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No. 180 March 2023

CELESTIAL SPOTLIGHT ON TM

STARRING:

(YOU SHOULD FORGIVE THE EXPRESSION)

BRIAN MURRAY HOWARD SIMPSON LOU MANNA ROY THOMAS PLUS A COSMIC CORNUCOPIA OF

Young All-Stars TM & © DC Comics; other art © Brian Murray.

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NEVERPUBLISHED YOUNG ALL-STARS ART!

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Vol. 3, No. 180 March 2023 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck 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

Contents Writer/Editorial/Article: Forever Young? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Roy Thomas’ brief and biased history of DC’s The Young All-Stars (1987-89).

Cover Artist & Colorist

Brian Murray—First Of The Young All-Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

With Special Thanks to:

“We’re All Fans!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Brian Murray

Jim Kealy Heidi Amash Rob Kirby Pedro Angosto Johnny Blaze Leavitt Ger Apeldoorn Art Lortie Richard J. Arndt Frank Lovece Bob Bailey Jim Ludwig Mike W. Barr James E. Lyle Stephen Baskerville Mitch Maglio John Benson Dan Makara Bernie Bubnis Mark Carlson-Ghost Dennis Mallonee Lou Manna Craig Cermak Doug Martin John Cimino Ian Millsted Mike Collins Gary Morgan Comic Book Plus Stanley Moss (website) Mark Muller Kevin L. Cook Mike Mulovsky Chet Cox Brian Murray Al Dellinges Andrew Pepoy Shane Foley Dann Phillips Brendon & Brian Ian Richardson Fraim Richard Rubenfeld Joe Frank Randy Sargent Stephan A. Friedt David Scroggy Susan Fujitani Richard Seetoo Janet Gilbert Rob Shalda J.T. Go Sheep Meadow Press Jared Gold Howard Siegel Grand Comics Database (website) Howard Simpson Bryan Stroud Terry P. Gustafson Dann Thomas George Hagenauer Shawn van Briesen James Hall Delmo Walters, Jr. Ron & Jan Harris Heritage Art Auctions John Watson Ted White Jim Hofrichter Who’s Who of Christopher Ivy American Comic Gerard Jones Books 1928-1999 John Joshua (website) Sharon Karibian

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Frank Thorne, M. Thomas Inge, and Andy Yanchus

Richard Arndt interviews the original illustrator of the All-Star Squadron sequel series. An interview with early Young All-Stars artist Howard Simpson.

Lou Manna & The Young All-Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Candid conversations by R. Arndt & Mitch Maglio with the series’ final penciler.

The Young All-Stars: Crisis Averted! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Johnny Blaze Leavitt’s artistic response to the end of Earth-Two.

The All-Star Squadron Covers That Never Were— Till Now! (Part II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 The counter-Crisis on Infinite Earths legend continues, courtesy of John Joshua & co.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Michael T. Gilbert’s 2023 Comic Art Portfolio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 MTG’s colorful commission work—from Elric of Melniboné to The Spectre.

Tributes To Frank Thorne, M. Thomas Inge, & Andy Yanchus . . . 61 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 64 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #239 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 The 1943 Fawcett career of critic Stanley Kauffmann, courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.

On Our Cover: While we were in the earliest stages of the preparation of this issue, lead-off Young All-Stars artist Brian Murray sent us a scan of this never-published color drawing he’d done of the teenage titans of World War II—and there was never any second choice for this edition’s cover! See its full story, step by step, on p. 17 of this issue. [Young All-Stars TM & © DC Comics.] Above: “Iron” Munro may have been “able to leap tall buildings at a single bound,” but he couldn’t really fly like the aptly named Flying Fox could—so the pair’s Superman- and Batman-derived roles were momentarily reversed in this panel from The Young All-Stars #14 (July 1988). Script by Roy & Dann Thomas; pencils by Howard Simpson; inks by Malcolm Jones III. [TM & © DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM issue 180, March 2023 (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: $73 US, $111 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.

PART ONE

writer/editorial/article

Forever YOUNG?

The Short Happy Life Of The Young All-Stars by Roy Thomas A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: Yeah, that’s right—no “writer/ editorial” per se this issue, as that space has been given over to this several-page study of the Young All-Stars series instead. When I decided to finally pull together an issue of A/E centered around “my” (and of course DC Comics’) 1987-89 series The Young All-Stars, the successor to the 1981-87 All-Star Squadron, I was faced with a minor dilemma. I’d already written a fairly full account of the backstory behind that mag for TwoMorrows Publishing’s 2008 tome The All-Star Companion, Vol. 3, as prelude to a 40-page issue-by-issue examination by Kurt Mitchell and myself. Unable to improve upon that several-page intro, I decided it was best to simply augment it slightly for this issue….

n the letters section of the final issue of All-Star Squadron (#67, March-April 1987), I addressed the readers in my triple capacity as “writer/creative editor/co-creator.” In response to rampant rumors concerning a “second series” of Squadron as the first came to its end, I said that three months from that date would see the debut of The Young All-Stars. It would have a slightly different cast, yet would be in every way a successor to the series being discontinued.

