Alter Ego #65 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Cardy- Carrying Comics Fanzine

DC & QUALITY ARTIST

NICK CARDY IN THE GOLDEN & SILVER AGES $

6.95

In the USA

No. 65 February 2007

Plus Art & Artifacts By: WILL EISNER NEAL ADAMS JIM APARO CARMINE INFANTINO RAMONA FRADON MURPHY ANDERSON CURT SWAN LILY ORLANDO RENEE JOE IRV NOVICK BOB HAN LEE ELIAS EY SEKOWSKY MIKE SEKOKY & Many More! BONUS:

Vol. 3, No. 65 / February 2007

™

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash

Design & Layout Christopher Day

Consulting Editor John Morrow

FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt Editor Michael T. Gilbert

Editor Emeritus Mike Friedrich

Editorial Honor Roll Jerry G. Bails (founder) Ross Foss, Biljo White

Production Assistant Chris Irving

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

Cover Artist

Writer/Editorial: “The Best of Times... The Worst of Times” . . 2 “When You Do A Lot of Super-Heroes, All You’re Drawing Is Men In Long Underwear” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 But Nick Cardy still talks to Jim Amash about those guys and other things.

The Siegel & Shuster Deal At 30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

Nick Cardy

Murray Bishoff helped get the ball rolling for Superman’s creators back in the mid-1970s.

With Special Thanks to: Jack Adams Heidi Amash David Armstrong Allan Asherman Bob Bailey Mike W. Barr Marty Baumann Mark Beazley Alberto Becattini Spencer Beck Allen & Roz Bellman John Benson Daniel Best Murray Bishoff Bill Black Dominic Bongo Richard Boucher Frank Brunner Mark Burbey Mike Burkey Glen Cadigan Nick Caputo Jim Cardillo Nick Cardy R. Dewey Cassell Bob Cherry John Cogan Ray A. Cuthbert Teresa R. Davidson Michael Dunne Mark Evanier Michael Feldman Shane Foley Jeff Gelb Joe & Frank Giella Janet Gilbert Laura Gjovaag Glenn Greenberg Steve Griffin Darrell Grimes George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck William Harper Heritage Comics Larry Ivie Jonathan G. Jensen Larry Kashdan

Contents

Henry Kujawa Larry Lieber Alan Light Dan Makara Don Mangus Bruce Mason Bob McLeod Sean Menard Clifford Meth Linda Monaco Luis Morales Mario Morales Frank Motler Mark Muller Andy Patterson Lily Renee Charlie Roberts Trina Robbins Herb Rogoff Rich Rubenfeld Constance Schroeder Paul Schroeder Pat Sekowsky Carole Seuling David Siegel Jean Siegel Robin Snyder J. David Spurlock Emilio Squeglio Bhob Stewart David Studham Marc Swayze Richard Deane Taylor Joel Thingvall Dann Thomas Michael Uslan Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Nicholas Viscardi Mike Vosburg Tom Weaver Len Wein Marv Wolfman Lynn Woolley Spiros Xenos Eddy Zeno

The Best “Will” In The World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Another Reinman “Green Lantern” page from that never-published 1940s JSA story!

Hollywood Comes To Hollywood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Golden Age artist Allen Bellman met two Lois Lanes at the 2006 MegaCon!

Comic Crypt: “Oooh…That’s Cheesy!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Michael T. Gilbert on some not-so-gouda comic book covers.

Comic Fandom Archive: Monsters & Heroes At His Beck And Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly tell what little they can about the 1967 Calvin Beck Con.

Tributes To Ernie Schroeder, Dave Cockrum, Mart Nodell, & Andy Warner. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 re: [comments, corrections, & correspondence] . . . . . . . . . . 67 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #124 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, Emilio Squeglio (part 2), and a tribute to artist Tom Laughlin. About Our Cover: The venerable and estimable Nick Cardy painted this cover of himself and a few of the many comic book heroes he’s drawn especially for this issue of Alter Ego. We envy the lucky soul who gets to buy this one off Nick! But what’re you lookin’ at, Batman? [All characters except Nick TM & ©2007 DC Comics.] Above: The pencil sketch for yet another cover drawn by Nick Cardy for a recent publication— in this case, the hardcover Silver Age Teen Titans Archives, Vol. 1. Hope you got paid a little better for that one, old buddy! Thanks to Spencer Beck & Glen Cadigan. [Teen Titans TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Dave Cockrum, Mart Nodell, Bob Laughlin, Ernie Schroeder, & Andy Warner 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: $9 ($11.00 outside the US). Twelve-issue subscriptions:$72 US, $132 Canada, $144 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. ISSN: 1932-6890 FIRST PRINTING.

writer/editorial

“The Best of Times... The Worst of Times”

harlie Dickens had it right… except that it’s probably always both the best and worst of times, depending upon whom you ask. And today’s are no exception.

