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TIMELY/ MARVEL! MARVEL AGE ARTIST/COLORIST

STAN GOLDBERG TALKS TO JIM AMASH ABOUT

JACK KIRBY STAN LEE STEVE DITKO JOHN ROMITA JOHN BUSCEMA JOE MANEELY BILL EVERETT JOHN SEVERIN MARIE SEVERIN CARL BURGOS AND MORE! Plus:

MICHAEL T. GILBERT ON

WALLY WOOD & DAN BARRY — speci al bonus—

In the the USA USA In

No. 18 October 2002

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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “AllInterview Issue”! Part 2 of an exclusive STEVE ENGLEHART interview (continued from ALTER EGO #103)! “Pro2Pro” interviews between SIMONSON & LARSEN, MOENCH & WEIN, and comics letterers KLEIN & CHIANG. Plus JOHN OSTRANDER, MICHAEL USLAN, and longtime DC color artist ADRIENNE ROY! Cover by Englehart collaborator MARSHALL ROGERS!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

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THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

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ALTER EGO #108

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See comic art and script BEFORE and AFTER the Comics Code changes, with art by SIMON & KIRBY, DITKO, BUSCEMA, SINNOTT, GOULD, COLE, STERANKO, KRIGSTEIN, O’NEIL, GLANZMAN, ORLANDO, WILLIAMSON, HEATH, and others! Plus: FCA, Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt, BILL SCHELLY, JIM AMASH interviews Timely/Atlas artist CAL MASSEY, and a new cover by JOSH MEDORS!

DICK GIORDANO through the 1960s—from freelance years and Charlton “Action-Heroes” to his first stint at DC! Art by DITKO, APARO, BOYETTE, MORISI, McLAUGHLIN, GIL KANE, and others, Dick’s final convention panel with STEVE SKEATES and ROY THOMAS, JIM AMASH interviews Charlton artist TONY TALLARICO, FCA with MARC SWAYZE and ROY ALD, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, GIORDANO cover, and more!

Big BATMAN issue, with an unused Golden Age cover by DICK SPRANG! SHEL DORF interviews SPRANG and JIM MOONEY, with rare and unseen Batman art by BOB KANE, JERRY ROBINSON, WIN MORTIMER, SHELLY MOLDOFF, CHARLES PARIS, and others! Part II of the TONY TALLARICO interview by JIM AMASH! Plus FCA, MR. MONSTER’S COMIC CRYPT, BILL SCHELLY, and more!

1970s Bullpenner WARREN REECE talks about Marvel Comics and working with EVERETT, BURGOS, ROMITA, STAN LEE, MARIE SEVERIN, ADAMS, FRIEDRICH, ROY THOMAS, and others, with rare art! DEWEY CASSELL spotlights Golden Age artist MIKE PEPPE, with art by TOTH, ANDRU, TUSKA, CELARDO, & LUBBERS, plus FCA, MR. MONSTER, BILL SCHELLY, cover by EVERETT & BURGOS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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LEE & KIRBY: THE WONDER YEARS (KIRBY COLLECTOR #58)

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“Kirby Vault!” Rarities from the “King” of comics: Personal correspondence, private photos, collages, rare Marvelmania art, bootleg album covers, sketches, transcript of a 1969 VISIT TO THE KIRBY HOME (where Jack answers the questions YOU’D ask in ‘69), MARK EVANIER, pencil art from the FOURTH WORLD, CAPTAIN AMERICA, MACHINE MAN, SILVER SURFER GRAPHIC NOVEL, and more!

LEGO SPACE WAR issue! A STARFIGHTER BUILDING LESSON by Peter Reid, WHY SPACE MARINES ARE SO POPULAR by Mark Stafford, a trip behind the scenes of LEGO’S NEW ALIEN CONQUEST SETS that hit store shelves earlier this year, plus JARED K. BURKS’ column on MINIFIGURE CUSTOMIZATION, building tips, event reports, our step-by-step “YOU CAN BUILD IT” INSTRUCTIONS, and more!

Go to Japan with articles on two JAPANESE LEGO FAN EVENTS, plus take a look at JAPAN’S SACRED LEGO LAND, Nasu Highland Park—the site of the BrickFan events and a pilgrimage site for many Japanese LEGO fans. Also, a feature on JAPAN’S TV CHAMPIONSHIP OF LEGO, a look at the CLICKBRICK LEGO SHOPS in Japan, plus how to get into TECHNIC BUILDING, LEGO EDUCATION, and more!

LEGO EVENTS ISSUE covering our own BRICKMAGIC FESTIVAL, BRICKWORLD, BRICKFAIR, BRICKCON, plus other events outside the US. There’s full event details, plus interviews with the winners of the BRICKMAGIC CHALLENGE competition, complete with instructions to build award winning models. Also JARED K. BURKS’ regular column on minifigure customizing, building tips, and more!

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Vol. 3, No. 18 / October 2002

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editors John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus Jerry Bails (founder) Ronn Foss, Biljo White, Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Marc Swayze Jack Kirby & Jim Amash

Cover Colorists Marc Swayze Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Dan Adkins Jeff Bailey Brian H. Baile Mike W. Barr Ray Bottorff, Jr. Jerry K. Boyd Mike Burkey Tony Carezo R. Dewey Cassell Teresa R. Davidson Jose Delbo Al Dellinges Roger Dicken Shel Dorf Roger Ebert Keif Fromm Carl Gafford Jeff Gelb Glenn Gold Stan & Pauline Goldberg David G. Hamilton Roger Hill Tom Horvitz Wendy Hunt Larry Ivie Robert Justice Robert Klein

David A. Kraft Richard Kyle Tom Lammers Larry Lieber Arthur Lortie Dick & Pat Lupoff Owen O'Leary Bill Pearson John G. Pierce Robert M. Price Richard Pryor Ethan Roberts John Romita Alex Ross Robin Snyder Britt Stanton Dan Stevenson Bhob Stewart Steve Stiles Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Sylvia (Dees) White Bill Wormstedt

––In Memoriam––

Dave Berg & Vince Fago

Contents Writer/Editorial: Two Stans Are Better Than One . . . . . . . . . . 2 The Goldberg Variations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Stan G., the man who colored the first Marvel Age comics, talks to Jim Amash about a half century of a lot more than coloring!

