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Vol. 3, No. 185 Jan. 2024 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

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Contents

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With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr John Benson Bernie Bubnis Mark CarlsonGhost John Cimino Shaun Clancy Comic Book Plus (website) Chet Cox Wendy Everett Blanche Fago John Fahey Shane Foley Joe Frank Stephan A. Friedt Janet Gilbert J.T. Go Grand Comics Database (website) Heritage Auctions (website)

Christopher Irving Sid Jacobson Jim Kealy Jean-Marc Lofficier Mark Luebeker Dennis Mallonee Will Murray Luigi Novi Barry Pearl Pinterest (website) Bud Plant Pulpartists.com (website) Ralph Reese Dan Riba Randy Sargent David Saunders Ken Selig J. David Spurlock Dann Thomas

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

George Pérez & Everett Lee Peck

Writer/Editorial: Novelty Act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Blue Bolts & Wonder Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 A history of the Golden Age’s Novelty Press, by Mark Carlson-Ghost.

From “Shame” To “Sham”—And Back Again! . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 John Benson looks at Harvey romance comics before & after the Comic Code.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! “My Life With Wood!” (Part 3) . 55 Michael T. Gilbert presents Ralph Reese, on working for and with Wally Wood.

Tributes To George Pérez & Everett Lee Peck . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 66 Fawcett Collectors Of America [FCA] #244 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 P.C. Hamerlinck hosts Christopher Irving on the 1942 Captain Midnight serial.

On Our Cover: One mystery left over from the Golden Age of Comics is why there weren’t more imitations of DC’s popular Justice Society of America, the main event in All-Star Comics. Maybe handling full-length group stories was simply more than most 1940s editors wanted to grapple with! Be that as it may, when we deal with a comics company’s entire line of heroes, as in this issue’s spotlight on the Curtis/Novelty output, Ye Editor often yields to the temptation to commission our resident “maskot” artist Shane Foley to render a brand-new Alter Ego cover that pays homage to a classic JSA one. In this case, the All-Star that served as inspiration is issue #14 (Dec. 1942-Jan. 1943), the first cover drawn by Joe Gallagher. As for who all those costumed cut-ups are—well, you’ll just have to read Mark Carlson-Ghost’s masterful look at Novelty to find out! Thanks to Glenn Whitmore for the colors. [Art © 2023 Shane Foley.] Above: When it comes to launching a Golden Age issue, you can’t do much better than a splash page from the team supreme of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby—in this case, from Blue Bolt, Vol. 1, #6 (Nov. 1940). And that’s just to whet your appetite for what’s to come! Thanks to Jim Kealy for the scan. [art © the respective copyright holder; Blue Bolt name is now TM of Roy & Dann Thomas.] Alter EgoTM issue 185, January 2024 (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

Novelty Act t really was one, you know: a novelty act. Small “n.”

Even when I read Novelty/Curtis comics occasionally as a kid in the latter 1940s, I considered it a rather odd little lineup of magazines. Well, actually, I don’t have any real memory of buying any of its titles except its big three: Target Comics, and, more rarely, Blue Bolt and 4Most. The former was by far the one I was most likely to plunk down my hard-allowanced 10¢ for, since at least it featured the trio of costumed crime-fighters called “The Target and The Targeteers.” The other two mags, like the rest of Target, contained a variety of genres, but little that really moved me. The covers tended to feature military cadets with nondescript feature names like “Dick Cole” and “The Cadet—Featuring Kit Carter,” and I had scant interest in that kind of material. When Novelty vanished from drugstore shelves by decade’s end, I barely noticed it had gone. I did notice, however, when, around 1951, a new company called Star Comics began to come out with what even then I knew must be reprints of “The Targeteers” behind new covers. And as wingmen for Target and his two nigh-identical buddies were some characters I hadn’t seen before: Blue Bolt as a science-fictional super-hero, as opposed to the plainclothed guy I had ignored in the late-’40s comic—Sub-Zero, who seemed to me like a fresh-frozen version of Marvel’s late great Human Torch—and a quirkily drawn space opera called “Spacehawk,” whose art had a grotesque, almost amateurish look yet somehow grabbed my attention by its sheer uniqueness. And there were some truly striking covers, usually signed “L.B. Cole,” or simply “Cole.”

