Alter Ego #67 by TwoMorrows Publishing

Roy Thomas’ Demanding Comics Fanzine

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No. 67 April 2007

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Vol. 3, No. 67 / April 2007

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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

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

Editor Emeritus

Contents

Mike Friedrich

Production Assistant Chris Irving

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

In Memoriam: Leave It To Bob Oksner! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 “My Women Had Saturday Night Bodies And Sunday School Faces” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Bob Oksner talks to Jim Amash about drawing Angels, Apes, & everything in between.

The Powell/Eisner/Arnold Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Cover Artist Bob Oksner (with help from Bill Morrison)

Roy Thomas examines vintage letters from Bob Powell, Will Eisner, & Busy Arnold.

Cover Colorist

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The [Bob] Powell Family Album! Part II. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Tom Ziuko

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Michael Ambrose Miki Annamanthadoo Marty Arbunich Dick Arnold Bob Bailey Jean Bails Mike W. Barr Alberto Becattini Allen & Roz Bellman Jack Bender Ron Berger Alyssen Bills Dominic Bongo Craig Delich Al Dellinges Jay Disbrow Don Markstein’s Toonpedia Bill DuBay Harlan Ellison Ron Frantz Janet Gilbert Kathleen Glosan Andreas Gottschlich Grand Comic Book Database George Hagenauer Jennifer Hamerlinck Irwin Hasen Fred Hembeck Heritage Comics Al Jaffee

Jonathan G. Jensen Denis Kitchen Ed Lane Karen Lane Dan Makra Jose Marzan, Jr. Bruce Mason Fran Matera Scotty Moore Brian K. Morris Bill Morrison Ken Nadle Kevin Nowlan Bob Oksner Joe Petrilak John Powell Kyle Powell Rob Powell Seth Powell Hart Rieckoff Dorothy Schaffenberger Jeff Smith Anthony Snyder Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Dr. Michael J. Vassallo Greg Vondruska Hames Ware Morris Weiss Alex Wright Cat Yronwode Eddy Zeno

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Bob Oksner, Sam Burlockoff, & Joe Gill

More photos & art featuring the Golden/Silver Age artist—continued from last issue.

Marty Arbunich And Bill DuBay Remember. . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Two prominent 1960s fans interviewed by Bill Schelly for the Comic Fandom Archive.

Tributes to Sam Burlockoff & Joe Gill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 re: [comments, correspondence, & corrections] . . . . . . . . . 71 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #126 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Paul Hamerlinck presents Jeff (Bone, Monster Society) Smith, a Marc Swayze comic strip, and a feisty essay by C.C. Beck. About Our Cover: This issue’s spotlight falls on Golden/Silver Age artist Bob Oksner, who’s noted more for drawing humor comics and beautiful women than super-heroes… “Supergirl” to the contrary notwithstanding. But recently I got hold of a photocopy of the original art of his cover for Adventure Comics #423 (Sept. 1972), on which the Maid of Steel crashes a meeting of the Justice League of America—literally. When I mentioned to Bill Morrison that I hoped to use that art as the cover of this issue of Alter Ego, but with Binky (from a 1948 issue of Leave It to Binky) and the late-1960s Angel and the Ape tossed into the mix, the Bongo Comics editor—though also busy with producing duties on an obscure little show called The Simpsons—volunteered to find just the right Oksner poses of those three and add them to the scene. He did it, too—and beautifully! Turns out Bill’s as big a Bob Oksner fan as are several other collectors who sent us a gaggle of goodies by the artist! Thanks a heap, Bill! 1950s photo courtesy of Ken Nadle. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.] Above: Along with other scans of original and even never-published art you’ll admire in the pages that follow, pro artist Kevin Nowlan e-mailed us this scan of a penciled Supergirl figure by Bob Oksner, from the backside of a page from Adventure Comics #414 (Jan. 1972). Kevin writes: “It looks like he sometimes used a light box to refine his drawings in reverse.” [©2007 DC Comics.] 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.

