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Roy Thomas ’ Legendary Comics Fanzine! IN-DE IN-DEPT PTH H INT INTE ERV RVIEW IEWS SW WIT ITH H:

Mart Nodell Shelly Mayer George Roussos Gil Kane Also, Also, Rare Rare Art Art & & ARTIFACTS ARTIFACTS BY: BY:

Alfredo Alcala Murphy Anderson Bernard Baily Phil Bard Jack Burnley Dick Dillin Steve Ditko Bill Everett Creig Flessel Joe Gallagher Michael T. Gilbert Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Carmine Infantino Larry Ivie Bob Kane Bernard Krigstein Joe Kubert Harry Lampert Mort Meskin Jerry Ordway Shelly Moldoff Arthur Peddy H.G. Peter Paul Reinman Bernard Sachs Plus: Plus:

with C.C. Beck, Marc Swayze

And More!

Atom, Hawkman, Flash, Dr. Mid-Nite, Green Lantern, wonder woman & Black Canary TM & © DC COMICS

5.95

In the USA

Special Issue!

Justice Society Of America!

No. 5 Summer 2000

Volume 3, No. 5 Summer 2000 Editor

™

Roy Thomas

Associate Editor Bill Schelly

Design & Layout Janet Sanderson John Morrow Eric Nolen-Weathington

Consulting Editors

Contents And Justice for All. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 A few words (like we’ve got room for any more!) about this special issue of A/E.

Together Again for the First Time – The Justice Society of America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

John Morrow Jon B. Cooke

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

A condensed Cook’s Tour of all the JSAers— with more rare and unpublished artwork than you can shake a Gravity Rod at!

Contributing Editor

Shelly Mayer: Origins of The Golden Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Michael T. Gilbert

All-Star— Flash Comics— Green Lantern— Wonder Woman— he edited them all, and lived to tell the tale— in this classic 1975 interview by Anthony Tollin.

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

Cover(s) Artist

Droopy, The Drew Field Mosquito . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 More of Flash co-creator Harry Lampert’s award-winning cartoons from the Second World War.

DC vs. The Justice Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Writer/artist Larry Ivie has his say on the birth of the Silver Age... and what he says may surprise you.

Carmine Infantino Jerry Ordway Mart Nodell

The “Nuclear” Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Roy Thomas tells the hidden story behind All-Star Squadron #14 and #16— plus unpublished Wonder Woman art by the immortal H.G. Peter.

Cover Color Tom Ziuko

From Fan to Pro – The Gardner Fox Letters, Part IV. . . . . . . . . 31

Mailing Crew Russ Garwood, D. Hambone, Glen Musial, Ed Stelli, Pat Varker

Ye Editor had always hoped these letters had been burned, but Gardner Fox saved everything— and who’s going to say no to Michael T. Gilbert and Mr. Monster?

And Special Thanks to:

So – You Want to Collect Fanzines? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Manuel Auad Mike W. Barr Al Bigley Bill Black Randy Bower Jerry K. Boyd Jack Burnley Bill Cain Al Dellinges Steve Ditko Creig Flessel Keif Fromm Carl Gafford Jeff Gelb Martin L. Greim Gary Groth George Hagenauer David Hamilton Ron Harris Irwin Hasen Roger Hill Tom Horvitz Richard Howell Chris Irving Larry Ivie Steve Korté

Harry and Adele Lampert Paul Levitz Sheldon Moldoff Rich Morrissey Will Murray Marty and Carrie Nodell Ethan Roberts Alvin Schwartz Robin Snyder Marc Svensson Marc Swayze Joel Thingvall Anthony Tollin Dann Thomas Kim Thompson Hames Ware Marv Wolfman Ed Zeno

Bill Schelly conducts a guided tour of the great fanzines of the 1960s and ’70s— with lots of great, rare pro art!

