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TWO AMAZING MEN!

BILL EVERETT LEW GLANZMAN ON ATLANTEANS, SHARKS, & FINS! PLUS: PLUS:

Art ©2005 ©2005 Marie Marie Severin Severin & & Estate Estate of of Bill Bill Art Everett; Sub-Mariner, Sub-Mariner, Venus, Venus, & & Fin Fin TM TM & & Everett; ©2005 Marvel Marvel Characters, Characters, Inc. Inc. Other Other characcharac©2005 ters TM TM & & ©2005 ©2005 the the respective respective trademark trademark & & ters copyright holders. holders. copyright

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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

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!

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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!

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KIRBY COLLECTOR #59

BRICKJOURNAL #17

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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!

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Vol. 3, No. 46 / March 2005

™

Editor

Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout

Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

Contents

FCA Editor

P.C. Hamerlinck

Writer/Editorial: “Read Alter-Ego –––Or Else!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Everett on Everett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editors Emeritus

The great Bill Everett interviewed by Roy Thomas in 1969-70, from A/E V1#11.

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

Production Assistant

Eric Nolen-Weathington

Cover Artists Bill Everett & Marie Severin

Cover Colorist

E. Nelson Bridwell on monsters as comic book super-heroes, from A/E V1#7.

The Birth of Alter-Ego. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Bill Schelly details the 1961 creation of the first super-hero comics fanzine.

“I Wanted To Be An Artiste!”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Golden Age artist Lew Glanzman—an “Amazing Man” interviewed by Jim Amash.

Comic Crypt: Warren Confidential: Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Tom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Richard Arndt Michael Baulderstone Bob Beerbohm Mrs. Peggy Broome Susan Burgos John Coates Russ Cochran Lynda Fox Cohen Ray A. Cuthbert Teresa R. Davidson Al Dellinges Tim Doyle Mark Evanier Wendy Everett Shane Foley Carl Gafford Janet Gilbert Lew Glanzman Sam Glanzman Scott Goodell Ron Goulart Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Wally Harrington Greg Huneryager

The Tragic Monster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Glen D. Johnson Robert Justice Sam Kujava Robert Knuist Joe Latino Mark Lewis Herb Lichtenstein Jean-Marc Lofficier Don Mangus Matt Moring Brian K. Morris Mark Muller Bill Pearson Alvin Schwartz John Selegue Marie Severin David Siegel Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Maggie Thompson Alex Toth Hames Ware Tom Watkins Robert Wiener Marv Wolfman Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Jeff Youngquist Michael Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memories of

Bill Everett, E. Nelson Bridwell, Bob Haney, & Irwin Donenfeld

Michael T. Gilbert on future pros’ fan art in Creepy, Eerie, and Vampirella.

Tributes To Bob Haney & Irwin Donenfeld . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 “Blood Was In Both My Eyes” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Alex Toth on his fabled 1952 face-off with Julie Schwartz.

re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70 FCA (Fawcett Collector Of America) #105 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Marc Swayze—and Otto Binder’s unused 1953 Marvel Family/Captain Marvel stories.

About Our Cover: Because the cover of A/E (Vol. 1) #10 had worked out so well in 1969-70, with its wonderful caricature of Gil Kane drawn by Marie Severin, surrounded by a frame of figures done by Gil himself, I decided to continue that style of cover for #11, which was originally slated to come out in 1970. Accordingly, I prevailed upon Mirthful Marie to visually skewer Bill Everett this time, which of course she did beautifully. Bill then framed that art with several of his most famous heroes: Sub-Mariner, The Fin, Hydroman, Venus, Amazing-Man, and Bull’s-Eye Bill (from Novelty’s Target Comics). I’ve kicked myself ever since for not asking him to add Marvel Boy—and even Daredevil. Whether it was Bill or Marie who touched up the caricature a bit, putting Bill in a black sweater and only using part of the drawing, I don’t know to this day; but the cover was a masterpiece, all the same. (And Marie’s entire caricature saw print in A/E V3#3.) Unfortunately, as I got ever busier writing and editing for Marvel, A/E #11 was long delayed… until in 1978 Mike Friedrich, friend, fellow writer, and now alternativecomics publisher, volunteered to take over publication. As co-editors, we utilized the Severin/Everett cover. Still, I’ve always wanted to see it printed in full color, rather than the green-and-white of ’78—and we know that all things come to him who waits, especially if he takes up editing the same mag again, after more than two decades. Thanks to Ron Goulart for advice on coloring Bull’s-Eye Bill. [Art ©2005 Marie Severin & Estate of Bill Everett; Sub-Mariner, The Fin, Venus, & (now) Hydroman TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other characters TM & ©2005 the respective trademark and copyright holders.] Above: Marie Severin drew a mean Sub-Mariner herself in 1969-70. Here’s a 2002 cartoon she drew for collector Michael Zeno, to explain why she hadn’t done a Sub-Mariner sketch for him yet. [©2005 Marie Severin; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. 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

“Read Alter-Ego––Or Else!”

ith the above words lettered on a placard held aloft by the ever-lovin’ blue-eyed Thing in a 1962 drawing by none other than Jack Kirby, the wondrous world of pro comics met the wacky world of super-hero comics fanzines.

