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THE RETRO COMICS EXPERIENCE!

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An in-depth interview with former DC Comics president and publisher

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JENETTE KAHN ALSO: The birth of DC’s VERTIGO imprint

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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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “Thrilling Days of Yesteryear!” The final DAVE STEVENS interview, Rocketeer film discussion with DANNY BILSON and PAUL DeMEO, The Phantom, Indiana Jones, Edgar Rice Burroughs’ heroes, Dominic Fortune, Sherlock Holmes, Man-God, Miracle Squad, 3-D Man, Justice, Inc., APARO, CHAYKIN, CLAREMONT, MILLER, VERHEIDEN, and more, Rocketeer cover by DAVE STEVENS!

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(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “1970s Time Capsule”! Examines relevance in comics, Planet of the Apes, DC Salutes the Bicentennial, Richard Dragon–Kung-Fu Fighter, FOOM, Amazing World of DC, Fast Willie Jackson, Marvel Comics calendars, art and commentary from ADAMS, BRUNNER, GIORDANO, LARKIN, LEVITZ, MAGGIN, MOENCH, O’NEIL, PLOOG, STERANKO, cover by BUCKLER and BEATTY!

Special 50th Anniversary FULL-COLOR issue ($8.95 price) on “Batman in the Bronze Age!” O’NEIL, ADAMS, and LEVITZ roundtable, praise for “unsung” Batman creators JIM APARO, DAVID V. REED, BOB BROWN, ERNIE CHAN, and JOHN CALNAN, Joker’s Daughter, Batman Family, Nocturna, Dark Knight, art and commentary from BYRNE, COLAN, CONWAY, MOENCH, MILLER, NEWTON, WEIN, and more. APARO cover!

(NOW WITH 16 COLOR PAGES!) “AllInterview Issue”! Part 2 of an exclusive STEVE ENGLEHART interview (continued from ALTER EGO #103)! “Pro2Pro” interviews between SIMONSON & LARSEN, MOENCH & WEIN, and comics letterers KLEIN & CHIANG. Plus JOHN OSTRANDER, MICHAEL USLAN, and longtime DC color artist ADRIENNE ROY! Cover by Englehart collaborator MARSHALL ROGERS!

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Bronze Age Mystery Comics! Interviews with BERNIE WRIGHTSON, SERGIO ARAGONÉS, GERRY TALAOC, DC mystery writer LORE SHOBERG, MARK EVANIER and DAN SPIEGLE discuss Scooby-Doo, Charlton chiller anthologies, Black Orchid, Madame Xanadu art and commentary by TONY DeZUNIGA, MIKE KALUTA, VAL MAYERIK, DAVID MICHELINIE, MATT WAGNER, and a rare cover painting by WRIGHTSON!

“Gods!” Takes an in-depth look at WALTER SIMONSON’s Thor, the Thunder God in the Bronze Age, “Pro2Pro” interview with TOM DeFALCO and RON FRENZ, Hercules: Prince of Power, Moondragon, Three Ways to End the New Gods Saga, exclusive interview with fantasy writer MICHAEL MOORCOCK, art and commentary by GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, BOB LAYTON, and more, with a swingin’ Thor cover by SIMONSON!

“Liberated Ladies” eyeing female characters that broke barriers in the Bronze Age: Big Barda, Valkyrie, Ms. Marvel, Phoenix, Savage She-Hulk, and the sword-wielding Starfire. Plus a “Pro2Pro” interview with JILL THOMPSON, GAIL SIMONE, and BARBARA KESEL, art and commentary by JOHN BYRNE, GEORGE PEREZ, JACK KIRBY, MIKE VOSBURG, and more, with a new cover by BRUCE TIMM!

“Licensed Comics”! Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Man from Atlantis, DC’s Edgar Rice Burroughs backups (John Carter, Pellucidar, Carson of Venus), Marvel’s Warlord of Mars, and an interview with CAROL SERLING, wife of ROD SERLING. With art and commentary from ANDERSON, BYRNE, CLAREMONT, DORMAN, DUURSEMA, KALUTA, MILLER, OSTRANDER, and more. Cover by BRIAN KOSCHACK.

“Avengers Assemble!” Writer ROGER STERN’S acclaimed 1980s Avengers run, West Coast Avengers, early Avengers toys, and histories of Hawkeye, Mockingbird, and Wonder Man, with art and commentary from JOHN and SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, BRETT BREEDING, TOM DeFALCO, STEVE ENGLEHART, BOB HALL, AL MILGROM, TOM MORGAN, TOM PALMER, JOE SINNOTT, and more. PÉREZ cover!

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Volume 1, Number 57 July 2012 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

The Retro Comics Experience!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich J. Fowlks

DS WAR ER A INEE EISN 2 NOM 201

COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Karen Berger Alex Boney John Costanza DC Comics Jim Engel Mike Gold Grand Comic-Book Database Robert Greenberger Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller Andy Helfer Heritage Comics Auctions Alec Holland Nicole Hollander Paul Levitz

Andy Mangels Nightscream Jerry Ordway Max Romero Bob Rozakis Beau Smith Roy Thomas Bob Wayne Brett Weiss John Wells Marv Wolfman Eddy Zeno AND VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO Jenette Kahn

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TED RELA ICSCOM NALISM T S BE JOUR

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 INTERVIEW: The Path of Kahn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 A step-by-step survey of the storied career of Jenette Kahn, former DC Comics president and publisher, with interviewer Bob Greenberger FLASHBACK: Dollar Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39 This four-quarter, four-color funfest produced many unforgettable late-’70s DCs PRINCE STREET NEWS: Implosion Happy Hour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42 Ever wonder how the canceled characters reacted to the DC Implosion? Karl Heitmueller bellies up to the bar with them to find out GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Lost DC Kids Line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45 Sugar & Spike, Thunder and Bludd, and the Oddballs were part of DC’s axed juvie imprint BACKSTAGE PASS: A Heroine History of the Wonder Woman Foundation . . . . . . . . .48 The first Amazonian charity and its honoring of real-life wonder women FLASHBACK: In Search of Social Issues: The Real and Fictional Heroes of DC Comics . . .56 Comic-book characters as rescue-rangers in “real world” dangers BEYOND CAPES: From Such Great Heights: The Birth of Vertigo Comics . . . . . . . . . .61 The evolution of DC’s cutting-edge imprint. With Karen Berger INTERVIEW: Wayne’s Manner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 A conversation with Bob Wayne, comics retailer-turned-DC Comics executive TRIBUTE: Remembering Eduardo Barreto . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 The New Teen Titans and Judge Parker artist has died at 57 BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80 Reader feedback BACK ISSUE™ is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Six-issue subscriptions: $60 Standard US, $85 Canada, $107 Surface International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover design by Michael Kronenberg. Cover characters are TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2012 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Jenette Kahn Issue

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES BACK ISSUE is on the lookout for the following comics-related material from the 1970s through the 1990s: • • • • • • •

Unpublished artwork and covers Commissions (color or B&W) and professional-quality specialty drawings 1970s–1990s creator and convention photographs Character designs and model sheets Original art: covers and significant interior pages Little-seen fanzine material Other rarities

If you have any of the above materials, please query the editor via email prior to submission. Art contributors will be acknowledged in print and receive a complimentary copy of the issue.

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Since BI is a full-color publication, preference is given to color artwork. Random convention sketches and “quick sketches” that do not reflect an artist’s best work and were not intended for print will no longer be considered for publication. BACK ISSUE does not read or consider unsolicited manuscripts. However, we routinely welcome new writers to our magazine, and have done so since day one! If you’re interested in writing for BI, please request a copy of the BACK ISSUE Writer’s Style Guide by emailing the editor at euryman@gmail.com. Contact BI at: Michael Eury, Editor, BACK ISSUE 118 Edgewood Ave. NE Concord, NC 28025

Michael Eury

TM & © DC Comics.