Special Green Lantern/FCA Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us! About our cover: Actually, we don’t have to tell you about the marvelous Infantino-Ordway drawing which graces our cover(s)— ’cause we got owner Marty Greim to do that for us on our flip section’s editorial page. For once, we can just sit back and enjoy— a perfect 1948 JSA moment! [Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Atom, Black Canary, Hawkman, and Dr. Mid-Nite ©2000 DC Comics; art used by permission of Martin L. Greim, with the blessings of Carmine Infantino and Jerry Ordway.] Alter EgoTM is published quarterly 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@oburg.net. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues: $5.95 ($7.00 Canada, $9.00 elsewhere). Four-issue subscriptions: $20 US, $27 Canada, $37 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. Alter and Captain Ego ©2000 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly. Air Wave, Aquaman, Binky, Black Canary, Blackhawk, Blue Beetle, Captain Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., Commander Steel, Cyclone Kids, Dr. fate, Dr. Mid-Nite, Dr. Sivana, Firebrand, Flash, Green Lantern, Guardian, Hawkgirl, Hawkman, Holliday Girls, Hop Harrigan, Hour-Man, Ibis, Johnny Peril, Johnny Quick, Johnny Thunder, Justice Society of America, Liberty Belle, Mary Marvel, Mechanique, Metal Men, Minute Man, Mr. Terrific, Newsboy Legion, Nuclear, Plastic Man, Red Tornado, Robotman, Rose & Thorn, Sandman, Sandy, Scribbly, Solomon Grundy, Spectre, Spy Smasher, Starman, Steve Trevor, Sugar & Spike, Superman, Uncle Marvel, Wildcat, Wonder Girl, Wonder Woman, Wotan ©DC Comics. Dan Dare, Dr. Voodoo, Golden Arrow, Lance O’Casey, Master Man, Mr. Hogan, Phantom Eagle © Fawcett Publications, , Capt. Midnight is a TM of Ovaltine. Dr. Strange, Fantastic Four, Hulk, Spider-Man, Warlock © Marvel Characters, Inc. The Fly, The Shield, The Wizard © Archie Comics. Chuck chandler, Nightro, Slugger © Lev Gleason. Green Hornet © Harvey Comics. Fighting Yank © Nedor/Better Comics. Fighting American © Joe Simon & Jack Kirby. Pillsbury Dough Boy © Pillsbury. John Carter of Mars © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc. Alter Ego hero art © Ron Harris, hero © Roy and Dann Thomas. Donald Duck, Huey, Dewey, and Louie © Walt Disney Productions. Golden Lad © Spark. Droopy © Harry Lampert. Opus © Berke Breathed. Voltar © Estate of Alfredo Alcala. Conan © Conan Properties, Inc. Music Master © Eastern Color Printing. Flyin’ Jenny © Bell Syndicate. The Great Guy © Marcus Swayze. Pogo and Albert © Estate of Walt Kelly. Transisto, Lunar-Man © Estate of George Roussos. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING

Writer/Editorial

2 Here’s a shocker:

It doesn’t take much to get me to devote an issue of Alter Ego to the Justice Society of America. No, it doesn’t take JSA being an allegedly hot new DC title— or having two people send me photocopies of Golden Age artwork that turns out to be from that fabled 1946 unpublished JSA story— or even being asked to write an introduction for the upcoming sixth volume of the All Star Archives. For, after all, it was the 1940s JSA and its successor, the original Justice League of America, which convinced A/E’s founder, Dr. Jerry Bails, to start Alter-Ego, the first super-hero comics fanzine, in early 1961. Not everything this issue touches on the Justice Society— e.g., there are interviews with Gil Kane and George Roussos, which I’m honored to present concerning those two recently departed titans, and a short reminiscence of my co-worker and onetime L.A. neighbor Alfredo Alcala. And these three items are at least as important as anything else in the magazine. There is also the usual great edition of FCA, and Bill Schelly’s advice on how to start a collection of 1960s70s fanzines. However, this issue otherwise revolves primarily around the Justice Society and its offshoots: (1) The starting point was having my old fan/comrade Marty Greim agree to let A/E print, for the first time ever, the beautiful JSAin-1948 drawing he commissioned from Carmine Infantino (with Jerry Ordway inking) some years back. (2) Besides, thanks to the generosity of several collectors (who are the unsung heroes of A/E), I had photocopies of so much rare and/or unpublished Golden Age art featuring JSA stalwarts that there was nothing to do but come up with an article covering them all in alphabetical order, just to utilize it! (3) I had so many questions I wanted to ask Mart Nodell, even beyond what he’s said previously about the creation of charter JSAer Green Lantern, that I talked his and wife Carrie’s collective ear off one night, just after they’d returned from the first “comics cruise.” (4) Bill Schelly’s book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom tells of longtime comics fan (and later pro) Larry Ivie’s “proposed revival of the Justice Society of America, to be called the Justice Legion of the World,” circa 1958. Larry’s remarks may prove controversial, and he made the decision on his own not to mention quite everyone involved by name; but I thought it a story that needed to be told, so comics aficionados could judge for themselves. (5) Since hinting I might do so, I’ve received many requests to begin my series on All-Star Squadron, the comic I developed for DC in the 1980s. This time I’ve sort of backed into telling its history— and found an excuse to run some never-printed H.G. Peter Wonder Woman art!