The best—because it’s a distinct (and even personal) pleasure to spotlight Jim Amash’s nice long interview with artist Nick Cardy, who’s most noted for his artwork (especially covers) at DC during the 1960s and ’70s, but also for his earlier stints at Quality and on the Lady Luck newspaper comic book/strip. Nick is one of the nice guys in our business, as well as a great talent… and it’s a pleasure every year to swap stories with him at the Heroes Con in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hey, Nick—after this interview sees print, you’ll have to conjure up some additional anecdotes, ’cause readers will have heard these already. But I’m sure you can do it! Sadly, however, the past few weeks have been unkind to the comics industry, taking from us a trio of towering figures, each of them singularly important to the field in a different way: Jerry G. Bails, founder of this magazine and of so many other aspects of comics fandom, whose untimely passing this past Thanksgiving was noted in our previous issue, in a last-minute piece… Dave Cockrum, famed for his work on “The Legion of Super-Heroes” and then particularly on the mid-’70s X-Men, for which he co-created Nightcrawler, Storm, and Colossus… and Mart Nodell, one of the last remaining pioneers of the

comic book field, whose “Green Lantern” has proven one of the iconic concepts of the art form. Add to that the fact that we had delayed till this issue tributes to two other recently-departed talents—Ernie Schroeder (who among other things wrote and drew many of the best “Airboy” and “Heap” stories near the end of the Golden Age) and Bob Laughlin (a noted Fawcett artist who passed away last May)—and this issue is, regretfully, far too filled with heartfelt goodbyes to fallen friends and artisans. Still, Alter Ego was conceived in part by Jerry Bails, back in 1961, to honor those who had come before, and what they had done. Marty’s “Green Lantern,” in fact, was one of the first heroes examined in detail in the magazine (by Jerry, as it happens, in ish #3 that selfsame year). And indeed, we’ve already scheduled longer, more detailed tributes to Jerry (in A/E #68), to Dave (in an issue near year’s end), and to Marty (in early 2008)… while Ernie was interviewed in depth for issue #42, three years back. The mission continues… Bestest,

COMING IN MARCH

Spotlight on Bouncin’ BOB POWELL! FROM BLACKHAWK TO DAREDEVIL TO BATMAN!

• Fabulous POWELL cover—featuring Daredevil, Sub-Mariner, The Avenger, Shock Gibson, The Scarlet Arrow, Sheena, Black Cat, The Shadow, et al.—a pulsepounding panorama assembled by MICHAEL T. GILBERT! • “THE PEERLESS POWER OF BOB POWELL!” The life & times & titanic talent of the artist—also showcasing his work on The Hulk, Giant-Man, Cave Girl, Mr. Mystic, Thun’da, Jet Powers, Strong Man, Spirit of 76, Batman bubble gum cards, and more—annotated by ED LANE and the Powell kids—SETH, JOHN, & ROB! Plus related art by WALLY WOOD, HOWARD NOSTRAND, DICK AYERS, JOE SIMON, JACK KIRBY, & others! • “Make Mine MAGAZINE MANAGEMENT!” Editor DAVID GEORGE on MARTIN GOODMAN’s 1960s magazine empire that dwarfed Marvel Comics! Starring MARTIN & CHIP GOODMAN, MARIO (The Godfather) PUZO, BRUCE JAY (Steambath) FRIEDMAN, ERNEST (Shaft) TIDYMAN, GARY FRIEDRICH, DENNIS O’NEIL, ROY THOMAS, & more cheesecake than you can shake DD’s billy-club at! • BLANCHE FAGO talks to JIM AMASH about AL FAGO, VINCE FAGO, Fago Comics, & Charlton’s STEVE DITKO & DICK GIORDANO! • FCA with BOB POWELL, MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, etc.—MICHAEL T. GILBERT on (you guessed it!) BOB POWELL—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $72 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $144 Surface, $192 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

“When You Do A Lot Of Super-Heroes, All You’re Drawing Is Men In Long Underwear” NICK CARDY On Illustrating Comic Books In The Golden & Silver Ages Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

imagine everyone reading this issue already knows who Nick Cardy is and what he’s done, especially since John Coates wrote such a great book on him a few years ago. It turned out to be an easy task, because Nick’s career covers so many bases—and if you need a refresher, a glance at the Checklist on p. 32 will fill you in fast! Unfortunately, we only have a finite number of pages to work with, so we decided to concentrate on Nick’s comic book days—but luckily, a brand new book (see ad on p. 11) deals at length with his newspaper strips, and our sister mag Back Issue #13 recently showcased his 1970s cover art for DC. That leaves us free to concentrate on his work through the mid’70s, which is A/E’s basic franchise, and still leaves us with plenty to cover! So, without further ado, here’s my friend and one of my favorite comic artists (and yours, too, I’ll wager): Nick Cardy! —Jim.

“The Strip That Influenced Me Most Was Hal Foster’s Tarzan” JIM AMASH: Now for the interrogation! When and where were you born? NICK CARDY: October 20, 1920, on the Lower East Side in New York City—on Third Street, between First Avenue and Avenue A in New York City. JA: Gee, couldn’t you pinpoint it a bit more? You probably didn’t hear commercial radio until you were almost a teenager.

When Cardy Carried Carmine (Just Joking, Guys!) Considering all the covers Nick Cardy drew in the 1960s and 1970s for DC editorial director Carmine Infantino, it seemed only fitting to start out with the above photo taken at the 2001 Heroes Con in Charlotte, NC, of Nick holding a snapshot of himself and Carmine taken at the previous con. Both pix by Bob Bailey. He’s flanked here by two of those many covers—for Aquaman #44 (March-April 1969) and Bat Lash #2 (Dec.Jan. 1969)—done for Carmine, and for editors Dick Giordano and Joe Orlando, respectively. With thanks to Mike Burkey & Jonathan G. Jensen for the scans. For more about the Aquaman cover, see p. 22. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

CARDY: Radio was just getting popular when I started doing comics, which was about 13 or 14. I did my drawings at home, even before I became a professional. I listened to The Lone Ranger, Sgt. Preston, The Shadow... anything that had adventure,

Nick Cardy In The Golden & Silver Ages

Wannamaker’s, which was a big department store. I won a couple of awards there. At that time, the strip that influenced me most was Hal Foster’s Tarzan, which was reprinted in Tip Top Comics. And then Foster started Prince Valiant, which I liked. I liked Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon, too, but I favored Prince Valiant.