In Memoriam—& In Celebration

Leave It To BOB OKSNER!

ob Oksner passed away on February 18, 2007… while this issue of Alter Ego, celebrating certain aspects of his life and achievements, was in the final stages of preparation. He was four months past his 90th birthday. I’ve enjoyed his work since long before I knew who drew those early issues of Leave It to Binky, one of the better Archie-style titles of the late 1940s. As a youngster in the 1940s and ’50s, I must have purchased dozens, maybe hundreds, of comic books containing Oksner art, since he drew in so many genres: teenage humor (Binky)… licensed-celebrity humor (Bob Hope, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Sgt. Bilko, Miss Beverly Hills of Hollywood—even, Lord help me, Miss Melody Lane of Broadway)… science-fiction (Strange Adventures, Mystery in Space)… and of course Golden Age superheroes (one “Hawkman” and a “JSA” chapter in All-Star Comics #38, in addition to inking some “Flash” and “Green Lantern”). As an adult, I continued to admire his output, particularly the zany “Angel and the Ape.” While he’s probably right when he says, in this issue’s interview with Jim Amash, that super-heroes weren’t his strongest suit—and he candidly admits that may even be one reason he didn’t like drawing them—he was more than up to the task. His contributions to the “Supergirl” series are especially noteworthy… and when I first ran across the Supergirl/JLA cover of Adventure Comics #423 which became the basis of this month’s A/E cover, I fleetingly thought it might consist of Irv Novick pencils under Dick Giordano inks. In his own way, Bob Oksner could do it all.

I don’t believe Bob and I ever met, but I enjoyed our few brief phone conversations over the past year. He was full of life and spirit, for a guy rounding out his ninth decade, and quite enthusiastic about the upcoming interview, volunteering to look over any art sent him, with an eye toward whether he’d done it or not. Jim and I took him up on that. In fact, the morning Mrs. Oksner phoned to tell me Bob had gone into the hospital some days before, I was on the verge of calling him to ask about a feature called “Kid Click” which I’d found in a 1944 issue of the obscure Camera Comics. I had mailed him photocopies of the 4-pager, since Jerry Bails’ online Who’s Who attributes some “Kid Click” to him, and I wondered if it was his work—admittedly, only if it had been batted out on a bad day. Mrs. Oksner informed me that, right before he went into the hospital, Bob asked her to call and tell me that he didn’t think he had done that particular story. Now that’s a pro. We’ll miss your tremendous talent, Bob… and we’ll miss you, even more. Bestest,

COMING IN MAY

Titanic Tributes To Two Stellar Phenomena!

JERRY G. BAILS— & STAR WARS! “The Father Of Comic Book Fandom”— & The 30th Anniversary of Marvel Comics’ Adaptation Of A Movie Masterpiece! • Never-before-published JSA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ! • Spotlight on Alter Ego founder JERRY G. BAILS & his importance to comics fandom— & to pro comics! Accolades by DAVE GIBBONS, MIKE VOSBURG, PAUL LEVITZ, TONY ISABELLA, JOHN WRIGHT, JIM AMASH, BILL SCHELLY, et al.—plus rare art by KUBERT, two KANEs, INFANTINO, ANDERSON, SEKOWSKY, HASEN, KIRBY, DITKO, CARDY, DILLIN, TOTH, PETER, ORDWAY, BUCKLER, STATON, & many more! • Bonus! Never-seen interviews with JERRY BAILS and co-editor HAMES WARE on the landmark 1970s Who’s Who of American Comic Books! • Marvel’s STAR WARS Comic at 30! The full story of the adaptation that preceded the film! ROY THOMAS tells about working/interacting with HOWARD CHAYKIN, GEORGE LUCAS, HARRISON FORD, MARK HAMILL, STEVE LEIALOHA, DAVE STEVENS, RICK HOBERG, BILL WRAY, ALAN KUPPERBERG, & others! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT on JERRY BAILS—FCA with BAILS, SWAYZE, BECK, etc. Edited by ROY THOMAS ©2007 DC Comics.] [Justice Society of America

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“My Women Had Saturday Night Bodies And Sunday School Faces” Cartoonist Par Excellence BOB OKSNER Drew Angels, Apes—And Everything In Between!

Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris humor. No one deserved an extended interview any more than Bob, and I’m sorry he isn’t here to see it, especially considering how much this meant to him. All of us who knew Bob will miss him. He was an extraordinary, gracious, patient man. Special thanks to our mutual friend, cartoonist Morris Weiss, for contacting Bob for me, and our deepest condolences to the Oksner family on their loss... and ours. —Jim.