At the Orlando MegaCon on April 1, 2000, Rascally Roy Thomas shared the stage with his Silver Age compatriots Stan (The Man) Lee and Jazzy Johnny Romita— in the First Annual $5000 CrossGeneration Quiz Show, a comics trivia contest for charity— against three “young punks” whose names he forgets. (Just kidding, guys... whoever you were.) The oldsters (er, make that “legends”) won... and, for Roy the Boy’s part in things, CrossGeneration Comics chief financial officer Michael Beattie scribbled out a king-size $1000 check to Roy and wife Dann’s favorite charity: the Amazon Medical Project — which mostly consists of Wisconsinbred Dr. Linnea Smith ministering selflessly to the Indians along the Amazon River in Peru, where the Thomases journeyed in 1993. Our best wishes to CrossGeneration and to publisher Mark Alessi on the launching of their intriguing new line of comics, and our thanks for their generosity. [Photo courtesy of CrossGeneration Comics.]

None of the above is to play down, in any way, shape, or form, the brief but fine interview Chris Irving did with Gil Kane in 1998 — let alone the free-wheeling chat Bill Cain had with his friend George Roussos, only a short time before the artist’s sudden and unexpected death. In fact, George had just sent many of the photos and art pieces included therein to Bill — before he passed away. For my own part, I’m writing these words only a day after returning from a memorial tribute to Gil in New York City. I’m not ashamed to say that seeing so many of Gil’s colleagues and contemporaries there (Joe Kubert, Julie Schwartz, Dick Giordano, Tom Gill, Arnold Drake, and others), and then seeing a short documentary film on Gil, moved me to tears. I feel sad, as well, about the loss to comics— and even more so, to their friends— of George Roussos and Alfredo Alcala, and several other talented artisans who have passed away in recent months (including, just as we went to press, the great Dick Sprang).

(6) Even Michael T. Gilbert (or maybe it was Mr. Monster) got into the act, deciding to reprint my 1960-61 letters to veteran comics scripter Gardner Fox, who of course co-created both the JSA and the JLA, two decades apart. (So, going whole hog, I tossed in a few pre1960 Thomas artifacts on my own.) I only wish I’d saved Gardner’s letters back to me; they were a lot better written, I promise.

In closing, we’d also like to thank publisher (and onetime “Junior Woodchuck”) Paul Levitz and the good people at DC for making it possible to reprint the excellent 1975 interview which Anthony Tollin, then a young DC staffer (“Woodchuck”), did with the legendary artist/writer/editor Shelly Mayer. His piece deserves a new audience in this generation— and besides, it gave us an excuse to print even more rare art!

But, have we totally exhausted the subject of the Justice Society in these pages?

But, I’ve rambled on long enough. Now, as Marvel’s Beast-ly mutant Hank McCoy (but not William Shakespeare) once said:

Well, if we have, then TwoMorrows and I would have scant excuse for finally publishing our long-awaited All-Star Companion later this year. And we’ve tossed in just enough hints of what’s in store for readers thereof to whet any sane appetite.

“Lead on, Macduff!”

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Together Again For The First Time...