For, that illo—done unasked for Jerry Bails’ Alter-Ego (Vol. 1) #4, and reproduced (though hardly for the first time) on page 36 of this issue—became the very first artwork created by a professional especially for any of the burgeoning new fanzines which were emerging in the early 1960s. A/E was lucky—it started right off with the King! It was 44 years ago this month—late March of 1961—that the first slim, spirit-duplicator-produced issue of the hyphenated Alter-Ego was released to the tender mercies of the US Post Office by Jerry, up in Detroit. As his official (but undeservingly titled) co-editor, I knew the ’zine to which I’d contributed art and articles was coming in the mail, and I was on pins and needles till it arrived safely. It seemed to me like the most beautiful and precious thing I’d seen since the vintage days of Kubert, Toth, Infantino, and Hasen drawing All-Star Comics, or Simon and Kirby doing Fighting American. That initial issue of A/E had a pro guardian angel, too—none other than DC editor Julius Schwartz, who from the very beginning sent Jerry news of upcoming issues of The Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League of America, et al. A/E V1#1 even contained a code message which announced the forthcoming new “Atom” in Showcase. Alter Ego has come a long way since those days, of course—as was seen by those who bought the 1997 trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine which Bill Schelly and I coedited for his Hamster Press. The Everett interview appeared therein,

Everyone deserves a

Golden Age!

plus other historic items—but not everything we deemed worthy of reprinting for a latter-day audience. Several items were dropped only because they were too long (such as the majority of Fred Patten’s article on 1965 Mexican comics, which was finally reprinted in full in issue #43)—while others barely lost out to other choices. Thus, to celebrate this 44th anniversary, I decided to reprint a few goodies from the eleven issues of Volume 1. Oh, I had such grandiose plans for what I was going to squeeze into this issue! But then reality asserted itself. In order to do justice, at long last, to my interview with Bill, I realized I’d only have room for one or two other items—plus a chapter from Bill Schelly’s 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, which relates the story of “The Birth of Alter-Ego.” So I settled for an illustrated reprinting (in FCA, with the blessing and help of P.C. Hamerlinck) of Otto Binder’s last 1953 synopses for unpublished adventures of “The Marvel Family” and “Captain Marvel”—something scheduled originally for A/E V1#8 but which didn’t quite make it then—plus an article from 1964’s A/E V1#7 by the late E. Nelson Bridwell, who was probably the very first letter-writing fan ever to get a professional job in comic books. Both these pieces, like the Everett interview, are far more profusely illustrated than they were the first time around… so, in a sense, this is the 1961-78 Alter Ego, Vol. 1, the way we’d have liked to do it. Several things planned for this issue had to be cut, to bide their time for another day: a short piece by Len Darvin, the attorney who oversaw the Comics Code Authority during much of the 1960s and ’70s… Jerry Bails’ prophetic “farewell address” to fandom when he handed over the publishing reins of A/E to Ronn Foss in 1962, a whole year and a half after he started… and my own uneven efforts from A/E V1#9 at parodying classic poetry with a comic book slant (“A Treasury of Mortal Verses”), along with my mostly-inadequate attempts at accompanying artwork. Well, actually, I am going to regale you (on the page facing) with one of those nine “poems” and my accompanying sketch—partly because last month I advertised there’d be Steve Ditko art in this issue, and both my poem and the Ditko illo deal with Spider-Man. The poem parody is “The Spider” (a takeoff on William Blake’s evocative “Tiger, Tiger” which I really should have titled “Spider, Spider”)… while the Ditko piece is one that Sturdy Steve drew especially for use in Alter Ego in late 1964, after he received (through Marvel) his copy of V1#7, and which of course duly appeared in V1#8. It’s been reprinted many times in many places, but I wanted to see it, just once, in the pages of an issue of Alter Ego, Vol. 3. The Ditko drawing, done on a piece of typing paper if I recall aright, is one of the best and most imaginative drawings ever done by any pro for inclusion in any fanzine… yet somehow it gives the appearance of simply having flowed out of Steve’s pen, almost without effort or thought on his part. But the best pros make it look easy. I was, and remain, more thrilled and honored than I can yet say to have received this piece… and I still can’t believe, to this day, that somewhere along the line, many years ago, I let someone talk or trade me out of it. I know it’s still around out there somewhere, commanding high prices whenever it surfaces in the comic art market—and, while I wish I still had it, I’m mostly just glad to know that it still exists.

GiVE BACK TO THE CREATORS WHO GAVE YOU YOUR DREAMS.

It will always remain, to me, one of the great memories of being Alter Ego’s editor forty years ago—a generous gesture from a favorite comic artist to an ardent admirer. Thanks again, Steve! Bestest,

writer/editorial

“The Spider” Spidey, Spidey, spinning high, ’Twixt skyscrapers and the sky, Who but Ditko and Stan Lee Could frame such profitable symmetry?

In what distant ocean’s ebbs Were designed your arty webs? On whose typer did you spawn? Whose the hand that you has drawn? And what fingers and what nails Could letter all your teenage wails? And when the atomic spider bit— Who’s the genius thought of it?

Whose the pencil? Whose the ink? Who decides just how you think? Whose the brainchild? Who’s the gent Made Peter Parker like Clark Kent? When F4 began to move And old Spidey hit the groove, Did Lee smile his work to see? Or give a bonus to Steve D.? Spidey, Spidey, spinning high, ’Twixt skyscrapers and the sky, Who but Ditko and Stan Lee Could frame such profitable symmetry?

™

COMING IN APRIL

A/E Spotlight (Or Is It “Headlight”?) on MATT BAKER!

• Full-color MATT BAKER cover featuring Phantom Lady! (Dr. Wertham, avert your eyes!) • “Baker of Cheesecake!” The 1940s-50s life and art of MATT BAKER! A guided tour by ALBERTO BECATTINI—plus surprising interviews with the artist’s kinfolk by JIM AMASH— and an aesthetic appreciation by JOHN BENSON! With loads of lush art of luscious ladies and lusty lads from the pages of Fox Comics, Fiction House, St. John, et al.! • Rare art from BAKER contemporaries ROBERT WEBB—MAURICE WHITMAN— ALEX BLUM—AL FELDSTEIN—VINCE COLLETTA—ARTHUR PEDDY—FRANK BORTH— JACK KAMEN—RALPH MAYO—and others! • FCA with MARC SWAYZE & BILL BLACK—BILL SCHELLY talks to bookseller (and comics fan) BUD PLANT—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on AL WILLIAMSON—& MORE!!

ht holders

tive copyrig

the respec

Edited by ROY THOMAS

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Everett On Everett The Classic BILL EVERETT Interview from Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #11 Conducted by Roy Thomas

Editing Assistance by Don & Maggie Thompson

ither in late 1969 or in 1970, I finally took my friend, Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett, up on his long-standing promise to do an interview for Alter Ego, which I had revived with a 10th issue at the end of 1969, after a four-year hiatus due to my hectic writing-andediting schedule at Marvel Comics. I can still recall precisely where we sat—in the fair-size cubicle where Marie Severin and others labored from 9:00 to 5:00, after everyone else had gone home for the night. Bill was amiable and expansive even with my tape recorder running, although I tried without success to get him to repeat a few anecdotes he’d told me when we’d roomed together in New York City—first at 177A Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, and a bit later on E. 87th Street.