“And Then Someone Gave Me Will Eisner’s Address” JA: Did the comic book reprints influence you more than the newspaper strips themselves? CARDY: They were in the Sunday paper, and we didn’t get a daily paper. We just got a Sunday paper.

No Genre Left Behind

When I graduated from the School of Industrial Arts. I received the Saint Gauden’s Gold Medal of Honor, because I was the honor art student, but I didn’t get out to receive it because I was backstage with the other guys, painting another mural. I felt bad about it, because my mother and sister were sitting out there. I used to blush red like mad, you know, and I was very self-conscious of that, so I didn’t go out. I should have, I guess.

Nick says one art teacher had him doing murals. Alas, none of those have survived, but we wonder—did they look anything like this pencil rough he did for Warner Bros./The Movie Channel? The finished version appeared as a double-page spread in TV Guide. [©2007 Time-Warner.]

while I drew. You can’t do that with television. I tried that with television once. There was a sequence where a detective was walking to a house, and there was no dialogue, so I felt maybe something was wrong with the TV until I heard his footsteps. JA: Old Time Radio was theatre of the mind, and you had to imagine what was going on in your head. Did radio influence your ability to visualize scenes? CARDY: First of all, my family didn’t have enough money to send me to art school, so I went to the library to look up whatever I needed. And by reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, or some science-fiction, or adult fairytale-type things, I got the sense of storytelling. Later on, I got hooked on movie directors like John Ford, Alfred Hitchcock, and René Claire. If you really want to see some good storytelling, watch the first And Then There Were None [based on the book] by Agatha Christie. JA: So your sense of storytelling came more from the movies and books, rather than radio. CARDY: Yes. Now, in radio—it was storytelling, but it wasn’t something that I was analyzing. After you heard enough shows, you got the rhythm of what they were doing. They’d start with a beginning, and then they’d set up a situation. Then you had the middle sequence, and a happy ending where the villain gets caught. With the Europeans, they end a story in tragedy. I lived in a brownstone building as a youngster. We had a backyard, and I used to play there in the lot. You know, a lot of climbing fences from one lot to another. I used to take a dowel rod from a broom handle. A dowel rod was like the rods they put in the closets to hang your clothes, but they were a little thinner. I’d take a broken broom handle and a little penknife that had two blades, and carve an image. When I was ten, I carved a male and a female back-to-back, locking arms, from the handle of a dowel rod. I still have the thing. [laughs] I made all kinds of things. In art class, our teacher had another student and me do murals for the school. We did the murals of the different things that happened in the classroom. I did one concerning sports, and he did another one that we both worked on in oil. A major New York newspaper printed those two posters. And prior to that, they’d run art contests for Sam

I went to school with Al Plastino and Gil Kane. The ventriloquist Paul Winchell was at the school, too. Elizabeth Murray was my art teacher. She liked my work, but knew I didn’t have any money, so she bought me this thick book that had illustrations by Michelangelo and said, “You should do this.” There was a Boy’s Club where I took art classes. A teacher said, “Here, copy this,” and he gave me a Raphael painting of a child in a Madonna’s lap. While I was at the Boy’s Club, I won three 1st Prize awards for sculpture, and some other prizes for life drawing. The Literary Digest magazine wrote an article about me and printed some of my drawings. And so I had a lot of build-up, in the sense that they said I could sculpt, which gave me some confidence. After I finished high school, I got a job with an advertising agency. While I was there, I did more or less clean-up work and errand-running. They had an illustrator up there that was doing some nice water colors and I learned from him. His name was Weaver. And then someone gave me Will Eisner’s address. The first person you saw when you came in was Lou Fine. Right next to him was George Tuska—next to him was someone else—and there was Charlie Sultan. Bob Powell was there, too. Charlie Sultan drew the most beautiful cars I’ve ever seen. And then sometimes he’d do a head shot, and we used to call it “faking,” where he did the eyes and the profile shape, and then he’d cast a shadow from the left side of his face, going across his nose, and the lower part of his face was black, so it’s very dramatic. [mutual chuckling] In those days, when they couldn’t draw something, they’d put a lot of hay lines over it and use deep shadows. I told the guys he was doing some beautiful cars and they were sort-of grinning. I found out he took car ads out of the newspapers and pasted them in, and they came out beautifully. JA: Were Eisner and Iger still partners? CARDY: Yes. What happened was they were separating. Eisner had his own group, because he was doing books for Quality. Jerry Iger had