Comic Crypt: EC Confidential, Part 3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Wally Wood’s Flash Gordon examined by Michael T. Gilbert & Mr. Monster. Comics: The Department of Commerce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Robert Klein takes us on a tour of comics’ ups & downs. We’ve got graphs! Special Xero/All in Color for a Dime Section . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: Who better as the artist of a cover to an issue which spotlights the early days of Marvel than King Kirby himself? We’re not 100% sure exactly what’s happening in this circa-1980s Kirby drawing of the Fantastic Four and company, but we kinda liked it—so we asked associate editor (and pro inker) Jim Amash to ink a photocopy of it, and the result was a blockbuster cover! [Art ©2002 estate of Jack Kirby & Jim Amash; F.F., Silver Surfer, & Dr. Doom TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: And, for comparison purposes only (your mileage may vary), here’s Jack original pencil version of the illo. You’ll note that, in inking it, Jim made a few minor changes in faces and backgrounds. So now you’ve got twice as much to enjoy! [Art ©2002 estate of Jack Kirby; F.F., Silver Surfer, & Dr. Doom TM & ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $8 ($10.00 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Eight-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $80 Canada, $88 elsewhere. 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 Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

Title writer/editorial

Two Stans Are Better Than One! This is a special issue for me in more ways than one. In my mini-editorial on our flip side, I gush (quite sincerely, I might add) about how much Dick and Pat Lupoff’s fanzine Xero meant to me personally back in the early 1960s, and of its importance to the growth of comics fandom and, in a sense, to the history of comic books themselves. Stan Goldberg means a lot to me, too... so I was overjoyed that he consented to be interviewed by associate editor (also pro inker and dyed-in-the-wool fanboy) Jim Amash. I’d planned to interview Stan myself, but I was thinking about doing it at some time in the undetermined future. Jim just picked up the phone and called him, and I’m glad he did. He asked Stan pretty much all the questions I would have—and then some. Y’see, “Stan G.,” as he was called in Marvel Comics in the 1960s, is one of those guys who was there when things were happening—things like Fantastic Four #1 and Incredible Hulk #1 and Amazing Fantasy #15 and all the rest of it. He was there because he colored all those stories—and in those days, without taking anything away from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, and Steve Ditko, the original Marvel trinity, Stan the G. was a creative part of the team. But I’ll let him and Jim tell you about that.

models and turning his border notes into a script which I titled (correcting the grammar of a popular song) “Whom Can I Turn To?” Soon I met the artist, [Our squeezed-in mascots, and we worked together on several Alter & Captain Ego, are TM & ©2002 issues of Modeling and of Millie the Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. Art ©2002 Model, before I had to relinquish Kevin O'Neill.] Millie (in mid-story, yet!) in favor of Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos. Yeah, I guess that was a promotion; but I had really liked working with Stan G. We’d talk at the office about a story, which he’d then go home and draw. In particular, I think we both enjoyed our making up a Beatlesstyle rock group called the Gears and featuring them in a couple of stories before I moved on. But, during that period, immersed as I was in learning the ropes of the comic book industry in general and Marvel in particular—and even though we later worked together at DC on Captain Carrot and another project—I never got around to asking Stan many questions about how he made his coloring decisions, or even—believe it or not—about his past career in comics.

Nor was Stan G. a newcomer to the scene in the ’60s. By the time the socalled Marvel Age came along, he’d already been around for well over a decade, through the tail-end of the Golden Age at Timely, and through the entire 1950s “Atlas” period, as it’s often called after Martin Goodman’s self-distributing arm. What’s more, the day I met Stan Lee—the first Friday after July 4, 1965—and he offered me a job as staff writer, what was it The Man gave me to dialogue over the weekend for a fast $10 a page? Nothing less than the alreadyThis Jack Kirby-penciled, Chic Stone-inked figure of the ever-lovin’, blue-eyed Thing plotted-and-penciled artwork (a line Stan Lee, bless ’im, borrowed from Walt Kelly’s Pogo) is just one of many that to Modeling with Millie #44. was probably colored by Stan Goldberg when it appeared in—hey! Roy just looked I spent most of my first through his bound volumes of Marvel mags from the 1964-65 period when Chic was weekend as a Marvel employee inking Fantastic Four, and he didn’t find it in an M.M.M.S. ad like he thought he would! Maybe it was used as a pin-up he’s forgotten? Maybe—horrors!—it was even looking at Stan G.’s beautiful, printed solely in some mailing in black-&-white, and Stan G. didn’t color it at all! well-coiffed, nicely-clad Well, no matter. Stan talks about the F.F. in this issue’s interview—and that’s good enough for us! From the personal collection of RT. [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Now I know that I did that, subconsciously, so that, 37 years later, I’d have lots of surprises in store when I read Jim’s very in-depth interview with him. And so do you! Bestest,

P.S.: Sigh! The Stan Goldberg interview and Xero coverage were so extensive that, for the second issue in a row, our loquacious letters section got elbowed out. Third time’s the charm, we promise! P.P.S.: Oh, yeah—and with our next issue, out in December, Alter Ego goes monthly! Wish us luck!

STARTING IN DECEMBER... A/E GOES MONTHLY!

™

THE BAT-SIGNAL SPOTLIGHT IS ON

DICK SPRANG THE QUINTESSENTIAL GOLDEN AGE BATMAN ARTIST! PLUS— FRED RAY & MORT LEAV! • Fabulous color covers by DICK SPRANG (Batman) & FRED RAY (Tomahawk)! • DICK SPRANG profiled and interviewed—plus classic and unseen art! • Rare Batman art and artifacts by ALEX TOTH, BOB KANE, CHARLES PARIS, MAX ALLAN COLLINS, SHELLY MOLDOFF, and other Golden/Silver Age greats! • Celebrated Batman illustrators JERRY ROBINSON and JACK BURNLEY on Tomahawk and 1940s cover artist par excellence FRED RAY! • Artist MORT LEAV (co-creator of The Heap) talks about the Golden Age and beyond! • FCA with MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, et al.—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on WALLY WOOD’s Flash Gordon, Part 2—and MORE!

Edited by ROY THOMAS • Now 108 PAGES for the same price! SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $60 Standard, $96 First Class (Canada: $120, Elsewhere: $132 Surface, $180 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

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Submit Something To Alter Ego! Alter Ego is on the lookout for items that can be utilized in upcoming issues: • Convention Sketches and Program Books • Unpublished Artwork • Original Scripts (the older the better!) • Photos • Unpublished Interviews • Little-seen Fanzine Material We’re also interested in articles, article ideas, or any other suggestions... and we pay off in FREE COPIES of A/E. (If you’re already an A/E subscriber, we’ll extend your subscription.) Contact: Roy Thomas, Editor Rt. 3, Box 468 St. Matthews, SC 29135 Fax: (803)826-6501 • E-mail: roydann@ntinet.com

Submission Guidelines Submit artwork in one of these forms (in order of preference): 1) Clear color or black-&-white photocopies. 2) Scanned images—300ppi TIF (preferred) or JPEG (on Zip or floppy disk). 3) Originals (carefully packed and insured). Submit text in one of these forms: 1) E-mail (ASCII text attachments preferred) to: roydann@ntinet.com (NEW) 2) An ASCII or “plain text” file, supplied on floppy disk. 3) Typed, xeroxed, or laser printed pages.

