Alter Ego #186 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Reptilian-Brain Comics Fanzine

ANGELO TORRES

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No. 186 March 2024

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Vol. 3, No. 186/March 2024 Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor

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

Comic Crypt Editor

Michael T. Gilbert

Editorial Honor Roll

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

Proofreader

William J. Dowlding

Cover Artist & Colorist Angelo Torres

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With Special Thanks to:

Roger Hill Aaron Albrecht John Hitchcock Heidi Amash William B. Jones, Jr. Ger Apeldoorn Annie Gaines Ashton Sharon Karibian Arnie Kogen Sergio Aragonés Stefan Koidl Bob Bailey Jim Kealy Tom Batiuk Jason Levine Alberto Becattini Art Lortie Al Bigley Jim Ludwig Chris Boyko Ian Scott McGregor Bernie Bubnis The Meglin Family Josh Burns Clint Morgan Thommy Burns The Nerd Team John Cimino Harry North Jon B. Cooke Gilbert Ortiz Chet Cox Barry Pearl Ray Cuthbert Don Perlin Noel Daniels Ralph Reese Dick De Bartolo Robert L. Reiner Michael Elias S.C. Ringgenberg Miguel Angel Al Rodriguez Ferreiro Randy Sargent John Ficarra Carl Lani’Keha Shane Foley Shinyama Joe Frank J. David Spurlock Drew Friedman William Stout Stephan A. Friedt Bryan Stroud Miguel Angel Dann Thomas Ferreiro Andrew Torres Grant Geissman Angelo Torres Janet Gilbert John Torres Jon Gothold Dr. Michael J. Martin Gray Vassallo Tom Hamilton Sam Viviano Ron Harris Terry Wilson Heritage Art Curtis Woodbridge Auctions

This issue is dedicated to

Angelo Torres & to the memory of Al Jaffee

Contents

Writer/Editorial: And Now For Something Not Completely Different, But… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 What, Me Panic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Pros and fans alike salute the great comicbook & Mad artist Angelo Torres, in a publication overseen & bookended by Robert L. Reiner.

“Here Comes The Fleagle Gang!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 A brief interview with Angelo Torres, conducted by Bryan Stroud.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! My Life With Wally Wood (Part 4) . 59 Michael T. Gilbert presents the conclusion of Ralph Reese’s take on an iconic artist.

Tribute to Al Jaffee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 67 Fawcett Collectors Of America [FCA] #245 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 P.C. Hamerlinck & Carl Lani’Keha Shinyama on The Marvel Family’s travels in time!

On Our Cover: This issue’s cover, drawn in 2018 by our noted honoree Angelo Torres, appeared in the Museum of Illustration program book celebrating Angelo’s work and his 90th birthday. Angelo’s name for it there was “Green Planet Revisited.” Obviously, the inspiration for its hero was Alex Raymond’s marvelous Flash Gordon, although, really, any space adventurer can wear fancy headgear like that. Thanks to Robert L. Reiner & Clint Morgan. [© 2023 Angelo Torres.] Above: The young Angelo Torres must’ve made a singular impression on Timely/Atlas writer and editor Stan Lee, since The Man scripted and added a byline (for both of them) on several Western stories back in the day. Seen here is the powerful yet exquisite splash page by that duo for a story in Western Outlaws #15 (June 1956). Thanks to Bob Bailey. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM issue 186, March 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

And Now For Something Not Completely Different, But…

n this issue, we’re trying something a wee bit different.