But, by the mid-1950s, after a couple of years of a hard right turn into all-horror-material-all-the-time that had alienated me, even Star was gone. A couple of left-over Novelty items turned up in Super reprint comics, but those were hard to find and hardly worth looking for. It wasn’t until the early ’60s, when comics fandom and I were both coming of age, that I realized Novelty had seen better days very early in its four-color life. Blue Bolt had once featured a whole run of stories of the titular hero by the fabled Simon & Kirby team. Sub-Zero (a.k.a. Sub-Zero Man) had a longer and interesting history. There’d also been a human whirligig called The Twister… a puzzling and somehow off-putting hero called White Streak from the creator of The Human Torch… and Sergeant Spook, a deceased cop who battled crime from beyond the grave. Even Target and The Targeteers seemed a bit more vital in the early tales. And Spacehawk? Well, Spacehawk had remained engagingly creepy from first to last, to the point where I was both surprised and not surprised that he didn’t stick around longer in Target. Even so, Novelty had been a strange company, one that sometimes seemed to be aimed more at parents than at the kids who actually read the comics—and in this issue of Alter Ego, Mark Carlson-Ghost analyzes the why and wherefore of that, as he examines Novelty and its parent (in every sense of the word) company Curtis Publishing. His masterful coverage finally clarified for me some of the murky mysteries of Novelty—as well as of Star and even the later Super re-reprints. Whether or not you ever gave a thought to the Novelty heroes before, we think you’ll be glad that Mark did—and that he’s set it all down so clearly, and so intriguingly, for all of us! Bestest,

COMING IN MARCH

186

Amazing Artist ANGELO TORRES!

From The Moons Of Mars To Mad Magazine!

Art © Angelo Torres

• Awesome space-adventure cover by TORRES! • Celebrating ANGELO TORRES—in comicbooks at Marvel, DC, ACG, Warren, Gold Key, Harvey, Classics Illustrated, & even EC—in satire mags like Mad, Sick, & Panic—with artful appreciations by WILLIAM STOUT, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, HARRY NORTH, ARNIE KOGEN, et al.—presented by ROBERT L. REINER & THE SOCIETY OF ILLUSTRATORS! Plus— a TORRES interview by BRYAN STROUD! • FCA chronicles The Marvel Family’s time travels—MICHAEL T. GILBERT with RALPH REESE on life with the legendary WALLY WOOD (conclusion)—& MORE!!

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Blue Bolts & Wonder Boys A Golden Age History of Novelty Press

by Mark Carlson-Ghost

ike a bolt out of the blue, Novelty Press caught fire. A Blue Bolt, to be specific. Joe Simon’s dynamic new hero (along with his persistent adversary, the enchanting Green Sorceress) quickly captured readers’ fancy. “Spacehawk,” “Sub-Zero Man,” and “Dick Cole, the Wonder Boy” all debuted in a single issue, a few months later. There was a palpable sense of a powerful new player in the world of comicbooks. Yet it would also be hard to find a comics company whose story has so many different roots, roots necessary to dig up in order to fully understand what followed.

A Target On Their Backs The covers of the first and final issues of Novelty’s Target Comics basically bookend Curtis Publishing’s comicbook experiment: from Vol. 1, #1 (coverdated Feb. 1940), fronted by a drawing of Bull’s-Eye Bill by Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett (using his middle name “Blake”)—to Vol. 10, #3, a.k.a. #105 (Aug.-Sept. 1949), with a high-flying “Gary Stark” adventure highlighted by artist L.B. Cole. One or two Curtis/Novelty titles closed out with indicia that bore a “Sept.-Oct. 1949” date, and then it was all over. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © respective trademark & copyright holders.]

It has often been told how nearly every 1940s comicbook line, from Timely to Street & Smith and Fiction House, emerged from publishers of pulp magazines or other periodicals who lacked a certain pedigree. That said, what happens when the people behind the country’s most popular slick-paper magazine decide to enter that increasingly lucrative field?

According to David Saunders’ excellent Pulp Artists website, Lloyd Jacquet was born in 1899. He served in World War I as a radio operator, seaman second class. After the war he worked for various newspapers, including The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and The New York Evening Mail. In 1927, Jacquet linked his two abiding interests, radio and journalism, hosting a radio program entitled Going to Press. The intersection of the two fields remained a benchmark of his career well into the ’30s.