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Stan Goldberg

The Goldberg Variations An Interview with the Colorful (in More Ways Than One) STAN GOLDBERG about His Five-plus Decades in Comics—Especially at Timely/Marvel Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

“Stan G.” at a Berndt Toast cartoon show at Nassau Community College, Long Island, NY, in 1995. Photo courtesy of SG.

[INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: More than John Buscema, who’s on once, Stan Goldberg has stood at the crossroads of Stan Goldberg’s “short list” of best comics artists ever, comics history. He is one of the few human bridges penciled this cover rough between the Timely/Atlas and Marvel days, starting for Marvel’s Galactus the at Atlas in 1949 as a colorist through the late ’50s. Devourer series a few years Stan made major contributions to the 1960s Marvel back. At one time or Universe by designing the color schemes for all its another in the 1960s, Stan early super-heroes, while drawing Millie the Model colored just about every and other popular titles as “Stan G.” Years later, Stan hero depicted! Thanks to became important at a second company as the other Owen O’Leary. [©2002 “Good Archie Artist,” taking his place with Dan Marvel Characters, Inc.] DeCarlo as one of Archie Publications’ major illustrators. Stan Goldberg’s influence as a top Archie artist is a model for all who draw the Riverdale teenagers—and that includes me! —Jim.]

I. “I Can’t Remember a Time When There Wasn’t a Pencil in My Hand” JIM AMASH: Stan, what inspired you to be a cartoonist? STAN GOLDBERG: I was born in New York City, May 5, 1932. Fifth month, fifth day, and three plus two equals five. So five is my lucky number. Drawing always existed for me. I can’t remember a time when there wasn’t a pencil in my hand. Or brown paper to draw on. We had an extended family living with us. They said I was a nice, quiet, polite kid because I always sat in a corner and drew. My cousins always teased me about it. I was always interested in telling a story in either pictures or verbally telling stories or jokes. When I was very young, I’d poke a hole in the corner of several sheets of paper and tie a string around it, creating my own comics and characters. But I hated drawing women and funny pictures. My stories were like “Reid Jones, Soldier of Fortune.” Everybody looked like Clark Gable!

JA: Were you influenced by listening to radio shows? GOLDBERG: Oh, yes. Comics and art always influenced me, but not as much as radio. It was the greatest thing in the world. I ran home right after school and started listening: Don Winslow of the Navy, Mandrake, I Love a Mystery, and all the afternoon shows. I’d listen right up until nighttime to Lux Presents Hollywood and shows like that. I’d listen to Let’s Pretend on Saturday morning. They were all great stuff. I loved the voices and imagining what was happening. I’d draw pictures of what I

Stan writes: “Me at age 3 1/2. Check out the Skippy tie. I loved drawing even at that age. Percy Crosby’s Skippy was my favorite strip, and still is.” Photo courtesy of SG.

The Goldberg Variations

thought these people looked like. The Shadow, Jack Armstrong, and shows like that. I loved comics: The Human Torch, Captain America, Biro’s Daredevil and Crime Does Not Pay books (with great George Tuska art). I loved SubMariner! I went to the School of Industrial Art, which later became the School of Art and Design. It was a great training ground. John Romita, Frank Giacoia, and many other guys like us went there. When I started at Timely in 1949, I was also taking night classes at what became the School of Visual Arts. Steve Ditko was there the same time, and Jerry Robinson was one of our teachers. Robinson was one of my all-time favorites; he could draw rings around just about anybody. As an aside: Jerry later did work for Timely. And when we got his stories... well, coloring in comics at that time was very poor. You could get red and blue and trust your luck that you could get anything else right. And here was Jerry doing great war stories and we were using grays and shades of browns and other war colors. And it just wasn’t working out. Stan Lee didn’t like the way they looked. He told me to use more primary colors. Jerry said, “You ruined my stuff with all those colors.” But the books sold.

II. “That’s How I Got the Job” JA: How did you get your job at Timely? GOLDBERG: It was summertime and I had just got out of high school. I had a job at summer camp in New England teaching arts and crafts to kids. When I came home, I had decided to go to the School of Visual Arts. I called my friend Marvin up, and he had a summer job coloring for Timely. Marvin told me that he was going out of the country and said, “I didn’t tell anybody at Timely that I’m not coming back on Monday, so why don’t you go up there and sit in my seat? They’ll need somebody up there.” So I did. At that time, the coloring department was run by publisher Martin Goodman’s brother Artie. So Artie Goodman walked into the coloring room, saw me, pointed a finger at me, and asked, “Who the hell are you?” I said, “I’m taking Marvin’s place.” That’s how I got the job. I was seventeen, and there were the guys whose comics I had read: Carl Burgos, Bill Everett, and all the other guys. Holy smokes! These guys seemed old to me because I was so young, but they were good to me. There wasn’t anyone who didn’t want to help me or talk about things. I worked in the bullpen with letterers and proofreaders and the like. They didn’t let me color whole comics at first. I started out mixing flesh tones for all the books we were producing. We mixed a week’s worth at a time. The colors were in big pickle jars, and I’d take a jar of flesh tone and color all the people. Sounds exciting, doesn’t it? Then they showed me how they wanted pages done and I took to it quickly. It was a marvelous training ground.

“I loved Sub-Mariner!” says Stan G. And all real comics fans will love this late-August find by collector/dealer Mike Burkey—nothing less than the final page from the very first “Sub-Mariner” story, as it appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939)! As you probably already know, creator Bill Everett drew four additional pages when the 8-page Namor tale which had only recently been printed in the giveaway Motion Picture Funnies Weekly was included in Timely's first comic book ever. (Note that, just as he signed page 1, he signed this four-page addendum, as well—at the bottom of the secondfrom-last panel.) This final quartet of pages, in particular, have almost never been reprinted, except in the hardcover Marvel Comics Vol. 1 #1 volume published in 1990... and certainly never before from black-&-white art! Our thanks to Munificent Mike for making this page—almost by definition the earliest Timely/Marvel original art that ever can be discovered—available to us, even though he'd already traded it off—only one day after uncovering it! Mike, the reigning Romita collector and a buyer/seller/trader in all kinds of comic art originals, can be reached at <www.romitaman.com>. Tell ’im Alter Ego sent you! [©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Missing a Back Issue? Got a hole in your Mr. Monster collection? We’ll gladly e-mail you a free Mr. Monster EEEK-Mail Catalog! Just Contact Michael T. Gilbert at:

MGILBERT@EFN.ORG

For a printed version, send one dollar to Michael T. Gilbert, P.O. Box 11421, Eugene OR 97440

IN OCTOBER: THE LEGEND OF GOLD KEY COMICS!

