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PRESENTS:

WHICH IN TURN PRESENTS:

UNCLE MARVEL And the Fabulous

82658 00498 1

Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics; art © Jerry Ordway.

FAWCETT FAMILY!

BONUS! SHINING TWIN SPOTLIGHTS ON ARTIST

KENNETH LANDAU & WRITER LEE GOLDSMITH!

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The saga of Saturday morning’s Super Friends, Part One! Plus: A history of MR. T, TV’s AVENGERS (Steed and Mrs. Peel), Daktari’s CHERYL MILLER, Mexican movie monsters, John and Yoko’s nation of Nutopia, ELIZABETH SHEPHERD (the actress who almost played Emma Peel), and more! With ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, MARK VOGER, & MICHAEL EURY.

The BRITISH INVASION of the Sixties, interview with Bond Girl TRINA PARKS, The Mighty Hercules, Horror Hostess MOONA LISA, World’s Greatest Super Friends, TV Guide Fall Previews, the Frito Bandito, a Popeye Super Collector, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The story behind BOB CLAMPETT’s Beany & Cecil, western queen DALE EVANS, an interview with Mr. Ed’s ALAN YOUNG, Miami Vice, The Sixties’ Wackiest Robots, Muscle-Maker CHARLES ATLAS, Super Powers Team—Galactic Guardians, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

The Brady Bunch’s FLORENCE HENDERSON, the UNKNOWN COMIC revealed, Hanna-Barbera’s Top Cat, a Barbie history, RANKIN/BASS’ Frosty the Snowman, Dell Comics’ Monster SuperHeroes, Slushy Drinks, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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Meet JULIE NEWMAR, the purr-fect Catwoman! Plus: ASTRO BOY, TARZAN Saturday morning cartoons, the true history of PEBBLES CEREAL, TV’s THE UNTOUCHABLES and SEARCH, the MONKEEMOBILE, SOVIET EXPO ’77, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Surf’s up as SIXTIES BEACH MOVIES make a RetroFan splash! Plus: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, ZORRO’s Saturday morning cartoon, TV’s THE WILD, WILD WEST, CARtoons and other drag-mags, VALSPEAK, and more fun, fab features! Like, totally! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet the stars behind the Black Lagoon: RICOU BROWNING, BEN CHAPMAN, JULIE ADAMS, and LORI NELSON! Plus SHADOW CHASERS, featuring show creator KENNETH JOHNSON. Also: THE BEATLES’ YELLOW SUBMARINE, FLASH GORDON cartoons, TV’s cult classic THE PRISONER and kid’s show ZOOM, COLORFORMS, M&Ms, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Interviews with Lost in Space’s ANGELA CARTWRIGHT and BILL MUMY, and Land of the Lost’s WESLEY EURE! Revisit Leave It to Beaver with JERRY MATHERS, TONY DOW, and KEN OSMOND! Plus: UNDERDOG, Rankin-Bass’ stop-motion classic THE LITTLE DRUMMER BOY, Christmas gifts you didn’t want, the CABBAGE PATCH KIDS fad, and more! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

Meet Mission: Impossible’s LYNDA DAY GEORGE in an exclusive interview! Celebrate Rambo’s 50th birthday with his creator, novelist DAVID MORRELL! Plus: TV faves WKRP IN CINCINNATI and SPACE: 1999, Fleisher’s and Filmation’s SUPERMAN cartoons, commercial jingles, JERRY LEWIS and BOB HOPE comic books, and more fun, fab features! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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An exclusive interview with Logan’s Run star MICHAEL YORK, plus Logan’s Run novelist WILLIAM F. NOLAN and vehicle customizer DEAN JEFFRIES. Plus: the Marvel Super Heroes cartoons of 1966, H. R. Pufnstuf, Leave It to Beaver’s SUE “Miss Landers” RANDALL, WOLFMAN JACK, drive-in theaters, My Weekly Reader, DAVID MANDEL’s super collection of comic book art, and more!

Dark Shadows’ Angelique, LARA PARKER, sinks her fangs into an exclusive interview. Plus: Rankin-Bass’ Mad Monster Party, Aurora Monster model kits, a chat with Aurora painter JAMES BAMA, George of the Jungle, The Haunting, Jawsmania, Drak Pack, TV dads’ jobs, and more fun, fab features! Featuring columns by FARINO, MANGELS, MURRAY, SAAVEDRA, SHAW, and MICHAEL EURY.

Our BARBARA EDEN interview will keep you forever dreaming of Jeannie! Plus: The Invaders, the BILLIE JEAN KING/BOBBY RIGGS tennis battle of the sexes, HANNABARBERA’s Saturday morning super-heroes of the Sixties, THE MONSTER TIMES fanzine, and more fun, fab features! Featuring ERNEST FARINO, ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW!, and MICHAEL EURY.

