Issuu

Roy Thomas’ SHAZAM-STUDDED Comics Fanzine

THE

SHAZAM CURSE!

ALEX ROSS, MARC SWAYZE, C.C. BECK, & P.C. HAMERLINCK ON THE MANY DEATHS OF A LEGEND

01 1

82658 27763

BONUS! MARVIN LEVY

6.95

In the USA

No. 75 January 2008

Vol. 3, No. 75 / January 2008 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) Ronn Foss, Biljo White Mike Friedrich

Circulation Director Bob Brodsky, CookieSoup Periodical Distribution, LLC

Cover Artist Alex Ross

With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Mrs. Jill Baily Mrs. Regina Baily Alberto Becattini Bill Black Dominic Bongo Richard Boucher Mike Bromberg Shane Foley Ron Frantz Janet Gilbert Ian Hamerlinck Jennifer Hamerlinck David G. Hamilton Roger Hill Heritage Comics Carmine Infantino William B. Jones, Jr. Marvin & Barbara Levy Arthur Lortie Bruce Mason

Peter Meskin Philip Meskin Brian K. Morris Nick Noble Eric NolenWashington John G. Pierce Charlie Roberts Bob Rogers Herb Rogoff Alex Ross J. David Spurlock Henry Steele Marc Swayze Dann Thomas Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. Michael Vance Delmo Walters, Jr. Hames Ware Jerry Weist Alex Wright

This issue is dedicated to the memory of

Paul Norris & Mike Wieringo Top right: As noted, the double-size FCA section for this issue begins on p. 65— with a dynamic illustration by Alex Ross. But Alex also sent us pencil versions of several of the drawings that appear in his piece “Call My Name— Shazam!”—and we couldn’t resist using one of those on our cavortin’ contents page, as well! [Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Contents Writer/Editorial: Turning Off The Fawcett . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Alter Ego 1943 Calendar Goes 2008! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Alex Wright re-casts pulse-pounding WWII pin-ups as the super-heroines DC & Marvel can’t buy!

“I Think I Always Knew I Wanted To Be A Cartoonist!” . . . . 12 A candid conversation between Golden Age artist Marv Levy and Jim Amash.

Maxwell Elkan—The “Hard Luck” Unknown . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., and Hames Ware on a 1940s-50s “Great Unknown.”

Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Twice-Told Marvel Heroes (Part 3). . 51 Michael T. Gilbert presents the Golden Age answers to Giant-Man and The Wasp.

Tributes to Paul Norris & Mike Wieringo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 re: [comments, correspondence, questions, & corrections] . . 59 FCA (Fawcett Collectors Of America) #134 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 P.C. Hamerlinck presents and presides over an in-depth look at the many demises of Captain Marvel by Alex Ross, Marc Swayze, C.C. Beck—and himself. On Our Cover: Super-star artist (and occasional A/E contributor) Alex Ross pays homage to Michelangelo’s Pietà, carved by the legendary sculptor in 1498-99 for St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, Rome. And, considering how many times Captain Marvel has died and been reborn/re-imagined/re-defined/etc. by everybody and his brother since Fawcett ceased publication of the World’s Mightiest Mortal in 1953, this striking illustration makes the ideal cover to accompany a recounting of “The Shazam Curse,” as FCA’s editor calls it.. We were quite content with it just as Alex painted it—and you can see it that way in some advance ads— but, as per Alex’s preferences, P.C. Hamerlinck and John Morrow added to it a myriad of Cap figures drawn by various talented artists over the decades (clockwise from top center): Tom Mandrake, Jerry Ordway, Joshua Middleton, Bob Oksner, Alan Weiss, Kurt Schaffenberger, Marc Swayze, Howard Porter, C.C. Beck, and Don Newton. The Newton CM was inked by Kurt S. [Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year 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 US ($11.00 Canada, $16 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $78 US, $132 Canada, $180 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.

THE

JUST WHEN YOU THOUGHT YOU KNEW EVERYTHING ABOUT ALL-STAR COMICS AND THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA!

Companion VOLUM E THREE

a.k.a. ALL THIS AND EARTH-TWO! Ed ited by ROY THOMAS • STILL MORE sensational secrets behind the 1940-1951 JSA! • Fabulous new JSA-JLA cover by GEORGE PÉREZ, drawn especially for this volume! • Spotlight on the 1963-1985 JUSTICE LEAGUE/ JUSTICE SOCIETY Team-Ups! The 1970s ALL-STAR COMICS REVIVAL! The 1980s YOUNG ALL-STARS!

All characters TM & ©20 07 DC Comics.

