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THRILLING DAYS OF YESTERYEAR: Dominic Fortune • Justice, Inc. • Man-God • Miracle Squad • The Phantom • with Aparo, Chaykin, DeZuniga, Kirby, Verheiden, and more!

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FEATURING Dave StevenS’ FINAL INTERVIEW Also: BILSON and DeMEO discuss the RocketeeR movie

THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

Edited by MICHAEL EURY, BACK ISSUE magazine celebrates comic books of the 1970s, 1980s, and today through recurring (and rotating) departments like “Pro2Pro” (dialogue between professionals), “BackStage Pass” (behind-the-scenes of comicsbased media), “Greatest Stories Never Told” (spotlighting unrealized comics series or stories), and more!

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“New World Order!” Adam Warlock examined with JIM STARLIN and ROY THOMAS, the history of Miracleman with ALAN DAVIS & GARRY LEACH, JIM SHOOTER interview, Marvel’s post-STAN LEE editors-in-chief on New Universe, Logan’s Run, Star Hunters, BOB WIACEK on Star Wars and Star-Lord, DICK GIORDANO revisits Crisis on Infinite Earths and “The Post-Crisis DC Universe You Didn’t See,” new cover by JIM STARLIN!

“Villains!” MIKE ZECK and J.M. DeMATTEIS discuss “Kraven’s Last Hunt”, history of the Hobgoblin is exposed, the Joker’s short-lived series, Secret Society of Super-Villains and Kobra, a Magneto biography, Luthor and Brainiac’s malevolent makeovers, interview with Secret Society artist MIKE VOSBURG, plus contributions from BYRNE, CONWAY, FRENZ, NOVICK, ROMITA JR., STERN, WOLFMAN, and a cover by MIKE ZECK!

“Monsters!” Frankenstein in Comics timeline and a look at BERNIE WRIGHTSON’s and Marvel’s versions, histories of Vampirella and Morbius, ISABELLA and AYERS discuss It the Living Colossus, REDONDO’s Swamp Thing, Man-Bat, monster art gallery, interview with TONY DeZUNIGA, art and commentary from ARTHUR ADAMS, COLÓN, KALUTA, NEBRES, PLOOG, SUTTON, VEITCH, and a painted cover by EARL NOREM!

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“Comics Go to War!” KUBERT/KANIGHER’s Sgt. Rock, EVANIER and SPIEGLE’s Blackhawk, GEORGE PRATT’s Enemy Ace, plus Unknown Soldier, Wonder Woman’s return to WWII, the Invaders, Combat Kelly, Vietnam Journal, Sad Sack, the Joe Kubert School, art and commentary from AYERS, HEATH, KIRBY, ROBBINS, ROMITA SR., SINNOTT, and the return of GERRY TALAOC! JOE KUBERT cover!

“Family!” JOHN BYRNE’s Fantastic Four, SIMONSON, BRIGMAN, and BOGDANOVE on Power Pack, LEVITZ and STATON on the Huntress, Henry Pym’s “son” Ultron, Wonder Twins, Commissioner Gordon & Batgirl’s relationship, and Return of the New Gods. With art and commentary from BUCKLER, BUSIEK, FRADON, HECK, INFANTINO, NEWTON, and WOLFMAN, and a Norman Rockwell-inspired BYRNE cover!

“April Fools”! GIFFEN and LOREN FLEMING on Ambush Bug, BYRNE’s She-Hulk, interviews with HEMBECK, ALAN KUPPERBERG, Flaming Carrot’s BOB BURDEN, and DAVID CHELSEA, Spider-Ham, Forbush-Man, Reid Fleming, MAD in the 1970s, art and commentary from DICK DeBARTOLO, TOM DeFALCO, AL FELDSTEIN, AL JAFFEE, STAN LEE, DAVE SIM, and a Spider-Ham cover by MIKE WIERINGO, inked by KARL KESEL!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Cat People!” Catwoman, Black Cat, Hellcat, Vixen, Atlas’ Tiger-Man and Cougar, White Tiger and the Sons of the Tiger, Wildcat, Thundercats, Josie and the Pussycats, and the Badger! With art and commentary from BOLLAND, BRENNERT, COLON, CONWAY, DITKO, GOLDBERG, LEVITZ, MILGROM, MST3000’s MIKE NELSON, and more. Cover by JOE STATON and FREDDY LOPEZ, JR.!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Red, White, and Blue” issue! Captain America and the Red Skull, CHAYKIN’s American Flagg, THOMAS and COLAN’s Wonder Woman, Freedom Fighters, and Team America! With art and commentary from JOHN BYRNE, STEVE ENGLEHART, ROGER STERN, CURT SWAN, MARK WAID, LEN WEIN, MIKE ZECK, and more. Cover by HOWARD CHAYKIN!

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(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Wild West” issue! Jonah Hex examined with FLEISHER, DeZUNIGA, DOMINGUEZ, GARCIA-LOPEZ, GIFFEN, HANNIGAN, plus TRUMAN’s Scout, TRIMPE’s Rawhide Kid, AYERS’ Ghost Rider, DC’s Weird Westerns, the Vigilante’s 1970s revival, and more! Art and commentary by ADAMS, APARO, DIXON, EVANS, KUNKEL, MORROW, NICIEZA, and more. Cover by DeZUNIGA!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Jungle and barbarian” issue! Shanna the She-Devil feature and gallery, JONES and ANDERSON on Ka-Zar, LARRY HAMA interview, Beowulf, Claw the Unconquered, Korg 70,000 B.C., Red Sonja, Rima the Jungle Girl, art and commentary by AZZARELLO, BOYETTE, CHAN, GULACY, KUBERT, MICHELINIE, REDONDO, ROY THOMAS, WINDSOR-SMITH, cover by FRANK CHO!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Spider-Man in the Bronze Age!” Drug issues, resurrection of Green Goblin and Gwen Stacy, Marvel Team-Up, Spectacular Spider-Man, Spidey Super Stories, CBS and Japanese TV shows, Clone Saga, CONWAY, ANDRU, BAGLEY, SAL BUSCEMA, DeFALCO, FINGEROTH, GIL KANE, STAN LEE, LEIBER, MOONEY, ROMITA SR., SALICRUP, SAVIUK, STERN, cover by BOB LARKIN!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Odd Couples!” O’NEIL and ADAMS’ Green Lantern/Green Arrow, Englehart’s Justice League of America, Daredevil and Black Widow, Power Man and Iron Fist, Vision and Scarlet Witch, Cloak and Dagger, and… Aquaman and Deadman (?!). With AUSTIN, COLAN, CONWAY, COWAN, DILLIN, HOWELL, LEONARDI, SKEATES, and more. New cover by NEAL ADAMS!

(NOW 8x/YEAR, WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Greatest Stories Never Told!” How Savage Empire became The Warlord, the aborted FF graphic novel “Fathers and Sons,” BYRNE’s Last Galactus Story, Star*Reach’s Batman, Aquaman II, 1984 Black Canary miniseries, Captain America: The Musical, Miracleman: Triumphant, unpublished issues of The Cat and Warlock, BLEVINS, DEODATO, FRADON, SEKOWSKY, WEISS, MIKE GRELL cover!