Interview with Bond Girl and Hammer Films actress CAROLINE MUNRO! Plus: WACKY PACKAGES, COURAGEOUS CAT AND MINUTE MOUSE, FILMATION’S GHOSTBUSTERS vs. the REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, Bandai’s rare PRO WRESTLER ERASERS, behind the scenes of Sixties movies, WATERGATE at Fifty, Go-Go Dancing, a visit to the Red Skelton Museum, and more fun, fab features!

MAD’s maddest artist, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, is profiled! Plus: TV’s Route 66 and an interview with star GEORGE MAHARIS, MOE HOWARD’s final years, singer B. J. THOMAS in one of his final interviews, LONE RANGER cartoons, G.I. JOE, and more! Featuring columns by ANDY MANGELS, WILL MURRAY, SCOTT SAAVEDRA, SCOTT SHAW, and MARK VOGER! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

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Vol. 3, No. 182 July 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

Proofreader

Contents

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: Locate—And Listen! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #241 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Cover Colorist

Uncle Marvel: The Un-Marvelous Marvel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

William J. Dowlding

Presented by P.C. Hamerlinck, with a stupendous cover by Jonathan Dhenry.

Jerry Ordway

Call him Uncle Dudley—call him “fraud”—Carl Shinyama calls him entertaining!

Glenn Whitmore

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Pedro Angosto Bob Bailey Alberto Becattini Al Bradford Gary F. Brown Mitchell Brown Bernie Bubnis Nick Caputo John Cimino Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Pierre Comtois Bob Cosgrove Chet Cox Ray Cuthbert Jonathan Dhenry Joseph Eacobacci Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr. Jackie Estrada Shane Foley Joe Frank Stephan A. Friedt Janet Gilbert J.T. Go Grand Comics Database (website)

Walt Grogan Rob Hansen Bill Jones Sharon Karibian Jim Kealy Dave Lazarov Jim Ludwig Maranee Landau McDonald Jerred Metz Mark Muller Rick Norwood Joe Palmer Barry Pearl Larry Rapchak Al Rodriguez Randy Sargent Dave Scroggy Mitchell Senft Carl Lani‘Keha Shinyama Brian Stewart Bryan D. Stroud Tim Stroup Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Michael Vance Clifton Wellman

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Kenneth Landau, Lee Goldsmith, Roscoe “Rocky” Fawcett Jr., Tony Tallarico, George Olshevsky, & Vic Carrabotta

The Fabulous Fawcett Family – Part I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Shaun Clancy interviewed the late Roscoe “Rocky” Fawcett, Jr.

There’s Still Time For Heroes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 When Golden Age writer Lee Goldsmith talked with Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr.

Chris Welkin, Planeteer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35 Roy Thomas wants to introduce the world to a great 1950s sci-fi comic strip.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Post-est With the Most-est! . . 39 The St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s nutty 1951 features on great comic strip creators.

Tributes To Tony Tallarico, George Olshevsky, & Vic Carrabotta . . 45

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 50 Kenneth Landau: The Artist Who “Signed Everything!” . . . . 57 Daughter Maranee Landau McDonald on her father’s work at ACG and elsewhere— plus Larry Rapchak, and a Kenneth Landau chat with Shaun Clancy.

On Our Cover: Surely one of the finest artists to handle the original Captain Marvel since the heady Golden Age days of C.C. Beck and crew is Jerry Ordway, the magic lightning behind the 1990s Power of Shazam! series. And one of our all-time favorites of his many commissioned pieces starring the World’s Mightiest Mortal is this 2015 panorama of Billy Batson’s grown-up alter ego transporting a distraught Uncle Marvel high above the Earth! Thanks to Jerry for allowing us to use it as this issue’s captivating cover—Tom Ziuko for colors—and to Pedro Angosto across the pond in Spain for first bringing it to our notice! [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics; other art © Jerry Ordway.] Above: Artist Kenneth Landau, as per the title of the section about him listed above, signed nearly all of his work for the American Comics Group and elsewhere—including that done for ACG’s Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub #4-7. Here’s his lead splash page for issue #7, cover-dated Sept. 1955. Writer, alas, unknown. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.] Alter EgoTM issue 182, July 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.

Article Title writer/editorial

Locate—And Listen!

