Issuu

No. 30

November 2003

5.95

In In the the USA USA

ALEX ROSS ON THE 1960s-70s JLA!

DICK DILLIN

REDISCOVERED! Plus Rare Art & Artifacts By:

OTTO BINDER PAUL CHADWICK REED CRANDALL JOE CERTA WILL EISNER MICHAEL T. GILBERT DICK GIORDANO SCOTT GOODELL WALT GROGAN GIL KANE TOM MANDRAKE MORT MESKIN JOSH NEUFELD MICHELLE NOLAN GEORGE PÉ REZ BILL SCHELLY MIKE SEKOWSKY ROY THOMAS ALEX TOTH SAL VELLUTO WALLY WOOD & MORE!!

TwoMorrows Publishing Update 15%

SAVE

SUMMER 2011

WHE N YO ORD U ONL ER INE!

BACK ISSUE #51

BACK ISSUE #53

BACK ISSUE #54

• Digital Editions available: $2.95-$3.95! • Back Issue & Alter Ego now with color! • Lower international shipping rates!

(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!

ORDER AT: www.twomorrows.com

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital edition) $2.95

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Nov. 2011

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Jan. 2012

THE BEST IN COMICS AND LEGO MAGAZINES!

ALTER EGO #105

ALTER EGO #106

ALTER EGO #107

ALTER EGO #108

DRAW! #22

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!

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Oct. 2011

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Dec. 2011

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Jan. 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships March 2012

(84-page magazine with COLOR) $7.95 (Digital Edition) $2.95 • Ships Feb. 2012

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

Special double-size book examines the first decade of the FANTASTIC FOUR, and the events that put into motion the Marvel Age of Comics! New interviews with STAN LEE, FLO STEINBERG, MARK EVANIER, JOE SINNOTT, and others, with a wealth of historical information and Kirby artwork!

(128-page tabloid trade paperback) $19.95 (Digital Edition) $5.95 • Ships Nov. 2011 (Subscribers: counts as two issues)

KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

BRICKJOURNAL #18

BRICKJOURNAL #19

“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!

(84-page tabloid magazine) $10.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Feb. 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Dec. 2011

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships Feb. 2012

(84-page FULL-COLOR magazine) $8.95 (Digital Edition) $3.95 • Ships April 2012

Vol. 3, No. 30/November 2003

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

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 Alex Ross Steve Rude

Section

Contents

Writer/Editorial: Just a League of Their Own . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Liberty and Justice: The Alex Ross Interview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Walt Grogan interviews the acclaimed artist on his newest epic, JLA: Liberty and Justice.

Cover Colorists Alex Ross Solid! Colors

And Special Thanks to: Kim Aamodt Ger Apeldoorn Gary Arlington Mark Arnold Dick Ayers Brian H. Baile Leslie Dillin Battista Allen Bellman Bill Black Lee Boyett Mike Brown R. Dewey Cassell Paul Chadwick Dick Cole Jon B. Cooke Craig Delich Mrs. Dick (Estella) Dillin Richard Dillin, Jr. Shel Dorf Frank Doscher Terry Dillin Doscher Martin Downham Michael Feldman Carl Gafford Paul Gambaccini Walter Geier Janet Gilbert Mark Glidden Scott Goodell Walt Grogan Mrs. Howard Keltner Bob Klein Scott Koblish

“Just A League Of Their Own”

David Anthony Kraft Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier Tom Mandrake Andy Mangels Don Marquez Peter Meskin John Moores Josh Neufeld Michelle Nolan David Olsen Jake Oster Linda Rahm-Crites Larry Rippee Paul Rivoche David Roach Trina Robbins Alex Ross Steve R. Rowe Steve Rude Alex Ross Steve Skeates Robin Snyder Marc Swayze Greg Theakston Dann Thomas Alex Toth Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Sal Velluto Murray Ward Lynn Woolley Eddy Zeno Mike Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dick Dillin & Warren Kremer

Remembering Dick Dillin: “The Top Man in the Country!” . . . . 14 A family remembers a husband, father, and longtime penciler of Justice League. How Green Was My Martian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Michelle Nolan on J’onn J’onzz and other anomalies of the early-1960s JLA. The Schwartzian Epic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Roy Thomas unveils a long-lost JLA-related artifact—in the 53rd century. “What Can You Get for a Nickel, Nowadays? Nothin’!! ”. . . 31 Michael T. Gilbert checks some books out of the notorious 1970s Nickel Library. A Visit with Otto Binder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Bill Schelly excerpts his new biography of Captain Marvel’s most inventive scribe. re: [comments & corrections on A/E #24] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 The French Connection Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About Our Cover: The first-ever view most folks had of the Justice League of America in late 1959—the cover scene of The Brave and the Bold #28, only seen here from the P.O.V. of Starro the Conqueror. More about artist Alex Ross’ newest tabloid-size painted graphic novel on the pages immediately following—including, on p. 5, a step-by-step study of the illo used as our colorful cover. [©2003 DC Comics.] Above: In conjunction with JLA: Liberty and Justice, Alex painted the JLA as part of a new line of “collector plates.” You can see the finished image, and even the photos of the guys who posed for the figures, on p. 11. Above, we’ve chosen to reproduce Alex’s pencils for the plate. [©2003 DC Comics.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly 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 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 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

Just a League of Their Own As longtime readers will avow, we tend not to cover—or even mention—current comic books in Alter Ego. It’s not that we think there isn’t some “good product” (as they say) out there; we’re just generally not interested. We prefer to leave that sort of thing to other mags, some of which fall all over each other in their rush to publish the publishers’ (or worse yet, the writers’ or artists’) grandiose hype as if it were gospel. Still, when Walt Grogan contacted us about the possibility of his interviewing Alex Ross about the latter’s new giant-size JLA volume, we couldn’t resist. After all, Alex had been kind enough to let us utilize his Captain Marvel-related work in A/E V3#3 and #15, including covers. Even more importantly, however, he and writer Paul Dini were dealing with the 1960s-70s Justice League lineup. No Aquaman that looks like Captain Hook with a beard—no post-Hal Jordan Green Lantern or postBarry Allen Flash. And, best of all, since JLA: Liberty and Justice postulates a world in which Crisis on Infinite Earths never happened, or at least hasn’t happened yet—it’s Wonder Woman, not the jarring Black Canary, who’s shown helping the guys tackle Starro the Conqueror on our cover. Bravo, Alex! Naturally, we could hardly expect Mr. R. to do a brand new JLA painting for us, especially at our rates, but we happily opted for using an interior panel/painting that gives us a new angle on that first battle with the starfish from space. Happily, through Walt,