BRUCE TIMM cover painting featuring a certain fave robot fighter, there’s features

history, interviews with and/or looks at RUSS MANNING and his amazing Magnus

g, Inc

and Tarzan work, PAUL S. NEWMAN and ALBERTO GIOLOTTI’s Turok, WALLY

stern Publishin

and interviews on the oft-overlooked comics company, including a comprehensive

setting aside our regular columns for a complete look! Behind a beautiful, new

ce Timm. Magn

Cover art by Bru

CBA #22 unlocks the secrets of GOLD KEY! This one is so big, we’re

WOOD’s Total War, JESSE SANTOS and DON GLUT’s Dr. Spektor and Dagar, and more! Plus we have a peek at the great children’s Gold Key comics with CARL BARKS, THOMAS McKIMSON, MARK EVANIER, and others. Also PAUL NORRIS, DAN SPIEGLE, unpublished art and more! Come share in the treasure!

Subscribe to COMIC BOOK ARTIST today and save nearly 15% off the newsstand price! Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard, $54 First Class (Canada: $66, Elsewhere: $72 Surface, $96 Airmail).

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom. TwoMorrows Publishing • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • e-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Guide to Wood art on this page: (a) The first two panels above on the left are from “Flashy Gorgonzola,” from Sally Forth #2, 1977. [©2002 estate of Wally Wood.] (b) At left: a Flash Gordon cameo in Mandrain the Magician Topps mini-comic, 1967. [©2002 Topps.] (c) At middle right: the G-rated section of an X-rated plate from Wally Wood’s Weird Sex Fantasy portfolio, 1978. [©2002 Richard Pryor.] (d) At lower right: 1977 pic of “Flasher Gordon” from Wood’s Naught Knotty Woody collection, published in 2001. [©2002 estate of Wally Wood.]

Robert Klein

Comics The Department of Commerce

by Robert Klein [NOTE: The following article may seem a bit unusual for Alter Ego, which tends to ignore both the current comics scene and the market value of back issues—i.e., the business of comics. However, Bob Klein, one of the gents who originated The Grand Comic Book Database Project a few years back, is dealing here with the history of the comics industry, simply viewed from a different vantage point. Not that that has prevented our tossing in a bit of vintage art amongst all the graphs that follow! —RT.] Comics are an entertainment business. If there’s no business, there won’t be any entertainment. Was it film mogul Louis B. Mayer who said something like that? No matter. All of us are fans because we enjoy the little drawings and few printed words that tell a colorful story. Underlying the printed page are commercial realities we rarely look at, partially because we hardly ever see the information that would make them comprehensible. This is a glimpse at the business of comics books over the industry’s first fifty years or so, from the beginnings of the Golden Age to roughly the late 1980s, as pieced together from various sources, with a little bit of judgment thrown in.

I. The Big Picture First, a look at the big picture. Figure 1 illustrates the total overall circulation from many, but not all, major publishers from 1937 to the early ’90s. Note that qualification: “many publishers.” Some companies didn’t submit figures to the yearly Ayer’s Guide (a principal source of circulation information for each publisher). So we’ll look at this as a guide for the major ups and downs of the comics business, and not as an exact profile. Even with that limitation, there’s a lot to be seen through this cloudy lens.

Three takes on economic aspects of the comic book biz. (a) If one reads between the lines, Harvey Kurtzman & Wally Wood’s “Superduperman!” in Mad #4 (Feb.-March 1953) was poking fun at the DC vs. Fawcett lawsuit which ran from the 1940s through—as it happened—1953! (b) The Severin/Trimpe cover for the color Crazy #3 (June ’73), thunk up by Mirthful Marie and Rascally Roy, dealt with the later rivalry between DC and Marvel, in which, by then, this depiction to the contrary, Marvel was pulling out in front. Marie colored both the EC and Marvel art shown here. Note how the $ sign has jumped from Captain Marbles’ chest to Stuporman’s! Thanks to Jon B. Cooke for the scan. (c) Recently, the venerable British magazine The Economist used Wayne Boring’s Superman figure with color reversals and a touch of Captain America on the cover of its 7/13/02 issue. [Mad art ©2002 EC Comics Publications; Crazy art ©2002 Marvel Characters, Inc.; Economist cover ©2002 The Economist Newspaper Limited.]

Figure 1.

Comics: The Department of Commerce Looking at the industry from the beginning, the first noticeable feature is the sudden jump in the late 1930s. Guess who! It’s the arrival of Superman! The Man of Tomorrow’s impact on the fledgling business is very visible as it struggles to get off the ground. The early ’40s show a big jump in sales, but then there are no further improvements until after World War II, when sales improved again. The lack of circulation increase between the two periods of dramatic growth was probably the effect of paper rationing during the war. Paper was hard to get in the war years, and publishers had to cut back. After the war, when paper was again readily available, sales rocketed dramatically on the backs of the romance, crime, and horror trends in the late ’40s and early ’50s. Up through 1952, that is. That’s the peak, probably the all-time industry peak, for circulation. This 1948 house ad depicted National/DC’s top six super-heroes, licensed comic-strippers Mutt & Jeff, plus Brooklyn of the Boy Commandos. Ironically, one mag in which the ad appeared was All-American Comics #102 (Oct. 1948)— which by the very next issue would drop Green Lantern and become All-American Western! And Boy Commandos would be mustered out of the service by their 36th issue in 1949. But, though Dell/Western was gaining on DC, a combination of super-heroes, teen humor, funny animals, inoffensive crime comics, and westerns would keep DC on top of the heap for a little while longer. [©2002 DC Comics.]

The figure shown here is a top circulation of 56 million copies sold per month in that year. That’s probably understated by an additional 10 million, if for no other reason than the fact that Dell, one of the powerhouses of the ’50s, is not included in the total, because they did not furnish figures to Ayer’s Guide.