lmost from its conception by Dr. Jerry G. Bails back in 1961, Alter Ego has walked a tightrope between twin focuses: the history and heroes of the adventure comicbook, and the reminiscences of those who wrote, drew, edited, created those heroes and those comics. In the very earliest days, it’s true, it was the former that predominated, with articles on the All Winners Squad, the Green Lanterns of two Ages, the heroes of MLJ, and such like. That was only fitting, since Jerry had founded the fanzine to help spur the burgeoning return of comicbook super-heroes, partly by illuminating their backstory in the so-called Golden Age of Comics. From the beginning, though, Jerry also wanted to shine a spotlight on the people who produced the comics—and, in the early 1960s, those were mostly the same people who’d been doing so since the ’40s, such as Julius Schwartz, editor of DC’s new Justice League of America… though it was actually second A/E editor/ publisher Ronn Foss who introduced the notion of creator interviews to the mag, beginning with a postcard talk with Joe Kubert. When I took over in ’64, I found the idea of a back-and-forth interview-by-mail generally unsatisfactory—and the long-distance rates of the day made phone conversations prohibitive—so I continued the historical approach. Still, the long informative letter about Captain Marvel from Otto Binder I published in my first issue (V1#7) convinced me interviews were essential to A/E, so I made plans for a by-mail one with DC writer Gardner Fox, with whom I’d been exchanging letters since late 1960. Alas, that interview never got off the ground, due to my “turning pro.” But, by the time I briefly revived Alter Ego as a more professionally oriented publication in 1969, I was definitely on board for the interview approach. SF/comics fan John Benson produced a splendid and wide-ranging one with Gil Kane…

and I followed it up with a long career-based talk with my colleague and sometime roommate Bill Everett, though that one took nearly a decade (and a fourth editor/publisher, Mike Friedrich) to finally appear. By the time John Morrow and Jon B. Cooke talked me into putting out a “Volume 3” of Alter Ego, I’d been totally converted by the in-depth interviews Jon was doing for his own magazine, Comic Book Artist. I started out with Irwin Hasen (in #1) and Larry Lieber (#2), to represent the Golden and Silver Ages. By the time interviewer par excellence Jim Amash took over major interviewing duties around #9, the pattern was set… though nowadays conversations are more likely to involve the children of Golden (and even Silver) Age creators, due to the inexorable passage of time. This time around, for instance, P.C. Hamerlinck’s expanded FCA section is divided between a “hero-history” (of Uncle Marvel, no less) and a talk with one of the sons of the founders of Fawcett’s comics line (himself now deceased). And while daughter Maranee Landau McDonald is the main source re her artist father Kenneth Landau, we’re also fortunate to have Shaun Clancy’s 2012 phone conversation with Landau himself. Even the late Golden Age DC writer Lee Goldsmith gets his posthumous say, via an online article by Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr. It’s pieces like these—augmented by the mini-bios of comic strip artists tossed at us by “Comic Crypt’s” Michael T. Gilbert— that make me glad that, back in 1999, I let Messrs. Cooke and Morrow talk me into re-launching Alter Ego as a self-contained magazine. Because yesterday’s creators, as well as today’s, still have a lot to say to us. All we have to do is locate their words, their truths, one way or another… and then listen.

Bestest,

COMING IN AUGUST

183

IRV NOVICK—

up TM & © Archie Comics Gro

A Heroes’ Artist!

• Vintage NOVICK Hangman cover, reproduced from the original art! • The life, times, & titanic art of IRV NOVICK—compiled by JOHN COATES & DEWEY CASSELL! Starring Batman—The Shield—Steel Sterling—Black Hood—Silent Knight— The Flash—Captain Storm—Batgirl—Sea Devils—Haunted Tank—The Joker—DC war comics, et al.! A book-length tribute, especially abridged for Alter Ego! • FCA presents more on the fabulous Fawcett family, featuring the life of Captain Billy— MICHAEL T. GILBERT talks to artist RALPH REESE about his apprenticeship to the legendary WALLY WOOD—& MORE!!

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UNCLE MARVEL: The UN-Marvelous Marvel! by Carl Lani’Keha Shinyama

“A

nd of course there was the wonderfully funny Uncle Marvel with a hilarious face and wry personality that could have been traced directly to comedian W.C. Fields.” —Dick Lupoff (in Xero #1, “The Big Red Cheese,” first episode of the series “And All in Color for a Dime”)

CREATION It is not known why some characters endure or are remembered fondly by fans across multiple generations, but Uncle Dudley seems to be one such character. In the Golden Age, at the height of Captain Marvel’s success, he obviously had a charm that allowed him to appear in more stories than the likes of the Lieutenant Marvels, Cissie Sommerly (Billy Batson’s girlfriend), and Black Adam, despite making limited appearances himself (21 in total). Few may know that, when Uncle Dudley made his debut in Wow Comics #18 (Oct. 1943), it was as a supporting character in the “Mary Marvel” series. In fact, he would not meet Billy Batson until more than a year later, and he would not meet Freddy Freeman until the year after that. When Mary Marvel’s co-creator, Otto Binder, worked on Mary’s stories in Wow Comics, he wanted her tales to be distinctive from Billy Batson’s and Freddy Freeman’s, with less emphasis on the super-heroics and more on the human interest side. However, like other authors, Binder had a style of writing, and certain attributes that were always present, no matter the story. He had a penchant for incorporating humor—and its cousin, satire—usually about the flaws of humans, which permeated the adventures of all those who were a part of The Marvel Family, including especially Billy Batson and Captain Marvel.