• Rare, often unpublished art & artifacts by CARMINE INFANTINO * JOE KUBERT * ALEX TOTH * JERRY ORDWAY * GIL KANE * RICH BUCKLER * JACK KIRBY * JULIUS SCHWARTZ * MICHAEL BAIR * IRWIN HASEN * MIKE SEKOWSKY * DICK DILLIN * JOE SINNOTT * DICK GIORDANO * MIKE GRELL * MICHAEL LARK * DON NEWTON * CREIG FLESSEL * SEAN CHEN * DON HECK * HOWARD PURCELL * H.G. PETER * SHELDON MOLDOFF * ARTHUR PEDDY * MART NODELL JOE GALLAGHER * BOB LAYTON * MARTIN NAYDEL * PAUL REINMAN MIKE W. BARR * JOE STATON * JIM VALENTINO * JOE GIELLA ROY THOMAS, and many others! • PLUS—THE SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY—JOHNNY PERIL— SHELLY MAYER’S RED TORNADO—the 16th-century progenitors of the JSA—the very first All-Star Comics #58— & MORE! 240-page TRADE PAPERBACK $31 postpaid in the US ($35 Canada, $43 elsewhere) ON SALE NOW!

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

Article Title Topline writer/editorial

Turning Off The Fawcett!

nce each year, the rest of us at Alter Ego take a bit of a breather and let P.C. Hamerlinck carry the ball with a double-sized edition of FCA (that’s Fawcett Collectors of America, for you newcomers). And those skeptics who predicted, in the early 1960s, that comics fandom would run out of things to write about in a couple of years, tops, would be startled to learn that this is the 134th edition of FCA, under a mere handful of editors, since 1973—almost exactly 35 years ago.

Mortal to the position of World’s Mightiest Moneymaker. Some of what they have to say on pp. 65-86 may sound a bit negative toward the Captain’s publishing company of the past threeplus decades. You or I may agree or disagree with opinions expressed by Alex or P.C. or even that late lamented curmudgeon C.C. Beck— but that is to be expected.

The emphasis this time is divided between FCA’s most common turf—the comics produced by Fawcett Publications between 1939 and 1953, when the company gave up the ghost after the long, lethal lawsuit by National/DC—and its other coin of the realm, post-1953 takes on Captain Marvel and his fabulous Family. In the past, that mag-withina-mag has spotlighted Shazam! renditions both realized and un-, by the likes of Alex Ross, Jerry Ordway, Don Newton, Michael Eury, et al. This time, as you probably noticed by our color-splashed cover, it’s Alex once more; and he’s always welcome in these pages, whether FCA’s or those of Alter Ego proper. There’s even an unaccustomed theme to this issue’s FCA—namely, the many “deaths” that Cap and crew have died, especially in the years since DC arranged, in the early ’70s, to license the Fawcett heroes. PCH refers to it as the Shazam Curse—the failure to date to garner any big sales numbers for the hero who for several years in the 1940s outsold even Superman. Although we hear the Big Red Cheese is scheduled for yet another “redefinition,” each of the contributors to this edition of FCA has his own notion of what might be needed to restore the World’s Mightiest

Just don’t miss the central point: that each of that trio (as well as the more soft-spoken Marc Swayze) has seen Captain Marvel as something important, both in his own life and in the life of the comics industry. And none of them is motivated primarily by money. (If they were, they wouldn’t be writing and contributing artwork to Alter Ego)! So read and savor. We briefly considered making FCA the opening salvo in this issue—but finally decided you’d appreciate it even more as the Cap-stone to what we hope will otherwise be an equally enjoyable journey through the hallowed halls of comics history. Along the way, you’ll be able to savor Alex Wright’s 1943/2008 calendar, populated with some masked beauties of four-color and Technicolor alike… an art-laden interview with Golden Age artist Marvin Levy… a retrospective on a relatively unknown 1940s-50s artist, Max Elkan… tributes to two departed talents from different eras, Paul Norris and Mike Wieringo… and a few other surprises along the way. There’ll even be a few non-FCA samplings of Fawcett art here and there along the way, just to see if you’re paying attention. Bestest,

COMING IN MARCH

SIMON SAYS! A Fantastic Focus On JOE SIMON— As Half Of SIMON &KIRBY, And As A Solo Star! • Fighting American cover designed by JOE SIMON—featuring one of the greatest creations of SIMON & KIRBY! • JOE SIMON does a sensational show-and-tell, co-starring JACK KIRBY—BOB POWELL—CARMINE INFANTINO—GIL KANE—JOE KUBERT—STAN LEE—GEORGE TUSKA—AL WILLIAMSON—JERRY GRANDENETTI—ANGELO TORRES—CREIG FLESSEL—AL AVISON—MORT MESKIN—& others, in a blockbuster JIM AMASH interview! Tons of Golden & Silver Age and unpublished art! • BOB ROZAKIS’ “Secret History of All-American Publications”! • MICHAEL T. GILBERT showcases 1940s Fiction House artist AL WALKER! • At last! No more delays! BILL SCHELLY & HOWARD SIEGEL on Silver Age Australian fan & author JOHN RYAN! • FCA with C.C. BECK & MARC SWAYZE—& MORE!! Edited by ROY THOMAS te of Jack Kirby.] [Art ©2008 Joe Simon & Esta

SUBSCRIBE NOW! Twelve Issues in the US: $78 Standard, $108 First Class (Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $180 Surface, $216 Airmail). NOTE: IF YOU PREFER A SIX-ISSUE SUB, JUST CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION!