Jenette Kahn was surprised to discover that this entire issue is dedicated to her career as the publisher, president, and editor-in-chief of DC Comics. My former boss (I was a DC editor from 1989 through 1992) is simply being modest. We could have dedicated several issues to the innovations that happened on her watch, which began in 1976 and ended ten years ago, in 2002. If you look back through our nine years in print, almost every edition of BACK ISSUE contains at least one article about a DC series published during that period. Jenette wasn’t the kind of leader who insisted that writers and artists march in step to a continuity bible, nor did she lord over the shoulders of her editors, eager to blue-pencil or deep-six their work if it didn’t match her vision. Instead, she inspired and encouraged her staff and creators, and through her passion for quality she helped reshape DC Comics into the industry leader for comics as an art form. One wonders, if Warner Publishing Chairman Bill Sarnoff had not tapped this young woman from children’s magazines to shake up the old boys club of DC Comics of 1976, would we, in later years, have seen the emergence of such landmark series as Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing and Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns? A BIG thank-you to Robert Greenberger for his in-depth interview with Ms. Kahn. Bob’s discussions with Jenette were so up close and personal, you’ll feel that you’re in the room with them (just don’t be tempted to ask a question—talking to a magazine, be it in print or digital form, might earn you a stay at Arkham Asylum). This is our longest interview ever in this magazine, and every word is pure gold. The articles following the Jenette Kahn interview complement it by exploring some of the milestones that occurred during her tenure. Many of you have been asking for a Dollar Comics article, so that should be a crowdpleaser. Karl Heitmueller’s “Prince Street News” about the DC Implosion is a gut-buster—I’ve read it multiple times and it still cracks me up! Andy Mangels’ Wonder Woman Foundation piece sheds light on a very important project that most of us knew very little about. And among the other gems in this issue is Alex Boney’s exploration of the development of DC’s Vertigo imprint, which includes candid and sincerely appreciated insights from Karen Berger. To set the pace for the DC doings in these pages that follow, I’ll close this editorial with a lettercol from 1984’s Saga of the Swamp Thing #30, featuring a missive from a fan who, nearly 30 years later, is still writing about DC Comics of the day…

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Robert Greenberger

a Transcribed by Brian K. Morris. Conducted over h period of weeks beginning May 13, 2011 throug September 16, 2011. Interview edited by Greenberger and Kahn, with thanks to Paul Levitz.

The comics field had never seen anything like Jenette Kahn when she was announced as DC Comics’ new publisher, replacing the acclaimed artist Carmine Infantino. She came from “outside” comics and was young, pretty, and most of all, a woman. DC Comics had been experimenting with content in what felt to us readers as a haphazard approach, and the line lacked a distinct identity. Within a year of Jenette’s arrival, that began to change, and the company laid out a plan and tried one thing after another to goose sales and regain lost readers. It also embraced licensing in a way heretofore unseen by a comics publisher, creating a division to oversee the content creation for merchandisers and increasing oversight of quality. Creators began to notice they were being better treated, getting not only their art back but also reprint fees and a few years later, genuine royalties. Comics’ themes and stories were allowed to mature here and there, and ideas were solicited from the talent for perhaps the first time since Jack Liebowitz asked for a companion hero in the wake of Superman’s success. DC Comics became a haven for creators and creativity, coming at a time when the direct-sales channel became increasingly important to the bottom line. DC built up its sales force and aimed titles at this audience while embracing its golden anniversary with a status-quo altering event that became the template for company events ever since. In the wake of that celebration, Jenette guided DC into becoming a publisher of imprints aimed at different audiences, blazing the trail of collected editions and original graphic novels going into bookstores. What readers didn’t see was the Jenette in the halls, always stylishly attired, knowing everyone’s names and pausing to say hello. She fostered a feeling of corporate family and allowed for morale events from Easter Egg hunts to communal Thanksgiving luncheons. She championed bonuses for everyone when the company had a good year. The thinking was that the company’s success was a result of everyone’s effort, from the highest-ranking employee to the lowest. The company was stable under Jenette’s tenure as president, and it prospered. Sure, there were mistakes made and bumps in the road, but the DC Comics she left a decade ago was larger and more successful than how she found it. While not usually one for introspection, Jenette kindly agreed to speak about her time at DC over the summer of 2011. We spoke at length and for that, she has my utmost appreciation. – Robert Greenberger

The First Lady of DC Comics Portrait of former DC Comics publisher and president Jenette Kahn, from Portraits of the Creators Sketchbook. Illustration by Michael Netzer. Jenette Kahn Issue

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JENETTE KAHN: Hey, how are you today, Bobby? BOB GREENBERGER: Are you ready to trip down Memory Lane and dredge up ancient history? KAHN: Well, let’s start. I can say, though, I skimmed the questions and there are things that I don’t remember. [chuckles] I’ll just have to make the answers up. GREENBERGER: So, in the beginning, [Jenette laughs] I gather growing up with your brother Si, comics were a part of your life. Possibly not a large part, but a part nonetheless. KAHN: Comics were actually a very large part of my growing up. Not in the way we know them today, where there are comic-book stores that you race to when the new titles come out and you seal the comics in plastic bags and contemplate how much they’re going to be worth in the future. Instead, in my small town of State College, Pennsylvania, we would race to the five-and-dime where they had a wall of comics and where we’d try to read as many as we could before the store demanded that we buy them or get out. [mutual chuckling] And then, of course, we did buy them and we traded them all the time with friends in the neighborhood. Over time, my brother and I amassed a collection, not one that was particularly valuable or that we were preserving for posterity, but simply comics that we loved and enjoyed. Our taste was far-ranging and we counted Uncle Scrooge and Little Lulu among the ones we prized. But we also read a huge number of superhero comics and my favorite growing up, without question, was Batman. GREENBERGER: Okay, I didn’t know that. KAHN: Oh, mm-mm, absolutely. That’s why at our DC Comics offices, I had a blow-up of Detective #27 outside my door while Paul Levitz had a blow-up of Action #1 outside his. Paul grew up a Superman fan but I was a dyed-in-the-wool Batman fan. But I also read Archie comics, and it’s there I learned the word “prevaricator” from an issue where Betty comes racing into Veronica’s house and says, “Prithee, my pretty prevaricator.” Years later, I read Jules Feiffer’s introduction to The Great Comic Book Heroes and he wrote that when he was six years old, he could spell “cat,” “dog,” and “invulnerable.” And that’s how I felt about “prevaricator.” In the context of comics, you sometimes learned something that was completely over your head. As I mentioned, I was also a huge Uncle Scrooge fan and loved the Beagle Boys. I thought it was hilarious that they looked alike, dressed alike, and had the same numbers on their prison uniforms, but in different orders. I also loved the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook and that Huey, Dewey, and Louie were so much smarter than their Uncle Donald. Back then, I didn’t know that Carl Barks was the ingenious creator behind Uncle Scrooge, but I was drawn to the art and the ducks’ adventures to exotic lands with the Beagle Boys in hot pursuit. My brother and I didn’t know the word “existential,” but we understood that Little Lulu comics were different from other comics—offbeat, quirky, and unconventional. I can remember an issue where Tubby walks into Lulu’s house wearing a little pointed cone over his nose that was tied by a string in the back. Tubby would proclaim, “Here’s the Great Detective in disguise.” And Lulu would say, “Hello, Tubby.” And then he would walk into the kitchen and announce, “Here’s the Great Detective in disguise,” and Lulu’s mom would reply, “Hello, Tubby.” It was so out there, the idea that no one would recognize you if you disguised yourself with a cone on your nose. GREENBERGER: Oh, sure. KAHN: There was another classic Little Lulu story that my brother and I loved and still quote to this day. Lulu and Iggy are walking down the street and one of them notes that it’s funny how if you say a word often enough, it completely loses its meaning. And they