First off, our cover-featured artist Angelo Torres, though beyond doubt one of the best comics illustrators to come of age in the 1950s, has very rarely drawn a super-hero comicbook—and, of course, super-heroes are generally the cape-clad bread and butter of Alter Ego. Well, okay, so he inked one “Fly”story and a Superman special (the latter had been been commissioned, believe it or don’t, for a kid’s bar mitzvah) and also drew a Supergirl giveaway linked to a safety campaign—but otherwise his renditions of super-powered guys in tights was limited to the parodies he did for satire mags like Mad, Sick, et al. Secondly, the majority of this mag is actually a re-presentation (with a bit of additional art) of a program book produced by the world-famed Society of Illustrators at New York City’s Museum of Illustration, in honor of Torres’ 90th birthday in 2022, and consisting of numerous tributes by Angelo’s many professional friends and colleagues, including several from Mad magazine, which of course was one of the great publishing successes of the 20th century. The reason we’re making this exception to our usual policy? Because Angelo deserves it. I have to admit up front: I myself have never had the pleasure of meeting the man, though I enjoyed much of his work in Mad, as an admittedly irregular reader since the 1960s. I knew him as the talented successor of Mort Drucker, who had basically established the caricature art-style that made Mad’s movie and TV takeoffs such a delight. Angelo had picked up that ball and run with it, and surely 99% of the audience never realized that one artist had left the

magazine and another had moved seamlessly into his place. That’s not something that is easy, let alone usual. In addition—and here I’m previewing a subject that a few of the tribute-bearers on the next few dozen pages will re-visit from different angles—I had known since 1971 that Angelo Torres was the artist of the infamous story “An Eye for an Eye” that, by getting rejected (for no good reason) by the early Comics Code Authority, helped to bring about the total end of the color EC Comics line for which he was just beginning to draw. Maybe if Angelo hadn’t been such a skilled artisan, even in one of his very first full-art jobs, a less exquisitely rendered set of illustrations might have slipped past the zealots-for-hire and retired schoolteachers who then administered the Code with a heavy hand. Probably not, but we can dream of an alternate past, can’t we? Fortunately for fans of the late Golden Age and Silver Age of Comics, Angelo, after doing his little bit for EC, went on to draw many science-fiction, adventure, and “mystery” stories for Timely/Marvel and Warren Publishing, in particular—and those hold up well when measured even against those produced by his contemporaries like Al Williamson, Frank Frazetta, et al. So we’ve tried to give you a generous heaping of such efforts, especially accompanying the short Torres interview conducted by Bryan Stroud. All that, plus artist Ralph Reese writing of the late days of his mentor Wally Wood, and the FCA’s focus on the time-traveling travails of Fawcett’s Shazam-powered Marvel Family! Your cup runneth over, no lie. Keep reading and see. Bestest,

COMING IN APRIL

187

EDMOND HAMILTON— Writer Of Two Worlds!

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A Presentation Of The Society Of Illustrators At The Museum Of Illustration, NYC, NY

(Above:) Torres at the opening of his celebratory exhibit at the Museum of Illustration hosted by the Society of Illustrators, May 2022. Photo by Jon Gothold. Special thanks to Robert L. Reiner and Clint Morgan for providing all photos and art scans that accompany this reprinting of the exhibit program book except where otherwise noted. (Left:) The cover of the official publication connected with that celebration... the cover of EC’s Panic #6, with its strategically placed asterisk standing in for Angelo’s left eye in a Torres self-caricature. [Art © Angelo Torres; EC logo, etc., TM & © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

I. Why PANIC?

by Robert L. Reiner, Curator ad magazine, the iconic satirical publication that skewered popular culture and boasted a circulation exceeding two million, began its life as a color comicbook.

Harvey Kurtzman created Mad to parody other comicbooks at first and then to broaden its reach to all manner of society. While the comic struggled at first, it soon hit its stride and took off from there. Success breeds copycats, and in short time there were dozens of Mad imitators. Not to be outdone, EC publisher Bill Gaines

decided in 1954 to launch an “authorized” knock-off of Mad—and Panic was born. Al Feldstein edited the new publication and had the luxury of drawing upon many of the same artists working for Mad. Kurtzman was upset, of course, but Gaines argued that they were all working for the same team. Panic followed much the same path as Mad, but as the movement to censor comics was coming to a peak, Feldstein decided to publish an unusual cover. Although issue #6 carried the usual Panic masthead, except for an asterisk it was almost totally blank. At the bottom of the page was the statement: “This cover, the result of hours of conference, is EC’s final answer to the comic book controversy. Designed to offend no one, it is blank!”

