Alter Ego #177 by TwoMorrows Publishing

DON PERLIN

Roy Thomas' Mo on-Struck Comics Fanzine

BY NIGHT— AND BY KNIGHT!

70 YEARS

$10.95 In the USA

No. 177

September 2022

BEFORE THE MASTHEAD—

at DC, HILLMAN, ZIFF-DAVIS, FOX, HARVEY, ST. JOHN, CHARLTON— and, oh yeah, MARVEL!

82658

00470

Moon Knight, Werewolf By Night TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Vol. 3, No. 177 September 2022 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor) Mark Lewis (Cover Coordinator)

Comic Crypt Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreaders

William J. Dowlding David Baldy

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: Make Mine Marvel—Again! . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “Drawing Comics Was In My Heart” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Artist Don Perlin talks to Richard Arndt about his more than 70 years in comics.

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants . . . . . . . . . . 23

Don Perlin

Seeing double (occasionally triple) in the Silver Age, through Will Murray’s glasses.

Cover Colorist

Marcia Snyder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Phil Rachelson

With Special Thanks to: Bob Almond Heidi Amash Richard J. Arndt Bob Bailey Jon Berk Christopher Boyko Ricky Terry Brisacque Bernie Bubnis Aaron Caplan Nick Caputo Mike Catron John Cimino Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Comic Vine (website) Chet Cox Noel Daniels Scott Edelman Donald Ensign Mark Evanier Justin Fairfax Shane Foley Janet Gilbert Grand Comics Database (website) JayJay Jackson Alex Jay Peter Jones

Contents

William B. Jones, Jr. Sharon Karibian Jack Katz Jim Kealy Richard Kelsey Alan Light Jim Ludwig Doug Martin Bruce Mason Kim D’Angelo Merrifield Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Will Murray Martin O’Hearn Barry Pearl Don Perlin Roboplastic Apocalypse (website) Al Rodriguez Randy Sargent David Saunders Jim Shooter Amber Stanton Jeff Taylor Dann Thomas Anthony Tollin Dr. Michael J. Vassallo

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Steve Sherman, David Anthony Kraft, Gene D’Angelo, Gérald Forton, & Marcia Snyder

A brief profile of the Golden Age artist of “Camilla,” et al., by Alex Jay.

Marvelmania International . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Richard Kelsey on the early-1970s Marvel fan club that couldn’t shoot straight.

John Broome – A Fantasy Finale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The ultimate installment of the honored scripter’s 1998 memoir.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! It’s A Cracked [Etc.] World–Part 3 . . 55 Michael T. Gilbert salutes some of the artists who labored for both Cracked—and Mad!

Tributes to Steve Sherman, David Anthony Kraft, Gene D’Angelo, & Gérald Forton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 69 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #236 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck presents the late Don Ensign’s look at—Freddy Freeman.

On Our Cover: Dapper Don Perlin got it right with Moon Knight, first time at bat—on the splash page of Werewolf by Night #32 (Aug. 1975). And since Jack Russell’s furry alter ego was his first (and, as he half-complains on p. 11, most-remembered) gig at Marvel, while his and Doug Moench’s co-creation Moon Knight is now exploding heads on Disney+, that seemed the perfect cover image for this issue. All those credit boxes gave us a nice opportunity to plug the issue’s other contents, to boot! Thanks to John Morrow for the scan—and to Roboplastic Apocalypse for the con photo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: Another long-running stint for Don Perlin was as the successor to originating artist Mike Ploog on Ghost Rider—as per this comin’-right-atcha splash from issue #29 (April 1978), as inked by the “New York Tribe” (consisting of a number of Filipino-born artists then dwelling in and around Manhattan) and written by Roger McKenzie. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Alter Ego TM issue 177, September 2022 (ISSN 1932-6890) is published bi-monthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Alter Ego, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. 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: $68 US, $103 Elsewhere, $29 Digital Only. All characters are © their respective companies. All material ©their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

Make Mine Marvel—Again! O giants.

nce in a while, we just have to do a Marvel-heavy issue—or a DC-heavy issue—to spotlight several different aspects of one of the two surviving super-hero/adventure comics