ALTER EGO : THE BEST OF THE LEGENDARY COMICS FANZINE Edited by Roy Thomas & Bill Schelly Alter Ego—launched in the early 1960s by JERRY BAILS & ROY THOMAS—was the first of a wondrous wave of comic book fanzines. This book, published in a limited edition in 1997, collected the cream of A/E, Vol. 1—the 11 issues that both recorded and made history between 1961 & 1978! See how a new generation first learned about the Golden Age of Comics—while the Silver Age was in full flower! • Early, influential, and illustrated interviews with GIL KANE, BILL EVERETT, & JOE KUBERT! • Original art & artifacts by JACK KIRBY, STEVE DITKO, WALLY WOOD, JOHN BUSCEMA, OTTO BINDER, C.C. BECK, MARIE SEVERIN, CURT SWAN, RUSS MANNING, MOEBIUS, ROY THOMAS, & others! • Vintage articles on The Justice Society of America—Captain Marvel & The Marvel Family—the MLJ heroes—the super-heroes of Mexico—Green Lantern (1940s & 1960s)—& MUCH, MUCH MORE!! • Introduction by JULIUS SCHWARTZ, godfather of the Silver Age! 192-page trade paperback – $26 US – ISBN: 9781893905887

ON SALE IN FEBRUARY!

Advertise In Alter Ego! FULL-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 10" Tall • $300 HALF-PAGE: 7.5" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $175 QUARTER-PAGE: 3.75" Wide x 4.875" Tall • $100

The TwoMorrows Two-Fer! Prepay for two ads in Alter Ego, DRAW!, Write Now!, Back Issue, Rough Stuff, or any combo and these discounts apply: TWO FULL-PAGE ADS: $500 ($100 savings) TWO HALF-PAGE ADS: $300 ($50 savings) TWO QUARTER-PAGE ADS: $175 ($25 savings) The above rates are for black-&-white ads, supplied on-disk (TIF, EPS, or Quark Xpress files acceptable) or as cameraready art. Typesetting service available at 20% mark-up. Due to our already low ad rates, no agency discounts apply. Sorry, display ads are not available for the Jack Kirby Collector. Send ad copy and check/money order (US funds) payable to: TwoMorrows 10407 Bedfordtown Drive Raleigh, NC 27614 Phone: (919)449-0344 Fax: (919)449-0327 E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com

We also accept VISA and MASTERCARD! Include card number and expiration date.

ROMITAMAN ORIGINAL COMIC ART IF YOU LOVE COMICBOOKS, THEN YOU “MUST” CHECK OUT ONE OF THE LARGEST INTERNET WEBSITES FOR COMIC BOOK ART AND COMIC STRIP ART EVER PRODUCED! THIS MAY BE YOUR BEST ARTWORK INTERNET SOURCE! CHECK OUT OVER 1000+ “PICTURED” PIECES OF COMICBOOK AND COMIC STRIP ART FOR SALE OR TRADE. ALSO CHECK OUT THE WORLD’S “LARGEST” SPIDER-MAN ORIGINAL ART GALLERY! I BUY/SELL/AND TRADE “ALL” COMICBOOK/ STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT. SO LET ME KNOW YOUR WANTS, OR WHAT YOU HAVE FOR SALE OR TRADE!

www.romitaman.com

The Alter Ego 1943 Calendar Goes 2008! T

hird time’s the charm—not that the first two were anything to sneeze at, mind you! In December of 2005, A/E #55 spotlighted a “1943 calendar” created by Alex Wright, utilizing Golden Age DC, Quality, and Fawcett super-heroines as pin-ups for a New Year, as “portrayed” by stars, starlets, and models of the World War II years. It was all in fun, and readers loved it and clamored for more—not knowing that, in point of fact, the wondrous Mr. Wright had already prepared ample images for no less than two more such calendars! In issue #64 (Jan. 2007), we were proud and pleased to present Alex’s second twelvemonth of costumed cuties—the lovely and lethallypowered ladies of 1940s Timely (future Marvel) Comics.

This time around, we’re equally happy to showcase another delightful dozen of Alex’s colossal compositions…wondrous women [mostly] from ’40s comic book companies besides DC, Quality, Fawcett, and Marvel! (Yes, believe it or not, there were other publishers featuring super-doers in those days—quite a few of them, in fact!) So here we go—with commentary by both Alex and Ye Editor:

Ann Blyth as Moon Girl

2008

MON

January U

TUE

1 6 7 8 13 14 15 20 21 22 27 28 29

SUN

WED

2 3 9 10 16 17 23 24 30 31

FRI

2008 SAT

4 5 11 12 18 19 25 26

After appearing on Broadway in Lillian Hellman’s 1941 drama Watch on the Rhine, diminutive Ann Blyth broke into Hollywood musicals in 1944 (Chip off the Old Block). But she achieved her greatest success—and an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress—as Joan Crawford’s ungrateful daughter in the tearjerker Mildred Pierce in 1945. In 1949 she starred in both the fantasy movie Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (with William Powell)—and as herself (who was maybe also a mermaid) alongside Superman, no less, in Action Comics #130 (March 1949)! Here, her likeness is loaned to EC Comics’ Moon Girl, who starred (moonlighted?) in her own comic from 1947 to 1949, written by Gardner Fox and mostly drawn by Sheldon Moldoff—a Wonder Woman wannabe if ever there was one! Alex says: “I chose Moon Girl as January’s pin-up because a new moon represents a new start. Ann Blyth had a warm smile that seemed right for the character.” [Moon Girl TM & ©2008 William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.]