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Volume 1, Number 47 April 2011 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, and Beyond!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks COVER ARTIST Dave Stevens COVER COLORIST Laura Martin COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Jack Abramowitz Michael Ambrose Dave Ballard Mike W. Barr Danny Bilson Jerry Boyd Mike Burkey Mike Carlin Howard Chaykin Nicola Cuti Peter David Paul DeMeo John S. Eury Ron Frantz Mike Gold Golden Apple Comics Grand Comic-Book Database Robert Greenberger Heritage Auction Galleries Douglas R. Kelly Joseph F. Lenius Ryan Liebowitz Jim Main David Mandel Andy Mangels Kelvin Mao Luke McDonnell

Michael Mikulovsky John Morrow Dennis O’Neil Bill Pearson Greg Preston John Roche Cliff Secord Lloyd Smith Terry Tidwell Mark Verheiden John Wooley

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 FLASHBACK: The Phantom at Charlton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 All-star artists Jim Aparo, Pat Boyette, and Don Newton made this licensed title a winner FLASHBACK: DC’s Ghost Who Walks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13 Peter David, Mike Gold, Luke McDonnell, and Mark Verheiden discuss The Phantom BEYOND CAPES: Justice, Inc.? Not So Much . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21 The lonely life of a perennial second-stringer BEYOND CAPES: Outrageous Fortune . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25 Howard Chaykin looks back at his pulp-inspired Marvel hero, Dominic Fortune INTERVIEW: Dave Stevens: One Last Conversation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 An in-depth, art-packed interview with the late, great creator of the Rocketeer PRO2PRO: Rocketeer-ing Its Way to a Theater Near You! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58 Screenwriters Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo chat about the Rocketeer movie BEYOND CAPES: Quiet on the Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65 The Miracle Squad and the World of the B-Movie OFF MY CHEST: Before Superman! Even Before Doc Savage! There Was… Man-God! . . .73 A collector’s dream is to see the completion of this Roy Thomas/Tony DeZuniga adaptation BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Reader feedback BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year 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@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Dave Stevens and Laura Martin. The Rocketeer TM & © The Rocketeer Trust. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2011 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING. Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Issue

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Michael Eury

It seems as if obituaries have become a regular feature of this magazine. Saying farewell to the comics creators that shaped the reading experiences of our youth is to be expected as most of BACK ISSUE’s readers, who witnessed the Bronze Age firsthand, journey into Middle Age. Yet, it’s always with a twinge of sadness that we must accept the passing of a writer, artist, or editor whose work imprinted our lives. And with this issue we pay our respects to artist Mike Esposito, who died on October 24, 2010. Esposito was an inker and artist who at times simultaneously worked at multiple publishers using pseudonyms including Mickey Demeo and Joe Gaudioso. “Mighty Mike” was a Silver and Bronze Age mainstay most famous for his longtime collaboration with penciler Ross Andru. The Andru/Esposito team was best known for stints on Wonder Woman, Metal Men, late-Silver Age issues of Superman and World’s Finest Comics, and Amazing Spider-Man. A 2005 inductee into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame, Esposito remained active drawing commissions and recreations up until the time of his death. Featured on this page, courtesy of Jerry Boyd and Mike Burkey, is Esposito’s recreation of a splash page that he and Andru originally produced for Giant-Size Spider-Man #5 (July 1975). We invite you to visit www.mightymikeespo.net to learn more about this beloved artist. BACK ISSUE extends its condolences to the Esposito family, and to Mighty Mike’s many fans.

MIKE ESPOSITO 1927–2010

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Michael Ambrose

Unlike most comic-book heroes, the Phantom began his life in the newspaper funny pages. The Phantom daily strip launched February 17, 1936, created and written by Lee Falk, following his successful Mandrake the Magician for King Features Syndicate. Phantom proved even more popular. A color Sunday page debuted in 1939, and the character soon graduated to other media: Columbia Pictures released a 15-part movie serial starring Tom Tyler in 1943 and Whitman published a Phantom novel the following year. Comic books reprinted the strips beginning with Ace Comics (David McKay Publications) in the 1940s and Harvey in the ’50s. Comics with original continuity came later: Gold Key produced 17 issues of The Phantom from 1962 to 1966, and King Comics had another 11 from 1966 to 1967 (a twelfth King issue, #29, was released only overseas). In 1967, the Phantom license went to the Charlton Comics Group of Derby, Connecticut. Comics historian and ACE Comics publisher Ron Frantz recently recalled a 1983 conversation with the late Dick Giordano, the Charlton comics editor when the King Features deal was brokered. “If it hadn’t been for Dick, Charlton would never have had the contract,” Frantz says. “The negotiations between Charlton and King were long and slow and very delicate. Dick did all the work from beginning to end. The contracts arrived when he was out of the office for a few days. One of the big shots at Charlton moved in and took all the credit, staging a news conference and contract-signing ceremony. Dick’s hard work was not even mentioned. Naturally, this was a slap in his face and it left a very bad taste in his mouth. It certainly influenced his decision to

Aparo Makes a Splash Fans started to notice future Batman artist Jim Aparo on Charlton’s The Phantom. Original art to page 1 of issue #38 (June 1970), courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. (KFS).

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leave Charlton for DC.” Since Giordano passed away not long ago, in early 2010, it’s appropriate that he receive some long-overdue credit. Charlton was no stranger to adapting licensed properties. From 1948 on, Charlton published comics featuring B-movie Western stars like Tim McCoy and Sunset Carson, but its licensed line expanded after 1955, with strip reprints of Bo, Brenda Starr, Terry and the Pirates, and from TV and film, My Little Margie, Gorgo, and Konga. But none of these offerings was remotely in the top tier until the company inked its deal with King. New adaptations of Beetle Bailey, Blondie, Popeye, The Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Jungle Jim started with issues cover-dated February 1969. Hi and Lois, Ponytail, Tiger, and Barney Google and Snuffy Smith followed. Lucrative distribution and merchandising doors suddenly opened for Charlton. Further deals from 1970 on, chiefly with Hanna-Barbera, put the company at the top of American publishers of licensed comics properties. The Phantom has a richly detailed backstory. The current Phantom is Kit Walker, 21st in a line from 1536, when half-dead British sailor Christopher Walker washed ashore on the coast of the African country Bengalla (or Bengali) after pirates attacked his ship and murdered his father. Walker was rescued and nursed to health by the gentle Bandar pygmies. Later, he found the corpse of the pirate who killed his father and vowed vengeance on the pirate’s vulture-picked skull: “I swear

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to devote my life to the destruction of piracy, greed, cruelty, and injustice, in all their forms! My sons and their sons shall follow me.” This is the Oath of the Skull, which every succeeding male Walker swears before assuming the Phantom’s costume and mission. Because of this generational continuity, the Phantom is considered to be immortal and is known as “the Ghost Who Walks” and “the Man Who Cannot Die.” The Phantom lives in the Skull Cave, deep in the jungle, with a fabulous treasure horde. All previous Phantoms are buried there. Along with brains and brawn and a fearsome reputation, he totes a pair of .45 caliber pistols. A ring on his right hand bears a skull insignia to permanently mark his enemies, and one on his left has a design of crossed sabers to confer protection on friends. The Phantom’s skin-tight purple suit and eyeless mask anticipate the colorful costumes of 20th-century superheroes. Aiding him are his white stallion Hero and trained wolf Devil. The Phantom has an American girlfriend, Diana Palmer; Bandar chief Guran is his best friend and confidant. Going abroad, Walker dons dark glasses, trench coat, and fedora. No one has ever seen him unmasked and lived to tell of it. The Phantom came to Charlton firmly established. Creative teams had only to stay on model. The Charlton Phantom era is marked by three distinct lead artists: Jim Aparo, Pat Boyette, and Don Newton.