Uncle Marvel’s Finest Hours Probably two of the best presentations ever of Uncle Marvel are his proud presence above in the cover lineup for The Marvel Family #1 (Dec. 1945), as penciled by C.C. Beck and inked by Pete Costanza—and the neverbefore-published art at left, in which Shazam-fan Walt Grogan turned Jerry Ordway’s fabulous illustration of Captain Marvel and his “uncle” into a faux splash page, even adding dialogue and splendiferous colors to it! Incidentally, while the cover of issue #1 declared the group mag to be Marvel Family Comics, its official indicia title for all of its 89 issues was The Marvel Family. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database and Walt Grogan, respectively. [Shazam heroes & wizard Shazam TM & © DC Comics; other art on Ordway page © Jerry Ordway.]

Uncle Marvel: The Un-Marvelous Marvel

the idea may have been Fawcett editor Wendell Crowley’s, since the two of them used to regularly brainstorm ideas in plotting sessions. Regardless, it was Otto Binder who developed Uncle Marvel, a.k.a. Uncle Dudley, as a character.

CONCEPT As per many characters in the Fawcett library, it’s reasonable to assume that Uncle Dudley was inspired by a real person or persons. It is widely accepted that Uncle Dudley was based on the comedian W.C. Fields. The character as drawn bore an uncanny resemblance to the actor/comedian, and had a similarly blustery persona, for which Fields was known. Interestingly, C.C. Beck, Captain Marvel’s co-creator and chief artist, when recounting in 1983 how the Captain Marvel characters were generally based on real people, claimed that Uncle Dudley was based on Otto Binder’s brother, “Mary Marvel” artist Jack Binder. Perhaps Mr. Beck meant personality-wise, since Jack Binder did not resemble Uncle Dudley much at all in 1943, the year that Uncle Marvel made his debut. [FCA EDITOR’S NOTE: However, it must be said that, in Jack Binder’s later years, he did somewhat resemble Dudley.] Either way, it is clear that he was meant to be a grandiloquent yet lovable fraud who pretended to have the powers of a Marvel, perfect for the aforementioned brand of satire that Binder loved to write. Uncle Dudley was human and fallible in a way that Billy Batson and Mary Marvel were not, a fact supported by the way he interprets the “SHAZAM” acronym: S - Superiority H - Hugeness

A - All Powerful

Cry “Uncle”! Uncle Dudley/Uncle Marvel’s debut appeared in Wow Comics #18 (Oct. 1943). Script: Otto Binder; art: The Jack Binder Studio. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.]

According to Binder, when describing the proverbial secret ingredient behind the humor in Captain Marvel’s adventures:

Z - Zealousness

A - All Right M - Mighty

“The Captain Marvel and Marvel Family stories aren’t humor in the strictest sense but rather satire and period of life situations and the doings and shortcomings of humans. It is often said that [the tone of the Captain Marvel stories was] ‘whimsical,’ a reflection of life through ‘funny mirrors’ like those at an amusement park. The subject matter is recognizable but distorted by exaggeration, spoofing, or running jokes. The secret of it all was that Cap and Billy were dead serious and never made a joke at all.”

To Uncle Dudley, an unimportant, aging, bald, and overweight man who compensated for it all through ostentatious boastfulness, the famous magic acronym that Billy Batson said out loud to transform into Captain Marvel might as well have meant those things. Which is probably the whole idea. Bumbling Uncle Dudley has all of the wrong notions about who the Marvels are—seeing them as a power fantasy through the lens of his own shortcomings—but sympathetically so. We can all relate to wishing we were more fantastic than we are.

Since Mary Bromfield was a serious and straight character like her brother Billy, she was not an ideal vehicle for Binder’s brand of satire. But since The Marvel Family lived in a surreal world, there was still a limitless well that Binder could tap into. It was a world of talking alien worms, crocodile men, and wizards, a world where Captain Marvel riding a chariot of pigs could—and did—happen.

Uncle Dudley would virtually always succeed (or fail, depending on how one sees it) through impossible luck or sheer mishaps, yet always took credit for his success… while he routinely made excuses for why he was less than Marvel-ous, oblivious to the fact that the Marvels knew that he was not actually a Marvel— or their real uncle.

The humor could easily come from anywhere—or anyone. Enter: Uncle Marvel.

Concept aside, there was the matter of making the character work in The Marvel Family. It is one thing to have the concept of Uncle Dudley as an imposter; it is another to make the character fit in and be accepted by the Marvels as an actual member of The Marvel Family, a group of virtuous paragons. For that to happen,

Even Binder himself was not entirely sure the idea for the Uncle Marvel character was originally his. Indeed, he allowed that

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

Art by Neal Adams & Tom Palmer. Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Green Lantern challenges The Gambler’s lethal gang in “Perfect Crimes for Sale” in Green Lantern #35 (Dec. 1948-Jan. 1949), with script by Lee Goldsmith & art by Irwin Hasen. Thanks to Brian Stewart. [TM & © DC Comics.]