“I Think I Always Knew I Wanted To Be A Cartoonist” A Candid Conversation With Golden Age Artist MARVIN LEVY Interview Conducted by Jim Amash

Transcribed by Brian K. Morris

arvin Levy’s comics career wasn’t overly long, but it sure took some interesting turns along the way. Starting out as an apprentice at the Harry “A” Chesler shop, Marvin also spent time in the Bernard Baily and Lloyd Jacquet [Funnies, Inc.] studios, rubbing shoulders with luminaries such as Carmine Infantino, Mort Lawrence, and Mac Raboy. Sandwiched around those stops, Marvin freelanced for Harvey Comics, Ziff-Davis, Spark Publications, Centaur, and Standard Publications, before leaving the field for advertising. I found Marv’s recollections to be fascinating and occasionally revelatory, and I think you will, too. Special thanks to Herb Rogoff (Marvin’s former Ziff-Davis editor and my good friend) for giving me the contact information for Marvin. —Jim

A Burnt-Out (Berndt-Out?) Christmas Marv Levy, in a Dec. 1997 photo, views his exhibited work—including art from the Christmas giveaway comic pictured below—as it hangs alongside that of fellow “Berndt Toast Gang” cartoonists at the “Firehouse Gallery” at Nassau County Community College, NY. The Berndt Toast Gang is the Long Island, NY, chapter of the National Cartoonists Society, named after artist Walter Berndt. Photo courtesy of Barbara Levy. (Left:) “While still in high school,” Marv writes, “I drew this presentation page for the [Human] Torch in 1942. (Lloyd Jacquet rejected it—obviously!)” He notes that “three years later, after WWII service, I did lots of work for Jacquet [Funnies, Inc.]—but not ‘Torch’!” This previously unpublished page shows, actually, that the 17-year-old Levy would surely have developed into a good super-hero artist, had that been his inclination. A couple of nice touches: the Torch turning off the fire from his legs in panel 2 so he won’t burn the floorboards, and Toro’s comment in panel 5 that he’ll “break my neck flaming off like this some day.” And besides, the artist’s name was “Marv L.”! [Human Torch TM & ©2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.; other art ©2008 Marv Levy.] (Left:) One of a series of covers for Christmas comic book giveaway premiums done by Levy between 1951 and 1965. See details on pp. 38-41. The store’s imprint would be added to the publications’ front or back cover. The editor of Woolworth’s Jolly Christmas Book, he reports, was Stella Rose. [©2008 Promotional Publishing, or successors in interest.]

“I Think I Always Knew I Wanted To Be A Cartoonist”

See You In The Funny Papers! Three vintage newspaper comic strips that strongly influenced Marv Levy. (Clockwise from above left:) A 1929 daily from Sidney Smith’s The Gumps, launched in 1917 and credited as the first strip to tell a continuing story. The domestic misadventures of Andy and Min were as closely followed as those in any later radio or TV soap opera. [©2008 The Chicago Tribune—NY News Syndicate, Inc., or successors in interest.] This undated drawing by George McManus, creator of Bringing Up Father, was used as a chapter heading in a 1973 collection of that name. [©2008 King Features Syndicate, Inc.] In this panel from only the fourth Li’l Abner daily by Al Capp, from 1934, the Yokums prepare to leave Dogpatch for the big city… while Daisy Mae pines for Abner, as she would for several decades, till they were finally married. [©2008 Capp Enterprises, Inc., or successors in interest.]

“I Think I Always Knew I Wanted To Be A Cartoonist” JIM AMASH: You know what I’m going to ask you first. MARVIN LEVY: When and where was I born? [mutual laughter] I was born February 21st, 1925, in Albany, Georgia. Actually, my parents were living in Pelham, Georgia, at the time, but the hospital was in Albany. We lived there until I was eight, when my parents moved to New York in 1933. I think I always knew I wanted to be a cartoonist. I was inspired by the newspaper comics. I showed some talent, at least to my teachers, in drawing. That’s where I began to feel that I wanted to do comics as more or less what I had seen in the newspapers, like The Gumps, Bringing Up Father, and some others. Later on, Li’l Abner became a big inspiration to me. At that time, there was one comic book which was not really a comic book. It was a giveaway by Gulf gas stations called The Gulf Weekly. It was a folded-over sheet, a few times, and it was about the size of a comic book. I remember my father would go to the gas station and I would say, “Dad, I’d like to get a comic book.” That’s when I first saw the newspaper strip reprint comics, like Tip-Top Comics and Famous Funnies. I saw myself more as a humorist, rather than as an illustrator, because most of the super-heroes didn’t come around until later, after “Superman.” I started doing my own comic book on regular typing paper in 1933, right after we moved to New York. I was also very interested in flying at that time, so I thought I would try writing and drawing a little war adventure story, rather than something funny. When I look back now, I realize how juvenile they were. Of course, we had no television. We had radio, which was good for the imagination, and the movies. Most of my inspiration came from the movies or from listening to the radio, the adventure serials at the time, or from the comic books of that period. JA: You went to the High School of Music and Art from 1939 to ’43. Did you know Dave Gantz? LEVY: Dave Gantz was ahead of me. He entered the school in, I think, the first year it opened. Music and Art was set up, I think, in 1936 or