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start to say, “Feet, feet, feet- feet- feet- feet- feet- feet- feet- feet,” and they say “feet” so often that they’re clutching their sides, screaming with laughter, and then they’re rolling in the street, laughing and laughing and laughing some more while grown-ups gape in total bafflement. Then Lulu and Iggy wipe their eyes, stand up, and continue walking down the street. That was—oh, my God— so avant-garde. Forgive me for the word “avant-garde,” [chuckles] but that’s how it seemed to us, like, “Who’s writing this?” It was not your typical comic in any way. GREENBERGER: Now, did your interest in comics have anything to do with your going in to study art at college? KAHN: No, no, it didn’t at all. My mother loved art and when she could, she would paint. We lived in a small town where there were no art galleries, but Penn State University was located there, and when I was a little girl, Sidney Janis, the New York gallerist, sent an exhibition of Abstract Expressionism to Penn State. Abstract Expressionism was the vanguard modern art movement of the ’50s, and like all cuttingedge movements in their time, it had a vast number of detractors. But my mother loved the work and she and I would visit the Penn Stage gallery over and over again to see the exhibit. I don’t remember exactly what painters were represented, but there were definitely Franz Klein’s and maybe Pollock’s and Rothko’s, too. Because my mother deeply loved the art and because I deeply loved her, this was a very special outing, and I developed a tremendous affinity for modern art that came from that emotional shared experience. In my bedroom, I had a poster by Matisse that my mother had bought for me and my father had matted and hung. I thought that it was the most beautiful thing in the world and I would lie in bed morning and night drinking it in. That poster, with its vibrant colors and simplified forms, heightened my love of art and came to inform my own personal aesthetic. So really, it was the love of art—the pleasure of seeing color and shapes—that made me an Art History major. Art History, in turn, gave me an appreciation of comics as an art form. GREENBERGER: And when you graduated from Harvard, what were you thinking you were going to do? KAHN: I had a fellowship at the Museum of Modern Art when I graduated. It was, I think, the first summer that they had fellowships and it was exhilarating to work there. But even though I loved the experience, I also realized I didn’t want to work in a museum, that that would not be my career. There was so much bureaucracy and so much backbiting, too. I would watch curators, so much older than I, posturing in front of me and jockeying for position, and I thought, “Ooh, that’s not an environment in which I want to work.” GREENBERGER: No. KAHN: No. [laughs] Although I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I knew that I wanted autonomy over my own ideas. I wanted to be an independent thinker and I thought that would never happen in the museum until I was 40 at least, and I was only 21. I couldn’t wait until I was 40, [chuckles] assuming I survived all the infighting to get to 40 there. So I started writing art criticism. But although I was being published in Art in America, I couldn’t earn nearly enough money to support myself. I thought, “Well, I could go back to college. I could get a PhD. Then I could teach and that would support my writing.” There was a professor at Harvard who’d been tremendously supportive of me even though I had actually never taken a class of his. His name was Professor John Rosenfield and he was a professor of Japanese Art, but he was also in charge of the tutorials and therefore knew my work. The spring that I was graduating, the Museum of Modern Art inaugurated its fellowship program and contacted several universities to ask what students they would recommend. Professor Rosenfeld called me and said, “If you would like this position, it’s yours, because you’re our best student.” And I said, “Professor Rosenfeld, thank you, but I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve had more than my share of B’s and C’s.” And he said, “Ah, that’s exactly what I mean. You never worked for grades. You worked for the passion of the subject and that’s a true student.” And I’m like, [nervous] “Oh, okay.” GREENBERGER: Wow, nice.

Kids’ Stuff Kahn’s first magazine creation, Kids Magazine, is extremely hard to find in today’s collectors’ market. Kids © the respective copyright holder. Sesame Street TM & © Sesame Workshop.

THE YOUNG PUBLISHER KAHN: It was such a gift. It was so amazing that a professor would say that and believe that and support me. So when I was floundering and thinking that the solution to supporting myself might lie in a PhD. I thought I could call Professor Rosenfield and he’d welcome me back at Harvard with open arms. But when I phoned, he said, “Oh, I that is the worst idea I have ever heard. PhDs are so narrow and boring.” [chuckles] I said, “Professor Rosenfeld, you have a PhD. You’re not that bad.” And he replied, “You should have seen me before my PhD.” After I pressed him further, he finally said, “Look, I will grudgingly accept your application, but this is mid-year. We don’t take anybody mid-year. You’d have to wait until September.” I was so eager to find a place to land that I applied to B.U. [Boston University], and even though it was mid-year, they accepted me. But truthfully, Professor Rosenfeld was right, and going to school was not what I really wanted to do. Professor Rosenfeld had also advised me, “Your sweep is much larger. If you insist on being in the art world, be a culture critic, but don’t be a professor, don’t be just an art historian.” And again, I’m so grateful to him. When the Modern’s fellowships came up, he said something completely out-of-the-box to me. [chuckles] And now, for a second time, he was saying something else that was completely out-of-the-box. Professor Rosenfeld saw something in me that I hadn’t yet seen in myself, a love of something bigger, of making something happen on a larger canvas. But I had yet to understand that. I was still in school pursing a PhD, although not very seriously at all. At the same time, a friend of mine, James Robinson, was at the Harvard Ed. School where, as part of the curriculum, he was student teaching. James loved the whole process of publishing—choosing the typeface, the paper stock, the end papers—and he was printing the work of aspiring writers in the Cambridge area. When he encountered the work of his kids in his classroom, he wanted to publish that, too. James’ idea was to print a series of books called Young Words and Pictures that would be entirely written and illustrated by kids for each other. We were just chatting, so I volunteered, “That’s a great idea. But just because I like Jim Robinson’s books doesn’t mean I’m going to like Jenette Kahn’s books. That means every time you publish a new book, you’ll have to spend a large amount of money to promote and market it. But if this were a magazine with surprises to keep it fresh and with ongoing features that kids would look forward to, you’d have a built-in audience. From a business point of view, I think that that would be more successful.” Suddenly I, who knew absolutely nothing about business, was an expert! And James said, “Well, great. Write a prospectus.” [Bob chuckles] I didn’t even now what a prospectus was, and whatever I wrote was surely not a prospectus, but I typed up something about the magazine. My own art style peaked at ten, so I was able to make reasonably faithful reproductions of the kids’ art and paste them into a ridiculously crude dummy to accompany my [chuckles] pseudoprospectus. Young Words and Pictures sounded a little stuffy, so we changed the title of the magazine to Kids. James and I were able to persuade two Boston businessmen, Charlie Rheault and Steve Alpert, to come on board, and they, in turn, were able to get us a $15,000 loan from the First National Bank of Boston. One of them knew a large printer in Lowell, Massachusetts, called Courier Color. Some karma was at work here, because many years before, when my father was a boy, he’d sold Courier Color newspapers on the street corners of Lowell. There was a lovely man at Courier Color named Dale Bowman, who was the foreman of the plant. He fell in love with the idea of Kids and generously arranged for us to print it on credit.