Novelty Press is the short answer, the home of Simon & Kirby’s “Blue Bolt” and Basil Wolverton’s “Spacehawk,” not to mention Carl Burgos’ “White Streak.” Yet the company’s attitude towards what it clearly considered lowbrow adventure would badly color its efforts. So would its reliance on an art shop whose product suffered a slow decline in quality over the years. Still, for a time, even before the launch of Novelty Press, Lloyd Jacquet’s Funnies, Inc., was a major force to be reckoned with.

By 1935, Jacquet’s association with The Brooklyn Daily Eagle led to his role as editor of New Fun, one of the earliest comicbooks and the first regularly published comic to feature material especially made for it. The Daily Eagle had agreed to let its presses print the new venture. Published by Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, New Fun would ultimately lead to what became National, then DC Comics. As will be seen, Jacquet was involved with some of the most significant events of comicbook history.

Lloyd Jacquet & Funnies, Inc. In the summer of 1939, Lloyd Jacquet broke away from his duties as editor of Centaur Publications to form an independent shop of artists and writers. His goal was to supply material for would-be comicbook publishers who didn’t wish to take the time and expense to establish creative staffs all their own. Given the high mortality rate of comicbook titles, Jacquet argued, utilizing Funnies, Inc., only made sense.

Having gotten a taste for publishing, Jacquet joined H.D. Cushing and Harold Hersey to form C.J.H. Publications, a shortlived pulp magazine publisher, most notable for producing one-shot text versions of Flash Gordon, Tailspin Tommy, and Dan Dunn. Returning to the world of comicbooks in 1938, Jacquet became editor of what was generally known as the Centaur Comics Group. Working with a group of talented young writers and artists, he oversaw the creation of a number of super-heroes, all in an effort to duplicate at least some of the excitement generated by a sensational new fellow named Superman. Bill Everett’s Amazing-Man was the most notable of Centaur’s new characters.

A Golden Age History Of Novelty Press

But Jacquet was ambitious and dreamt of publishing his own comicbooks. While that never quite came to pass, it did lead to his leaving Centaur to create his own art shop, which he christened First Funnies, Inc. It wasn’t long before he dropped the First. When Jacquet made the break, he took the best and the most talented Lloyd Jacquet creators working at (on extreme right in photo) had, ironically, had Centaur with him. been the first editor both of what became the National/DC line of comics in 1935 with his handling These included of New Fun #1—and of Timely’s first title, Marvel notables like Everett, Comics #1, in 1939. Seen in this New Year’s Eve Carl Burgos, and 1940 photo are Timely publisher Martin Goodman Paul Gustavson. (center) and artist Carl Burgos (left). Courtesy of Others included Ray Wendy Everett. Gill, Harold DeLay, Malcolm Kildale, and Tarpé Mills. In relatively short order, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby would work with the loosely affiliated group. In his The Comic Book Makers, Joe Simon recalled the shop’s location in an office building at 45 West 45th Street, located in a neighborhood that clearly had seen better days. The building itself had “worn, concave marble steps and a dimly lit hall” which led to Funnies, Inc.’s, two-room studio with its generic gray walls. The larger room had a few cubicles off to the side and a large ink-stained table (see p. 32 of Simon’s book). It was there that the artists who chose to work at the office plied their trade.

Funnies, Inc.’s, art director, provided the debut of Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, Burgos the origin of The Human Torch, and Gustavson the first adventure of the two-fisted Angel. Funnies, Inc.’s, second success was the launching of Target Comics for a new company named Novelty Press. And, given the conservative instincts of its publisher, it proved to be a rather slow start at that.

Curtis Publishing & The Saturday Evening Post Curtis Publishing, the owner of Novelty Press, had been in the business of putting out magazines almost as long as Street & Smith. Cyrus H.K. Curtis, born in 1850, established himself as a savvy businessman by overseeing the creation of The Ladies’ Home Journal in 1883. A family affair, the Journal was initially edited by his wife Louisa Knapp Curtis. His next notable move was purchasing in 1897 a struggling periodical named The Saturday Evening Post. At the time, the Post had a total of two thousand subscribers. That was soon to change. In 1903, Ladies’ Home Journal became the first American magazine to reach one million subscribers. By 1917, The Saturday Evening Post passed that same benchmark. Through engaging content, striking cover illustrations, and novel distribution strategies (Curtis distributed its own magazines and utilized an army of juvenile salesmen), the Post became the nation’s most popular weekly magazine. The Country Gentleman, a periodical for farmers purchased in 1911, also took off. Cyrus Curtis died in 1933 with his publishing empire in splendid shape. The one demographic Curtis had never tried to cultivate was young readers. That all changed with the debut of Jack and Jill in 1938. Its editorial approach is worth examining, as the magazine provided a partial template for the comicbook enterprise that followed. Jack and Jill featured a mix of fairy tales and more down-to-