This time, it’s Marvel’s turn. Our usual awe-inspiring interview is front and foremost, of course—this time, showcasing Don Perlin, who drew for Timely Comics (as well as a zillion other companies) back in the late Golden Age and returned to what was now Marvel Comics in 1974, to become a heavy hitter on such titles as Werewolf by Night, The Defenders, and Ghost Rider in particular. In fact, far as Don and I can recall, phoning him out of the blue was one of my last major hires, a few months before I stepped down from being Marvel’s editor-in-chief. Evidently, I saw one of the stories he’d recently drawn for one of DC’s mystery or war titles—if the latter, then probably Weird War Tales, since I rarely cracked open the others. I was only vaguely aware of Don’s already lengthy tenure in the field up to that point, but I saw something in his art that I thought might be a good fit for Marvel, so I got hold of his number. I suspect it may have been from Neal Adams, since Don had been doing a bit of work at Neal’s Continuity Studios… but it could have been from Marv Wolfman or someone else. Still, I made the phone call myself, rather than delegating it to anyone else. And I feel good about that. Less good do I feel about apparently being too busy, the day Don showed up at the office to figure out what his first Marvel assignment would be, to go out and talk with him myself. But at least he walked away with some paying work that afternoon, and was soon ensconced as the regular penciler of Werewolf by Night,

which led both to his having a hand in co-creating Moon Knight with writer Doug Moench and to being around for stints on various other Marvel mags. Jim Shooter, who became Marvel’s head editor 3½ years after I resigned, admired Don’s work, too, and has said so on his blog on several occasions… so I invited him to write a few words about the artist as well, and I’m glad he took me up on my offer. But Richard Arndt’s confab with Don Perlin is only the tip of the mighty Marvel iceberg this time around. There’s also the beginning of a multi-part study by the ever-researching Will Murray on Marvel’s early “variant covers,” starting out with variations on that of Fantastic Four #1 in 1961… …and a brief just-the-facts-ma’am look at Golden Age artist Marcia Snyder, who spent some time in the 1940s Timely bullpen, even if nobody today seems quite certain what she drew there (though happily she did sign some of her Fiction House work)… …and an overview by Richard Kelsey of Marvelmania, the second attempt at a Marvel fan club in the very early 1970s. It’s been way too long since we printed Richard’s look at the Merry Marvel Marching Society... and if Marvelmania comes, can F.O.O.M. be far behind? All that—plus the FCA and John Broome and Mr. Monster’s very own “Comic Crypt”— You got a better way to while away a hot late-August afternoon in front of a whirring air-conditioner?

Bestest,

COMING IN OCTOBER

178

A GERSHWIN Rhapsody In Four Colors!

&© [Starman & Spy Smasher TM

DC Comics.]

• MICHAEL T. GILBERT shines a quadruple-length Comic Crypt spotlight on Golden Age artist extraordinaire EMIL GERSHWIN, illustrator of DC’s Starman, Fawcett’s Spy Smasher, & ACG mystery tales! Even Emil’s song-scribing relations GEORGE & IRA get beamed up to share in the fun—and P.C. HAMERLINCK’s FCA and PETER NORMANTON’s From the Tomb take their own look at Emil’s Spy Smasher and horror output, respectively! Now that’s what we call a theme issue! • Plus—more faux All-Star Squadron covers from JOHN JOSHUA & pals—more early Marvel variant covers from WILL MURRAY—& anything else we can squeeze in!

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“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart” A Conversation with DON PERLIN Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Don Perlin started his comics career in 1949 and has, over the years, worked for many comicbook companies, including Timely/Atlas/ Marvel, Fox, Ace, Hillman, Youthful, Stanley Morse, St. John, Harvey, Comic Media, Charlton, Gilberton, DC, Fitzgerald, National Lampoon, and Valiant, drawing stories in nearly every genre that comics has produced. He’s worked on such famous

characters as Will Eisner’s Spirit, Thor, Werewolf by Night, Tigra, Sons of the Tiger, Iron Fist, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Captain America, The Defenders, Man-Thing, G.I. Joe, Iron Man, Transformers, Conan, Solar: Man of the Atom, Shadowman, Bloodshot, Timewalker, The Bad Eggs, and Scooby Doo. He co-created Moon Knight in the pages of Werewolf by Night. This interview was conducted on April 8, 2018.