Alex (with DC’s permission and cooperation) also sent us plenty of penciled Ross art that won’t be seen in the tabloid-sized graphic novel— and even some amusing photo layouts of the models! Who wouldn’t give his eyeteeth (or at least a crusty molar) to play Justice Leaguer? What’s more, because Alex is such a fan of the Dick Dillin years on Justice League of America, he even arranged for Walt to interview that sadly-departed artist’s family, which is all the excuse we needed to run lots of original art we’ve had secreted in drawers. For the first time, you (and we) even get a look at never-published penciled Dillin pages of that final JLA/JSA team-up that he was working on at the time of his untimely passing, when George Pérez stepped into the breach. That art alone, to us, would justify the entire issue—but it’s really just the icing on a particularly tasty cake. Michelle Nolan and I have filled out the JLA coverage with some speculations on the creation of the JLA in 1959—while Michael T. Gilbert, Bill Schelly, and our ever-cavortin’ correspondents have a few things of non-JLA interest to say, as well. And you haven’t even turned the issue upside down yet! Bestest,

™

COMING IN DECEMBER NOW MONTHLY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE COMIC BOOK MASTERS! Plus—DICK AYERS & HARLAN ELLISON at MARVEL!

• Two colorful Christmas covers—FRED RAY (Superman, early 1940s), and a new Marvel-hero cover by Darlin’ DICK AYERS!

C Com

• It’s double dynamite when Timely/Marvel super-star DICK AYERS talks to both ROY THOMAS & JIM AMASH about his work in the 1950s & ’60s! (Need we add there’ll be mucho art by Dick and other Bullpen bigwigs?)

ics

• Science-fiction author HARLAN ELLISON’s Marvel Age Masterworks! The stories that spawned classic early ’70s epics of The Incredible Hulk and The Avengers—with rare art by RICH BUCKLER, SAL BUSCEMA, HERB TRIMPE, et al.! • “And Men Shall Call Him—PROTOTYPE!”—Part Two! Did STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, and STEVE DITKO give The X-Men, Dr. Strange, et al., sneak tryouts before they made their official debuts? Only TOM LAMMERS knows for sure! • Christmas cards from comics greats! JOE MANEELY, NICK CARDY, SHELLY MOLDOFF, MART NODELL, HARRY LAMPERT, & many more mirth-makers! • FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) with MARC SWAYZE, KURT SCHAFFENBERGER, etc.—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on horror comics’ “missing link”—and a Christmas stocking full of Yuletide surprises! Edited by ROY THOMAS

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!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.

TwoMorrows • 1812 Park Drive • Raleigh, NC 27605 USA • 919-833-8092 • FAX: 919-833-8023 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

Just a League of Their Own part one

Alex Ross at work in his studio. (Below:) One of the recent products of his labor: a pencil drawing of the Justice League in action for his new DC book JLA: Liberty and Justice. Photo courtesy of Alex Ross and Walt Grogan. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan [INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: In ten short years, Alex Ross has become a bona fide comic book legend. Bursting onto the comics scene with 1994’s Marvels (with writer Kurt Busiek), his vivid paintings retold the history of the early Marvel Universe, and his photo-realistic style had fans anxiously waiting for more. In 1996 Ross followed up his previous success with Kingdom Come, a post-modern take on DC’s seminal heroes and their offspring. With writer Mark Waid, Ross’ story was a thinly-veiled critique of the then-current comic book market. The story juxtaposed the values of the traditional heroes with that of a new breed of “heroes” they had inspired. Ross has also had a guiding hand in a series of stories from Marvel under the Earth X banner, as well as the Battle of the Planets series for Top

Cow. For the last five years Ross has collaborated with writer Paul Dini on a series of oversized tabloid-style comics featuring the greatest icons of the DC Universe: Superman: Peace on Earth, Batman: War on Crime, Shazam!: Power of Hope, and Wonder Woman: Spirit of Truth. As a coda to that series, Ross and Dini have re-imagined the Justice League for a new generation of readers in JLA: Liberty and Justice, a 96-page tabloid due on the stands November 19. —Walt.] This interview was conducted via telephone on August 5, 2003, and was copy-edited by Alex Ross.