Jacquet, for his part, could be found in the second, smaller room, sitting behind an old but clearly cared-for desk. In an interview with Jim Amash for Alter Ego, Joe Simon recalled Jacquet as “a good guy, soft-spoken, with an air of authority about him. He was respectful, and he was respected.” His posture still reflected his military background, as did his carefully polished shoes. He also smoked a pipe. Mickey Spillane, another Funnies, Inc., alum, noted his corn-cob pipe added to his resemblance to General Douglas MacArthur. Funnies, Inc., continued to produce content for Centaur Comics. Jacquet had managed to leave the employ of Joseph Hardie, “steal” all of his talent, and still remain on relatively good terms with the publisher. That would change, given Hardie’s difficulty in paying Funnies, Inc., for its work. Jacquet’s most successful move for his new shop was his first: obtaining Timely’s Martin Goodman as a customer. Jacquet’s field man, Frank Torpey, successfully sold Goodman on the idea of using material created by Funnies, Inc., for what became Marvel Comics #1, coverdated Oct. 1939. The precise details of just how that came about are a bit muddy to this day. The important point here is that Bill Everett, doing double duty as

Cyrus H.K. Curtis (in a circa-1918 photo) and his earliest magazine success: The Ladies’ Home Journal (issue shown is dated July 1902). [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Blue Bolts & Wonder Boys

It’s no longer possible to know just who contacted whom. Perhaps Frank Torpey got wind of the new enterprise and contacted Curtis. Or maybe Curtis’ initial choice for editor, David Adams (of whom virtually nothing is known), was aware of the arrangement between Timely and Funnies, Inc., and reached out to them. In any case a connection was made and terms were set.

Going Up That Hill!

The cover of the Jack and Jill issue dated Sept. 1939. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

As mentioned earlier, Funnies, Inc., was responsible for creating material under the broad guidelines of whatever publisher they worked for. Looking at the material they produced for Novelty compared to what they provided Timely, it isn’t hard to guess the input they received from Curtis about relatively tamer content. The only trouble was that the fellows who created the likes of the Sub-Mariner and The Human Torch weren’t huge fans of tame.

White Streak & Target Comics Featured on the cover of that first issue of Target Comics (coverdated Feb. 1940) was “Bulls-Eye Bill” by Bill Everett, a modern-day cowboy of the American Southwest who operated out of Target Ranch. You see, Bulls-Eye Bill’s last name just happened to be Target, but any hope that he would be the comic’s lead hero were soon forgotten, overshadowed by Carl Burgos’ contribution.

Earth adventures of children. Its editors encouraged active reader engagement, providing regular opportunities to construct various hand-made games and other crafty creations. Paper dolls were a regular feature, as was a readers’ letter page every issue. Drawing some 18,000 letters a year, it was a template worth following. Some years later, longtime editor Ada Campbell Rose reflected on her approach for Time magazine. She said she never told her readers what to think, nor did she slant her content to please parents or teachers. Jack and Jill soon approached a circulation of half a million. The only minor drawback to the magazine was that it skewed somewhat towards girls, and its readership dropped off after the age of nine. Thus, two new goals came into focus for Curtis Publishing. The first was to come up with a publication that could attract more boys and older children in general. Relatedly, the second was to test the waters of the increasingly lucrative comicbook market. Still, they must have hesitated, comicbooks having something of a second-class reputation. Many of the companies publishing them had gotten their start in pulp magazines, for goodness sake, and often lurid ones at that. Curtis, in contrast, was at the top of the publishing heap and known for high-quality content. The solution was fairly simple. Curtis would obscure its publication of comicbooks by issuing them under the imprint of “Novelty Press.” Second, its editorial vision would lean towards less objectable material. But first Curtis needed to find people to actually write and draw the comics. And that was where Funnies, Inc., came in.

“Bull’s-Eye” Missed The Bullseye!

Bill Everett in 1939.