Everything in the magazine was written and illustrated by kids and we had kids as editors, too. And in advance of publication, we had put together an advisory board of the vanguard educators of the time: Dr. Robert Coles, John Holt, Jonathan Kozol, Kenneth Koch, the poet; Betty Blayton Taylor of the Children’s Art Carnival in Harlem. Eventually, the magazine generated its own submissions, but in the beginning we went to schools in Boston and New York to find the first paintings, stories, poems, and photographs we would publish. Our advisory board gave us credibility and we were aided by a sea change in educational thinking. Teachers across the country were realizing that their young students had tremendous creative potential and believed that potential should be validated and nurtured. The time was right for Kids. There was a three-week gap between the time that Kids was printed and its distribution on the newsstand. With printed copies in hand, I used that gap to garner publicity for the magazine. There was a wonderful columnist for The New York Times named Joseph Lelyveld. He went on to become the Times’ executive editor, but at that time he was writing the most compelling series of articles about a 4th grade class in a school on the borderline of Harlem and the Upper East Side. Joe’s stories were often revelatory, always moving, and sometimes very funny. Because of the immense humanity in his articles and his clear respect for the students whose classroom adventures he detailed every week, I thought Joe might respond to Kids and consider writing about it. My father and Joe’s father had both been college campus rabbis with the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation, and on the strength of that, I got in touch with Joe. “Would he meet with me?” I asked and Joe graciously said yes. A few days later we had coffee in the New York Times cafeteria and I showed him the magazine. “I don’t think the Times would write about this,” said Joe, “but if it did write about Kids, I would not be the person. Again, I don’t think that this is for the Times, but I will give the magazine to the appropriate people.” I expected nothing to come from the meeting, but two weeks later, on a Sunday morning in the fall [November 15, 1970], I woke up and there were some five columns about Kids Magazine in The New York Times. Jenette Kahn Issue

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the Super Powers figures, you actually hired Jack Kirby to do some design work to help qualify for some creator participation in his Fourth World characters, which was a really generous thing for DC to do. KAHN: Well, even though we enacted all these rights, they only dated from the time that I came to DC. I came in ’76, and unfortunately, we couldn’t give ancillary income retrospectively because we weren’t there and couldn’t say exactly who did what. To our great regret, older creators who had worked in the trenches and produced some of our most memorable characters and storylines weren’t going to be rewarded for the work that they had done. Jack was one of those venerated, amazing talents and we just wanted to find a way that we could recognize, financially, his enormous contributions, and we used the Kenner deal to do that. GREENBERGER: Which is fabulous. Like I said, there was this momentum building up. You were doing great things for the creators, you were reaching out to new talent, you were trying new packages. And then, layered over all that, the company was expanding. I got hired then, along with many people, the licensing department was growing, Joe’s special projects group was growing, and so on. Do you recall that you were feeling as this momentum was growing and the company was expanding? KAHN: Oh, absolutely. The last time when we spoke, I think I said it was a bit of an Elizabethan Era in terms of how fecund the creativity was. We were getting exceptional work from extraordinary creators, people like Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean—I don’t want to truncate the list. I could go on and on and on. We felt it first on the creative side, and I think it was probably most exhilarating of all to feel it there. But we were able to spin out the momentum we were gaining in the comics to other areas of the company. We managed to stop the hemorrhaging of comic sales and built a new outlet for them that continued to grow. There were a number of us involved in implementing these changes, and we all felt that we were working shoulder-to-shoulder and creating a new era in comics. GREENBERGER: It didn’t all work, because in the early ’80s, you were banking heavily on the Atari comics, based on the games. And you brought Dick [Giordano] on board in October 1980 and you were really gearing up to do a ton of that material. And then it all vanished overnight, seemingly. Do you recall that? KAHN: [laughs] Well, we never looked at Atari comics as a huge profit center. We would have loved to have built it into that, but we were not relying on those comics as one of the pillars of our profitability. But we saw it as a tremendous opportunity—Atari was a sister company and one of the first new technology companies—and it was enjoying

Not Quite a Game Changer Detail from the back cover original art of Atari Force #5, the last issue of a mini-comics run produced for video games which proceeded the ongoing Atari Force title. Art by Gil Kane and Dick Giordano. © 1983 Atari.

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unprecedented success. We forged a relationship with Atari in the hope of expanding our customer base by inserting comics into their game cartridges. But I didn’t bring Dick on because of Atari. GREENBERGER: Oh, I was mistaken. KAHN: No, we knew we could use another editor and we brought Dick on because he was an incredible talent and someone who had the respect of the creative community. It was a leap, because hiring Dick meant a radical change in our salary structure. Dick was earning so much money freelancing that to match it would have exceeded the pay scale that we had at DC. But I believed in Dick so much that I went to Bill Sarnoff, the chairman of our division, and made a very strong case for him. Making a strong case for Dick meant that we had to raise salaries proportionately for everyone else, and that wasn’t something Bill was eager to do, but somehow we got it through. We brought Dick on and he was a terrific contributor to our success at DC. GREENBERGER: Now it had been you, Joe, and Paul, and then Dick comes on board and very quickly, the trio becomes a quartet. How was that group dynamic back then? KAHN: As I remember, we moved Joe into special projects and Dick took over the comic-book line. GREENBERGER: Right. KAHN: No one stepped on anybody’s toes because each person had a discrete area. In addition, we had a tremendous sense of purpose and were together at an incredibly exciting time. We not only worked hard to change the business, but we managed to enjoy it, too. And we had fun together. Paul continued to be the person who would say no to me and I always respected that because his negativity made me better. [chuckles] When he said no to an idea, I worked all the harder to prove to him how just what a good idea it was. I used to walk into Paul’s office and say, “Oh, I have another idea.” And Paul would say, “You know you’ve had too many ideas today. I have a little folder here where I’m putting your ideas and we can take some of these out later.” [mutual laughter] GREENBERGER: Oh, that sounds like him. KAHN: I had nothing but the greatest respect and affection for both Dick and Joe, but Paul and I had a dynamic that lasted through all those years and continues even now that we’re both out of DC Comics. I was the positive one and he was the skeptic. Paul always said that I saw around corners. But Paul loved detail and understood how to make things happen. If I saw something around the corner, Paul knew how to implement it. We were a wonderful team. I cherish that relationship to this day as I do the relationship I had with Dick and with Joe. GREENBERGER: [sighs] I miss those guys. KAHN: Yes.

MARVEL TO LICENSE DC’S CHARACTERS? GREENBERGER: Jim Shooter wrote a blog post recently that’s had a lot of people wagging their tongues, and I wouldn’t mind getting your input on this one. KAHN: Oh, well, I don’t know anything about his blog… GREENBERGER: Well, Jim tells the story that in February 1984, one month after I joined the company, he was called by Bill Sarnoff out of the blue and they began a series of conversations about basically shutting down DC Comics and licensing the comics to Marvel. And Marvel got as far as figuring out which core titles they would want to revamp and so on and so on until the deal fizzled for—I guess it never even got past a couple of conversations. But I never knew that. Did you? KAHN: Never. It’s a total shock to me. I’m trying to think of what we were publishing in ’84. GREENBERGER: Well, Camelot 3000 was winding down, it was just around the time of Ronin, it was just before Crisis on Infinite Earths. KAHN: Had we published Ronin yet? GREENBERGER: It was just coming out. You know, it was a really interesting period, because things were still building up. But in looking at what the company was doing at the time, I’ve absolutely no idea why Bill might even have thought of pulling the plug. KAHN: No, we’re clearly not in our heyday yet, but it’s also not a time when we’re losing money. I think the hemorrhaging is behind us. GREENBERGER: Absolutely. KAHN: So as I said, I know nothing about this and I can’t even say if it’s it true or not. GREENBERGER: Well, interestingly, [Shooter] ran facsimiles, or scans, of the memos he wrote back at in February ’84, talking about this. So it seemed to be legitimate.

KAHN: Wow. And what, he also published the scans? GREENBERGER: Yeah. I can send you a link if you’re curious. KAHN: Oh, it’s okay. Thanks, Bobby, it’s not necessary. But the only thing I can imagine is that there was some kind of corporate pressure. I don’t know if there was, but I can’t think of any other reasons. Yeah, really, it just totally baffles me. GREENBERGER: Oh, good. That’s two of us, then. KAHN: So it was just about like giving Marvel the comics but retaining all other rights? GREENBERGER: Yeah, licensing the characters only for print. KAHN: For print. Well, Bill may have wanted to make DC more profitable and thought if retained the rights for merchandise and television and movies but didn’t have to worry about the comics’ profitability, then his own bottom line as the chairman of Warner Publishing might look better. GREENBERGER: Hey, like I said, I just wanted to ask. KAHN: [chuckles] This must have created a furor? What have people been saying? GREENBERGER: Well, nobody had heard of this before and they were like—there was a certain amount of curiosity, what would Marvel have done with those characters at that time, what that would have meant to guys like Joe and Dick and you and Paul. There was some speculation as to why it never happened. You know, it just stirred things up for about a week. KAHN: Have you talked to Paul about it? GREENBERGER: No, not yet. KAHN: If Paul had known, of course he’d have talked to me about it. He would have been in a tizzy at the thought. So I think that none of us knew a thing.

