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Volume 1, Number 20 February 2007 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today!

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury

Unmask comics’ most unusual alter egos in our

PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 FLASHBACK: Fire, Fire, Burning Bright: Firestorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 An illuminating look at the creation of DC’s flame-headed Nuclear Man

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Seastone Marketing Group

AL MILGROM FIRESTORM ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A showcase of classic and never-before-published illos from Firestorm’s original artist

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Christopher Irving

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore

PRO2PRO: The Nomad Saga: Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema on Captain America’s Identity Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Steve Rogers takes on a new costumed guise—and Richard Nixon, too!

COVER ARTIST Jerry Ordway

PRO2PRO BONUS: Brubaker and Casey’s Captain America Influences . . . . . . . . . . . 24 How today’s hot Cap writers followed the footsteps of Englehart and Buscema

COVER DESIGNER Robert Clark SPECIAL THANKS Michael Ambrose Michael Aushenker Cary Bates Spencer Beck Frank Balas Alex Boney Ed Brubaker Mark Burbey Sal Buscema Kurt Busiek John Byrne Glen Cadigan Joe Casey Leo Chuah Jennifer M. Contino Gerry Conway Denys Cowan DC Comics Ray Cuthbert Steve Ditko Tommy Lee Edwards Steve Englehart Mike Esposito Dave Gibbons Dick Giordano Grand Comic-Book Database Paul Handler Jack C. Harris Allan Harvey Jackie Haumann Heritage Comics Javier Hernandez Ilke Hincer Images of American Political History Dan Johnson Nick Katradis Ted Latner Steve Leialoha Steve Lipsky

TOP TEN WAYS TO HIDE YOUR SECRET IDENTITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Jennifer Contino’s helpful hints at alter ego concealment

INTERVIEW: Jawing with Jerry Ordway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Get to know the fan favorite from his youth as a Marvelmaniac to his current work Elliot S! Maggin Richard Martines Marvel Comics Bob McLeod Ky Michaelson Michael Mikulovsky Mike’s Amazing World of DC Comics Al Milgrom Doug Moench Rafael Navarro Eric Newsom Dennis O’Neil Kevin O’Neill Jerry Ordway Martin Pasko Keith Pasquino Don Perlin John Petty Keith Richard John Romita, Sr. Benno Rothschild Greg Rucka Rose Rummel-Eury Alex Segura Ted Seko Jim Shooter Rich Shurgin Tom Smith Zack Smith Roger Stern Tom Stewart Chris Swan Roy Thomas Bruce Timm Rick Veitch Jeff Weigel Len Wein Marv Wolfman Eddy Zeno Tom Ziuko

WHAT THE--?!: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s… an Editor?!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Our exposé of Dave Gibbons’ secret identity as the costumed Big E FLASHBACK: The Three Faces of Moon Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Moench and Perlin’s dark knight and his multiple identities—and artists FLASHBACK: The Human Fly: Pretty Fly for a Real Guy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 The comics celebrity-packed story of “The Wildest Superhero of All—Because He’s Real” SUPERMAN COLOR ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Four color pages with rare art by Curt Swan and super-friends PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: An Amazing Discussion About Clark Kent Red and Clark Kent Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Pre- and post-Man of Steel writers and artists examine Superman’s alter ego OFF MY CHEST: Standing Up for Vince Colletta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Rough Stuff’s Bob McLeod defends “comics’ worst inker” FLASHBACK: What, When, Why, Where, How, and…Who is the Question? . . . . . . . . . . 69 Explore the history of comics’ man with no identity, with O’Neil, Cowan, Rucka, and others BACKSTAGE PASS: Wonder Woman Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Visit a special fundraising event in Portland, Oregon BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 A letter from Deadman co-creator Arnold Drake, plus reader feedback on issue #18 FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 A sample of our sister publication, absolutely gratis BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Jerry Ordway. Shazam! (the original Captain Marvel), Billy Batson, and Firestorm TM & © DC Comics. Moon Knight and Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2007 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. S e c r e t

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DAVE COCKRUM 1943 – 2006

As production on this issue drew to a close, we were saddened to learn of the Nov. 26, 2006 death of artist Dave Cockrum. Ironically, BACK ISSUE #14, published one year ago this month, featured a “Pro2Pro” interview between Cockrum and Mike Grell, the two most popular Legion of SuperHeroes artists of the 1970s. Cockrum’s myriad contributions to comics include his revitalization of the X-Men and his creation or co-creation of Nightcrawler, Storm, Colossus, and the Futurians. We celebrate his extraordinary talent with this penciled page (courtesy of Bob McLeod) from X-Men #94 (Aug. 1975). Like the graceful Storm seen in the first panel, Dave Cockrum, whose later years were plagued with medical complications, now soars free. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

AN EXPLOSION OF NEW IDEAS!

Man of Two Minds Firestorm the Nuclear Man, with silhouettes of his two (original) secret identities, Professor Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond, from a 1977 DC house ad by Al Milgrom. Unless otherwise noted, all art in this article is courtesy of Al Milgrom. © 2007 DC Comics.

In 1977, DC Comics was undergoing seismic changes. The year before, Carmine Infantino— one-time editorial director, then publisher, a man who had set the look and direction of DC for almost ten years—was unceremoniously shown the door at Lexington Ave. by the higher-ups at Warner Communications. He was replaced with Jenette Kahn, a woman several decades Infantino’s junior, with no direct comic-book experience. To say that change was in the air would be like saying Superman … is kinda strong. In 1975, DC added 16 new titles; in ’76, 12 were added; and in ’77, 12 more were jammed onto the racks. It was a war for shelf space with Marvel Comics, and this time DC wasn’t going to blink. The call went out for new ideas, new characters, and new titles to join the fray. One of the people to answer was former Marvel editor-in-chief Gerry Conway: “I had come over from Marvel to DC, and was looking to do some work reminiscent of the work I did at Marvel, stuff I enjoyed doing.” Conway had several ideas he’d been kicking around, one that became Steel (no, the other one, with the cool Don Heck art) and another that went through the indignity of being one of the most touted titles to never appear (well, almost never, but then you’ve got to count that warehouse of unpublished material, Cancelled Comic Cavalcade), Vixen. And one more, a series about what it might really be like to be a teenage super-hero: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man. Here’s Firestorm’s original editor, Jack C. Harris, on the atmosphere at DC in ’76–77: “There was a flurry of presentations at the time. I remember two of mine own were a reworking of Kamandi (with Dick Ayers) and a reworking of Captain Comet (with Bob Rozakis and Joe Staton). The Captain Comet concept went pretty far down the line before it was eventually rejected, but the atmosphere was very positive. The Powers That Be were actively seeking new and expansive ideas.” Gerry Conway brought his concept of Firestorm to the “Powers That Be” and got the green light.

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A DC VERSION OF A MARVEL CHARACTER Here’s Gerry: “The idea behind Firestorm was to answer some basic questions I had about Peter Parker, play around with some thoughts about what would a real teenager, who wasn’t a brainaic, do with powers? What would a kid in my high school do given that kind of power? I saw him as a kind of nice guy, well meaning, but not the brightest bulb, and to balance that out, came up with the idea of combining him with an older, mentor character, a reverse of the Captain Marvel concept … this time we have the young teenager staying a teenager, but he suddenly gains a Jiminy Cricket in the form of this older, somewhat disproving, smarter father figure. He becomes the voice in his head that tells him what to do, which [the kid] often ignores … as we all often do.” So how did “team Firestorm” come together, Gerry Conway creator and scripter, and Al Milgrom, co-creator and artist. Gerry…? “I wanted to work with Al Milgrom. We had a similar sensibility. Al had a kind of cartoony style to his artwork, in the same way Ross Andru’s Spider-Man was cartoony. He was a great storyteller; drew very dynamic, actionbased figures.”

Happy to Be a Hero The splash page to Firestorm #1 (Mar. 1978), written by Conway, penciled by Milgrom, and inked by Klaus Janson (“Klaus did a great job!” beams Al). Joe Rubinstein and an uncredited Milgrom inked additional pages in the premiere issue. © 2007 DC Comics.

