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“COMIC BOOK ROYALTY” ISSUE, STARRING AQUAMAN!

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PRO2PRO: Mike W. Barr & Brian Bolland

Doctor Doctor Doom: Doom: Monarch Monarch or or Monster? Monster?

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Why Jack Kirby was King!

ALAN WEISS ART GALLERY SUB-MARINER ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS DON McGREGOR’S BLACK PANTHER WOLFMAN AND COLAN’S NIGHT FORCE ELVIS AND SHAZAM JR. and PRINCE in comics!

Volume 1, Number 27 April 2008

The Retro Comics Experience!

Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Today! EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Nick Cardy

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore

FLASHBACK: The Roiling Seas of Aquaman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Sea King’s on-again, off-again ’70s/’80s adventures

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg

FLASHBACK: Sub-Mariner: Proud Prince or Perennial Punching Bag? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 The anti-social Sovereign of the Seas as a superteam social butterfly

CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Bob Brodsky, Cookiesoup Productions

ALAN WEISS ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24 Eye-popping illos from the artist of Spider-Man, Steelgrip Starkey, and Tom Strong

SPECIAL THANKS Joe Ahearn Jim Alexander Roger Ash Mike W. Barr Al Bigley Brian Bolland Randy Bowen Tom Brevoort John Byrne Nick Cardy Joe Casey Dewey Cassell Sean Clarke Gene Colan Gerry Conway DC Comics Mike DeCarlo Angela Fowlks Keith Giffen Grand Comic-Book Database Dave Guiterrez Heritage Comics Auctions Eric Houston Tony Isabella Dan Johnson Rob Kelly Jim Kingman David Anthony Kraft Joe Kulbiski Paul Kupperberg Erik Larsen Bob Layton Stan Lee

Paul Levitz Steve Lipsky Bruce MacIntosh Andy Mangels Yoram Matzkin Dwayne McDuffie Don McGregor Sean Menard David Michelinie Bernie Mireault Allen Milgrom Brian K. Morris Tomas Pardo Robby Reed Rico Renzi Bob Rozakis Jaynelle Rude Steve Rude Rose Rummel-Eury Jim Salicrup John Schwirian Jim Shooter Steve Skeates Anthony Snyder Tom Stewart Roy Thomas Tusky the Walrus Mark Waid Jim Warden Alan Weiss Brett Weiss Pauline Weiss Marv Wolfman

BRING ON THE BAD GUYS: Doctor Doom: Monarch or Monster? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 The lethal Lord of Latveria and his unusual role as supervillain monarch BRING ON THE BAD GUYS BONUS: All Hail Baron Zemo! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 An astounding pinup of the Captain America rogue by Genial Gene Colan BEYOND CAPES: Arion: From Atlantis to New York and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37 The story of DC’s Lord of Atlantis, with a special tribute to colorist Bob LeRose PRO2PRO: Mike W. Barr and Brian Bolland Return to Camelot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 A lavishly illustrated interview exploring King Arthur’s return in Camelot 3000 FLASHBACK: Black Panther: Don McGregor in the Jungles of Wakanda . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 The groundbreaking writer recalls his collaboration with artist Billy Graham FLASHBACK BONUS: Jungle Adventure! Jack Kirby Arrives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 Kirby’s return to Prince T’Challa, the Black Panther OFF MY CHEST: Why Jack Kirby Was King . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 An all-star lineup of artists, writers, and editors discusses comics’ real-life “King” BEYOND CAPES: Forces of the Night, What Horrors They Faced: Marv Wolfman and Gene Colan’s Night Force . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 The co-creators remember Baron Winters and his supernatural superteam BACKSTAGE PASS: Elvis and Captain Marvel, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 How the World’s Mightiest Boy inspired the King of Rock and Roll WHAT THE--?!: The Most Famous Prince in the History of Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82 The pompadoured purple performer’s comics moonlighting gigs BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84 Reader feedback on “Men of Steel” issue #25 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, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: euryman@msn.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Nick Cardy. Aquaman and Mera TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. C o m i c

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Voyage to the bottom of the sea with the queen of Atlantis, Mera. Sketch by Nick Cardy, courtesy of Bruce MacIntosh. TM & © DC Comics.

PROOFREADERS John Morrow and Eric Nolen-Weathington

He may not be royalty, but our cover artist Nick Cardy is one prince of a fellow! Mr. Cardy is seen in the above photo from June 2007’s HeroesCon in Charlotte, North Carolina; the guy at the right of the photo, in the Aquaman orange shirt (for those of you not reading this issue in its color-packed downloadable PDF format), is yours truly. While many of you are familiar with Nick’s unforgettable art on Aquaman, Teen Titans, Bat Lash, The Brave and the Bold, and 1970s DC covers, fewer are aware of his work as a comic-strip artist. I enthusiastically recommend Nick Cardy: Comic Strips, a trade paperback collecting his strips (some of which never saw print) on features including Tarzan and Lady Luck. This collection was published in summer 2007 by Frecklebean Press, and its editor/publisher Sean Menard did a phenomenal job of gathering these rarities. Last issue’s cover artist, peerless Paul Gulacy, is involved with another project that will interest many of you: Moonstone Books’ Captain Action #0. © 2006 Sean Menard.

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Yes, the chameleonic champion yours truly dubbed “the original superhero action figure” in my 2002 TwoMorrows book, Captain Action, has returned to the comics stands after a long absence. Cap’s all-new comics adventures are written by Fabian Nicieza and illustrated by Mark (Heroes for Hire) Sparacio. Sparacio and Gulacy offer flip covers to Captain Action #0, shipping in April 2008 and retailing for only $1.99! Before I close and allow you to ogle Paul Gulacy’s Captain Action cover art, two corrections: First, in BI #25’s Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman article, I wrote the caption “He’s No Fall Guy” to accompany an illo from what I was told was an issue of Charlton’s Six Million Dollar Man magazine. Delmo (The Saint) Walters informs us that “the art by Bob Larkin on page 4 was for an episode of The Fall Guy, not an illo from an issue of the B&W magazine.” That explains Lee Majors’ ’80s perm in that spot-on Larkin likeness. Second, I owe Ben Herman an apology! Ben, not Anthony Snyder, contributed the amazing Black Widow commissioned sketch by Hannibal King which appeared on page 4 of BI #26. (Hopefully this issue’s page 4 is caption-error-free.)

Our preoccupation with Princess Paris notwithstanding, there is no royalty here in the United States. Yet with the kings, queens, princes, barons, and lords holding court in the world of comic books, one might get the notion that the American Revolution was erased from continuity along with the marriage of Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson. Whether they swagger above us or toil among us, “Comic Book Royalty” offer no end of fascination to the poor, huddled masses who scurry to the comics shops, and in this issue we examine some of their exalted number. (No bowing necessary.) Of course, outside of the fictional world of comics, one of its real-life creative talents has been crowned a royal—sorry, Mike Baron, I’m talking Jack “King” Kirby. And while TwoMorrows also produces the definitive publication exploring his work, The Jack Kirby Collector, in this issue we invite some of the master’s loyal subjects to tell us “Why Jack Kirby Was King.”

Michael Eury

John Schwirian

I still vividly remember my first Aquaman comic book! It was Adventure Comics #442 (Nov.–Dec. 1975), with Aquaman on the cover leaping over the heads of a group of scroungy sailors as they launched a nuclear missile into the sky—complete with the caption “Can Aquaman Stop a Nuclear Nightmare? H is for Holocaust!” My 11-year-old pulse pounded—how in the world can Aquaman do it? I had to know, and thus began my love affair with the world of Aquaman. My timing could not have been any better. In 1975, Aquaman was undergoing a renaissance—a second surging in his on-again, off-again popularity. Every Saturday morning, he appeared on television as one of the core Super Friends, battling misguided scientists. And every day after school, he (along with Superman and Batman) starred in the half-hour syndicated reruns of the classic 1967 Filmation animated series, where he faced deadly menaces like Black Manta, the Fisherman, the Torpedo, and the Brain! Yet, oddly enough, while I was thrilled daily by Aquaman’s televised exploits, I could not find him on the comicbook rack! What was going on here? For the answer, one has to travel back to 1971. Aquaman had his own bimonthly title, produced by the fan-favorite team of writer Steve Skeates, artist Jim Aparo, and editor Dick Giordano, all transplanted to DC Comics from small-time competitor Charlton Comics. The SAG team (as they were called by the fans) had taken Aquaman to new heights. Providing fast action pacing in the manner of rival Marvel Comics, SAG successfully infused a sense of excitement and energy into the series in a long-running epic storyline

Unseen Aquaman Aquaman—in his totally ’80s blue suit— battles the fish-monster Sreng in this unpublished version of the cover for issue #2 of the 1986 Aquaman miniseries, penciled by Craig Hamilton and inked by Rick Bryant. The art was watercolored in 1992 by Lurene Haines. Courtesy of Jim Warden of Distinctive Original Art (www.doasales.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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King-Sized Egos The “SAG” (Skeates/Aparo/Giordano) team evolved the formerly bland Aquaman into a realistic monarch often torn between devotions to his family and kingdom. Page 7 from Aquaman #53 (Sept.–Oct. 1970), with arch-enemy Black Manta; special thanks to Heritage Comics Auctions. TM & © DC Comics.