The interview lay still untranscribed, I believe, when Bill passed away in February 1973, because, despite good sales of A/E #10, I kept getting busier and busier at Marvel and couldn’t find the time to do all the work needed to put out another issue. In fact, it was only because former DC & Marvel scripter Mike Friedrich, who’d begun publishing the alternative comic Star*Reach, asked if he could take over the magazine that the Everett interview was published even in 1978, in that final 11th issue of “Vol. 1” of A/E. I believe it was only then that I asked longtime fandom associates Don and Maggie Thompson to transcribe the tape. They did a bit of clean-up and editing as they went along—and indeed, the italicized “Ed.” notes in the text below are theirs, not mine. Since the audio tape itself is apparently forever “lost in darkness and distance,” as Mary Shelley once wrote in another context, this is probably as close as we shall ever have to a “definitive” Bill Everett interview. (Even so, there was one other in-depth Everett interview in an issue of Martin Greim’s Comic Crusader fanzine, which hopefully will be reprinted one day—and the long rambling letter Bill wrote in 1961 to the late Jerry de Fuccio, then associate editor of Mad magazine, and which was reprinted in A/E V3#3, is equally informative. Put those two together with the interview that follows, and you have about as clear a picture of Bill Everett as we are likely to have.) Naturally, when Bill Schelly and I

(Top right:) Wild Bill Everett behind the podium at one of Dave Kaler’s New York comicons, in either 1966 or ’67— in a photo supplied by the late Mark Hanerfeld—above Bill’s first and last “Sub-Mariner” splashes. The former, of course, appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. -Nov. 1939)—and, probably a bit earlier, in Motion Picture Funnies Weekly #1, from whose pristine black-&-white pages we were sent this art by benevolent Bob Wiener. Bill’s last new art of any kind appeared in Sub-Mariner #61 (May 1973), on sale circa February—the very month in which he passed away. Amazingly, he was able to draw (and even ink) much of the art for pp. 1-3 before he went into the hospital for the final time. He also received “story” credit on Sub-Mariner #63 (July ’73), which was dialogued by Steve Gerber. [Art ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

The Classic Bill Everett Interview From Alter Ego (Vol. 1) # 11

BILL EVERETT Checklist [NOTE: The following is, as usual, taken from information generously provided by Dr. Jerry G. Bails in his Who’s Who of 20th-Century American Comic Books, which can be accessed online at www.nostromo.no/whoswho/. Additions and corrections are invited. The names of features which appeared both in anthology magazines and in their own titles are not generally rendered in italics below. There is some likelihood that Everett wrote as well as drew some of the early features such as “Skyrocket Steele,” “Amazing-Man,” “The Fin,” and “Hydroman,” among others. Key: (a) = full art; (p) = pencils only; (i) = inking only; (w) = writer; (d) = daily comic strip; (S) = Sunday comic strip.] Name: Bill Everett (full name: William Blake Everett) [1917-73] (artist, writer, colorist, editor)