Jungle Action Angled-panel composition and fluid movement made Jim Aparo’s storytelling flow smoothly from image to image. Original art to page 8 of The Phantom #33 (Aug. 1969). Scan courtesy of Michael Ambrose. TM & © 2011 KFS.

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DON NEWTON PHANTOM COVER GALLERY

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Robert Greenberger

While considered the first costumed adventure hero, Lee Falk’s jungle hero the Phantom has had a checkered comic-book existence. Although the comic strip has run daily since 1935, there was a long gap in comic-book tales after Charlton ceased its Phantom run in 1977. That all changed in 1987, not long after Mike Gold arrived at DC Comics as a senior editor. “I was approached by a friend of mine who worked at King Features Syndicate (KFS) at the time,” he explains to BACK ISSUE. “He says the syndicate was interested in ‘keeping their adventure strips alive’ in a declining newspaper market—read ‘for merchandising value’—and they thought we could do a good job. I took the idea to our boss, Mr. [Dick] Giordano, and his eyes lit up that cherubic face.” mike gold KFS was hoping DC Comics could freshen its major properties— the Phantom, Flash Gordon, and Prince Valiant— but DC opted to license only the first two with Gold set to develop them. “We started our development work on Flash Gordon, and it turned into one of my worst nightmares in comics,” Gold reveals. “We did a lot of negotiations, and then Dan Jurgens courageously stepped into the breech as storyteller.” The problem stemmed from changing KFS representatives, none knowing exactly how the modernization process should work. As Jurgens struggled to work within KFS’s everchanging guidelines for the nine issue miniseries he would write and pencil, work also began on The Phantom. “I knew Phantom fans were zealots—and I was one of them,” Gold says. “So I walked onto that project determined to have more flexibility and more creative control than we had with the musical-chairs version of Flash Gordon.”

The Force is with Luke The Ghost Who Walks is about to become the Ghost Who Punches in the Face in this dynamite commission by and courtesy of Luke McDonnell. The Phantom TM & © 2011 King Features Syndicate, Inc. (KFS).

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smart with story. When the book was canceled, what I missed most were the lengthy story conversations with Brian. We were always able to make the book better, which doesn’t always happen in this racket.” Unfortunately, despite positive critical reaction and reasonable sales, the license was canceled. KFS demanded more money for year two than DC paid Paramount for the more commercially successful Star Trek. “Even so, we were willing to pick it up for another six months with a six-month option—a safe bet with a nice back door,” Mike Gold says. “But King wasn’t interested and, for a while at least, they didn’t make anything from anybody. Their loss.”

DC’s PHANTOM, IN HINDSIGHT In looking back over the two years DC briefly held the license, everyone involved remains pleased with the finished issues. Gold proclaims, “I think it was one of the best comic-book adaptations of the Phantom, and that includes a lot of the foreign stuff published that I had read (which, admittedly, was a mere fraction of the total— it’s been published weekly for about a millennium).” Verheiden adds, “I’m proud of the book. Sales weren’t that great, but we did 13 solid issues. Lengthy continuing story arcs were the rage at the time, so it’s

possible [The Phantom’s] closed-ended stories worked against us, but I liked working in that traditional sort of structure. And I’m especially happy that Lee Falk, in the end, wound up being pleased with what we did. I got a very nice card from him at the end of the run expressing his appreciation for the work.” The creative team both point to issue #6 (Aug. 1989), “Waste,” as an exceptional blend of theme, character, and storytelling. The Phantom remains an enduring global phenomenon despite the overall decline in comic strips. His domestic move in 2010 from Moonstone to Dynamite Entertainment is a sign of his strength. His appeal is summed up by Gold: “As the mystery of the so-called Dark Continent vanished from our culture, Lee Falk adapted with the times. He was well known for his liberal views, and he told stories set in the modern post-colonial Africa. There was still a lot of jungle, but there were real cities. We had petty dictators and genuine statesmen. Volunteer efforts from the United Nations and organizations like Doctors Without Borders were well represented in the strip. It has kept up with the times. “The second reason is that they’ve got a really good team on the strip today. Paul Ryan is a terrific artist, and Tony DePaul is not only a good writer but he’s very well versed in the character. He has written quite a few of the foreign comic books and really knows the mammoth backstory. Right now they’re in the middle of a story that runs for, I think, a year—something unheard of in this day and age. So the bottom line is, the Phantom lives on because the property was well thought out and intriguing and it’s been kept up to date by talented storytellers.” David acknowledges, “Because it’s unique. You’ve got a character that can literally work in any time ranging from centuries back all the way through to the future (as the more science-fictiony versions have shown us). With a character who has that kind of range, and with the marvelous backstory that’s firmly rooted in the sort of father/son dynamics that influences so much of American literature, how can he not continue to be popular?” Verheiden says, “I guess it must tap into some primal wish-fulfillment. I’ve heard that people were weeping after seeing Avatar because they so wanted to stay in that pretty tropical world. The Phantom (like Tarzan) gets to live the same sort of fantasy. And while I haven’t read the strip itself in years (none of the papers I get carry it), back in the ’80s there was a real sense of fun to the stories. The Phantom smiled a lot in the strip, and you sensed he was deeply in love with Diana. In a way, for a guy carrying on the legacy of dressing in purple tights and fighting crime, he was remarkably centered.” For McDonnell, the series “succeeds, like any good character, because of a solid premise and a flexibility that adapts to changing times. He can work in a modern setting and in a historical context. I also think the quality of the work has been pretty consistent.” ROBERT GREENBERGER is a longtime comics historian and former staffer at DC Comics and Marvel Comics. A full-time freelance writer and editor, his recent works have included The Essential Superman Encyclopedia (with Martin Pasko) and The Spider-Man Vault (with Peter David). He continues to write reviews for ComicMix.com and more about Bob can be found at BobGreenberger.com.

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Jack Abramowitz

In 1975, the “DC Explosion” was in full swing, featuring a greatly expanded line at DC Comics. Full-page house ads introduced readers to DC’s “all-new adventure line,” including such diverse characters as Claw, Stalker, Beowulf, and the Warlord. One character didn’t fit in among these bare-chested, swordwielding barbarians: the pale-skinned, gray jump-suited, gun-toting Avenger. Justice, Inc. #1 sported a May–June 1975 cover date, along with banners proclaiming it to be the “1st Sensational Issue!” and “by the creator of Doc Savage … Kenneth Robeson.” That latter claim is only partially accurate. “Kenneth Robeson” was, in fact, a pseudonym. This house pen name was used by Street & Smith Publications for stories featuring both Doc Savage and the Avenger. In reality, Lester Dent was the principal writer of Doc Savage, while Paul Ernst penned The Avenger. The Avenger never achieved the popularity enjoyed by Doc Savage or The Shadow. Compare the Avenger’s fewer than 30 published adventures to Doc Savage’s nearly 200 or The Shadow’s over 300 tales. In terms of radio, film, and comics adaptations, the Avenger again fell short. In his occasional forays into comics, under the banner Justice, Inc., the Avenger has likewise failed to take the world by storm.