Bill Everett’s long “Bull’s-Eye Bill” lead-off story in Target Comics, Vol. 1, #1 (Feb. 1940) was meant to set the cowboy hero up as the title’s star—but, though Bill had spent time on a Western ranch as a youngster and the art is relatively authenticlooking, it was not to be. Script & art by Everett. Scan courtesy of Comic Book Plus website. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

A Golden Age History Of Novelty Press

“Blue Ain’t The Word For The Way That I Feel…” The Star Blue Bolt began with reprints of Novelty features behind new Cole covers— but soon switched to new horror material and even a partial name change (but just on the covers). Seen on this page are issues #104 (March-April 1950), #105 (AprilMay 1950—yes, the “April” appears in two issues in a row), #110 (Aug. 1951), and #112 (Feb. 1952). For the final five issues (#120124), the title was finally changed to Ghostly Weird Stories. Courtesy of the GCD. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders; Blue Bolt name is now a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas.]

Blue Bolts & Wonder Boys

“Star” Stands For “Startling”! New horror stories drawn by L.B. Cole, Jay Disbrow, and others lay behind Cole’s covers for Star Publications’ Startling Terror Tales #13 (Dec. 1952) and Shocking Mystery Cases #53 (March 1953). Thanks to Mark Carlson-Ghost. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Teen-Age Stars Popular Teen-Agers #5 (Sept. 1950; with “Popular” shortened to just “Pop” on the cover, for some strange reason) boasted an L.B. Cole cover—and such features as “Tony Gay” (by an unknown artist) and “Ginger Bunn” drawn by Manny Stallman. Writers unidentified. Courtesy of the GCD & Mark Carlson-Ghost. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

From “Shame” To “Sham”— And Back Again!

Harvey Romance Comics— Before & After The Comics Code

by John Benson f the many little-known oddball byways to be found in the newsstand comics of the 1950s, the Harvey romance line after the implementation of the Comics Code Authority stands out.

When the Code was created at the end of 1954 and the comics industry suffered a collapse, the Harvey brothers continued their romance titles, but turned to a policy of reprints. (The reduced costs of this policy offset the presumably smaller Code-era circulation.) The changes that were made to the stories to sanitize the line sometimes produced bizarre results. To understand why these changes were so strange, it’s helpful to know the mechanics of the reprinting process. The Harveys had saved both the original art and the printing plates; thus, reprinting, even with the necessary Code changes, was very economical. Changes were made right on the original art, and new black plates were made. But the original color plates were reused, which meant that all the labor-intensive and costly stages of coloring a comic could be eliminated, from doing the mechanical separations to making new plates. Reusing the same color plates, however, imposed some significant limitations. The Harvey 32-page comics were printed as a single signature on giant web presses. For each color there were eight flats made up of four pages each, each flat resulting in a plate. (This is logical when you realize that these presses were designed to print Sunday newspaper comics: Four comics pages are equivalent to a full newspaper page.) So there were a total of 32 plates per issue, eight for each of the three colors, plus eight for black. At a certain point Harvey comics developed a standard format of five-page stories, so that ad pages came together on the same plates. This was originally done so that a block of ad pages could be prepared once and then used for different titles coming out at the same time, since ads were sold on a “block” basis for multiple titles. Flats 1, 2, and 8 were reserved for the following items: ads, texts, one-page comics stories or features, and the first page of the comic, which was used for a contents page. Flat 1 consisted of pages 1, 16, 17, and 32; flat 2 consisted of pages 2, 15, 18, and 31; and flat 8 consisted of pages 8, 9, 24, and 25. What’s left are five flats that, collectively, represent pages 3-7, 10-14, 19-23, and 26-30. The four five-page stories of the issue were spread over these remaining five four-page flats. Significantly, each flat contains pages from all four of the stories in the issue. Although originally designed to make it easy to put blocks of ads in different titles, this format worked out very well when it came to reprinting the comics with the same plates. New flats and plates could be made up for flats 1, 2, and 8, with new ads; they could even run more ads than before, by replacing the one-page features with ads. The remaining flats containing the five-page stories could remain unchanged, using the original color plates. But this process imposed two significant limitations: First, since the four stories were spread out over the remaining plates, it was only possible to reprint complete issues. This meant that, if they had an issue with