Celebrating Angelo Torres

Long-time EC fan and publisher Russ Cochran began reissuing the EC titles in the mid-1980s as hardcover collections, and then in the ’90s individual issues to replicate the look and feel of the original comics, including Panic #6 in June 1998. These are featured in this exhibition with new original art illustrations by Angelo Torres.

Why ANGELO TORRES? As the last remaining EC Comic artist (since, at the time of this writing, Al Jaffee is still alive and did draw for EC, but for Mad magazine, not for the comics), Torres was the logical choice to illustrate these imaginary covers. First, he remains immensely talented and versatile in his depictions of humor, horror, sciencefiction, crime, war, Western, and historical themes; and second, during his long career at Mad, Angelo had the opportunity to work with former Panic editor Al Feldstein and later with his old friend Mad co-editor Nick Meglin, bringing that DNA to bear on his artwork here. The 2016 Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award winner celebrates his 90th birthday this year [2022]. He honors us by sharing examples of his stellar body of work, as well as new, neverbefore-seen illustrations, fresh from his well-used drawing board.

A Mugging On Lafayette Street

Kiss My Asterisk!* The “totally inoffensive” cover of EC’s Panic #6 (Dec. 1954Jan. 1955). Scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions. [TM & © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

This was revolutionary and a clear poke in the eye of overreaching politicians and the anti-comics crusading psychiatrist Dr. Fredric Wertham. But Panic would last only six more issues as the EC Comics line closed, and Mad would soon become a black-&white magazine. When Kurtzman left to chart his own direction, taking several artists with him, Feldstein took the reins as editor of Mad for the next 29 years.

Al Jaffee & Angelo Torres (left to right) toast each other a few years back as two of the last surviving oldtime EC artists. Alas, Al— the creator of the fabled “Mad fold-ins”—passed away on April 10, 2023, at the age of 102, after a long and full life (see tribute on p.65)… while, as this issue of Alter Ego goes to press, Angelo is still going strong at age 91. Thanks to Ian Scott McGregor.

Although it didn’t make the news at the time, a 23-year-old New Yorker was attacked in broad daylight for a drawing he did for a comicbook. The closed fist of the Comics Code Authority came down hard on a story, “An Eye for an Eye,” and ended the young man’s opportunity to have his first stand-alone story appear in an EC comicbook, Incredible Science Fiction #33. Angelo Torres had collaborated on several EC stories previously with his friend Al Williamson, and often anonymously with Williamson and his other Fleagle Gang friends Frank Frazetta and Roy Krenkel. But here was publisher Bill Gaines sticking to his promise to publish Torres’ piece, only to have the censors block publication because the science-fiction story depicted a mutant. Gaines argued that there was nothing in the Comics Code mentioning mutants, but the censors wouldn’t budge. Gaines instead reprinted the even more controversial, openly anti-bigotry tale “Judgment Day,” and that was that.

What, Me Panic?

before I knew who he was. As a youngster in the ’60s, I first discovered his artistry in the pages of Creepy and Eerie, then later as I gleefully stumbled into EC Comics, and then full-throated in the pages of Mad. I certainly never thought that I would meet and befriend the man. As a long-time fan of the EC and Warren artists, I began collecting original art by these amazing talents. I was thrilled to exhibit this work in shows from coast to coast and most notably at the Society of Illustrators [in New York City]. One story in my collection that is dear to my heart is “The Shell Game” from Piracy #2, because it brought Angelo together with his good friend and frequent collaborator Al Williamson. Close observation of the beautiful panels shows an “Easter egg” where a boat bears the name Meglin—a nod to his close friend and later Mad co-editor Nick Meglin. These were crazy twenty-something kids having a ball in the 1950s. Those of us who admire Ange’s work share a sense of memory and nostalgia with him. Although most of us weren’t alive or were too young at the time, we can feel the sense of wonder, excitement, and joie de vivre that he has experienced, just by being in his presence. When we meet over bagels and wine to talk about the “good old days,” it’s as if we’re watching scenes from a movie. Every detail is there, every nuance and