Don Perlin flanked by splash pages from two Marvel (nee Timely) comics, from the company with which he’s come to be most identified. (Left:) A reasonably terrifying horror tale from Astonishing #28 (Dec. 1953); scripter unknown… and (right:) his full art for his first work on Werewolf by Night: #17 (May 1974), written by Mike Friedrich. Photo by JayJay Jackson, courtesy of Jim Shooter’s blog. [Pages TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

A Conversation With Don Perlin

RICHARD ARNDT: We’re speaking today with Don Perlin. Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Don. DON PERLIN: No problem. RA: What would you like to tell us about your early life? I know you’re a native New Yorker, raised in the Canarsie neighborhood. I’m not sure if that neighborhood’s in Queens or Brooklyn. PERLIN: It’s in Brooklyn. The southern part of Brooklyn. My dad was a mechanic but he also painted. He was what they would call a Sunday painter. He was very good. I got a little bit of his talent. Paintings of my father’s are hanging on the wall of my house in Florida. Dad used to copy the masters. I only have a couple left. RA: What can you tell us about how you got started in comics? PERLIN: I started in the late 1940s, doing pieces for Marvel—well, it was Timely then—Ace, Hillman—those guys. My first piece was for Fox. I’d just gotten out of high school and was trying to learn the trade. I was spending more on shoe leather than on art equipment. I was walking up and down the streets and just getting big “No’s” from everybody.

kinds of books, I think. Marvin Stein and Mort Meskin were both working for Jack Kirby and Joe Simon at that time for Crestwood. This was at a time when advertising companies were hiring storyboard guys to draw the artwork for advertisement pitches and for television commercials. The storyboard guys got a tremendous salary. Marvin went into the storyboard business for advertising and that was the end of his comicbook days. Al Williamson was also in the Hogarth class when I was there. There’re weren’t many of us, only a half dozen or so. Later, when the class became affiliated with a school, I couldn’t afford it and had to drop out. Like I said, I started getting little jobs in comics in the late 1940s. It was tough going for a while. I made samples. There were a lot of companies at the time putting out comics and they were almost all in New York. I knew a lot of them, some of

RA: Didn’t you study with Burne Hogarth, the Tarzan artist? PERLIN: Yeah. I was 14 and just starting high school when a friend of mine, who was going to a different high school, came over and showed me an ad in the newspaper that said that Hogarth was going to hold classes on Saturday mornings. I brought the ad home, showed it to my Dad. He called Hogarth up and then we went to Hogarth’s apartment, at Central Park West. We brought some of the stuff that I was drawing. Hogarth must have liked it a bit, because he entered me into the class. RA: The artwork you showed him, would that have been comicbook art or general illustration work? PERLIN: It was drawings in general. People, landscapes, buildings. I didn’t really know anything, basically, about the comic format at that time. I did some paintings. Pretty girls, mostly. I drew all kinds of things, but I didn’t really know much about comicbooks at the time. It was at Hogarth’s place, and his classes, where I learned about comics—the fundamentals—and that’s when I realized that I’d found my niche. I don’t know if you know of Marvin Stein. He was a comicbook artist. I was 14 and he was 19. This was 1943. He was drawing a book called Don Winslow of the Navy. Later on he wound up working with Jack Kirby and Joe Simon when they were doing comics for Crestwood. Black Magic, Young Romance, those

Marvin Stein Though often noted for his work in the Simon & Kirby studio, Stein was capable of turning out some fine solo covers—such as this one for the Prize group’s Justice Traps the Guilty #27 (June 1951). Thanks to the Comic Vine website & Grand Comics Database, respectively. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Burne Hogarth delineated the popular Tarzan Sunday comic strip from 1937 to 1950, and also became one of the most famous educators of a new generation of comic strip and comicbook artists. For one reason why, see the color Tarzan panel from the 1940s, directly above. (Right:) Don Perlin drew this black-&-white sketch of Tarzan in honor of his former teacher. [Tarzan TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