41 Figure 2.

circulation is about half the 1952 peak, and all but a few hardy publishers have left the field. In an effort to clean up its image, the industry establishes the Comics Code Authority; but note that the first comics under the Code seal appear in early 1955, well after the crash. Too late by far. Today, comics are a small market, marginalized and unimportant to the world at large. It is hard even to imagine the uproar over comics in the early 1950s. Looking over those figures again shows that the situation was wildly different in the ’50s; comics then were not marginal—not by a long shot. At 65 million copies sold per month, and a U.S. population of 160 million people, that means four to five comics sold each year to every man, woman, and child, on the average. Of course, “everyone” didn’t buy comics, but those who did certainly bought a lot of them. And the industry had a rule of thumb at that time: each copy sold was read by a total of five people, one buyer and four pass-along readers. In the early 1950s, comics were mainstream entertainment for at least some segment of the population. Comics were everywhere, and the industry excesses were perceived as being too much to ignore in such a popular medium. It was a different world. After the crash, the industry players re-formed around a gentler kind of subject matter, leaving fewer publishers, most with some established niche. Circulation stabilized somewhat, hovering generally between 25

In these days of anemic readership, when a comics title selling 40,000 is considered a success, consider the fan’s-eye view in 1952. With a circulation of roughly 55–65 million copies per month, and almost 3200 new issues on the newsstands that year (Figure 2), it must have seemed there was a virtual flood of comics. That’s nearly 65 new comics per week vying for rack space and sales. How could the buying public possibly absorb so many new issues each week? How could a neighborhood newsstand even display that many comics? The answer, of course, is—no way! At the same time, adverse forces were converging. The furor over industry excesses in crime and horror comics was cresting. In some regions, selective boycotts by retailers, distributors, or parents choked off sales. Television was becoming mainstream, providing alternative entertainment for comics’ main audience, young children. Between the crowded market, boycotts, and the effect of television, comics were heading for big trouble. The net result would be seen in the next two years (Figure 1, again), where total circulation plummets. After the smoke clears, the total

The caption below this probably Norman Maurer-drawn house ad from One Million Years Ago #1 (Sept. 1953), which deals with the overcrowded newsstands of the day, may be hard to read; but it says just about what you’d think it says. [©2002 Joe Kubert & estate of Norman Maurer.]

Title writer/editorial

Xero Hour “You had to be there!” It’s a phrase we hear a lot (in fact, both Bill Schelly and Dick Lupoff use it in their articles herein), and we’re often a wee bit suspicious when we do, since someone is telling us we should take his word for it that this, that, or the other thing was wonderful, only we can’t possibly properly appreciate (let alone criticize) it if we weren’t present at a particular place at a particular time. Suspicious we may be, and reasonably so. All the same, that ringing declaration is often true, because context—which includes time and place, as well as other factors—is important, often essential, to enjoyment and proper appreciation of something. When watching an old Chaplin film, we can admire Charlie’s genius, but few of us will laugh uproariously the way his original audiences did, for styles in humor have changed. Golden Age comic books were not only a product of their time and place, but were also aimed at readers younger and less sophisticated than those who pore over them today (provided, of course, they dare slip them out of their Mylar bags).

articles with new revelations on vintage comics and creators in magazines like Alter Ego and Comic Book Artist and The Jack Kirby Collector and—well, I forget the names of the others at the moment, but I hear there are a couple. When Xero #1 was distributed at the World Science Fiction Convention in 1960, however, there was only... Xero. There were no reference works on comic books, and damn few even on more respectable comic strips. As Maggie pointed out in a recent A/E, she and Don and others had to compile a list of all the features which had headlined Dell/Western’s ongoing Four-Color Comics title, because the company itself had never bothered to do so! Today’s information-laden comics websites are the descendants, only a couple of generations removed, of Xero and Comic Art and the original hyphenated Alter-Ego. Still, why should we acclaim and wax eloquent over magazines—and not even professional magazines, at that—which were published four decades ago? Especially since I just admitted that in them the search for knowledge about comic books and their creators was only at a nascent stage!

Dick and Pat Lupoff’s seminal 19601963 fanzine Xero, which is celebrated in the next 40 pages, is another case in point, as would be most any fanzine (sciencefiction or comics) from an earlier era. To some extent, at least, you had to be there—and fortunately for me, I was.

Because we can never truly appreciate where we are—unless we know where we’ve been, that’s why. Whether you belong to the camp that believes today’s comics are the epitome of the art form, or you think they’re the dregs, or you’re somewhere in between, there is much to be learned and savored by studying the earliest fanzines.

At the same time, whether you were “there” or not, Xero is important historically in the context of comics fandom, even if it pre-dated and was never really a part of that fandom.

Did I say “study”? Crom knows, I don’t want to make this issue of A/E sound like a crash course in “Comics 101”! The articles you’re about to read—both those written in 2002 and several originally printed in Xero itself in the early ’60s—are fun, as well as informative.

As Bill Schelly relates in his masterful overview of the Lupoffs’ highly influential publication that follows, Xero began as a medium-size science-fiction The tenth and “ultimate” issue of the Lupoffs’ fanzine Xero fanzine which featured an ongoing series featured the simple yet ingenious “Two Flashes Meet the Purple on comic books, the legendary “All in Slagheap”—in color, yet—by Landon Chesney. [Art ©2002 estate As many of you know, most of the Color for a Dime”; by the end of its tenof Landon Chesney; Flashes TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] entries in Xero’s “All in Color for a issue run, it was a humongous and Dime” series have been republished in award-winning magazine which had long one of three books, all of them currently available. Fortunately, there since burst its seams and limitations, and could still be called a “fanzine” were ample articles and illustrations still un-reprinted to fill this issue... only because of its mimeographed production and its non-payment for and I can honestly say that doing so has been one of my most pleascontributions, certainly not because of the quality of its contents. urable experiences to date in editing the revived Alter Ego. From the moment Bill Schelly and I began to talk about doing this tribute, months Xero was inaugurated in the late summer of 1960, before Comic Art ago, it’s been a blast to work on. It was great, as well, to renew my and Alter-Ego, commonly acknowledged as the first true comics acquaintance (via e-mail this time, instead of mostly by letter as in the fanzines (albeit of quite different sorts), were even a collective gleam in ’60s) with Dick and Pat Lupoff, and to exchange e-mails with Bhob the eyes of Don and Maggie Thompson and Dr. Jerry Bails. Ironically, Stewart, Steve Stiles, and others. neither the Thompsons (not yet married at the time) nor Jerry was aware of Xero when they birthed plans to produce comics-related publications Okay, so I’ve explained why you should read the articles that follow, of their own; yet both were inevitably influenced by the several issues of and why I think you’ll savor them if you get into the right spirit: “You Xero which they read, as it were, “between the thought and the deed.” had to be there.” By Xero #4 Don and Maggie were contributors to the Lupoffs’ ’zine; and even I, who was officially “co-editor” of Alter-Ego #1-3, would write an entry in the “All in Color” series before it ended. Naturally, the knowledgeable comics fan of today has a leg up on the Lupoffs and the Thompsons and Bails. A new edition of Overstreet’s Price Guide comes out like clockwork every year, with a full listing of virtually every comic book published up through recent days. Books like Mike Benton’s Taylor History of Comics series and Ron Goulart’s tomes and coffee-table volumes by Les Daniels devoted to Marvel and DC line our sagging shelves. We can read in-depth interviews and

But, hopefully, through the words and pictures of Bill Schelly and the Lupoffs and Bhob Stewart and Steve Stiles and myself and a few others—including, surprisingly, film critic Roger Ebert—you will be there, at least in your mind’s eye. So—enjoy. It’s Xero Hour! Bestest,

Comic FandomTitleArchive Extra!