‘37 as a specialty school for talented children, either in music or art, and it was split up as a part of the parochial school in where it was located in upper Manhattan, around 135th Street. They only could take a certain amount of students and, of course, they figured that the socalled talented ones wouldn’t be less in number than a regular high school. So they gave tests for you to get in, and Gantz, I know, went to school with Al Jaffee, Harvey Kurtzman, John Severin, and Will Elder. I didn’t know these fellows at the time because [chuckles] when you’re a freshman and they’re a junior, there’s very little contact. [NOTE: See Alter Ego #13 & #35 for interviews with and photos of Dave Gantz, Al Jaffee, et al., in those days.] As a matter of fact, comics were not the kind of thing that the school thought too much about. Those of us who did go into it did it on the side. The great thing was that, after school, you could go down to the publishers, knock on doors, and maybe get an editor to look at your work and give you a critique. Then you went home, fixed it up or did it over, or added something, and then came back another day. That was great. And if you were lucky enough, as I was, to find an editor who would look at my work and critique it, I thought I was learning something. This was not known to the schoolteachers, because they frowned on anything like that. The teachers saw me as an artist, and I always got prizes and was picked out as the artist of the school or that particular class, or whatever it might be, so I had already been making a little bit of a reputation for my industrious efforts.

“Harry Chesler Was Sort-Of A Learning Process” JA: As far as I can tell, you started with Harry Chesler while still in school. LEVY: Harry Chesler was a sort-of a learning process. In those days, there were quite a few ads for cartoonists under the “Artists” heading in The New York Times, and I would go down and show samples of my work. I may have been told by an editor, “This is not the way we do things,” or “Keep it up, you need a little more drawing experience,” whatever it may have been. So that particular summer, when I was 16, I went to Chesler’s. He saw some promise in the fact that I was

“The Great Unknowns” Part V

MAXWELL ELKAN— The “Hard Luck” Unknown Fawcett Editor Wendell Crowley Never Revealed Why He Called The Artist That, But… by Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr. & Hames Ware

axwell Elkan? You may believe you’ve heard that name before, but you’re probably not sure where. Well, as a “Great Unknown,” Elkan is easily the most traveled of any that we’ve featured to date, so it could have been in relation to any of the major comic book companies: Quality, Fiction House, DC, EC, Standard, Fawcett, Dell, Hillman, or Ace—as well as many of the notso-major ones. He even signed a story here and there over the years. So why is he so obscure? Years ago, Hames ran a myriad of comic book artist names past longtime Fawcett editor Wendell Crowley. In that list, he included the name of one of the many obscure artists whose work he had found to have that something special that made it unique and distinctive: Maxwell Elkan.

From Sappiness To Sagebrush What? You were expecting maybe a photo of one of the subjects of Jim and Hames’ “Great Unknowns” series? What kind of “Unknowns” would they be if we knew what they looked like!? (Not that we wouldn’t be delighted if someone out there suddenly sent us a photo of the esteemed but obscure Max Elkan, you understand.) This pair of images, however, clearly demonstrates the artist’s versatility—a one-page gag filler for Standard’s Real Life Comics #41 (Sept. 1947), and the cover of Avon’s Western Adventures #2 (Dec. 1948), featuring The ross-Draw Kid, whose unusual way of wearing his pistols (back-to-front in the holster— check it out) doubtless owes something to B-movie star Wild Bill Elliott, who did the same thing even in his Red Ryder Saturday afternoon oaters. Incidentally, the scripters of all art used with this article are sadly even more unknown than Max Elkan! [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

Maxwell Elkan—The “Hard Luck” Unknown

Study Elkan’s vivacious Dale and supporting cast, then look at the hohum work by succeeding artists who finished out and finished off a comic that had started off with zest and style—thanks to Max Elkan (and perhaps the able assistance of the brilliant Ray Willner). Elkan rarely signed, but his creativity was clear from the outset, as can seen on “Lightning” and “Tom, Dick, and Harry” in Jumbo Comics at Fiction House, as well as simultaneously on “Samar” in Feature Comics at Quality (where it is possible that collaborative work with Reed Crandall influenced his sparkling style). The very earliest we can confirm his art is in Feature #47 (Aug. 1941), where he looks to be just another young Crandall-inspired Iger Shop artist. In issue #48, the last panel is initialed “MDE”—albeit not so clearly. (For years this signature was interpreted as “MOE,” and the art thought to be by Clare Moe.) This early phase of his career lasted for two years and probably ended with service in the military during World War II, which may explain why we don’t see his style again until 1946. In that year he returned to Quality and began his series of short stints with a variety of high-profile publishers:

A Master Of Comic Art This is the one piece of Max Elkan art in this article that we’ve run before: a “Nyoka the Jungle Girl” splash page from a late-1940s issue of Fawcett’s Master Comics, as restored and reprinted in AC Comics’ Jungle Girls #10 (1992); see ad for Bill Black’s “All-Old” comics company of vintage reprints on p. 11. Fawcett editor Wendell Crowley once referred to Elkan to Hames Ware as a “little guy”—but then, Crowley was nearly seven feet tall! [Retouched art ©2008 AC Comics.]