Alex Ross

WALT GROGAN: What led you to the Liberty and Justice book? You had done the four icon books, and this one seems a departure from those. ALEX ROSS: Really, just excitement. We [Paul Dini and I] had been having such a good time with the books we were doing that the idea of a book with multiple characters in it was something we could really sink our teeth into—particularly the group we grew up with. These characters are the center of the super-hero universe—the longestrunning of all team books. We felt that it would be more captivating, more exciting than anything else we had done. It would be a Alex’s pencil sketch for a triptych series of covers for Wizard magazine, done to publicize the new book. payoff for everything. We’ve [©2003 DC Comics.] taken the time to establish this WG: So that’s what led you to use this particular set of characters, the sort of “Ross/Dini Corner of the DC Universe,” which to me is just “Barry Allen” Flash and the “Hal Jordan” Green Lantern, for re-establishing the universe that was, before DC rewrote it with Crisis instance? on Infinite Earths and everything that has followed since. I wish to create a pocket for fans like me who grew up with this form of enterROSS: It comes from what we grew up with. To my mind, the stuff in tainment. the ’70s was sort of finding everything in, arguably, a bit of a developmental paralysis. The characters who had been introduced in the mid’50s or early ’60s pretty much stayed the same during most of that time. So it’s kind of like a “Them were the good ol’ days” kind of attitude. The characters were all in their prime. Nobody had died yet; nobody had lost a wife or child, and these are the purest forms of those concepts. Also, the simple origins of the classic Silver Age versions are just that— they’re simple. They are heroes that add to the cultural mythos of DC and, frankly, to the cultural mythos of the world. They have 40 years among most of them. They’ve been around. They’ve been the standard. They’ve been replaced in only the last ten years, most of them, although it’s been a lot longer for Wally West (the current Flash). They’ve changed the backstory with Green Lantern and Aquaman. All those changes are only ten years old. And during those ten years, those changes have been the most hotly contested by fans like myself and others who have always felt like, “Why do we have these pure, unchanged classic icons (i.e., Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman) side-by-side with these guys who have been so radically reconfigured, so that we lose the sense of this legendary ensemble who were so timeless before?” WG: So, given your views on using the Silver Age icons, was there resistance to using these versions of the characters? ROSS: I thoroughly would have expected huge resistance, and there was none. We had our editors, Charlie Kochman and Joey Cavalieri, both feeling that they were given 100% encouragement that anything we would want to do like this would be warmly received. They also didn’t fight us at all on the fact that we still wanted it to be an over-sized book. For this final thing, it seemed a fitting send-off that we finish it with a great giant-size “Justice League” story that’s a third longer—96 pages— than the average book that we had done. I’m painting more characters than I did per book before—why let it be small? I’ll probably be back to comic-size with the next thing I do. WG: Your body of work for DC and Marvel takes place either in the past or the future. Do you consciously avoid working with the present day incarnations of the characters? Pencils for a Flash and Green Lantern poster done in conjunction with JLA: Liberty and Justice. The composition of the Flash figure is quite different here from the version in the released poster. [©2003 DC Comics.]

ROSS: You know what it must be? I would consider myself to be a big comics fan, and I like a lot of things that have happened in modern

Liberty & Justice

The birth of a page of JLA: Liberty and Justice—and incidentally of the cover of this issue of Alter Ego. (Left to right:) Alex starts with a super-tight thumbnail (which is reproduced here not much smaller than subsequent versions of the art). Based on that small sketch, he then does a full-size detailed pencil rendering of the panel/page (center). At this point, he photographs his models for use in the lighting of his final painting. At bottom right they have been inserted into the pencil rendering, just for fun. The models are, clockwise from upper left: Cory (Flash) Smith, Tony (Green Lantern) Vitale, Rhonda (Wonder Woman) Hampton, Chris (Aquaman) Fleming, and Alex (Martian Manhunter) Ross. Hey, maybe we should’ve used this version as our calamitous cover! [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

were as old as their legends were, there are kids who have grown up and become heroes in their own right (i.e., Dick Grayson as an adult Robin). It allows for this latitude as if all publishing were real continuity. All of that history was worthwhile.

Sort of like the point of John Byrne’s Generations book. You’re not supposed to ignore the fact that these characters had this long history. This philosophy doesn’t make it impossible to enjoy a lot of the new things that are done. I enjoy the contemporary JSA book—it’s something I like and read. I can enjoy Mark Waid’s Superman: Birthright series because I think it’s an extension of what they’ve done on the Smallville television series. Smallville makes the idea of a young Superman or a man who is not Superman yet in our modern day and age seem attractive and viable to me as a fan. And I don’t get up in arms that he doesn’t look enough like the classic Superman. At the end of the day, I’m much more interested in the spirit of these things. So I’m not completely inflexible about change.

times, but I’m very selective about it. I’ve been fatigued by the overwrought changes of the ’80s and ’90s that have happened to a lot of these mythologies. Because I view them as mythologies, thereby plugging my new book Mythology [an art-of-Alex Ross coffee table book designed by Chip Kidd with photography by Geoff Spear, published by Pantheon Books, out in stores now!] [laughs] You can screw up an icon if you make it unrecognizable. You may bump up the immediate sales of a book, and I’m not saying that should never be tried, but it’s risky to the character’s distinctiveness. For my first time spent with the DC characters, I moved directly to the future so I could pass that entire problem by and go to a time period where all those issues were past. I did a revision of Superman, focusing on his classic characteristics, while also doing a creative blend of history with a modern graphic approach. It was fun to play with, but in my mind and in my heart the characters I wanted to draw were the ones I grew up with and who also happened to look that same way for many years beforehand. I was born in 1970. At the time I was reading comics, the Justice League would have been around for fifteen years by the time I got my first issue. And some of these characters had been around for 20, 30, or 40 years before I came into contact with them. WG: Would the changes in mythology make it difficult to do something like a Justice Society book set in the 1940s? ROSS: Let’s say I had the opportunity to do a Justice Society book. I would need to embrace the JSA for what they were—the 1940s DC super-heroes, the first super-hero group. Most of that group had not been affected by crazy changes made in continuity. I would never have Wonder Woman called Queen Hippolyta. That’s not correct in terms of publishing or history; let’s not try to retroactively rewrite what happened to the world. In Kingdom Come, which could’ve been taken not as a story of the future but as a story of today where the characters

If DC hadn’t allowed me to use the classic versions of the Justice League, I might not have done it. A lot of these characters are still changing every year, and, in many cases, going back to what they had been before. So if you check forward five years into the future and you find the Justice League look like how they were painted in this graphic novel, then my views would have been prescient. If that turns out to be the case, then we will have created a product that stands the test of time. That’s something that’s very important to me. That’s why I don’t like drawing something that commits it to a particular period of time. And if people look at what I’m doing now as something of the past, that view is generally contained within the current comics readership. People outside of comics don’t know that Aquaman doesn’t look like that anymore. As it is, DC already cut his hair, and they’ve already given him back a hand of sorts. WG: And it looks like DC is going to give him his orange shirt again. ROSS: They’re giving him back the shirt!? WG: Anybody else we’re going to see in