which sent Aquaman globe-hopping in search of his missing wife, Mera, also separating the Sea King from his sidekick, Aqualad. Additionally, they had finally given Aquaman a personality. No longer was he the bland cookie-cutter superhero. Now he was the impatient king—used to giving orders and to being obeyed. Aquaman’s easily aroused temper first emerged here, an outgrowth perhaps of Skeates’ personal issues with superheroes as being too self-righteous in their use of Might to enforce their personal views of Right. However, Skeates was able to carefully craft a balance between the angry hero and the clear-thinking king. Skeates explains that “in order to make him even more heroic, I decided to portray him as a good king, a worthy leader, and I honestly saw no conflict betwixt that and my own political beliefs. Still, our hero here did come off by the end of our first story arc a bit stodgy, something I tried to offset a couple of issues later via portraying the more liberal aspects of Aquaman’s leadership, more specifically his belief in free speech, a belief that remained intact even when the speech that was

“Big Argument” Cover The rejected, unpublished version of Nick Cardy’s cover to Aquaman #43 (Jan.–Feb. 1969). Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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going on constituted a personal attack upon his own royal self!” Yet while the SAG approach was a hit with the fans, it still could not save Aquaman from cancellation. Giordano decided to step down from his editorial position at DC in order to go into business with fellow artist Neal Adams, leaving editorial director Carmine Infantino to decide the fates of the books under Giordano’s guidance. Steve Skeates recounts his theories as to what happened: “Even though he was leaving, Dick wanted to keep the Aquaman book going, wanted to edit it on a freelance basis. However, Carmine, who had had problems with Dick—for example, a big argument over the cover to Aquaman #43 (Jan.–Feb. 1969) which Carmine had designed while Dick was on a vacation and in doing so had broken one of Dick’s primary editorial rules, that the cover of a book should not emphasize a scene that isn’t even in the story itself—figured Dick would be even harder to deal with as a freelance editor, and therefore (despite sales figures that weren’t really all that bad) he cancelled the book!”

AQUAMAN AND HIS SUPER FRIENDS

Ramona Returns (below) Detail from the cover of DC’s Super Friends #5 (June 1977), penciled by Silver Age Aqua-artist Ramona Fradon, who also sketched the Sea King (at left) for collector Rob Kelly. TM & © DC Comics.

TM & © DC Comics.

Other than appearing in Justice League of America, a guest-shot as “Aquaboy” in Superboy #171 (Jan. 1971), a team-up with Superman in World’s Finest Comics #203 (June 1971), and the Aquaman “Annual” in Super DC Giant #S-26 (July–Aug. 1971), Aquaman fell out of public view. That is, until 1973, when the Hanna-Barbera-produced Super Friends cartoon hit ABC television’s Saturday morning line-up, featuring the roster of Superman, Batman (and Robin), Wonder Woman, and Aquaman! Yes, thanks to the success of the Filmation Studios’ Aquaman animated series of the late 1960s, the H-B producers felt that Aquaman, out of all the possible DC superheroes, had the recognition factor necessary to be a member of their new cartoon show. After a four-year absence since Filmation’s DC-inspired cartoons faded from the airwaves, DC’s greatest heroes were back on television, and Super Friends stayed on the air in one form or another for 14 years. [Editor’s note: BACK ISSUE #30, shipping in September 2008, will examine both the Super Friends TV show and DC’s spin-off comic series.] Thus began the greatest, and worst, thing to ever happen to the Marine Marvel. Most people recognize Aquaman instantly due to his lengthy run as one of the Super Friends. Unfortunately, people also remember how poorly he was portrayed on the series. Aquaman is frequently the butt of a joke, as comedians pose questions like: “What good are Aquaman’s powers? I mean, he’s great if you need someone to talk to fish, but how many crimes happen underwater?” Sadly, this makes it hard to be an Aquaman fan! Oddly enough, the initial success of the Super Friends did not have a direct impact on the return of Aquaman to his own series. According to Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics, the editors were not influenced by the animated series: “On some level it was in the psyche but I don’t think there was a lot of spillover at the time.” Instead, other factors were at work, bringing the Sea King back to the newsstand.

AQUAMAN’S ORLANDO ADVENTURE Looking back to 1973, Paul Levitz recalls the factors involved: “Joe Orlando had taken over [editing] Adventure Comics after Supergirl was pulled out, or I guess Joe did the last issues with Supergirl as well, but when Supergirl moved over to [editor] Dorothy Woolfolk, Joe was casting about for what to do in the book. It was the company’s oldest surviving title, I think, at that point. There was no great passion for canceling it, but nobody had a really good idea of what to with it. So Joe tried out a number of different features and progressively moved more towards the borders of the superhero—things like the Black Orchid.” [Editor’s note: Other features appearing in the Orlando Adventure issues were the “Adventurers’ Club”, the “Vigilante”, and the pirate strip “Captain Fear”.] “By ’73,” Levitz continues, “I was working as Joe’s assistant, and as an old superhero fan [I was] agitating for things that moved more in a direction that I had enjoyed or that I thought belonged in the missing superhero titles, [and] Joe started “Aquaman” while I was there. So either Steve Skeates had come in saying, ‘Gee, I enjoyed writing this, can I do some for you,’ or I had nudged Joe about Aquaman and one way or another he kind of stumbled on it and tried it out.” At this point, “The Spectre”, written by Michael Fleisher and illustrated by one-time Aquaman artist Jim Aparo, was the lead feature in Joe Orlando’s Adventure C o m i c

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One might think that, in the early post-Crisis days, there was an overall plan for the re-introduction of DC characters into the new continuity. However, as Mark Waid recalls, it seemed like anything but… “Overall plan?” laughs Waid. “Dear God, no. It was the Wild West. DC was just stupid with relaunches. Because Byrne got to reinvent Superman, suddenly every editor and writer at DC ran around screaming, ‘Well, if he’s going to reinvent Superman, I’m gonna have my guys reinvent [fill in character name here]!’ Chaos. As a matter of fact, the project that began the downfall of continuity wasn’t Man of Steel, actually. It was Hawkworld, the first (of many) ego-driven ‘everything you know is wrong’ reinventions after Superman. It was a great project, well-written, by savvy pros, a thing of beauty, a great tale—but the editor at the time adamantly refused, despite our pleas, to slap the one three-word caption on page one that would have not changed that story one iota but would have saved DC its last twenty years of Hawkman continuity headaches: ‘Ten years ago.’

Domestic Disturbance Another shake up for the beleaguered Justice Leaguer, from issue #4 of the 1989 Aquaman miniseries. Art by Curt Swan and Al Vey; courtesy of Jim “Tusky” Alexander. TM & © DC Comics.

Post-Hawkworld, it was anything goes. DC history was suddenly being rewritten on the fly by anyone who could pound a keyboard. So, no, there was no grand plan. There were a lot of egos and a lot of blind madness at work. Not that I’m bitter. [laughs]” Waid elaborates further as to how this affected the Aquaman book: “We weren’t given any specific directions on how to relaunch Aquaman; remember, Keith Giffen was still riding the wave of Justice League’s success at this time and was DC’s primary creative force. The message from the DC execs was, ‘Let Keith do whatever he likes,’ which made for some great comics.” And what Keith wanted to do, was develop a story around the idea of a “feral child,” a human child cut off from human contact at a very young age and maturing with no concept of human care, appropriate social behavior, or language skills. The feral child is more animallike in behavior, and has appeared in popular literature like Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan of the Apes and Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli of The Jungle Book. According to Giffen, “the whole feral-child thing came first and just sort of attached itself to Aquaman. Never been a big Burroughs fan so I know that didn’t factor in. Again, I started with feral child and kind of worked my way up to Aquaman. Not a lot of DC characters lend themselves to the whole feral-child thing. I actually thought it was pretty cool to apply the concept to sea life.” Waid adds, “I remember being a little taken aback by the ‘Tarzan of the Dolphins’ approach myself, but again, Keith had free rein at DC at the time and it wasn’t too far afield of the Silver Age origin.” And speaking of origins, just how did the new origin wind up as a stand-alone one-shot—1989’s Aquaman Special #1, a.k.a. The Legend of Aquaman, by Giffen, Robert Loren Fleming, Curt Swan, and Eric Shanower—and not part of the miniseries? Waid explains that “the Giffen/Fleming/Swan Aquaman miniseries, edited by Barbara Kesel, was already on the schedule when I, as editor of Secret Origins, proposed that we do a Secret Origins issue tying into it. Because Eric Shanower was and is one of my favorite artists, I put him on Curt Swan to ink, and as the pages came in, they were so breathtakingly beautiful that the higher-ups at DC decided we could break it out of Secret Origins and issue it as its own one-shot so it could be on better paper with better production values.” With a revised origin firmly in place, Giffen’s five-issue Aquaman miniseries (June–Oct. 1989) made a few more alterations to the Aquaman mythos— most notably, the near-death of Aquaman’s estranged wife Mera. Giffen recalls, “I think I wanted her dead, but memory fails. I’ve always had a problem with married heroes. The book then becomes ‘the adventures of your parents,’ and even I’m not interested in that.” Over the course of five issues, Giffen reconnected Aquaman to Atlantis as her champion (not her king) and cut ties to most of Aquaman’s past. With the series’ end, Aquaman was free to swim in whatever direction the 1990s and beyond held in store for him. By day, JOHN SCHWIRIAN is a mildmannered high school English/ special ed teacher, but by night, he dons the role of comic-book historian, exploring the sunken regions of the DC Universe in his self-published fanzine The Aquaman Chronicles.