We Asked the “Answer Man” Bob Rozakis, who generously submitted these photos, shares, “The DC Olympics took place at a company-wide retreat in early 1985 at a place in Great Gorge, New Jersey. There was a lot of business-related stuff, but we organized the Olympics to create group activities. There were races in the hotel pool, a game of Family Feud, other races, and physical contests.” Some names you might recognize: (top left) Robyn McBryde (front row left), Albert DeGuzman (front row center), Bob Rozakis (back row left), Barbara Randall (Kesel) and Sal Amendola (back row, 3rd and 4th from left); (top right) and Joe Orlando (standing at right). And we’re certain you can spot the always-fashionable Jenette Kahn in each of the photos!

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World’s Finest Comebacks From DC’s big year, 1986: (left) John Byrne’s Superman revamp, starting in The Man of Steel #1; and (right) back to basics with the Dark Knight in “Batman: Year One,” premiering in Batman #404, from writer Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli. TM & © DC Comics.

CONTINUITY IN CRISIS GREENBERGER: So anyway, in publishing, on top of the talent, and on top of the formatting and stuff, from a content standpoint, what was starting to bubble up was Marv’s idea for a 50th anniversary comic that evolved into the Crisis on Infinite Earths. Were you one of the people who felt that continuity had gotten too convoluted? KAHN: Oh, absolutely. In the parallel worlds you could undercut what you were doing on Earth, so that events on Earth didn’t matter so much. You’d have a tragedy or a death on Earth that could be reversed on other worlds. And we felt strongly, let us have one world where the stakes really matter. GREENBERGER: Mm-mm. Now, you know, Crisis led to Who’s Who and the big 50th anniversary. From what you remember, do you feel the company accomplished its goals at the time? KAHN: Through Crisis? GREENBERGER: Yeah. KAHN: I thought Crisis was a colossal success in so many ways. It was one of those series where you waited with bated breath for the next issue.

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GREENBERGER: Right. KAHN: And it was full of drama and action and heartfelt, wrenching emotions. The collapse of those many worlds into one just seemed to heighten everything that happened now on Earth-Prime, our own, very own world. GREENBERGER: Sure. Now during this, obviously you, Dick, and whoever agreed it was time to really revamp the trio—Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. And I guess some of that grew from Frank giving you the idea for Batman: Year One as a follow-up to Dark Knight. But then, you basically went out and recruited John Byrne for Superman and had almost an open casting call for Wonder Woman. You know, how desperately did they really need to be revamped? KAHN: I thought our flagship characters desperately needed to be revamped. In our stories prior to Crisis and other watershed books like Dark Knight and Year One, plot was almost always imposed upon the characters. What we wanted to do was reverse that equation and have the characters determine the plot. That was the underlying fundament of the changes to our three major characters and then to all our characters. GREENBERGER: So why John Byrne? KAHN: Oh, you know, Bobby, I’m not quite sure anymore. [Bob laughs] Let me try to remember. John was doing X-Men, I think. GREENBERGER: Yeah. KAHN: As I said, I wanted our characters to determine where a story would go. And although X-Men was extremely complex, you knew the characters, you cared about them. GREENBERGER: Oh, sure. KAHN: And even if they were flawed—and sometimes particularly because they were flawed—you cared

interviewed me yesterday about Wonder Woman and I said, “Go talk to Karen Berger [chuckles], because Karen will remember much better than I.” Memory aside, I have nothing but the highest praise for the work George did on Wonder Woman. I think it still stands as the best realization of the character.

DC’s BIGGEST YEAR? GREENBERGER: Excellent! I really want to talk to you about 1986, which to me was the highlight year for the company. KAHN: But what happened in ’86? What happened in ’86? [mutual laughter] GREENBERGER: Well, basically, DC relaunched Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, there was Howard Chaykin’s The Shadow, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen, DC entered the bookstore market with the trade collection of Dark Knight—I mean, it was quite the year! KAHN: That’s a year! [laughs] I think the way you describe it, Bobby, is the most accurate. For more than a decade, we had been working and laying the groundwork to fundamentally change the industry, to see that talent got the rights they deserved, to change the methods of distribution so comic books were profitable where they hadn’t been, to move comics from an ephemeral kids medium to a sophisticated art form. And we were lucky that a confluence of all that good work resulted in a banner year for DC. GREENBERGER: DC had a number of different things working at the same time. One, Frank had been working on The Dark Knight for several years, finally got it done enough that it came out in 1986. You’d picked up the Condé Nast rights to The Shadow and you gave it to Howard Chaykin, who gave it a fresh coat of paint. At the same time, you were revamping the top three characters. So was there any concern that you recall that there was too much going on? KAHN: I don’t think we ever felt there was too much going on. It was an exhilarating time where we felt we were seeing the fruits of our labors. The fact that so many good things happened in the same year was not entirely by design, but revamping our top three characters was. GREENBERGER: And if I understand it right, the work and thinking Frank brought to The Dark Knight came at a good time, as you were thinking of the revamp which is how he got tapped for Batman. And we talked last time about how you picked John Byrne and how you recruited him to come and breathe new life into Superman after considering pitches from Steve Gerber, Cary Bates, and Elliot Maggin. On the other hand, Wonder Woman was also a bake-off. There were multiple pitches that were being presented until Greg Potter’s was the one that really attracted your attention. Do you remember what it was about Greg’s take that really interested you? KAHN: I can’t even remember the other takes, but we wanted to bring real depth to the character and real relevance in the issues Wonder Woman dealt with, and the series did this and more. GREENBERGER: And as the year progressed, you found yourself mining absolutely brand-new territory for the field by collecting The Dark Knight in softcover and hardcover and actually hitting the bookstore market through the Warner Books distribution arm. Did you at the time think it was the beginning of a new way to package the material or was this just one way to package this exceptional one-time event?

Princess of Power Detail from the cover of Wonder Woman #1 (Feb. 1987). Art by George Pérez. TM & © DC Comics.

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TM & © DC Comics.

about Marvel’s characters. The idea of imperfection became a very important concept in the revamp of our flagship characters. They were part of the Golden Age of Comics and had come of age on the brink of World War II. They’d gone to war on behalf of America and they stood for everything patriotic and true and noble and right, and that was the perfect realization of our characters at that time. But 40 years later, we were in a very different era. The counterculture and the war in Vietnam had changed the way we looked at the world and the purely heroic characterization of our superheroes was too simplistic. We wanted them to be as fully realized as possible and that meant having imperfections. In addition to his extremely exciting drawing skills, John had shown that he understood that. And insofar as comic books have stars, John was one. We felt that he could not only pull off the creative but would also attract tremendous interest from the thousands of readers who loved the work he’d done on X-Men. GREENBERGER: Okay. And I know you were very hands-on with John and Andy Helfer, the original editor, on shaping what the Superman material was going to be. But what about Wonder Woman? Because of it obviously being a female character, and also one of the flagship characters, she needed probably the most sprucing up. Were you heavily involved in picking the team for that? KAHN: You know, I just have to stop and ask you—because I remember it was George who took over, but who was the original writer? GREENBERGER: Of the many pitches that were received, Greg Potter, who’d done Jemm, Son of Saturn, had the right proposal that everybody seemed to respond to. And then I guess you, Dick, and Janice Race, who was the editor, went out and got George involved as his post–Crisis follow-up. And then George took over. KAHN: Of course. I may be doing an injustice to Greg, but I remember George as the true visionary on the Wonder Woman revamp. But NPR