Just a League of Their Own part two

REMEMBERING DICK DILLIN —“The Top Man In The Country!” The Family of DICK DILLIN Talk about Life with the Longest-ever Artist of Justice League and Blackhawk Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Walt Grogan [INTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Ask almost any longtime comics fan the name of the artist who drew Justice League of America and you’ll probably get Mike Sekowsky’s name in return. While certainly Sekowsky was synonymous with the JLA in its early years, I consider Dick Dillin the League’s defining artist. Dillin’s run as penciler on a single super-team title has yet to be matched— with 115 consecutive issues to his credit (his only break being the pre-planned reprint issues #67, 76, 85, and 93). His JLA output spanned twelve years, starting with #64 (Aug. 1968) and ending with #183 (Oct. 1980) at the time of his death. Before George Pérez became known as the super-group artist, Dillin was the reigning king, often drawing dozens of characters pitted against one another in the JLA/JSA annual team-ups. [If you grew up with Dick Dillin’s run on Justice League, you were treated to many a fine JLA/JSA team-up and were often introduced to a number of long-forgotten super-heroes, some of whom hadn’t seen the light of day in decades. He had the uncanny ability to weave these time-lost heroes into a modern-day story without any of them seeming out of place. He also handled the artwork on many of the JLA’s defining moments, such as: the introduction of a new Red Tornado (#64, Aug. 1968)... the return of the Seven Soldiers of Victory (#100-102, Aug.-Oct. 1972)... the second coming of many Quality Comics heroes (#107-108, Sept.-Dec. 1973)... Superman and the JLA meet the Fawcett Marvel Family (#135-137, Oct.-Dec. 1976)... “No Man Escapes the Manhunter!” and its sequel (#140-141, March-April 1977)... a 1950s proto-JLA (#144, July 1977)... a JLA/JSA/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover (#147-148, Oct.-Nov. 1977)... an assemblage of DC heroes of yesteryear (#159-160, Oct.-Nov. 1978)... the murder of Mr. Terrific (#171-172, Oct.-Nov. 1979)... and “Crisis on New Genesis,” the first chapter of a 3-part JLA/JLA/New Gods crossover (#183, Oct. 1980). Great moments... and we recall them all as they were seen and depicted by Dick Dillin.

Dick Dillin worked at the same drawing table for his entire professional career, so it’s highly likely that this unique cover art for The Amazing World of DC Comics #14 (March 1977) was composed there, as well. Why “unique”? Because it seems to have been reproduced (and even colored) from a signed Dillin pencil—one of the only uninked samples of his artwork known to exist. (Even if he did ink it with pen, it’s still unique, because Dick virtually never inked his own work!) All photos and much of the art reproduced with this article were provided by Walt Grogan and the Dillin family. [Art ©2003 DC Comics.]

[Dick Dillin’s wife Estella, their son Richard, Jr., and their daughters Leslie and Terry were kind enough to participate in a joint interview on August 17, 2003, about this remarkable artist they all loved. Special thanks to Dillin fan supreme Alex Ross for setting up this one-of-a-kind interview. —Walt.] WALT GROGAN: When was Dick born? MRS. ESTELLA DILLIN: December 17, 1929, in Watertown, NY. WG: And when did he pass away? MRS. DILLIN: March 1, 1980. WG: Where did he go to school? MRS. DILLIN: Watertown High School. And he went, as a special art student, to Syracuse University. He went to Syracuse after his tour of duty in the service, on the G.I. Bill.

“The Top Man In The Country!”

which is the beginning of the Hudson Highlands. All of a sudden it gets mountainous and very picturesque. That’s where I was raised and that’s where the family was for years. It was a nice little river town back then. Nowadays, it’s quite different. WG: Mrs. Dillin, how long had you been married before he switched jobs? MRS. DILLIN: Probably about four or five years. WG: So you knew about his love of art all along. The Dillin family members who participated in this interview. (Left to right:) Richard Dillin, Jr.... Leslie (Dillin) Battista... Estella Dillin... and Terry (Dillin) Doscher.

MRS. DILLIN: [laughing] Oh, definitely. Him and a couple of his friends who were artists.

RICHARD DILLIN, JR.: When he went as a special student to Syracuse, he was a special fine arts student and all he did was studio work.

WG: When did Dick get started drawing comics?

MRS. DILLIN: And he was on the Dean’s List. Every quarter he was there.

RICHARD: When he was very, very young. He knew what he wanted to be.

RICHARD: That’s where he got so good at anatomy, and why he didn’t like to draw animals. They didn’t bring too many animals to class. [laughs]

WG: Really? So he knew he wanted to be a comic book artist?

WG: Where was he stationed while he was in the service?

MRS. DILLIN: Yes. When he was a kid, he tried to copy Hal Foster and some of the Sunday comics—and always the action ones with a lot in them.

RICHARD: In Okinawa. WG: Mrs. Dillin, when did you get married and how many children do you have? MRS. DILLIN: We were married in 1948 and we have three children, a son and two daughters: Richard, Leslie, and Terry. WG: Were you and Dick already married when he started looking for work in comics? MRS. DILLIN: He was working at this air brake company in Watertown, where they make air brakes for trains, and he came home one night and said to me, “I quit and I’m going to New York to look for art jobs.” I said, “Good.” Then he said, “I didn’t really quit, I wanted to see what you’d say.” [laughs] The next day I went out and got a job, and a couple of days after that he left for New York. He knew a man that had a little studio in New York, so he helped my husband at first, when he got a job, gave him a place to work. And about six months later, the kids and I moved down. RICHARD: He used to love the Hudson River Valley. When he first left Watertown to walk the streets of New York to find work, he got on the train and was looking for a place to live and came up to Peekskill, Portrait of Dick Dillin, taken while he was in military service—and a photo of “Dick and his best friend Delos Barney, a great artist in his own right, back from Japan in 1948. They were born side-by-side in Watertown.”

WG: So did he have a desire to become a comic strip artist, or was he interested in becoming a comic book artist?