ob Oksner was one of the best cartoonists in comics. He started out with the Lloyd Jacquet shop before moving on to Cinema Comics, where he became the shop’s art director. From there, he moved on to a 40-year association with DC Comics, where he drew Sgt. Bilko, Leave It to Binky, The Adventures of Bob Hope, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, Angel and the Ape, and Welcome Back, Kotter, in addition to various super-hero features such as Shazam!, “Supergirl”, Lois Lane, and inking Curt Swan on “Superman,” among others. He also had several tries at newspaper syndication with Cairo Jones, Soozie, and I Love Lucy, as well as co-writing Dondi with his close friend Irwin Hasen. Bob could draw anything and do it with glamour and taste. Unfortunately, Bob passed away the very day I proofread this interview I had done with him. He was a true gentleman of distinction with a striking physical presence, and a quiet, gentle sense of

“My Mother Caught Me Outside With A .38…. I Think I Started To Draw Then” JIM AMASH: We have the tape running now, so please tell me the story you had started.

The Adventures Of Bob Oksner Bob Oksner—juxtaposed with examples of both his “silly” and ”serious” sides. (Left:) The cover of The Adventures of Bob Hope #84 (Dec. 1963Jan. 1964), sent by collector Bob Bailey. (Right:) The artist’s cover for Supergirl #10 (Sept.-Oct. 1974), repro’d from a photocopy of the original art; courtesy of dealer/collector Anthony Snyder, whose website is www.anthonysnyder.com/art [Art ©2007 DC Comics.] Collector Bob Bailey writes of the snapshot: “This is the first photo I ever took of Bob Oksner. I took it in the fall of 1978, while Bob was teaching. I was working at the K-Mart in Randolph, NJ, part-time and going to the [Joe] Kubert School (then in Wharton, NJ) fulltime. The picture may be a little washed-out due to the cheap K-Mart film I used. I stopped using it shortly after that.” Hey, we’re just happy you took it, Bob!

BOB OKSNER: All right. My last name is basically German, O-C-H-S-N-E-R, but my folks lived in Poland, and at that time, it was Russia and you spelled it that way with a “K”: O-K-S-N-ER. And that’s the difference.

Bob Oksner Drew Angels, Apes—And Everything In Between!

When I was a little boy, I drew airplanes—biplanes, in those days—and soldiers. All my uncles were in World War I, and when they came back, they were unmarried. They were kids, practically—the oldest, possibly in his early twenties. They lived with my parents, but they were so young that they hadn’t set up a home for themselves, so they lived for at least a year or so with my folks until life settled down after the war, and they brought back their souvenirs. I had so many bayonets and gas masks and helmets, which I wore on Halloween. We had revolvers, too, until one day my mother caught me outside with a .38 and that was the end of the revolvers. So I think I started to draw then. Let me tell you a very fascinating story at the very beginning. During World War II, we were the only Oksners in Manhattan, the only one in the phone book. And I was home with my wife in our apartment and a man came by and told me he had credentials to speak for the man he’s speaking for. It was a Nazi general that was captured— Joseph Ochsner—and he claimed to be a long-distance relative. And my father had told me this story about parts of our family living in Germany and converting from Judaism to Catholicism, and they were doing business together across the border in upper Silesia. Of course I would do nothing to help this captured German Nazi general, who claimed he had Jewish relatives in Manhattan. I regret having being so abrupt with this man whom I practically threw out, because now I want to know what the connection was. I was foolish... though not foolish at the time. It was wartime, about 1944, and sure enough, shortly afterwards in The New York Times, I saw Joseph Ochsner’s name on a list of captured German generals. I’m glad my wife was there, because nobody else would believe the story. [chuckles] As I say, now I could kick myself for not giving some time for this man and finding out what exactly what the connection was.

Also, there was an airfield, Teterboro, in New Jersey. Now it’s a private airfield for private airplanes. Fokker, which was a German firm, had a building there and manufactured planes, and there would always be a Fokker plane there. Of course that was the big plane during World War I for the Germans. My father would take me there every now and then on a Sunday, and we’d watch the airplane shows. So I would draw the airplanes. That’s the only way I could figure out how I got into drawing, because I had the material there and I think almost every boy draws soldiers at the beginning of—especially, it wasn’t that long after World War I.

“All These Classics” As a child, Oksner devoured such comic strips as Billy DeBeck’s Barney Google, George McManus’ Bringing Up Father, and Winsor McKay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland. Here are samples of each from, respectively, 1923, c. 1930, & c. 1909. [Barney Google & Bringing Up Father ©2007 King Features Syndicate; Little Nemo in public domain.]