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Al Milgrom himself had come over from Marvel to edit at DC just before Gerry. Al…? “They asked if I’d be interested in working with Gerry on this project. I read the proposal, and thought it was pretty good!” Jack C. Harris was on board as editor: “If I recall clearly, Gerry presented the Firestorm concept amid a flurry of requested submissions from Jenette Kahn and, as part of his contracted scripting, he was to write it as well. I was assigned as the editor with the creative team in place. I was thrilled, having worked with both Gerry and Al previously, and having established good working relationships with them. That, and the fact that I loved their work.”

SPIDER-MAN SIDEWAYS Gerry, Al, and Jack wanted a return to the fun of the old Marvel. Here’s Gerry: “Basically, the notion was to have some fun with some of the tropes of the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character.” And Al: “I always thought that Firestorm was Spider-Man sideways! It was the jock, Ronnie [Raymond, Firestorm’s physical alter ego] who had the powers and it was the smart guy, Cliff [Carmichael, supportingcast member] who was the real bully. It was the Spidey setup, but reversed.” Comics had lost some of the fun over the years since Spider-Man’s 1962 debut. Peter Parker had gotten older and was loaded with some 15 years of baggage, trauma, and soap opera. He’d lost some of the wonder he’d had when he first appeared. It was time to bring some of that back. Gerry…? “I still wanted to have the soap-opera elements [in Firestorm], but I wanted it to be more fun-based, and that’s reflected in the kind of powers Firestorm had, rearranging molecules to be whatever he wanted them to be. Sort of like Green Lantern, but as a kid. “The idea was to try to do a DC version of a Marvel character, but try to have some fun with it.” Ronnie Raymond was a good guy, an average kid with a mostly absent father, a nice hook shot to make up what he lacked in math skills, and a short fuse when it came to his nemesis, the smartest kid in school, mutton-chop- and smirk-wearing Cliff Carmichael. To impress the school beauty Doreen Day, in Firestorm vol. 1 #1 (Mar. 1978), Ronnie joins a nuclear protest group (that would impress girls, right?) that has much more than protesting on its agenda. Ronnie ends up unwittingly involved in a plot to blow up the nuclear plant designed by Professor Martin Stein, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist whose whole reputation is bound up in the success of the facility. In trying to stop the explosion, Ronnie and Professor Stein are fused into one being, a nuclearpower man, Firestorm. As noted, there was a lot of the early Peter Parker character type in Ronnie. Here’s editor Harris: “I remember thinking, initially, that [the Firestorm concept] was very derivative, taking great hunks of ideas and concepts from earlier creations. In later editorial conversations, Gerry often pointed out that everything was derivative in concept and that the originality comes from new presentations, combinations, and rearrangements of these concepts. The more script-plotting sessions we had, the more I saw that he was right. I remember creating two of the villains myself: Killer Frost and Multiplex.”

Professor Martin Stein

Cliff Carmichael

Doreen Day

hot-headed

pipe-smoking voice

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Note from Al: “Last time I bumped into Jack, he made some remarks [which were at odds with my recollection] about the creation of the costume…” Jack…? “Yes! This was fun. The word came down from the front office that we had to submit costume designs prior to the first script. So Al came into my office and began sketching. I remember that Gerry told Al and me that he would trust us totally to come up with a costume. If I recall, Gerry’s workload was very heavy at the time and he really couldn’t take any additional time to work on costume designs. Anyway, Al came up with about four or five sketches, all of them with the flaming head (I think that was Gerry’s one request). We laughed about the costume with the puffy shirt and the atomic symbol around it. We were submitting that one just to show them we worked on more than one design. We never thought that THAT would be the one they selected. I remember Al whining, “Now I have to draw that costume in every panel!” Here’s Al again: “The way I remember it was working very hard on the design, looking at the other heroes out there, analyzing the costumes. You know, each had their emblems, front and back—Superman has the ‘S’ on the front and the cape, Batman has the bat—so I gave Firestorm the atom, the nucleus, the protons, and the electrons on the front and the sun on the back. The big sleeves and especially the flaming hair were good to show the motion without having a cape. Some people say it’s very ‘Kirby’-like because the helmet looks kinda Lightray-ish. Well, Jack was the King…” Conway loved the “hair on fire” look, right, Gerry…? “I always wanted them to do a Firestorm action figure that could double as a cigarette lighter. Create a character whose hair was on fire, I always liked that idea. Something really, totally, socially irresponsible. See what happens.” For villains to match the puffy-shirted one, Gerry, Jack, and Al turned to again to Marvel’s and DC’s pasts for inspiration. Gerry…? “For super-villains, I wanted to do a combination of the Spider-Man-type villains, very muscular and threatening, and the Flash Rogues’ Gallery villains, who were

oddball, strange … basically silly (‘I can do anything I want with mirrors!’). It was one of my favorite parts, coming up with the villains.” Introduced in #1 (beside Ronnie and Martin) was the first villain (without his uniform), Multiplex. He was Professor’s Stein former assistant Danton Black (great villain name!), whom the Professor had fired for stealing. Black had also been caught in the blast that created Firestorm, but issue #1 ended before we found out how the blast affected him. In #2 (Apr. 1978), he came back as Multiplex, the duplicate villain. He could make multiple copies of himself, but with a twist: Each copy Multiplex makes of himself is smaller than the one before. Here’s Gerry: “Like the ‘carbon copy man’ who gets progressively thinner… What I tried to do was take these things and try to figure out what would you really do, what would really happen. I remember one of the things SF writers would say about comic books is that we ignore the basic laws of physics. Well, I have no problem ignoring the laws of physics, like Giant-Man. His body shouldn’t support his weight, his legs would break, and he’d fall down. And I thought, ‘Gee, that’d be funny, I’d like to see that! ’ Or as Ant-Man, when he was really tiny, he’d get blown away because his mass isn’t the same as it was when he’s normal-sized. It’s fun to play with that. So here we have a guy who can divide himself, but his mass doesn’t change so he just keeps getting smaller— that’s hysterical to me.” In Firestorm #3 (May 1978), Firestorm met up with an ex-student of Professor Stein’s, Dr. Crystal Frost. Dr. Frost had been nursing a secret love for the Professor for years, and took the opportunity of Martin coming to inspect her energy project to proclaim her feelings. Martin, surprised, rejected her. She ended up being trapped in her own project’s cooling system, emerging as being with incredible ice powers … and a slinky dress. Gerry…? “We thought to have an ice villain, the Fire/Ice [angle] being natural. I think Al wanted her to be a woman, to have something different to draw.” Okay then, Al…? “Really? That’s funny because I don’t think I draw women all that well. I’m sure I came up with the name, though. I was trying to make her sexy and attractive, using the icicles as a motif, an icy/snowy theme.”

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Ronnie Raymond

Meet the Firestorm Cast

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Just how does a super-hero hide his or her identity from friends, family, foes, and any other animals, vegetables, or minerals he or she might come in contact with? It’s tough, but we’ve asked a few “professionals” for their advice on…

The Top Ten Ways to Hide Your Secret Identity by

Jennifer M. Contino

10. Wear a wig. “After all, even if your face is exposed, having a wig on can make all the difference in the world,” says Linda Lee. “Especially if it’s styled different than your ‘normal’ hairstyle.” Dinah Lance is quick to agree, “With the right wig you can fool even a trained detective!”

9. Act like a wimp. “If you’re a wimp, there’s no way someone will think you’re a hero, especially if you let bullies push you around, kick sand in your face, and bug you,” says Peter Parker. “Just to make sure your disguise is fooling everyone, let them knock books out of your hands or tease you in front of pretty girls, too.”

8. Act like a pimp. Bruce Wayne encourages, “If you’re at a party with several girls hanging off every body part, no one will believe you have enough time, energy, or desire to seek your kicks by busting heads on a dark ‘night.’”