NO NEED FOR CONTINUITY—THE 1970s Presumably, the comics series was called Justice, Inc. rather than “The Avenger” to avoid conflict or confusion with Marvel’s The Avengers. Says series writer Denny O’Neil, “It could have been just a marketing decision— ‘We don’t want to look like we’re ripping off Marvel’— or there could have been a copyright issue. Things were often confused in those days about stuff like that.” No one was worried, however, about any potential confusion with DC’s own Justice League. O’Neil was not especially a fan of the Avenger prior to writing the series: “I became aware of the Avenger after the success of The Shadow. One of the paperback houses was reprinting the Avenger’s stories then, so it was a natural place to go. I liked dealing with those kind of stories and those kind of characters.” The first issue of Justice, Inc. featured a passable reworking of the first Avenger story, “Justice, Inc.,” albeit severely abridged to fit into a singleissue telling. In this tale, we are introduced to the Avenger, Ike and Mike (his knife and gun, respectively), and Algernon Heathcote Smith, a.k.a. “Smitty.” The inaugural issue was written by O’Neil, with art by Al McWilliams. The cover, by Joe Kubert, is about as iconic an Avenger image as would be produced by DC. (Kubert would return

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the Avenger’s appearance in The Shadow was followed by a two-issue, prestige-format miniseries once again entitled Justice, Inc., also by Helfer and Baker but very different in style and tone. Was the Shadow appearance intended to prime readers for the miniseries? Carlin says yes: “We certainly wanted to steer fans of The Shadow toward the other project. And even though the execution was very different—the series were different, merely owned by one company—we certainly wanted pulp fans to try both shows.” Reaction to the Justice, Inc. was again mixed. “Don’t recall sales,” Carlin says, “[but I] believe the miniseries was well-received critically. My main memory is that the mini cost more as a prestige series so it may have sold less than The Shadow, but DC may have actually made more money on it, in the end. But worse was that both Baker and Helfer kind of burned out on the schedule on Justice, Inc., leaving The Shadow unfinished.” The Justice, Inc. miniseries was always intended as a one-off, with no plans for an ongoing title. “Having the same team do both series was kind of a nail in The Shadow series’ coffin,” Carlin explains. “They simply couldn't do that much work on a monthly basis. And Andy Helfer and Kyle Baker’s ‘voice’ on the pulp material was what readers and DC was interested in back then. It was great to see Kyle Baker stretch, but I was disappointed that we all let The Shadow kind of peter out instead of wrapping both series properly.”

ROBESON’S SONS REUNITED— JUSTICE, INC. TODAY

THE AVENGER KILLS THE SHADOW— THE 1980s

Justice, Inc. briefly returned to DC in the late 1980s, starting in The Shadow #17 (Dec. 1988) and 18 (undated, but presumably Jan. 1989). Surprisingly, this story appears to be in continuity with the earlier series, as one of The Shadow’s operatives recalled their adventure together. However, the Avenger did not actually reunite with The Shadow in this two-parter, as the latter was dead at the time. (He briefly got better in the next issue, before the series was abruptly canceled and the plot thread left unresolved.) Mike Carlin was editor of both The Shadow and Justice, Inc. in the 1980s. Was the Avenger’s return to The Shadow in fact inspired by the characters’ previous DC interaction? “I assume the fact that Conde Naste controlled both franchises influenced the ideas both times,” he says. “The early ’70s showed it could be done. I also assume writer Andy Helfer and artist Kyle Baker were either fans of both series and the ’70s comics … or they just liked the Avenger himself.” In this revival, the Avenger worked solo, Justice, Inc. having come to an “ugly end.” That notwithstanding,

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A logical question: The Avenger crossed over with The Shadow twice, in 1975 and 1988, but not with Doc Savage, ostensibly a more logical match, given that they shared the same pseudonymous author, “Kenneth Robeson.” A Doc Savage/Avenger crossover was a nonstarter in 1975, as Doc Savage was being published by Marvel at that time. In 1988, however, Doc’s adventures were being published by DC. Was there any talk of bringing Justice, Inc. into Doc Savage? In an interview conducted via e-mail, writer Mike W. Barr addresses this question: “While I was writing Doc Savage, which was for issues #7–24 and Annual #1, I don’t recall any talk, positive or negative, about crossing him over with the Avenger, nor did I ever propose such a story,” Barr says. “I’m not overly familiar with the Avenger and, though I would have written such a tale if asked, I don’t believe the subject ever came up. Though, as you point out, thematically, the subject seems like a natural. Of course, I co-wrote the Doc/Shadow crossover, with my colleague Gerry Jones.” In 2010, the Avenger returned to DC as part of the “First Wave” imprint, alongside such pulp icons as Doc Savage, Batman, and the Spirit. Furthermore, DC’s latest “Justice, Inc.” series appears as a “second feature” in the pages of Doc Savage. The Avenger may never set the world on fire, but he’s a classic character and has proven himself a tenacious second-stringer. JACK ABRAMOWITZ thanks Dennis O’Neil, Mike Carlin, and Mike W. Barr for their help in researching this article. He is also happy to have had occasion to reread DC’s entire Justice, Inc. oeuvre.

Philip Schweier

When Marvel Comics published Marvel Preview Presents Bizarre Adventures #20 (Winter 1980) in 1979, readers were (re-)introduced to its lead feature, “Dominic Fortune, Brigand for Hire,” a new character Howard Chaykin created with the help of Len Wein. New character? Well, perhaps not. The two stories presented in Marvel Preview #20 were actually reprints from Marvel Preview #2 (1975) and Marvel Super Action #1 (Jan. 1976), a one-shot magazine. But let us go even further back, to February 1975, when the first issue of The Scorpion was published by Atlas Comics. What’s that, you say? What does another character published by an altogether different company have to do with Marvel’s Dominic Fortune? Well, quite a bit, actually. In 1968, owner/publisher Martin Goodman sold Marvel Comics to Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation, which later renamed itself Cadence Industries. Goodman stayed on as publisher at first, but in 1974, he launched his own publishing company, today commonly referred to as Atlas/Seaboard. At this time, most comics creators worked under a “work-forhire” environment. That is, they were hired to provide stories or art, and such creative work, including original characters, became the property of the publisher. Goodman was able to recruit top names such as Neal Adams, Mike Grell, and Howard Chaykin with promises of returned artwork, shared royalties, and other creators’ rights. Chaykin’s contribution to the new line of heroes was Moro Frost, a.k.a. the Scorpion. “As I recall,” says Chaykin, “they were looking to do a 1930s pulp character along the lines of The Shadow. They had the title; they wanted something called the Scorpion. I came in with my franchise and they liked it, they embraced it, and that’s where my troubles began.” “The Death’s Gemini Commission,” (Scorpion #1, Feb. 1975), in which the Scorpion faces off against corrupt tycoons in the fledgling airways business, was written and drawn by Chaykin. It is explained that the Scorpion is a mysterious, seemingly immortal figure whose history dates back as far as the Civil War. Currently known as Moro Frost, he is a 1930s-era adventurer-forhire, aided and abetted by his lovely girl Friday, Ruby. “The Devil Doll Commission” (Scorpion #2, May 1975), a tale of zombified gangsters, was written and penciled by Chaykin, with inks by Ed Davis, Michael Kaluta, Walt Simonson, and Bernie Wrightson. But something funny happened on the way to the newsstand. According to Chaykin, “I did an issue, we were running late, and they [Atlas] didn’t quite know how to convey deadlines and ultimately I was dumped off the book with the third issue.”