“All You’re Drawing Is Men In Long Underwear”

other guys coming in who were also doing their books. You see. Eisner hired me, and sent me to work with Jerry. Jerry’s place was on 45th Street. It was a new place, it had cement floors, and there were about four or five guys sitting along the window with their tables. And he said that, “Well, you know, we’re expecting tabarets any time. But in the meanwhile, why don’t you go to the grocery store, and get an orange crate.” So I got an orange crate. The orange crate was about Auld Acquaintances 27 or 30 inches high with a little wooden Nick caught up with his old friends in later years. (Left:) Nick with George Tuska, whom he met at the Iger & divider in it. It had cheap slats on it, Eisner shop circa 1939—this time at the 2003 Heroes Con. Photo by Bob Bailey. (Right:) Mr. C. with Will Eisner because they used to import oranges and Comic Buyer’s Guide editor Maggie Thompson, San Diego, 2000. Pic courtesy of Nick; photographer from California or wherever. And so you unknown. (For photos of Jerry Iger of Eisner & Iger, see A/E #21.) took all the debris off [mutual chuckling] and you put your art supplies drew it. There was no one coming in telling you what or how to draw. on top of it. After you’re working there for a while, you could see that the other guys’ crates had ink dropped on them. They were black and “Nick, You’ll Be Going To Work With dirty, so they probably were waiting for tabarets, too, but they never Bill Eisner Now” got them. [laughs] Iger started me out at $18 a week. After a while, he called me aside with this little grin. He had a little puffed lower lip, so when he talked, it was like someone putting their tongue under their lower lip. He was a very short, slight man who wore a thin mustache. He gave me an envelope and said with a smile, “There’s a surprise. You got a raise.” It was a 50¢ raise. [laughter] JA: Were you expected to turn out a certain number of pages for that $18 a week?

JA: Since you were fairly young when you started there, would any people in the shop give you pointers or advice? CARDY: No, that happened when I went up to Eisner’s studio. Bob Powell gave me advice at that time on procedure, page size, lettering space, etc. In 1940, Eisner started doing a Sunday supplement. It was a comic book that went with the Sunday papers. It had The Spirit, Mr. Mystic, and Lady Luck. Chuck Mazoujian was doing Lady Luck when he was drafted into the Army. Iger told me, “Nick, you’ll be going to work with Bill Eisner now.”

CARDY: Well, they gave me a story and I did them as fast as I could. I did “Quicksilver,” which was one of my first assignments—and then I did a few other characters, like “Lee Preston,” “Samar,” and “Wonder Boy.” Somewhere along the line, I also did a “Blue Beetle,” which was published by Victor Fox. Fox and Quality farmed out their work to Eisner & Iger. Iger got some of the work, but Eisner had control of the major titles, like National, Smash, etc. Lou Fine and all the group did that. JA: Were you handed model sheets when you started a different feature? CARDY: No, they must have given me a page that somebody else did, because I had a copy of the costume. And then I did it. At that time, Lou Fine had done some of the figures. I don’t know if he did it for “Quicksilver,” but I tried to emulate the way he did it. JA: You weren’t told to emulate Fine’s work, were you? CARDY: They gave you a script, and you

Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick—Jack Be Silver! The Quality hero Quicksilver—in a 2001 drawing we’ve printed before—eyes the Cardy splash from Quality’s National Comics #16 (Oct. 1941). Quicksilver, as created originally by Jack Cole, was less a super-speedster than a super-acrobat. Today, of course, he’s been rechristened Max Mercury at DC to avoid conflict with Marvel’s later mutant hero. Scan courtesy of Bruce Mason. [Quicksilver TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

The Siegel & Shuster Deal At 30 One Of Fandom’s Pioneering Columnists On The Superman Settlement

A/E

by Murray Bishoff

EDITOR’S NOTE: Men Of Flesh—And Man Of Steel Alter Ego #56 featured a previouslyWriter Jerry Siegel looks over artist Joe Shuster’s shoulder in a photo from the Nov. 1941 issue of unpublished 1975 Cornet, then a popular digest-sized magazine… interview by Alan Light and Murray juxtaposed with a powerful montage of Superman Bishoff of Jerry Siegel and his family, heads drawn by artist supreme Curt Swan. Surely, conducted only a few months before the having lost all rights to their co-creation, Jerry historic agreement between DC Comics on and Joe must’ve felt all the emotions expressed the one hand, and Jerry Siegel and Joe over the years. Photo courtesy of Michael Feldman; Shuster on the other, which finally gave a art photocopy courtesy of Joe & Frank Giella. lifetime pension to the co-creators of [Art ©2007 DC Comics; photo ©2007 the respective Superman. Murray wrote this contextual copyright holders.] piece for A/E #56, but there was no room for it in that issue, so we’re pleased to present it at this time. Again, I must stress here, as I did in #56, that the National/DC regime which Siegel and Shuster sued in 1947 was not composed of the same people who were in charge in the mid-1970s. And Murray is certainly correct in his assumption that Carmine Infantino, publisher of National/DC at the time the controversy erupted anew, had no authority to make any settlement with the pair, and neither his nor any subsequent DC administration is to be considered as indicted in any way by this article. In addition, while convinced of the essential rightness of Siegel & Shuster's argument, and concurring that the settlement was a landmark instance of (belated) justice, we nonetheless recognize that there are other aspects of the case not dealt with in Murray's piece; and we stand committed to air those arguments, as well, if someone wishes to make them.

The Buyer’s Guide For Comics Fandom It hardly seems possible that 30 years have passed since the settlement between DC Comics and Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. It’s just as unbelievable that only 40 years ago the United States turned the corner on racial prejudice when Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1965. These were pivotal moments in history, passing as we barely recognized them. Looking back, there was even more, for 1975 was the year comics fandom grew up. Think about it. In terms of creation, it was the year Otto Binder, James Blish, Vaughn Bodé, and Moe Howard died, the year of the fifth Overstreet Price Guide. You could still buy a decent Fantastic Four #1 for $125. Alan Light and I were at ground zero for fan activity, The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom. In its fourth year, TBG became the door that opened fandom into a national force, a body that interacted in a language that anyone could understand––money—-and a body that generated ideas that had to be reckoned with on a national stage.