“Along with having a few gals on each arm, have a few bottles of good scotch or fine wine in each hand,” suggests Tony Stark. “Getting a little sauced will make others find it hard to believe you’re an invincible hero.”

7. Have a list of ready excuses.

“No, that wasn’t me saving the world, I was out walking my dog!” “No, that red webbed shirt you saw underneath my dress shirt wasn’t a Spider-Man costume. I had a red crayon in with my laundry and all my undershirts are that color now.” “I don’t know how Wonder Woman freed us, I was unconscious like the rest of you!” “This isn’t a Green Lantern ring, I got it out of a Cracker Jacks box!” Steve Rogers concurs, “I can’t tell you how many times the right excuse has saved my career!” 1 4

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6. Be a klutz. “If you can’t walk straight in your civilian identity and are tripping all over everyone there, no one will believe you can defy the laws of gravity or change the course of mighty rivers,” says Clark Kent.

5. Keep spare sets of clothes all over the place. “You never know when your webbing might wear out,” says Peter Parker. “I’ve lost more dress shirts that way…” Clark Kent recalls, “Secret pouches are also a hassle sometimes.” © 2007 Warner Bros.

“Just keep several sets of the same civvies in the usual hiding places to be on the safe side,” says Bruce Banner. “Especially if you wear stretchy purple pants ... those are so hard to find in stores.”

4. Have a handicap.

“Being blind, no one would ever suspect you of being such a devil in a red—well, you get the idea,” comments Matt Murdock. Charles Xavier says, “This wheelchair is my perfect cover!” Joseph Wilson nods in agreement.

3. Use an image enhancer. “There’s nothing more handy than a tiny piece of electronic equipment that can change your appearance and do just about everything but brush your teeth,” says Kurt Wagner.

2. Wear glasses. Barbara Gordon enthuses, “Glasses are the perfect disguise!”

“You can barely tell what someone looks like when they aren’t wearing their glasses,” says Diana Prince. “And if you’ve a four-eyes in front of you, you’d never believe he could be a man of steel or that she could be a real wonder.”

1. Be a shapechanger.

“If you can alter your identity at will and take on the characteristics of anyone or anything else, then no one would ever be able to find out your identity,” says John Jones. Garfield Logan agrees, “Even if you’re a green squirrel, people just don’t get it!”

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Zack Smith

a m e c s u B d n a t r a h e l g s En ’ a c i r e m A on Captainy Crisis Identit It’s one thing for a super-hero to change his name, or maybe assume a new identity for a story. It’s another thing for one of the most iconic characters in comics to not only change his identity, but his entire philosophy as well. Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema did just that with Captain America in the 1970s, crafting one of Cap’s most thought-provoking and best-remembered storylines. “The Nomad Saga” (Captain America #177–186, Sept. 1974–June 1975) came in the wake of another well-regarded Englehart/Buscema collaboration, the recently reprinted “Secret Empire” storyline. In it, Captain America battles an evil conspiracy seeking to take over the country, leading to one of the most shocking endings in comics—after chasing the Secret Empire’s leader, Number One, to the Oval Office, Cap unmasks him to discover an unseen figure who claims “high political office” wasn’t enough for him, before committing suicide. Though Number One’s identity was never stated, the allegory was clear to readers—Captain America had just witnessed a villainous Richard Nixon taking his own life. Bereft, Cap questioned whether the values he stood for still applied in this modern America. He became a new hero, the Nomad, literally “the man without a country.” Others attempted to fill Cap’s shoes, including a young kid he’d befriended named Roscoe. But when Roscoe was brutally murdered by the Red Skull, Cap realized that he had to return. Understanding that he represented America’s people and ideals rather than its government, he resumed his old identity and set out to avenge his friend. The Nomad identity made a strong impression on readers, and was later revived by Jack Monroe, another Englehart creation. The new Nomad stuck around for a while, even enjoying a short-lived solo series in the early 1990s before he was recently killed off in the latest Captain America series. BACK ISSUE recently sat down with Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema (whose participation was limited due to recent health problems) to look back on this storyline, and their work together. We also spoke to Joe Casey and Ed Brubaker, two modern-day Cap writers who have cited Englehart and Buscema’s influence on their work. —Zack Smith

The Seminal Cap Team Even before their landmark Nomad storyline, Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema had pulled Captain America out of its sales doldrums. Detail from page 1 of issue #161 (May 1973), courtesy of Nick Katradis. © 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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ZACK SMITH: What was the genesis of the Nomad storyline? How far in advance had you planned to do it? STEVE ENGLEHART: I was very much sort of in-the-moment at that time. It came out, of course, during the whole Watergate thing. I was writing Captain America during Watergate and it just became absurd to me that Captain America would not pay any attention to Watergate. So I ended up doing “The Secret Empire” and you can see, if you read those issues leading up to it, it started out as kind of a super-hero thing and there’s vague talk of a conspiracy. But I had just moved out to California and a couple of issues were kind of plotted with Mike Friedrich. I plotted them, he wrote them, but I was sort of moving the story forward without having much idea what the story was at that point. And then I moved to California and settled in just as Watergate was really heating up. And for people who weren’t around then, it was very much like having this epic movie unfolding day by day. Every day there was forward motion in the storyline, there were new revelations, there were machinations, there were Senate hearings, and it really was the whole summer. So it seemed impossible to me that Captain America could not pay attention to it. So once I got settled in California and sort of got back on schedule to do everything myself, I started shaping a story which really hadn’t started off in that direction, shaping it toward the whole thing where the president blows his brains out in the White House and Captain America is disillusioned, that America doesn’t believe in what he believes at the time. And then it just seemed obvious that he would give up being Captain America. I mean, it was like one thing led to another, and so, to answer your original question, I probably [worked] no more than a month ahead when I thought of doing the Nomad concept. It was like every story led into every other story, and there was no long-term plan. I mean, the only long-term plan, as I recall, was that Captain America would have to become Captain America again at some point, and I understood that in my own sense of values to mean that no, it wouldn’t just be, “Oh, well, we’ve run this storyline into the ground.” If I had to go back again, there would have to be a good way for him to come back, but I didn’t know what that was. All I knew is I was going to do the Nomad thing and so it was just existential, really, because sort of every story I’d say, “Okay, here’s where it would go next,” and then I’d get that one done and I’d go, “Well, here’s where it would go next.” And that’s all I really knew. SMITH: The ending of the “Secret Empire” storyline went into issue #176, some of your best writing on the series. I’d like to talk a little bit about that particular issue. How did you decide to do one that was just kind of a philosophical Captain America issue? ENGLEHART: Well, Captain America, to me, was a philosophy in a sense. I mean, that goes back to when I took over the series. As a reader—you know, [I was] just a fan before I went to work for Marvel—Captain America was clearly the book that had the least reason for existence, shall we say? I mean, Captain America was brought back in Tales of Suspense and Jack Kirby got a chance to do it again, and Stan Lee got a chance to do it, and for a while, there was like an interesting Captain America storyline. But once [Cap] got his own book, clearly, Stan had no idea what to do with it. It was just sort of bad super-hero stuff without any purpose or anything. But the problem wasn’t just Stan. Everybody was having difficulty with a character who was supposed to be a patriotic example of America when the Vietnam War was going on and when people were very much up in arms about what America was doing, and so forth, and it was like nobody was able to wrap his mind around doing a patriotic character in a sort of anti-American time. And so when I got handed the book, I was able to wrap my mind around that. I could see [Cap] pretty clearly as a guy who exemplified the best that America had to offer, not what it was offering. And so right from the start, I was just doing this sort of philosophical take on this guy. I was doing the best super-hero

Beginnings: Art assistant to Neal Adams in Vampirella vol. 1 #10 (1971)

Milestones: The Avengers / The Defenders / Captain America The Incredible Hulk / Dr. Strange / Batman in Detective Comics / The Point Man (novel) / Coyote Scorpio Rose / The Djinn / Justice League of America / animation including Street Fighter and G. I. Joe / Green Lantern / The Night Man / Batman: Dark Detective

Work in Progress: The Long Man™ (novel, sequel to The Point Man™)

Cyberspace: www.steveenglehart.com

STEVE ENGLEHART Photo courtesy of steveenglehart.com.