“You Must Remember This… A Kiss Is Just A Kiss…” But the post-1954 Comics Code had a far different idea of what a proper kiss was than the Harvey Comics editors and artists had had a few years earlier! Even when some of the interior contents of pre- and postCode issues might be basically the same stories, new covers were called for, in order to protect the (young) public’s morals. (Top:) Now that’s a smooch, from the cover of Hi-School Romance #24 (Dec. 1953)! (Above:) A light touch of the lips kept Code administrators Judge Murphy and/or Mrs. Guy Percy Trulock happy on that of Hi-School Romance #52 (June ’56). Both covers by Al Avison. Thanks to the Grand Comics Database. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

From “Shame” To “Sham”—And Back Again!

three mild stories and one that required lots of changes, they either had to drop the issue entirely or make the necessary major changes to the offending story. Since Harvey eventually published nearly as many Code-era reprint issues as pre-Code ones, there was pressure to reuse as many issues as possible. Consequently, some stories that were unsuited to reprinting under the Code, and which would never have been reprinted if the folks at Harvey could have picked and chosen individual stories, underwent some bizarre changes to satisfy the Code. The second limitation that using the same color plates imposed was perhaps even more significant, and was responsible for some of the more amusing changes. The changes were made right on the original art, and new black plates were made as necessary. But these changes had to match the existing color plates. Actually, in some of the earlier Code issues, Harvey ignored this problem. Realizing that the Code only saw the black-&-white corrections, they left the color plates unchanged. The resulting mismatch between the new drawings and the old color sometimes produced strange results. Either the Code caught up with this, or, more likely, the Harveys decided it looked too unprofessional, so in most issues various techniques were employed so that the changed black-&-white images were in conformity with the color plates. For example, solid black could be added to the art, covering up the area where the original color would now be inappropriate. This was the easiest solution, since it required no change to the color plates. Another possibility was to make a new, different drawing that would fit the existing color, and this resulted in some ingenious changes. Finally, if necessary, color could be removed by routing (gouging) out portions of the plates. When all else failed, a completely new drawing could be substituted for the offending panel and that panel routed out completely on all the color plates, leaving a black-&white panel. But what could not be done was adding or changing the color on the existing plates. Earlier Harvey issues were not laid out in the standard five-page-story format described above, which caused problems when reprinting with the same plates. For example, First Love Illustrated #84 was reprinted from Hi-School Romance #8, an early issue with the contents page on the inside cover and the first story starting on interior page 1. For the reprint, page 1 became a new combination of contents listing on the top third of the page, and the bottom part of the page a summary of the first two pages of the first story. Page 2 was an ad. Thus the first story was condensed by 1 1/3 pages.

Another story, a three-pager, ended on page 15, a page on the ad flat. The solution here was just to drop the last page of the story and replace it with an ad, leaving the heroine right in the middle of an embarrassing moment, with no explanation. Nearly all the Harvey Code-era romance stories have changes. This is in marked contrast to the Code-era St. John Publishing romance comics, which were also all reprints but which had virtually no Code changes at all. Of course, St. John only issued about twenty Code-era issues, so they could choose their mildest stories for reprinting. Still, there are so many changes in the Harvey comics that I wondered if they weren’t simply changing things in advance of sending the books to the Code to save time. Artist/writer Ken Selig confirms that they did indeed make changes before the Code reviewed the books. But Selig says that this was at the direction of Leon Harvey, who had decided, after the outcry and general bad publicity comics had received at the time, that the Harvey comics must henceforth be “tasteful” and completely innocuous. Selig started with Harvey Publications in 1954, just as the Code was starting up, and was the one who made the changes on the Code issues, reducing the size of “the busts on the good ladies” and making a host of other changes. Selig personally thought that the horror comics were terrible and the romance comics were far too sexy and blatant, and so he needed no encouragement to make the books innocuous. According to Selig and Sid Jacobson, Joe Simon was “editor” of the Harvey romance books during the Code era, so it was presumably Simon who rewrote the captions and balloons, or at least oversaw

“Goodbye, Cruel World—I’m Off To Join The Circus!” The angry acrobat on the cover of True Love Problems and Advice Illustrated #20 (March 1953—artist unknown) looks like he might do some serious damage to his two-timing girlfriend and her paramour—but when that story was reprinted and a new cover done for issue #41 (Sept. ’56), the Harvey folks got Jack Kirby to draw a far more light-hearted one. And this from the artist who, along with then-partner Joe Simon, had invented love comics! Thanks to the GCD. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Harvey Romance Comics—Before & After The Comics Code