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Bruce MacIntosh Admit it: At some point you’ve called Marvel Comics’ aquatic anti-hero “Sub-muh-REEN-er.” Well, in spite of the pronunciation of that undersea vehicle with a periscope, Sub-Mariner’s creator, Bill Everett, says that the character was inspired by the epic poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (MARE-ih-ner). Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, was not only one of comics’ first superheroes, he was unquestionably the premier anti-hero. His unique blend of equal parts angst and anger made him an irresistible subject for editors and writers of Timely Comics in the ’40s and ’50s, as well as its progeny—Marvel— in the ’60s and beyond. The problem was, however, that there were only so many times he could attack America for revenge for the crimes of Man against Atlantis, so sadly he was often portrayed as the spoiled bully getting his come-uppance. Writers struggled to keep Subby relevant as the anger of the Revolutionary ’60s gave way to the experimentation of the ’70s and the “Me Generation” of the ’80s. His focus changed in the span of those latter two decades, as the Sub-Mariner moved from being the Avenging Scion of his undersea kingdom—Atlantis—to contrite exile, to Crown Prince, and back again to exile. In the process, the avowed loner became the social butterfly, joining almost every team and making frequent guest appearances in most Marvel superhero titles.

A QUICK DIP THROUGH NAMOR’S HISTORY Before examining Namor’s appearances in the 1970s and 1980s (the BACK ISSUE era), we should start by briefly visiting his origins. The Sub-Mariner was originally “published” in a movie-theater giveaway called Motion Picture Funnies Weekly. Only eight of these promotional comics are known to exist, having been discovered in the estate of their deceased publisher in 1974, so it is uncertain whether they ever reached the public. That story, and the character Sub-Mariner, came from the mind of creator Bill Everett, who at the time worked for Funnies, Inc., a studio that created comics and sold them to comic publishers. Everett soon re-used the character, packaged with other stories, in Timely’s first comic, appropriately dubbed Marvel Comics #1 (1939). Sub-Mariner soon became one of the “Big Three” characters at Timely, the others being the (original) Human Torch and Captain America.

The Burden of the Throne The Prince’s pondering won’t last for long … Marvelites know Sub-Mariner will be in a brawl in just a matter of panels. Detail from the splash of Sub-Mariner #60 (Apr. 1973), laid out by Sam Kweskin and finished by Jim Mooney. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Sub-Mariner Comics ran 32 issues, until superhero titles from all comics publishers sank like a rock in 1949. The title was resumed in 1954 and ran for another nine issues until it was harpooned for good after issue #42 (Oct. 1955). Following the immediate success of Stan Lee’s and Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four (which had already put a new face on another Golden Age character, the Human Torch), Marvel Comics dusted off Subby in FF #4 (May 1962). There was magic in the Marvel “Bullpen” and money in revitalized Golden Age characters, so the Prince of Atlantis was included in as many comics as possible during the 1960s (including what turned out to be a 1967 one-shot shared mag with Iron Man) until publishing and distribution restrictions were lifted and Marvel granted him another eponymous series in 1968. Sub-Mariner #1 (May 1968) recounted the story of his origin: He was born of a human seafaring captain and blue-skinned Atlantean mother. His father, Leonard McKenzie, was supposedly killed when his mother’s protectors came to find their Princess Fen. The pinkskinned Namor was born nine months later, and though he was the heir by blood to the throne of the underwater

Avenging Hubby Subby Two issues after the murder of his beloved Lady Dorma, Namor cries out for vengeance on this powerful Roy Thomas/Ross Andru/ Jim Mooney splash from Sub-Mariner #39 (July 1971). Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions. © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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kingdom, suffered the disrespect of his contemporaries and taunts of “halfbreed.” He was thus tempered in his formative years by the competing expectations of royalty and the need to defend his rightful claim— both verbally and physically—against those of full (literally) blue-blooded pretenders. This imbued Namor with selfassurance to the point of arrogance, and a persecution complex tightly wound around his hair-trigger temper. This explosive combination led to an unending series of tragedies for the Maritime Monarch in the ’70s and ’80s. Time and tide wait for no man—not even the Sub-Mariner—and as the ’60s turned into the ’70s, Namor was restored the ability to breathe underwater, which had literally grounded him a couple years earlier (in issue #22, the first to appear on the stands in the ’70s). Then, after US Army poisonous gas canisters wiped out some Atlantean outposts, Namor waged war against America. He ordered a deadly missile fired at soldiers in New York, but physically diverted it himself when he saw civilians present. He was still mad, however, so he sought to ally with Earth’s other undersea civilization, Lemuria. (They had green skin.) Unfortunately, he arrived after Lemuria’s throne was overthrown by the evil Llyra, who desired to conquer sea and land alike. Llyra was supposedly killed in a brief battle with Namor. In a tale with as many turns as a seahorse race, Namor finally got to the altar in Sub-Mariner #37 (May 1971), only to find out that his beloved Lady Dorma was the evil Llyra in disguise. She thought that having said his vows to her—though she was dissembled as his bride—would have resulted in an unbreakable marriage. She was wrong, however, because Dorma had actually said her vows earlier and the ceremony was merely a formality. This angered Llyra, who returned to her lair and killed Dorma. Following the funeral, the Sub-Mariner abdicated the throne of Atlantis and proceeded to take out his remorse on New York. Later, he found out that his father, long thought dead, was very much alive and had been kidnapped by that nasty Llyra and Tiger Shark. Tragedy followed Namor like a shark to the scent of blood, and naturally Dad got killed within minutes of meeting his long-lost son. One of the most interesting events of the SubMariner’s “Marvel Age” series actually happened near its conclusion: Due to exposure to deadly nerve gas, Namor was in danger of suffocating because he couldn’t process his own natural moistures. In Sub-Mariner #67 (Nov. 1973), Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four replaced Namor’s scaly green swim trunks with a black leather costume that would have made him the pride of any biker bar if it weren’t for the half-calf leggings and booties (designed to allow his ankle wings room to flap). The costume wasn’t just a fashion statement, as Richards explained the “wetsuit” was designed to recycle moisture from Subby’s own pores while out of water. Why give him a “hero” costume at all? Roy Thomas lamented in his own Alter Ego magazine (vol. 3 #70, July 2007) that Sub-Mariner “was always #3 of the ‘Big Three’ in the 1940s. I suspect it’s partly because he didn’t have a costume… I hate to come up with something as crass as that, but that’s part of the reason for John Romita and me giving him that costume near the end.” Then, an unusual inter-company “crossover” occurred as the Sub-Mariner series drew to a close

with issue #72 (Sept. 1974) and a two-part story started at DC was concluded at Marvel! In 1971, writer Steve Skeates—then writing Aquaman for DC Comics—started a tale in issue #56 (Mar.–Apr. 1971) called “The Creature That Devoured Detroit.” That story was part one of two, and told of a new superhero with bad eyesight who invented a satellite that would shed light at night so he could fight nocturnal crime and still see what was going on! The unexpected side effect was that it caused explosive growth in algae that threatened to devour the city, until Aquaman broke into the satellite’s control center and—according to the murky final panels—was about to push the button to destroy it…

…but unfortunately, Aquaman was cancelled after the first part of the story, with issue #56, so readers never got to see the conclusion. That is, until Skeates moved over to Marvel and coincidentally scripted the final issue of that company’s aquatic adventurer. This provided him a unique opportunity to finally conclude the tale he had been waiting over three years to tell. Sub-Mariner #72 picked up right where Aquaman #56 left off: An unidentified glove presses the satellite destruct button, the resulting explosion sending a green, protoplasmic alien life form hurtling to Earth. The original “Aquaman” version was to be that he was to have learned that he had lost both his ability of communicating telepathically with aquatic creatures and the ability to breathe underwater. Now it was Subby, and instead he briefly lost his sight! In spite of the temporary disability, he was still able to squeeze the algae-being hard enough to squirt its glutinous head off into space, and wander off lamenting his ability to ever restore his comatose Atlantean subjects to life. Subby did regain his eyesight within a couple of pages, just in time to conclude his series and ponder his fate. Roy Thomas, in his final editorial text box on the “Send It to Subby” letters page, confidently advised, “[S]hed no salty tears for the Avenging Son … because we have other plans for him—big plans.” Before we find out what those big plans were, let’s backtrack about a year— to one of Roy’s most enduring and beloved creations: C o m i c

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Alan Weiss—whose artistic résumé includes Warlock, Shazam!, Spectacular Spider-Man, Steelgrip Starkey, War Dancer, Tom Strong, and the Elseworlds Batman: The Blue, the Grey, and the Bat—was scheduled to be interviewed in this issue, but circumstances beyond our control prohibited the interview’s completion. The interview will appear in a future issue. In the meantime, courtesy of the ultra-talented artist and his very helpful wife Pauline, we are proud to present this six-page gallery of Weiss wizardry.