JENETTE KAHN AND THE THREE-HOUR LUNCH by Mike Gold

Back in the mid-1970s, only a few short weeks before they invented water, I had helped found a youth social-service program called the National Runaway Switchboard. I’m very proud of that one, and I’m happy to say it’s still around. In addition to writing funding proposals and helping with the training of volunteers, it was my responsibility to get the word out about the program. I also fielded interviews from kid-friendly magazines such as Dynamite, published by Scholastic Press, and Smash, published by Xerox. Both were created by Jenette Kahn. Somehow one thing led to another and Jenette and I became quite friendly. When she was anointed DC Comics publisher in early 1976, I called to congratulate her as one comics fan to another. Of course, I had an ulterior motive: I had joined some of my friends in organizing the first Chicago Comicon and I was in charge of programming and other silly things. I thought it would be great if Jenette joined Stan Lee and Harvey Kurtzman as a guest of honor. She agreed, and that started off a series of lengthy telephone conversations. I had already respected Jenette as an innovative publisher; I was now respecting her as a comics fan bent on taking the medium to the next level. Several months later she called to ask me if I was interested in working for Neal Adams’ Continuity Associates (Dick Giordano had just left the company) as business manager. I had met Neal at various conventions over the years and we had a serious conversation while at Stuart Gordon’s Organic Theater in Chicago, but the concept of being anybody’s business manager wasn’t something that would get me out of bed in the morning. However, I knew I was about to be, as the saying goes, “between radio shows,” and so I flew out to New York. As it turns out Neal was a no-show, but after giving me a tour of DC and meeting the staff (then a mere 35 people!), Jenette and I had a three-hour lunch at a swanky midtown Manhattan joint, where we discussed comics with enormous passion. Mind you, this was several years before Superman: The Movie and at least a decade before the term “graphic novel” became a hi-brow euphemism: passionately discussing comics with a woman in public simply was not done, and clearly some of our dining neighbors found all that kind of obnoxious. We couldn’t care less. I flew back to Chicago that evening, and two days later I received a phone call from Jenette. “I don’t want you to work for Neal,” she said. That was convenient. “I want you to work for me.” Hello? This was a whole different kettle of fish. Jenette wanted me to be DC’s first in-house PR and marketing department, expressly (but not exclusively) charged with boosting DC’s presence in the then-burgeoning direct-sales market. I’m proud to say that during my two-year tenure I quadrupled DC’s sales in that arena, and I had a great time doing so. I returned to Chicago where, after editing a home video magazine where I invited a zillion friends from the comics racket to write for us, I founded First Comics. Several years later I returned to DC at Dick Giordano’s invitation to become director of editorial development and group editor. Jenette and I resumed our frequent lunches and, while they rarely ran three hours and comics had become a lot more “legitimate,” our passion for the medium was not diminished in the least. I miss those lunches with Jenette. I saw her last year at the memorial service for Dick; my wife had died a month before and Jenette did much to console me and our daughter Adriane, as a good friend would. I’m proud to see her career in movies flourish. I knew her when she was at Scholastic, well before Harry Potter ruled that roost. She’s become an icon for businesswomen all over the world, and this just proves the world isn’t so screwed up after all. MIKE GOLD is editor-in-chief of www.ComicMix.com, writes a weekly political column at www.michaeldavisworld.com, does a weekly ass-kicking rock and blues show on demand at www.getthepointradio.com, and continues to be involved in nefarious conspiracies as he enters his antiquity.

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The Man and the First Lady Stan Lee and Jenette Kahn at a Temple University program in the late 1970s. Theatre, an organization that uses performing arts to empower kids and teach them leadership, teamwork, and social responsibility. And the kids are amazing. They perform for free in schools, prisons, nursing homes, churches, hospitals— anywhere that asks. It’s part of their public service. But just as amazing, they performed at the Oscars. Impact wrote and performed “Raise It Up” for the Warner Bros. movie August Rush, and the song was nominated for an Academy Award. The Academy flew the kids to L.A., many on a plane for the very first time, but it was only paying for a limited number of them. The Impact board couldn’t let that happen. They pooled their money so that everyone could go and the kids raised the roof and brought down the house at the Oscars. GREENBERGER: Very cool. KAHN: Wonderful, wonderful story. The kids are so lovely, so gracious and appreciative, and most of them go on to college. Jamal Joseph, who is one of the founders, doesn’t ask, “Are you going to college?” He asks, “Where are you going to college?” It’s a true testimony to the program that so many of the kids who graduate Impact come back after college to mentor the next generation. GREENBERGER: Nice. I did mean to ask—and forgive me, backtracking a little—have you and Diane Nelson, the current DC Comics president, spoken? KAHN: I’ve had dinner with her once, but that’s been the extent of our exchanges. GREENBERGER: Well, this wraps everything up. [Jenette laughs] I cannot thank you enough for this. KAHN: Oh, Bobby, I’m glad to do it and you’ve been so patient with my schedule, I can’t thank you enough. And you’ve been so prepared—you know more about my history than I do. GREENBERGER: Well, I wouldn’t be a good interviewer if I didn’t prepare! ROBERT GREENBERGER is a longtime comics historian and former staffer at DC Comics and Marvel Comics. A fulltime 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.

Max Romero

In 1977, as the United States was wrestling with a flagging economy and DC Comics was on the unavoidable verge of raising cover prices to 35 cents, DC publisher Jenette Kahn had an idea: Charge readers a dollar instead. Before the rise of the now-dominant direct market, news vendors were the most common place to buy a comic book. They were an all-important link to the reading—and paying—public, something publishers wanted to be sure was maintained and fostered. At the time, the average comic came in at about 32 pages total, with 17 of those being story pages. Comic books had a relatively low cover price, and when compared to the higher cost of other magazines on the newsstand it was becoming clear that DC had to do something to make sure retailers still saw the value in carrying its titles. Kahn was ready to make a splash herself. At 28 years old, and after cofounding three highly successful magazines for young people, she had been named publisher of DC Comics just the year before and seemed ready to bring innovation to a company that—some were arguing—needed it. “When I came to DC in 1976, one of the first things that struck me was how underpriced comics were in comparison to other comparable items whose purchase price had kept pace with inflation and changing times,” Kahn says. “This observation was echoed by retailers and wholesalers who said we were suffering staggering returns because comics—priced then at 30 cents—weren’t treated with the respect of magazines with their higher cover prices. “To preserve some semblance of profit margins over the years, comic-book companies kept trimming their page counts while holding fast to low prices, but that was a losing strategy for both reader and publisher,” she adds. “I had hoped that Dollar Comics would enable us to give value to our readers and a significant boost to our comic books’ price.” The Dollar Comics line was exactly what it sounds like, and more: comic books that offered readers an average of 64 pages of story for $1, while at the same time standing a full quarter-inch taller than the average comic (just to make sure they stood out on the newsstand racks). And while the actual page count would fluctuate over the years—some issues would boast as many as 80 pages— readers would generally get the equivalent of four comic books’ worth of stories for the price of three. As Kahn wrote in her July–Aug. 1977 “Publishorial” column (printed in every DC comic) warning readers of the inevitable rise in price to 35 cents an issue, it was “what Dollar Comics are all about. With a Dollar Comic you can count on getting four comics’ worth of new material for four quarters for a long time to come.” Kahn wasn’t far off. After launching the line in 1977, Dollar Comics went on to encompass familiar titles, special issues and annuals, and even two original series over the next six years. It all began with House of Mystery #251 and Superman Family #182, which hit the stands with March

Biggest Bargain in Comics Behind our title: A hodgepodge of Dollar Comics releases. TM & © DC Comics.