The Fabulous FAWCETT FAMILY

Part I – Featuring ROSCOE “ROCKY” FAWCETT, JR. Interview Conducted by Shaun Clancy Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year (Above:) Roscoe “Rocky” Fawcett, Jr., at far left, with his brothers on Christmas Day 1947 at their home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, with “about a hundred presents under the tree!” (Right:) The 1942 Fawcett one-shot comicbook Holiday Comics repackaged the contents of remaindered copies of Captain Marvel Adventures #15, Jungle Girl [Nyoka] #1, and Whiz Comics #34 just in time to entice Christmas shoppers. The cover is a montage of various artists’ work, including C.C. Beck, Harry Anderson, Pete Costanza, and Alex Blum. [Shazam hero, Spy Smasher, Ibis the Invincible, Golden Arrow, & Lance O’Casey TM & © DC Comics; Nyoka the Jungle Girl TM & © AC Comics.] (Below:) Shaun Clancy, on left, and Roscoe “Rocky” Fawcett, Jr., on October 24, 2013. Photo courtesy of Shaun Clancy.

FCA

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: In 1997, Golden Age super-fan Shaun Clancy’s diligent detective work resulted in him acquiring—and placing in my hungry hands—the contact information for Roscoe K. Fawcett, former VP/Circulation Manager of Fawcett Publications and the last living and youngest of Wilford “Captain Billy” Fawcett’s four sons. It was Roscoe who had convinced his brothers to enter the growing comicbook field with the concept of a young boy who gained the ability to turn into a larger-than-life hero. I enjoyed a memorable Saturday afternoon in October ’97 with Mr. Fawcett at his home in Nisswa, Minnesota (just minutes away from Captain Billy’s legendary Breezy Point Resort—the lodge later renamed The Fawcett House), resulting in the published interview “The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well,

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There’s Still Time For Heroes An Interview with Golden Age Writer LEE GOLDSMITH by Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr. A/E EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: This interview with the late DC scripter Lee Goldsmith was conducted on Sept. 1, 2015, and is © Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr. It previously appeared on the Gay League website on 8-1-15, operated by Joe Palmer, whose help with this piece we gratefully acknowledge. See end of article for more information.

ff a main interstate in Cutler Bay, Florida, through a couple of long neighborhood streets and a roundabout, you end up at the security house entrance of East Ridge at Cutler Bay, a 76-acre retirement village tucked away like a secret magical hamlet.

Lee Goldsmith signs prints of comics covers at an event held at the East Ridge Retirement Community in Cutler Bay, Florida, in 2015, when he was 92. Though he had actual comics yarns in most of those issues, in a few (such as Flash Comics #102) he was represented only by two-page text stories. Photo taken by Mickey Angel Estefan, Jr. (See the obituary/tribute to Lee Goldsmith in A/E #178.) Howard Purcell penciled and Bob Oksner inked the Goldsmith-scripted Gambler story in Green Lantern #27 (Aug.-Sept. 1947). Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © DC Comics.]

The security guard at the entrance asked the purpose of my visit, to which I replied, “I am here for Super-hero Saturday!” The event was in honor of Golden Age comicbook scribe and World War II veteran Lee Goldsmith, a resident of the community who at age 92 had apparently become a town celeb and had recently made it known in a Miami Herald interview that he was gay. The guard instructed me to park my car in a designated lot for visitors and to wait on a bus that would take me into the community. I had thought I would be able to just drive in, and I pondered how carefully the little village was protected. Another security staff member, a middle-aged man with a short-sleeve work shirt and security patch, lifted a police tape and moved a traffic cone so I could park in the almost-full visitor parking. He directed me to a small van that would take me into the secluded neighborhood. As I boarded the bus, a young boy about 11 years old sat in the driver seat. With amusement I asked, “Are you driving?” to which he replied, “I wish!” I imagined his fantasy of tearing through this quiet nook with 20-miles-per-hour street signs on every block and corner. The guard in the lot turned out to be the actual driver and, I presumed, the kid’s father. After confirming I was heading to the event, we set forth to the village’s community center. As we drove through at the most prudent of speeds, we passed by row upon row of pretty garden homes and villas, in light sunny colors, with manicured lawns—with not a soul on the street or sidewalk. This almost make-believe town was a mishmash of Pleasantville meets Smallville meets Riverdale. For a moment, though, the beauty and isolation and lack of human sightings made me wonder if I hadn’t stepped into Stepford, Connecticut—but instead of Stepford Wives, Stepford Seniors. And I thought to myself, “No one knows I am here and I don’t know how to get back to my car.” When we arrived to the community center I was instructed to simply “go through those double white doors and make a left.” Now I knew for sure I was going to disappear. I grabbed my bag and camera and thanked the father and son as I stepped off and followed the directions. I entered the building, made a left, and followed a small

