgeable (sort of) intern editor named Dave Twedt. At least this thing wasn’t going to be in someone’s basement. We were at least driving around that brick wall. To this day I cannot forget the sight of fifty heads turning in unison as the hall’s closed doors opened loudly during Twedt’s speech. A guy in a white T-shirt entered and grabbed a seat in the last row. Twedt kept his poise and introduced Steve Ditko to the crowd.. No introduction was necessary for anyone in that room. Every mouth dropped open at the same time, and we all knew that brick wall was gone forever. Ditko had put that deadline on the back burner and decided to ensure that this would be the very first Comic Con. He was joined later by Flo Steinberg. I lost a summer job because I attended my own convention.
No days off, kid. I spent all my money on ads and postage for hundreds of handwritten letters begging people to attend. Instead of accepting a no from Julius Schwartz, I said something stupid and he physically threw me out of his office before refusing to attend. It gets worse. One of the attendees was writing an article listing all the mistakes we made at the con. Put them all together and I was wearing my depression like a prison jumpsuit. A week after the comicon, I knew I had to thank Ditko for attending. He hated the spotlight, but remained for the entire day. I also wanted him to see some of the artwork that fans like Buddy Saunders, Alan Weiss, and Ronn Foss had contributed for the planned “after-con” convention fanzine. Trouble was that by this time I did not have any interest in printing this zine. All I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself. I told him how I felt. Steve Ditko’s studio was the wrong place to feel sorry for yourself. Here it comes: Originally, Ditko provided me with two pencil sketches for a once-proposed photo-offset progress report for the 1964 convention. At this point, the only comicon fanzine would be a much less expensive spirit-duplicator version. I told him I could not use them and perhaps I would just forget about a con zine of any kind. Wrong answer, and this was the only time I heard him raise his voice: “DO NOT GIVE UP. YOU TELL PEOPLE YOU ARE GOING TO DO SOMETHING—THEN DO IT. DON’T MAKE EXCUSES. WHATEVER YOU DID—YOU DID. GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE. “ He asked me what process I was going to use to print this zine. When I told him ditto, he said to get him two masters and he would draw directly onto them. It was a lesson I never forgot, and I replayed his words in my mind whenever I felt burdened by a task in the future. Fifty years later, I reminded him in a letter just how important his advice had been to me. Soon after, Robin Snyder told me that Steve wanted him to print that letter in their fanzine The Comics! I thought it was too personal and offered to rewrite it for use in a later issue. In October 2017 it was one of the first things we talked about. He told me that most people do not take advice. We laughed when I told him that he screamed the advice at me, I was afraid not to listen. He did add, “No one is going to change another and no one is really responsible for another individual’s behavior.” Steve lived his life on his own terms. I’m sure I am not the only person who is stronger for having known him. I will miss him. I will always hear his voice, “Get on with your life.” I did... thanks to advice from my pal Steve Ditko.
Up Close & Personal With Steve Ditko!—Part 2
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Two Visits To STEVE DITKO’s Studio/Sanctum Sanctorum by Russ Maheras
I
wrote my first letter to Steve Ditko in early 1973, while I was still in high school. It was the typical letter a budding fan-artist might send a seasoned professional comics artist back then— full of effusive praise, capped with a request for some secret kernel of artistic knowledge that would magically transform overnight a fan’s crude artistic efforts into professional-level artwork. Ditko did his best to answer, giving what was, in retrospect, a solid list of advice.
Russ Maheras circa 1973, around the time he first met Steve Ditko— juxtaposed with an anonymous but skillfully done homage composed of samples of Ditko’s 1960s super-hero work, which appeared online shortly after the artist’s passing: Charlton’s Captain Atom and Blue Beetle—Marvel’s Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, and Nightmare—and DC’s Creeper. Thanks to Russ for the photo, and to Michael T. Gilbert for sending the homage. [Captain Atom, Blue Beetle, & The Creeper TM & © DC Comics; Spider-Man, Dr. Strange, and Nightmare TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]
Two years later, I wrote him again, and this time I asked if I could stop by his studio for a visit when I was in New York City later that year. He politely declined, and I pushed that idea into the dustbin of history—not realizing that 28 years later my request would become a reality. More than two decades passed before I wrote Ditko again, in 1997. In the interim, I joined the Air Force, learned to be an aircraft avionics technician, got married, had kids, opted to be a career Airman, traveled and lived abroad for nearly a decade, earned a bachelor’s degree, retrained into public affairs during the early 1990s military drawdown, kept drawing, and kept publishing my fanzine, Maelstrom. In fact, my third letter to Ditko was a request for what I knew was an extreme longshot: an interview for an upcoming issue of my zine. Again, he politely declined. I wrote a few more letters during the next two years about nothing in particular—including a couple while I was stationed in the Republic of Korea in 1998. In one of them, I included some terrifically supple Korean-made brushes that were ridiculously cheap, but feathered ink like a Winsor & Newton brush costing 30 times as much.