Eye-Eye, Sir! The splash page of “An Eye for an Eye,” repro’d from its first printing, in the Nostalgia Press tome. Script by Oleck, art by Torres. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert. [TM & © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

No more original EC comics were published thereafter. Experiments with other formats failed, and only Mad would remain to carry the EC banner, but as a magazine. Torres’ story did see the light of day in 1971, when Nostalgia Press published the hardcover book Horror Comics of the 1950’s, highlighting the best of EC Comics. Later, Russ Cochran would reprint the EC line in original comicbook form, placing “Eye for an Eye” in its proper place. Angelo Torres was commissioned by fans of his work to re-create variations of his “An Eye for an Eye” splash page, a version of which appeared in the Museum of Illustration exhibition.

Cheers To Angelo Torres What happens when an artist is forced to do his best work with one arm tied behind his back? If you’re Angelo Torres, well, you complain a lot and then you do your best work. For more than two years I tortured the poor guy into, in his words, “drawing on the worst damn paper ever!”

“Shell” And High Water

Let’s take a step back. Like many of those you’re about to hear from through their thoughtful essays, I loved Torres’ work way

Reproduction of the original splash page art for “The Shell Game” from EC’s Piracy #2 (Dec. 1954-Jan. 1955), by Al Williamson and Angelo Torres. Scripter unidentified. From the collection of Robert L. Reiner. [TM & © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

Celebrating Angelo Torres

III. Ange, Ange, Ange

by Annie Gaines Ashton

ngelo Torres is a talented, kind, generous, and wonderful person who has always been a great friend to Bill and me.

He’s a big-hearted guy who’s unstinting in sharing his talent and his lifetime of memories with his fans. He had an amazing 3½-decades-plus run in Mad, and the magazine simply would not have been the same without his fantastic artwork! I celebrate him on his 90th birthday, and wish him all the best this year, and every year until he turns 100! C’mon, Ange, you can do it! I send you all my love, you beautiful nonagenarian! ANNIE GAINES ASHTON worked at Mad magazine for twenty years and was married to publisher Bill Gaines until his death.

“We Will Bury You” That’s the title of this colored illo of the three EC “GhouLunatics” executed by Angelo Torres especially for Chris Boyko. They’re disposing of three rival vintage comicbook hosts. [EC Ghoulunatics TM & © William M. Gaines, Agent, Inc.]

V. What Can I Say About Ange? Bill “Capital” Gaines Torres’ portrait of the larger-than-life publisher of EC Comics and Mad magazine. From the collection of Ian Scott McGregor. [Art © Angelos Torres.]

by Chris Boyko hat can I say about Ange that has not been said before? Turns out that the answer is: nothing. Thanks for reading.

No, seriously (or as serious as I can manage when writing about a Mad legend), Ange is one heck of a guy and a world class mensch. On top of those illustrious character traits, he’s also one of the most unassuming, self-deprecating fellows you could ever want to meet. He’s of that rare breed of supremely talented artists who is genuinely pleased and sometimes a bit surprised when he is profusely complimented on a particular piece of his art. Humble is the Ange, that’s for sure. Now, it’s one thing to have Ange’s personality if he were, say, a commercial artist or (perish forbid) an accountant, but this is [continued on p. 12]

What, Me Panic?