“As everyone knows,” I wrote, in any post-Crisis on Infinite Earths comic set during the era of the Second World War, there would henceforth be no Superman, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Green Arrow, or Speedy—“or any memory of

Roy & Dann & Friends Roy & Dann Thomas in the 1980s equivalent of a selfie—and the house ad in the letters section of All-Star Squadron #67 (March-April 1987) that gave fans their first glimpse of the six assembled Young All-Stars who’d be holding forth in the brand new mag the Thomases would co-write just three months later. The illo below, previously credited to Michael Bair, was actually penciled by Brian Murray and embellished (as an inking sample) by Malcolm Jones III. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Forever Young?

same” by anyone on DC’s spanking-new One Big Earth. That septet of heroes would be replaced there by “a smattering of new All-Stars—younger ones”—and those six were duly depicted at the bottom of that “All-Star Squadroom” page. Alert readers immediately recognized Neptune Perkins, Tsunami (Miya Shimada), and Dan (Dunbar) the Dyna-Mite, all of whom had appeared in Squadron at some point—and I revealed that the lady in the golden armor was the Golden Age Fury, “who seems to be the mother of Lyta Trevor of Infinity, Inc.” I had impishly decided to have a 1940s as well as a 1980s heroine named Fury, and indeed the new one’s backstory was only then going on sale in Secret Origins #12 (March ’87), as a harbinger of the forthcoming successor series. As for the other two figures in the drawing, I coyly opined as how we needed to hold a few surprises back for The Young All-Stars #1. But I reminded readers of certain hints I’d laid out in previous letters sections about how the energy represented by the likes of the Earth-Two Superman, et al., displaced when they were rendered retroactively non-existent by the events of Crisis, had to go somewhere. (My theory, as would finally be revealed fully in YAS #3, was that that energy went into the likes of the two heroes “Iron” Munro and Flying Fox, while Wonder Woman’s was re-embodied in the new Fury. Of course, that hypothesis was stretched a bit by the fact that Neptune Perkins and Tsunami existed before Aquaman did not—and where did that leave GA and Speedy? Clearly, I just used that theory as a starting point.) I did assure readers that the likes of Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle, Green Lantern, Hawkman, et al., would appear in the new series—although I pointedly did not tell them that the DC powersthat-be had decreed that I should use the “adult” All-Stars only sparingly. What had happened was that, in November of ’85, DC executive editor Dick Giordano and I had talked over the looming situation post-Crisis and had agreed that All-Star Squadron had been fatally wounded by that company-wide maxi-series. I would have preferred to continue with the original comic featuring the heroes I had left—still dozens strong, after all—but I could read the handwriting on the wall, so I acquiesced to replacing Squadron with a new comic. For a time, the new series was to be called simply The New All-Star Squadron, but that title lacked pizzazz. I felt strongly that the word “All-Star” should be a part of its name. It was apparently on an Amtrak train headed south from New York City to central South Carolina, where

Smart Like A (Flying) Fox Two DC Flying Foxes before the one in Young All-Stars: writer/artist Terry Gilkison’s aviator in More Fun Comics #46 (Aug. 1939)—and a very young Bruce Wayne adopting a temporary secret identity while visiting Clark Kent’s Smallville in Adventure Comics #275 (Aug. 1960). “Superboy” script by Jerry Coleman & art by George Papp. Thanks to Mark Muller. [TM & © DC Comics.]

my wife Dann’s father had moved from southern California to launch a new branch of Hughes Aircraft, that the name The Young All-Stars was born. The precise wording was Dann’s suggestion—and it was the perfect phrase. (The only previous super-hero group with the word “young” in its title had been Timely’s Young Allies, way back in the first half of the 1940s. But my Lord, how many Young Avengers,Young Justice, Young Etc. gatherings there’ve been since!) From that point, Dann and I had begun creating the new heroes, “whose history and futures are largely unknown—a few blank slates to write upon.”

Dick Giordano A popular artist in his own right, but especially celebrated as the inker of Neal Adams and others, DG was also DC’s managing (then executive) editor from 1981 to 1993.

Wonder Woman needed replacing because somebody had to become the future mother of Lyta (Fury) Trevor of Infinity, Inc. After talking with Dick and with George Pérez, who was then making considerable use of Graeco-Roman myth in his new Wonder Woman series, Dann and I decided, with their blessing, that she and I would “just carve off one little corner [of mythology] for our new heroine—the three Furies of Greek legend.” And so Helena Kosmatos became the “original” super-heroine called Fury. I had considered not doing “displaced energy stand-ins” for Batman and Robin, since they had no super-powers—till I remembered that Jerry Bails’ 1970s publication Who’s Who of American Comic Books had reprinted a panel featuring an early DC aviator hero called The Flying Fox; he had appeared in eight 1939 issues of More Fun Comics. That’s actually the name of a species of bat—or at least it had been considered so until recent years, when scientists had decided it was actually not a bat but a small primate.

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The WHO’S WHO of American Comic Books 1928-1999

Fury rages against the attacking Axis Amerika above the prostrate forms of her adopted “family,” Liberty Belle and Johnny Quick, in The Young All-Stars #3 (Aug. 1987). Script by Roy & Dann Thomas; art by Brian Murray & Malcolm Jones III. Thanks to John Joshua. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Online Edition Created by Jerry G. Bails FREE – online searchable database – FREE www.bailsprojects.com – No password required

PART TWO

BRIAN MURRAY— First Of The Young All-Stars I

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Brian Murray was the artist finally brought on to draw most of The Young All-Stars #1… and became the series’ lead artist. Brian has also worked on such series as DNAgents, The Badger, Ms. Mystic, Youngblood, Shadowhawk, Rune, and Batman. In addition, he was the original penciler for Supreme, working with writerinker Rob Liefeld. This interview took place on September 3, 2022. RICHARD ARNDT: Looking at your credits, Brian, I noticed that The Young All-Stars was one of your first professional bylines. You had done a story for Continuity, which was Neal Adams’ publishing company, and you’d done a full issue for Eclipse’s The New DNAgents, but The Young All-Stars was your first regular gig. BRIAN MURRAY: Wow, I’d forgotten all about that DNAgents story. You may know more about my history than I do. [both laugh] RA: For the sake of the interview, I hope not! I have a note here that says you worked on The Young All-Stars #1-10 and perhaps on an annual. But you didn’t do full issues, for the most part. You were often doing the penciling of half an issue. Is that right? MURRAY: Yes, a couple of them I did full issues… but you’re right, for the most part I did pencils for half of the contents of each issue. The work on the annual was really just pin-ups included in the storyline. RA: I assume this was because of the deadlines on a monthly title, combined with you just getting into the industry.