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Kelvin Mao

conducted on January 8, 2007

Stevens in His Studio A photo of Dave in his North Hollywood studio taken by Greg Preston. From the book The Artist Within (Dark Horse Books, 2007). Unless otherwise noted, all images in this article are courtesy of Kelvin Mao and the Rocketeer Trust. © 2007 Dark Horse Comics.

Editor’s note: Dave Stevens (1955–2008), creator of the Rocketeer, died from hairy cell leukemia complications on March 11, 2008 at the age of 52. While his loss is still felt three years later, fortunately for BACK ISSUE readers, Stevens’ friend, Kelvin Mao—who, with David Mandel, helped produce the books The Rocketeer: Artist’s Edition and The Rocketeer: The Complete Adventures (both from IDW Publishing)—conducted this marvelously in-depth discussion with Dave just over a year before his death. It is our great privilege to share this interview and its accompanying imagery with you.

DEALING WITH EARLY ARTISTIC INFLUENCES KELVIN MAO: All right, Dave. Who were your earliest influences, artistically? DAVE STEVENS: Let’s see. From about age five or thereabouts, it was almost entirely cartoon images. TV cartoons and reading comics as well. MAO: What kind of stuff were you watching at that point? STEVENS: Anything that was on Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. Mostly old cartoons, because that’s what they had plenty of. MAO: We’re talking, like, Popeye at this point? STEVENS: Yeah, we’re talking Popeye, Betty Boop, all the early, early sound cartoons, and some of them were actually silent—they would still play those. This was like 1959, 1960. Just anything that was— that had any kind of style to it. Tom Terrific, all the UPA stuff that was sort of cutting edge at that time, and all the early Fleischer stuff that

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used rotoscope. You know, with humans underneath these dancing skeletons and whatever it was. It was a great sort of treasure trove of images to overdose on, and then it would sort of flow out of you onto paper or the walls. MAO: I can’t remember what else was on TV back then. Does Harvey go back that far? STEVENS: Yeah, the early ones. They were made in probably the late ’40s to—I think Casper was around 1950. I loved the early ones, hated the later ones. Whenever they would dumb down the style and turn it into absolute formula, it was just—ugh! It was terrible. MAO: Any particular favorite, or just whatever was on? STEVENS: I liked Popeye a lot, but I preferred the really old ones. They just felt more “wiggly,” you know? And I loved Colonel Bleep. That was probably the most stylized cartoon of the 1950s. It was just a bizarre, ultra-modern-styled character, and it was one guy. One guy did everything. He animated it, did the backgrounds, and styled all the characters. And it was very basic in terms of—the stories were nothing, but the graphics were just astounding. And that was one of my most profound stylistic discoveries, because it looked like no other cartoon on TV. Also Space Angel. MAO: Wow, Space Angel. Talking lips and stuff. [Editor’s note: The cartoon series Space Angel (1962– 1964) featured stilted animation and a lip-movement technique called “Synchro-Vox.”] STEVENS: Yeah, yeah. It wasn’t my favorite, but I remember it because it

looked so strange with the talking—just limited animation and really heavily rendered scenes. MAO: That was Alex Toth [as character designer], right? STEVENS: Yeah. And also Clutch Cargo, which I didn’t care for as much, because they would use human mouths that they put lipstick on, even for the dog. It was just—really kind of queasy. MAO: Is this the one that they were showing in Pulp Fiction? The kid’s watching and Christopher Walken comes in with the watch. It’s like the same thing that they do on Conan O’Brien. The writers just sort of stole that bit. Whenever I see that I always think of Space Angel. STEVENS: Yeah, yeah. Probably two or three years after that I started clipping and saving Prince Valiant Sunday pages. MAO: So comic-strip art before comics? STEVENS: Oh, yeah. I mean, the comics came along probably when I was about seven. That was my earliest memory of actively going after comics, but it was standard kid stuff. I think I had a couple of Gorgos and maybe a smattering of other [80-Page Giant] Superman or Batman and things like that, but nothing that really had a lasting impression on me. MAO: Were you aware enough at the time to tell the different art styles, that one was better than the other or one seemed prettier? STEVENS: Definitely. I could tell styles. That was never a problem. I liked Al Capp, but what I was actually liking was Frazetta doing Al Capp, because he ghosted for him in that ten-year period. MAO: Did you find yourself at a certain point where you learned who was doing what? You know, going back and looking at some of the things that you read back then? STEVENS: Yeah. And realizing why it affected me so much, because it was so lively and so well done. Also a big influence in terms of just art by itself, separate from any genre, was Lawson Wood, the guy that did all the monkey calendars in the 1940s and ’50s for Brown and Bigelow. He had this brilliant watercolor Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Issue

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Kingly Collaboration (left) Photo of Stevens from 1973, at age 18. Look closely at the drawing board to see Dave’s aping of Jack “King” Kirby. (right) Some of Dave’s earliest published work was inking Kirby, like Comic-Con’s “Friend of Fandom” award art. style and ability to take these jungle animals—all kinds of them but primarily—primates, and turn them into people. And to me, that was just the most amazing gift to see an artist have. To be able to take a real chimpanzee or orangutan—and you know what they look like; they don’t look like people. I mean, they don’t emote like people. They have facial expressions, but they don’t have abstract thought behind it. It’s all instinct. But what he would do is he would humanize them to the degree that they were just hilarious and totally rendered out in really delicate watercolor style and endlessly entertaining—there was a whole line of books featuring his merry monkeys and all the rest of them and storylines and entire illustrations. It was just great, great stuff. So he was a big influence in terms of just all-around illustration. MAO: What age would you say that was? STEVENS: Five or six. MAO: Wow. STEVENS: Pretty early, yeah. Well, because one of his calendars used to hang in my grandma’s kitchen, and the one image that I remember distinctly more than any other was the one of “Grandpop” cautiously greeting a little Martian in a rolling tin suit who had just landed up on the hill, and the little tiny monkeys peering around Grandpop’s legs looking at this creature in a tin suit. That was an image I just never forgot. A friend of mine sent me a copy of it a few years ago. That was a real touch point for me—to see it again and realize that I’d remembered it exactly, that it wasn’t any different from the way it looked when I was five. MAO: Getting into your early teen years, who were you looking at, at that point? STEVENS: By the time I was about 12, I had finally discovered Marvel comics and characters, so I was really into that period of sort of discovering really great, talented artists and funky, sarcastic dialogue and all the earmarks of the early Stan Lee age of Marvel. MAO: So what year…? STEVENS: ’65. MAO: You were reading Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Thor, and all that stuff?