IV. Ay Mi Querido Angelo by Sergio Aragonés

Sergio Aragonés The longtime artist of the “marginal” drawings in Mad, Sergio is also the creator of Groo the Wanderer. Seen here at a meeting of the West Coast CAPS (Comic Art Professionals Society) in 2018. Photo courtesy of Terry Wilson. [Letter © Sergio Aragonés.]

SERGIO ARAGONÉS is a multi-award-winning artist and long time Mad genius, believed to be the fastest cartoonist in the world and among the most beloved.

Official Website: http://edgarriceburroughs.com/comics/

by ROY THOMAS & BENITO GALLEGO

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“Here Comes The Fleagle Gang!”

A Brief Interview With ANGELO TORRES Conducted (January 26, 2015) & Transcribed by Bryan Stroud

Angelo Torres RYAN STROUD: How did you become interested in art?

ANGELO TORRES: Growing up in the ’30s with the great Sunday funnies being drawn at that time and with so many great comicbook titles filling every newsstand, I began copying the characters and attempting to create my own. My school notebooks were full of drawings, which didn’t help my grades, and by the time I got to high school all I wanted to do was draw a newspaper syndicated strip. BS: What was your training? TORRES: I attended the School of Industrial

c. 1958—at a time when he was already producing solo work like the splash pages (l. to r.) for Timely/ Atlas’ World of Mystery #1 (June 1956) and Harvey’s Alarming Tales #6 (Nov. ’58). Thanks to Robert L. Reiner & Michael T. Gilbert, respectively. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc., and the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

Art, a vocational high school in New York City, where I got my first formal art training. Graduating in 1951, I went into the Army for the next two years, after which I used the GI Bill to study at the Cartoonists and Illustrators School, which is now the School of Visual Arts. BS: You have a very realistic style. What led you to comics?

A Brief Interview With Angelo Torres

Working Wonders With Williamson A trio of tales in which Angelo inked the pencils of his friend and colleague Al Williamson. (Clockwise from above:) The lead splash page of EC’s Valor #1 (March-April 1955), written by Carl Wessler… the final page of “Harpooned” from EC’s Piracy #1 (Oct.-Nov. ’54); scripter unknown… and the first page of a tale from Billy the Kid #13 (Sept. ’58), writer unknown, from the temporarily leaner days after EC’s comics line folded. But can you believe that Charlton’s Billy the Kid lasted 145 issues, from 1957 to 1983?! Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert & Art Lortie. [EC pages TM & © E.C. Publications, Inc.; Billy page TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

TORRES: My dream had always been to do another Terry and the Pirates or Steve Canyon. I loved Milton Caniff’s work and tried to emulate it. I was also a huge fan of Alex Raymond and Hal Foster, so even though I loved almost every strip appearing then, I wanted more than anything to draw in a realistic style. Attending classes at C&I, I found that my fellow cartooning students had no interest in doing a syndicated strip but dreamed instead of breaking into the comicbook business, with EC Comics as their main target. I found myself going in the same direction. BS: You’ve done nearly every genre, from crime to adventure, war to Western, science-fiction, and even a little romance. Where did you feel most comfortable? TORRES: I have always felt most comfortable and gratified doing historical work. My work on Prehistoric World and World War II for Classics Illustrated, the war stories for Warren, and the Civil War book for Marvel are still some of my most satisfying work. BS: Tell me about the Fleagle Gang. TORRES: Ah, the Fleagles. A couple of us from the art school, led

“Here Comes The Fleagle Gang!”