Beginnings: Inker on 10-page Gunhawk story

Milestones: The Avengers / Sub-Mariner / Captain America The Incredible Hulk / Marvel Team-Up The Defenders / Rom / Iron Man / The Amazing Spider-Man / Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man / Fantastic Four / Artist for The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe covers

Work in Progress: Inker for Spider-Girl

Cyberspace: Spider-Girl message board at comicsboards.com

SAL BUSCEMA Photo courtesy of Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find.

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BRUBAKER AND CASEY’S TM

Zack Smith

Two of today’s most acclaimed comic-book writers are Ed Brubaker and Joe Casey. Casey has written Cap in his Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes minis, and Brubaker has scripted one of the most acclaimed runs on Captain America in years. Both writers have cited Englehart and Buscema’s work in the 1970s as a major influence on their work. Casey has often spoken of Englehart’s influence on his own work, including an essay at his website, www.godlandonline.com. “The way Englehart wrote long-form comic books in the early ’70s set the template for just about every super-hero writer that came after,” Casey says. “His ability to craft long arcs that would start small and then build to a huge, dramatic crescendo and then scale back to start the whole process over again showed the rest of us how to maintain interest and energy on a series over a period of years. “My early Marvel work—Cable in particular—was incredibly influenced by the way Englehart structured his series work. No Marvel writer outside of Stan Lee and Roy Thomas has ever had such a firm grasp of so many Marvel characters.” For Brubaker, Englehart and Buscema’s run holds a special nostalgia. “The first comic I ever bought with my own money was issue #156 of Captain America and the Falcon, with the two Caps fighting on the cover, and those great giant Sal Buscema fists that are as big as their heads,” Brubaker says. “That comic blew me away. I was five or six years old then, and living on the Navy Base at Gitmo, and I think that single issue of Cap cemented him as a favorite through most of my childhood. I’ve read every issue of the Englehart run several times, including recently.” Both writers cite the Nomad storyline as a high point for the character of Captain America. “As a kid, reading it the first time, I was really just shocked,” Brubaker says. “How could they do that to Cap?” Brubaker says that he felt that Steve Englehart’s writing helped readers see Captain America not just as a cliché, but as a person. “I think it was the genesis of the whole thing about Cap not serving the government, but the ideals of America, too, which has been carried over for decades now,” Brubaker says. Casey agrees. “This was a radical change that actually related to the core concept of the character in a profound way,” Casey says. “The fact that Cap loved his country and the ideals it stood for to such a degree that he gave up the mantle for awhile was completely defining. In fact, that whole storyline probably defined the character for the following 20 years, if not to this day.

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“I think Englehart was the first writer who had a real vision for Captain America. I realize the possible blasphemy I might be committing there, considering the previous main writers on Cap were Joe Simon, Jack Kirby, and Stan Lee, but Englehart was the first writer to consider what the character really means—and what he symbolizes––to the culture at that moment. “And, considering it was the early ’70s … between Vietnam and Watergate, a character who wore the American flag was making a statement whether it was intentional or not. Englehart was the first—and probably the only—writer to address that statement and explore what it really meant in the context of adventure fiction. And he did it without sacrificing the four-color excitement that super-hero comic books are supposed to deliver. That’s a tough balancing act. Not many writers can do that, even today.” Both writers also have fond memories of Buscema’s art. “Mostly because of his work on Cap, Sal is actually my favorite Buscema,” Brubaker says. “I think almost all the work he did on Cap was great, even when he came back with the Grand Master storyline later and they killed Sharon Carter.” Casey also expresses admiration for Buscema’s work. “I think Sal Buscema is one of the great underrated Marvel artists,” Casey says. His work is pure storytelling. Hell, it’s just pure comics. Mr. Buscema has drawn some of my favorite childhood comic books, and part of why they’re my favorites is because of his clarity of storytelling. He wasn’t flashy, but his art still managed to convey power at the appropriate moments. And I used to love the shots where the bottom panel border was the floor of a room.” Brubaker recently killed off the modern-day Nomad, Jack Monroe, in a poignant-but-disturbing story in issue #7 of the new Captain America series. “I felt okay killing Jack Monroe because he’d been out of circulation for a long time, and because I never really liked him being Nomad that much,” Brubaker says. “I liked him as a character, but to me, Nomad is Steve when he’s adrift.” Casey liked Brubaker’s story, but says that he saw how the Nomad identity could return. “I think it made good story sense to get rid of Nomad in the manner it was done,” Casey says, “although I do think there’s a new disillusionment that a lot of folks have with the country, the current administration, and their handling of the war in Iraq. So maybe the Nomad character would have some renewed relevance in today’s superhero landscape.” Brubaker admits that he didn’t know whether the Nomad identity would or even should make a comeback, but doesn’t rule anything out: “Who knows, with Civil War happening, maybe we’ll see the return of Nomad … or maybe not.”

Michael i M kulovsky by

conducted via email on Augu st 21, 2006

MICHAEL MIKULOVSKY: You were born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Is it true that as a kid you had a dog named Lobo, named after Marvel’s Red Wolf’s wolf Lobo? JERRY ORDWAY: Yeah, that is true. Lobo was a German shorthair/black lab mix that we got as a puppy, and since the name meant wolf in Spanish, my brother Joel and I went with it. MIKULOVSKY: Where did you get your comics back then, in that time before comic-book stores? ORDWAY: Back in those dark ages, I used to ride my bike all over Milwaukee, starting with the great newsstand downtown and then to any drugstore that had a spinner rack, in search of titles that didn’t hit the main outlets. In the winter, when it was too cold in Wisconsin for bike riding, my Aunt Mary would drive me all over the place searching. I remember in around 1971 or so, I searched in vain locally for Forever People with Sonny Sumo on the cover, and on a summer trip found it at a little drugstore in northern Wisconsin, 50 miles from home. Man, was I happy for that trip! MIKULOVSKY: Many fans think of you as a DC guy, but weren’t you a Marvelmaniac growing up? ORDWAY: I spent most of my career working on DC heroes, but I got hooked on Marvel from the cartoon show in 1966. Then I found the comics at a spinner rack at the Milwaukee train station as the family embarked on a trip to Colorado for my oldest brother Mike’s college graduation. My brother Joel and I spent the dollar Mom gave us on Thor, Tales of Suspense, Daredevil, Spider-Man, Tales to Astonish, Fantastic Four, Avengers, and Strange Tales. The greatest thing was that upon arriving in Colorado, we were able to get the next issues a few days later. And then it was an incredibly long month to wait for more! MIKULOVSKY: Why did you prefer Marvel’s comics over DC’s? ORDWAY: As a kid will do, I felt Marvel belonged to my generation, while DCs, which I had read a few years earlier, were “kid’s stuff.” I was nine years old, but DC to me was something I graduated from to get to Marvel. I also used to have to look up words in the dictionary to understand Spider-Man, for example. I did relax my buying habits later on to pick up the Captain Action comics from DC, as well as the occasional THUNDER Agents.

With One Magic Word… Jerry Ordway’s rendition of Captain Marvel and his secret identity Billy Batson, from an early 1990s Capital Cities Distribution Catalog. Courtesy of Heritage Comics. © 2007 DC Comics.

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The Three Faces of by

Dan Johnson TM

Once upon a time, secret identities were very important to super-heroes. In this day and age of comic-book characters unmasking more and more, I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s true. In fact, one character in the Marvel stable thought secret identities were so important, he assumed a couple of extra ones to help him wage his war on crime. Readers of BACK ISSUE, allow me to present to you Moon Knight. Granted, it may take a while to get a handle on who this character is, but don’t sweat it too much. After all, knowing who Moon Knight really is is sometimes pretty difficult, even for the man behind the silvery mask. When the character was first introduced in the pages of Werewolf by Night (issues #32 and 33, Aug. and Sept. 1975), his creators, Doug Moench and Don Perlin, were simply hoping for a new kind of adversary to go up against the Werewolf, Jack Russell. In the end they created a costumed adventurer whose full potential was just hinted at in his first appearance and who would eventually take juggling multiple identities to a whole new level. But more on that in just a little while….