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CHRIS WELKIN, PLANETEER

The Rapturous Return Of A Forgotten, But Classic Science-Fiction Comic Strip

A Personal Perspective by Roy Thomas

hile I yield to few in my admiration for Milt Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates, Bill Watterson’s Calvin and Hobbes, and Scott Adams’ Dilbert, there are a few other newspaper comic strips that have also had a special hold on my affections over the past eight-plus decades of my life, a mix of humor and adventure offerings: There’s Pogo, of course—one of the great comic strips by any sane standard of judgment… Krazy Kat by George Herriman—ditto… King Aroo, Jack Kent’s whimsical early response to Walt Kelly’s Okefenokee antics, with enough quiet genius of its own that it deserves to be much better remembered today… Alley Oop, which under V.T. Hamlin was a nigh-perfect combination of laughs and excitement (the more so for a lover of history)… …and Chris Welkin, Planeteer. Huh? Chris Who? Even most of the comic strip aficionados who’ve been made aware of Kent’s mini-masterpiece King Aroo by IDW’s two exquisite volumes a few years back will probably draw a blank at the mention of Chris Welkin, Planeteer. Welkin was a daily, and later Sunday, comic strip from the NEA (Newspaper Enterprise Association) that debuted in late 1951, after illustrated ads had appeared for a day or two previously in Cape Girardeau’s Southeast Missourian, whose comics section I devoured

Let The Welkin Ring! (Above:) A Nov. 3, 1951, ad for the forthcoming Chris Welkin, Planeteer comic strip heralded the creation of writer Russ Winterbotham and artist Art Sansom, pictured at left. The notice appeared in many newspapers, including the Boston Traveler. The photo is from the Escanaba Daily Press 12-20-51. Thanks to Rick Norwood & Art Lortie. [TM & © the respective copyright holders.] Incidentally, the word “welkin” means “sky”—and the “Chris” apparently came from a combination of Christopher Columbus and St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers.

six days a week, there then being no Sunday edition of that paper. The new Space Age/science-fiction strip was written by Russ Winterbotham, who’d authored a smattering of pulp-mag SF (and the Big Little Book Maximo, the Amazing Superman) a decade earlier… …and was drawn by Art Sansom, who would later find success with the daily strip The Born Loser, which is still being produced by his son Chip.

From Commander Battle To Tom and Jerry & Back Again!

Part I

An Introduction To Kenneth Landau by Maranee Landau McDonald

enneth Landau was a comicbook artist who worked for several New York comics publishers from 1951 until 1967, American Comics Group (ACG) being the longest. Both before and after this period, he also served as a full-time layout animation artist who worked for every major animation studio at the time, such as Hanna-Barbera, DePatie-Freleng, and Disney, from 1941 to 1988. He sometimes did both comicbooks and animation at the same time, but his heart was always in comicbooks and comic strips. Ken’s personality was unlike that of most nerdy cartoonists. He was a fun-loving jokester who smoked, drank, and gambled on the horse races. Always the life of the party at whichever studio he was doing work for, Ken would often blow off steam by changing the

funny innocent cartoons he was working on into sexual scenarios just to get a laugh out of his fellow artists. Prior to his first professional work, Ken was constantly working on comic strips and making stories of his own. He would show his parents and friends his drawings. They knew how talented he was, and he hadn’t even gone to art school yet. He was precise, and creative. He loved working at Disney, but what he really wanted was his very own comicbook or comic strip. He dreamed of being as successful as his mentor and idol, Alex Raymond, creator of Flash Gordon. In their voluminous correspondence, Ken often asked Raymond how he could succeed with his own syndicated comicbook or newspaper comic strip. Ken began working at Disney in 1941, when he was just 15 years old. His father, Otto Landau, was then a first-string violinist for the Disney Orchestra and got him the job. Ken had the opportunity to work as an extra, or “inbetweener” as they were called, on the 1942 film Bambi, doing the raindrops for the “April Showers” scene. Fascinated by the world of cartoons and animation, he dropped out of high school in his senior year and continued working on Bambi, then went on to contribute to other Disney projects as he was needed, including cartoon shorts featuring Goofy, Pluto, et al. Ken was hired often because he was good at copying anything he was told to. He had a particular style but could conform to whatever was needed at the time. He could copy any cartoon so well, most could hardly tell if he had done them or they were the original artist’s work.

The Children’s Crusade

Once Ken had started working at Disney, he saw how many other cartoonists there were doing what he was doing. While others quit their jobs, Ken stayed on. It was a learning experience and he knew he had to keep moving forward. His style and perfection with drawing came naturally, and the Disney crew saw that.

A page from an amateur comicbook drawn by 10-year-old Landau. The full legend on the mag’s cardboard cover reads: “An Adventure of King Richard the Lionhearted – Picturized by Ken Landau – Jan. ’41.” Clearly, the lad was already well on his way. Thanks to MLM. [© Estate of Kenneth Landau.]