Elkan hadn’t really done that much at Fawcett, so it was surprising when Wendell actually nodded his head and replied, “Good artist... who had some hard luck.” One manifestation of that “hard luck” seems to be that he never stayed very long in any one place and never became associated with any one company. Yet he seemed to make an impression on many of his fellow artists. Beyond Wendell’s cryptic musing, other personal memories came from Rudy Palais and from Louis Zansky’s widow. Palais, who rarely, if ever, collaborated, recalled having done so with... Maxwell Elkan. This was at the Iger Shop where solo work was the exception, but all those years later Rudy Palais remembered Elkan. And at Ace, Elkan made such an impression on Zansky (who probably deserves his own “Great Unknowns” column) that even his widow remembered the name. Another unsung but dynamic collaboration occurred in 1948 with Ray Willner, when they worked together on early issues of Blazing West at ACG, on Western Adventures at Ace, and on Dale Evans at DC. To see the contrast an artist like Maxwell Elkan could bring to a feature, just take a look at Dale Evans #1 at DC, a company where Elkan worked anonymously on a number of features over the years.

Happy Trails To You An Elkan-drawn page from Dale Evans Comics #1 (Sept.-Oct. 1948). Jim V. and Hames suspect fellow artist Ray Willner may have had a hand in this work. During this period, as we’ve mentioned, it would’ve taken a three-company teaming to have movie co-stars Roy Rogers, his wife Dale, and comedy sidekick George “Gabby” Hayes in the same comic book, since their comics were then published by Dell, DC, and Fawcett, respectively. [©2008 DC Comics.]

“The Great Unknowns,” Part V

Face The Music—And Draw! Two later, off-trail works by Max Elkan—from Fawcett’s This Magazine Is Haunted #8 (Dec. 1952) and Charlton’s Unusual Tales #11 (March 1958). Actually, by the latter date, it was near the end of the trail of Elkan’s pro-comics career… but he left behind an honorable legacy of four-color fantasy. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

In the 1960s, long after he, too, had moved on, a gent named Tom Bellhouse got a job at Rice University, where Henry worked. Tom and his wife got to know Henry and Janet Steele, and when Tom discovered that Henry was interested in comic books, he mentioned that he had gone to high school in Arkansas with a guy named Hames Ware who was a comic book “expert.” As Henry tells it, “I didn’t learn about comics fandom until early 1965, when a Newsweek article featured the role of Jerry Bails in stimulating the super-hero revival. I had very extensive correspondence with at least a dozen collectors at the time, but I didn’t meet Hames until Tom ‘introduced’ us. I got my first letters from Hames in late 1968, and he visited me in Houston in the summer of 1970.” The data that Henry had recorded from his Quality and Fiction House comics and

shared with Hames became a large part of the backbone of the initial Who’s Who of American Comic Books, edited by Jerry Bails and Hames Ware and published in four volumes during the 1970s. At present, we’re updating Henry’s Fiction House data for the Grand Comics Database. Yes, Henry is still active and still has all his original comic books. With the help of Bud Plant and Lee Boyett, Henry, Hames, and Jim V. are going through every story in every issue of every Fiction House title and recording our best current estimation of the artists at work there.

Detective, Comics That's how our two authors might be listed in the yellow pages. Our two comic book sleuths are: (left) Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr., shown here with his friend Karen Lane in Paris (photo by Ken Steacy); and (right) Hames Ware, pictured doing a recording voice-over a few years ago. Thanks for the photos, guys.

Take a look on the GCD at entries on Rangers Comics or Planet or the first 75 issues of Jumbo or Wings or Fight to see the depth of information being recorded, and watch as they progress through the 800+ issues. And say a little thank-you to Henry Steele for getting this ball rolling, all those years ago.

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

Endurance Flight Mickey Malone, the Phantom Eagle, was Marc’s regular assignment during the mid- and later 1940s, up till the day the Wow Comics feature was cancelled. It was his longest ongoing assignment in comic books. [©2008 the respective copyright holders.]