No “Comic Book Royalty” issue would be complete without a curtsey to Prince Valiant, seen here in a 2004 pencil commission. Alan’s pencil prowess is also on display in this stunning pinup of Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone. Prince Valiant © 2008 King Features Syndicate. Elric © 2008 Michael Moorcock.

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Two of Marvel’s sexiest superheroines, Tigra (left) and Valkyrie (below left), get the Weiss treatment in recent commissions, as does a pairing of Prince T’Challa, the Black Panther (featured in this issue) and Alan’s own character (from Defiant Comics), War Dancer (below right). Tigra, Valkyrie, and Black Panther © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc. War Dancer © 2008 Alan Weiss.

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Eric Houston In the middle of Europe, surrounded by Transylvania, Symkaria, and the Carpathians, lies the tiny country of Latveria. Home to only 500,000, Latveria remains one of the most powerful nations in all of Europe—well, the Marvel Universe Europe, anyway. Its people appear peaceful and happy, and crime is relatively unheard of within Latverian borders. This peace and power are both gifts from the country’s unquestioned ruler, Victor von Doom. To the world at large, he is Doctor Doom, a villain—a monster, even—who has tried time and again to overthrow the Earth and kill the Fantastic Four, although not necessarily in that order. Yet, his relationship with his own people is never in question. In the relatively rare visits to his homeland, Doom has been portrayed both as a gracious monarch to his people and as a power-mad monster, leaving readers to wonder, Which is the truth? If one were to look at those classic stories which saw the Fantastic Four face their greatest enemy within Latveria’s borders, would they find a monarch or a monster—or, as is so often the case with Doom, is the answer much more complex?

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Early within their legendary run on Fantastic Four, creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby came up with the idea for Doctor Doom, a villain who they felt had a unique background: He was king of his own country. Stan Lee explains, “I had never read of a supervillain who was a king, so I thought it would be cool. It gave me lots of advantages because I could give him diplomatic immunity.” Still, in those early years, visits to Latveria were scarce. Indeed, outside of Doom’s origin story, in Fantastic Four Annual #2 (1964), most of the book’s visits to Latveria took place either within Doom’s castle walls or as single-panel shots of villagers cowering fearfully outside. Of course, comic-book readers had met villains who ruled their own nations and even planets before. Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo from Alex Raymond’s Flash Gordon springs to mind immediately. Such worlds, Mongo in particular, were horrifying visions of futures that could come to be on Earth, rife with oppressed, downtrodden citizens, cowering beneath the heel of a fascist government and all-powerful army. Thus, readers must have been surprised by what they saw of Latveria in those early appearances. Doom’s nation was not some sort of futuristic, Orwellian dystopia, but a peaceful European village,

populated by smiling people. Looking at one of Jack Kirby’s panels of a typical Latverian street is almost like looking at a tourist brochure for Oktoberfest. There are no fascist armies marching the streets of Doom’s Latveria, nor is there a slave class of lizard men toiling in chains beneath the surface. It seemed from the start that Doom might be a different kind of villain king, one who might actually care for his people. Indeed, one of the final pages of Doom’s aforementioned origin story shows Doom walking the streets of a Latverian village. He is unaccompanied by guards, robot or human, as his citizens happily and fearlessly gather around him, wishing him well in word and thought. From the very start, part of what made Doom stand out from other villains was the complexity of his character. “I always felt that the thing that set Doom apart from most other supervillains is the fact that he didn’t ever feel he was doing anything wrong,” explains Stan Lee. “To me, Victor von Doom was a very complex character and one that I cared about very much.” True enough, Stan and Jack went to great lengths in Doom’s origin story and elsewhere to create a truly sympathetic villain. He was, after all, a man with a tragic past and real motivations—as a youth he lost both of his parents to the same royal soldiers who constantly harassed his gypsy band, and spent much of his time and genius in learning spells and building devices designed to free his mother from Hell—but he was also the man who unapologetically tried to kill our heroes time and again. Still, this sympathetic side easily lead readers to believe that maybe the glimpses they saw of Latveria were true. Maybe the man who so terrorized the world truly loved and protected a small part of it. Finally, in Fantastic Four #84–87 (Mar.–June 1969), Stan and Jack sought to make their thoughts on Doom and Latveria clear once and for all. In those landmark issues, the Fantastic Four enter Latveria on a mission from Nick Fury. Their orders: Find and destroy Doom’s secret army. Upon entering the country, the four heroes are shocked to find themselves welcomed with open arms. In fact, the local burgermeister has even declared it “Fantastic Four Fiesta Day” in their honor. During the festivities, a television screen rises from the street and Doom welcomes the FF, declaring them citizens of Latveria and beckoning them, “Be eternally happy, or else, you die!” As the FF struggle to discover Doom’s secret army and recover their missing powers, robbed via hypnosis, they also begin to discover the truth of Latveria. Initially, Reed, Ben, and Johnny are shocked discover what the readers had seen for years in those single-panel appearances: a quaint, happy European village. At first blush, Latverian life is positively idyllic. The people seem to want for nothing. Ornate meals are even provided on demand, completely free of charge. Better yet, the food is so good that the Thing is forced to admit, “This joint’s got the Yancy Pizza Palace beat all to hallow!” Meanwhile, elsewhere in the issue, Doom himself declares to a disloyal citizen, “Have I told you how dearly I love my subjects? The welfare of my people is ever closest to my heart!” Yet, while readers had seen only those fleeting glimpses of Latveria, the Fantastic Four are now seeing the world between the panels, and all is not as happy as it seems. The smiles on the Latverian people seem false, almost painted-on. Even Johnny Storm, usually the last member of the FF to realize the obvious, is quick to comment, “Despite the banners and bands, the people move around like sleepwalkers!” Reed continues the observation: “The mood of fear and oppression,” he says, “is so thick and heavy, you can almost touch it.” Still, Reed and Johnny don’t know how right they are. As the Fantastic Four enjoy their meal, the readers are whisked away to Castle Doom, only to learn a horrifying truth: Doom’s secret army,

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This Gene Colan– penciled Baron Zemo illustration, drawn at 15" x 20" and completed by the artist on 7/25/99, was the first of art collector Joe Kulbiski’s planned (but never completed) series of Captain America’s Rogues’ Gallery commissioned drawings. Says Mr. Kulbiski, who kindly contributed this for publication, “The lower-right inset image of Cap is inspired by the Jack Kirby-drawn Rogues’ Gallery images in FF Annuals #1 and 2, where Kirby used the same visual approach.” © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Brian K. Morris

The magic is dying. And the court sorcerer of Atlantis knows it. Fortunately, no one else does … not yet. Not his ruler nor his lover nor his best friend— and especially not the savage sub-men who roam the edges of Atlantis’ boundaries, seeking a weakness in the land’s sorcerous defenses, to say nothing of his in-court enemies, angered by the young wizard’s arrogance. And then there are the enemies he can’t even see, the ones who await the opportunity to strike from lands beyond the earthly plains. As the magic dies, the sorcerer undergoes a journey, one that moves him from the jeweled capital city of soon-to-be sunken Atlantis to a deli in Brooklyn and eventually Metropolis. But the first step is taken in Derby, Connecticut…

“ … THE WHOLE ISLAND AND THE OCEAN WERE CALLED ATLANTIS.” Charlton Publications was unique in comics history in that it not only owned its own distribution company, but its own printing presses as well. Publishing its diverse line of magazines wasn’t always enough to keep the plates constantly inked, so printing comic books took up the slack. Notorious for paying some of the lowest rates in the industry, Charlton Comics allowed its writers and artists more creative freedom to compensate. Under editor George Wildman, Charlton experienced a new level of creativity from veterans like Joe Gill, Steve Ditko, and Pat Boyette, while bringing in newer talents such as John Byrne, Mike Zeck, Joe Staton, Bob Layton, and Paul Kupperberg.

Arion’s First Stab Luckily for the Lord of Atlantis, Arion survived this cliffhanger ending to his very first adventure in The Warlord #56 (Apr. 1982). Script by Paul Kupperberg, art by Jan Duursema. All art in this article is courtesy of Paul Kupperberg, unless otherwise noted. TM & © DC Comics.

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Early “Tynan” Takes Before they became pro artists at Marvel Comics, penciler John Byrne and inker Duffy Vohland brought “Tynan” to visual life, as did then-newcomer Mike Zeck. TM & © DC Comics.