Brian Murray in what he terms a “self-portrait photo” from a few years back— and his first cover for The Young All-Stars that depicted all six of the original cast: Neptune Perkins, Flying Fox, “Iron” Munro, Fury, Dyna-Mite, and Tsunami. A nice piece of composition for YAS #7 (Dec. 1987). Thanks to the artist and the GCD, respectively. [TM & © DC Comics.] In response to our request, Brian sent this brief bio: “Born on Long Island, New York, Brian “Adobewan” Murray moved to Southern California at age 20, where he’s resided since. His career started in comicbooks, crossed over to Saturday morning animation… he spent a number of years as an Advertising Art Director, produced a series of skateboard decks for Tony Hawk, and finally, using Photoshop, ZBrush, and a vast array of digital tools, he landed as a concept story artist for film, TV, and video games, working on projects such as Ready Player One, Star Trek: Picard, Mortal Kombat 12, and Spider-Man: Far from Home, for directors like Stephen Spielberg, Ron Howard, and Martin Campbell.”

MURRAY: Young All-Stars was very labor-intensive. First, I tended to work representationally rather than cartoony, so there was more labor involved. There were also a ton of characters! Each issue had the group of young super-heroes, plus the group of villains they were fighting, and Roy liked to have all the characters within the frame as much as possible. RA: I’ve taken a look at some of those pages, and many members of the Justice Society and All-Star Squadron and Seven Soldiers of Victory also appeared fairly frequently. There were a lot of characters to draw. I guess we should discuss how you came to the attention of Roy Thomas, who was the editor who would have asked for you, I would think. I know he had assistant editors as well, so perhaps they might have been the original contact point. [NOTE: See Roy’s account back on p. 5.] MURRAY: That’s a good question. How did that come about? If I’m remembering correctly, I was working for the DIC animation company. It was a rather low-rent organization. When I was

younger, I was voracious about sending my work around. I sent stuff out to everyone. Anybody who had anything to do with comics, I was going to send work to. I remember sending a packet of art to Gary Groth, the publisher of The Comics Journal, which, at the time, was probably the biggest magazine dealing with the history of comics. I was young and stupid, but his reaction was classic, weird, and funny. He mailed it back, unopened, with a big question mark on the envelope. RA: [laughs] O.K. MURRAY: I’m going to guess that Roy was one of the people I reached out to. Roy may actually remember this better than I do. RA: I’m looking at your artwork on the cover of The Young All-Stars #1 and it’s quite attractive. I’m sure you’ve greatly improved since then, but the cover is quite good. [NOTE: See p. 13.]

PART THREE

“We’re All Fans!” An Interview with Young All-Stars Artist HOWARD SIMPSON

Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Howard Simpson made his comics debut on Green Lantern #169 (Oct. 1983), penciling a framing sequence. He also worked on such titles as The Outsiders, Secret Origins, The Young All-Stars, Who’s Who, Showcase ’95 for DC; Flare, Captain Thunder and Blue Bolt, Icicle, and League of Champions for Heroic Publishing; Solar - Man of the Atom, X-O Manowar, Eternal Warrior, Harbringer, Ninjak, Psi-Lords, and Turok, Dinosaur Hunter for Acclaim/Valiant; Deathmate for Image; Grimjack and Munden’s Bar for First Comics; The Ray Bradbury Chronicles for Topps; Blaze: Legacy of Blood and Ghost Rider for Marvel; as well as long runs on such titles as Looney Tunes and Simpson Comics. This interview took place on April 18, 2021. RICHARD ARNDT: Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Howard. Was The Young All-Stars #3 (Aug. 1987) your first major work in comics? HOWARD SIMPSON: Actually, it was my second job, but I guess it was my first full book. The first job was a “Green Lantern Corps” story. That would have been in the Green Lantern comic. That story was about a Green Lantern that no one had ever heard of and hasn’t heard from since!

Howard Simpson at a con in Ithaca, NY—juxtaposed with a page he penciled of “Iron” Munro and Flying Fox battling Tisiphone, the Greek mythological entity Fury who had taken over the body of the human Helena Kosmatos in Young All-Stars #14 (July 1988). Inks by Malcolm Jones III; script by Roy & Dann Thomas. Thanks to Sharon Karibian. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Not surprising, I guess, since there’s supposed to be 4,000 of them across a pretty big galaxy. That’s what the back series was supposed to do—give the reader an idea of how many Lanterns there were out there, besides just the ones from Earth. RA: I suspect those back-ups were also used in the same way the DC mystery books were used, to give young artists a chance to do a complete short story and not have to jump feet-first into a full-length monthly title. To show off their chops before dealing with anything bigger. SIMPSON: Yeah, definitely. When I started, Joe Orlando was still the editor there, and he was going to give me a story to do. Joe was all about helping out new talent, giving them a place to develop professionalism. Unfortunately, that was the only story I did for him before he retired from DC in 1996. RA: Did you work as an assistant for anyone before you began doing your own solo work? SIMPSON: I tried to be an assistant to Ernie Colón, but just about that time, he stopped using assistants. However, he did do some mentoring of me. Then I joined a DC Talent program that Dick Giordano started with another person, who was to be the head of that. Ernie Colón took over the program very shortly thereafter. Since I’d previously known Ernie, that was a good thing. Then, when Ernie became an actual DC editor, he was very helpful to me. RA: DC Talent. Is that when they were doing the DC Talent Showcase book? SIMPSON: No, no, this was quite a while before that. This was the very first New Talent program. This was in the 1980s—1981 or ’82.