“Drawing Comics Was In My Heart”

them quite small. You walked from one place to another with your samples, go up and ask to see the art director, who would look at your samples. If they liked it, they’d give you some work. I got a lot of fillers, one-pagers, to start with. I remember Hillman doing that. The fillers were often funny things. All kinds of different subjects. Those gave me enough money to keep walking around, looking for more work. Get on the bus, buy a liverwurst sandwich, somethin’. I finally started to get full stories to do around 1951. RA: You’ve got credits for working on Will Eisner’s The Spirit in 1951-1952—shortly after Eisner left the strip himself. Do you remember how that came about? PERLIN: I did work on The Spirit for a bit. It was a weekly insert in the Sunday newspapers. A little eight-page comicbook. Like you said, Eisner had left the strip and a whole lot of guys were doing it. Lou Fine had worked on it during the war years. Jerry Grandenetti had been working on it, doing the backgrounds and whatnot. He’d left to do regular comics. I was looking for work, and Eisner looked at my samples and comics work. They hired me to do some penciling for the weekly. Eisner himself was doing some kind of magazine for the government.

RA: That would have been PS Magazine, an Army publication. PERLIN: Yeah. It was about mechanics—equipment maintenance. I sat in a corner at the Eisner Studio, and Jules Feiffer was the writer. He lived somewhere—out on Governor’s Island?—and he’d come in on Saturday or Sunday and write and lay-out the pages. I’d come in on Mondays and pencil them. A fella named Hollingsworth inked my pages. I don’t remember his first name. He also inked Jerry Grandenetti. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: This may have been Alvin/A. C. Hollingsworth, although he’s not known to have worked on The Spirit.] I did three jobs—three weeks worth of stuff, and I don’t think they were too happy with me. They laid me off. I thought I was gonna be learning from Eisner himself. After the first day I interviewed with him, I never saw him again. That was the Eisner story. RA: You also worked on a lot of horror stories… PERLIN: They had a big thing in the early ‘50s with the horror comics. Everybody was trying to imitate EC. I was working out of the house in Brooklyn, and found out that was inconvenient, so I rented a room in an office building. The building had been a hotel during the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln had stayed in it. He stayed there when he was making a speech at the Cooper Union Hall. I rented a room there for $35 a month. It was my studio, but

“Marvel Tales”? It Probably Should’ve Been “Timely Tales”! Two splash pages drawn for Timely/Marvel before Perlin was drafted in 1953, during the latter stages of the Korean War. (Left:) This yarn, penciled by Perlin and inked by Abe Simon, appeared in Marvel Tales #110 (Dec. 1952). (Right:) Perlin did full-art chores for this one from Marvel Tales #117 (May 1953). Scripters unknown. Thanks to Dr. Michael J. Vassallo and Jim Ludwig. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[Varney the Vampire TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders; art ©Frank Brunner.]

Previously Unpublished Brunner Artwork!

ATTENTION: FRANK BRUNNER ART FANS! Frank is now accepting art commissions for covers, splash panels, or pin-up re-creations! Also, your ideas for NEW art are welcome! Art can be pencils only, inked or full-color (painted) creation! Contact Frank directly for details and prices. (Minimum order: $500) Visit my website at: http://www.frankbrunner.net

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

Art by John Romita. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Jack Russell tries to get out for a night on the town in this splash panel penciled by Don Perlin for Werewolf by Night #21 (Sept. 1974). Inks by Vince Colletta; script by Doug Moench. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Those Mysterious Early Marvel Cover Variants

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas by Will Murray

ariant covers are a big collecting phenomenon these days. But actually, they go back decades, except that they originally weren’t a marketing gimmick, merely a side effect of last-minute production changes. I wrote about some examples of variant covers in Comic Book Marketplace #99 (Feb. 2003). Many Silver Age Marvel variants were discovered by comparing contemporary house ads to the final published covers. Others came to light later, when certain covers were reprinted and the original uncorrected versions resurfaced through production errors. In those days, comicbook cover corrections were made through paste-downs or on Photostats [“stats” for short], so the original unmodified art often continued to exist in a pristine state.