Rich Dillin (Richard Dillin, Jr.) says of this photo of Dick’s sister Ruth, his mother Hazel, and young Dick holding a Hal Foster Prince Valiant page he had copied: “He wanted to be a comic book illustrator from the time he could first look at the funny papers. He drew constantly, copying the greats and developing his own style. I always considered him to be among the few people in the world who knew their goal at a very young age and accomplished it. I had never seen the picture before. I think he might have been a child prodigy. He worked at home and was there all through my childhood.”

MRS. DILLIN: Always comic books. RICHARD: As a matter of fact, he used to copy stuff from the time when he was a kid. He saved money from delivering groceries, when he was a kid, and he bought his first drawing board. He had that drawing board his whole life through. When the kids were home, he used to have the drawing board in the master bedroom, and when we moved out, he finally got his own room and I still have it in my master bedroom today—the very same drawing board. WG: What a treasure! What comic book titles did he work on? MRS. DILLIN: He worked on a lot of them at Quality Comics. Blackhawk was the main one; there were a lot of little ones that you never heard of. WG: So what happened when Quality closed up shop? MRS. DILLIN: We went up to Watertown

Remembering Dick Dillin

A Dick Dillin Checklist [NOTE: A/E editor emeritus Jerry G. Bails has kindly provided the following list of Dick Dillin’s credits from his online Who’s Who in Twentieth-Century American Comic Books, which can be accessed via the Grand Comic Book Database at www.comics.org; see the GCD’s ad elsewhere in this issue. Some of the following information was provided by Dillin himself via questionnaire:]

DICK DILLIN (1928-1980) — Artist Full name: Richard Allen Dillin.

Challengers of the Unknown

Superman Jr. and Batman Jr.

Education: Carlos Academy (New York state); Syracuse University.

Fabulous World of Krypton

Superman team-ups

Green Arrow

Terra-Man

Influences: Milt Caniff, Hal Foster, Alex Raymond.

Green Lantern

The Unexpected

Hawkman

Whatever Happened to Hourman?

Animation storyboards: [Trans-Lux/Joe Oriolo] Johnny Zero, c. 1962; Mighty Hercules, 1963; Johnny Cypher in Dimension Zero, 1967.

House of Secrets

The Witching Hour

Judge Gallows

Wonder Woman

Kid Flash

Comics Feature Credits (all as penciler unless otherwise indicated):

Buzz Bennett

Private Life of Clark Kent

Space Rangers

Charlton Comics (1955):

Seven Soldiers of Victory

Lance O’Casey (artist)

Superman and Batman

Justice League of America

Robin

Fiction House (1951-53):

Grosset & Dunlap (Tempo Books) (1977) Quality Comics (1952-56): Blackhawk

DC Comics (1957-1980): Aquaman

G.I. Combat

The Atom

horror

Batman

Love Confessions

Blackhawk

Love Secrets He was like, “Let me shake your hand.” He went on and on and on. Of course, it was after my father died, so when I left, I went out to my car and sat and cried. But it’s so nice to know that his work is so appreciated. MRS. DILLIN: We were a very close family. We all miss him desperately. My children are all thrilled that he is remembered so well after 23 years. Not that many people get that praise after 23 years. That pleases us all. To close, we’ll let Dick flank his artwork this time! These circa-1980 photos of him in front of his home in Peekskill, NY (at left), and visiting Watertown (right) serve as book-ends to his cover for his very first Justice League of America issue, #73 (Aug. 1969), which introduced a new Red Tornado into the DC Universe. Repro’d from photocopies of the black-&-white art. [©2003 DC Comics.]

LESLIE: I always felt that, for us kids, he kinda spoiled it for us because he was so fortunate to do exactly what he loved to do and exactly what he always wanted to do. That’s what we all aspire to—how lucky can you get?

Just a League of Their Own part three

How Green Was My Martian by Michelle Nolan [EDITOR’S INTRO: While preparing this issue’s coverage of the early Justice League of America, I—that’s A/E editor Roy Thomas— got to musing about various oddities and anomalies of the first story or three of that all-important super-hero group: [Why Superman and Batman were used so sparingly in early issues. (This, at least, we could almost guess at the time, and the truth has

Why was J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars, rather than Green Arrow, selected as the “seventh” member of the first version of the Justice League of America? Why a six-page backup character from Detective Comics, one who didn’t really start out as a super-hero or costumed character, at least in the traditional sense? Why not a much longer-running, full-fledged costumed hero (albeit also a backup)—the non-super-powered Green Arrow, who was nearly two decades old when the JLA debuted in 1960? And yet—why not the Martian Manhunter? As someone who watched with considerable curiosity as that hero developed during the 1955-59 period, I remember being enthused over seeing the greenskinned J’onn J’onzz (as he was almost invariably called in the early “JLA” stories, with the term “Martian Manhunter” becoming common usage only some time later) in the original group lineup. Of course, it didn’t take Green Arrow long to catch up, since the Emerald Archer joined the group in Justice League of America #4, the

been confirmed since. DC, or at least those two heroes’ respective editors, feared that they might seem over-used.) [As long as we were picking nits, I even pondered the fact that Aquaman’s gloves are colored yellow in the first “JLA” tale, just as they had been for the preceding two decades—then suddenly become green in both the second “JLA” tale and in solo “Aquaman” stories from then on. (Coincidence? Probably. Still, one may wonder if perhaps the “JLA” colorist didn’t make a minor error—and Aquaman’s guiding editor didn’t decide he liked that hue better, after all.) [Then came the biggie: Why was Green Arrow, who after all had debuted in the very same issue of More Fun Comics in 1941 that Aquaman had, left out of the JLA for its first half dozen adventures, in favor of a minor player like J’onn J’onzz, Manhunter from Mars, who had never been a cover feature as G.A. had? Was it only because the Martian had super-powers while Green Arrow was basically Batman with a bow? And, most intriguingly of all—was it mere coincidence that, in his solo series in Detective Comics, J’onn J’onzz had only become visible to Earthlings a very short time before The Brave and the Bold #28 introduced the Justice League of America to the waiting world? [Michelle Nolan and I were kicking these and other thoughts around on the phone one night, and she volunteered to write an article about “John Jones—Manhunter from Mars”—which turns out to be a far more interesting and innovative series than I had given it credit for. —Roy.]