Already selling a story to Charlton’s horror magazines with Scary Tales #5 (Apr. 1976), Paul Kupperberg worked up a proposal for an ongoing series that would be called Atlantis. In college, the writer was completely familiar with the philosopher Plato’s metaphorical concept of Atlantis and “really tried to make my version of Atlantis as close to his idea as I could, although I changed plenty.” Kupperberg recalls of his story’s protagonist, “I think I intended to kind of create him via the backdoor by using the same protagonist in several stories and, before you know it, I’d have an ongoing character that maybe I could convince them to use on a regular basis in his own strip.” However, the Atlantis proposal was never submitted. Kupperberg drew his inspiration primarily from Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away, where magic, like petroleum today, is discovered to be a non-renewable resource and science becomes an alternative energy source of sorts. “When I steal,” boasts Kupperberg, “I steal from the best.” Fast forward to the early ’80s. Kupperberg now wrote for DC Comics, regularly scripting the adventures of the Superman family, the Doom Patrol, and the Vigilante, among many others. Word reached him that editor Laurie Sutton was looking for a new backup feature for The Warlord. With the combination of science and sorcery in the title strip, backups ranging in style from “OMAC” to “Claw the Unconquered” proved complementary. With the prominence of Atlantis not

Arion Proposal To secure a spot in the back pages of Warlord, Paul Kupperberg rewrote his “Atlantis” proposal for editor Laurie Sutton’s approval. Remarkably, the concept translated from conception to printed page, with the exception of the hero’s and series’ names. 3 8

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only in the world of Travis (Warlord) Morgan, but also in that of Superman and Aquaman, Kupperberg dusted off his Atlantis proposal, now setting the strip in DC’s distant past, prior to any other version of the sunken land. Given Kupperberg’s work in the DC mainstream, why fantasy? “I liked sword and sorcery and barbarians. They’re cool, they’re fun, they’re easy to write because you’re not tied down to reality and all its bothersome logic.” When Kupperberg was in early adolescence, his father brought home several of the classic Ace Book editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan novels, complete with Frank Frazetta’s painted covers. Kupperberg immersed himself in heroic literature, adding the works of Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, and others to his reading interests. “Under all that,” explains Kupperberg, “these writers all played with the concept of the ‘noble savage,’ the pure, incorruptible spirit that civilization has bred out of humanity. That’s pretty heady stuff for Weird Tales. “Anyway, you get a little older, go through a few more of those boring English Lit classes that teach you how to look beneath the surface of a piece of writing, and start realizing what you can do with these themes, it becomes even more attractive to write, and you still get to do all the cool sword fighting and scantily clad babes. Only now, it’s got socially redeeming context!” In the tale of Atlantis, rather than the standard rough-hewn barbarian whose survival relied upon his combat skills, the hero of this piece depended on his magic so much that when it vanished, he found himself defenseless, as was the land he guarded. The hero had to not only discover a new source of magical strength, he had to put his arrogance aside to develop the true hero inside. And the legends would speak of this mighty hero of Atlantis, the Lord High Mage … “Tynan”! Having fallen in love with the concept, Sutton, along with Kupperberg, began a search for an artist. Jan Duursema was an early graduate of the Joe Kubert School of Art who, like many of her classmates, turned to DC Comics and began illustrating short stories for the horror and war books. Then-Editorial Coordinator Karen Berger showed Sutton and Kupperberg a story Jan drew for one of DC’s mystery titles. “Laurie and I both instantly thought this was the artist for Atlantis,” Kupperberg says. “She brought a charm and delicacy to the book that a macho, superhero stylist never could have achieved,” a perfect choice for a hero who wouldn’t be relying on his one good sword arm for his defense. Duursema started visualizing the world of preholocaust Atlantis, adding Native American and Aztec design elements and giving the strip a special look unlike anything previously seen in comics. “Jan was—and is— an amazing artist,” states Kupperberg. Jan also renamed the lead character “Arion.” Why did Kupperberg agree to the name change? “Because ‘Tynan’ sucked! It was always intended to be a placeholder name. Jan came in one day, said ‘Arion,’ and we were spared ‘Tynan.’” Aside from the overall look of Arion, Lord of Atlantis, did Jan provide a great deal of input to the stories themselves? “Jan was always welcome to suggest ideas,” explains Kupperberg, “but Arion was coming out of a sort of cusp in the business, between the old school ‘You don’t tell me how to write, I won’t tell you how to draw,’ and a more collaborative spirit. Comics aren’t really a collaborative event, no matter what the hype. It’s either a solo effort or two or more workers on different parts of an assembly line. I hope I’ve learned some Mr. Terrific-style ‘Fair Play’ in the decades since.”

Lord High Mage of Atlantis and His True Love (top) Early character sketches of Arion, as drawn by Jan Duursema. (2nd row) Arion didn’t lack for strong female characters as evidenced by Lady Chian, captain of the Royal Guard and Arion’s true love. TM & © DC Comics.

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Unsung Heroes: Bob LeRose

Bob and Nick (above) A 1985 photo of Bob LeRose and Nicola Cuti (former DC editor and co-creator of E-Man), courtesy of Bob Rozakis.

The old cliché says that “the bigger they are, the nicer they are.” If true, then artist/colorist Bob LeRose was a superstar. Born June 3, 1921 in Brooklyn, New York, LeRose was drafted into the Army in 1942. Three years later, he entered Phoenix Art School in New York City on the G.I. Bill. Eventually, he became an artist and office manager for the Johnstone and Cushing (J&C) ad agency, a pioneer in the use of comic art in advertising. While there, LeRose gave artist Neal Adams some of his earliest advertising work. When Al Stenzel split from J&C to form his own agency, LeRose followed him. In 1976, DC Comics hired LeRose at the recommendation of Adams, and through the ’80s and until his semi-retirement in 1996, according to former production director Bob Rozakis, “Bob was the cover department; a cover did not go to an editor for approval without his okay.” As Paul Kupperberg recalls, “In the days before computer coloring could do anything with the click of a mouse, you had to have people like Bob around who knew color and understood the printing process so well that they could create whatever color effects were called for. It helped that Bob was a talented painter in his own right.” Rozakis adds, “He had a wealth of knowledge about coloring and production and was willing to share it. He loved working at DC with all us ‘kids.’” LeRose was equally eager to share his memories of the people he worked alongside in his advertising days. One day, Rozakis strolled into DC’s production department to discover one of the newest assistant editors trying to teach LeRose the finer points of coloring covers. “Bob stood there, patiently listening, nodding occasionally, until the guy had said his piece.” After the assistant editor departed, Bob asked LeRose, “Why didn’t you tell him you’ve been doing this since before he was born?” With a smile, LeRose replied, “He’ll learn.” Not only did LeRose lend his talent to DC’s covers, but he colored almost every issue of Arion of Atlantis. Caring only about the look of the finished product, LeRose might approach Kupperberg about making a small alteration in a cover, to which the writer/editor says, “My response was always and without fail, ‘You don’t even have to ask me, Bob. Just do what you think is right.” When Rozakis would give LeRose his annual review, the colorist could be relied upon to remark, “You’ll tell me when it’s time to retire, won’t you?” And every year for a dozen years, Rozakis would reply, “Not this year.” But as talented as LeRose could be, it was his generosity of spirit that touched his friends and coworkers. “When Bob was doing his coloring,” recalls Rozakis, “he would blot the brush on a paper towel. When he was done, he would take the towels and mount them on a piece of board, creating unique pieces of abstract art. He would even name them. I have one that he gave me as a gift, titled ‘Rhapsody in Pink and Blue,’ in my home office. Most of the folks in the production department, as well as editors and other staffers, got them.” As for Kupperberg, he remembers when his son Max was born in 1996, coincidentally on the same day his book Takion was released, “I put the usual proud poppa picture of my boy on my desk. A few weeks later, I came in to find a gift on my desk from Bob wrapped in tissue paper. He had swiped the photo off my desk long enough to make a black-and-white Xerox of it, then took it home, hand-painted the photocopy, and framed it. The gesture touched me at the time and still, it’s sitting in front of me on my desk at home now and I smile every time I look at it and think of Bob.” LeRose continued to lend his talents to DC Comics even in semi-retirement. On August 30, 2006, LeRose passed away at home from complications from emphysema. He was survived by his second wife, three children from his first marriage, and a body of highly respected artistry, as well as the admiration and respect of his friends and coworkers.

Bob and Lisa (left) From 1990, LeRose with Lisa Saladino, former DC production staffer and daughter of letterer Gaspar Saladino. 4 4

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Roger Ash

cond ucte d Octo ber 11, 2007

Only a King Can Save Us King Arthur to the rescue in this exquisitely drawn Brian Bolland Camelot 3000 pinup. Courtesy of Tomas Pardo. TM & © DC Comics.

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Final Issues Bolland’s cover preliminaries for (left) Camelot 3000 #11 (July 1984) and (above) 12 (Apr. 1985), courtesy of Tomas Pardo. TM & © DC Comics.