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STEVENS: Yeah. And just basically sampling each book to gauge what that artist brought to it. I ended up with my handful of favorite guys, and those were the only ones that I really would buy consistently … of course for the stories, but the main thing was the art. MAO: Did you know these guys by name at that point? STEVENS: Oh, yeah, because they ran a big box: “Drawn by Jazzy Johnny Romita” and all that. But the personality of those comics was really unique. I never got that from any other comic-book company, in terms of contents that basically just embraced the reader and told you that, “Jeez, these guys are having so much fun doing this stuff, that must be why it’s better.” They all sound like a bunch of grown teenagers just having a ball. That was primarily Stan Lee. He was a real good salesman with those books and would just speak to the reader on a one-on-one basis. MAO: That was the dawning of the more relatable stories, relatable characters. STEVENS: Yeah. And [Stan Lee] would put everything in very common terms, a lot of slang, a lot of joking around. None of it was serious. I think it was the complete lack of stuffiness that made the stuff so appealing. There was no formality observed. MAO: Obviously your favorites. But were you aware of other comic books? STEVENS: Sure. I read MAD magazine, and it was even more irreverent than Marvel and could incite you to really bad behavior if you allowed yourself. And I’d occasionally pick up DC and Gold Key books. MAO: Did you find yourself reading comics just for the art, or did you need a compelling story as well? STEVENS: Yeah. If the story wasn’t there, the art probably wasn’t going to be any good. How could an artist get excited about a horrible, horrible script? But some of them could. Kirby could turn an awful script into something really breathtaking; same with Ditko. The really premiere stylists—they can dance all around a bad script. MAO: Who were some of your closest artist friends? STEVENS: When I was in Portland [Oregon] in high school, I think by the time I reached 15 or so, there was an antique store in Portland called Old Weird Harold’s, and it was run by a couple of sisters and their mother and their last name was Harold. But it was a play on— MAO: Old Weird Harold’s … is that the old Bill Cosby routine? STEVENS: Yeah, yeah. And that’s what they did intentionally. They started out as antique dealers in a very kind of hobbyist way, but then decided to open up their own store, so I kind of helped them paint and carpet. Me and one of the other guys that used to hang around— because the elder of the daughters had this enormous comic collection, and she would kind of buy and sell and barter with other collectors. One or two friends of mine and I were invited over to check out the

collection whenever, and so there was a friendship there that by the time they opened their store—and it was, I guess, a good success. It had a lot of great stuff, basically old Americana of all kinds, including paper. MAO: When would you say this was? STEVENS: 1969, I think… MAO: Okay. I was just wondering in terms of collecting, which only became really popular later on. STEVENS: Yeah. This was a little ahead of the curve. You know, nostalgia really didn’t come into its own as a sort of reason for people to collect things until four years later or five years later. Anyway, that store became a meeting place for fandom in general in the Portland and Seattle areas. So they finally decided, “You know, all these straggling kids that keep coming in here wanting to talk about funnybooks, why don’t we just set a day aside, a Saturday or Sunday of each month, and have coffee and donuts and see who shows up?” And it was mobbed. MAO: So actually it was somewhat sponsored. STEVENS: Yeah, it was. They sponsored a pretty large group of high-school kids and some older, and then some of the older rare-book collectors, antiquarianbook collectors would also come. MAO: Kind of like a little con. STEVENS: It was like a mini, mini-convention. No dealers allowed. They were the only dealers. But the funny thing is, the kids that I met at that place on those Sundays, almost to a man, ended up in the industry, in comics. MAO: People you still know. STEVENS: Oh, yeah, yeah. Randy Emberlin, Chris Warner. I believe Randy Stradley was there. Mike Richardson says he was there a few times, but I don’t remember meeting him. MAO: It seems like he’d be hard to miss, though. STEVENS: Yeah, yeah. But I’m thinking he might have come in maybe as I was moving. You know, because my family left for San Diego in, I think, February or March of ’72. MAO: So you were only doing this for a couple of years. STEVENS: A couple of years, yeah. I think Paul Chadwick came later. There was a whole bunch of guys that not only continued on drawing and sort of experimenting with the medium, but some of them—well, Richardson formed a company [Dark Horse Comics]. There were a handful of other guys involved that I forget right now, but the amazing thing is how many of us actually took it to a career. What are the odds? MAO: That’s awesome. Clearly, a very encouraging experience. STEVENS: Yeah. Before I was involved with that gang there was nothing. I knew one or two other collectors but nobody that was into art, nobody that knew artists. MAO: Was it strictly about collecting, or did you talk to some of these guys about art? STEVENS: Oh, yeah. In fact, the guys who ended up in the industry as artists were all drawing then. Randy Emberlin—I remember he, Chris Warner, another friend, Mark, and myself would have these all-night pizza binges at his mom’s house on Friday night and just stay up all night though the next day just drawing, just jamming and putting on Aqualung or Who’s Next, you know, whatever it was and just whip ourselves up into a frenzy. We’d all bring our latest acquisitions of Creepy or Eerie or whatever latest thing we’d gotten our hands on—a fanzine with Wrightson art in it or something like that, because we were all following Kaluta, Wrightson, Jeff Jones, and the rest of the up-and-comers that were right on the cusp of

Merry Monkeys (below) The Lawson Wood “Grandpop” illo that inspired young Dave Stevens. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). (left) Kirby is reviewing some of Dave’s samples in this 1973 photo.

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Influences from Yesteryear (right) Dave’s 1997 Blue Café CD album cover for the band Hot Rod Lincoln. (below) Fay Wray looks a-okay on Stevens’ 1991 cover Fantagraphics’/ Monster Comics’ King Kong #1 (Feb. 1991). (bottom right) Dave’s mom Carolyn, circa 1952, with her brother’s 1940 Ford. King Kong © 2011 Universal Pictures.

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DAVE’S PENCHANT FOR OLD HOLLYWOOD AND 1930s/1940s DESIGN MAO: You’re known for being interested in old Hollywood and a lot of things that are considered retro now. Where does your interest in the 1930s and 1940s time period come from, since you were born after that? STEVENS: Nostalgia from my parents’ childhood. I think it’s just having that 20-year period blanket of pre-war to post-war wrapped around me in both my grandparents’ as well as my folks’ homes, and all my other relatives. Basically, from the late ’30s until the end of the ’50s, most of that stuff had remained pretty intact. People didn’t redo their homes the way they do today. They kept the same furniture, other than replacing one armchair or something. The same stuff hanging on the walls, same light fixtures. Nothing changed, you know? And they all pretty much still played the same music or very similar music. It was all standards, ballads, torch songs, and big bands. That was it until rock and roll came in—and it took rock and roll a good ten years to get a real foothold on the music scene. It wasn’t until probably the Beatles before it really took over the airwaves. Up until then, rock and roll was still kind of considered a novelty act, and the mainstay of music was the older stuff. So that permeated everything—it was in the air, everywhere you went. Everybody still did business the way they had done since before the war. Barber shops still had a shoeshine set up outside, and there was always a big, smiling black man out there to shine your shoes. To me, that was the way world looked and smelled and sounded. It was very friendly. I remember as a kid that people were for the most part pretty cognizant of manners and respectful toward women and that kind of thing. Occasionally you’d get some guy that had had one or two beers and would say something off-color, but you never heard public swearing. People behaved themselves and it wasn’t an effort. We hadn’t entered that age of protest yet, which didn’t come along until, what, ’63 or ’64, to where you were seeing it on the tube all the time. And it was probably just the influence of the world that I experienced on a daily basis from birth because all the old architecture was still there. Almost none of it had been bulldozed yet.