The Justice Society of America! A brief glimpse at the cast and crew of the first & foremost super-group of all time by Roy Thomas Our emphasis artwise this issue might be on the Green LanternFlash-Wonder Woman trio who were the most popular of the regular

JSAers. Still, we didn’t want to totally neglect any of the eighteen heroes who, at one time or another in the 1940s, passed through the meeting halls of the Justice Society, whether as full members or not. And since, as it just happens, we have access to reproductions of original, often rare or even previously unpublished art of many of those stalwarts, we thought we’d kill two birds with one stone. E.g., our lead-off panorama is a 1990s drawing by 1940s “Hawkman” artist (and later “Batman” ghost) Shelly Moldoff of most of the Golden Age membership of the JSA— excluding only Johnny Thunder, Black Canary, Wildcat, perhaps-JSAer Mr. Terrific, and one-page guest star Red Tornado— with Shelly’s co-creation The Bat-Mite thrown in just for a zane. Now, let’s take a look at our colorful cast, one by one:

...The Justice Society of America! “A” IS FOR “ATOM”: This never-published tier of panels is from a story that was “written off” by DC circa 1949 when his last solo berth, Flash Comics, was cancelled. Judging by its use of blacks, this Joe Gallagher art probably dates from 1943-44, at latest. [Atom © 2000 DC Comics; courtesy of Ethan Roberts.] BATMAN: A fine, moody Batman re-creation by Bob Kane. [Courtesy of Jerry Boyd; art © 2000 estate of Bob Kane; Batman © 2000 DC Comics]

BLACK CANARY: Three Black Canarys for the price of one! This Carmine Infantino-penciled splash is from an episode left unpublished when Flash Comics was cancelled; at one time it had been slated to appear in #101. But —notice anything unusual? That’s right: there are two Black Canarys in the drawing! Not only that, but when DC finally got around to printing this story in 100-Page Super-Spectacular, Vol. 1, #DC-20 (1973), neither of these figures was in evidence; instead, Carmine (probably back in the late ’40s) had drawn a new Canary bracing herself more dramatically in the stone gargoyle’s mouth to catch the falling Larry Lance. Inks credited to Frank Giacoia; script most likely by Robert Kanigher. [© 2000 DC Comics; repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Ethan Roberts.]

DOCTOR FATE: By All-Star #14, this Gardner Fox-Howard Sherman hero didn’t display his original magical powers in this panel repro’d from photocopies of the original art— but he’s still one of the greatlooking super-heroes of all time. [©2000 DC Comics; courtesy of Joel Thingvall.]

Origins of the Golden Age

Origins of the Golden Age An interview with Shelly Mayer Conducted by Anthony Tollin

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: The following interview was conducted for The Amazing World of DC Comics, Vol. 2, #5 (MarchApril 1975), a sort of official house fanzine of that period which deserves an entire article to itself, and not merely for the number of entry-level DC staffers who put it together as the so-called “Junior Woodchucks,” then went on to high-profile professional careers. [Sheldon Mayer (1917-1997) was a true phenomenon, both as writer/artist and as the first editor of the All-American Comics line, from 1939 through 1948. DC staffer Anthony Tollin put the pieces together skillfully, dropping his interview-style questions out entirely so Mayer could speak for himself, with Tony’s own informational and historical comments interspersed where needed. Few interviews with Mayer survive, but this article stands as probably the best, and we are grateful to Paul Levitz and DC Comics for making it available to us. The interview is ©1975, 2000 by DC Comics, and is reprinted with permission. All artwork is reproduced via “fair use.” Now, let’s let Tony introduce his subject...]

Among the top artists developed by Mayer was a teenage Joe Kubert, who rose to prominence after 1945 as the artist of “Hawkman.” This beautiful splash page from Flash Comics #72 (June 1946) is repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Al Dellinges. [© 2000 DC Comics]

There are as many opinions in the comic book business as there are creative people and topics to argue about. Few men or concepts are held sacred, but Sheldon Mayer is. I’ve never heard anyone speak a word against his creativity, editorial prowess, or skill at training and polishing raw talent into genius. His protégés provide living evidence of his