1955, 1957, 1960; Best Love (a) 1950; Bible Tales (a) 1953; Black Rider (i) 1959; Black Widow (i) 1970-71; Combat Casey (back-up Pen Names: Everett Blake; Bill features) (a) 1953; Captain America Roman; H. Varela; William Blake; (i) 1971; The Cat (a) 1973; Willie Bee; Herbill (with Herb Chamber of Chills (i) 1973; Trimpe) Chamber of Darkness (w/I) 1970; Crazy (a) 1953-54; covers (p/I) Education: Vesper George School 1950-59, 1968-77 (?); Daredevil (a) of Art (Boston) 1964, (i) 1966, 1971-72; Dr. Strange (a) 1966-67; Fear (a) 1972; The Fin Influences: Mead Schaffer, Floyd (a) 1941-42; Girl Confessions (a) Davis, Dean Cornwall, et al. 1952; Gullivar Jones (i) 1972; Illustrator: retail advertising, late Gunhawk (i) 1971; Hulk (a) 1966; 1950s/early 1960s Hulk (w) 1968; Human Torch (w/a) 1941; Human Torch & Sub-Mariner Artist: Gag Cartoons: Collectors of (w/a) 1940-41; Inhumans (i) 1971; Humor 1967 Iron Man (plot/p/i) 1973; Journey into Mystery (a) 1950s/1957; Promos: Adventures of the Big Journey into Unknown Worlds (a) Boy (a) 1956 for Big Boy 1950, 1956-57; jungle (a) 1951-60; Restaurants Prince Namor bats New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia around in Marvel Ka-Zar (i) 1971; Love Adventures Mystery Comics #7 (May 1940). [©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Art Director: Radio News (a) 1952; Love Diary (a) 1950; Love Magazine (late 1930s), Ziff-Davis Romances (a) 1951; Love Tales (a) 1952; letters page illustration (a) in Publications (asst. art director, dates unknown) Loveland 1951; Man Comics (a) 1953; Marvel Boy (w/a) 1951; Marvel Tales (a) 1949-52, 1956; Marvin Mouse (a) 1957; Men’s Adventures (a) Syndicate Credits (Newspaper Comic Strips): Skyrocket Steele (a) 1951-53; Menace (a) 1953-54; Millie the Model (i) 1950s; Mystical Tales 1939 (a) 1956; Mystic (a) 1952, 1955-57; mystery/occult (w/a) 1970, 1972-73; Namora (w/a) 1947-49; Navy Action (a) 1954-55, 1957; Navy Combat Comics Studio (Shop): Funnies, Inc. (w/a) 1939-42 (a) 1955, 1958; Nellie the Nurse (a) 1957; Nick Fury (i) 1968; Not Brand Echh (i, some p) 1967; Patriot (a) 1941; Quick-Trigger Western COMIC BOOK CREDITS (Mainstream US): (a) 1956; Rawhide Kid (i) 1972; Rawhide Kid (w/a, misc. backups) Centaur & related companies: Amazing-Man (a) 1939-40; covers (a) 1966-68; Riot (a) 1956; Romance Tales (a) 1950; Sgt. Fury and His Uncle Joe’s Funnies #1; covers & illustrations (a) 1938; Skyrocket Steele Howling Commandos (w) 1970; Snafu (w) 1956; Spellbound (a) 1952, (a) 1938-40 1956; Spider-Man (p/i) 1966-68; Spy Cases (a) 1950; Strange Stories of Suspense (a) 1955-57; Strange Tales of the Unusual (a) 1956; Strange Charlton & related companies: Public Defender (a) 1955; Rookie Tales (a) 1951-58; Sub-Mariner (a/some w) 1939-42, 1947-49, 1953-55, Cop (a) 1955 1966-67, 1972-73; Sub-Mariner and Dr. Doom (p) 1975; Suspense (a) 1950-53, sports (a) 1950, 1952; Tales of Asgard (i) 1967; Tales of Justice DC Comics & related companies: All-American Men of War (a) (a) 1955-56; Thor (i) 1967, 1969-70; True Secrets (a) 1954; True Tales of 1960; covers (a) 1960 Love (a) 1956; Two-Gun Kid (w/a, misc. backups) 1966, 1968; Uncanny Eastern Color Printing & related companies (incl. Famous Tales (a) 1952-53, 1955-56; Venus (w/a) 1951-52; War Comics (a) 1952; Funnies): covers (a) 1940-41/1950-53; Dickie Dare (a) 1941; Heroic Wild (a) 1954; Young Men (a, some w) 1952-54; Zany (a) 1958-59 Comics (a) 1947/1950-51; Hydroman (a) 1940-41; Music Master (a) Novelty Comics/Curtis: Bull’s-Eye Bill (a); Chameleon (a) 1940-42; 1942; New Heroic Comics (a) 1948-50; romance (a) 1951 covers (a) 1941; Dick Cole (a) 1941; Sub-Zero (a) 1941; Twister (i) 1941; Feature Comics/Crestwood/Headline/Prize: Personal Love (a) 1953 White Streak (a) 1940 G & D Publications: Blast! (a) 1971 Hillman Periodicals: Conqueror (a) 1941; covers (a) 1941 Lev Gleason & related companies: Rex Reed in the Americas (a) 1942 Major Magazines & related companies: covers (a) 1958-60 for Cracked magazine Marvel (incl. Timely & related companies): Adventures into Weird Worlds (a) 1952; Amazing Detective Cases (a) 1952; Astonishing (a) 1951-52, 1955-57; Battlefield (a) 1953; Battlefront (a) 1957; Battle (a)

Orbit Publications & related companies: crime, romance, & Western (a) 1950 Parents’ Magazine Press: True Comics (a) 1941-42 Quality Comics: various features (a) 1940 Satire Publications: Loco (a) 1959 Skywald Publishing Co.: cover (paint) for Psycho, 1971; horror (a) 1971-72; romance (i) 1971

In Memoriam

Bill Everett

The Ancient Sub-Mariner – A Tribute by Roy Thomas This early-1970s photo of Bill Everett accompanied Roy’s short tribute when it first appeared in Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #11 in 1978. Ye Ed continues to believe that Bill’s art reached an all-time high with the Timely/Atlas hero revival of 1953-55, so we’ll close with this splash page from Sub-Mariner #40 (June 1955)—and a never-before-published pencil sketch of Namor, drawn circa 1970 by Bill for Marv Wolfman’s fabled sketchbook. [Sketch ©2005 Estate of Bill Everett; Sub-Mariner TM & ©2005 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

am, I’m afraid, no expert on the life, times, and career of the late and very talented Bill Everett.

Others more diligent than I will have to record the precise dates of his birth and death. Others more artistically aware will have to analyze the strengths, the weaknesses, the influences of his artwork. And still others more meticulously painstaking will have to catalogue his work, from “Skyrocket Steele” through those final “Sub-Mariner” tales on which he was working when, most unexpectedly and far too soon, he died. Myself, I could never reconcile Bill the man with “Bill Everett,” creator of The Sub-Mariner. After all, even though I began to read Prince Namor in his first declining period (1946-49), and even though the powers-that-were had forced Bill and others to turn Namor from a sea-going hell-raiser into a mere catcher-of-smugglers, Subby was still one of the great heroes of my youth. When I played at mock heroics in a Missouri swimming pool at the age of eight or so, it was always The Sub-Mariner (pronounced by me Sub-MaREENer) I portrayed, not Aquaman. Anyone who had predicted that Aquaman would survive as a solo star after The Sub-Mariner had passed from center-stage would have been laughed out of the deep end. It still seems vaguely unjust to me... not unlike Gene Autry being unseated as King of the Cowboys by Roy Rogers while Autry was off at war. Yet, despite all the above, Bill Everett slowly, surely, became a person to me during 1965 and 1966, soon after I came to Marvel Comics. I had heard the stories by then (from Stan Lee and Sol Brodsky, both of whom truly liked the guy) of how Bill’s Daredevil #1, drawn while he was working full-time at another job, was so late coming in that it cost the company thousands of dollars. Literally thousands. Comic book economics being what they are and were, I was surprised that Stan was still willing, even eager, to have Bill finally dump his commercial-art job and take up comics again on a regular basis. But, that’s the way Bill affected people. Though he was the most human of men, he nonetheless inspired a kind of awe mixed with a genuine liking and respect. Over the next few years he’d be given staff positions, freelance status—whatever he seemed to need to give him a chance to realize his potential. When his penciling failed to sell comics in the 1960s, he became a top-notch inker ... later one of Marvel’s best colorists (see Silver Surfer #1, for example). Stan (as well as thenpublisher Martin Goodman, who had bought that first “Sub-Mariner” story some three decades before) was always willing to take a flyer with him. So were the rest of us. Did I mention that Bill and I were roommates off and on in the 1960s, when I was single first time around? We were—first when I lived