WHAT COULD HAVE JUMP-STARTED COMIC FANDOM?

Nothing Less Than

An Over, Under, and All-around Look at the Science-Fiction Fanzine That Helped Get Comicdom Rolling! Since Dick Lupoff’s nostalgic piece “The Big Red Cheese” in Xero #1 initiated the “All in Color for a Dime” series, it seemed only fitting to lead off with this C.C. Beck illo from Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943), which launched the fabled “Monster Society of Evil” serial that lasted more than two years. Repro’d from the 1977 hardcover Shazam! From the 40’s to the 70’s; naturally, this art didn’t appear in Xero. [©2002 DC Comics.]

It was not to be.

by Bill Schelly Introduction To understand the significance that Dick and Pat Lupoff’s 1960s science-fiction fanzine Xero (pronounced “zero”) has for the serious comics fan, consider this: the first mass-market book ever to see print about the history of comic books was a collection of articles which had (with one or two exceptions) appeared in its pages. The name of that series, “All in Color for a Dime” [henceforth usually abbreviated as “AICFAD”], became the title of the Arlington House book published in 1970, edited by Dick Lupoff and Don Thompson.

In fact, had it been peaceful, it’s very possible that the seminal fanzine Xero—and the famous “All in Color for a Dime” series of comic book articles therein—might never have existed. For it was in strife that this progeny was midwived. As fans Walter Breen, Lin Carter, Ted White, Dick and Pat Lupoff, and a gaggle of others prepared to roast weenies, sip bad Bloody Marys (“Too much tabasco!”), and have a good old time in the spring of 1960, they were about to be confronted by… well, what used to be called a Juvenile Delinquent (yes, with capitals), who had his own post-simian agenda.

Even for those already well aware of the source and importance of the AICFAD book, this article (which will be liberally spiced with quotes from an interview I conducted with the Lupoffs several years ago) will reveal that there was a surprising amount of comics and comics-related material in Xero apart from “AICFAD.” A few of those pieces are reprinted in this issue of Alter Ego. I will be discussing them all, and even touching briefly on some of the noncomics stuff. In the process you’ll find out just what made Xero—one of the rarest and hardest to find of fanzines—such an important part of comics fandom’s history.

Prologue At a little after four o’clock, with the May afternoon waning, a group of less than a dozen members of the New York City science-fiction club called the Futurians rendezvoused in a public park under the George Washington Bridge for what they thought would be a peaceful, convivial picnic. The first page of The Rumble—the 1960 one-shot that led to Xero. [©2002 Dick & Pat Lupoff.]

Nothing Less Than Xero What, in the final analysis, made “All in Color for a Dime” (and, by extension, Xero) such a success? That it came along at the right time, when interest in comics was resurfacing was a big part of it. That it was intelligent and well-produced was vital. But, perhaps most important, there was the recognition within Dick Lupoff that his interest in comics was worth expressing, for he set the tone for all the future installments of “AICFAD.” While he later indicated that his desire to explore comics nostalgia had been largely expiated by his stewardship of Xero, the evidence of his love of comics past remains on those pages, immutable. Jim Harmon expressed the sentiment behind “AICFAD” best, at the end of his JSA appreciation in Xero #3: “The Biblical idea of ‘putting away childish things’ has little appeal to me; it smacks of a rather snide and vainglorious pride in mere chronology. It demands a relinquishment of all naiveté, all simplicity, all appreciation of simple pleasures. It demands the smothering of that old science-fictional ideal, the Sense of Wonder. Perhaps the highest form of sophistication is not to emphasize but to admit whatever genuine quality of innocence is still within you.” [NOTE: The complete texts of Bill Schelly’s in-depth interview with Dick and Pat Lupoff, and of “The Education of Victor Fox” by Richard Kyle, are reprinted in the Comic Fandom Reader, a 224page trade paperback book available for $19.95 (postpaid) from Hamster Press. Landon Chesney’s “Two Flashes Meet The Purple Slag-heap” can be found in Fandom’s Finest Comics, Vol. 2, for $9.95 from that same sterling publisher. Send check or money order to: Hamster Press, P.O. Box 27471, Seattle, WA 98125. For further information or to relay comments on this article, you can e-mail Bill Schelly at <HamstrPres@aol.com>.]

In the mid-’60s Dick Lupoff became the editor of Edgar Rice Burroughs hardcovers being reprinted by Canaveral Press; this led to the publication of his first book—Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure—which had grown in part out of the Xero experience. The frontispiece of that volume was this exquisite illustration of ERB and his creations by EC Comics greats Al Williamson and Reed Crandall. Thanks to Dick for providing as good a copy as possible. [Art ©2002 Al Williamson & the estate of Reed Crandall. Characters TM & ©2002 Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.]

A number of books originated in one form or another in the pages of Xero. Bob Briney expanded his essay on Sax Rohmer into a book that was a full-scale biography of the creator of Dr. Fu Manchu. Lin Carter’s “Notes on Tolkien” mutated into a book called Understanding Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings. Norman Clark’s “The Greatest Shows Unearthly” piece, about science-fiction in the theatre, grew into a book about the old Hippodrome Theatre in New York. And, of course, there were All in Color for a Dime and its sequel The Comic-Book Book. Between them these two books (although the second was mostly comprised of new material) reprinted virtually the entire “AICFAD” series from Xero except for Lupoff’s “The Several Soldiers of Victory,” the original version of Don Thompson’s “The Wild Ones,” and the two installments by Richard Kyle. As for Dick, the plan he’d hatched in his teenage years—to write for the fanzines, and from there jump to becoming a professional writer of books—came true. His first was Edgar Rice Burroughs: Master of Adventure, which grew out of his experience editing ERB books of Tarzan, John Carter of Mars, et al., for Canaveral Press. After that came his first novel, One Million Centuries.