“Memories… Pressed Between The Pages Of My Mind” “My preference was to remember him just as I had drawn and written him in the Golden Age….” A rare Captain Marvel illustration by Marc Swayze. [Shazam! heroes TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

And I am thankful for that. Was I disturbed in the early ’50s, at the report that Captain Marvel was to be discontinued forever? Of course not. I simply refused to believe it. Captain Marvel was not one to be rubbed out with a single sweep of the eraser! And Fawcett, not an organization to permit it! But they were. And he was. We learned that later. And I was disturbed by it. Captain Marvel was one of those fictional friends I knew best. To be perfectly frank about what happened to him … I’m sorry. Who wouldn’t be? I never followed those later attempts to revive the super-hero. A glimpse now and then told me it was not the jovial guy we had known down the street. My preference was to remember him just as I had drawn him and written him in the Golden Age, always easily seen at the end of the pencil or pen in my hand. And we know he’s out there yet, somewhere, don’t we? Waiting to come to the rescue if we need him. And all we have to do is utter that magic word, “SHAZ: … you know! More of Marc Swayze’s memories of the Golden Age will appear in our next issue.

The Shazam Curse The Post-Fawcett False Starts & Fizzles Of The Fabulous Marvel Family History And Opinion by P.C. Hamerlinck

“C

urses!” cried the World’s Maddest Scientist as the World’s Mightiest Mortal hauled him off to jail. The first curse inflicted upon Captain Marvel, the best-selling comic book character of the Golden Age, wasn’t the scornful words of his nemesis Dr. Sivana—but the years where lawyers bickered back and forth before a bored judge during a contentious courtroom circus. Fawcett Publications’ decision to stop the bleeding from that battle and sacrifice any further production of stories of “Captain Marvel” and “The Marvel Family” at least enabled the company to get on with its life of publishing profitable magazines and paperbacks. Despite a desperate-appearing move to incorporate then-trendy horror themes late into its run, VP/circulation manager Roscoe Fawcett once assured me that sales of Captain Marvel Adventures were “still very healthy and profitable” (Fawcett Companion, p. 12) in 1953, before the company determined that the super-heroes’ better days were long gone and that the ongoing expense of fighting for the Marvels in court would have wiped out their publishing empire. Captain Marvel, once one of the most popular comic book characters in America, became a mostly forgotten figure of fiction ... a folklore hero exiled to Brazil, cursed to lie dormant for years in his homeland as precious time slipped away wherein he could have been developing, growing, and maintaining his legendary iconic status. Yet, hindsight later revealed that Captain Marvel’s greatest curse was caused by his own proverbial “revival” conducted in 1972. Cap’s well-intentioned but ultimately flawed false start subsequently caused a vast, repetitious chain of unfortunate fumbles and outright failures which have spanned the course of 35 years (over twice as long as the original Fawcett run). These foibles have resulted in the character being unable to regain even a slight slice of his once widespread popularity.

“Curses!” Just in case you doubt our word that Dr. Sivana actually did spout the above epithet on occasion, here’s Exhibit “A,” a panel from what is considered by many to be one of the best-ever tales of the Big Red Cheese: “Captain Marvel Battles the Plot against the Universe!” from Captain Marvel Adventures #100 (Sept. 1949). [©2008 DC Comics.]

One of the accursed judgment calls from the early planning stages of the revival was that, instead of going with their initial gut instinct to develop an updated Captain Marvel for the modern 1970s audience— one that would fit snugly next to a Curt Swan Superman (“Make Way For Captain Thunder!” in Superman #276, June ’74, reveals that such an approach would have stood a good chance of succeeding)—DC chose instead to travel down memory lane. The nostalgia crowd was going to pull this book … so they thought … and hopefully grab new readers along the way with a funny, light derivative of the Captain. (The majority of readers at that time—small children to college students—had no idea what Shazam! meant or stood for.) The decision not to mature Cap after all those lost years, but rather to keep him as a throwback from another era, waiting to be plucked out of “suspended animation,” ultimately became the foundation that cemented a curse for future generations. The original Captain Marvel of the Golden Age was beautifully perfect … but to survive in modern times, a new strike of lightning was needed to successfully transform him into today’s world. (In contrast, Captain America seemed to better acclimate himself after his 1960s defrosting.)

Carmine Infantino, artist-turned-editorial-director-turned-publisher, initiated the acquisition for one of his old personal favorite characters. Since The Creeper and the like weren’t exactly penetrating Marvel Comics’ dominance of the marketplace, Infantino turned instead to obtaining ancient properties in an attempt to rejuvenate the DC line. As irony played itself out, the very people who helped give Captain Marvel a ride to the cemetery would be the inevitable Dr. Frankensteins to plunder his grave and raise him from the dead (thanks to the old decree stating that Fawcett couldn’t do anything with Cap without the consent of Supie’s publisher). A unique licensing deal between the two companies was struck, and Cap would soon emerge into the 1970s.

Additionally, another setback occurred because the new magazine couldn’t bear as its title the name of its main character! DC would probably have titled the comic Captain Marvel (whether they had started with a #1 or had picked up Fawcett's old numbering sequence from Captain Marvel Adventures), but the ever-astute Marvel Comics, insuring that no else could use that Marvel-ous name, had already intervened when rights to the CM handle had lapsed by trademarking the name for themselves in 1967, and launching its own “Captain Marvel,” a Kree warrior created by Stan Lee and Gene Colan. DC editor Julius Schwartz suggested Shazam! as a compromise title, and unfortunately, from then on, Captain Marvel has been cursed by being referred to all too often by the name of the old Egyptian wizard who gave him his powers. Even Schwartz stamping “With One Magic Word...” above the title wasn’t enough to assist the already-confused public.