JA: Well, you had a human reaction to a vile... OKSNER: Right, right. I’m not going to be too angry with myself. JA: A lot of people would have done worse to him than you did. OKSNER: [chuckles] Well, I’m a very sweet guy. JA: [laughs] That’s what Morris Weiss says. Okay, let me ask you a very basic question. No peeking now... when and where you born? OKSNER: That’s a very easy question. I spilled out at a very early age. [Jim laughs] I was born in Manhattan, New York City, 1916, October 14th. Want me to give you my Social Security? JA: [laughs] Just the checks, Bob. OKSNER: Okay. We moved, before I was a year old, to Paterson, New Jersey, where I was raised, really, until I went to college. And I lived there when I went to college, but I spent more time in New York than I did at home.

When I was too young to read well, I’d get in bed on Sundays and my father read the Sunday comics to me. Barney Google and Bringing Up Father, all these classics. And Little Nemo... the great ones. But I never thought I would be drawing strips. You know, that was for entertainment.

I took a drawing course in high school. I was drawing in high school because I liked to draw. It’s as simple as that. By now, I wanted to be an artist. My parents had a four-family building, right in the best part of Paterson, right next to a hospital. They wanted me to be a doctor and I had no ability, and no desire to be

“My Women Had Saturday Night Bodies And Sunday School Faces”

a doctor. Then they settled for me being a lawyer. [Jim laughs] They were very much afraid that I would starve... you know, being an artist in those days—first of all, it was at the beginning of the Depression. I went to high school in 1930 and my parents had a friend who was an artist in Greenwich Village and he was literally starving. He had to depend on his sister and his family to support him. My parents wanted me to have a profession so they sent me to college. I was sent to an art school.

“I’d Draw In The Evening And Then Do My Homework” JA: Was that New York University? OKSNER: Yes, and I had gone out to St. Louis. I had a large family there in the summer of ’34 and they wanted me to go to Washington University in St. Louis, which was an excellent school. All my cousins out in St. Louis went there. That’s how I got into college.

anything and arrange it so it sounded great. JA: You went to New York University and got a Bachelor’s degree. Did you go straight to Columbia from there? OKSNER: No, that was later. I got a Bachelor’s and then went to the Art Students League for two years. My parents were not satisfied. They wanted me to be able to make a living, and I had majored in History and Economics and minored in Economics and English. They wanted me to be a teacher, so they sent me to qualify for teaching at Columbia at their school of education for an M.A. But I had no desire to teach. But to please my parents, who were laying out the money, I did that for a year and then I was living in New York. I couldn’t afford the dorms at Columbia. My uncle was manager of a hotel that my cousins owned on 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue in Manhattan, which is right where the burlesque houses were.

Now I suspect it was more than I drew cartoons for a humor simply a place where burlesque magazine: N.Y.U. Varieties. But that Timely Terry queens stayed, because I was warned got me into art school because, Oksner says he created the “Terry Vance” feature, and even named its by my uncle never to speak to any having fulfilled my family’s hero after—well, read the interview. This splash from Marvel Mystery women on the elevator. [Jim laughs] requirement, namely the graduate in Comics #26 (Dec. 1941) was sent by Bob Bailey. Script by Ray Gill. And he went around with a .38, Pre-law, and being a member of the [©2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.] [more laughter] and he had set up a honorary Pre-law Society, they then target in the basement for us to shoot at. And then I learned about a allowed me to go to the Art Students League. But while I was in job opening, painting flowers on lampshades. I had no idea how to do college, I decided to become an illustrator. Illustration was very big at it, but I applied for the job and I got it. It was at the Hotel Mayflower. that time. Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s... all the magazines had illustrators who were magnificent artists. Anyway, I figured out a way JA: What year was that? to meet an illustrator. I was one of the editors of a magazine and I thought, “If I have a beauty contest and invited illustrators to be OKSNER: Either 1939 or ’40. I went to the Art Students league in ’39. judges, I’d get to meet them.” Which I did. I invited Russell Patterson Let me finish with the hotel. When I came home from school in the and Arthur William Brown, both of whom I admired very much. They evening, I would set up and draw comic book stories for Lloyd were both so nice to me. Brownie became sort of a mentor to me when Jacquet. Not for much money, but I’d draw in the evening and then do I went to art school, and Russell Patterson got me my first job. And my homework. I worked with Lloyd Jacquet at Funnies, Incorporated, they did pick a girl who wasn’t that beautiful, but what the hell. She from 1940, possibly, to ’42. I worked on several features with writer was happy and I was happy. Mickey Spillane. By the way, Sy Reit [creator of Casper the Friendly Ghost] was my co-editor on the magazine. He was a Philosophy major and I always was in awe of anybody who was a Philosophy major. He was very sweet, a wonderful guy. His father and uncle were both lawyers. His uncle was a judge and they worked for burlesque—Minsky. Sy would get passes to Minsky’s Burlesque. He wasn’t permitted to attend, so he gave me the passes, for a year at least. Every Friday, after the week was over, before I went back to Patterson, I would go to a burlesque and I got to know all these strippers and comedians. In college, I played the piano at that time and I wrote songs for our class at the senior dance and things like that. At the dances, they had bands like Woody Herman’s. You ever hear of Larry Clinton? He’s a lesser—anyway, they would come in and make arrangements of the tunes I wrote and we’d dance to it. And it sounded so good the way they played it, you know. [mutual laughter] They would take