In 1970, as Bill Schelly phrased it in a 1990s fan-publication, “a clean-cut Don Thompson (l.) and a shaggy Dick Lupoff (r.)” teamed up to promote the [pictured] Arlington House hardcover edition of All in Color for a Dime. When the book was reprinted in paperback by Ace Books, there were even royalties—ditto when it was rereprinted in 1997 by Krause Publications. The Krause edition is still available; see The Comics Buyer’s Guide. Photo courtesy of Dick Lupoff, Maggie Thompson, & Bill Schelly.

Dick Lupoff

We Were Just Having Fun A Memory of the XERO Years by Dick Lupoff Bill Schelly has done a remarkable job of reconstructing the story of Xero, the fanzine which Pat and I published between 1960 and 1963. Bill is a fine historian, but in case you’re interested in what it was like to be there four decades ago, weaving dizzily from the correction fluid fumes and getting mimeograph ink under your fingernails—well, here are a few recollections. Let me say, first thing, that we never meant to make history, to start a movement, or to do much of anything except enjoy ourselves. In 1960 Pat and I were barely out of the newlywed category. We’d married in 1958, shortly after I got out of the Army. I was a typical young businessman of the era, climbing into a three-piece suit every morning, knotting a tie around my neck, and heading off to work for a big A photo of a fedora’d Dick Lupoff in front of a bookshelf-ful of reading matter—plus a clean, corporation. Pat was a young homemaker. She had gone powerful illo of Captain Marvel by the late great Kurt Schaffenberger, courtesy of from college to marriage with hardly a hiccup of P.C. Hamerlinck. [Art ©2002 estate of Kurt Schaffenberger; Captain Marvel TM & ©2002 DC Comics.] disruption. The idea that a woman in her position should actually enter the job market on an equal footing with her Possibly the most intriguing was Fanac, published by Terry Carr and male counterparts was still a decade away from general acceptance. Ron Ellik; this was more of a newsletter than a fanzine in the traditional sense. By the time Pat had seen a few of these and I had tried to I’d been a science-fiction fan as well as a comic book enthusiast from “explain” fandom to her, she was intrigued, and my own interest, which childhood onward, and Pat’s curiosity was piqued when the day’s mail had faded to a faint glimmer, was rekindled. frequently contained odd little publications addressed to me, many of them crudely mimeographed on tinted, rough-surfaced paper. These We were living in a little garden apartment in Westchester County in were fanzines, of course. I’d subscribed to a lot of them in earlier years. those days. One day we received a postcard inviting us to a party being My fan connections had been important to me in my schoolboy and given by some science-fiction fans in Manhattan. We were ready to hop Army days, and they were still following me as I entered what might be into our cherry red and white ’55 Chevy Bel Air and join in the fun called the real world. when we both came down with a wild case of food poisoning. We took turns struggling from our bed to the bathroom, then crawling back as Pat was curious about those odd weak as kittens and as dizzy as drunkards. Fortunately the symptoms little publications. They included one didn’t last long, but as far as attending the party we’d been invited to, called Shaggy (short for Shangrithat was out of the question. L’Affaires) published by the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society, one So that was the end of that—for the moment. called Cry of the Nameless (published by a Seattle club called The Nameless But it didn’t take long for me to tire of the commuter’s routine and Ones), and a good many others. for Pat to develop a dislike of the sterile life of suburbia. We gave up on Westchester. I sold the Bel Air to my brother for $150 and we moved to the city. That was more like it! Next time around we did get together with the local fan group, who were in the midst of reviving the onetime New York Futurian Society. In the 1940s this club had boasted a membership that included an astonishing number of people who went on to major careers in the world of literature. I could start with Donald Wollheim and Isaac Asimov, continue with Frederik Pohl and Cyril Kornbluth, James Blish, Virginia Dick writes re this cartoon from Xero #6: “It’s hard to read the signature... and it had been Kidd, and Damon Knight. And that’s just for starters! so long since we published it that I’d forgotten who the cartoonist was. Looked it up in the Xero Index and discovered that it was Algis Budrys. Yes, the Algis Budrys. What a surprise!” Budrys was a major science-fiction author of the period, and his novel Rogue Moon was acclaimed by fellow writer James Blish in a review in Xero. [©2002 Algis Budrys.]

The “new” Futurians included Ted White, Steve Stiles, Algis Budrys,

The “AICFAD” Style Sheet

The “All In Color For A Dime” Style Sheet An Interloping Aside by Roy Thomas As every magazine editor and publisher quickly learns, you’re only as good as your contributors—so you’ve got to make sure that talented folks send you things they’ve written and/or drawn, and that they know the needs of your mag. Dick touches on that ever-present problem as it related to Xero a couple of articles back, when he says he and Pat had to “scramble” for material, so this seems the proper time and place to talk about— —”The AICFAD Style Sheet”! But, before we get to that: In the “Epistolary Intercourse” (i.e., letters column) of Xero #2, Dick, rather than Pat, announced that issue #3 would feature Jim Harmon’s article about the Justice Society of America. Optimistically, he continued:

“...anyone in the New York area can use the small research facilities in my house. You might be able to talk Larry Ivie into letting you research in his collection, but I can’t speak for Larry. “But the point is, for all the enthusiasm the first article in this series engendered on the part of readers, it’s going to die but fast if you won’t write for it.” Elsewhere in that same “E.I.,” more s-f fans/proto-comics fans seemed ready and eager to grab the baton. Joe Sanders was quoted: “AICFAD is good.... Hey, perhaps—next summer—I might be able to write on Mickey Mouse. Not Mickey Mouse, cute TV star... not Mickey Mouse, suburban slob... but the Mickey Mouse of ‘Mickey Fights the Phantom Blot,’ etc.”