The Pursuit Of Politics By Other Means Torres-illustrated (clockwise from top left) war-story pages from Timely/ Atlas’ Marines in Battle #22 (March 1958)… Harvey’s Warfront #36 (Oct. ’65)… and Warren’s Blazing Combat #4 (July ’66). Latter tale written by Archie Goodwin; other scribes unknown. Thanks to Michael T. Gilbert & Robert L. Reiner/Clint Morgan. [Marines page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.; Blazing Combat page TM & © Fantagraphics, Inc.; other material TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

by Nick Meglin [who in later years would become an editor of Mad magazine] had become regular visitors to the EC offices in lower Manhattan. Always welcomed by Bill Gaines and to some extent Al Feldstein and Harvey Kurtzman, we also got to know some of the artists. Al Williamson became a close friend, and on one of his trips to EC to deliver work, Nick, George Woodbridge, yours truly, and Roy Krenkel tagged along with him. As we entered the office, somebody, they say it was Harvey, called out, “Here comes the Fleagle gang!” or words to that effect. It stuck, the fans got hold of it, and the rest is history. BS: Most of your stories in the comics were 4 to 5 pages. Was that your sweet spot, or just what was assigned? TORRES: I did whatever was assigned to me. If it was a subject I liked, I didn’t care about the number of pages. BS: Did you have an editor you particularly enjoyed working with?

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

ast issue Ralph talked about his involvement with the magazines Web of Horror and the National Lampoon, as well as Wally Wood’s descent into alcoholism after a period of sobriety. Now let’s conclude…

My Life With Wood (Part 4) by Ralph Reese

Wood’s Slow Decline… After Woody moved to Connecticut, we didn’t see a lot of each other. I did go up there to visit a few times, memorably when he was getting married for the third time. The thing that really struck me at the time was that for a guy who was just getting married he did not seem very happy. The ceremony was very subdued, and he mostly just sat there looking kind of lost and sad. I had to ask myself, “Why are you doing this?” I guess at that time he needed to have someone to look after him, to see that his clothes got washed and that he ate once in a while. I helped him out a little bit with the Wizard King book, inking a few backgrounds and stuff. I think he was hurt that, when pressed, I had to tell him I thought the story was maybe a little trite and that

Third Time Lucky? Wally Wood married third wife Muriel Wood in 1977. That one ended badly, too. [Photo © Gilbert Ortiz.]

he didn’t need to put a skull on the villain’s shirt so that we would know he was the bad guy. Of course, Wood knew that he was dealing in archetypes; he was making an attempt to give his own slant to the Tolkien genre, but I don’t know that it was too successful. He self-financed it, and I think it was pretty disastrous for him. We all went out shooting at the old quarry nearby a couple times, Wood, Wayne Howard, Paul Kirchner, and me, plinking at beer bottles and tin cans. Bill Pearson and Nick Cuti had also moved up there to work at Charlton, and helped Woody out with the Friends of Odkin fan club. I think he was still doing occasional work for Warren and some stuff for Screw, but I didn’t see a lot of it. To be honest, it kind of made me sad to be around him, and to see how he was deteriorating, and I kind of avoided him for a while after that. Did I fail him as a friend? Maybe. But I couldn’t really stop him from drinking, or fix his life for him. And he had a lot of sycophants around him who pretty much went along with whatever he said. I had plenty of my own problems and was hardly without weaknesses or bad life choices.

During this period Wood developed a desire to become a musical performer, and put together and financed a self-published record album called Wally Wood Sings, as well as playing at open mikes, etc., at some local pubs and such. He had always played guitar and liked to do the old Hank Williams and Jimmy Rogers tunes, an interest which I shared; we had tried to play together a few times, but I found it difficult due to his slightly offbeat sense of timing. I know that Bob Layton became his assistant for some time, but I never met him then and am not really familiar with what they were doing. By that time Paul

My Life With Wally Wood (Part 4)