DEADLINE-INSPIRED Let’s start back when Marvel’s newest mystery man was just a hired gun stalking deadly game in the Marvel Universe. Like other memorable comic-book creations before him, Moon Knight came about due to the greatest inspiration a writer or artist can have looming over their heads: a deadline. “I needed to write the next issue of Werewolf by Night because Don [Perlin] was waiting for the plot,” recalls Moench. “I needed to come up with a new villain for Jack Russell. This was back when comics were more seat-of-yourpants and spontaneous. Never sell that short. Some of the best stuff I’ve done came under extreme pressure, and by the very nature of that there was no interference allowed because the publishers need the books. You were totally set free, and as long as [your work] was there by the deadline, it was okay.”

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While preparing the next issue of Werewolf by Night, Moench also saw the need to inject something different into the book that would help catch the attention of readers. “[In Werewolf by Night], there was a group of villains called the Committee and they were real boring,” says Moench. “Don and I did not create them, that was the previous writers and artists. I thought that a villain for the Werewolf should be, in a strange way, a hero. Someone fighting a werewolf is someone who is not necessarily a bad guy. But the Werewolf is the star of the book, and he is kind of a good guy, so the villain we needed would have to be a combination of a hero and a villain. We thought Moon Knight would be a villain for the Werewolf for maybe one story. The Committee [members] were all non-visual, guys in suits, as I recall. I thought they would hire someone to track down the Werewolf and capture him, and then the person they hired could be a cool-looking visual. We didn’t know that it would be popular, or that it would have legs and become something more popular than the sum of its parts, but it did.” Don Perlin, the man who gave Moon Knight his look, recalls that the creation of Moon Knight was more than a means to meet that month’s deadline, he was also a way to help offset waning sales on the book. “The horror genre was going down the tubes,” says Perlin. “The editors said we need to get someone with a costume on this thing.” The first step in bringing Moon Knight to life was running the idea past Werewolf by Night’s editor Len Wein to see what his thoughts were. “I had a list of ten or 12 names,” says Moench. “And when I called Len, I described the mercenary based on the moon and said that he gets hired to go after the Werewolf and he uses silver weapons because that is the only thing that will hurt a werewolf. Len said, ‘Okay. So what are you going to call him?’ I read Len my list (which included the name ‘Blood Moon’), and when I came to ‘Moon Knight,’ he said, ‘That’s the one!’ I made up the name, but it was Len who liked it more than any of the other ones.” Modern fans of Moon Knight may not even be aware of how and why this character’s appearance was first designed, or the great debt it owed to Marvel’s hairiest hero ever. “Everything flowed from [the Werewolf] very obviously,” recalls Moench. “The Werewolf only works at night, so whoever opposes him should also be attuned to the night. The Werewolf changes only when there is a full moon, and that’s where the moon [motif] came from, and the knight part was a play on words; nighttime and a knight who is hired to go on some crusade. He was a nighttime character and he was attuned to the moon. Silver hurts a werewolf, therefore he had these silver crescentmoon-shaped throwing darts. His costume was based on the moon, which, as it goes through its waxing and waning, was black and white.” With no color at all, only solid white with black for shadows, Moon Knight bucked the conventional wisdom of most comic-book characters. “Other characters have all [kinds] of colors in their suits,” remembers Perlin. “[We figured] a black-and-white suit on a colored page would stand out. But then the colorists started adding blue tints [to his costume]!” Still, the costume designed by Perlin endured and did indeed get the desire effect on the printed page. “I put the cowl on Moon Knight to give him that sinister look,” recalls Perlin. “[In his first solo adventure,] I got away with

Hero and Villain in One Man

something that I liked. In a couple of panels, Moon Knight is standing in a doorway and it is black behind him, so all you see are the white parts of his costume. That was spooky-looking.” In his first outing against the Werewolf, Moon Knight was played more as a mercenary and his alter ego is named Marc Spector. Even though he took the money from the Committee to hunt down Jack Russell and bring him in, Moon Knight redeemed himself and decided in the end to do the right thing, helping the Werewolf escape and take down the Committee. Very little is revealed about Moon Knight in this first outing—indeed, the readers were never even given a good look at his face. But one element that would be important to the character’s future adventures was present right from the get-go: Frenchie, Moon Knight’s assistant and helicopter pilot. “Frenchie was in from the beginning,” says Moench. “He was actually one of the few supporting characters attached to the mercenary identity from the start.” S e c r e t

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HEY, IT’S BEEN REAL … AND IT’S BEEN WILD! For many readers of a certain age, The Human Fly remains a fond memory etched in Bronze. As a boy, Rafael Navarro loved the visceral motion of Robbins’ storytelling. “It’s this level of energy that he conveys with every line,” says Navarro. “He can take the subtlest scene of two people in a hospital worrying about someone and it’s exciting.” He enjoyed Robbins best inked by Esposito and “without question, Springer.

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When the two Franks worked together, that stuff was dynamite. These guys were true artisans, true craftsman. That sense of professionalism is seemingly gone.” “When I was a kid, I didn’t really appreciate [Fly],” recalls Ted Seko, “because he wasn’t a super-hero … he wasn’t all that powerful. He struggled to do a simple feat that would be nothing for Spider-Man. Now as I get older, reading characters that have limitations, it’s sort of more exciting.” “I still remember the feeling and the excitement of reading the book,” says Hernandez. “I still enjoy its spirit.” Whatever the true story behind the enigmatic stuntman, nothing detracts from the fact that The Human Fly inspired a slambang comic book series which, like one of his stunts, was brief yet memorable. Adds Hernandez, “I still believe that he was real.” MICHAEL AUSHENKER is a Los Angeles-based writer and cartoonist. His comic books include the El Gato, Crime Mangler series, Cartoon Flophouse, and Those Unstoppable Rogues. Visit cartoonflophouse.com.

Photo Credit: Jackie Haumann.

Unfortunately, there was no future for The Human Fly. Turn to #19’s last page, and the series abruptly ends. We can practically hear the sound of a getaway car’s motor running outside Marvel’s offices as all involved hastily wrap up the storyline, announce five stunt-contest winners, and simultaneously inform readers of the book’s demise. Sadly, the contest’s big winners also turned out to be the contest’s big losers. In the final panel, Harmony pounds away on her keyboard, Steven J. Cannell-style (and as if to hammer home the indifference, Whyte’s last name is carelessly misspelled “White”). A loose page flying toward the reader proclaims: “All Important Announcement from the Marvel Bullpen—This is the final issue of THE HUMAN FLY— the wildest hero ever! Much to all of our regret, ending the FLY here also means that the Human Fly STUNT CONTEST ends as well, but we thought it would be nice to mention the five winners whose creative stunt ideas might have appeared in these pages. All have received an autographed page of original HUMAN FLY artwork.” After listing the five “winners,” the bulletin ends: “Thanks for coming along for the wildest ride in years. It’s been fun!” “The Fly was canceled in or around the summer of 1978,” says Shooter. “That was a bad time for comics. DC canceled 40% of their titles on one day, the infamous ‘DC Implosion,’ Harvey was reduced to occasional reprints, Archie went all reprint … Charlton died and Gold Key cut back to almost nothing. Marvel canceled a number of titles that sold especially poorly. Few things were selling well. The Fly NEVER sold well, so it was on the list.” According to Shooter, Mantlo, despite his apparent frustration, had creative carte blanche: “I don’t think the Fly people even read the approval drafts we sent them, certainly not after the first issue or two. Bill did pretty much whatever he wanted.” Yet by #19, it didn’t really matter anymore. Fly had run out of rocket fuel, sputtering to its creative nadir. The series, which had shot out like the Fly from a circus cannon with Elias’s explosive origin issue, now came full circle with Elias penciling the series’ most anemic installment: a random, poorly inked Wild West tale set on a Hopi reservation. Mantlo soon moved onto Rom. Perlin went on to pencil Ghost Rider and Defenders. Leialoha landed Spider-Woman. Robbins had already left the building— his electric storytelling, which had seemingly reached every square inch of the House of Ideas by 1978, was gone.