BARR: Yes. Idi Amin was there, too. BOLLAND: And there was a Russian guy who looked a bit like Brezhnev. BARR: By that time, I was beginning to realize what Brian could do. We could do things like satire, which a lot of artists can’t do, and get away with it. ASH: Looking back at the series now, are you happy with it? BARR: If you look back at any body of work that you did when you were very young, you find a lot of youthful indiscretions, shall we say. But, yes, I’m generally quite happy with it. How about you, Brian? BOLLAND: Yes. As I said before, it doesn’t look like it was groundbreaking from a design point of view. In a way, I slightly regret not knowing at the time that I might have had that liberty. But then, I don’t think it suffers from that. BARR: No, I don’t think it does. There are always things that you wish you could go back and change.

TM & © DC Comics.

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If there are any problems with the story, and I’m sure there are, don’t chalk it up to a lack of wanting to do a good job, but to a lack of being able to do the best job. Certainly, Brian and I gave it everything we had. In terms of the legacy of Camelot 3000, if there is any such thing, it seems to have fallen into disrepute as far as DC is concerned. BOLLAND: Oh really? BARR: Well, they didn’t do anything with it. They didn’t reprint any of them when they did the Millennium issues back in 2000. I know that there have been a number of requests online for there to be an Absolute Camelot 3000 edition. DC doesn’t seem to have any interest in doing that, which is unfortunate. Camelot 3000 is something I’m very proud to have been connected with. It’s still listed on my résumé of things I’m most proud of. ROGER ASH lives in Wisconsin, where he’s worked for Westfield Comics since 1988. After doing over 100 interviews with comics professionals, he decided to try his hand at freelancing and has written for TwoMorrows since 2006.

And he came, leaping out at us (with some odd foreshortening) from the cover of Fantastic Four #52 (July 1966), a creation of the team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. He’s the Black Panther (named before activist Huey Newton’s group), the first black superhero. In the issue, the FF is invited to visit the ruler of Wakanda, an African kingdom that none of the Four have heard of before (and they’re bribed with a cool high-tech plane if they come. Nothing Reed Richards likes more than cool tech). It’s a trap (of sorts)! The ruler, T’Challa, is the Black Panther, a title (and uniform) passed from chieftain to chieftain. He uses the invitation to go all “Most Dangerous Game” on the FF, hunting them through what Lee calls a “hightech jungle,” but what Kirby depicts as a huge room of Kirby-tech. The Panther almost defeats the FF, and if it wasn’t for that pesky Wyatt Wingfoot (Johnny Storm’s college roommate), he’d have gotten away with it! Turns out the Panther is a cool guy, using the FF to help train him to square off against his ultimate enemy, Klaw (a rather disappointing take on the “great white hunter” yarn). The Panther decides to leave Wakanda and go out into the wider world to help all of mankind. End of twoissue story. So, what has this to do with Don McGregor’s Panther? When Don got to write the character in 1973, he was proofreading for Marvel, reading everything that Marvel put out (and getting paid for it!), including Jungle Action. At the time, you’d almost have to get paid to read Jungle Action. It was part of the flood of titles from Marvel in the early ’70s, a deluge aimed at grabbing more of the shelf space away from DC Comics. DC and Marvel were playing the “blink first” game, and Marvel was stuffing old ’50s Atlas-era stories between new Gil Kane covers and slapping them out as Jungle Action. “Jann of the Jungle” and “Lorna, the Jungle Girl” were back (with nice Joe Maneely art), once again swinging through the jungle in Tarzan’s wake, playing Great White God to the poor black natives. While silly if forgivable in the ’50s, it was embarrassing in the supposedly enlightened ’70s. Don McGregor, proofing all this stuff and growing more and more disbelieving, called Marvel on it:

Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

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In 1976, Jungle Action, starring the Black Panther, was canceled. It may have been a groundbreaking series, and popular with the college crowd, but it wasn’t making it in sales. That doesn’t mean it was a bad book, but like another innovative and acclaimed series, Denny O’Neil’s and Neal Adams’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow, it wasn’t making the numbers the publisher thought it should. A lot of books weren’t in the ’70s, and a lot of books met the same fate. So Marvel decided to try something new with Wakanda’s Prince T’Challa. Jack Kirby had recently come back to Marvel after a five-year stint at rival DC Comics, and was expected to pick up right where he left off in 1970. Kirby had had enough of working with Stan Lee, of working with anyone, really, and wanted to do his own thing, be his own plotter and scripter, and his own editor. And he didn’t want to work on Thor, or Fantastic Four, or any of the books he’d been doing before his DC vacation—he wanted to do something new. Jack was always looking foreword, always wanting to know what was around the next corner. Instead of having Kirby become the company-wide idea man he would be perfect for, helping out the entire line with new characters, new formats, and new markets, Marvel put him back right where he’d left off, putting out pages as rapidly as he could. Kirby became the go-to guy when Marvel had a book they didn’t know what to do with. Captain America was given to Jack as a book in trouble, and Devil Dinosaur was something they didn’t know what to do with, as was 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was almost as if Marvel said, “I don’t know, give it to Kirby. Let’s see what he does with it!” And Jack never turned down a challenge. He might not have been getting the respect he thought he deserved after his long service to the company (and the millions his creations had earned), but he was always there to help, and to accept the book that was failing. Which brings us (the long way ’round) to Black Panther. Marvel had canceled the Jungle Action book due to poor sales, but still thought the Panther character was worth another try. Why not throw Jack on it? After all, they needed something to fill the 15-page quota in Jack’s contract. Black Panther was a book Jack was not that interested in—after all, he always wanted to do something new—but it was a challenge, and Jack accepted, starting with Black Panther #1 (Jan. 1977), written and penciled by Kirby and inked by Mike Royer. Kirby never read what McGregor had done with the Panther (he usually didn’t read other’s comics—he was too busy with his own), and after all, the book had been canceled and Marvel wanted a new direction for it. Jack went for a more adventure style for Black Panther, and focused more on the technological aspects of Vibranium, bringing in the Wakandian royal family, lost civilizations, and Kirby-style monsters. He also brought enough new ideas to keep other writers busy for years (he was Kirby, after all). Jack did his best with the book (his work ethic wouldn’t let him sleepwalk though it), but he was not really happy with it, or Marvel. His old friend and biographer Mark Evanier claimed that Marvel in the ’70s was not the place for Jack. “They didn’t know how to use Jack…” I’d have to agree. Jack left Black Panther at #12 (Nov. 1978), leaving others to strip out what he put in, and left Marvel. The fans who encountered Black Panther through McGregor’s run were mystified, and even angry, blaming Kirby for ending Don’s run. Others were still hung up on why Jack wasn’t doing Fantastic Four. But Kirby’s Panther was, well, pure Kirby as only Kirby could do. Weird, innovative, and at times bizarre, but always entertaining. Jack’s entire run has been reprinted by Marvel in inexpensive trade paperbacks, so you can find out for yourself. Thanks to Mark Evanier for taking time off the picket line to talk some Kirby.

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Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

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STEVE RUDE

TONY ISABELLA

Nexus artist • creator of The Moth www.steverude.com

Writer, Tony’s Online Tips • creator of Black Lightning and the Champions www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony

Since comics are a visual medium first, I assume that the art would be the initial attraction to anyone interested in buying them. Enter the genius of Jack Kirby, and why he’s called “the King.” Imagine several dozen comics on the racks for us kids growing up in the ’60s. Going in blind, Who ya gonna buy? Possibly the guy with the art style that grabs you the most? Correct, you under-20 types! To me, and thousands of others, that artist was Jack Kirby. Which is interesting, seeing how Kirby was the only artist who depicted superheroes that went beyond the normal “anatomically correct” way which all other artists sharing the stands with Jack learned to draw the human figure. Confusing? Read on… All the little bumps and protrusions that everyone else drew, like lateral oblique muscles bulging from the waist, and showing every little muscle that makes up the arm as though it wasn’t covered with skin, get thrown out the window with Jack’s depictions. Over the years, Jack had thoughtfully evolved a streamlined version of the human body, discarding any line which didn’t contribute to the overall beauty of the pose. This put much more emphasis on the emotion and design of a body than the literal points of anatomy that everyone else incorporated.

When it comes to Jack Kirby, I think of “king” as meaning “leader,” and he was certainly that. He was the initiator of or, at least, one of the early masters of so many comics genres and storytelling techniques. He excelled at all of them, leaving behind precious, shiny nuggets we’ve all been mining ever since. I’d wager that 95% of the creators responding to this poll have, sometime during their careers, worked on characters created or co-created by Jack Kirby. He was also one of the first to openly and even boisterously depart from one publisher to improve his lot at another … when he took his leave of the Marvel Universe he had co-created to launch his Fourth World titles at DC. He was all about “better” and “more” for both himself and his fellow creators. Better pay and more respect. I don’t hesitate to suggest that, if the writers and artists in the comics industry had the strong will, the sense of justice, the pure cojones we see in the TV/movie industry’s writers strike, and if Jack Kirby were still blessedly with us, that he’d be on the picket line at this very moment. The extraordinary creativity, talent, and work ethic Kirby brought to comics more than justify his place as comics royalty. But let’s not forget he was one of our greatest leaders. By Odin, I’d follow that man to the realms of Hel and beyond! [Note that “Hel” refers to the Norse goddess of the dead and is not just a stupid Isabella typo.]