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$500,000 PAID FOR ORIGINAL COMIC ART! COLLECTOR PAYING TOP DOLLAR FOR “ANY AND ALL” ORIGINAL COMIC BOOK AND COMIC STRIP ARTWORK FROM THE 1930S TO PRESENT! COVERS, PINUPS, PAGES, IT DOESN’T MATTER! 1 PAGE OR ENTIRE COLLECTIONS SOUGHT! CALL OR EMAIL ME ANYTIME!

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John Wells

One of the great talking points in the comics press of the early 1980s was the fact that comic books aimed at younger children were rapidly fading away. The overall content of superhero comics was skewing toward teenagers and adults, while kid-friendly titles like Fawcett’s Dennis the Menace, Whitman’s Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories, and Looney Tunes were simply going away. “People don’t suddenly pick up comics,” DC Comics editor Nicola Cuti observed in Amazing Heroes #39 (January 15, 1984). “They’ve been reading comics all along, ever since they were kids. It’s a habit that goes from one step to the next. But now there are no comics around for children and we’re going to find ourselves without an audience in about 20 years if we don’t start very early with children.” The 1982 collapse of Harvey Comics (home of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich) became the flashpoint that forced the two major superhero publishers to take action and explore entry-level comics of their own. Failing in a bid to acquire Casper and company, Marvel Comics instead hired some of Harvey’s talent to create the nucleus of a children’s imprint dubbed Star Comics. As news of its rival’s plans spread through the industry, DC recognized the need for a kids line of its own. DC’s initial plan of publishing comics featuring Warner Bros.’ Bugs Bunny and his Looney Tunes brethren was stymied by Whitman still holding the license. In 1979, DC had begun publishing reprint-packed digest comics with the hope of capitalizing on the diverse clientele that frequented checkout lanes. Belatedly, the company decided to test the market for kid humor comics, rolling out issues of The Best of DC spotlighting Sugar and Spike (toddlers who communicated in baby-talk) and Funny Stuff (featuring funny animal tales from the 1950s). A report in The Comic Reader #215 (Dec. 1983) revealed that those editions sold well “and actually outsell the Superman issues of that digest.”

Look Who’s Talking! You’d almost think that Sugar—one half of Shelly Mayer’s “talking” baby duo Sugar and Spike—was summing up DC’s kidscomic experiment of the early 1980s in this unused back cover to Best of DC Digest #47 (Apr. 1984). Original art scan courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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Andy Mangels

Iconographic Makeover Legendary designer Milton Glaser’s “WW” insignia was incorporated into this sleek new logo by letterer supreme Todd Klein in 1981. Courtesy of Andy Mangels. TM & © DC Comics.

The planet’s most famous superheroine has been closely tied to many ideals since her inception. A golden eagle had adorned Wonder Woman’s chest since her debut in All Star Comics #8 (Dec. 1941), and her star-spangled costume was known worldwide thanks to comics, licensing, a popular TV series, and animated appearances on Super Friends. Wonder Woman’s costume had gone through a few minor redesigns over the decades—and she had forsaken her traditional look entirely for a few years—but a major change was about to hit the Amazing Amazon for her 40th birthday in 1982. Her iconic emblem was going to be replaced by a new, clearly licensable logo, and at the same time, be used as the symbol for a new foundation dedicated to recognizing important women of the 20th century! The new Wonder Woman costume design appeared first in press materials sent out by DC to comics fanzines such as The Comics Reader and Amazing Heroes (July 1981). A piece of Style Guide art came with the information, with penciler Jose Delbo and inker Dick Giordano illustrating what the new costume’s bodice would look like in action. At the time, DC was clear that its purposes were to create an emblem for Wonder Woman that would be a strong licensing component in the same style as the Superman “S” shield and the Batman oval chest symbol. The press info also revealed that the costume change would take place in a 16-page insert comic within DC Comics Presents #41, which would also showcase the new creative team of writer Roy Thomas, penciler Gene Colan (recently defected from Marvel), and inker Romeo Tanghal, under editor Len Wein.

The costume would appear in the Amazing Amazon’s own title beginning with Wonder Woman #288. The newly designed bodice was originally going to be given to Wonder Woman as part of a “battle trophy or promotion,” according to an article in Comics Feature #12/13 (Sept.–Oct. 1981). On the bodice and the book’s logo was a stylized “double W” symbol, which still slightly resembled an eagle, but was also clearly an icon. Letterer Todd Klein recalled on his online blog (http://kleinletters.com) that Milton Glaser designed the new icon (though whether he personally designed it or if it was someone in his large studio is in question). Klein himself then redesigned the Wonder Woman comic-book logo, incorporating the Glaser symbol. “I tried to emulate the classic simplicity of the emblem with classic block letters running out from the two W[’]s, and added a wing tip to the N to help tie it together,” Klein wrote. Because this new logo obscured part of the new icon design, a secondary logo was designed for licensing— probably by Glaser’s studio—and used as part of DC’s new Style Guide and on later issues of the comic. Echoing comments from Gene Colan (in an interview in BACK ISSUE #41), past DC editor and writer Andrew Helfer recalls that Glaser’s redesign of the logo was a difficulty for artists to utilize initially, especially “how difficult it was to make the damn thing wrap around the character’s ‘bodice.’ I recall it was delivered ‘flat’ by Glaser—just another bullet-style logo to him—and the stacked Ws were uniformly hated by artists and editors, none of whom could figure out how it worked (look at some of the early appearances to see the results).” Helfer recalls today that it may have been “Ernie Colón, working with Joe Orlando, [who] finally figured out how it worked.”

ANNOUNCING THE FOUNDATION By October 1981, the comics press was reporting even more interesting news: As part of Wonder Woman’s 40th anniversary year, DC had hired Karen Lippert, the former director of special projects at Ms. Magazine, to coordinate a series of celebratory activities. Planned were a film festival, a TV special, and the debut of the Wonder Woman Foundation. The nonprofit organization, as press materials promised, was created, “expressly to advance principles of equality for women in American society.”

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In press materials, DC president and publisher Jenette Kahn was quoted as saying, “For forty years, Wonder Woman has been a symbol of strength without violence and intelligence turned to wisdom; she has been a champion of peace, justice, and human kindness … Wonder Woman has always been an inspiration to girls and women … an example of sisterhood, self-reliance, self-respect, courage and justice for all women to follow. Because women are rediscovering these truths today, we developed the idea for a national women’s foundation dedicated to the principles she has always championed … a public foundation—the Wonder Woman Foundation could make a significant contribution.” In a recent email exchange, Kahn comments about the origins of the Foundation, and how she asked noted feminist Gloria Steinem to be involved: “Gloria was a lifelong Wonder Woman fan. Growing up in East Toledo, Ohio, she thought there was no way out short of becoming a Las Vegas showgirl. But when she was seven, Wonder Woman was published. Reading the adventures of a woman who was beautiful, wise, and brave, an independent, compassionate woman who was romantically linked to men but sought to empower other women, Gloria saw that there was another path. When the first issue of Ms. Magazine was published, Gloria honored her childhood heroine by placing Wonder Woman on the cover, stopping crime with one hand, dispensing food to the hungry with the other.” Kahn continues, “It is to Gloria that I owe two of the most significant hallmarks of the Wonder Woman Foundation. Over lunch, she suggested that since it was Wonder Woman’s 40th anniversary, we honor women who were 40 and over. At that time, women over 40 were often discounted and disparaged as middle-aged. Gloria’s suggestion enabled us to challenge that prejudice by showcasing women who