JA: Was Jacquet the man who hired you? OKSNER: I don’t remember, but Jacquet was the only fellow I knew there. I never worked in the bullpen. I was there to pick up scripts and to deliver, so I didn’t get to meet people there. As for pay, it was maybe $7 a page, for pencils and inks, no lettering. I never knew where my stuff was going to appear. I did write some of my features, but no details come to mind now.

“‘Terry Vance’… I Created That One” JA: Well, I don’t expect you to remember all the features you did, but I’m asking just in case something here rings a bell. A lot of the work you did saw print in Timely’s comics. OKSNER: Could be, since I didn’t read the comics and never got the

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The POWELL/EISNER/ARNOLD Connection A Treasure Trove Of Communications Between A Trio Of Golden Age Greats!

by Roy Thomas Present At The Creation

sually—not always, mind you, but most of the time—the best source for information about what happened during the Golden (or any other) Age of Comic Books is the testimony of the creators themselves: the artists, writers, editors, publishers, et al., who actually produced the material. Of course, human beings, being fallible, have imperfect and occasionally downright false memories of events, especially after many years… so the earliest records, when they exist, are generally the best.

Jerry Bails in 1971, around the time he began work in earnest on the Who’s Who of American Comic Books, which would be coedited by Hames Ware. With thanks to Bill Schelly.

Luckily for historians of comics, in the early 1970s Dr. Jerry G. Bails, founder of Alter Ego and prime mover behind so many comics

fandom “firsts,” began work on what would eventually become his magnum opus—the 4-volume Who’s Who of American Comic Books (1973-76), which evolved into today’s online Who’s Who of American Comic Books 1928-1999. Shortly after Jerry’s untimely passing this past Nov. 23, his wife Jean loaned us copies of numerous of his papers, many of them gathered in the course of collecting the biographical and publishing information for that monumental project. Comics researchers will reap the benefits of Jerry’s work, and of Jean’s generosity, over many future issues of A/E. For starters: we were astonished to find, in the very first batch of papers, copies of Jerry’s early-’70s correspondence with Everett “Busy” Arnold, publisher/owner of the Quality Comics Group (1937-56). Almost equally amazing: also in this cache were letters exchanged in 1942 between Arnold, Spirit creator Will Eisner, and artist/writer S.R. “Bob” Powell! Thus, as a postscript to last issue’s copious coverage of Powell, and as a companion piece to Michael T. Gilbert’s “Comic Crypt” which follows on page 45, we’ve printed below the missives concerning Powell and his relationship with the pair who were his employers at the time.

Everett “Busy” Arnold We begin with what seems to be the publisher’s very first communication to Jerry Bails, a response to the latter’s request for a summary of Quality’s personnel. Arnold’s compilation of the list was complicated by the fact that much of the work done for his company had been “farmed out” to the Eisner-Iger (later Iger) comics shop. We’ll let Arnold’s letter—and his list (in which the

Busy Arnold Was A Doll, Man Everett “Busy” Arnold circa 1941—and his Quality company’s very first super-hero, the dynamically diminutive Doll Man. The Mighty Mite debuted in Feature Comics #27 (Dec. 1939), apparently the creation (or at least co-creation) of Will Eisner, and was soon illustrated by Lou Fine, Reed Crandall, and others—including Fran Matera, who was interviewed in A/E #59. This new pencil drawing by Matera comes courtesy of both Fran and collector Greg Vondruska, who has built a Fran Matera website as a tribute to the artist’s career. Fran, who still does a few art commissions, can be reached via that website: http://penandbrush.net/MATERA. Arnold photo courtesy of Jay Disbrow. [Doll Man TM & ©2007 DC Comics.]