K. had moved on and was working on his own material. We pretty much dropped out of touch, and for several years I did not see him. I heard that he had divorced his third wife and had presumably moved, but of where he was or what he was doing in the late ‘70s I really don’t have any personal knowledge. There were rumors that he was drinking heavily and behaving somewhat erratically. I did, however, see him one last time several months before he went to California and wound up taking his own life. I was still renting desk space at Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates when we got word that Woody was in the VA hospital in downtown Manhattan. Larry Hama, Jack Abel, and I got together and went down there to see how he was doing. At that time he had already had a couple of strokes that left him blind in one eye and partially paralyzed on, I think it was, his left side. Besides that, his kidneys were failing and he was told he needed a transplant. He had approached his brother Glenn about donating a kidney for him, but this was just not something Glenn was willing to do. Although they were brothers, they pretty much had lived separate lives, with Glenn staying in the Midwest and becoming an engineer and living a pretty normal life, as far as I know. To his credit, he some years later arranged a ceremony at the School of Visual Arts to endow a scholarship in his brother’s name. Anyway, we went on down to the Veterans Administration Hospital (where Wood could always get free or low-cost treatment as a vet) and saw him there. He looked terrible. Although he was still only in his mid-fifties, he looked ten years older and just beat to hell. We chatted about his health problems and prognosis. He The Wizard King mentioned he was probably going to have Volume one of Wally Wood’s unfinished magnum opus, which was published in 1978. to go on dialysis. At one point he and I went [© Estate of Wally Wood.] into the smoking lounge to have a cigarette. I asked him what his plans were once he got think that by then he may have sold off most of his original art out of the hospital, thinking that maybe we could find some way for cheap money just to keep himself afloat, and perhaps some to help him out. He told me that the first thing he was going to do of those who were close to him in those final years appropriated was to go and get a drink. What can you say to that? Here the guy some of it. Eventually, it fell into the hands of Bill Pearson to is obviously dying on his feet and surely knowing it, but yet and manage his posthumous affairs, which was fitting since Bill was still…. After some rather awkward moments of well-wishing we probably his most loyal and long-suffering friend. Bill is now in left him there, and I had a strong feeling that it might be the last his mid-seventies and has passed that mantle on to Dave Spurlock, time we would see him alive. who set up a Facebook page dedicated to Wood’s memory and work. I have to admit that it sometimes galls me to see his EC A few months later we heard of his death in California. pages, which had never been returned to him, now selling on eBay Although he did not leave a suicide note and the exact chain of for $40,000 while he died alone in a crappy little apartment far from events is unclear, I think that he had tried the dialysis once or anyone who ever really cared for him. twice, and then just decided that it wasn’t worth it to go on living like that, especially half blind and with partial paralysis. He In the end, however, Woody will be remembered for the had come to the end of the road. To this day I don’t know what laughter and excitement he brought to so many with his work. happened to his remains, and there was no funeral that I know That is his enduring monument. His Mad stuff was full of life, of. Since he died intestate and without heirs, there was then, and background gags, and his own brand of sly humor, and his sciencestill is, some doubt about what should be done with his estate. I fiction art took us into the cosmos with such depth and realism

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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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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!

THE YOUNG ALL-STARS—the late-1980s successor to ALL-STAR SQUADRON! Interviews with first artist BRIAN MURRAY and last artist LOU MANNA—surprising insights by writer/co-creator ROY THOMAS—plus a panorama of never-seen Young All-Stars artwork! All-new cover by BRIAN MURRAY! Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT, and beyond!

Special NEAL ADAMS ISSUE, featuring indepth interviews with Neal by HOWARD CHAYKIN, BRYAN STROUD, and RICHARD ARNDT. Also: a “lost” ADAMS BRAVE & THE BOLD COVER with Batman and Green Arrow, and unseen Adams art and artifacts. Plus FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America), MICHAEL T. GILBERT in Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, and more! Edited by ROY THOMAS. (Plus: See BACK ISSUE #143!)

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It’s CAPTAIN MARVEL TIME!

The “Science” Of The Shazam Heroes’ TimeTraveling Ability by Carl Lani‘Keha Shinyama

“Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions of space. If you can bend space you can bend time also, and if you knew enough and could move faster than light you could travel backward in time and exist in two places at once.” – Margaret Atwood or the original Captain Marvel in the Golden Age of Comics, the above quote was quite true, thanks in large part to the character’s primary writer, Otto Binder.