in Greenwich Village, later on East 87th Street. Though others such as Gary Friedrich and later Mike Friedrich were probably closer to him on a personal basis in his last few years, I spent a lot of time with him during his re-introduction to comics in the late ’60s. I was enthralled and entertained, hour upon hour, by stories of the early days of comics—many of which I could not get him to remember or repeat when I pulled out a taperecorder. Though he left ink-stained handprints on the wall of my first uptown apartment, it’s the mark on my life and heart that I feel the most. Bill had his problems. Alcoholism plagued him for much of his adult life, though he kept it under control until the later years, especially after the death of his beloved wife a few years before his own. The story has a happy ending of sorts, though: Bill joined Alcoholics Anonymous and became a moving force in the New York chapter during the final couple of years of his life... and I don’t think he’d want to read an accounting of his life that didn’t mention that. There are a goodly number of people in New York City who hardly were aware that Bill was an artist or writer, yet who grieved when he died because of what he had meant to them as a friend: a pillar of strength in their own weak moments, after he had found himself. When he died, something went out of all of us. With the exception of the death last December of my good friend John Verpoorten, no passing from the comics scene during my thirteen years in the field has touched me—hit me, really—like Bill’s. He died too young, in his 50s only, doubtless partly because nothing could totally undo the ravages worked on his body in earlier years. But he left a legacy in four colors, and that’s more than most folks do. I still think of him, rather more often than I do of most living people I know. It still doesn’t seem real that he’s gone, even after half a decade. He used to say to me that I reminded him of himself, when he was a young firebrand. He never told me, though, if he meant that as sincere compliment or amused dig. I prefer to take it as a compliment... because Bill Everett was quite a guy.

Comic Fandom Archive

The Birth of Alter-Ego by Bill Schelly

Excerpted from his book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom (Hamster Press 1998) 2005 Introduction In the early 1990s, when I began researching the origin of a fandom just for comic art fans and collectors, the early years of comicdom had become shrouded in mystery. Over thirty years had passed since the original fanzineformat Alter Ego had made the scene amid the excitement of the return of the heroes in DC and Marvel comics. Many of the folks who were movers and shakers (or merely spectators) during those years were no longer around, or if they were, they tended to be much less visible. In Sherlockian mode, I began to answer the question: “Why, when, and how did comicdom arise?” The answer was not entirely clear. Some felt it could be traced to science-fiction fandom before it, which began in the early 1930s, and there was no doubt that a number of sf fans did play a part in fanning the embers of interest in comic books into flame, in the form of articles in their various fanzines, and notably in Dick and Pat Lupoff’s Xero #1, which made its debut at the 1960 World Science Fiction Convention in Pittsburgh.1 Another contributor to the incendiary sparks of the early 1960s was the remnants of EC comics fandom, which had been simmering on a low flame all through the latter part of the 1950s, often in publications with circulations of fifty copies or less, which tended to revolve around Mad magazine and the post-EC work of a gaggle of talented artists who had helped make EC great. Some of those fans maintained interest in comics beyond EC, and were ready to leap to the fore when those fannish embers had burst into flame. But, it also became clear that the rallying point of those comics aficionados found a focal point when a college professor named Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D., brought a fanzine named Alter-Ego into the world. Devoted to “heroes of the past, present, and future” (as the zine’s eventual slogan would announce), Alter-Ego created a genuine sensation, and fueled a grassroots movement that made sure that comics fandom would be an ongoing, self-sustaining movement. If comicdom began with Alter-Ego, I wondered exactly how it all happened. What possessed Jerry Bails—whose contacts with prior fandoms was minimal at best—to take the rather audacious step of putting out a publication devoted exclusively to costumed heroes? And that was followed by a slew of other questions: How did he meet Roy Thomas? How did Jerry and Roy gain a certain respect for their publication even among professionals in the comics industry? It

Since this issue’s Archive is a chapter excerpted from Bill Schelly’s fabulous 1995 book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, which is still available from his Hamster Press, we’ve tried to use different images than you’ll see there. The photo by Dann Thomas shows (left to right) Roy Thomas, Jerry Bails, and Grand Comic Book Database overseer Ray Bottorff, Jr., at a dinner during a spring 2002 comicon in Detroit—41 years after Alter-Ego #1. Above is Roy’s cover of 1961’s Alter-Ego #1 (traced and partly repositioned by editor Jerry) the way it should’ve looked—but the speedline of Lean Arrow’s flying shaft, being only on a green master, vanished on many copies of the printed fanzine. The cover was restored by Jerry in full color via computer in 2004. [©2005 Jerry Bails & Roy Thomas.]

wasn’t enough that it had happened; I wanted to know the details!! What follows, then, is the final result of my detective work over a three-year period, gained from interviewing the principals, piecing together data from old faded issues of Alter Ego and other obscure fanzines, and collating information from every available source. Here is the story of not only the birth of a fanzine, but the birth of a genuine grassroots movement that formed a true American subculture. And it began with one fan’s simple idea to rally support for his favorite new comic book: Jerry G. Bails had been yearning for a return of the Justice Society of America since All-Star Comics became All-Star Western in early 1951 and the JSA went into limbo. He was a tireless fan of the JSA, no doubt because he encountered them at an early age on a newsstand in Kansas City, Missouri, when he was growing up. Born on June 26, 1933, his earliest recollection of comics was marveling at the covers hanging by bulldog clips in the window of his favorite shop that sold comics. It was a dry goods store across the street from what would become his father’s pool hall. “In early 1941, the Great Depression was just ending, and families were finally beginning to come into some disposable income,” Jerry said in a recent interview. “This translated down to seven-year-olds as a weekly allowance—a quarter, as I recall. I was free for the first time to spend it as I chose. It went for comics first and foremost. “One of the earliest covers I recall from my youth was on Flash

The Birth of Alter-Ego Comics #20, where The Flash was hurling a crook onto overhead telephone lines,” Bails remembered. “That issue was dated August 1941. At almost exactly the same time, I spotted All-Star Comics #6. It marked the very first time I would witness the Justice Society of America, starring all my favorite heroes teaming up in a booklength adventure. That comic book had the most profound longterm effect on me. Spotting the covers of #6 and #7 were ecstatic moments for me. I can still feel a rush of endorphins just recalling the covers.”