Communications Between A Trio Of Golden Age Greats!

Powell is blunt about being reluctant to start “writing copy” before his plot is formally approved. Considering the changes asked for by Eisner in the course of the previous letters, it’s easy to see why… which is not to say that Eisner was wrong in insisting on the changes, of course. In the third paragraph, Powell expresses his suspicion that, since men in “class three” (presumably his own ranking in the military draft—probably young marrieds in good physical condition) are to be re-classified depending on “the importance of their jobs in defense,” he’ll probably be joining Eisner in uniform ere long, in this post-Pearl Harbor world. After all, comic books, unlike movies, were hardly likely to be deemed “essential to the war effort.” And, indeed, Powell soon found himself in the US Army Air Corps—or, as it was rechristened, the US Army Air Forces. Over the course of the next year he became a navigator on a B-24 bomber (see photo on p. 56). In the last letter we have from this exchange, Powell seems eager to bury the hatchet with Eisner over their past conflicts, both in person and by mail, which he feels may have been exacerbated by comments Powell made while “boiling mad” and which might have been related to Eisner by fellow artist Phillip “Tex” Blaisdell. Powell’s statement that “it’s too bad that we’ll never be able to be real friends again” comes as a bit of a jolt… since we are coming in, after all, only on the tail end of disagreements which aren’t as well documented as the preceding exchange. The fact remains, however, that, after the war’s end, Bob Powell and Will Eisner never worked together again. And with that final letter, we emerge once more into the realm of imperfect recollections and colored remembrances and calculated guesswork. But it was good, even for a little while, to be able to draw aside the dark curtain of the past and see what was actually said and thought at the time. A time when there was no gleaming historical period called the Golden Age of Comics to recall and celebrate… but only talented men and women, laboring at the workaday task of filling the nation’s comic books and newspapers with graphic stories that would one day be “such stuff as dreams are made on.”

Keep Mum About Scripting Credits (Top left:) Chief Warrant Officer Will Eisner in 1943. (Bottom left:) 2nd Lt. Bob Powell, navigator, USAAF, in a photo which his son Robert Powell feels was probably taken in spring of 1944. These two talents flank the splash page of the (reputedly) Powell-written Spirit story for Jan. 17, 1943. Did Cat Yronwode deduce that this tale had a Powell script because it’s more of a straight waradventure tale than the usual Spirit fare? Art by Lou Fine, et al. [Spirit page & Eisner photo ©2007 Will Eisner Studios, Inc.]

PHOTOS: Bob Powell (Pawlowski), age four, in 1921, and Bob with his parents that same year. John Powell says this about Bob’s drawing: “His mother had it near her and displayed till the day she died. After Dad died she was heartbroken like any mother, but her grief was more intense since he was her only child.”

Comic Fandom Archive

MARTY ARBUNICH and BILL DuBAY Remember The Good Old Days Of Comics Fandom Edited by Bill Schelly [NOTE: This interview is reprinted from the pages of Bill’s out-of-print 2002 volume Comic Fandom Reader. All photos & art provided by Bill Schelly.]

hen I initially got in touch with Marty Arbunich and Bill DuBay around Thanksgiving of 1994, during the process of researching my book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, I found out that these two guys—who had teamed up to produce numerous comics fanzines in the early 1960s—were still the best of friends. Some of the publications for which they were known were: Fantasy Hero, Yancy Street Journal, Voice of Comicdom, Comic Caper, Fandom Presents, and All-Stars. Along with their friends Rudi Franke and Barry Bauman, they formed a publishing consortium called Golden Gate Features. I think it was Marty who suggested that he and Bill sit down and make a taped interview for me. I would supply a list of questions, and they would do their best to answer them. The finished tape was a sheer delight, not only for the information imparted, but for the way it captured the free-wheeling spirit of their friendship. Thus, I’m very pleased to print the transcript here—with very little editing. That way, their memories and repartee are presented in their most unvarnished and charming, form. I hope you enjoy it! —Bill. MARTY: Hi, Bill [Schelly]… this is Marty, and this is how I sound. BILL: …and this is how I sound. MARTY: So it’ll be up to Bill [Schelly] to figure it out, because he’s gonna have to transcribe this, not me. Let’s see. His first question is, “How and when did you meet?” That’s an easy question. BILL: Were you six or seven? Didn’t I kick your butt in the schoolyard? MARTY: It was in St. Paul’s Grammar School, right? BILL: That’s right. MARTY: What grade did we start at together? When did you first go to St. Paul’s Grammar School? BILL: First grade. MARTY: So I guess we started out in first grade, continued all the way through 8th grade. We both graduated from that… establishment. Moved on to a Catholic high school together, called Sacred Heart High School. I made it through four years, Bill made it through … two? That right? Before you got to the Big House? [laughs] BILL: Three. I decided, enough parochial school. Sacred Heart was an