In 1999, I retired from the Air Force, published Maelstrom #7, and dutifully sent Ditko a copy. Our correspondence continued off and on until 2002, when I started preparing a Steve Ditko article for Maelstrom #8—along with a cover I drew that featured many of his more notable characters. When the issue was published, I sent him
a copy, and something about it must have struck a chord, as he sent me several letters of comment. Suddenly, our correspondence was a regular back-and-forth, and as my letters got longer, so did his. Some of his letters were 10, 12, or even 16 pages long. So when I found out I had a business trip to New York City in mid-August 2003, I figured it couldn’t hurt to call ahead of time and ask if it I could stop by his studio on the 11th. To my surprise, he said yes. What follows are the notes I made in my hotel room immediately following visit #1, followed by notes I made after my second studio visit on Feb. 11, 2005.
Visit #1 At about 2:50 p.m., Aug. 11, I knocked on Steve Ditko’s studio door. He opened it and said without introduction, “Hello, Russ,” and reached out and shook my hand. I went inside and gratefully thanked him for seeing me. I asked him where I could set down my laptop carry case and he pointed to a spot; then I asked him if he minded if I took off my suit coat, and he said, “Here, let me take that from you,” and he took my coat and hung it up on his coat rack.
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One Life, Furnished In Early DITKO
An Imaginary Story Featuring Charlton Comics, Ibis The Invincible, Doctor Strange, & The Great Connecticut Flood Of 1955 by Brian Cremins for Harlan
T
hese are the facts as I know and understand them: The late Steve Ditko, legendary co-creator of Spider-Man and Doctor Strange, never worked for Fawcett Publications.
He was a few months too late. By the time he began drawing covers and stories for This Magazine Is Haunted, a title introduced by the Fawcett comics line in 1951, Charlton Comics from Derby, Connecticut, had taken over the title. In 1954, Ditko drew five covers for the series, along with four stories. Then, by early 1955, This Magazine Is Haunted ceased publication. Sort of. It carried on as a comic called Danger and Adventure, which, as the Grand Comics Database points out, picked up where This Magazine Is Haunted left off with issue #22. On the cover of that issue of the series is none other than Fawcett’s Ibis the Invincible. Unlike the members of the Marvel Family—which Fawcett, as part of its settlement with National, had promised never to publish (or allow to be published) again—Ibis
still had some life left in him, even if the story Charlton published had first appeared in Whiz Comics #45 a decade earlier. (And, just for the record, This Magazine Is Haunted returned to the Charlton lineup in 1957-58 for five more issues, though sporting a butchered numbering system that can confuse the unwary reader—and Ditko contributed heavily to the revised series’ covers and interior artwork.) Those are the facts. But we’re all friends and comicbook fans here. We love our What Ifs? and our Imaginary Stories (many of which Otto Binder himself wrote for DC’s Superman comics after Fawcett’s settlement with that company). When I began working on this article, P.C. Hamerlinck urged me to explore one of these alternate histories: What if Charlton had hired Steve Ditko to draw “Ibis the Invincible” for Danger and Adventure? What if Ditko had gotten a head start on ideas he later introduced with Stan Lee at
Steve Ditko in his studio in the 1960s, flanked by his cover for This Magazine Is Haunted #21 (Nov. 1954), that comic’s final issue in its initial Charlton, pre-Comics Code incarnation—and the cover of Danger and Adventure #22 (Feb. ’55), which continued the TMIH numbering but cover-featured Ibis the Invincible, a sorcerer-hero, in an Alex Blum-penciled story reprinted from Fawcett’s Whiz Comics. Charlton had recently purchased many of Fawcett’s effects after the latter publisher left the comicbook business in 1953. Alas, this was far too early for Ditko get the opportunity to work his own particular brand of magic with the potent Ibistick! [Ibis the Invincible TM & © DC Comics; other cover TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
One Life, Furnished In Early Ditko
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ready” to publish. When Fawcett passed, Moldoff turned to publisher Bill Gaines at EC Comics. Eventually, the writer and artist found himself “back again [at] Fawcett, who finally,” he explained, “bought it after they saw the horror trend starting to grow” [59]. With a cover by Moldoff featuring the book’s eerie host Doctor Death, the first issue of This Magazine Is Haunted appeared with an October 1951 cover date. A year earlier, as Qiana Whitted points out in her groundbreaking new book on the “shock comics” of the early 1950s, Gaines and editor/writer Al Feldstein “experimented” with the genre “by placing their own original horror stories in two of EC’s crime comics,” which resulted in “a subsequent bump in sales” [Whitted 12–13]. The stories proved so successful, Whitted adds, that Gaines decided “to transform War against Crime and Crime Patrol into” what would become “The Vault of Horror and The Crypt of Terror (which later became Tales from the Crypt),” the company’s flagship horror titles [Whitted 13].