An Interview With Shelly Mayer achievements— men like Carmine Infantino, Julie Schwartz, Alex Toth, Bob Kanigher, and Joe Kubert today keep alive a legacy they inherited from Shelly Mayer. His comic creations, including Scribbly, Sugar and Spike, Binky, and The Three Mouseketeers, give further testimony to the genius of the man who was the creative force behind DC’s All-American line of the 1940s. “Sheldon Mayer is a rara avis: one of the few creative men I’ve met in comics,” proclaims Bob Kanigher. “He ran All-American like Charlie Chaplin opening the cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He mixed plots like D.W. Griffith and Mack the Knife sharing a Catskill Mountains kitchen. He was one of the early barnstorming pilots who fearlessly flew across the unknown seas of imagination by the reckless seat of his pants.” I grew up in East Harlem. It was a rough, tough neighborhood in those days. Kids began to think about what they were going to do for a living from the day they were born, because everybody wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. You had only three choices: you could do what your father did (usually menial work), or you could run errands for the hoods that the area was full of and work your way up in the mobs, or you could learn a skill on your own that could be turned into honest money. Nobody considered college because it was unreachable... impossible. A bust of All-American publisher and future EC founder Max C. Gaines, done by Mayer. [Photo originally printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #5.]

devoting a large share of my time to doing that instead of opaquing and was promptly fired. During the next year I was working during the day and going to high school at night. I worked in a factory, as an M.C. at a night club, and at a variety of odd jobs. Meanwhile, I developed about six different daily strips and was receiving a great deal of encouragement from a guy named John Lardner, the feature editor of the Bell Syndicate. None of the strips “took,” however. I also got a lot of encouragement from [newspaper cartoonist] Milt Gross, who was very nice and did everything he possibly could to get me located somewhere, anywhere, but the Depression was on. In any case, I made $90.00 that year as an artist because I had sold six greeting cards. It took me half a day to draw ‘em and the rest of the year to collect the money. In 1933 M.C. Gaines convinced Eastern Color Publishing to package comic strip reprints as advertising premiums. The enthusiasm the booklets received convinced Gaines to release a 10-cent comic book for newsstand distribution. The magazine, Famous Funnies, became the first regularly published comic book. Soon, other publishers followed suit and many more comic books hit the newsstands, all featuring reprints of the popular newspaper comic strips of the time. Reprint rights to the more popular strips were hard to come by when Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson entered the comic book arena with New Fun Comics in February of 1935. Wheeler-Nicholson was forced to commission all-new material for New Fun (soon to be rechristened More Fun) and its companion magazine New Comics (soon to become better known as Adventure Comics). My first work in comic books was for Wheeler-Nicholson. I wandered into their office to show them my portfolio and they hired me on the spot. They were thrilled with my work and I didn’t know that the enormous amount of money they promised me was just big talk. They gave me a very involved contract. Of course, I was too young to

My dad had a small butcher shop. I hated raw meat, law-breaking didn’t appeal to me, but cartooning looked like something I could learn to do on my own. There was no such medium as comic books when I was growing up. The big thing was newspaper strips. Back in those days, the newspaper cartoonist was a sort of god. The papers had recently discovered that their circulations really depended on strong comic strip features. The news itself had become secondary. The top syndicated cartoonists were pulling in better than a thousand a week at a time when a man could support a family on a weekly salary of $28.00. Cartooning was a pretty notable ambition for a youngster in those days. By the time I was fourteen, the family had moved to Washington Heights. I was hanging around pestering a cartoonist named “Ving” Fuller who had his home and studio in the neighborhood. He’d been an assistant to Billy (Barney Google) DeBeck, done animated cartoons, and was then doing a daily semi-political comic strip for the New York Mirror. I worked as his assistant for a while until the Mirror cut back and let him go. (Two other neighborhood kids came to work for him, too: one was Harry Lampert, a lifelong buddy, who later became the first artist to draw “The Flash” and is now president and founder of the highly regarded Lampert Advertising Agency.) Luckily, I still maintained a contact with the people I’d met on the paper, and could pick up a few dollars here and there as a gofer (go fer this... go fer that). In 1934 I went to work for the Fleischer animation studio as an opaquer. I soon discovered that I could get $5.00 for suggesting an idea for a scenario or $2.50 for a series of gags for a scene. I began

The late, great Sheldon Mayer at his desk, in a 1945 publicity shot by Sol Harrison. [Photo originally printed in Amazing World of DC Comics #5.]

DC Vs. The Justice Society Of America

D C vs.

by Larry Ivie “It was because we didn’t know our audience,” said Sheldon Mayer, the first editor of All-Star Comics, “that the writers and artists of the early ’40s had the greatest freedom to try everything, and most of it sold!” “And the reason,” I explained, “was that each issue had such a variety of stories, at that time, that the things of no interest to us were purchased with the same dime that got us what was!”