With issue #87 (cover date July 18, 1975, but dated two weeks after publication), TBG went weekly, up from a twice-a-month tabloid. The number of pages published in TBG were determined by what advertisers submitted, and they had found that Alan Light had indeed built a better mousetrap. Ads poured in at such a rate that issues got too big, and it only made sense to print them faster. The story is in the numbers: in the issues published in calendar year 1975 (#75, dated Feb. 1, 1975, to #113, dated Jan. 16, 1976), The Buyer’s Guide published 2,708 tabloid pages, compared to 1,532 in 1974 (issues #50-74). Nothing like that had ever occurred before in the history of comics fandom. The sheer volume of trade was at unprecedented levels, and those who were in the business of producing comic books began to think seriously about the fan market, now that they could see it, and touch it. Alan Light even negotiated a full-page ad in DC Comics for TBG, a heretofore unheard-of proposition for mere comics fans; and, by the end of the year, TBG had over 8,000 paid subscribers. Even in its heyday, the Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector, the fanzine that pioneered advertising to collectors, had never topped 3,000 subscribers.

The Sigel & Shuster Deal At 30

This was a whole new world. Comic conventions had begun proliferating in the mid-’70s, popping up all over the country. Now they didn’t have to rely on regional audiences. There was a way to attract fans and dealers from anywhere in the country. And 1975 was the biggest year anyone had yet seen. The fan press had been maturing for several years, the Youth Shines A “Light” standard of writing set early by Publisher Alan Light (left) and Alter Ego and others settling columnist Murray Bishoff proudly peruse down through the layers of the then-latest 1970s issue of The Buyer’s Guide for Comics Fandom, which would “gosh-wow” ruminations by metamorphose, after Light sold it, into kids into those who were trying today’s Comic Buyer’s Guide. Photo to make a statement. More and courtesy of Alan. Not all that much more, fan writers had a purpose, younger were the “Jerry and Joe” to explore, critique, and improve who saved the Earth from aliens in both the comics they loved and “If Superman Didn’t Exist…” in Action their ability to talk about them. I Comics #554 (April 1984)—by creating had pioneered convention Superman. This modern classic was reporting in TBG, reporting scripted by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Gil Kane; thanks to panel discussions and market Bob Cherry for the scans. trends, bringing photos back. [Action art ©2007 DC Comics.] Others followed with details on their shows, especially photos. More and more, the faces of comics creators were appearing in print. The comics companies had released news for years to fanzines. Now it was getting out more consistently, as fanzines survived beyond a few issues. When TBG went from monthly to twice a month, then weekly, it was like an information earthquake, like the invention of the telephone. News that before could take two to eight weeks to circulate was now suddenly in front of the public nationally in a matter of days. Under Post Office standards, Alan had to fill 25% of TBG with nonad material to meet second-class qualifications. He was not only running columns by Don and Maggie Thompson, Marty Greim, Dave McDonnell, Don Rosa, myself as the in-house news column, and others, but also printing newspaper clippings about comics, cartoonists, and nostalgia from around the country. With its ads, columns, newspaper pieces, letters to the editor, and breaking news, TBG became a real newspaper for fandom. Rereading that year’s issues today tells strikingly what was going on nationwide, a remarkable record that really needs to be put on microfilm or DVD and made available again. On top of that, Alan bought a pile of Fawcett Comics story proofs at a convention and reprinted them, the first look a new generation had at many Golden Age stories. Adding new comics stories by Alan Hanley and other fan artists, he created a collectible in TBG, though we hardly recognized it at the time.

Breaking News In the midst of this earthquake of information and tsunami of fan activity came the stories we wrote about. There is legislation across the country called Sunshine Laws, meant to force disclosure of public meetings. The effect of such laws is that, when some things reach the light of day, the knowledge of them hits like a lightning bolt. Nothing is the same after that. Thus it was with the story of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The world may not have changed overnight, but once the fire was lit, nothing could stop it as it spread.

Someone whose identity will never be known mailed to TBG a photocopy of a legal journal’s documentation of the end of Siegel and Shuster’s long-running lawsuit against DC over the Superman copyright. I got that piece of paper. Here is what I wrote, the first that anybody knew of what had been going on with Siegel and Shuster, and the only published account of the story anywhere (from TBG #79, dated April 1, 1975, p. 25): “Another chapter in the sad story of how Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster got nothing for Superman has passed. For many years the two have co-renewed the copyrights to the Superman comic strip, having given up on the comic book rights as the sole property of National. National contested the Siegel-Shuster renewal, and all three went to court to have the case resolved once and for all. “After one hearing and an appeal, the decision came against Siegel and Shuster for another painful reason. In 1947 Siegel and Shuster had attempted to annul their contracts with National and had failed because in the beginning the team had signed contracts giving National “exclusive rights to the use of the (Superman) characters and story.” (I’m quoting from the Bureau of National Affairs Patent, Trademark and Copyright Journal #209.) This “exclusiveness” did not say anything about copyright renewals, but it generally applies. The New York State Supreme Court in 1947 refused to regard Superman as a product of “work for hire” because he had been created far in advance of his association with National. Under the “work for hire” law, all renewal rights immediately belong to the employer. The court finally ruled against the creators “only on the ground that the 1947 state court action, in interpreting the agreements between the parties, precludes the plaintiffs from contesting ever again that all rights in Superman,

Hollywood Comes To Hollywood Superman Stars Shine With Comic Book Artists At Florida SuperCon by Allen Bellman

DITOR’S NOTE: Allen Bellman was an artist for Timely/Marvel (mostly), as well as for Lev Gleason and Charlton, from 1943 through the mid-1950s, as detailed in the in-depth interview conducted by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo in Alter Ego #32. We’ve asked Allen to share his various memories and doings with us from time to time—and this, we’re happy to say, is one of those times. There’ll be others.