Though Bails had spent the last several years obtaining a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from the University of Kansas City, and then going for a Master’s in Math, he had corresponded with Gardner Fox in the late 1950s regarding the JSA, and worked steadily toward re-building his personal collection of All-Star. “Gardner Fox was a most generous and compassionate man and it is clear to me that he had influenced my basic values through the vehicle of the Justice Society,” Jerry said. “He made a big difference to me.” Immersed in his studies, Bails had missed the first couple of issues of DC’s Showcase book—the ones that tentatively brought back a retooled Flash for a new generation of readers. When he first noticed that revival, in Showcase #13 around January of 1958, Jerry was 24 years old and well on his way toward becoming a professor of mathematics. But the sight of that colorful comic book on the stands struck him like a thunderbolt, for it implied the possibility of further revivals—even his beloved JSA. Bails unleashed a flurry of letters, with renewed energy, at Fox and Schwartz. Around this time, mid-1959, he and Fox worked out a deal for the writer’s bound editions of All-Star, and Jerry’s JSA collection was complete.2 From the time he saw Showcase #13, Bails had to wait nearly two years for the day to arrive when the JSA was back in its new incarnation: The Justice League of America. The Brave and the Bold #28 hit the newsstands at the very end of 1959. Of course, he had other things on his mind, like completing his doctorate in Natural Science. Around the time Jerry G. Bails, Ph.D. (with his wife Sondra), had moved to Detroit to take his new post as Assistant Professor of Natural Science at Wayne State University, JLA #1 appeared, and Bails was thinking of ways to support and encourage this exciting development. (In that issue, Schwartz indicated that further hero revivals were probable.) Then, another spark plug fell into place, and that was Roy Thomas, an English and history major in his senior year at Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Girardeau, about a hundred miles south of St. Louis on the Mississippi River. Thomas, though several years younger than Bails, had learned to read in the pages of All-Star, and was so taken with the “new JSA” that he’d written his first letter to editor Julius Schwartz. (In an earlier contact with DC, a youthful Thomas had been informed that trading and selling old comics could not be officially sanctioned by the company, for it

43 might spread disease.) This time, when Roy inquired about obtaining back issues of All-Star, Schwartz gave him Gardner Fox’s name and address. Fox in turn referred Roy to Jerry Bails, informing the Missourian that Jerry had recently purchased all his back issues. Roy was disappointed, but immediately dashed off a letter to “Mr. Bails” on November 21, 1960, the day before his twentieth birthday.

Just five days later, he had his reply. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to find another All-Star enthusiast after all these years,” Jerry wrote. “In 1945, I began my campaign to collect all the back issues of this magazine, and in 1951, when the JSA was dropped, I began my campaign for the revival of this old favorite. Just last year, as you know, my efforts finally paid off. Now, I’m off on a new campaign—to make the Justice League of America more popular than Superman. First, I want to see the JLA published monthly; then I want to see it published in a giant edition. I hope you will join me in working for these goals.”3 Along with the letter, Jerry sent dog-eared copies of AllStar #4 through 6, the first Roy had ever seen of them. This generosity on Bails’ part cemented their friendship. Thomas and Bails began a long and voluminous correspondence, each writing two or three letters a week to the other, with queries and responses often crossing in the mail. Their letters were filled with trading proposals and comments about recent acquisitions from the few sources available to them. “We both bombarded DC with scores of letters,” Bails recalled years later. “JLA #4 is filled with letters from me under different pen names. Don’t blame Julie for this. I did everything I could to fool him, including mailing the letters from all across the country.” Jerry revealed that he had suggested to Gardner Fox (in a letter dated August 29, 1960) that a revival of The Atom would be the next logical step after Hawkman, who was slated to make his debut in December. He and Roy set about concocting a concept for the new Atom, which they planned to submit to Schwartz. (Jerry envisioned a new, more Doll Manlike Atom.) Bails put the outlines of their suggestions in a letter to Schwartz on December 8th, which reads in part: “A brilliant young experimenter [Al Pratt, a physics professor in ordinary life] discovers how to compress the atoms of his body to make himself only six inches tall. In this metastable state, the mighty mite has the power to leap great distances and to smash through ordinary matter in his battle against crime, but he can only safely remain in this miniature form for one hour.” Schwartz wrote back on January 6, 1961, “Many thanks for your ideas on the Atom revival, but by a fantastic coincidence I had already had some similar ideas on the same subject; even went so far as to have artist Gil Kane do some sketches.” Both Bails and Thomas believed, probably correctly, that their enthusiastic letters and suggestions played a part in DC’s decision to revive The Atom.4 Bails urged Thomas to consider revival ideas for Dr. Fate. In that same letter, he mentioned (for the first time) that he was thinking about publishing a “JLA newsletter” that he would distribute to contacts made through the letter pages in Julie’s comics. Schwartz had

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!” Golden Age Artist LEW GLANZMAN—Another “Amazing Man” Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash

Afraid Lew Glanzman never quite got around to providing us with a photo of himself—but he did do the great cartoon caricature below, which he sent to interviewer Jim Amash a couple of years back, along with several photocopies of his comic book art repro’d above: the cover of Centaur’s Amazing-Man Comics #14 (July 1940)—“The Shark” splash probably from Amazing-Man #9 (Feb. ’40)—and “Fighting ‘Uncle Joe’ Stilwell!,” a more or less true story that may be from Parents’ Magazine’s Real Heroes or True Comics. [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

ouis S. Glanzman was part of a brother act in comics that included Sam and Dave (sounds like a rock and roll band, doesn’t it?), though apparently the three of them never worked together on a story. Lew’s (or should it be “Lou’s”?) comic book days were really just a stepping stone to his illustration career, but still memorable enough for us to cover. No matter what name Lew worked under, his style was as distinctive and energetic as the man himself. —Jim

“I Got My Art Training In Comics” JIM AMASH: I usually start off with this question: when and where were you born? LEW GLANZMAN: I was born in Baltimore, Maryland, February 8, 1922. My brother Sam is three years younger than me. My other brother Dave is three

years younger than Sam. All of us eventually worked in comic books. I was Sam Decker and Lew Glanz, among others. JA: What art training did you have? GLANZMAN: None. I got my art training in comics. My parents were amateur painters, though. I did go to the School of Industrial Art in New York, but most of the time I played hooky at the burlesque shows on 42nd Street. JA: Well, you could learn a lot there. [laughs] GLANZMAN: [laughs] Yes. Well, it turned out that the school was more of a hangout than it was an art school. It was a shame, because there were teachers who worked hard to teach their students. But we weren’t paying any attention. JA: Then your art influences were your parents? Did you paint when you were a kid?

“I Wanted To Be An ‘Artiste’!”

49 Comic Corporation of America [later known as Centaur] and they took me in. JA: Who was the editor there when you started? Lloyd Jacquet? GLANZMAN: His name is very familiar to me, and it may have been him. There were two guys who ran the place, who started out publishing sheet lyrics for music. They called them “song sheets.” JA: What did you start out doing there?

GLANZMAN: Yes. There was a lady in Rockaway Beach, Long Island. She said she’d buy me a set of oil paints if I painted pictures for her. I was probably fifteen or sixteen at the time. I liked to draw the boats out on Sheeps Head Bay and occasionally I’d sell one for two or three dollars to the guys who had boats out there. As far as a career was concerned, the trick was to make money, because it was the Depression. I was the oldest son, so whenever I could find some kind of work, it’d help the family. I wanted to be an artist and if I could find a way to sell a drawing for a few dollars, then that’s the way I did it. There used to be a pulp magazine called Blue Book. I admired the artists in it, so I made some samples and showed them around. The art directors chased me away, saying, “Go back to school, kid. We can’t use you.”

“Comic Corporation Of America…Took Me In” JA: This was before comic books, wasn’t it? GLANZMAN: I had seen Famous Funnies, which was all newspaper strip reprints. Not too long after that, “Superman” started. Since I couldn’t get work in the pulps, I went to the

GLANZMAN: They told me to do a story and I did. Then I got the idea to do “The Shark,” which was not an imitation of “The SubMariner,” by the way. I started out making 7H bucks a page, for the entire job: writing, penciling, inking, lettering, and coloring. My biggest problem was getting the panel borders straight. [laughs] And spelling. One of the editors corrected my spelling.

The Water Is Full Of Sharks! (Above:) Lew sent us these two splashes—the leftmost one marked “Amazing-Man 1939”—and they look to us as if they may well be from two of the very first “Shark” stories. That superhero made his Glanzman-drawn debut in Amazing-Man #6 (Oct. 1939), so….! (Below:) Bob Beerbohm sent us scans of this apparently later, more polished pair of pages—the splash and 2nd page of the “Shark” tale in Amazing-Man #10 (March 1940). [©2005 the respective copyright holders.]

JA: Did they have a big office? GLANZMAN: No. There were just two rooms. JA: Tell me about the “Shark” feature. GLANZMAN: It was about a character

“Blood Was In Both My Eyes” ALEX TOTH Himself On His Fabled 1952 Showdown with JULIE SCHWARTZ

OTE: For Alter Ego #38’s celebration of the career of DC editor Julius Schwartz, I invited Alex to write down, for the record, his version of the events, often discussed among old-time pros, which more than a half century ago caused him to quit DC at the height of his work for the company—though he did return a few years later, through the good offices of Whitney Ellsworth, who by then was overseeing the Adventures of Superman TV series in Hollywood. Alex declined in #38 to comment directly on what he referred to as “my dust-up with Julie,” preferring to dwell on the positive side of things, including “burying the hatchet” with Julie at a San Diego Comic-Con some years later. Understandably, however, after reviewing Julie’s account of the episode in his 2000 memoir Man of Two Worlds, as well as reading in #38 & #40 the comments and opinions of others who weren’t present when the split occurred, Alex reluctantly changed his mind and sent a two-sided postcard which laid out his own account. While A/E has no interest whatever in controversy for its own sake, it’s generally my policy to print what people say or write, and let the reader sort out the truth of things. Below, I’ve typed out the text of Alex’s postcard for ease of reading, changing nothing except to spell out a few words he abbreviated. And here, I believe, Alex would prefer to see the matter rest. —Roy.

3 July 04 Roy—

When Alex drew this third “Johnny Thunder” splash for All-American Comics #102 (Oct. 1948), the last issue before that mag metamorphosed into All-American Western, he and Julie had only recently begun to work more closely together, after the latter succeeded Sheldon Mayer as full editor of several of DC’s titles. Script probably by Robert Kanigher. [©2005 DC Comics.]