The Showcase version came out in the mid-’90s. If any of the DC editors wanted to use any of us from that program, well, that was the whole purpose of the program, but it didn’t happen much. It actually became very frustrating in how it actually was practiced. RA: So, kind of a blind alley for artists? SIMPSON: Right. Looking back, my second story wasn’t the Young All-Stars story but rather a “Dr. Occult” story that I did for Roy Thomas’ Secret Origins. Working with Roy on that title was how he got to know of me and how I got the Young All-Stars job. I was sitting up at DC offices, talking with a bunch of other freelancers, when Greg Weisman—who was the assistant editor of Secret Origins at that time—popped his head out the door into the hallway and asked me, “Hey, didn’t you show me some work about magic apples?” I said yes and he said, “Come here.” I went into his office and it turned out that one of the artists assigned to draw the “Dr. Occult” story had gotten sick, and because I’d showed him a sample page dealing with magic, I got the “Dr. Occult” assignment. It was just pure luck that I was sitting in the office at the time. RA: Lucky you! There’s a pretty big gap between the “Green Lantern” story and the “Dr. Occult” story, though… SIMPSON: I was actually still in college—the Tyler School of Arts—when I got the “Green Lantern” story. I was also under the false impression that once I got one story I would be hired for more. That didn’t happen for a long time. Four years, in fact. In college, I had been pushing myself, looking for work and meeting up with editors, showing them my samples, before the “Green Lantern” story and that impression—that false impression—that getting one job would open the door to more jobs—took hold of me for a while. Once I graduated and realized that I still needed to push myself, I

“We’re All Fans!”

the other way around? SIMPSON: Greg Weisman was the editor on Who’s Who as well, so I was basically still working for him on those pin-up pieces. Greg was really my “in” for a lot of this work. I also did the pin-ups for the All-Star Squadron in those issues. Roy told me that DC had bought the rights to a lot of old 1940s heroes from companies that weren’t around anymore. DC had the rights at the time to the Quality characters, maybe some other companies like Fawcett or Charlton. Roy gave me a list and right away I noticed that some of the Quality characters were missing from the list. I called Roy and asked if I could include them, and he said yes. I wanted to include those characters like the Justice League had done in the early days. Head shots that were often lined up on the left side of the cover. I wanted to be sure that all the characters would be able to be identified, because in a big scene—maybe on a two-page spread—the reader wouldn’t necessarily know who all those characters were. I did one pass on the heads and, remember,

Rotten To The Corps? Splash page of the lead story from Green Lantern #169 (Oct. 1983). Script by Joey Cavalieri, pencils by Howard Simpson, inks by Gary Martin. Thanks to Jim Kealy & Jim Ludwig. [TM & © DC Comics.]

started meeting up with editors again on a regular basis. My philosophy eventually became: “The first story is easy. The hardest one to bring about is the second job.” [laughs] Because any editor will give you a chance, but you’ve got to be impressive on that first job, for them to take a second look at you. I think because of my association with the New Talent program, nobody was really looking for new artists. RA: You also did a lot of drawings for the Who’s Who books around this time. SIMPSON: Yes, I was doing a lot of the characters from Young All-Stars, so that job and working on Young All-Stars all came about at the same time. RA: Did doing those Who’s Who pieces lead into The Young All-Stars or was it

Greg Weisman Since his stint on Young All-Stars, et al., as coordinating editor (Wikipedia says “editor,” but that’s not quite correct), Greg has gone on to a stellar career in animation, and has also written several novels. Internet photo provided by John Cimino.

The Doctor Is In—But Also Pretty Far-Out! Howard says his second job in comics was penciling the “Dr. Occult” story for Secret Origins #17 (Aug. 1987), which was inked by Bob Lewis. He got the assignment after the title’s NYC coordinating editor Greg Weisman suggested him to Roy Thomas. Script by RT (co-plotted by E. Nelson Bridwell); inspired by the late-1930s series by “Superman” creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Roy loved the vintage feel Howard gave the art, which soon led to his working on The Young All-Stars. Thanks to Sharon Karibian. [TM & © DC Comics.]

PART FOUR

LOU MANNA & The Young All-Stars Two Candid Conversations With The Series’ Final Penciler Interview #1

The Lost World Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Lou Manna started his comics career as an assistant to artist Jim Janes on DC Comics’ The Legion of Super-Heroes, afterward assisting penciler Rich Buckler on such Marvel and DC titles as What If?, All-Star Squadron, and World’s Finest Comics. He graduated to his own work on J.C. Publishing’s early1980s revival of T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents. Over the years he’s worked for Archie, DC, Marvel, Heroic Publishing, Fictioneer Books, Conquest Press, Moonstone, and Alias, among others. He recently illustrated two true-life

Lou Manna above the title splash he penciled for Infinity, Inc. Annual #2 (1988) and his cover for The Young All-Stars #31 (Nov. 1989), the comic’s final issue. Inks by Tony DeZuniga and Bob Downs, respectively. Thanks to John Joshua and the Grand Comics Database, also respectively. In the Annual, Todd McFarlane, Michael Bair, and the team of Jerry Ordway & Mike Machlan accounted for four of its 40-page lead story’s pages, but Lou’s penciling 36 pages was still a formidable accomplishment under time pressure, especially for a relative newcomer. He says its first few pages were composed of his “Black Terror” sample pages, slightly redrawn—which makes it likely that Roy and Dann came up with much of the plot for that Annual to accommodate them. Very fitting, since Roy, when he drew the original concept sketch of the skullfaced Mr. Bones, had used the Golden Age Black Terror’s general look as a template, crossbones chest symbol and all. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Lou Manna & The Young All-Stars