all boys’ school, and I wanted at least one year of dating girls in high school. As I recall, Marty, you didn’t have one date for the entire four years. [laughter]

MARTY: No, that’s not true. BILL: Okay, there was that one. MARTY: I hope he doesn’t write all this stuff down as being fact. You can only tell the truth, Bill. Don’t exaggerate. Let’s make this real. Uh, so we answered question #1 for you. Question #2: “How and when did you first hear about comic fandom?” BILL: I read about it in the letters pages of some comic book and wrote away for my first fanzine, Alter Ego #5, March 1963, edited by Ronn Foss. When that arrived, my search for old comics shifted into high gear. That’s when the ongoing treasure hunt began in earnest. MARTY: Treasure hunt meaning… BILL: …the continuous search for old comics. I’d go into old bookstores and scrounge around in any corner that looked like it might be even remotely harboring some dusty old periodicals. A lot of the old bookstores in San Francisco used to sell cast-off comics in cellophane wrappers, two for a nickel. I think the treasure hunt is really what got you interested in comics, Marty. MARTY: Actually, it seemed like I got interested at the end of grammar school a little bit, ’cause I would come over to your house. BILL: No, we didn’t really get tight until high school. MARTY: You were living at 57 Chenery Street then. BILL: Right. We were in the same upper class at Sacred Heart. MARTY: Yeah, 9-B together. For me the thing that made it kind of interesting was, I guess you had brought up the idea of publishing our own fanzine. The idea of producing something… even though comics were kind-of interesting for me… it seemed that what was even more interesting was the production end of it—making something. Also, I quickly developed an appreciation of comics, and “collecting” fit into my lifestyle, still does to this day with other things. We had that common interest. I’m just trying to think, when we first started publishing, were you publishing something before I came along? BILL: I’d just started publishing Fantasy Hero. MARTY: Was it already out by that point? BILL: I don’t remember if I’d finished the first issue, or if we somehow came together in the process. I just remember that you had this intense

Marty Arbunich and Bill DuBay Remember The Good Old Days Of Comic Fandom

fanzine envy. Then you said something like, “Wow! If you can do this, anybody can.” (I always loved your subtle compliments.) My take was, “This is hard work! And this boy sounds like he can be finessed into doing some of the grunt load.” I drew strips for that thing, and wrote it cover to cover on those awful purple ditto masters. It was eventually printed in the high school basement by your favorite journalism teacher, Richard Perkins. He thought it was great for a kid to be so ambitious. MARTY: At the high school? BILL: Yeah! Tom Sawyer had nothing on me! And that ditto machine—when I saw it working away, I knew I had to have one. MARTY: We’re still talking about the first issue of Fantasy Hero here. BILL: Exactly. MARTY: Okay, let’s just take the questions in sequence. “Bill, you had a very unique art style. Who were your influences? Did you take art in school?” BILL: [laughs] No. We didn’t have art classes at Sacred Heart. It was all college prep; hard-core math, Latin, and Bible study. I was just a very adept thief. I stole from Joe Kubert, Carmine Infantino, Steve Ditko, then finally progressed to Wally Wood. MARTY: So the answer is, you never took an art class or went to art school. How did you develop your style, then? How did you become so good at drawing? BILL: Thank you for the compliment. I never considered myself to be any good. I just keep working on learning how to draw… for about thirty years now. There have been times when I’ve actually had delusions of adequacy… but then I’ve come to my senses. Mostly, I just try to keep art fun. MARTY: “Were there any local clubs where you would get together with other fans in the very early days before comicons?” The only thing that I can remember that kind-of got me involved with other fans was the science-fiction convention that was out here, probably in 1964… there were a lot of comic book people there, a lot of sciencefiction people there, there were a lot of people that we eventually got involved with. And it was kind-of exciting because there was a buzz… there was something going on. That’s where we met Steve Perrin, if I’m not mistaken. BILL: No, we actually met him after he bought a copy of that first fanzine. He was attending classes at San Francisco State and just called one day. We got on well, but he was on his way out of town… to some Eastern college.