Damndamndamn—there it is again! Another fictionalized version of how and why I walked out of NPP/National/DC Comics 50 years ago, and then some! No one wants grumpy ol’ Alex to write the definitive tell-all auto-bio exposé of his ‘last straw,’ ‘that does it’ ‘to-do’ with editor Julie Schwartz in ’52, which even he, in his auto-bio, couldn’t/wouldn’t/didn’t mean to set straight, once and for all, with perhaps a last gasp/gesture of grace, humble-pie, gentlemanly-owning-up-to-truth-telling, to pave his way to heaven or not. No—Julie went out with that fabricated concoction on his lips, mind, conscience, and signedoff on it in print—his fictionalized version of same compounds the felony of 50 years even more shamefully! [cont’d on facing page]

“Blood Was In Both My Eyes” I’m left with with an even lower opinion of him than I’ve held since ’52—he was too small to confess it, since he chose to tell it, in his auto-bio—that ‘Sorry, Alex/folks/DC Comics/et al., I was wrong, then, in letting your walkout happen—for the ridiculous reasons we shared in creating and furthering that event—here’s how it happened—etc., etc., etc.’ That would’ve been the classy, the honest thing to do—for his own sake, mine, and for friends who knew the truth—and for those who could not. Pushed by Julie’s attitudes and ineptitudes in this instance, towards me, my work, I’d nowhere to go but out, costing me my otherwise content career there, 5 years’ worth of growth/learning/appreciating the company and its solid history/present/future/mine with it, it was a deep cut, to leave it, because of Julie!!! Damn it!!! I’d come in that pre-noon, delivering a storyset, with my check for it in Julie’s top drawer, as usual, to be given me if all was okay—while we went over the story, another editor asked that I step into his office, a

room or two away—Julie excused me, so, lunchtime imminent, I knew, I said I’d, of course, be back for verdict, and check—said editor delayed me too long, I rushed to Julie’s, to see him locking top drawer/check— !!! Walking out to ‘Prodn Dept.’ for his pinochle game/brownbagging it—‘Julie—my check, please’—‘No, you’ll wait till I’m thru my lunch!’ The meanness, pettiness, of that moment, to teach me an object lesson, after years of routine? was so base, banal, thirdgrade and rate, I fumed, roared, till he walked the 20 steps back to his desk, gave me my check. He backed-off, ’cuz blood was in both my eyes, I’d had it!! I told him off! No mistake, I’d quit! He seemed to want me to! So did I, as things stood. I left him, for Whit Ellsworth’s office, to announce the news— Whit, good guy—couldn’t dissuade me, so I said my sad ’byes to him, left! To work for ‘Standard’—etc. Julie’s petty ways with me were groundless! Like his version of reality. Alex

[Visit the official Alex Toth website at www.tothfans.com.]

Julie’s account of Alex’s quitting, in his autobiography co-written with Brian Thomsen, was that he did indeed make the artist wait till he was done with his lunch and card game to get his check (there’s no mention of a pre-lunch conference from which Alex was called away by another editor), and that Alex resigned after lunch because of a disagreement over whether he was to draw a “Johnny Thunder” or a Strange Adventures story next. Either way, it was a no-win situation for Alex, for Julie, and for DC. The above splash from All-American Western #121 (Aug.-Sept. 1951) and page from the “Johnny Peril” story in Sensation Comics #107 (Jan.-Feb. 1952), both penciled by Toth and inked by Sy Barry, were done some months before that walk-out, but illustrate the two different kinds of stories. Both tales were reprinted in the 1990 DC hardcover The Greatest 1950s Stories Ever Told. [©2005 DC Comics.]

[Marc’s memories of the Golden Age of Comics continue next issue.]

“One Man’s In-Laws” Revisited OTTO BINDER’s Last Fawcett Synopses––– Illustrated! by Roy Thomas

ang on tight, because we’ve got a lot to get through, and only one page to do it!

In Alter Ego (Vol. 1) #7 in 1964, I proudly announced that, thanks to longtime “Captain Marvel”/”Marvel Family” scribe Otto Binder, #8 would print his 1953 synopsis for a 17-page story for a never-published issue of The Marvel Family (possibly intended for #90), left undone when Fawcett discontinued its comics line that year. My grand plan, with Otto’s blessing, was to have the late Biljo White add a few illos to the mix. There were actually four typed and handwritten Binder pages dealing with one “Marvel Family” story (“Seven Modern Wonders”)—a script page from another unused “MF” tale featuring a villain called Mr. Alias— plus a one-page rough outline for an unpublished “Captain Marvel” story involving a satyr. However, as I reported in early 1964 in V1#8, a stern letter from a Fawcett attorney had informed me that I could not publish Otto’s material, because of the terms of the settlement of the lawsuit between DC and Fawcett over Captain Marvel’s alleged copyright infringement of Superman. So I didn’t. In 1997, however, DC publisher Paul Levitz graciously responded to a letter of mine by saying that, since DC now owned the Fawcett heroes, Yogi Berra said it first and best: “It’s déja vu all over again!” Surprisingly, Otto Binder had already written, and DC had no objections to the Binder C.C. Beck drawn, a tale with a similar title and theme several years earlier—but it’s definitely not the same story! material being printed in A/E. (Actually, This is the splash from The Marvel Family #40 (Oct. 1949). [©2005 DC Comics.] it had already been printed once—by DC itself. In the 1970s I had supplied Oh, and maybe this is the place to mention—the beautiful “Marvel copies of the six pages to DC for a Shazam!-related issue of its own Family #90” cover that leads off this FCA section is, as you may have “fanzine,” The Amazing World of DC Comics.) Thus, with DC’s guessed, not the actual cover to any comic book that ever existed—even latter-day blessing, Binder’s pages appeared in the now-out-of-print though it perhaps should have been. Rather, it was penciled by the Hamster trade paperback Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary redoubtable Mark Lewis of Big Bang Comics, et al., and inked by FCA Fanzine. We’re reprinting them here—with artwork added. editor P.C. Hamerlinck himself, in a style matching those of Kurt Not, of course, artwork from the 1953 comics themselves, which so Schaffenberger, who drew most of the lead stories in later issues of far as we know never existed. Rather, P.C. Hamerlinck and I searched Marvel Family, and C.C. Beck, who had set the style in the first place. through published Fawcett comics for panels to illustrate or approximate Now, on to “Seven Modern Wonders”… scenes from the shelved material. But we think they’ll help you envision how these three lost stories might have turned out, if the fates had been kinder.

Alter Ego #46