As I talked to people in the animation field who had worked with

Inbetween The Devil & The Deep Blue Sea A photo from an unidentified vintage newspaper of Landau and two fellow inbetweeners, at one animation studio or another. The original caption reads: “Inbetweeners such as George Camata, Dan Bessie, and Ken Landau may draw approximately 50% of all the sketches of every cartoon, following the characterization set by the more experienced animators.” Thanks to MLM. [© the respective copyright holders.]

Kenneth Landau—The Artist Who “Signed Everything!”

yet others that were not as good made it bigger. He brought humor and change into the studios, but he also had a “alternative” side, and he spent four years working under a pseudonym doing comic pornographic books with the titles Cuthbert Crotchpheasant, How to Make Sexy Doodles in 32 Easy Pages, and Dudley Studley, all under the name “Vern Kent.” After being drafted into the Army at age 18, he created a comic strip for the Army newspaper called Lucky, a self-image portrayal of funny Army life. He got married at age 19 to a cadet nurse he met at the USO, as he played boogie woogie on the piano.

They Call Them “The Greatest Generation” (Left:) Ken Landau in uniform during the Second World War. (Right:) The young married couple after the war—Ken and Arra Marie Landau. Courtesy of MLM.

him and knew him well, I was told there were more cartoonists who did this kind of work than anyone knew. Mark Evanier, a top comedy writer also noted for his work in comicbooks and on the comic strip Garfield, told me it wasn’t uncommon for studios back then to hire many artists to do these jobs for two to four weeks, then get laid off… with some artists being added at the end of a job. For instance, Tom and Jerry and Scooby-Doo, on which my father worked as well, sometimes had as many as 40 artists working on them at any given time. It wasn’t uncommon for the names of animators who had worked on a given cartoon to wind up on the cutting-room floor… yet some guys who were just hired to do two or three days would get credit. It was the luck of the draw, and no one ever knew if their names would end up in the credits or not. I wonder if this would be why my father was so frustrated at times to be in this business at all. Seems like so much glamor, but it really wasn’t. It was a lot of hard work and he was good at what he did,

He created multiple comic strips that were never published. In the beginning of his career, he took odd jobs drawing for advertisements for Bullocks and other catalogs, as well as working full time at McDonnell-Douglas making airplane parts. After six years of doing this while drawing nonstop to try to sell one of his comic strips, he went to New York to begin a career as a comicbook artist in 1951. In 1952 he started work for the American Comic Group publishers. The best-known comicbooks he worked on were Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, and Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub. He is still talked about and admired to this day by people of all ages on many comicbook-era website blogs.

“The Horror—The Horror!” (Left:) The earliest horror story drawn by Kenneth Landau that we’ve unearthed to date—or rather, “Comic Crypt” keeper Michael T. Gilbert unearthed it for us—is this effort from Timely/Marvel’s Adventures into Terror #171 (March 1953). It’s one of only two known tales he illustrated for Timely. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (Right:) Before long, he was turning out the bulk of his comics work for ACG, as per this splash from Adventures into the Unknown #49 (Nov. 1953). Writers of both tales unidentified. Thanks to MTG for this one, too. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

From Commander Battle To Tom and Jerry & Back Again!

Part II

“He Wanted To Get Into Comics”

An Interview with Maranee Landau McDonald

A/E

Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION: This short interview took place on August 13, 2022. Because of Ms. McDonald’s own remarks, printed on the immediately preceding pages, we’ve chosen to print mostly just those aspects of the interview that are not duplicatory of what came before. RICHARD ARNDT: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Maranee. MARANEE McDONALD: I’m excited to do this. My dad and I loved to watch Saturday morning cartoons—a number of which he worked on. My dad was not like most cartoonists. I was told that he was a partying, smoking, drinking, gambling, outgoing guy. He was that way in everything. My mother was not as outgoing, and she would just go, “Oh, you two!” when we were watching the Saturday morning toons. When he and my mom passed away, I went to their home in Las Vegas, which was a massive place, over 8000 feet of living space, and in every room there’d be stacks and boxes, not just of his artwork, but of hundreds of comics, contracts, his personal neverpublished efforts at comic strips, which he not only drew but wrote, and Disney, Hanna-Barbera, and other animation studios’ work. I really had a hard time getting a grasp on it. There was just so much. I’d get anxiety attacks just at the idea of dealing with all of it or even opening another box. While going through the boxes, I discovered a photo of a dog, drawn by my father at age fourteen, and on the back there’s a notation that says “Christmas, 1940.” Later, when I was researching the book I’m writing on my father, I located a childhood friend of his to interview. While we were talking, that friend said, “You know there was a drawing of a dog that your dad made for his parents for Christmas, and [the dog] was looking to the side…” I said “Bill, I have [that drawing] right here.” He told me he’d asked my dad how long it took him to draw and my dad said “Not very long, maybe ten minutes at the most.” This drawing was obviously done long before he’d attended any kind of art classes. My dad was a natural-born talent. RA: You can see why Disney gave him a job at age fifteen, if this was what he was capable of. This is a really nice drawing for a fourteen-year-old. I learned, when I interviewed animator Willie Ito, that there were two levels of employment in animation: full-time employment, and “for the duration of the project” employment. Which version was generally your dad’s employment? McDONALD: The second one. Once Bambi was done, Dad was laid off until Disney had another project that Dad could hire on for. Dad would get so angry that he had to pay union dues to keep in