BERNIE MIREAULT Creator of Dr. Robot and The Jam www3.sympatico.ca/bem69

I’ve done a portrait of Jack Kirby [for a commission a year ago] that people seem to like. I’d like to offer it to BACK ISSUE as a tribute to my favorite cartoonist.

Thankfully, there’ll be many others contributing to this special column on Jack who will concern themselves with the other points of Kirby’s genius: his career longevity, his astounding work ethic and speed of page execution, and most notable, his cosmic imagination. So great were Jack’s concepts, that even his books that lasted but a few issues are unanimously the ones most sought for revival by the best of today’s creators.

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Jim Kingman

What we were told about Baron Winters twenty-five years ago: “In the murky darkness of a house which should not exist lives an enigma. He is uncomfortable existing in time, belonging perhaps to no time, yet existing in all. Why he is here he cannot tell, but he is here nonetheless. Existing like some shadow frozen in a moment of light. He calls himself Baron Winters. But if that is his true name, not even he remembers.” – Marv Wolfman, Night Force #9 (Apr. 1983). Permit me to reintroduce … Baron Winters. The Baron is a liar, deceiver, and fabricator of stories to suit his needs and manipulate his recruits. Like the wretched season his name symbolizes, Baron Winters is cold, remote, isolated, and often unbearable. He has been called a charlatan, a quack, a placebo, and a fraud. Yet on frequent occasions he has used his subtle and mysterious powers to save mankind from forces it cannot comprehend or successfully confront. But as confined and dissociated as Baron Winters is, he cannot save mankind alone. He requires his own forces to aid him, sometimes at great cost to those oft-unwitting recruits. While a Baron by definition—he is the lord of his realm, Wintersgate Manor, and often answerable to an unnamed higher authority—there is a severe limitation to his nobility: He cannot leave his home in the present time (although he, and others, can step through portals within his house into different time periods in the past). What the consequences are if he does leave his home in the present have never been made clear. It is presumed he will wither and die, as hundreds of years, frozen in time in his domain, will catch up to him physically when he is no longer bound to the confines of the estate that powers his alleged immortality. But not everything involving Baron Winters is a mystery. Some things are certain.

“A DIFFERENT KIND OF MYSTERY/HORROR COMIC”

House Arrest Baron Winters and Wintersgate Manor, illustrated by Gene Colan and Bob Smith, from Who’s Who vol. 1 #2 (Apr. 1985). Original art scan courtesy of Dave Guiterrez. TM & © DC Comics.

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In the early 1980s, the state of the once-thriving DC mystery line was simple and sad: The genre was fading fast. The Unexpected, Ghosts, and Secrets of Haunted House ceased publication over a six-month period from 1981 to 1982. House of Mystery and Weird War Tales were both canceled in 1983. In the midst of this decline, “The Night Force,” touted as a different kind of mystery/horror comic, debuted in a special preview/ prologue insert in The New Teen Titans #21 (Apr. 1982). Originally titled The Challengers then Dark Force, Night Force was settled on so as not to conflict with a Harlan Ellison project involving the name “Dark Forces.” In the Titans letters column, writer Marv Wolfman described Night Force as “true graphic novels of incredible power and density.” Wolfman and Night Force artist Gene Colan had previously garnered tremendous praise during the 1970s for their work on Marvel Comics’ Tomb of Dracula, and it was hoped by DC that they would work magic again on a series devoted to mystery and the macabre. “Night Force was my idea,” explains Marv Wolfman, “as I was looking for another book to do and felt I’d like to create my own horror title and push the boundaries a bit more than I had with Tomb of Dracula. I really B o o k

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run, I’ve often wondered what Wolfman had planned for Night Force at that time. “I know I wanted to do even more factual material in it,” Wolfman replies. “The first storyline is based on several Russian Science City experiments and the third, had it not been cut short, would have dealt strongly with Hitler's fascination with the supernatural. I wanted to do more in that direction where I used ‘documented’ material to weave my fiction story around.” As to the true origin of Baron Winters, Wolfman continues, “I was planning to do some kind of origin at some point but I always felt that you’d never know if anything Winters said was true or not. Again, this was an attempt to try a different kind of character. Unfortunately, like the darker story approach, they were not in vogue when I did Night Force. A dozen years later, of course, Vertigo would specialize in these kinds of people who definitely lived in the gray area rather than the typical comic-book black and white.”

Challenge of the Supernatural Friends Original Colan/Smith art to the Night Force group entry from Who’s Who #16 (June 1986), signed by Gene Colan. From the collection of Dave Guiterrez. TM & © DC Comics.

As with Tomb of Dracula, Gene Colan’s artwork complemented Wolfman’s scripts for Night Force. Colan is hands down the ideal illustrator to adapt film noir to the comic-book format, and Night Force bleeds a film noir style. Colan’s strengths are in conveying mood and atmosphere, but there are also powerful details in the faces of his characters. Everyone has a distinct look, from Baron Winters on down to the background characters. Colan’s men are big, burly, heavily dressed, and wear the weight of their personal torments on their shoulders. Vanessa Van Helsing takes her time to shine; after all, she’s straight-jacketed, tortured, and tormented during a good portion of “The Summoning.” Colan keeps her grounded with vulnerable eyes that spark with anguished intelligence. In the final story arc, Colan transforms her into a lavish lady of the 1930s and is allowed to enjoy her surroundings, but only until all Hell breaks loose. “The high was definitely getting the chance to work with Marv again,” says Colan. “He was one of my favorite writers to work with. We understood, respected, and complemented each other.” Despite the book’s cancellation, Baron Winters returned to host one of the most notorious séances in comic-book history in Swamp Thing #50 (July 1986), the concluding chapter of writer Alan Moore’s “American Gothic.” Night Force returned thirteen years later as part of DC’s “Weirdoverse” line, which included Scare Tactics, The Book of Fate, and Challengers of the Unknown. Wolfman returned, as did Gold, Donovan Cain (without the “e” at the end of his last name), Vanessa, Merlin, and Richard Nixon (briefly), all aided and abetted by many good artists, but a key missing ingredient was Gene Colan. Wolfman did not carry over any story ideas from the original series. The series never found its audience and ceased publication with issue #12 (Nov. 1997). Winters continues to pop up throughout the DC Universe, notably in Seven Soldiers: Zatanna #1 in 2005, as always confined in the present within his Georgetown mansion. While the original series did not become popular enough to warrant a long run similar to Tomb of Dracula, Night Force succeeded creatively because Wolfman and Colan played the horror straight. Dr. Rabin and Detective Short, two supporting characters during “The Summoning,” certainly had their doubts of the occultism involved, but they never mocked Baron Winters. Both saw him as a genuine threat, as did Gold, but as a key participant, Gold came around; in fact, he settled in. While the horrors were never in question, the mysteries and motivations of Baron Winters remained subjects of debate throughout the series. They still do. We may never know his truths. But as with the barren winters he symbolized, it wasn’t about the truth, it was about surviving horrific weather, even while we shuddered as it passed. JIM KINGMAN purchased his first comic book, DC’s World’s Finest Comics #211, on a family road trip in March of 1972, and has been reading and collecting comic books ever since (with no end in sight). He has been writing about comics since 1993, and currently edits and publishes Comic Effect, a small press fanzine emphasizing the fun in reading comics. He also has a monthly column on comics at silverbulletcomicbooks.com.

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Robby Reed

[Editor’s note: The following is reprinted from Dial B for Blog, with the kind permission of its author. It has been been edited from its original form of four blog posts into this single article. To view the four blogs in their entirety, with historical photos, visit www.dialbforblog.com/archives/85/.]

THE CAPTAIN AND THE KID

And You Thought Michael Jackson’s Diana Ross Makeover Was Weird… A fantasy cover by blogger Robby Reed. Comics characters and logos TM & © DC Comics.