Superman Color Art Gallery Curt Swan penciled, inked, and colored this 1979 Daily Planet cast drawing as a gift for friends; courtesy of Richard Martines. Also, covers from Turkish editions of Superman comics; contributed by Ilke Hincer. © 2007 DC Comics.

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This recreation of the classic cover to Superman #300 was found on artist Curt Swan’s drawing board at the time of his passing in 1996 and recently digitally colored by Tom Smith, who kindly contributed it to BACK ISSUE. This is among Swan’s last Superman drawings. (Special thanks to the Swan family and Spencer Beck.) © 2007 DC Comics.

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An Amazing Discussion About

CLARK KENT RED

and

Eddy Zeno

CLARK KENT BLUE

As a young reader, I always liked Superman better than Clark Kent. Didn’t we all? My favorite stories might begin with an unfolding headline event teletyped into the Daily Planet newsroom. Clark might be working at his desk or chewing the fat with Perry, Lois, and Jimmy. He would have to find an excuse to change to Superman so he could fly to wherever the threat was and deal with it. If he never appeared out of costume for the tale’s remainder, it was fine with me. Yet despite a child’s opinion that Clark was not needed, except perhaps as a brief story springboard, he did not go away. That’s because the editors and writers, starting with Superman’s co-creator Jerry Siegel, were smart enough to know that without Clark Kent, Superman wouldn’t last. Denny O’Neil, interviewed in January 2006 for the book The Krypton Companion (by BACK ISSUE’s Michael Eury and published by TwoMorrows), in essence said that even those long-ago, goofy tales in which Lois or Lana schemed to prove that Clark was Superman/Superboy were necessary. They helped ground a near-invincible space alien with godlike powers in the everyday world so readers could relate to him. In current continuity Superman remains grounded by having Ma and Pa Kent alive and by Clark/Superman being married to Lois. The careers of the writers participating in the Clark Kent Roundtable span these wide gulfs in the reporter’s history and events in between. Their comments, received by email between July and October 2006, serve as reminders how each of them has added dimension to the fictional character. For contrast and clarity they are divided into pre- and post-Crisis teams—or the “Clark Kent Red” and the “Clark Kent Blue” teams, in a nod to the classic Imaginary Story. However, all Roundtable participants maintain a sharp interest in Clark as he appears today, and many of them still participate in his adventures in some form. —Eddy Zeno (Acknowledgment: Thanks to Michael Eury for helping with the following questions.)

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all the while using his powers in secret to help others. But then, something happened … something big. He had to fly into action in front of God, the media, and everyone, to save the crew of a NASA space plane. Big excitement. Now everyone wanted to know all about him. Everyone wanted a piece of him. And that’s when he turned to his parents and got their help in creating the Superman identity. So Superman is the bright, shining, larger-than-life being who exists as the public face of Clark Kent’s hidden nature. Superman is out there, so Clark can lead a normal life. Superman is very straightforward. Unlike Batman, he doesn’t wear a mask. His face is hanging right out there for everyone to see. But Clark Kent … ah, Clark is very complicated. He has plenty of secrets. Clark Kent is secretly an alien from another planet. He guards that secret carefully, and shares it with only a trusted few. KURT BUSIEK: The way I look at it, both “Clark Kent” and “Superman” are manufactured personalities— public personas that Superman chooses to show to the world in different situations. The real guy is who he is when he’s at home and doesn’t have to put on either show. The guy at Ma Kent’s kitchen table, or talking things over at the apartment with Lois, that’s the real one. At heart, what he is, is a stranger from another planet who was brought up in middle America, in a loving, supportive family. The two can’t really be separated. JOHN BYRNE: Through the Golden and Silver Ages it always seemed to be Clark who was the manufactured personality. Superman thought of himself primarily as Superman, then as Kal-El, then as Clark Kent. This never rang true with me, even as a kid, so when I had the opportunity, I “fixed” it. MARV WOLFMAN: There are two distinct Clark Kents. One is the Clark who is pretty much the same as Superman, the Clark that lives with his parents or the Clark that’s with Lois. The put-on Clark is the one who interfaces with everyone else but his intimates. JERRY ORDWAY: In my opinion, Kal-El was raised as a human with a solid Midwestern farm town value system, and so the Clark Kent side of him is dominant. If you are adopted, your adoptive parents are your parents, for better or worse. In Clark’s case, it was for the better. He may be a Kryptonian, but he lives among us as one of us, taking on the persona of Superman to help humanity. ZENO: What was the inspiration for the changes in Kent after the Crisis on Infinite Earths? BYRNE: Just a general sense of how “adopted children” grow up. It seemed to me that every time Superman said “Great Rao!” or “Great Krypton!” he was spitting in the faces of Jonathan and Martha Kent, who had been more truly his parents than Jor-El and Lara had ever been, as Earth had been more truly his home than Krypton. STERN: I can’t speak for the others, but I can tell you that George Reeves’ portrayal of Clark Kent was always a major influence on the way I wrote Clark. The way George played Clark, he always came across as very smart, very clever, and very likable. You could believe that his Clark was a respected reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.

A Stern (not Roger) Talking-To (right) Pa Kent teaches Clark not to grab for glory as he grows toward adulthood in 1986’s Man of Steel #1, written and penciled by John Byrne and inked by Dick Giordano. © 2007 DC Comics.

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There was also a smattering of the Clark who appeared in the Fleischer cartoons of the 1940s and Chris Reeve’s portrayal from the movies … especially in posture and voice range. I loved how Chris spoke in a slightly higher register as Clark, and stood straighter and taller as Superman. Remember that scene in Lois’ apartment in the first Superman movie, where he takes off the glasses and straightens up—and then straightens up again!—and his voice drops an octave? Forget about “You’ll believe a man can fly!” That scene made me believe that Clark Kent could appear different enough from Superman to keep his double identity a secret. Of course, there was precedent for the voice change, as well. In the cartoons and on the Mutual Network’s Superman radio show, Bud Collyer had used different voices for Clark and Superman, and even did a vocal transition when he “changed identities.” In my stories, I’ve tried to emphasize—as often as I could—that Clark Kent is a tenor and Superman is a baritone. ORDWAY: I suppose it was like anything else—DC wanted to make him a bit more accessible, and add a bit more depth to his personality. ZENO: Were there elements of Clark’s previous “mild-mannered” persona that you wish had not been eliminated? BYRNE: As the one doing the “eliminating,” no. A lot of thought—about ten years’ worth!—went into Man of Steel. (Given a time machine, I would not get rid of Superboy—but that’s because the Powers-That-Were at DC double-crossed me, after the contracts were signed, not because of anything to do with Clark.) BUSIEK: Speaking as a reader, yes. I think the idea that Clark Kent was nebbish and uncharismatic— that he was a “nobody” who was secretly the greatest guy on Earth—was important to the character and

got lost along the way. However logical it might be to make Clark Kent a confident, no-nonsense guy who was a high-school football star, I think it loses the essential dichotomy at the heart of the series— that Clark is a nerdy exterior hiding a wondrous secret. It’s that, I think, that allowed millions of adolescent kids to identify with Clark and better imagine themselves Superman. WOLFMAN: I had nothing to do with making him a school athlete. That would be exactly the thing I would not do. I would have had him as competent, but nothing special at school in terms of athletics. Although he’s a top reporter, that has nothing to do with Superman. Writing and reporting are not things his powers can help him with. You can fly but that wouldn’t make you a good reporter. Writing skills don’t come with X-ray vision. To be a top athlete however would be him using his powers for personal gain and therefore wrong. He’d be using his powers in a way that would put down other students for no reason other than self-aggrandizement since he’d be taking a place on a team that might have gone to someone for whom baseball or football means more. My view of Superman is he’s not selfish in that way. ORDWAY: The mild-mannered reporter was still there, but I know we tried to veer away from him being the butt of jokes, as he kind of was in the Julie Schwartz era. The whole set-up and dynamic of Lois lusting after Superman while despising Clark Kent as an unworthy wimp works great in a movie, and in comics as they existed in the throwaway era, but when longtime fans demand some sort of continuity, the joke becomes old really fast. We always tried to give the illusion of change, in order to keep the personal backstories moving along. Our fans responded to that. STERN: Not really. Especially since the public perception of “mild-mannered” came to be interpreted as wimpy.