Variant Covers Are The Spice Of Life! The published cover of 1963’s Strange Tales Annual #2, penciled by Jack Kirby and (probably) inked by Sol Brodsky. So why does this artwork appear up front in an article about “Early Marvel Cover Variants”? Read on and see! Courtesy of the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

In CBM #44 (Feb. 1997), for instance, I had told the startling story of the never-published 16th issue of Amazing Fantasy, which would have showcased Spider-Man’s second published appearance, if Marvel Comics publisher Martin Goodman hadn’t canceled the

book before press time. I had made my case primarily based on the job numbers attached to the lead story in Amazing Spider-Man #1 and to two Lee-Ditko back-up features, “Prophet of Doom!” (Tales of Suspense #40, April 1963) and “My Fatal Mistake” (Tales to Astonish #43, May 1963), the latter pair published shortly after ASM #1 but clearly also part of the unpublished Sept. 1962 Amazing Fantasy #16. The stories were consecutively numbered and all sported the trademark Amazing Adult Fantasy-style Art Simek story-title lettering. One question lingered: Through literary detective work, I had reassembled AF #16’s contents. But where was the cover? Certainly,

Smilin’ Stan Lee

Sturdy Steve Ditko

from the two pages of photos in Marvel Tales Annual #1 (1964), quite possibly all snapped by artist Vince Colletta. Besides the above appellation, The Man was also listed as “Writer/Editor” and “Bullpen Boss.”

wouldn’t sit still for an official Marvel photo in ’64 or any other time, so it’s a good thing we have these pics taken in the mid-1960s by Amber Stanton, daughter of his studio-mate, artist Eric Stanton, via the Internet.

Yet Another Amazing Fantasy No, we haven’t quite got to the cover variants yet—but Will Murray’s detective work for Comic Book Marketplace magazine back in 1997 strongly suggested that these three stories, all written by Stan Lee and drawn by Steve Ditko, would most likely have made up the contents of Amazing Fantasy #16 (Oct. 1962)—if there had been such an animal, which of course there wasn’t. Thanks to Bob Bailey, Aaron Caplan, & Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Seeing Double In The Silver Age Of The House Of Ideas

Down To The Sea In Shifts This un-used but fully prepared cover for 1963’s Fantastic Four Annual #1 by Jack Kirby (and Dick Ayers) finally saw print as the back cover of The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #2 (Jan. 1986). See p. 24 for a 99%-accurate version of the published rendition in a house ad. Lee and Goodman definitely made the right choice. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #1: Jack Kirby’s original cover depicting the Sub-Mariner leading his Atlantean legions on a beachhead assault against the FF was set aside for one showing an enthroned Prince Namor holding the quartet captive. The bottom strip of Kirby’s take on a menacing Spider-Man survived the re-do, although it was cropped more tightly, cutting off some of the original image, which was first seen in an issue of F.O.O.M. Magazine in black-&-white. Later, it ran in full color as the back cover of The Official Marvel Index to The Fantastic Four #2. Will Murray’s study of the early Marvel variant covers will continue in a near-future issue of Alter Ego—maybe even the very next one!

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MARCIA SNYDER Profile Of A Golden Age Artist by Alex Jay A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: In issue #167, we featured Alex Jay’s profile on “Green Turtle” artist Chu Fook Hing, adapted from its appearance on Alex’s blog “Tenth Letter of the Alphabet.” While not writing a biographical essay as such, Alex records the results of his painstaking research from various public records. One “mystery woman artist” of the 1940s was Marcia Snyder, best known for her work for Fiction House and Timely Comics, much of it during the World War II years, and we’re pleased to be able to present the piece here.

arcia Louise Snyder was born on May 13, 1907, in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her birth date is from the Social Security Death Index, and the birthplace is based on her parents’ residence in Kalamazoo. Snyder’s full name appeared in the Kalamazoo Gazette, June 13, 1921, and Florida death certificate. Snyder’s parents were Charles R. Snyder and Louise P. Underwood, who married on January 20, 1898, in Kalamazoo, according to the Michigan Marriage Records at Ancestry.com. According to the 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Snyder’s parents resided with her maternal grandparents, Theodore and Katherine Underwood, in Chicago, Illinois, at 6707 Wentworth Avenue. Snyder’s father was a clerk at a shoe store. Shortly after the census enumeration, Snyder’s parents moved to Kalamazoo. Their first child, Channing, died shortly after birth in 1902. The couple lost their second child, Charles, in 1906. The 1907 and 1909 Kalamazoo city directories listed Snyder’s father as a clerk who lived at 219 West Cedar Street. The 1910 census recorded Snyder, her parents, her threemonth-old brother David, and an aunt, Pauline, in Kalamazoo at 1007 South West Street. Snyder’s father was a shoe store salesman. In the 1917 city directory, Snyder’s father worked in the insurance industry. The Gazette, May 11, 1919, reported the upcoming performance of the cantata “Childhood of Hiawatha.” Snyder was one of 150 children in the chorus that sang with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. Music News, May 30, 1919, published an article about the performance at the May Festival. The individual members of the children’s chorus, including Snyder, were named on page 15. Snyder was a Girl Scout. An advertisement for three screenings of the Girl Scout film The Golden Eaglet appeared in the Gazette on December 4, 1919, and said Snyder was one of the Scouts appearing in a short exhibition of camp life and first-aid work. The March 28, 1920, Gazette said Snyder, of Troop 4, passed the invalid bed-making test. The Snyder household and address remained the same in the 1920 census. The Gazette for June 13, 1921, said Snyder would be one of 29 students graduating from the eighth grade of the Western Normal Training School on June 16. She continued her education at Western Normal High School. That school had a program for teaching art, which was examined in a March 22 article in The School Arts