“Thereafter there’s The Spirit, recalled by Sylvia White, a longpromised and long-overdue Batman by Bill Thailing, possibly Wonder Woman by Lee Anne Tremper, and Villains by Walter Breen.... But of all those articles listed, only Jim Harmon’s is on hand. So, will the rest of you folks please send some word on progress, plans, etc., if you can’t send in the articles yet? And anyone else who is interested (Dick Schultz, research The Heap, willya? Check it back to its source, Sturgeon’s ‘It’ in the August ’40 Unknown... it’s been reprinted, though I don’t recall where just offhand) is welcome... urged... pleaded with?... to contribute to the series. Check with me first to avoid duplicated topics, though. Stiles went ahead and wrote a Spirit article after Sylvia White had got a goahead for hers. (Bill Thailing, please note: we’ve had another offer to write Batman. Turned him down on account of your article. Now please don’t you let us down.) Others I’d like to see in the series:

Even Bill Thailing, mentioned twice in Lupoff’s opening plea, was excerpted as saying that as of September 10 of that glorious year 1960 “the article should be ready in about 10 days.” (It never was published, though. Wha hoppen?) Thus, in Xero #3, Dick took the bull by the horns and devoted a whole page to “The AICFAD Style Sheet,” reprinted in full on the opposite page. As he said in 2002:

“1. Cap America—Human Torch—Submariner [sic] “2. Cap Midnight, Airboy, Phoenix Squadron, Skyman, etc. “3. Planet Comics and the characters therein “4. You tell me...

A page or two later, Tom Condit wrote that he and Martha Atkins intended to form the Marvel Family Revival Association “for the purpose of urging and aiding the revival of Captain Marvel, with Eando Binder hired at whatever fabulous salary he demands to write the continuity... There is only one membership requirement: that you write a letter to Fawcett Publications urging them to revive Captain Marvel. We’re considering making up a letterhead, etc. Why must we do it? Because it is not there.”

“Dick Schultz, research The Heap, willya?” pleaded Lupoff in #2—but if Schultz ever did, the results never made it into Xero. The Heap’s origin in the “Skywolf” feature in Air Fighters Comics, V1#3 (Dec. 1942) did indeed borrow mightily from Theodore Sturgeon’s classic 1940 tale “It,” with an added World War I aviation backstory (probably to justify its appearing in a mag called Air Fighters). The Heapster stayed in the mag when it changed its name to Airboy and dropped all the flyboys except the ever-youthful title hero, as per the above page from a 1950s English reprint, sent by Roger Dicken & Wendy Hunt. Anybody know the artist of this story? [©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

“Fans being fans (as we all were, of course), there was a lot of enthusiasm and raw talent available, but not very much know-how regarding the kind of writing I was looking for as an editor. I wanted a delicately balanced mixture of scholarship, criticism, and misty-eyed nostalgia. A lot of people wanted to write for

The “AICFAD” Style Sheet

When Dick and Pat Ellington wrote a few lines in Xero #4 about fetishism in the comics of a company that had titles like Jumbo and Jungle, Pat’s bracketed reply was: “A big birdie who needs a shave today tells me that outfit was Fiction House—Malcolm Reiss and T.T. Scott. They published Jungle, Jumbo, Rangers, Fight, Wings, and— forget it not!—Planet Comics, plus a couple of minor ones (Firehair, Movie Comics, Wambi) in addition to their pulps. And we have a stack of Planet Comics and will you do the AICFAD article on them?” As a matter of fact, Dick Ellington took them up on it, and his “Me to Your Leader Take” appeared in Xero #6. The Lupoffs were not only fanzine editors and publishers; they were also a lending library! (As Alter Ego’s editor would soon discover, when Dick volunteered to loan him a stack of Fawcett Comics if he’d write the article which became “Captain Billy’s Whiz-Gang” in Xero #9.) Lewis Forbes, in #5, didn’t offer to write anything, but made this, shall we say, overly pessimistic forecast: “As for how long this kick will last: someday you’re going to run out of characters to write articles about.” (Forty years and counting, Lew!)

Dick Lupoff’s AICFAD Style Sheet from Xero #3. Yes, Virginia, there really was a ‘Green Turtle’; he lasted the first five issues of Blazing Comics. The cover of Blazing #2 (July 1944) and of #3-4 featured virtually identical humorous shadows of turtles waving their paws. What were the good people at Rewl Publications thinking of?? [Style Sheet ©2002 Dick Lupoff; Blazing cover ©2002 the respective copyright holder.]

us but just didn’t know how to go about it. The style sheet turned out to be very helpful, and upon looking at it again for the first time in fortyplus years, I think it was pretty good. “Among the people who were going to write for Xero was my friend Lee Anne Tremper, who produced a splendid first draft of an essay on Wonder Woman. I don’t know what ever happened to Lee Anne’s manuscript, but it disappeared down some rabbit hole or other— probably my fault. Unfortunately, she had not made a carbon copy. She was going to do the whole thing over from scratch—truly above and beyond the call of duty—but somehow she never did. A real loss.” From time to time, throughout the fanzine’s history, mention would be made of potential features—or at least requests for same. In Xero #3 Ruth Berman asked wistfully if there was “anyone who has the ‘primary research material’ to do an article on the Captain Video and Tom Corbett comics,” particularly the former. (As we now know, they were drawn by the late great George Evans—and well scripted, too, partly by William Woolfolk.) When Redd Boggs defended the ludicrous origin of MLJ’s Steel Sterling (he got his powers by jumping into a vat of molten steel), Pat asked: “Hmmmmm. Would you consider doing an article on the psychology of super-heroes?” Under its editing partners, Xero was game for anything.

In the Xero Index Edition, after the fanzine itself had run its ten-issue course, the Lupoffs listed (in answer to reader requests) some of what might have been the contents of the “phantom Xero,” the issue(s) they could have published had they kept on going. The “All in Color for a Dime” section, they said, “might have consisted of any of the following: “‘Of (Super) Human Bondage’... by Larry Ivie and Lee Anne Lavell “‘Memos from the Boy Commandos’... by Harlan Ellison “‘Jingle Jangle Tales & The Pie-Faced Prince of Old Pretzelburg’... by Harlan “‘It’s Magic!’ by Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff “‘At Home in the Batcave’... by Laurence M. Jannifer and Marion Zimmer Bradley “‘Charles Biro and Mr. Hyde’... by Don Thompson. “‘Airboy and the Heap’... by Dick Schultz. “‘That Crazy Buck Rogers Stuff’... by Ray Beam.” Harlan Ellison’s piece on George Carlson’s Jingle Jangle Comics did make it into first-time publication at decade’s end, in the hardcover version of All in Color for a Dime—and in their followup The ComicBook Book Thompson and Lupoff teamed up under a pseudonym to write “It’s Magic!” incorporating much of Don’s earlier Xero offering on The Spectre and Dr. Fate. But the rest of the projected “phantom Xero” is as lost as— Well, as lost as Bill Thailing’s “September 10 for sure” article on Batman! And now, time for some actual previously-unreprinted pieces from the ten issues of Xero—a sort of short, informal second or third volume of All in Color for a Dime, so to speak—complete with the original title-lettering to each piece, and starting with a few choice paragraphs from Otto O. Binder, perhaps the best of the “Captain Marvel” writers....

Alter Ego #18