It all began when I received a phone call from a woman who was a freelance writer, wanting to interview me about my comic book background. We arranged a time and date. She arrived a little late, bringing with her a young man in his twenties. It didn’t take long for me to realized this gentleman was a comic book fan who had just wanted to meet a live comic book artist from the past. Being the nice guy that I am, I went along with this, even autographing his Marvel comic books and honoring his request to pose with me for a photograph. It turns out he gives such autographed books away at various conventions and comics stores.

Bell(man), Dick, & Candle Allen Bellman standing next to artist (and former DC Comics managing editor and Charlton editor) Dick Giordano at the SuperCon, held in Hollywood, Florida, on November 3-5, 2006. Below are some of the recent pencil sketches of a blazing Human Torch, Cap, and Namor that Allen took to the SuperCon, which were printed as a montage in connection with a newspaper article. Photo by Roz Bellman. [Human Torch, SubMariner, & Captain America TM & ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Because of this young couple, I was invited to participate in a forthcoming SuperCon to be held here in Hollywood, Florida, as this young man knew Mike Broder, the promoter of the upcoming event. This was followed by a call from the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, a Chicago Tribune publication asking me for an interview. What followed prior to the SuperCon was a great story in the Sunday edition of the TV and entertainment section. They reproduced some of my Timely pages on the cover, along with a heavy-font “BELLMAN RETURNS!!” (with apologies to Michael Uslan of Batman Returns fame). They referred to me as a legend. Stan Lee, would you kindly move over, just a little. My wife and I arranged to stay at the Hollywood Beach Resort for the three days, as this was where the convention was to be held. I had a large table in the company of some comic book greats, which included Dick Giordano, Pablo Marcos, Bob Layton, Alex Saviuk, Ted McKeever—and let’s not forget Allen Bellman. Of course, there was also Margot Kidder, who portrayed Lois Lane with the late

The Bellman Always Rings Twice “Bellman Returns!!” So shrieks the cover of the magazine section of the Oct. 29, 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, which spotlighted some of the work Allen did in the 1950s for Timely/Marvel. Hmm… if Ye Editor remembers correctly, jazzman Chick Corea, mentioned at the bottom of the cover, also has a Marvel connection. Didn’t he take part in the January 1972 Evening with Stan Lee at Carnegie Hall? [Art ©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Hollywood Comes To Hollywood

If It’d Been A Green Lantern Movie, They Could’ve Called Him Jack O’Lantern Jack O’Halloran as a super-villain from the Phantom Zone in the 1980 movie Superman II—and at the 2006 SuperCon, as snapped by Allen Bellman. [Movie still ©2007 Time-Warner.]

Christopher Reeve. And who can forget Noel Neill, who had played Lois in the longrunning television series? Then there was Jack O’Halloran, who co-starred in Superman I & II, along with Kidder and Reeve. O’Halloran’s screen credits include Farewell, My Lovely with Robert Mitchum, the 1977 version of King Kong, Dragnet in 1987, The Flintstones, and a host of other films.

Generations Allen with his twin granddaughters Jeaneen (left) and Doreen (right). Both are well-known artists in Kentucky. Photo by Roz Bellman.

Hollywood, Florida, has a boardwalk with restaurants and gift shops which we took advantage of while they were setting up in a large hall of the hotel on Friday. The next day was Showtime, and it didn’t take long for the people to start arriving. I had brought many pencil sketches of Marvel characters, and did not have a problem selling them. I found that there was no need to ink or color my work. Gene Colan is very successful in selling his tight pencil sketches at many of the convention he attends. The article on my past with Timely/Marvel and the names of comic book and movie star greats, along with a former wrestler known as The Iron Sheik, brought many people to the Con, hoping to meet those they knew from movies and comics.

My twin granddaughters, artists in their own right, made the trip to Florida from Louisville, Kentucky, to be with Roz and me. They have drawn two Kentucky Derby posters and PGA posters, and both have donated their work, which has brought many dollars to their favorite charities. Marv Hamlisch, Barbra Streisand’s musical arranger [also the co-writer of the song “The Way We Were,” the music for A Chorus Line, et al.], purchased one of Jeaneen’s paintings when it was on exhibit in The Hamptons in New York. Jeaneen suspects that it was a wedding gift for Barbra Streisand, who was to be married at the time. Jeaneen’s images hang in well-known art galleries in Florida, New York, Carmel (California), and elsewhere, while Doreen’s commercial accounts keep her busy as she works from her studio in Louisville. At one time in their lives, they wanted to be comic book artists, and because of their styles I know they could do it. Getting back to the Con: I approached Margot Kidder, with writing this article in mind, and asked her if she would pose with me. At first she balked, asking me to buy her autographed photo for $20. I looked her straight in the eye and stated that professional courtesy was in order here. I then explained why I wanted the photograph. That did it. Sitting next to her was Noel Neill, Lois Lane in the TV series starring George Reeves in the 1950s. (Strange that both important Superman actors had virtually the same last name, and both met tragic deaths in the prime of their lives.) Neill gladly posed for a picture with me. It had never dawned on me in my early years that I would have the pleasure of meeting these two fine ladies at the same time.