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If you think you know all about Captain Marvel, Jr.’s influence on Elvis Presley ... think again! Because the World’s Mightiest Boy didn’t just influence the King of Rock and Roll’s hairstyle—Captain Marvel, Jr. helped shape Elvis’ entire lifestyle. It all began on the battlefields of the first World War, with soldiers enduring bombs that whizzed right over their heads like a lightning bolt, then exploded nearby with a tremendous bang. Wilford “Billy” Fawcett, a former police reporter for the Minneapolis Journal, was a World War I army captain. After the war, Fawcett began printing a small two-color pamphlet containing barracks humor meant to entertain disabled servicemen in veterans hospitals. The title of Fawcett’s self-published pamphlet came from his own former army rank and nickname, plus a reference to one of the “whiz-bang” bombs of WWI. The magazine was called “Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang.” But the monthly collection of off-color jokes, sexy stories, and racy cartoons wasn’t a bomb—it was an instant hit. A wholesaler picked it up in 1919 and started selling it in hotels and drugstores. It soon became an American standard, published continuously for the next thirty years. Vernon and Gladys Presley had married in 1933 and moved into a shotgun shack in East Tupelo, Mississippi— a two-room house Vernon built himself, for $180. Gladys soon got pregnant, and she gave birth to twin boys right in the Presley’s modest home, on January 8, 1935. The first of the twin boys, named Jesse Garon Presley, was stillborn. Vernon Presley placed the baby’s tiny corpse in a shoebox and buried it in an unmarked grave. A half-hour later, the second twin was born. Gladys Presley would later tell the boy, “When a twin dies, the one who lives gets the strength of both.” The Presley twin who survived was given Vernon’s middle name: Elvis. Just a month after Elvis Presley turned five years old, Fawcett Publications decided to try its luck in the comicbook business. Fawcett oversaw the creation of a new superhero whose name came from his own actual rank during the war, Captain, plus the source of the hero’s magical superpowers, Thunder. At the last minute, Captain Thunder’s name was changed to “Captain Marvel” for legal reasons. The new book was titled “Whiz Comics,” a nod to “Captain Billy’s Whiz Bang.” The first issue of Whiz Comics starring Captain Marvel was published in February 1940. The explosion the book made when it hit the stands was not nearly as loud as that of the “whiz-bang” bombs it was named after— but for the comic industry, it would prove to be every bit as earth-shaking. In the issue, drawn in a cartoony B o o k

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Brett Weiss

Who is the most famous prince in the history of comics? Prince Valiant? Prince Namor? Diana Prince? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. With apologies to Hal Foster, Bill Everett, and Charles Moulton (respective creators of the aforementioned princes who wouldn’t be king), the most well known comic-book prince is, well, Prince, the eccentric rock star who made his splash during the 1980s with such flashy, funky pop songs as “Little Red Corvette,” “When Doves Cry,” and “Delirious,” and who continues to thrill pop music fans today. You may be wondering: What in the wild, wild world of sports does Prince have to do with comic books? In 1991, during a boom of sorts for music-based comic books (thanks in part to Revolutionary, the publisher of such titles as The Led Zeppelin Experience), DC Comics, under its Piranha Music label, released Prince: Alter Ego, a one-shot written by Dwayne McDuffie (Justice League Unlimited), penciled by Denys Cowan (The Question), and inked by Kent Williams (Havok & Wolverine: Meltdown). Emblazoned with a gorgeous cover by the always great Brian Bolland, Prince: Alter Ego tries hard to infuse the storytelling techniques of sequential art with the power and drama of music. The result is a wistfully (and at times artfully) written, hopelessly corny morality play that offers convenient, romantic solutions to complex problems. Our story begins with Prince cruising along on his purple motorcycle, returning to Minneapolis after a long tour, the tassels of his gaudy leather jacket blowing in the wind. As he enters the city, which is “his favorite song, a tune he knows by heart,” he senses that the rhythm is not quite right, that something is amiss, like “hearing a favorite old single playing slightly off-speed.” Obviously, the music metaphors in this comic book run deep, which is a credit to McDuffie. In fact, they spill over into literalism as Prince decides to “make a little music of his own” to set things straight. Unable to find his muse, Prince leaves the studio in hopes of distraction (her name is Muse, fittingly enough), but finds more than he bargained for: a pair of gangs on the verge of war. Amazingly (not to mention unbelievably), Prince quells the conflict with the following retort: “I thought you two were supposed to be leaders. What happens to your people if you start a war with each other?” Upon hearing these words of wisdom, the gang leaders share an epiphany that makes them appear to come out of a trance and see the error of their ways. That the scene didn’t end in tears, a hug, and an exchange of sugar cookie recipes was a little surprising. After stopping the gang war, Prince remains uneasy, thanks to the city’s “subtle new rhythm.” He goes to his old haunt, the Glam Slam dance club, and hears a familiar sound: his own music, but played with “pure, explosive hatred” that causes people to “rip each other apart.” Prince discovers that his ex-band mate, Gemini, is back on stage, producing harmful, rage-inducing music. The resulting altercation and flashback sequence (in which Prince first

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encounters Gemini) exemplifies the theme of the issue: music should be positive and uplifting (both physically and spiritually), not hateful, destructive, and mean. Thematically, Prince: Alter Ego is more than a little heavy-handed. The blatant, overbearing message seems beneath McDuffie’s considerable talents, but there’s a good reason for this. While reflecting on the project in 2007, McDuffie said that Prince had considerable input into the issue, especially regarding the theme of making positive music— something that seemed extremely important to the eccentric (if well intentioned) pop star. McDuffie also referenced the fabled Black Album, which was a Prince record that went unreleased for years due to the musician’s concerns with its proliferation of sex and violence (over the decades, Prince has espoused various religious beliefs). Prince isn’t a rap artist, of course, but the blatant message in Prince: Alter Ego—that negative, angry music is destructive—brings to mind the controversy surrounding rap music, much of which contains violent lyrics and/or demeaning (to women, primarily) sexual content. When asked about the theme of positivism and negativism and how they relate to modern, African-American-created music (rap in particular), McDuffie said that “rap is just a genre” and that it “can be about anything.” He blamed corporations for producing the type of negative material that portrays black America in a way that they are comfortable with, and he claimed that many young black artists simply “take the path of least resistance” when coming up with marketable songs. Despite his “music hath charms” sensibilities, the four-color version of Prince does indeed get into a scrap or two in Prince: Alter Ego, belying any notion that he may be a pure pacifist. After miraculously breaking up the aforementioned potential gang fight, Prince is accosted by a monstrous, muscle-bound gangbanger who attacks the diminutive, effeminate musician (who is much tougher-looking in the comic than in real life) with a large club outfitted with nails and spikes. As though channeling Daredevil or Batman, Prince deftly handles the situation, knocking the thug to the ground with a swift, acrobatic kick, breaking the man’s club and threatening him with future violence. From a visual standpoint, Prince: Alter Ego is drawn in a loose, energetic style that sometimes skimps on background detail. Trees, windows, crowds, and the like are rendered in an impressionistic, almost cartoonish fashion. The characters in the foreground, though somewhat sketchy at times, are very convincing. Prince himself is instantly recognizable, which is not always a given with media tie-in comics. Efforts via e-mail to get artist Denys Cowan (who McDuffie describes as a “huge Prince fan”) to comment on his involvement with the issue went unanswered. The release of Prince: Alter Ego led to Prince and the New Power Generation: Three Chains of Gold, published by DC in 1994 (which was the same year that Revolutionary Comics, the most prolific publisher of music-based comic books, went out of business). Unlike the schmaltzy Alter Ego, Three Chains of Gold is a conventional adventure yarn (à la Indiana Jones) in which Prince and his band must brave a trap-riddled tomb in the Middle East to help a princess procure a powerful golden chain. As with Alter Ego, Three Chains of Gold was written by McDuffie, with plenty of input by Prince. Thankfully, Three Chains of Gold lacks the preachy aspects of Alter Ego, making for an entertaining read. Once again, it’s painfully amusing to see Prince as a buttkicking action hero, but at least the tongue-in-cheek (at times) script for Three Chains of Gold seems to be in on the joke. Tellingly, comic-book Prince mentions that he’s never used a machete before (big surprise there), and one of his band members, who takes the controls of a plane after the pilot has been shot, says that he learned to fly in the video arcades. McDuffie referred to the story as “a big fantasy adventure that called for a lighter [than Alter Ego] touch.” David Williams drew the first 22 pages of Three Chains of Gold while Steve Carr and Deryl Skelton handled pages 23-48. The transition is extremely smooth, with the basic art style (or lack thereof) being roughly the same throughout the issue, with nary a speed bump along the way.

The art has a generic, workmanlike quality that portrays the faces and figures well, but is light on detail. Most of the buildings, walls, couches, bushes, clouds, and other such non-essentials appear as little more than outlines or rough sketches. Overall, the issue has a consistent, fairly pleasant look that is nevertheless quickly forgotten. When asked why Cowan wasn’t in on drawing Three Chains of Gold, McDuffie said that he was probably too busy at the time. Despite a few missteps along the way (changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol, appearing in public with the word “slave” written on his face), Prince, who turns fifty in June 2008, has maintained his popularity and is one of few ’80s icons whose current music remains a relevant force in the industry. This measure of fame was evidenced dramatically by his thunderous, surprise-filled appearance at the 2007 Super Bowl, where he belted out riveting versions of CCR’s “Proud Mary,” Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower,” the Foo Fighters’ “Best of You,” and his own “Purple Rain.” In addition, his latest album, 2007’s Planet Earth, while not a critical success, at least shows that he is still in the proverbial arena. Maybe some day Prince will get another shot at four-color glory. For now he’ll have to be satisfied with millions of adoring fans, untold wealth, and with the title of the Most Famous Prince in the History of Comics. Former comic-book store owner BRETT WEISS is the author of Classic Home Video Games, 1972–1984 (McFarland, 2007).

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Back Issue #27