Marcia Snyder in her 1925 high school yearbook photo (top left)—plus a specimen of her comicbook art, a “Camilla” splash from Fiction House’s Jungle Comics #61 (Jan. 1945). Incidentally, her high school extracurricular activities were listed as “Cercle Francais” (year 2) and “Masquers” (years 2-4), most likely a French club and drama group, respectively. Thanks to Jim Kealy, Mark Muller, & David Saunders. [“Camilla” art © the respective copyright holders.]

Magazine, titled “Art Supervision under the Kalamazoo Plan.” At the time, teachers were trained to teach all subjects, including art. In Kalamazoo, teachers who specialized in art were hired to teach the subject. Each class of students would go for instruction to a room which had the art supplies and storage for artwork. The 1924 Kalamazoo city directory lists student Snyder and her parents at 121 West Lovell Street. Snyder graduated in 1925. Next to her senior photograph in the Highlander yearbook was this quote, “I love not man less, but art more.”

Marvelmania International The Early-1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight by Richard Kelsey A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Marvel Comics inaugurated three fan clubs during its first dozen or so years of life. Richard Kelsey wrote about the first of these— the legendary 1965 Merry Marvel Marching Society, Stan Lee’s own personal brainchild— way back in issue #120. The second, handled by an independent entrepreneur, was christened Marvelmania International….

n route to a Los Angeles Comic Book Club visit with artist Jack “King” Kirby for the first time in 1969, Mark Evanier stopped at a newsstand to pick up the latest comics. Upon opening up Sub-Mariner, he spotted a half-page ad for Marvelmania International, the new official club for Marvel Comics. “The address was in Culver City, which was not far from me. On a whim, I went into a phone booth, called information, and they gave me the number. My copy of Sub-Mariner that I bought that day still has the phone number written in the margins on the Marvelmania ad. It turned out just by coincidence that the physical office of Marvelmania was about three blocks from that phone booth,” said Evanier, author of the book-length study Kirby – King of the Comics and a writer for comics, books, and television. “I’m the president of our local comicbook club,” Evanier told the man who answered the phone. Upon which Evanier received an invitation to visit Marvelmania. But he couldn’t do so at once because of an already scheduled trip to Kirby. So he arranged a meeting for the next day and went on to Kirby’s house.

“Exciting New Club!” This half-page ad for the spanking-new Marvelmania International popped up in Marvel Comics issues dated October (or November) 1969, on the Bullpen Bulletins page, but minus any sort of textual mention by Stan Lee on the rest of that page (that plug had appeared in the preceding issue). The textual mention was first glimpsed by young Mark Evanier—along with a million or so other people—when it went on sale circa July of that year. Thanks to Richard Kelsey. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

And in visiting with Kirby, Evanier found out that the artist already had some contact with Marvelmania and had even done artwork for it. “That company could use you. The guy down there really doesn’t know the comics very well,” Evanier recalled Kirby saying. “So the next day I went in to meet the people at Marvelmania. I walked in and they said ‘Jack Kirby told us to hire you.’ I worked there on a very part-time basis, kind of as a consultant and editing the club magazine for a while. And a lot of my friends from the comicbook club went to work there,” he said.