Pa Kent to the Rescue

Look, Clark Kent is a best-selling novelist and a respected journalist. He’s polite and caring, but he’s not a wuss. He grew up outside of a small town in Kansas, but he’s certainly not a rube. On the contrary, Clark has been around the world and has seen humanity at its worst, its best, and everything in between. Despite all that he’s experienced, he has not become cynical. He’s still very much an idealist, but he’s not naïve. Clark Kent is a clever guy. He’s witty, urbane, sophisticated … he’s a cosmopolitan in the very best sense of the word, at home just about anywhere in the world. And Clark is hardly unique. Major newsrooms and city rooms across the nation are full of real-life journalists—worthy men and women—who have come out of the Midwest and the Great Plains. Walter Cronkite … Tom Brokaw … Bob Woodruff … all hail from the heartland. ZENO: What benefits were derived from the Kents remaining alive in adult Clark’s life? BYRNE: There was a false note in Superman’s backstory. It was a holdover from the earliest Siegel and Shuster day: Pa Kent’s deathbed admonition to Clark that he use his powers only for good. The first time I read that scene, not knowing the history of the character, I wondered what the heck was going on. Hadn’t Clark spent about a decade as Superboy at that point? Did Jonathan really think his adopted son would suddenly go mad and take over the world, without him and Martha there riding herd? I felt that if Clark had been given the proper upbringing—and we had no reason to think he had not—this scene was unnecessary. And that got me thinking that perhaps the deaths of the Kents were unnecessary, too. Those deaths mostly occurred because the earliest Superman story told us that he began his career as an adult, with no family ties. When his origin was retconned to include Jonathan and Martha, instead of a lone male motorist, it became necessary for the sake of “continuity” to have them dead before he became Superman. When Superboy was retconned in, things really started to become complicated. WOLFMAN: Although this was not my idea, it was the only one that was added to the series that I liked (besides my contribution of the businessman Luthor). It gave him someone to speak to honestly. Clark in the present day didn’t gain anything by being an orphan twice. STERN: Oh, that was the best part of the relaunch. The Kents are Clark’s anchor. They’re his family, his

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(above) The Silver Age, “Pocket Universe” Pa Kent tries out his kryptonite collection on the Man of Steel in the Superman/ Superboy clash in the John Byrne written-and-penciled Action #591 (Aug. 1987); inks by Keith Williams. © 2007 DC Comics.

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(top left) Colletta inking George Tuska. Nice. He kept Tuska’s style but also added his own. From Harvey’s Romance Stories of True Love #51 (Sept. 1957). (below left) Really fine work: Colletta pencils and inks. Also from True Love #51. [Editor’s note: For more Vinnie Colletta art scans with Bob McLeod’s commentary, visit Bob’s Rough Stuff page at: www.bobmcleod.com/roughstuff.htm.] © 2007 Harvey Comics.

Sinnott had a smoother, more controlled outline, reflecting a better knowledge of more subtle anatomy. Their rendering is slicker and more attractive. They’re also more careful with the drawing aspect of their inking, such as on small figures. But Colletta’s roughness is exactly what makes his inking on Thor appealing to me and many others. In the same way that Ernie Chan’s rough style worked so well on John Buscema’s Conan, Colletta’s rough, heavily textured inking gave Thor a kind of “period” feel that didn’t work as well on super-hero comics like Fantastic Four. Colletta was a precursor of more popular inkers like Klaus Janson and Chan, who also added a lot of texture and linework in their inks. To Colletta’s eye, Kirby’s graphic style was too simplistic, flat, and cold. He tried to soften it and add more interest and warmth by adding texture and rendering. Kirby was a designer, and Colletta was a renderer. Melding these two approaches always produces sparks. I think the main reason for his notoriety is that during those years of the mid-’70s, Colletta had become known for his willingness and ability to ink a 17-page comic in just a few days. Quality took a back seat to dependability with Colletta, because at that time Marvel was trying to publish more comics per month than they had artists to produce them (which is actually how I myself got started inking; they just needed warm bodies to produce pages)! Vinnie had no qualms about erasing backgrounds and taking whatever other shortcuts he could think of to ink several pages a day. Frank Giacoia, a wonderful penciler and inker himself, once told me that one of the reasons he quit penciling was because he had penciled a war job and spent a lot of time and effort getting all of the little details correct on a tank, and Vinnie, rushing to meet a deadline, simply turned the entire tank into a black silhouette! In addition to wanting to be the guy Marvel could count on to meet a deadline, Colletta also had the incentive that there were no royalties at that time, and the more pages you produced, the more money you earned. With slick inkers like Palmer, Dick Giordano, Adams, Sinnott, and Janson getting all the acclaim, Colletta’s inking was not very popular in any event by that time, so there was really little reason for him to slow down and do his best when he could ink four pages a day and make twice as much money by hacking it out. Unfortunately, while these stories of his hack work persist and have outlived him, I fear. Colletta’s surprisingly (to me, at least) attractive and skillful earlier “good stuff,” where he displayed a real flair for inking and penciling as well, has been largely forgotten except for a few aging collectors. It was only in recent years that I discovered the romance comics from the ’50s and ’60s at which Colletta excelled. For many years, he was actually the “go-to” artist for comics with pretty girls, because he had a great way with inking hair and the female figure. He penciled and inked a lot of those comics, and to me those are his best work. His inking there is much cleaner and more controlled, and compares very well with the best work from that era. I maintain that no inker who can ink pages like these can be called the worst inker in comics—far from it, in fact. This was not just him following lines on tight pencils with a smooth ink line as many inkers do today. He was creating those lines and hair patterns. As with all good inking, it was his drawing knowledge that enabled him to ink so creatively. So, yes, in the latter years of his career, he did sacrifice quality for quantity more than he should have, and yes, he did cut a lot of corners, blacking in details and erasing small background figures. But those tactics arguably made him somewhat of a shrewd, if slightly unethical, businessman rather than a bad inker. He did make a very good income for many years with those methods, while other inkers who plodded along doing their best just scraped by. There is a difference between being a bad inker and simply doing bad inking. For his era and in his prime, Vince Colletta was actually one of the better inkers. So you may call him many things, but don’t call him the worst inker in comics. And I’m sorry, but I still kind of like his inking on Thor. 6 8

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Alex Boney

If, as Joseph Campbell tells us, “the hero” has a thousand faces, then what are we to make of a hero who has no face at all? Is he so cohesive and fully formed that his identity is never in question except to outside, unenlightened observers? Or is he so human that, as Plato explained, his identity is in a constant state of becoming? Originally created by Steve Ditko in 1967, the Question has been a mix of both in his 40-year history. Steeped in Aristotelian philosophy and Randian objectivism, the Question is one of the most complex “action heroes” ever created for comic books. He’s the thinking man’s super-hero, except that he’s not even that. He has no superhuman powers, save a burning, insatiable curiosity and desire to find the truth. Yet every time he comes close to understanding who he is, the Question becomes something else. This enigmatic flux may not be what Ditko intended for the character, but it is what has made the Question so continuously compelling and provocative for four decades now. The concept of the dual—or secret—identity is certainly not unfamiliar in the world of comic books. But the idea of no identity at all is relatively unique. One of the most memorable uses of this trope comes from Homer’s The Odyssey. When Odysseus and his men are captured by the Cyclops, Odysseus’ captor asks him who he is. Ever the trickster, Odysseus replies, “My name is Nobody. That is what I am called by my mother and father and by all my friends.” The trick works, and Odysseus eventually escapes because the Cyclops is not able to identify the hero as he flees. When Steve Ditko created the Question, he merged old narrative tricks with new formulae to create something genuinely unique to the comics medium. As editor Mike Gold explained in a letter column 20 years later, “The unique aspect about the Question is that he is a man with a secret identity but without an alter ego” (The Question #1, Feb. 1987). The Question was probably not supposed to be as complex as he eventually became. In a more restrictive editorial environment, a character like the Question might not have been created at all.