(Left:) J’onn J’onzz was a far grimmer, more Spectre-like character when he first appeared in Detective Comics #225 (Nov. 1955) with his prominent brow and stern demeanor; later he was often drawn as just a smiling green Martian. This debut story was most recently reprinted in the 1998 Replica Edition of the first Secret Origins special, from 1961. Pencils by Joe Certa. (Right:) Artist Tom Mandrake, artist of a recent long-running Spectre series, restored the grim visage in this pencil-and-ink sketch, done for collector Mike Zeno and used by permission of both Tom and Mike. Visit Tom’s website at <www.tommandrake.com>. [Detective #225 art ©2003 DC Comics; sketch ©2003 Tom Mandrake; Martian Manhunter TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

Comic Crypt No 25 (left): Gary also published art by his underground comic pals––including this gory illo by the late great Roger Brand, who helped edit The Nickel Library. During the 1960s, Roger assisted both Wally Wood and Gil Kane. In addition to his underground comix work, Roger also wrote and drew a number of stories for James Warren’s Creepy and Bill Pearson’s witzend magazine.

No. 18 (below): This illo is by underground cartoonists Simon Deitch and the late Rory Hayes. Spooky, huh?

That’s it for now, gang! Hope you enjoyed our trip down memory lane, courtesy of “Groovy” Gary Arlington and “Hairy” Larry Rippee. Our sincere thanks to both—and to wife Janet, for her proofreading expertise!

Next issue: Did you know there were two black-&-white horror mags years before Warren’s Creepy and Eerie? If not, you will—next issue! Join us as we track down “Horror’s Missing Link!” Brrr!!! Till next time,

Title Comic Fandom Archive

A Visit with OTTO BINDER Brilliant Writer of SF and Comic Books An Excerpt from the Book Words of Wonder: The Life and Times of Otto Binder by Bill Schelly Few comic book writers have contributed more to the medium than Otto Oscar Binder (1911-1974), author of over half of all strips featuring Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family for Fawcett Publications. In the course of writing an estimated 3000 comic book scripts between 1940 and 1970, he worked for nearly every publishing house, including Timely, EC, Dell, Quality and Warren. Binder wrote stories for Captain America, Blackhawk, Sub-Mariner, Black Hood, Uncle Sam, and literally dozens of other character in the Golden Age of Comics. After Fawcett ceased publishing comic books in 1953, Binder moved over to DC to become the principal writer of the Superman family of titles through the end of the 1950s, despite a stormy relationship with irascible editor Mort Weisinger. Binder launched both Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen in their own books, and cocreated Supergirl, Krypto, The Legion of Super-Heroes, Brainiac, Kandor, Lucy Lane, the Superman Emergency Squad, and Jimmy Olsen’s signal watch. He also wrote the first Bizarro story in comic books. In 1969, largely in response to the death of his 14-year-old daughter Mary, Otto and his wife Ione moved from “the house that Captain Marvel built” in New Jersey to a considerably more modest abode in the Adirondack mountains, completely turning his back on the comic book field. As a result, little has generally been known of the man in his final years—until now.

legendary science-fiction and comic book writer. The ringleader of the group was Tom Fagan, the man who had brought the costumed heroes to Rutland for the annual Halloween parade. Tom was a writer too, having penned some remarkably well-written articles and fiction pieces for Alter Ego, Batmania, and Comic Crusader. He had already met Otto, having been in the bar of the Hotel Broadway Central to listen as Binder and Bill Finger drank cocktails and were interviewed by a clueless reporter from The New Yorker magazine for an article (which eventually appeared a week or two later). Otto’s appearance had changed since then. He now wore a mustache, and his complexion was more noticeably red. He had also grown a substantial potbelly. All those years of sedentary activity had had their effect. But his welcome was hearty, and his eyes twinkled as he shook their hands. The second member of the fan contingent was J. Randolph Cox, known to his friends as Randy, and nicknamed Steed by Fagan (after The Avengers television show). Cox was not particularly a comics fan; his interest was in researching the history of the famous publishers of The Shadow, Street and Smith. He had heard that Otto had written for them, and hoped he might glean some information on that subject. He, like Fagan, had hoped to meet with Jack as well as Otto, for he thought Jack might have retained records of the accounts he had had with Street and Smith as the owner of a comic book production shop in the early 1940s.

The cover of Bill Schelly’s spanking-new, just-published biography Words of Wonder, featuring Bill’s cover portrait of Otto Binder, plus hero art by Jerry Ordway. [Art ©2003 the respective artists; heroes TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

A year before he passed away, Otto Binder was visited by a contingent of admirers from comic fandom— not an unusual occurrence in itself, for he received visits from a few other fans in the months before and after. But what was different in this case was the fact that virtually the entire visit was taperecorded… and those long-lost tapes have been found! This account, and the quotes found within it, are the result of a distillation of some of the material on those tapes, as well as interviews conducted recently with the three participants. On October 29, 1973, three travelers arrived at Otto Binder’s modest colonial-style home on Friend’s Lake Road just outside Chestertown, New York. They had driven over from Rutland, Vermont, to visit the

The third member of the group, more or less in the category of “hanger-on,” was a dark-haired 16-year-old who dreamed some day of drawing comics himself. Clearly he was hoping to learn something from the old seasoned pro. His name was Frank Miller.

Frank (now famed as the writer/artist of The Dark Knight Returns, Daredevil, and other comics) recently recalled: “Back then, I lived in farmland, a few miles from Montpelier, Vermont, where I was raised. I’d gotten word about an annual comic book Halloween parade in Rutland, Vermont, run by Tom Fagan. Tom was very generous with his time, letting me tag along as he put the show together and managed it. I’d known since I was six years old that I was going to make comic books for the rest of my life. This was my first chance to actually mix with other people who shared the passion.” The trip to Chestertown was another chance for Miller to pal around with Fagan, as well as meet a comics legend.