war stories for Full Mag #3 (Spring 2021) and is at work on a WWII-era graphic novel. In addition to his comics output, he’s worked in advertising for such clients as Chase Manhattan Bank, Accenture, Barkley’s Bank, Oppenheimer Capital, The New York Mets, Elmherst General Hospital, and others. He’s written and illustrated five nonfiction books on the history of Staten Island for the Statue of Liberty Cultural Arts Association at Gateway. More information on his career can be found at his website louismanna.com. This interview took place on February 11, 2021. RICHARD ARNDT: After Roy contacted me about interviewing you, I noticed your name in the latest Full Mag issue—#3. LOU MANNA: Yeah, I did those two short pieces, and I’m working with the editor of Full Mag, August Uhl, on a book he’s created called Burma Skies. He’s a nice guy and we hit it off pretty well. We’ve been working together for about six months to a year. The book is about a 1940s adventurer. I guess you picking up that magazine right after Roy contacted you proves it’s a small world. August, Roy—and I guess all the good writers in comics—are particular about how the art comes out. I remember Roy sent me a picture of a toucan when I was doing Young All-Stars, and Roy was very exact that that’s how he wanted that toucan to look like in the

Toucan Play At That Game! (Above:) The three-panel sequence from YAS #28 (Aug. 1989) for which writer/ creative editor Roy Thomas sent Lou Manna avian photo reference… though whether or not that included the late-’80s pic below taken by wife/co-writer Dann of Roy and his beloved toco toucan pal Cyrano, Ye Editor couldn’t say at this remove. (Lou shouldn’t feel singled out; earlier, RT had sent a toucan pic to penciler Todd McFarlane for an issue of Infinity, Inc. that featured Northwind’s feathered tribe, the Bird People. Poor Todd had to stick a toucan head on a human body!) Inks by Bob Downs. [TM & © DC Comics.]

comic. He wanted things to be exact. Not just the costume, but the belt buckle, the boots—all of that stuff to be exact, which is really a good lesson. Especially for young guys today. RA: A lot of the old pros had massive reference files. Nowadays, you don’t really need all of that because with the Internet you can usually find reference material rather quickly; but back in the day, things like Greek or Roman temple columns or what a shield for a particular time looked like— you had to have physical references for all of that. MANNA: Yeah, the writer would want a particular car or airplane or machine gun. You had to deliver that stuff, and it wasn’t always easy. Even today, it’s not always easy to find the right reference, even on the Internet. RA: How did you end up working with Roy Thomas?

Full Mag The splash page of the Vietnam War-era lead story of Full Mag #1 (2021), with script by Mark Potes, pencils by Lou Manna, and inks by Bill Anderson. Good to see that Lou’s still active in the business, a third of a century since The Young All-Stars. Thanks to LM. [TM & © Full Magazine Pub.]

MANNA: That’s kind of a long story, but I’ll try to keep it short. I’ve been in this business for forty years now—started out as an assistant for Jim Janes on The Legion of Super-Heroes. There were thirty or forty characters in that book, between villains and heroes. I think we also did Secrets of the Legion, which had a ton of stuff.

Two Candid Conversations With The Series’ Final Penciler

LOU MANNA Checklist This checklist is adapted from materials contained in the online Grand Comics Database. Features that also appeared in other publications are generally not italicized below. For other info on Lou Manna’s career, see Richard Arndt’s introduction to his interview, on p. 30. Key: (p) = pencil; (i) = ink. Name & Vital Statistics: Lou Manna – artist COMICBOOKS (US Mainstream Publishers):

Cover Me!

Alias: Soulcatcher (p) 2005

Manna’s covers for Heroic Publishing’s Icicle Color Edition #5 (Aug. 2005) and Moonstone’s The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #7 (Dec. 2009), “cover B.” The former was inked by John Flaherty, the latter by Lou M. himself. Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © Heroic Publishing, Inc., & King Features, Inc., respectively.]

Archie Comic Group: Blue Ribbon Comics (p) 1984 Conquest Press: Claws (p) 1993 DC Comics: All-Star Squadron (backgrounds) c. 1981; House of Mystery (p) 1982; Legion of Super-Heroes (backgrounds/ assistance) dates uncertain; Who’s Who in DC Comics (p) 1988, 1991; Who’s Who Update (p) 1988; World’s Finest Comics (assist) dates uncertain; The Young All-Stars (p) 1989

Fictioneer Books: The Southern Knights (p) 1992 Heroic Publishing: The Champions (p) 2011; Chrissie Claus (p) 2012; Icicle (p) 1992, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015; The Morrigan Wars, Part Two (p) 2010 JC Comics: T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents (p) 1981, 1983, 1984 Marvel Comics: Marvel Super-Heroes (1990 series) 1990; What If? (assist) dates uncertain Moonstone: The Phantom 2003-2004

It’s Nice To Have Powerful Friends Fury is startled to see a sizeable contingent of the All-Star Squadron show up to help her find and rescue her fellow Young All-Stars, on the final story page of YAS #30. Script by Roy & Dann Thomas; pencils by Lou Manna; inks by Bob Downs & Dave Simons (probably the latter on this particular page). Thanks to John Joshua. [TM & © DC Comics.]

Warren Publications: The Rook (p) (dates & details uncertain)

PART FIVE

THE YOUNG ALL-STARS: CRISIS AVERTED!