DITKO DAYS In 1966, Dick Giordano was the editor of Charlton Comics’ line. Given a large degree of creative freedom, Giordano decided to launch a new line of heroes in the tradition of DC’s and Marvel’s super-hero lines. But the “super” part of “super-hero” had always given him pause: “I intended to build the hero line around Captain Atom (the only original super-hero to survive) but I never could snuggle up to super-heroes…. I decided that, Captain Atom aside, the other heroes would not be super-powered, but would derive their abilities through specialized training or offbeat technology. I coined (I think) the phrase ‘Action Heroes’ and used it on all my house ads and letter pages and in panel discussions at

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Behind the Mask Steve Ditko lets the reader in on the Question’s trade secrets in Blue Beetle #1 (June 1967, the character’s debut) and Mysterious Suspense #1 (Oct. 1968). Special thanks to Mike Ambrose of Charlton Spotlight (www.charltonspotlight.com) for the scans. © 2007 DC Comics.

conventions. Never super-heroes; always Action Heroes” (L.A.W. #2, Oct. 2000, letter column). Other Action Heroes in Charlton’s stable included Judomaster, Peacemaker, Nightshade, and Blue Beetle, the latter originally a Golden Age hero who recently had been revamped by Steve Ditko. Blue Beetle graduated to his own title when Charlton’s Action Hero line was launched, but a new hero was needed as a backup feature in the book. When Giordano asked Ditko to create that feature, he took a hands-off approach: “The Question was a Steve Ditko production from start to finish…. My major contribution to the Question was telling Steve that I wanted a hero in street clothes to bring him down to a more human level, and give him contrast with super-heroes” (The Question Annual #2, letter column). In the Question features, Ditko introduced clever gimmicks that seemed to fit in well with the Action Hero line. In a familiar three-to-four-

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panel sequence in each story, the Question removes a balled-up plastic mask from his belt buckle, applies the featureless mask to his face, and releases a gas that both affixes the mask to his face and changes the colors of his clothes. A wise elderly friend named Professor Rodor had developed the disguise. The Question even occasionally uses trick blank business cards that burst into smoke and reveal a question mark. On the surface, the Question didn’t seem to be especially new. The most direct predecessor of the Question is the Spirit, a Will Eisner creation who appeared in newspaper comic pages for over a decade beginning in 1940. Like the Question, the Spirit wore a blue suit and fedora. He also sported a mask, but the mask was almost unnoticeable. Denny Colt was supposed to represent an ordinary man who encountered a series of extraordinary situations and managed to wrestle his way out of them using wit and clever problem-solving. But whereas Denny Colt was playful, aloof, and displayed a wry sense of humor, Vic Sage was driven, focused, and acerbic. In the Ditko stories, Vic Sage is a hard-edged reporter for W.W.B. (World-Wide Broadcasting), a television network in the fictional Crown City. The management at W.W.B. generally despises Sage, largely because he confronts hypocrisy and injustice in a direct, aggressive way and doesn’t care who is implicated in his stories. Sage is portrayed as arrogant and self-righteous, but it’s often difficult to argue with his positions. From

Sage’s perspective, there is no room for neutrality, passiveness, or compromise. As a vigilante, the Question finds answers. And as a reporter, Vic Sage reveals the truths that deceptive and cowardly people would rather keep hidden. In both identities, he sees himself as the type of public servant that elected public servants aren’t. Unlike many of his costumed contemporaries, the Question was not a masked avenger or an adventurer. Vic Sage and the Question worked in tandem to expose corruption and reform the attitudes and expectations of the public at large. One story in particular generated a great deal of attention among readers. At the end of the Question story in Blue Beetle #4 (Dec. 1967), several criminals fall into a sewer and start floating away. Desperate, two of them ask the Question to pull them out and save them. The Question looks at them with his featureless, emotionless face and lets them drown. To add insult to injury, he lectures them as they float away: “You’re both crazy if you think I’d risk my neck to save the likes of you! As far as I’m concerned, you’re just so much sewage! And you deserve to be right where you are!” The Question considers himself to be judge, jury, and executioner in a society that (according to him) has become too soft and sentimental to fill those roles. He sees the world in binary vision as either black or white; no gray tones confuse his standards of justice. In many ways, the early Question stories reflect the philosophical objectivism of Ayn Rand, an author best known for her novel Atlas Shrugged (1957). Rand’s fiction demonstrates a belief that truth and morality are objective—that clear distinctions between right and wrong—good and evil—cannot be questioned and that each individual has a responsibility to live a rational, balanced life. In a sense, Rand’s philosophy is an extension of Greek philosophers such as Aristotle and Plato, who

wrote that man is trapped in a mutable world of “becoming” but should constantly strive to achieve a more permanent, enlightened state of “Being.” Rand’s adaptation of Aristotle for the mid-20th century was a response to the Modernist age of artistic and philosophical subjectivity that emerged in the early 20th century. The Question demonstrates a further extension of this philosophy into a new medium (comics) and genre (action heroes). In an especially memorable scene from the Question story in Blue Beetle #5 (Nov. 1968), an effete art critic named Boris sits in his studio surrounded by abstract paintings and sculptures depicting fear, alienation, anxiety, and misery. The art looks much like the work of German expressionists (Die Bruecke), Pablo Picasso, and Edvard Munch (painter of “The Scream”), all of whom channeled Modernist subjectivism in their works. Boris sees the world in a state of despair, with humans largely unable to control their fates. Vic Sage scorns Boris’ weakness and passiveness, and he dons his Question costume essentially to torment the man. In his Question features, Ditko seemed to be testing out philosophical perspectives that he would use more directly in an independent project called Mr. A. The title character first appeared in Witzend magazine in 1967 but made sporadic appearances throughout the 1970s. Mr. A is even more self-assured and belligerent than Vic Sage, and he often lectures his victims after he’s mortally wounded them. “Of course it is obvious now that the Question was the forerunner of Mr. A,” says Dick Giordano. “I suspect that Steve was becoming more enamored of Ayn Rand’s philosophy as he worked through the storylines. Readers were shocked when the Question allowed a criminal to die when he could have saved him. Heroes just didn’t to that then. Today, that story would hardly cause a ripple. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I thought it was in character and somewhat cool!” Ditko only wrote Question stories for six issues (Blue Beetle #1–5 and Mysterious Suspense #1) at Charlton Comics. Blue Beetle was cancelled after the fifth issue and the Action Hero line collapsed after a little over a year. But the Question had left a mark, even if it wasn’t financial. “I surely believe that the Question stories were successful creatively,” says Giordano. “Did they add or subtract from the sales of Blue Beetle? There was no way to tell in those pre-direct market day. Besides, none of the Action Hero titles sold well, due to benign neglect on part of the publisher. They just threw the titles out there with all the rest as some kind of cannon fodder. Truth to tell, that’s why I left Charlton.” One of the writers who worked with Giordano at Charlton, Denny O’Neil, left at the same time. And as unique and innovative as Steve Ditko’s work on the Question was, O’Neil’s revision of the character 20 years later is the version of the Question that resounds the most loudly.

THE QUESTION AT DC After the cancellation of Charlton’s brief Blue Beetle series, the Question only appeared three more times in Charlton-related books and fanzines: in an eight-page black-and-white adventure story drawn by Alex Toth (Charlton Bullseye vol. 1 #5,

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