Choking In The Clutch This Landau-drawn story appeared in ACG’s The Clutching Hand #1 (July 1954)… which turned out to be the only issue. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

good standing when he was laid off. He was also very opinionated. But that’s what also made him so particular about his art. If the Smurf he was drawing wasn’t exactly right, Dad would throw the drawing in the trash and start over. Every line, every detail of every woman, every shadowing of the face had to be just so. He was very specific. But that animation practice of laying you off whenever a project was over led to him doing other projects outside animation, including comics. A lot of his comic strip projects were done in

Kenneth Landau—The Artist Who “Signed Everything!”

the late 1940s-early 1950s when he hadn’t entered the comicbook field yet. A comic strip in a weekly newspaper was a dream of his, but, although he was successful at what he did do, that particular dream was something that never transpired. Comics, comic strips, advertising, that was the type of work he did when he wasn’t on the clock for an animation project. RA: You may not know this, but DePatieFrelang, one of the studios your dad did a lot of work for, was the animation studio that supposedly animated the light sabers for the original Star Wars trilogy. Your dad was working for them during that period of time. Do you think he had any hand in that work? McDONALD: Really?! This is the first I’ve heard of anything like that. I don’t have an answer, I’m afraid. RA: So your dad didn’t actually get involved in comicbooks until the early 1950s? McDONALD: Yes. He was a native Californian, but he wanted to get into comics, and the only way to do that at that time, I think, involved him moving to New York, where all the publishers were. He first got work at a company called Lev Gleason Publications. His first published comic story was called “Wrong Date,” which appeared in Lovers’ Lane #23 [April 1952]. He also worked for a brief time at companies like Atlas, St. John’s, Pine, and Dell, but the bulk of his comic art was for the American Comics Group. Richard [Hughes], the editor/writer there, first put him to work on romance comics, too, but he never really liked that field. He gradually moved into drawing horror and science-fiction stories for ACG, which he enjoyed a lot more. He did so well with them that in less than a year he was able to move back to California and mail his artwork back to New York, so he could continue to work for the animation companies and do comicbook work as well. RA: That kind of arrangement was pretty rare at that time. That pre-dates Jack Kirby’s move to California by a good fifteen years or more.

Every Dog Has His Day—Or His Century When speaking to Maranee Landau McDonald, a man who’d been a friend of Ken Landau’s when the latter was only fourteen (shortly before he went to work for Disney) remembered this drawing of a dog done more than half a century before. [© Estate of Kenneth Landau.]

McDONALD: Dad hated New York, not his kind of city at all. His first comicbook stories were all “boy meets girl” stories. RA: The romance stories. Unfortunately, artists don’t really

Gag Me With A Spoon! (Left:) Landau also drew and sold a number of cartoons to “gag mags.” Here’s one that apparently never sold, so it was in the possessions that Maranee McDonald sorted through after her father’s death. You can write your own punchline! [© Estate of Kenneth Landau.] (Right:) This one appeared in Hustler magazine, according to daughter Maranee—but it was a pretty mild entry in that ultra-prurient publication! [© the respective copyright holders.]

get recognition for their romance work. They should. Some of that stuff is really incredible work, but fans often overlook that material. His first horror story was a horror/science-fiction combo called “Decapitation,” correct? McDONALD: One of his first ones. It might be the first published one. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See p. 59 for what is probably Landau’s first published horror story.] He wrote a note in his personal copy that reads, “Last Story in Book… Ugh.” In romance, he usually had the first story slot. RA: I’m not certain if your dad, at that stage of his comicbook career, would have been aware that the first and last story slot in a horror comic usually went to the two best stories in that issue. You started with a really good shocker and ended with a really good shocker, and in between you put the stuff that was a bit more average. McDONALD: Oh, that’s interesting! His favorite stories appeared in titles like Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds, and Commander Battle and the Atomic Sub. Oddly enough, when the Comics Code was in the offing, but before it actually took effect, one of my Dad’s pre-Code stories was censored before it was published. [A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: See Larry Rapchak’s article following.] RA: Your father wasn’t involved in doing any complete books [except for Commander Battle #4-7], only the short stories that appeared in various anthologies, correct? McDONALD: Well… that’s an interesting story. In the mainstream comics he did just do short stories. Most of those were for the American Comics Group, which stopped publishing in 1967. But in the early 1970s, over about four years, he published a number of… well, I hate to say it… but he did three separate titles that were

Alter Ego #182