One Fan’s Response To The End Of Earth-Two by Johnny Blaze Leavitt A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: I’ve got to admit, Johnny Blaze Leavitt is a guy after my own heart! How could I not applaud a fan who, like John Joshua (see next article), simply decides to postulate that the 1985-86 Crisis on Infinite Earths never happened and to go on creating new covers and prospective storylines centered around the original multiverse that included Earth-Two and its fellow alternate worlds! In Johnny’s case, though, he’s double-threaded the needle to have it both ways: both the original Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, et al., and their “energy replacements” from the 1987-89 series The Young All-Stars (“Iron” Munro, Fury, Flying Fox, et al.) find a way to co-exist on an enlarged Earth-Two. Got to admit, that’s not unlike what I’d have wanted to do over the past three-plus decades if I’d had my druthers—but where I have been content to draw a line under my time with the All-Star Squadron and its offshoots, Johnny Blaze Leavitt let nothing stand in his way! But we’ll let him tell you all about it in his own wondrous words….

started digitally crafting homage/fan covers a few years ago. I’ve always been a fan of DC Comics’ Earth-Two. The Golden Age! As a kid, I remember seeing the cover to All-Star Squadron #18 on the magazine rack and not recognizing any of the characters. I needed to know who they were! I read the issue in the store and became hooked. Every issue introduced me to a new hero or villain. Then Infinity, Inc. appeared! Then the Seven Soldiers of Victory returned in Squadron! Then the Quality Comics characters joined! Watching them all interact in issue #31 blew my mind. The possibilities for amazing stories kept expanding. As an adult, I’ll re-read these issues and wonder what other stories could have been told. My playwright brain would start to craft scenarios and plot points. What if Uncle Sam had more obscure Quality Comics heroes join the Freedom Fighters? What if the Golden Age Batman formed an Earth-Two version of The Outsiders? I started imagining what the covers would look like, what would inspire another fan to grab the issue from their magazine rack. What would excite a fellow Earth-Two fan? I like to take familiar, iconic covers and transform them, reimagined for new Golden Age adventures that I wish I could read. These Young All-Stars covers are my answer to the question: “How could Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Green Arrow, and Speedy be brought back into the Golden Age continuity?” Having them defend their YAS homage characters against their Axis Amerika doppelgängers seemed too much fun to resist. It’s three interpretations of the same character (or characters of that same “energy”) in one place! Who doesn’t love a triumphant return? I love sharing them in the various Justice Society of America fan groups on Facebook, where fellow fans ask who a character is or delight in identifying my source art or propose an idea of their own for a future cover. And it always comes back to the same sentiment:

Just Imagine! JBL even composed his own “house ad” for his concept of The Young All-Stars: Crisis Averted series! [Heroes & villains TM & © DC Comics.]

We, the fans, love these Golden Age All-Stars and we miss them and we want more.

Edited by ROY THOMAS The first and greatest “hero-zine”—ALL-NEW, focusing on GOLDEN AND SILVER AGE comics and creators with ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS, UNSEEN ART, P.C. Hamerlinck’s FCA [Fawcett Collectors of America], MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY’S Comic Fandom Archive, and more!

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ALTER EGO #171

ALTER EGO #172

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ALTER EGO #167

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ALTER EGO #169

Salute to Golden & Silver Age artist SYD SHORES as he’s remembered by daughter NANCY SHORES KARLEBACH, fellow artist ALLEN BELLMAN, DR. MICHAEL J. VASSALLO, and interviewer RICHARD ARNDT. Plus: mid-1940s “Green Turtle” artist/creator CHU HING profiled by ALEX JAY, JOHN BROOME, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster on MORT WEISINGER Part Two, and more!

Two RICHARD ARNDT interviews revealing the wartime life of Aquaman artist/ co-creator PAUL NORRIS (with a Golden/ Silver Age art gallery)—plus the story of WILLIE ITO, who endured the WWII Japanese-American relocation centers to become a Disney & Warner Bros. animator and comics artist. Plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more, behind a NORRIS cover!

Spotlight on Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH— co-creator of Marvel’s Ghost Rider! ROY THOMAS on their six-decade friendship, wife JEAN FRIEDRICH and nephew ROBERT HIGGERSON on his later years, PETER NORMANTON on GF’s horror/ mystery comics, art by PLOOG, TRIMPE, ROMITA, THE SEVERINS, AYERS, et al.! FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT and Mr. Monster, and more! MIKE PLOOG cover!

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ALTER EGO #173

ALTER EGO #174

ALTER EGO #175

PAUL GUSTAVSON—Golden Age artist of The Angel, Fantom of the Fair, Arrow, Human Bomb, Jester, Plastic Man, Alias the Spider, Quicksilver, Rusty Ryan, Midnight, and others—is remembered by son TERRY GUSTAFSON, who talks in-depth to RICHARD ARNDT. Also, ROY THOMAS reviews the new anti-STAN LEE bio! Plus—FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, and more!

ALFREDO ALCALA is celebrated for his dreamscape work on Savage Sword of Conan and other work for Marvel, DC, and Warren, as well as his own barbarian creation Voltar, as RICH ARNDT interviews his sons Alfred and Christian! Also: FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, PETER NORMANTON’s horror history From The Tomb, JOHN BROOME, and more!

BLACK HEROES IN U.S. COMICS! Awesome overview by BARRY PEARL, from Voodah to Black Panther and beyond! Interview with DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III (author of Looking for a Face Like Mine!), art/artifacts by BAKER, GRAHAM, McDUFFIE, COWAN, GREENE, HERRIMAN, JONES, ORMES, STELFREEZE, BARREAUX, STONER—plus FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS.

FCA [FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA] issue—spearheaded by feisty and informative articles by Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. BECK—plus a fabulous feature on vintage cards created in Spain and starring The Marvel Family! In addition: DR. WILLIAM FOSTER III interview (conclusion)—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on the lost art of comicbook greats—the haunting of JOHN BROOME—and more! BECK cover!

Spotlighting the artists of ROY THOMAS’ 1980s DC series ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Interviews with artists ARVELL JONES, RICHARD HOWELL, and JERRY ORDWAY, conducted by RICHARD ARNDT! Plus, the Squadron’s FINAL SECRETS, including previously unpublished art, & covers for issues that never existed! With FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and a wraparound cover by ARVELL JONES!

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TwoMorrows. The Future of Comics History.