Title writer/editorial

Three Cheers for the Blue, White, and Red! The first and longest piece on this side, my good friend Jean-Marc Lofficier’s masterful and extensive survey of 150 years of French masked and/or costumed heroes and villains (with emphasis on the 1940s through the 1980s), has been collecting dust on the shelf for ’way too long! At my suggestion, Jean-Marc wrote it soon after he did an article for A/E V3#1 about a two-part “Silver Surfer” story that was specially written and drawn for a French comic book circa 1980. However, because I knew his opus would require so much space, I kept delaying it, and delaying it, till finally he had to update it—because by now he’s writing and editing new stories starring the selfsame Golden/Silver Age characters he had examined more than three years ago! What prompted me to decide at last that, by Crom, I was going to print it this month, come hell or high water, is the happy happenstance that Jean-Marc and I, who have co-written several comics stories for Marvel and DC since the 1980s, are scheduled to share the stage at a symposium on French and American comic books on November 19 at the University of South Carolina, just an hour from where Dann and I live; he and wife/collaborator Randy will lecture on French comics the day before. They are being flown in from L.A. by an amalgamation of organizations connected to USC; it’ll be the first time they’ve had a chance to visit us since we moved East in December 1991, though of course we’ve gotten together in Southern California several times since then. Thanks to another good friend, Dr. Freeman Henry, professor of

French literature at USC, for making it all happen! I hope and trust you will be as astonished and delighted by all JeanMarc’s revelations, both in text and art, as I was. The pictorial panorama that follows was only hinted at by the old 1960s-80s comics he showed me at his parents’ apartment in Paris in spring of 1992. Now I’ve gotta find the space to run Fred Patten’s great coverage of 1960s Mexican comics—which has been gathering dust on the shelf even longer! In addition, this issue, Jim Amash interviews two little-known but fascinating and knowledgeable gents who wrote scripts for the legendary Joe Simon and Jack Kirby team, among others, back in the 1950s—Alex Toth comments on storytelling in comics—and our fabulous FCA section showcases Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck, and the animated Shazam! TV series of the early 1980s. We’ve got a century and a half of comics and adventure lined up in the next 50 pages—and all you have to do is start reading on the facing page...! Bestest,

Who is this costumed super-hero who speaks perfect French? Why did his success pave the way for a censorship law in France, more than half a century ago? How come he looks like he swiped the Golden Age Hour-Man’s costume out of the laundromat? Find out answers to two of these three questions, at least, on p. 7. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

Blue (Hawk), Whie (Archer), Red (Mask)

Blue (Hawk), White (Archer), Red (Mask): An Historical Overview of French Super-Heroes by Jean-Marc Lofficier

[Unless noted, all art accompanying this article has been provided by the author.]

In the Beginning: Rocambole

The first French super-hero ever was Rocambole, the creation of writer Pierre-Alexis Ponson du Terrail. The saga of Rocamabole, ou Les Drames de The French Tricolor flag came to life in some of that nation’s greatest Paris [The Dramas of Paris] was heroes and villains. L’Epervier Bleu (The Blue Hawk) battled pirates of the stratosphere—Jean-Yves Mitton’s L’Archer Blanc (The White initially serialized in chapters Archer) was a manhunter with a bow and arrow, and Masque A new universe? A new publisher? which appeared in the pages of Rouge (Red Mask) apparently conducted of his dirty work in the daily Parisian newspaper Le No, just some of the names of superpre-World War I skies. [L’Epervier Bleu art ©2003 Sirius/Dupuis; Matin, and was later collected in heroes that have appeared in the pages of other art ©2003 the respective copyright holders.] approximately a dozen volumes, French comic books and pulp magazines published between 1857 and 1870. since the 1940s, following a pulp literary tradition that began in the The last serial was, in fact, left uncompleted due to the untimely death of 1850s! This article will provide an historical overview of some of the its author. best-known or most interesting of them, as well as the publishing context in which they evolved. Rocambole, whose origins remained shrouded in mystery, was an adventurer who did good, but was often on the wrong side of the law, like Leslie Charteris’ Saint. Foreshadowing Doc Savage, Rocambole Before the medium of comics (in French, “bandes dessinées”) was gathered around him a group of trusted assistants, selected from various invented by Swiss writer-cartoonist Rodolphe Töpffer (whose first slices of society. And, like The Shadow, Rocambole had mastered the graphic story, Histoire de M. Vieuxboix [The Story of Mr. Vieuxbois], famed skills of the Orient and inherited the secrets of an ancient Tibetan was published in Geneva in 1827), super-heroes were to be found, in civilization. He was more than a mere man; his ability to escape from France as in America, in popular literature serials published first in daily any kind of deadly trap led to the French coining the adjective “rocamnewspapers—hence the label “roman feuilleton,” feuille (leaf) being a bolesque” to label any kind of fantastic, outrageous adventure. term for a newspaper page—before being collected in what we would The amazing Rocambole. The elusive Fantômas. The Nyctalope. Mad Doctor Cornelius. Judex. Fantax. Satanax. Salvator. Zembla. Wampus. Photonik. Homicron.

recognize as “pulps.” As is the case today, there was a distinction between those forms of popular entertainment and more highbrow literary works with more respectable cultural aspirations.

Rocambole’s sometimes lover, sometimes rival, was the beautiful Baccarat, a former courtesan who was a fearless shooter, rider, and swordswoman. Baccarat is perhaps the first modern female super-hero in the history of pulp literature. Rocambole’s arch-enemy was his former master, the satanic Sir Williams, who, like Doctor Doom, had a sense of

Kim Aamodt

Ghost Writers In The Sky JIM AMASH Talks with KIM AAMODT and WALTER GEIER —Two Genial Gents Who Wrote for Simon & Kirby during the Golden Age I. KIM AAMODT: “It Was Fun While I Did It!” [INTERVIEWER’S INTRO: Kim Aamodt’s comic book career was brief but fascinating. He wrote for the fabled team of Joe Simon & Jack Kirby, as well directly for several comics companies. Alex Toth, known for being a shrewd judge of talent, has publicly praised Aamodt’s romance scripts on several occasions. A victim of Dr. Fredric Wertham’s crusade against comic books in the 1950s, Kim tells us how he worked his way out of the morass into another field of work. —Jim.] JIM AMASH: Where and when were you born?