(Above) “Making costumes to play the best versions of the JSA characters,” Larry says, “was our second childhood attempt to save them from unpopular changes.” (Below) “After DC ended the series with AllStar #57, we tried to continue it with binders containing old solo stories [clipped] from other titles. The binders contained full-sized prints cut from two extra copies [of each comic]— 5¢ each from back-issue shops— pasted onto sheets of binder paper (on the front side only).” The “All-Star #58 cover” at left utilizes the splash of the Green Lantern/Solomon Grundy encounter from Comic Cavalcade #24 (Dec.-Jan. 1947-48); that issue was to spotlight previously-printed tales of Hop Harrigan, Aquaman, et al. The “All-Star cover” at right (which its artist/writer called “L.I. #8) was done in lightcolored pencil, never intended for reproduction. It evidently included a new, Ivie-drawn story, “The Justice Society’s Arabian Nights Adventure.” “Our single-copy issues,” Larry says, “were drawn on sheets of typing paper folded in half, making four pages per sheet.” [New art ©2000 Larry Ivie; JSA, Hop Harrigan, Aquaman ©2000 DC Comics]

was early 1959, at my desk in a classroom at New York City’s School of Visual Arts. I had had no awareness that Mayer would be the guest professional of the day, so it was by pure chance that what he spotted on my desk, which caused him to pull up a chair to begin a conversation with me, was a drawing of the very characters he had once edited!

“And we were so intoxicated with the success of the whole,” said Mayer, “we never paused to learn the secret only your generation could give us— which was which!”

I was five years old at the time I began making the first independent selections of issues for my parents to buy and read to me, with a few additional years in which the racks offered a variety to choose from that would later be gone. And, during school recesses, we had hundreds of conversations on why we were all buying the issues we were buying.

The year this revealing exchange between different generations finally took place

DC Vs. The Justice Society Of America and a half too late. And, as he looked at the other sample pages of the old JSA characters, he said, “You’ve got both the art and the knowledge that can enable DC to overcome its slump... and make enormous amounts more than it is now. Don’t wait to Larry Ivie: “Perhaps, we finish the inking. Take thought, if the costumes what you’ve got now, of our childhood creative and let them know enthusiasms were prewhat you’ve just told served, the traditions DC me about what they’ve began destroying, in a been doing wrong!” seeming war against the “I tried to,” I said.

OPPORTUNITIES MISSED #1 1956

buyers, leaving them behind in ‘51, could live again through carefullymade home movies!” Some of the JSA-related costumes and artifacts Larry made during the 1940s are depicted in the photographs on the following pages. The item at left, of course, is Starman’s Gravity Rod. [Photo ©2000 Larry Ivie.

As soon as the first issue reviving The Flash appeared, I phoned the editor to see if he’d be interested in a revival of The Justice Society. (I felt it should be done at its peak, with chapters for each character. I wanted to do Hawkman, and knew others who also could produce better art than DC was currently using.)

But he didn’t agree with my prediction that, despite its weaknesses, the new Flash was going to take off, and a JSA revival could do even better. He said he wasn’t interested in another revival until they saw how well the first one did. Why didn’t he realize what, to many, was obvious? So I produced some sample pages of both Superman and Batman, instead, as a foundation for giving those editors the secrets of what could instantly increase sales of their characters. I knew why the kids who had made them so successful had begun to loose interest in 1948, as a sudden tidal wave of bad decision-making seemed to engulf the DC titles. In the next few years, an increasing enthusiasm for re-reading the issues for the “good days,” rather than buying the new stuff, showed there was no loss of interest for the characters, as they had been. And, as long as the familiar titles kept appearing, although no longer as popular, there was hope that soon someone would dash into the classroom to shout, “There are good issues of All-Star, and Superman, and Flash Comics on sale again!” so we could all rush out, after class, to buy out everything in sight. Instead, there were only groans as word spread that our once-beloved characters were being replaced by cowboys! Even those of us who lived in the West thought of all “cowboys,” except the Lone Ranger, as third-rate next to the old Justice Society.