MAO: You’re obviously a big art deco fan. STEVENS: Yeah, and Spanish style and craftsman style—from the homes, the bungalows to the commercial edifices on Main Streets. It was really beautifully thought out and executed in every way, even the cheap houses. And the cars were beautiful, gorgeous, gigantic hunks of metal. It was just something that I’ve always kind of held on to because it was so aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Once cars started getting boxy, they started losing their character. To me that was really the end of any kind of imaginative sculptural and aerodynamic work being done. The minute the cars started to lose that, then the buildings started to lose it, and everything else that had that sort of teardrop style—streamline locomotives, all that stuff—started disappearing pretty much some time during the ’60s. MAO: Your artwork also portrays that sort of architecture and design setting that doesn’t reflect I guess what we’d call— STEVENS: —Modern-day. MAO: Yeah. STEVENS: But again, it’s only because I have such a lack of respect for modern architecture. MAO: [laughs] STEVENS: Well, I’m just being honest. I have no respect for most modern architecture. It’s just badly thought through, and it’s planned for cheap rather than— “Let’s build a really beautiful building.” It’s just empty with no personality, no flair, no mark of excellence to any of it. The little—like Rococo on the outside of a building—little touches, sculptural or relief, it’s basically all gone and it’s too bad because that was what made buildings a treat to go into. Their lobbies were just gorgeous bits of art deco splendor, whether it was the stonework or the woodwork or a great mural from the WPA. You know, L.A.’s library is filled with murals by Dean Cornwell. It’s stuff that you can’t duplicate because there are no artists doing that kind of work anymore. None of it was handed down. People didn’t train under people like that for very long. MAO: It’s difficult to find any information on it now from the point of view of trying to study it or just seeing examples. STEVENS: At one time, it was commonplace—it was everywhere. So that’s the reason that I don’t draw anything of the here and now, whether it’s cars or fashions or anything, because to me it just holds nothing of interest. It’s got a real lack of substance. It’s tough to explain. Either you get a good feeling from it or you don’t, and mostly I don’t. I see a lot of just quick and dirty stuff that really just doesn’t work. MAO: No exceptions at all?

Hello, Norma Jeane

STEVENS: There are, sure. Occasionally I will find a jacket that’s just beautiful, or a painting done by somebody contemporary that’s breathtaking. There are examples in everything that cut against the norm in any movement or any decade. But by and large, the really tasty, elegant stuff is long gone, and my stylings, personally, are to preserve that look and feel just for myself, for my own enjoyment. It really doesn’t matter to me if anybody else even notices it. I notice it, so I put it in there. And plus, I think it does kind of help in an overall statement artistically, because I think it segregates me from other people who are totally contemporary in what they do. I just have nothing contemporary to say about the here and now that would be of any interest to anybody. I just would much rather examine history and news stories of the past and characters that are long since forgotten, as well as accomplishments in all the arts, things, and people that unfortunately are not in the history books. For the current generation, they’re never going to know about it unless somebody like me puts it on paper and at least plants the seed so that they will go online and do a search, if it strikes a chord at all. If it doesn’t, that’s okay, because I had fun doing it. And if a few people get it, I did my job. Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Issue

(left) Following his mother’s footsteps, Stevens with his own 1940 Ford in a mid-1980s photo. (above) Dave drew this Marilyn Monroe portrait in Kelvin Mao’s sketchbook in 2003.

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It only makes sense that some of the early San Diego Comic-Con volunteers or talented attendees would make a big name for themselves in our beloved industry. After all, those youngsters who made the trek to the old El Cortez Hotel and the other sites met and shared unforgettable experiences with Kirk Alyn (the first live-action Superman), Jock Mahoney (Tarzan), Buster Crabbe (Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon), and other “thrill-makers of yesteryear” when they converged in the special-guest areas and their wonderful films were shown as part of the overall program. Dave Stevens was one of those talented volunteers. He was there and he met some, if not all, of those gents, and took that wonder and awe with him and incorporated them into his 1980s hero, Cliff Secord, the high-flying Rocketeer, whose adventures were set in Los Angeles during the late 1930s. Stevens also got in a nod to George Wallace, the actor who brought Commando Cody, a Rocketeer-like precursor from the 1952 serial Radar Men from the Moon, into his creative spectrum. Paul DeMeo and Danny Bilson were bringing the Flash to the small screen in admirable fashion in the early ’90s through their collective imagination and work— and here they talk about the days of when the late-’30sera Rocketeer came into the ’90s, and what it was like when the comic’s characters and concepts met on film. – Jerry Boyd JERRY BOYD: While you gentlemen were pursuing your filmmaking dreams, a small company called Pacific Comics put out something called Pacific Comics Presents #1 (July 1982) that introduced Dave Stevens’ The Rocketeer. Did either of you discover that title at the time it was causing a sensation in comicdom? And if not, when did you discover the works of Stevens or the Rocketeer? PAUL DeMEO: We were buying a lot of comic books at the time, particularly the new indie comics that were being published. We saw one of the Rocketeer issues on the racks at Golden Apple [Comics], a well-known shop on Melrose in L.A., looked at the cover, and inside art. We’re big fans of period-adventure pulp, and Dave got it just right. Right away we thought, “This is a movie.” DANNY BILSON: That’s true. We were both raised watching movies from the ’30s on TV, loved the period, and were blown away by the art. BOYD: To your knowledge, how did the project get green-lighted? Who was it at the Disney offices that got interested first? Did you, as the writers, come up with the screenplay on your own first? BILSON: Actually, Lloyd Levin, the young development exec for Larry Gordon, was interested in the project when we pitched it to him. We then took it all over town until David Hoberman, who was at Disney at the

Blast from the Past The advance one-sheet teasing audiences for the 1991 theatrical release, The Rocketeer. Courtesy of Heritage Hollywood Auctions (www.ha.com). © 1991 Walt Disney Productions. The Rocketeer TM & © The Rocketeer Trust.

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Jerry Boyd

conducted by e-mail in May and

August 2010

time, took interest. We had the story worked out in advance and Disney paid us to write the screenplay. DeMEO: I can’t recall everyone who was in the room the first time we pitched it at Disney, but it was developed by their Touchstone division. Since David Hoberman was the executive in charge, I imagine he was present. We had a story pitch that we had developed with Dave that we presented to a number of studios before Disney bought it. Dave would bring copies of the comic and some of his original art, which was always impressive. But we didn’t write the script until we had a deal. Then there were several years of revisions and new drafts before the film was finally green-lighted. BOYD: When and where did you meet Dave Stevens? After seeing his comics, did you make acquaintances at a convention or was it when the movie pre-production work began? DeMEO: We made up our minds to contact him and see if he’d give us an option on his comic—for free, because we had no money—and then let us pitch it as a film. We got help from the guys at Golden Apple. [Interviewer’s note: Stevens was friendly with the Liebowitz family that owned the store and frequented their establishments during the ’80s and ’90s, getting his comics there and signing/appearing on special occasions.] Dave met with us and saw we were “kindred souls.” The low-budget film we did for Empire, Zone Troopers, about GIs stuck behind German lines who find an alien spacecraft, sealed the deal. It was done in the style of a ’40s B-movie—Dave knew that we understood and respected the pulp genre. So we really met at the beginning of the road that led to the film— years before pre-production would begin.