MARTY: And I think we did that with Steve; he was kind-of our hook to State College. That was probably in ’64 or ’65, if I’m not mistaken. BILL: We did this all through high school, Marty. ’63 through ’66. We were always into something. Remember Roger Brand, Tom Conroy? Then there was the other side, John Belfi and Jack Burnley. [sighs] We lived some adventures. MARTY: This leads to the next question: “How did you meet Rudi Franke and Barry Bauman? Who was the oldest, and youngest, of the Golden Gate four?” BILL: Rudi was the oldest. You were the youngest. By days.

MARTY: This is in what year?

MARTY: Me, you, and Barry were about the same age.

BILL: I’m remembering stories here. Leeway on the chronology.

BILL: Rudi was a schoolteacher… 28, 29… livin’ across the Bay… a whole world away. All of us liked comics. They dug the value. We jizzed on the art. All of us liked basketball. They kicked ass. We loved to play.

MARTY: This was right after we started publishing? BILL: Yeah. Sometime around then. I liked who he was, his ideas, the way he wrote. He knew stuff we didn’t. Especially about Burroughs. He introduced us to some awesome artists. I wish he would’ve stuck around longer. MARTY: We used to go out to SF State College to see the Captain Marvel serial. BILL: Every week. One episode at a time. With every aspiring hippie in the city…and some awesome smokin’ air. We were a couple of virgin Catholic school boys getting a preview of San Francisco’s Summer of Love. [sighs] Not somethin’ I’ll forget.

MARTY: Yeah, but I think that was discovered afterwards. I think when Heroes’ Hangout #2 came out, we got in touch with them. We just arranged for a meeting. “Let’s get together.” Because we were in the same, uh …line of work [laughs] And if I’m not mistaken, I think we hopped on a bus and went over to Oakland. It seemed like we went on this long voyage, and we got together with Rudi and Barry, and just marveled at their comic collections, because by that point, they had discovered that store.… BILL: Fort Knox.

We Didn’t Know... It Was The Golden Age!

Marc Swayze’s memoirs of his days in the comics field will continue in the next issue of Alter Ego.

Monster Mash! JEFF SMITH On Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil Interview by Chris Irving

Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck

eff Smith is the award-winning writer and artist of the Bone comic book. Recently, he produced a Shazam! limited series—on sale even as these words are written—about Captain Marvel and Mr. Mind’s Monster Society of Evil, whose original 1943-1945 Fawcett serial was covered in detail in Alter Ego #64. —PCH. CHRIS IRVING: What was your initial goal with Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil? JEFF SMITH: My goal was to look at what made Captain Marvel the most popular comic book character of all time. He was more popular than Superman, than Mickey Mouse comic books ... [he] was the most popular super-hero ever, really. I went back and read a whole bunch of the “Captain Marvel” comics, [watched] the Republic serial [and the Fleischer Superman cartoons], and thought what it was about comic books back then that appealed to people. I just wanted to get Captain Marvel back to being a super-power that just comes when you’re in trouble. When Billy’s in trouble, he’s a little kid, and kids can’t protect themselves, but suddenly he has a magic word and he’s the world’s most powerful man and can’t be hurt. That, to me, was the real essence of what Captain Marvel is: that ability to just be invincible with a magic word.

I Dream Of Genie Jeff Smith: “I view Captain Marvel as a genie. It’s an Aladdin story.” Here’s Smith’s cover art for Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil #1. Thanks to Kathleen Glosan, who provided all the Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil art that accompanies this article. [©2007 DC Comics.]

CI: I think C.C. Beck once said that Captain Marvel was really a Billy Batson comic book that Captain Marvel appears in every once in a while, like a genie. SMITH: I view Captain Marvel as a genie. It’s an Aladdin story. He is Billy, and they’re one and the same (or become one and the same). The “Shazam!” magic and the power of that word summon this guardian power for Billy. You will see a lot of Billy in my version. It really is a Billy Batson comic where Captain Marvel makes many appearances. CI: Well, he’s a kid. Ever since DC brought him in after Crisis, they’ve made him a teenager, maybe even a preteen, at earliest. Your Billy looks like he’s eight.

Fairy Tales Can Come True…

SMITH: I was shooting for around eight, without actually saying it. I looked at the very first Whiz Comics, and he looks pretty young there, an