…And More Generations! (Left:) The ever-gracious Noel Neill poses for Allen’s camera at the SuperCon. Noel, of course, was the very first actress to play Lois Lane in a visual medium (following Joan Alexander on the Superman radio show), portraying the reporter in the Columbia movie serials Superman and Atom Man vs. Superman opposite Kirk Alyn as the Man of Steel, before George Reeves inherited the role. Phyllis Coates became the first TV Lois, but by the second season Noel was playing Lois again—and hers remains the image most people think of when they recall the TV series. When Ye Editor was located near her at a one-day convention in South Carolina a couple of years back, he was amazed that the indefatigable Ms. Neill stood the whole time, signing autographs and being perhaps the friendliest face most of the fans had ever seen! (Right:) Margot Kidder, the memorable Lois of the Christopher Reeve Superman films, poses with Allen, who’s drawn a super-hero or two of his own in his day. Hey, Allen—why didn’t you take a photo of the two great Lois Lanes together? Did anybody? Photo by Roz Bellman.

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt!

Oooh, That’s Cheesy! by Michael T. Gilbert

This Cover? Not So Gouda!

he only thing cheesier than a stick-figure cover is, well, no cover at all! And in late 1950, when Lev Gleason’s Daredevil #82 hit the stands, that’s exactly what the kiddies got. Yep, instead of seeing The Little Wise Guys clonking some crook, the readers were treated to a tiny box of type set into a girly-pink cover. Nowadays, you’d call that high-concept. Back then, it was just a big screw-up! So what happened? Who knows? Maybe some artist missed his deadline or the art got lost in the mail. But editor Charles Biro was clearly against the wall with this one. The presses were about to roll, and Charlie didn’t have a cover. What to do? Well, in this case Biro (or co-editor Bob Wood) decided to coverfeature a snappy “Scramblehead” contest—in microscopic type, no less! Did they think larger lettering would be too readable?

So what was “Scramblehead”? Basically a cheesy jigsaw puzzle featuring cut-up pictures of the comic’s kid heroes. The readers could win prizes by snipping the sections out of the comic and pasting them together. The readers were then told to send in the glued pictures along with a 25-word letter “stating why you like the Gleason-Biro-Wood comics best of all.” Cheesy, huh? Me, I like the Gleason-Biro-Wood comics best of all ‘cause they don’t have scary pitchers on the cover! In case you can’t read the type in the box, it says: See Inside Page 11 – “ginzambo flexojo!” For Your Big Chance To Win $100.00. What is Scramblehead? Buy This Issue Quickly! It May Prove To Your Advantage! Is it just me, or does that read like one of those poorly-translated Japanese instructional booklets that tell you how to set up your clockradio? By the way, I’ve tried scrambling and unscrambling the words on the cover—with no luck. So I’m starting my own contest. Go ahead, figure out what “ginzambo flexojo!” means, then send me the answer along with a 25-word letter stating why you love “Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt” best of all. The best entry gets a signed Mr. Monster comic. Nothin’ cheesy about that!

Oooh, That’s Cheesy!

Blue Cheese!! Now what could stack up to a blank cover-illo in the cheesy sweepstakes? How about the “Blue Streak” page at right, sent to me by Golden Age fan supreme Richard Boucher? It may look like a splash page, but it’s actually a cover! Richard explains that, in their final days, Golden Age publisher Holyoke produced a series of cheap Holyoke One-Shot reprints, recycled from comic stories published years earlier. As if this wasn’t bad enough, they also reworked old splash pages like this “Blue Streak” intro taken from Crash Comics #2 and turned them into new covers. Here, the lettering has been removed from the caption and word balloon in panel 1, and “No. 8 - 10¢” and the word “Comics” were squeezed in under the logo. So why not put the price and issuenumber in the empty word balloons? Not cheesy enough, I guess. Worse, the kids who plunked down dimes for one hero would sometimes find a different one reprinted inside. In this case, this “Blue Streak” comic actually featured “Strongman.” Hey, maybe the comic got its name from kids cursing a blue streak after falling for the ol’ bait-and-switch! Cheesy! Cheesy! Cheesy!

The art above is actually the cover of Holyoke One-Shot #8 from 1944-45. It actually reprinted a “Strongman” story from Crash Comics #2 (June 1940). Only thing is, we had a better copy of the cover of Crash #1 than we did of #2—so we reproduced it instead! Who says we can’t get into the spirit of cheesiness? [©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

Emilio Squeglio Adventures–Part II The Fawcett Staff Artist Is Back—And In His Own Words! Transcribed & Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

s detailed in our previous issue, Emilio Squeglio was a staff artist for Fawcett Publications from 1947 through 1955— working primarily, for the first several years, on Fawcett’s line of bestselling comic books. He was interviewed in depth by Jim Amash in Alter Ego #41, but here he speaks entirely for himself. Last time out, he voiced his own views on the Superman-Captain Marvel lawsuit and other such matters. This time, he talks of his post-comics work, starting with his stint on Fawcett’s other magazines—but also reminisces some more about the comics. —PCH.