Before the Rocketeer Movie… (top left) Paul DeMeo (left) and Danny Bilson cameo, from the last episode of The Flash, “Trial of the Trickster” (original airdate 5-18-91). Courtesy of DeMeo and Bilson. (top right) Dave Stevens at a Golden Apple store appearance, circa 1990. Courtesy of the Liebowitz family and Jerry Boyd. (left) One-sheet from Zone Troopers. The Flash © 1991 Warner Bros. Television. Zone Troopers © 1986 Empire Pictures.

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RUSS HEATH REMEMBERS…

Russ Heath did the art chores for the Rocketeer movie high school—we ran up and down the hall screaming adaptation in ’91. An artist’s artist, Heath recalled, over and making trouble. [laughs] a phone call on Aug. 15, 2010, the days of “Why was I chosen to do the comic? [Disney working with Dave Stevens and the factors editor] Bob Foster was a good friend of mine. that led up to his getting the job: He edited the Rocketeer comic magazine, and “I did the comic book [of the when you’re good buddies with the character’s Rocketeer film] that came out when creator and the project’s editor, you’re in. the movie came out. Dave could be “We were similar in style so it made very slow, as most people know, and it sense for Dave to pick me. I helped him on might’ve taken him three years to the first Pacific Comics run early on a few do it! [laughs] times. I sometimes look over the art and I “I went to the set some … and saw can see some of my background figures russ heath the goings-on. Dave was part producer, and pick out my inks. Photo by Luigi Novi, from the Nov. 2008 “But for this project, I did the regular I believe, and he invited me to see the Big Apple Convention. one; Neal Adams did the 3-D movie movie while it was being made. Dave adaptation. I enjoyed it a lot.” and I were very friendly. He was a good guy. We worked —Jerry Boyd at Hanna-Barbera early on in his career. It was kind of like

64 • BACK ISSUE • Thrilling Days of Yesteryear Issue

Douglas R. Kelly

Long before he won the Academy Award® for Best Actor in the film Crazy Heart, Jeff Bridges was taking on roles that were a little off the beaten path. In 1975’s Hearts of the West, he played Lewis Tater, an Iowa farm boy and aspiring Western writer who heads for California in the late 1930s in search of the cowboy dream. As a result of meeting the right people, along with some dumb luck, Tater becomes a successful actor in B-Westerns in Hollywood. The world portrayed in the film, that of the lowbudget, second-billing kind of movie studio so prevalent before World War II, has intrigued writer John Wooley for a long time. Pulp magazines have, too. “I was a big fan of the pulps, and of the B-movie studios … the little studios like PRC and Monogram and that bunch,” says Wooley. “I had written a story while in the Navy in the early 1970s called The Return of Mr. Mystery, about a dying pulp writer who starts to ‘see’ his pulp characters—his creations—standing around his bed as he’s in and out of consciousness. As he draws his last breath, he and his characters agree to become a crimefighting team, and they start the journey to the next plane.” Several of the characters—Sandra Castle, Tito, and Johnny Rice—simmered on the back burner until the early 1980s, when Wooley placed them in a B-movie studio setting and sold the idea to Fantagraphics, which agreed to publish what was now called The Miracle Squad under its Upshot Graphics imprint. Set in 1937 Hollywood, the story centered on the adventures of the owner and employees of Miracle Studios, a “poverty row” movie-making company specializing in Westerns. But before issue #1 hit the streets, the folks at Upshot gave the series an introductory plug in the pages of another book.

HELP FROM ANOTHER SQUAD The November 1986 issue (#4) of John Byrne’s The Doomsday Squad featured a six-page teaser story on The Miracle Squad, written by John Wooley, penciled by Terry Tidwell, and inked by Butch Burcham. Tidwell, now a successful commercial illustrator based in Claremore, Oklahoma, recalls getting to know Wooley’s comic-book collection before getting to know Wooley himself: “I knew John through his younger brother. When I was a kid, his brother would let me into John’s room where he kept his comic-book collection. I don’t know if John really wanted me in there or not, going through his comics! Later on, John and I teamed up and I think we created the Twilight Avenger first, and then the Miracle Squad came after that.” The teaser story focuses on Billy Caserta, a giant of a man standing eight feet, four inches tall. Visiting the Miracle Studios lot with his mother, Billy saves the life of an actress during the filming of a botched action scene,

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Michael Mikulovsky

[Editor’s note: Occasional BACK ISSUE contributor Mike Mikulovsky considers Roy Thomas and Tony DeZuniga’s “Man-God”—Marvel Comics’ 1976 adaptation of Philip Wylie’s novel Gladiator—to be an unfinished “symphony” and hopes, with this article, to pique interest in having the writer and artist finish the adaptation in a complete edition of Man-God.]

Okay, technically speaking, Man-God’s name is Hugo Danner. Thanks (yet again) to writer extraordinaire Roy Thomas, the man who gave my generation exposure to heroes like Conan the Barbarian and Kull the Conqueror, in 1976 Marvel Comics readers were introduced to another long-forgotten hero, Hugo Danner, who debuted in the novel Gladiator by Philip Wylie (1902–1971). Gladiator was written in 1926 but first published in 1930, due to Wylie’s request to his agent/ philip wylie publisher that some other books he wrote be released first. Wylie was concerned that Gladiator might be a little too shocking for readers to accept at the time due to its subject matter: Danner’s father, a scientist, created strength-enhancing chemicals that he first injected into a cat, and then into the fetus of his own son after drugging his pregnant wife. Hugo Danner grew up with super-strength and became the first published “superman.” I suspect that writer Jerry Siegel got the idea of Superman from reading Gladiator. Siegel even reviewed the book in the second issue of a self-published fanzine in 1932. Siegel’s Superman was also influenced by Doc Savage, first published in 1933. There are simply too many similarities between those early supermen and the Golden Age Superman to believe otherwise, such as explanations of Hugo’s and Superman’s power by using a grasshopper’s jumping ability, and their abilities to leap great distances in a single bound. All three characters have “Fortresses of Solitude.” Hugo Danner was born in a small town (Colorado Springs, Colorado; think: Smallville, Kansas, adopted home of Clark Kent—whose name was borrowed from Clark “Doc” Savage). During Superman’s first year or so of adventures, his feats of strength were almost identical to Hugo’s, and Siegel even paraphrased some of Gladiator’s dialogue. Wylie started to file a lawsuit in 1940 against Superman creators Siegel

Ab-solutely Amazing Earl Norem’s cover painting for the Man-God premiere in Marvel Preview #9. Courtesy of Heritage. (inset) Gladiator’s author. © 1976 Marvel Comics. Photo © 2007 Princeton University Library.

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