However, DC didn’t foresee the perils of handling a character from the past ... and moreover, one that had been so sharply written with its own individualized style. Thus began a long series of multi-layered curses profligated upon the character.

Another cursed decision had christened Julie Schwartz as Shazam! editor. Even his editorial assistant E. Nelson Bridwell bemoaned the fact that Schwartz (already with a string of several successfully resurrected DC heroes under his belt) wasn’t a Cap fan, as ENB himself

The Final Funeral of A Fawcett Fable

childish-minded as Jules Feiffer had been at 10years-old, but surely the publishers couldn’t have been. I think they had a more sinister purpose in mind. When Captain Marvel went out of business at the end of the Golden Age, Superman’s publishers must have heaved a great sigh of relief. The greatest threat to their line of super-hero characters was dead and buried—they thought. But the World’s Mightiest Mortal hadn’t died in 1953. People everywhere still remembered him, and in Brazil he continued to appear for many years, looking and acting as he always had (but now speaking in Portuguese). The old Captain Marvel movie serial was played over and over, and fans dressed up like him at comic conventions. Old comic books featuring the original “Captain Marvel” stories brought fantastic prices, as they were better than any of the comics then on the market. Something had to be done. What Superman’s publishers did was bring Captain Marvel back into publication. They dressed him up in an old super-hero costume and sent him on stage with no carefully plotted stories to act out but some old Henry Youngman routines or a bunch of old Milton Berle Vaudeville skits to perform. They were trying to kill Captain Marvel, bury him, and drive a stake through his lifeless body.

Too Much Monkey Business Beck felt that DC turned Captain Marvel into “an oafish klutz who seemed to think he was the World’s Greatest Comedian,” as in this splash from Shazam! #9 (Jan. 1974). But—correct us if we’re wrong—didn’t Cap do some pretty silly things in the Golden Age, as well? [©2008 DC Comics.]

heroes! When he finally went out of business in 1953 I couldn’t have cared less.” Feiffer’s misconception of Captain Marvel can be excused on the grounds that he was only a child at the time, but there is no excuse for carrying such misconceptions on into adulthood. He was right about not liking frivolousness on the part of super-heroes; nobody does. But Captain Marvel was not a super-hero, and he was never frivolous— other characters in his stories were. If Captain Marvel had been a super-hero instead of just a big, amiable-looking fellow, he would never have cracked a smile and there would have been no humor at all in his stories. The new publishers, who also published the Superman comic books, turned Captain Marvel into a super-hero, complete with a painted-on costume which revealed every one of his steroid-enhanced muscles, a cape which flapped around him like Count Dracula’s, and the vocabulary of a sixth-grade dropout. They turned him into an oafish klutz who seemed to think that he was the World’s Greatest Comedian. Why they did this may be attributed to their ignorance of the facts. The new editors and writers and artists may have been as ignorant and

The Malady Lingers On FCA editor P.C. Hamerlinck, of course, chose the “Captain Marvel” artwork which accompanies this 1987 article, including the obituary-minded pieces at its beginning and end. But C.C. Beck would no doubt have approved. This panel is likewise from 1948’s Captain Marvel Adventures #88. [©2008 DC Comics.]

Now, at last, they have succeeded.

The 2005 Proposal To Bring Back The Real Captain Marvel by Alex Ross Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck [Alex Ross has made a career out of rekindling his childhood enthusiasm, beginning with his part as the artist/painter of the 1990s series Marvels, which has since been followed up by such DC series as Kingdom Come. It is no exaggeration to say he is today one of the bestknown people in the comics field. As both a long-time fan of the original Captain Marvel and something of a modern-day advocate for that hero’s rightful and prominent inclusion in high-profile projects, he continually reinterprets the World’s Mightiest Mortal for today’s world. While others have essentially buried the Beckinspired version, with the recently rejected/ignored pitch of Ross’ Say My Name – Shazam!, unveiled here for the first time, the artist reveals that he still shares with many others the hope that a classic rendition of Captain Marvel will soon return. —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

n early 2005, many changes were bouncing around the DC Universe, particularly around the continuity-redefining Infinite Crisis series. As part of this, there would be many characters killed, rebooted, and/or created from whole cloth. (Earlier in the year, fan favorite Blue Beetle was murdered for the sake of just such a reboot.) I was working at the time on my largest project to date, the 12-issue series Justice. Maintaining a very focused work schedule of painting 14 pages a month (a bi-monthly comic book) didn’t allow me much time to collaborate on other projects. It was around the time leading up to my book’s, and then Infinite Crisis’, release, that I was contacted about Shazam! DC was looking for a costume

Father To The Man (Left:) Alex Ross at work. (Above:) Concept drawings of Billy Batson and Captain Marvel done by Alex Ross to accompany his proposal for Say My Name—Shazam! And yes, the above title logo for this piece was also designed by Alex. When he’s enthusiastic, he’s enthusiastic! [Shazam! characters & phrase TM & ©2008 DC Comics.]

Alter Ego #75