As I, years later, entered the office of Superman editor Mort Weisinger, it seemed strange that there was nothing of Superman in view. I had considered it rather strange, while at the receptionist’s cubicle, to see the edge of the famous painting of Superman jutting out from behind a filing cabinet behind her. Stranger still, the Superman editor didn’t have a single Superman story in his office, other than a clipping in his desk from over a decade before— one of the first under his control— which, after a quick dismissal of my samples, he pulled out to show me what a “good” Superman story was like. Before that, however, he had quickly turned a sign to face the wall. But not before I saw that it read: “Remember, we are writing for 8-yearolds!” The story he showed me was very familiar. I clearly recalled our classroom conversations about it, the day following its appearance, in which it was generally agreed to be the worst Superman story we had ever seen! “How ironic,” said Weisinger, “that Larry’s 1946-47 models of Green Lantern’s original just as we were lantern-shaped ring— and a magical railroad turning things in a lantern. [Photos ©2000 Larry Ivie.] better direction, sales would begin to fall, due to competition from... TELEVISION!” None of us had stopped buying comic books during the early years of TV. Only the titles going in the wrong direction. It was in hopes of eventually finding an editor who could understand what was needed that I finally began the samples for the Justice Society revival I had suggested in ‘56. These included scripts for three issues. The first explained the origins of the members, how they got together (never originally told), and how they were able to suddenly return with new vigor (as had been predicted and explained in an early issue of Wonder Woman). The second script tied up loose ends from the original series. The third set the foundations for a spin-off title, if wanted. It was set twenty years in the future, during a gathering of two groups— the original Justice Society members and their teenage offspring, ready to take over. Planning ahead, quickly, I re-assigned the already drawn introductory page as

The “Nuclear” Wars

These two panels seem to come right after the preceding pair. [From the collection of R.T.] (Below) And this is what one of those panels looks like when the paste-up of the re-designed Nuclear is removed! [Wonder Woman & Nuclear ©2000 DC Comics]

“prequel” to a 1950 issue of Wonder Woman. And there I was prepared to let the matter rest. So, naturally, that’s when some original art from the first Wonder Woman-Nuclear free-for-all turned up! Actually, I don’t recall precisely when I first got hold of photocopies of two panels from the never-published Nuclear intro. But I’m certain that, had I been in possession of them in 1982, I’d have used the scene they depicted in All-Star Squadron #16! To the best of my recollection, the photocopies were sent to me by a young fan and aspiring comic book artist I knew named Richard Howell. Yes, the same Richard Howell who, by 1984, would be penciling an issue or two of All-Star Squadron himself! As you can see from the reproductions on the preceding page, there’s an anomaly or two about those panels: For one thing, Nuclear is wearing two largely different suits of armor in them! In the first panel— the first face-to-face encounter between him and Diana— he’s wearing a tight-fitting headpiece with slits over ears and mouth, and two round holes for the eyes. The armor joints on his arms, the torso armor, boot-lines— just about everything is different from the look in WW #43. In the second panel, however, Nuclear looks exactly as he does in “Nuclear Returns!” Much of this figure is clearly a paste-on, with even the outline of transparent tape showing. In other words, the first panel depicts Nuclear’s original appearance, which was altered later— before the whole story was inexplicably scrapped. But it was nice to know for certain, for the first time, that there had been a first Wonder Woman-Nuclear story! And so matters stood, for over a decade. Then, in the mid-to-late ’90s, I was wandering around some gigantic comics convention or other— probably San Diego or the Heroes Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina— when what do I see pinned up behind a dealer’s table but a pair of H.G. Peter panels of Wonder Woman for sale for $150! This tier of panels showed Nuclear’s armored hand grasping Diana’s bracelets behind her, then trying her up with her own lasso while surmising that its “magic” is “feminine brain magnetism— right?” A weird little speech, which made me wonder if maybe that story hadn’t been written before Dr. Marston left the strip (and this world) in 1947. In both panels, the figures of Nuclear— even his armored hand