ALTER EGO #176

ALTER EGO #177

ALTER EGO #178

ALTER EGO #179

The Golden Age comics of major pulp magazine publisher STREET & SMITH (THE SHADOW, DOC SAVAGE, RED DRAGON, SUPERSNIPE) examined in loving detail by MARK CARLSON-GHOST! Art by BOB POWELL, HOWARD NOSTRAND, and others, ANTHONY TOLLIN on “The Shadow/Batman Connection”, FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, JOHN BROOME, PETER NORMANTON, and more!

Celebration of veteran artist DON PERLIN, artist of WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, THE DEFENDERS, GHOST RIDER, MOON KNIGHT, 1950s horror, and just about every other adventure genre under the fourcolor sun! Plus Golden Age artist MARCIA SNYDER—Marvel’s early variant covers— Marvelmania club and fanzine—FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT on Cracked Mazagine, & more!

Golden Age great EMIL GERSHWIN, artist of Starman, Spy Smasher, and ACG horror—in a super-length special MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT by MICHAEL T. GILBERT—plus a Gershwin showcase in PETER NORMANTON’s From The Tomb— even a few tidbits about relatives GEORGE and IRA GERSHWIN to top it off! Also FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), and other surprise features!

Celebrating the 61st Anniversary of FANTASTIC FOUR #1—’cause we kinda blew right past its 60th—plus a sagacious salute to STAN LEE’s 100th birthday, with never-before-seen highlights—and to FF #1 and #2 inker GEORGE KLEIN! Spotlight on Sub-Mariner in the Bowery in FF #4—plus sensational secrets behind FF #1 and #3! Also: FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT, a JACK KIRBY cover, and more!

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Michael T’s frontispiece for Graphitti’s 1986 Elric of Melniboné graphic novel collecting the six-issue comicbook series from Pacific Comics. Roy Thomas adapted the stories, with P. Craig Russell sharing the art chores. Newly colored for this printing. [Elric & other characters TM & © Michael Moorcock & Multiverse, Inc.]

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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BACK ISSUE #132

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ER EISN RD ! ! AWA NER WIN

BACK ISSUE #129

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TV TOON TIE-INS! Bronze Age HannaBarbera Comics, Underdog, Mighty Mouse, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, Battle of the Planets, and Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl. Bonus: SCOTT SHAW! digs up Captain Carrot’s roots! Featuring the work of BYRNE, COLON, ENGEL, EVANIER, FIELDS, MICHAEL GALLAGHER, WIN MORTIMER, NORRIS, SEVERIN, SKEATES, STATON, TALLARICO, TOTH, and more!

BRONZE AGE PROMOS, ADS, AND GIMMICKS! The aborted DC Super-Stars Society fan club, Hostess Comic Ads, DC 16-page Preview Comics, rare Marvel custom comics, DC Hotline, Popeye Career Comics, early variant covers, and more. Featuring BARR, HERDLING, LEVITZ, MAGUIRE, MORGAN, PACELLA, PALMIOTTI, SHAW!, TERRY STEWART, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more!

THE KIRBY LEGACY AT DC! Explores Jack Kirby’s post-Fourth World Bronze Age DC characters! Demon, Kamandi, OMAC, Sandman, and Kirby’s Odd Jobs (Atlas, Manhunter, and more). Plus: the SIMON & KIRBY Reunion That Wasn’t! Featuring BISSETTE, BYRNE, CONWAY, GIBBONS, GOLDEN, GRANT, RUCKA, SEMEIKS, THOMAS, TIMM, WAGNER, and more. Demon cover by KIRBY and MIKE ROYER!

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BACK ISSUE #134

BACK ISSUE #135

BACK ISSUE #136

1980s MARVEL LIMITED SERIES! CLAREMONT/MILLER’s Wolverine, Black Panther, Falcon, Punisher, Machine Man, Iceman, Magik, Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D., Wolfpack, and more! With BOGDANOVE, COWAN, DeFALCO, DeMATTEIS, GRANT, HAMA, MILGROM, NEARY, SMITH, WINDSORSMITH, and more. Cover by JOE RUBINSTEIN. Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

STARMEN ISSUE, headlined by JAMES ROBINSON and TONY HARRIS’s Jack Knight Starman! Plus: The StarSpangled Kid, Starjammers, the 1980s Starman, and Starstruck! Featuring DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, ROBERT GREENBERGER, ELAINE LEE, TOM LYLE, MICHAEL Wm. KALUTA, ROGER STERN, ROY THOMAS, and more. Jack Knight Starman cover by TONY HARRIS.

BRONZE AGE RARITIES & ODDITIES, spotlighting rare ‘80s European Superman comics! Plus: CURT SWAN’s Batman, JIM APARO’s Superman, DAVID ANTHONY KRAFT’s Marvel custom comics, MICHAEL USLAN’s unseen Earth-Two stories, Leaf’s DC Secret Origins, Marvel’s Evel Knievel, cover variants, and more! With EDUARDO BARRETO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, ALEX SAVIUK, and more. Cover by JOE KUBERT.

SILVER ISSUE, starring the Silver Surfer in the Bronze Age! Plus: JACK KIRBY’s Silver Star, SCOTT HAMPTON’s Silverheels, Silver Sable, Silver Banshee, DC’s Silver Age Classics, and more! Featuring BUSIEK, BUTLER, BYRNE, ENGLEHART, STAN LEE, LIM, MARZ, MOEBIUS, POLLARD, MARSHALL ROGERS, ALEX ROSS, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by RON FRENZ and JOE SINNOTT.

BRONZE AGE COMICS STRIPS! SpiderMan, Friday Foster, DC’s World’s Greatest Superheroes starring Superman, Howard the Duck, Richie Rich, Star Hawks, Star Trek, MIKE GRELL’s Tarzan, and more! Plus Charlton’s comic strip tie-ins and the MENOMONEE FALLS GAZETTE. With COLAN, GOODWIN, GIL KANE, KREMER, STAN LEE, ROMITA, THOMAS, TUSKA, and more.