From Here To [The Rock Of] Eternity Question: Does Captain Marvel travel to the future—or does the future travel to him? Panels from “Captain Marvel Reaches the Age of Perfection” by writer Otto Binder, penciler C.C. Beck, & inker Pete Costanza, from Captain Marvel Adventures #101 (Oct. 1949). In this story, the Big Red Cheese himself served as narrator. [Shazam hero TM & © DC Comics.]

Binder, known in early pulps primarily for his creation Adam Link, the sympathetic metallic hero of his short story “I, Robot” and its sequels, was a science-fiction (or “scientifiction,” a term coined by Hugo Gernsback in the 1920s) writer for pulps before he embarked on a comicbook-writing career. As a teenager, he had had a strong fascination with chemistry and astronomy; he had once aspired to be either a chemical engineer or a research scientist and was an avid reader of astronomy, even purchasing a telescope. Though Binder had no formal scientific degree when he began writing science-fiction, he did have a love of science and a love of the genre, which he discovered in 1926 upon first reading Amazing Stories, a pulp magazine dedicated to the subject.

many others, including more obscure villains such as Disaster Master (Whiz Comics #144), who invented a machine called the Disaster Dealer, which could “hurl invisible forces by atomic power anywhere on Earth, causing catastrophes!”

Even early on, the super-hero genre was one that went hand-in-hand with science-fiction, what with the burgeoning number of heroes with pseudo-scientific origins and of mad-scientist villains. Binder’s keen interest in real science made him a natural fit for the young genre, and informed much of his approach in writing the stories he told, especially those starring Captain Marvel. In point of fact, even before Binder began writing “Captain Marvel” scripts, the hero’s greatest enemy was a mad scientist (Dr. Sivana). He also faced aliens and thugs who often used scientifically advanced weapons to combat the World’s Mightiest Mortal, so the foundations of his world and stories leaned decidedly sci-fi.

It didn’t stop there, either, as some of the notable supporting characters Binder introduced to Captain Marvel’s stories were scientists like Doc Quartz and Dexter Knox. Even Mr. Tawny, one of Billy Batson’s and Captain Marvel’s best friends and perhaps Otto Binder’s most famous co-creation, became a talking tiger through the means of a scientific serum—one that was said to have “energize[d] his brain and enable[d] him to use his vocal cords for speech!”

And that’s without mentioning many of the inventions of Dr. Sivana’s, including numerous varied ray guns and projectors he invented, such as the Germ Wave, Caveman Radiation Projector, Fear Ray Projector, Idiot Ray (not kidding! see Whiz Comics #86), Mute Ray, Hunger Ray, and Anger Ray Gun, to name a few.

During his comicbook career in the 1940s, Binder was a pioneer, being one of the art form’s earliest writers to outright cite real scientific theory as fictional explanations for the impossible feats and that occurred in super-hero stories. With such a writer taking the lead, it was seemingly inevitable that Captain Marvel’s stories would come to be even more sciencefiction-leaning. Indeed, Binder would go on to expand Captain Marvel’s rogues gallery to include an alien telepathic worm (Mr. Mind), an evil caveman scientist (King Kull), and

Otto O. Binder was the foremost author of Fawcett timetravel stories. He sent this photo in 1964 to Roy Thomas for use in Alter Ego [Vol. 1] #7.

Thus, by the time Captain Marvel began time-traveling by way of exceeding the speed of light, the adventures he had were in a primarily surreal world of sci-fi wonders. In other words, it was Otto Binder’s world. When dealing with time travel, many of Binder’s Golden Age contemporaries more or less pulled things out of thin air with no scientific theories to support their explanations. Take Jay Garrick, a.k.a. The Flash, for instance. When he accidentally time-traveled 500 years into the future, writer Gardner F. Fox did not use any established scientific theory to support it. Indeed, when