They would indeed spend many hours working at Marvelmania International from 1969 to 1971, processing and organizing the mail orders, packing up orders for shipping, putting out a magazine, and performing other tasks for minimum wage and having a lot of fun. But they also discovered the truth about this club: that it was a badly managed operation led by a man with questionable talents and business practices. How bad was it? When interviewed, Steve Sherman, a member of the Los Angeles Comic Book

Mark Evanier Since we couldn’t locate a photo of Marvelmania entrepreneur Don Wallace, we’re doing the next best thing and spotlighting then-fan Mark E., in an early photo which was still taken a few years after 1969. From the Internet.

The Early 1970s Marvel Fan Club That Couldn’t Shoot Straight

Jack “King” Kirby back in the day, posing with one of the various pieces of artwork he was persuaded to do for Marvelmania (for a “deferred” payment). His family, alas, is still waiting. From the Internet. (A photo of Steve Sherman will be found with Mark Evanier’s tribute to him on p. 63.)

Club at the time who worked at Marvelmania, jokingly suggested chronicling the history of Marvelmania into a book and advertising it for sale in Marvel Comics.

poster of the Jack Kirby cover from Captain America #106; a one-foot square decal sheet with full figures of nine different Marvel characters; a “jumbo” 5½” decal of a full figure of the Hulk; and a 16-page color catalog of other items available. The ad also offered an extra bonus of 11 more decals if you joined now.

“And when people order it, don’t mail it to them. Then you could say that is what happened— there is the history of Marvelmania,” Sherman said while laughing.

From that first colorful ad to the ones that appeared in issues to follow, all did seem well and good with the idea of an outside company running the Marvel club. The wide variety of products and merchandise advertised by Marvelmania reinforced that perception. Products like the official magazine, “molded and unbreakable statues,” decals, artist and super-hero portfolios, a stationery kit, and, some “colossal full-color” two-foot-by-three-foot posters of Spider-Man, Dr. Doom, Captain America, Hulk, Galactus, and The Silver Surfer, Thor, The Fantastic Four, and The Black Knight filled half-page ads in the Marvel comics dated from November 1969 through October 1971.

Sadly, a lot of Marvel fans had bad experiences with Marvelmania International. At the beginning, this new club burst upon fandom with excitement and fanfare as the replacement for the Merry Marvel Marching Society, because, as the Bullpen Bulletins in the September (or in some cases October) 1969 Marvel issues explained, things at Marvel had gotten so busy that they couldn’t keep up with the original club:

It cost $2 for a membership—$1.75 plus 25¢ for postage and handling. How much did that mean to a comicbook fan in the late 1960s? Fifteen cents got you a regular-sized comic back then. So the price of a Marvelmania membership would have bought you 13 comicbooks.

But at the Marvelmania offices in California, Evanier and the other members of their comicbook club got a different perception of this operation run by Don Wallace, the man in charge of

“ITEM: Here’s big news for all members of the good ol’ Merry Marvel Marching Society, and for those of you who intend to join. Remember years ago, when we started the MMMS? We promised we wouldn’t just swear you in and forget about you. Then what happened? We forgot about you! Naw, we didn’t really—but what DID happen is—our mags became so much more popular than we ever dreamed they would, and we became so much busier than we ever expected to, that we just never had the time to do all the things we had hoped to do with our swingin’ little club. But, we’ve managed to change all that now! And the change is so important, that we’re gonna give it a paragraph all to itself—just like this— “ITEM! We had the greatest stroke of luck the other day. We met a fanatical Marvelite who also happens to be a most talented California executive. He’s so impressed with our mags, and our club membership roster, that he made us a fantastic offer, which we’ve just accepted. From now on, the MMMS will be incorporated into a fabulous parent organization named Marvelmania International! Because of this great new development, there’ll be an entirely new company, independent of your Bullpen, working around the clock to make your club exactly what you want it to be. So watch for the exciting announcements about Marvelmania International in our mags, and remember—you won’t be watching alone. We’re as anxious to see what’s coming next as you are!” A half-page ad in the October (or, in some cases, November) 1969 Marvel issues came next, which proclaimed: “Exciting New Club. Marvelmania International. Jumbo posters, decals. Everything full color. Join now and receive all this!! with your membership.” “All this!!,” according to the ad, meant a two-foot-by-three-foot

Have You Now Or Have You Ever Been…? Signed membership cards for Marvelmania International, one from 1969 and one from ’70, from a sale on the Internet. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]