(Above:) Believe it or not—Kim Aamodt’s passport photo taken May 3, 2003! Courtesy of K.A. (Right:) The Simon & Kirby splash for a story in Black Magic #6 (Aug.-Sept. 1951)—which may or may not have been one of those Kim wrote. [©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

KIM AAMODT: I was born in North Dakota. Jack Benny, Skeezix Wallet, Hugh Downs, and I share the same birthday, February 14. I’m Jack Benny’s age: 39. [laughs] I hate to say this, but I was almost named Valentine. My mother interfered and said, “I like Dr. Kimball and I like his name, so that’s what it’s going to be.” My full name is Kimball Ellsworth Aamodt. I don’t like that middle name, either. I was named after two grandfathers, Knute and Evan. That’s the way things were in those days. JA: What got you interested in writing?

AAMODT: A teacher of mine (I don’t remember what grade I was in) said, “We’re going to study Edgar Allan Poe next week. Can you do better?” I said, “Yeah.” I wrote a story and she said, “It’s pretty good, Kimball, but it’s not better than Mr. Poe.” I started writing stories for pulp magazines and got a pile of rejection letters. I was eleven or twelve years old Kimball (“Kim”) Aamodt as a U.S. Navy pilot during then. Later, when World War II, “a couple of years before embarking on I got into college, the adventure of writing comics.” Courtesy of K.A.

I discovered literature. I’d always been a big reader, but it’d always been soft stuff. JA: Where did you go to college? AAMODT: I went to Hamlin in St. Paul, Minnesota, for a couple of years. Then I flew in the Navy for four years, 1942 to 1946. I was a flight instructor and that hurt, because I wanted to spill my blood, you know. When I finally got my orders for sea duty, they were planning for the invasion of Japan, and needed a lot of hospital ships. They sent me around for training on various planes. I flew as a co-pilot on big four engine planes. Then I volunteered for a new group for medical transport because we were told about the invasion. They didn’t tell us much, but we knew it was coming and they needed people to transport the wounded. They stationed me in Guam, which was probably the best thing that happened to me, because I’d have probably gotten killed if I’d gone on a big carrier. Some of my buddies did get killed. When I got out, I finished up my schooling at New York University and took a graduate year. I found a great teacher in college, and after that, I couldn’t care less about writing for the sake of writing. I wanted to write literature. Or try.

Ghost Writers In The Sky

When I got to New York, I did write a couple of short stories. One of them was published by Chicken Farming magazine, which was an organ for chicken farming in upstate New York. I had sent that story to Collier’s magazine, and the editor sent me a nice handwritten rejection slip. He said, “Any time you want to submit, submit to me.” I was very pleased, but I thought that anybody could do this. It was just commercial writing. I wasn’t interested in keeping this up. I finally went back to North Dakota for six months in 1950 and wrote my novel, which was never published. All writers have a novel. When I finished, my buddy Walter Geier [pronounced “Guyer”] called me up and said, “Come to New York and write comic books. The money grows on trees!” Walter was writing for Simon & Kirby at the time. We met on campus at N.Y.U. Well, I took the next train to New York, and I’m still waiting to find that money on the trees. JA: I’ve never heard of Walter Geier. You know, Jack and Joe always said they wrote most of their stories, but I know they had some people, like Jack Oleck, writing for them. AAMODT: Well, Simon and Kirby wrote the plots. They sat there and wrote them, and that’s what we followed. They were the only people who ever gave me plots. I had to submit plot ideas to everyone else. I’d send in a dozen and they’d say, “We’ll take six.” Then I’d go home and write.

Kim says he wrote “Black Magic and romance stories” for Simon & Kirby, but so far it’s proved impossible to ascertain which tales he did of each—so here are a couple of possibilities from that period. The Black Magic splash is from #28 (Jan-Feb. 1954)—while “Back Door Love,” from Young Romance, Vol. 3, #3 (1949), was reprinted in the 1988 volume Real Love: The Best of the Simon and Kirby Romance Comics: 1940s—1950s, edited by Richard Howell for Eclipse Books. [Art ©2003 Joe Simon & Estate of Jack Kirby.]

JA: So you fleshed out the plots and wrote dialogue for Simon & Kirby? AAMODT: Yeah. And sometimes Walter and I would be sitting with them in a little anteroom that was their office. They’d be in there smoking big cigars, facing each other. It looked like two fireflies mating. [mutual laughter] Cigar smoke covered the room and it was hilarious to watch them, because they ignited each other and developed a story between them. Then they’d say, “That’s the story, kids.” Jack did more of the plotting than Joe. Jack’s face looked so energized when he was plotting that it seemed as if sparks were flying from him. They’d say, “Do a five-pager on this, or a six-pager on that.” If the artist was really good, I might make a small suggestion about the art. If the guy was awful, I’d write more detail into the story. JA: What did you write for them? AAMODT: Black Magic and romance stories. JA: Great! I’d like to be able to give you credit for what you did. AAMODT: We never got credit for what we wrote there. In fact, we had to sign a paper that gave Simon & Kirby all the rights. I think we got a dollar each time we did that.

As seen in The Jack Kirby Collector #25, here is the Simon & Kirby shop circa 1949, a couple of years before Kim worked for the team. (L. to r., standing:) Jack Kirby, Joe Simon, Bill Draut, Marvin Stein. Seated: letterer Ben Oda.

Anyway, it was hard for me to plot, so I spent many an indecent hour trying to come up with a decent plot. This story was for one outfit: a composer had run out of ideas and he sold his soul to the Devil, but

Alter Ego #30