Sheldon Moldoff during the Golden Age of Comics—juxtaposed between covers for Fawcett’s Captain Midnight #37 (Feb. 1946) and the same company’s This Magazine Is Haunted #1 (Oct. 1951). He had brought the latter concept to Fawcett Publications. The first issue of Haunted was illustrated by Moldoff. Besides TMIH, the artist sold other horror titles to Fawcett. Even late in life, Moldoff claimed that EC publisher Bill Gaines lifted some of his horror-comics concepts after Moldoff had presented his ideas to him… and he had some paperwork (and published stories) to strengthen his claims. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]
Marvel? What if his version of Ibis’ companion Princess Taia had looked just like Clea from Doctor Strange? Never happened, of course. Then again, we’re talking about magic and the supernatural here, right? We’ve got plenty of ghosts and tall tales in the Naugatuck River Valley, where Charlton was located. So why not daydream a little? But, before we try to answer these questions, let’s look at the history of This Magazine Is Haunted, first by turning to P.C. Hamerlinck’s interview with Sheldon Moldoff from FCA #178 [Alter Ego #119, pp. 57–60]. A few years after World War II, Shelly Moldoff had an idea for a new comicbook series. Back in New York, he tried to find work with DC, but found himself instead at Fawcett, where editor Will Lieberson offered him “plenty of ‘Captain Midnight’ stories, as well as a few for ‘Don Winslow of the Navy’” [qtd. in Hamerlinck 58]. Like other freelancers of the era, Moldoff shared with PCH his fond memories of Fawcett and its editors. The company, he recalled, “was less big business and more like one big happy family,” with great folks like “Ginny Provisiero, Roy Ald, Dick Kraus, Stanley Kauffman, Wendell Crowley,” all of whom were part of what Moldoff described as “a tight ship” with Lieberson as their tireless captain. Despite this strong working relationship with Fawcett and his friendship with Lieberson, however, Moldoff’s idea for a horror comic was something that the company’s editors “weren’t quite
For his part, Moldoff claimed in his FCA interview that Gaines’ company “ended up stealing some of my concepts after I had presented my ideas to them.” Nonetheless, as PCH notes in the FCA interview, Moldoff’s other horror titles for Fawcett, including Worlds of Fear and Strange Suspense Stories (1952–1953) “weren’t as gruesome as what EC and some other publishers were dishing up back then.” Moldoff agreed, noting that as Fawcett “test[ed] the waters with [these comics], Will Lieberson was always very careful not to go too far with anything” [58]. Like Gaines at EC, Lieberson and Fawcett could not afford to ignore the changing tastes of their readers who, in the late 1940s and early 1950s, shifted their affection from superheroes to crime, horror, and romance comics. As EC ushered in what Whitted and other scholars have described as “The Atomic Age of Comics” [13], Fawcett, with Beck, Binder, and Costanza’s mighty Captain Marvel still their most popular hero, struggled to remain relevant as the company defended itself in the copyright infringement battle with National/ DC. Coupled with the Senate hearings about the alleged links between comics and juvenile delinquency, Moldoff remarked that the lawsuit “was another fiasco!” [59]. In his opinion, not only did “Superman and Captain Marvel have a lot more differences than they do similarities,” but, as all good Captain Marvel Club members know, “‘Captain Marvel’ was by far the better strip of the two” [60]. Billy and the rest of the Marvel Family hung in there as best they could, but it appeared unlikely that the heady days of the 1940s, when Captain Marvel first captivated readers, would return anytime soon. The house ad that appears on the inner front cover of This Magazine Is Haunted #1, in both its horror and simplicity, sums up these sudden changes in the marketplace while offering a sense of the desperation Fawcett must have felt. Under a black-&-white banner that reads “Adventure for the Atomic Age!” is a mushroom cloud surrounded by the names of Fawcett titles ranging from Whiz Comics and Bob Swift, Boy Sportsman to Captain Video and Tom Mix. Each one, the ad reminds us, costs only 10 cents “on newsstands across the nation.” The image suggests the explosive entertainment packed into these pages, but it also hints at the very real and frightening landscape of the early 1950s: the splitting of the atom brought with it abundant new resources along with the possibility of Doomsday itself. Meanwhile, soldiers and their