Hi-School Romance #24 (Dec. 1953) & #52 (June 1956) John Benson says the above couplet is one of his favorites. A big black tree in the Code version changes the meaning, although if you look closely you can still see the yellow “E” lurking in the shadows. The girl’s hemline has been lowered in the splash, and in panel 3 the breasts of the girl on the left have been flattened. Note also that the fellow’s nose has been removed in a not-too-successful attempt to indicate that the girl is merely kissing him on the cheek. Note that these kids are in “school” in the original printing, but in “college” in the Code version. In the original she goes with a rich fellow to spite a class enemy (in both meanings of the word “class”). They get married in secret, but each lives at home with their respective parents, because he’s scared to tell his parents and be cut off from his allowance. Finally, she becomes pregnant, they have to tell, and he is disowned by his parents. She looks to her future: a husband with no money and no skills and “a life of struggle tied to a weakling [I] never loved. I’ve had to leave school... our baby will be born—unwanted by his father and scorned by his paternal grandparents.” A bitter ending indeed, and unusual for a romance comic. Art by Bob Powell; writer unknown. In the Code version he doesn’t want to admit to their marriage because “he’s studying to be a doctor.” The couple is still rejected by his parents, but they live happily ever after (and no child in sight). In the first version, it’s all her fault, making “Shame” a cogent title. In the revision, the phony marriage is all that’s left, making “Sham” equally apt for that version. Incidentally, in case the reader had a sudden feeling of “déjà vu all over again”: Ye Editor utilized this same pair of panels sent by John B., with similar verbiage, in a letter sections back in A/E #138. That time, however, Roy accidentally ascribed the comics to St. John Publishing, when in fact they, like everything else in John’s article, were actually produced by Harvey Comics. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

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CAPTAIN MIDNIGHT The CLIFFHANGER! Chapter That Fell Off A Cliff by Christopher Irving Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [FCA EDITOR’S INTRO: In Cliffhanger!, the rip-roaring book released this year by TwoMorrows, author Christopher Irving takes us on a thrilling journey back to the first on-screen comicbook-to-film adaptations, and a look at the comicbook and filmmaker creators who had a hand in bringing the heroes to glorious black-&-white life. From the origins of the theatrical serial to the rise of the genre in the 1930s and ’40s, individual chapters spotlight the comicbook super-heroes that appeared on Saturday matinee silver screens: Captain Marvel, Spy Smasher, Captain America, Batman, Superman, Blackhawk, and others. Part of Irving’s criteria for characters receiving their own center-stage spot in his book was that they need to have had their origins in comicbooks and not come from other forms of media. Hence, since he originated in an enormously popular radio program, Captain Midnight—brought to movie screens by Columbia Pictures in 1942—had to be excluded. Since Fawcett Publications launched their Captain Midnight comicbook series while the movie serial was still playing in theatres, we told Mr. Irving that we’d love to give his cut “Captain Midnight” chapter a home in FCA. So grab your secret decoder rings and enjoy… and when you’ve finished reading this article, order your copy of Cliffhanger! today.]

Captains Courageous (Above:) Captain Midnight, played by Dave O’Brien, looms larger than life in this movie-serial poster from 1942, painted by Glenn Cravath. Image courtesy Heritage Auctions.

(Left:) The comicbook Captain Midnight #9 (June 1943) sported a beautifully drawn cover by Mac Raboy. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

aptain Midnight was a singular character with a handful of different versions of himself, each one created to make the best of whatever media he was thrown into, with little synergy between each. The good Captain first flew the airwaves as a regionally syndicated radio show on Chicago’s own WGN radio in 1938. Originally partnered with the Skelly Oil Company, Captain Midnight was picked up by Ovaltine as the new sponsor on September 30, 1940, and then syndicated on a national level. He was the creation of two writers, Robert M. Burtt and Willfred G. Moore, who had earlier created the once-successful aviator program The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen, about a teen pilot. Captain Midnight was them taking what they’d learned from Jimmie, and making it work for a pre-World War II generation of kids. The Captain Midnight radio show was a fifteen-minute serial that played daily Monday through Friday at 5:00 PM. Midnight was former World War I ace Albright, who flew a desperate and vital mission to capture the villainous Ivan Shark. When he flew in with the captured Shark at the exact stroke of midnight,