True Facts After working on comics page corrections at Fawcett for more than six years, things finally came to an end in 1953. Al Allard called everybody into his office and told us the company was going to stop publishing comic books [because of the settlement of Superman-DC’s lawsuit over copyright infringement]. A lot of the guys left because they wanted to stay in comics. But, during my years there, I had gotten a taste of Fawcett’s advertising department, and it interested me. At the time I thought, “I still got a job here if I want it… it’s a nice company, nice people … why go wander the streets when I have a job here?” So I stayed briefly with Al Pauly in the advertising department. But by late ’53 I got the yearning to work on the magazines. I went up to see Al Allard and told him I’d like to try magazine work, since I’d been studying design at Pratt Institute during the evenings. Al said, “Okay, if you want to try it, I’ll put you on one of our magazines.” A few days later Al called me and said he had an opening on one of the detective magazines, True Police Cases. And that’s when I switched to magazines. I started doing page layouts, and also worked on other detective magazines—I was able to lay out an issue in just a couple of days. Al liked how I handled pictures in layouts. I also started working on some True magazine spin-offs, auto magazines, etc. One day in ’54 he asked me to go up and work on True magazine in Frank Taggart’s office. After a month working on True, Al informed me that Frank wasn’t coming back. “He’s very sick,” Al said. “He’s had a nervous breakdown. Go empty out Frank’s desk … you’re now officially on True.” I stayed with the magazine until late ‘55, working with Norman Kent, the magazine’s art editor. He was also an artist … a very art gallery-type of guy. He used to do woodcuts and linoleum cuts, and once gave me a set of cutting tools for Christmas and taught me how to do woodcuts. (I tried everything in art because I

From Super-Heroes To Sleuths (Above:) Maybe when the World’s Mightiest Mortal triumphed as usual over Dr. Sivana at the end of “The Stolen Shazam Powers” in Captain Marvel Adventures #144 (May 1953), it might’ve looked as if Cap’s fan club was getting bigger and bigger and bigger—but only half a year (and six issues) later, Cap and Fawcett comics both bit the dust. Art by C.C. Beck. [Captain Marvel TM & ©2007 DC Comics.] (Left:) Luckily, though, Emilio had a parachute! Here’s he’s seen (on left in photo) with Phil Cammerata, art editor of Fawcett’s detective magazines, in the early 1950s. It was at this time that Emilio left the advertising department and joined the magazine division. All photos in this section courtesy of Emilio.

wanted to see what I liked, which was most things… except computers!) Len Bowen was one of the editors when I started at True. He was a nice man who was much older than me. He used to visit a bar on 6th Avenue every morning before work and tank up until 9 o’clock—then he’d come into Fawcett completely stoned. Yet he always knew what he was doing, and did his best work while under the influence.

Emilio Squeglio Adventures—Part II

But I was now married, had a child on the way, and had to think long-term about my career. As much as I loved working on True, I couldn’t die there. I felt I had gone as far as I could with the company. I first broke the news to True editor Bill Kennedy. He didn’t want me to leave and tried to convince me to stay, but he understood about me wanting to further my career. “I wish you all the best, Emilio,” he said. “But remember one thing: if you don’t like those bums over there, you come back here!” Then I went up to see Al Allard. “Emilio, why do you want to leave?” Al asked, leaning back in his chair.

To Thine Own Self Be True Emilio in 1954 with John Culin, design partner for True magazine, a Fawcett publication. At right is a True cover done by another former Fawcett comics artist—Richard Deane Taylor—for the magazine’s Nov. 1956 issue, done for art director Al Allard. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]

True had beautiful illustrations, and that’s when I began meet so many great artists. The one who left the greatest impression on me was Norman Rockwell. What a gentleman he was! I was up at his place a few times. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rockwell!” I said when I first shook his hand. “Emilio … please … Mr. Rockwell was my dad. I’m Norman! Would you like to see my studio?” In his studio I saw all the original paintings he did for the Saturday Evening Post. I had lunch in his kitchen with him and his wife.

“I don’t,” I said, “but it would further my career. American Artist is a good magazine. I love the art field and I’d be closer to the business and to the artists.”

“Okay,” Al replied, “I’m not going to try to convince you to stay, but remember: if they as much raise an eyebrow with anything you’re doing or treat you bad, then you tell them to go to hell and come back here. You’ll always have a job here.” I thought it was wonderful for him to say that. I always respected Al as being a fair and honest guy. On my last day at Fawcett, Bill Kennedy said to me, “Look, in

One day at work, Norman Kent came in and told me that he had just been let go from True. A few weeks after Norman had left, I got a call from him asking if we could have lunch together.

American Artist During lunch, Norman Kent told me he was taking over editorship of American Artist magazine: “I need an art director, and I’d like you to come over with me.” So here I was, associate art editor of True, one of the best magazines in the business, and he asks me to be the art director at American Artist. It was like a whirlwind. I thought about it for maybe five minutes and then said, “Okay!” I gave Fawcett a two-week notice. I hated to leave them, because Fawcett was an absolute dream company to work for. The Fawcetts were just plain wonderful with their birthday cards, Christmas bonuses, and everything … and all their employees were wonderful, too, so it wasn’t easy for me to leave.

From One American Artist To Another The cover of the Jan. 1961 issue of American Artist, the sixth “Annual Buyer’s Guide” issue, as designed by Emilio. The July 1955 photo of Emilio at right, taken when he joined that magazine, was used therein to introduce him to readers as its new art director. [Art ©2007 the respective copyright holders.]