and forearm in the first one— were paste-ups. I didn’t think my wife Dann wanted me buying original art at that stage, so I asked the dealer (a friendly fellow whose name, alas, now escapes me) if he could make a photocopy of those panels for me, when he returned home. To my surprise, he handed me the artwork and told me to take it home with me, make copies, then mail it back to him— unless I decided to buy it, of course. I was struck by his generosity, since his action precluded any sale of the art at the convention, and he was loaning it to someone who might well not buy it at all. (Just so you know: Dann retroactively gave me that artwork as a present; it now resides with us in South Carolina.) Only when preparing this article did I finally get around to peeling off the redrawn Nuclear head and torso in the second panel. Underneath were the original helmet and costume. Perhaps the “correction” on the art Rich Howell owned had fallen off, somewhere along the line. I’ve reproduced both versions of that panel with this article. (I didn’t bother to peel the first panel. So sue me.) Mysteries remain, of course. Why was the original Nuclear story scrapped— and the sequel published? (Or did nobody at DC even notice?) Was the earlier story perhaps considered inferior, either in terms of script or art, to the second? (The ending of the sequel is, after all, pretty bad itself.) Were all the corrections on Nuclear’s outfit done by H.G. Peter and his “assistants”? (So ‘twould appear.) As I often say at the end of articles like this, we’ll probably never know, nor will the world stop turning if we don’t. But I suppose I should thank whatever editorial decision or quirk of fate caused that first Wonder Woman-Nuclear match-up not to be published. After all— its absence gave me a great excuse for a fun issue of All-Star Squadron! Next issue: Okay, okay— this time for sure— The Birth of the All-Star Squadron!

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

So – You Want To Collect Comics Fanzines?

So-You Want To Collect

Comics Fanzines? O

ne of my favorite features in the original volume of Alter Ego was #5’s article “So—You Want to Collect Comics?” in 1963. In it author Ed Lahmann blithely rattled of a list of “key issues” (Action #1, Detective #27, etc.) that would make a solid foundation for any comic book collection. (Ed’s article was reprinted in Alter Ego: The Best of the Legendary Comics Fanzine, the nearly out-of-print 1997 volume from Hamster Press.)

In recent years, with the vigorous resurgence of interest in the early days of comics fandom, fanzines from that era are increasingly sought after by collectors. As someone who has nearly as much enthusiasm for comics fanzines as I do for comic books themselves, I’ve long wanted to write a companion piece that would give the same kind of overview for fanzines that Ed did for comics. While my Comic Fandom Archive contains audio tapes, original art, correspondence, photographs, books, videos, and many other artifacts from fandom’s Golden Age in the 1960s, the anchor of the Archive is the 1800 comics fanzines that I’ve been able to amass. They have been by far the most important resource I’ve used in researching the books of fandom history that I’ve published under the aegis of Hamster Press. Fanzines, magazines published on a limited scale by and for other comics fans (the term was originally coined by science-fiction fans of the 1930s and ’40s), offer an incredible array of fascinating material that has been invaluable in documenting not only the progress of fandom, but even that of the professional comics. A good deal of comics’ history— especially the tenor of the times— is documented only in these long out-ofprint small press publications. Those who number themselves among the truest of true believers in the comics medium will want to have a selection of fanzines in their collections. Fanzines also provided a training ground for upcoming talents to gain the skills necessary to produce a professional- quality product. Many of the most prominent writers and artists from comics of the 1970s forward “got their chops” working in amateur publications. Then, too, some very talented folks produced excellent work for fanzines which is well worth enjoying in its own right, even if those folks chose to go into non-comics careers. What constitutes a well-rounded fanzine collection? What are the most essential publications of this type, either due to their quality or the uniqueness of their contents? Over the past few years I have received enough queries of this sort to tell me that the following article will be welcome in many quarters. And, if you are not now interested in this corner of the collecting universe, perhaps you will be by the time you peruse this piece, and Part Two in Alter Ego V3#6. So— you want to collect comics fanzines? Or expand your existing collection into a more or less well-rounded selection? You’ve got a challenge ahead of you! But any collector worth his salt knows that the “thrill of the hunt” is at least half the fun. The first step— perhaps the most important— is to construct a Want List. You’ll naturally accumulate others as you go, but it’s vital to have a clear idea of what you’re seeking: a “collecting goal,” as it were. We know one thing: About 2200 comics-related fanzines were published between 1960 and 1971.

by Bill Schelly All characters and publications © their respective publishers.

That is a fact, documented by John and Tom McGeehan, indexers extraordinaire. Many more arrived as the 1970s progressed. Which are the most desirable? Let’s divide them into categories by format or function, and take them one by one.

Alter Ego #5