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BACK ISSUE #137

BACK ISSUE #138

BACK ISSUE #139

BACK ISSUE #140

1980s PRE-CRISIS DC MINISERIES! Green Arrow, Secrets of the Legion, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps, Krypton Chronicles, America vs. the Justice Society, Legend of Wonder Woman, Conqueror of the Barren Earth, and more! Featuring MIKE W. BARR, KURT BUSIEK, PAUL KUPPERBERG, RON RANDALL, TRINA ROBBINS, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, ROY THOMAS, and others. VON EEDEN and GIORDANO cover.

CLASSIC HEROES IN THE BRONZE AGE! The Lone Ranger and Tonto, Flash Gordon, Popeye, Zorro and Lady Rawhide, Son of Tomahawk, Jungle Twins, and more! Featuring the work of DAN JURGENS, JOE R. LANSDALE, DON McGREGOR, FRANK THORNE, TIM TRUMAN, GEORGE WILDMAN, THOMAS YEATES, and other creators. With a classic 1979 fully painted Gold Key cover of Flash Gordon.

NOT-READY-FOR-PRIMETIME MARVEL HEROES! Mighty Marvel’s Bronze Age second bananas: Doc Samson, Jack of Hearts, Thundra, Nighthawk, Starfox, Modred the Mystic, Woodgod, the Shroud, Thunderbird and Warpath, Stingray, Wundaar, and others! Featuring the work of BUSIEK, DAVID, ENGLEHART, GERBER, GIFFEN, GRANT, MANTLO, MICHELINIE, STERN, THOMAS, and other A-list talent!

DINOSAUR COMICS! Interviews with Xenozoic®’s MARK SCHULTZ and dinoartist extraordinaire WILLIAM STOUT! Plus: Godzilla at Dark Horse, Sauron villain history, Dinosaurs Attack!, Dinosaurs for Hire, Dinosaur Rex, Dino Riders, Lord Dinosaur, and Jurassic Park! Featuring ARTHUR ADAMS, BISSETTE, CLAREMONT, COCKRUM, GERANI, STRADLEY, ROY THOMAS, and more. SCHULTZ cover.

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“Album of Comic-Book Life” – Concluded The Second Half Of STANLEY KAUFFMANN’s Memories Of Fawcett Comics In The Early 1940s Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck INTRODUCTION: As laid out in detail in our previous issue, Stanley Kauffmann (1916-2013) was a famous and respected New York theatre and film critic for two-thirds of a century. After graduating in 1935 from New York University, he published his first novel, The King of Proxy Street, in 1941. Soon afterward, he spent nearly a year as an editor and staff writer for the B.W. Sangor art shop, which at the time produced material for the Pines/ Better/Nedor line of comicbooks. In December of 1942 he was hired as a comics editor at Fawcett Publications, a large company whose comicbooks were only one of its divisions—though a very profitable one, due primarily to the burgeoning popularity of Captain Marvel, but with the rest of The Marvel Family, Bulletman, Spy Smasher, and others also raking in dimes, many of which came from US servicemen during World War II. Between December 1942 and January 1944, he served as the editor of three Fawcett titles: Captain Marvel Adventures (the company’s top-selling comic), Captain Midnight (a licensed version of the popular radio character), and Wow Comics (featuring Mary Marvel, Mr. Scarlet, et al.)

The Critic & The Captain Alas, we never did manage to score a photo of Stanley Kauffmann in his mid-twenties, around the time he was editing for Fawcett Publications—so this 1971 one will have to do. Photo by Jerzy Kosinkski. By far the most important of the three Fawcett titles that Kauffmann edited from the turn of 1943 until very early ’44 was Captain Marvel Adventures, already well on its way to becoming for several years the top-selling comicbook on the planet. His issue #35 (May 1944) went on sale not long after he had traded in his Fawcett staff job for the freelance life of a novelist and, soon, theatrical and film critic. Art by C.C. Beck. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

After leaving Fawcett, Kauffmann became a critic in the field of the dramatic arts. From 1958 to 2013 he was the film reviewer for The New Republic magazine. Besides publishing several collections of his reviews over the years, he also scribed two memoirs. Ironically, it was the latter of these, Albums of a Life (1980), that included a chapter titled “Album of Comic-Book Life,” in which he playfully discussed his relatively short time in the comics field (though he virtually ignored the months spent with the Sangor shop). He had received his “first draft-call” in April of ’41, receiving a “4-F” classification because of an earlier medical operation. As noted last issue, Kauffmann used pseudonyms for Fawcett itself and for all its personnel, but nearly all of these have been easily identified since. Our only major alterations in the text have been to provide the real names of the protagonists, placing them between brackets after the use of the pseudonyms.

Fawcett itself was altered to “Tappan”; Kauffmann’s fellow comics editor Jane Magill became “Peg Molloy”; editor Henry Avelyn “Lynn” Perkins was “Colin James”; chief comics editor Rod Reed was referred to simply as “Hap”; editorial director Ralph Daigh became “Harold Knight”; Mechanix Illustrated editor Bill Williams mutated into “Virgil Burmeister”; comics heroes Captain Marvel and Captain Midnight were hidden behind the respective alter egos “Major Mighty” and “Nick Noonday”; and so on. The text is © 2007 Stanley Kauffmann, is reprinted with permission of Stanley Moss/Sheep Meadow Press, and was edited very slightly for this reprinting. —P.C. Hamerlinck.

Part 3

here was still another reason why Peg Molloy [editor Jane Magill] liked me. We both loathed Colin James [editor Henry Avelyn “Lynn” Perkins]. Nobody cared much for Colin [Lynn]; although some (like Hap [chief editor Rod Reed]) pitied him