were making contributions well into their 80s. Her other suggestion was just as imaginative. Rather than honor women in traditional fields like business, medicine, sports, and art, why not recognize them for embodying Wonder Woman’s characteristics? We came up with five categories that defined Wonder Woman and our future honorees: Women Taking Risks, Women Pursuing Truth, Women Working Creatively, Women Striving for Equality and Peace, and Women Helping Other Women.” The executive director of the new Wonder Woman Foundation was Koryne Horbal, a former delegate on “the Status of women” to the United Nations. Horbal immediately began creating formal guidelines for the first of the planned annual Wonder Woman Awards, which were to be given to women over 40 years of age at a gala event that promised to be “an evening of special tribute to women of achievement and of encouragement to women of potential.” The Honorees would be “given a Wonder Woman citation and actual financial grants will be awarded to women of 40 and over who have demonstrated both need and realizable promise.” The “needs” element was important, as monetary grants would be $7,500 per recipient! Horbal also began recruiting members for both the Foundation’s 24-member board and the advisory committee. They were to be, as press materials promised, a “panel of women and men accomplished in the fields of social and community service.” Among those chosen were women prominent in the arts, such as singer Judy Collins and actresses Linda Lavin and Jean Stapleton, and others who were active in many social agendas, ranging from education to sports. They crossed the boards from religious and ethnic backgrounds, and even included at least one prominent lesbian, Dr. Donna E. Shalala. Of the 24 chosen, nine were male, and one had close ties to the topic— lawyer Donald Richard Marston was the son of Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston (a.k.a. “Charles Moulton”) and Olive Byrne (a.k.a. “Olive Richard”), the woman who shared a home and family with Marston and his wife. The Wonder Woman Foundation was officially announced at a press conference in New York City on October 6th, 1981. Attending were Kahn and seven others of the board members: Shalala, Collins, Stapleton, and members Coy Eklund, LaDonna Harris, Eleanor Riger, and William Sarnoff (see sidebar). The Foundation was given $100,000

THE WONDER WOMAN FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS The initial 24-member Board of Directors (circa 1981) was as follows: • Koryne Horbal, Executive Director (former delegate to the United Nations) • Peter A. Bonnani (VP and Group Publisher of Woman’s Day Magazine) • David Brown (Zanuck/Brown Inc. production company) • Judy Collins (singer, author, director) • Coy Eklund (President and CEO of Equitable Life Insurance) • Arthur Fleming (chairman of US Committee on Civil Rights and Deputy Chairman of White House Conference on Aging) • Emanel Gerard (Warner Communications, Inc. Office of the President) • LaDonna Harris (Executive Director & President of Americans for Indian Opportunity) • Andrew Heiskell (Chairman of NY Public Library)

• Jenette Kahn (DC Comics, Inc. President and Publisher) • Joan B. Kennedy • Linda Lavin (stage and television actress, star of Alice) • Eleanor Holmes Norton (former chair of NYC Commission on Human Rights) • Eleanor Riger (ABC Network sports producer) • Geraldine Rhoads (Editor-in-Chief of Woman’s Day Magazine) • Jill Ruckleshaus (founder of National Women’s Political Caucus) • William Sarnoff (Chairman of Warner Publishing, Inc.) • Dr. Donna E. Shalala (President of Hunter College, NY) • Donald R. Marston (lawyer and son of William Moulton Marston) • Roger R. Smith (Warner Communications, Inc. VP of Corporate Affairs)

• Jean Stapleton (stage and television actress, star of All in the Family) • Margery Tabankin (Executive Director of the Arco Foundation) • Donna de Varona (NBC Sports commentator) • Carmen Delgado Votaw (a US Principal Delegate and Executive Committee member of the InterAmerican Commission of Women) Later members of the Board of Directors included: • Amy L. Katz (Warner Communications, Inc. legal department) • Harriet Bart (Minnesota artist, WWF Regional panelist in 1982) • Carol Connolly (McLellan) (a St. Paul, Minnesota, Human Rights activist) • Sanderson Swan (a director of development for the WWF and New York’s Police Athletic League) • Wanda Jo Peltier

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The company that became DC Comics has addressed social issues almost from the start, certainly from the time it began publishing original material other than straight humor and adventure. With the arrival of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s Superman in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), fighting social ills became the young men’s focus. Whether challenging errors in the legal system, spousal abuse, or political corruption in that first issue, a tone was set. It wasn’t long before Jerry and Joe’s publishers and early editors followed suit, using comic-book covers to show their heroes’ patriotism as World War II approached and overtook this country. Victory gardens were planted, paper drives were instigated, and War Bonds were sold due to these images. In the final two years of conflict, six giveaway issues of Superman were commissioned by the Navy to improve the literacy of its servicemen. After the war, the publishers continued their efforts (“Superman and the Cleveland Fire,” a four-page special issue that helped raise money for the city’s Hospital Fund) while enlisting child psychologists and others to prove their books were wholesome and not harmful to kids. This, because in spite of the positive feelings held by some, storm clouds had gathered. The resultant lightning would lead to comic-book bonfires and to people like psychologist Frederic Wertham, who would attack comics content in the late 1940s and well into the next decade.

DC’s PSAs Sometimes it’s more important to note when the right thing is done than to question the motive behind it. Regardless of the reason why, in 1949 National (DC) earmarked space in its various titles for public service announcements, also known as public service ads, or PSAs. Editor Jack Schiff’s passion for the project was evident. He donated his time for free to write roughly one PSA per month in association with the National Social Welfare Assembly. In each of the single-pagers, various stars of the DC line of titles swooped in to lecture everyday kids after they committed some minor infraction or spoke hurtfully to their peers. Social problems that were relevant but not controversial were occasionally granted full-story status. Superman family editor Mort Weisinger, who by the 1960s was also vicepresident of public relations for the company, had his writers include real celebrities in certain scripts. Even USA President John F. Kennedy sometimes participated, most notably when co-writers Bill Finger and E. Nelson Bridwell challenged America’s flabby youth to get in shape via the President’s Physical Fitness Program (Superman #170, July 1964). Next, a time-traveling Man of Steel helped a man named Henry Bergh bring a scoundrel to justice for mistreating animals. Turns out Bergh was the man who founded the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) in 1866. Though animal cruelty is a serious issue, Weisinger and his story writer (possibly Leo Dorfman) chose to lighten the impact by having the villain attempt to injure some superpowered “pets” brought from the present. Therefore, no animal was really hurt (Superman #176, Apr. 1965).

Cry … Justice! Gorgeous Neal Adams art graced this house ad touting the PSAs “Justice for All Includes Children.” TM & © DC Comics.

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Eddy Zeno

No Reservations Writer Bob Kanigher, with artists Werner Roth and Vince Colletta, attacked prejudice against Native Americans in Lois Lane #110 (May 1971). Note the in-your-face body language of the “ghetto mother” as she tongue-lashes Lois in panel one. TM & © DC Comics.

O’Neil had done in the early 1970s, a writer might enlist a tragic conclusion as a way of saying that the crisis being addressed was nowhere close to being solved. DC borrowed registered nurse Mindy Newell from her chosen profession to write comics. Mindy dropped a tale about missing children inside a Lois Lane two-issue miniseries, Lois Lane: “When It Rains, God is Crying,” Books One and Two (Aug. and Sept. 1986). The message was conveyed: there are far more young ones than we dare to believe being abducted and abused in this country. In addition, when they are sometimes recovered and returned to their families, the trauma leaves them forever changed. In Newell’s story, Lois matured into a true investigative reporter while becoming obsessed with doing something to combat the problem. No pat or happy ending was justified and none was considered. It was a far cry from the Kanigher days when Lane was primarily interested in getting married and having children, even if they were adopted and of a different race. Artist Gray Morrow’s illustrations only added to the realism. A more high-profile 1986 specialissue comic book than Newell’s miniseries was DC’s Superman and Batman: Heroes Against Hunger. That’s because a multitude of well-known Golden and Silver Age veterans teamed with their Bronze Age counterparts. On August 24, 2011, Jerry Ordway discussed with BACK Jenette Kahn Issue

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TRANSITIONS As noted by the previous example, DC Comics during its Silver Age had a habit of dealing with that day’s concerns through the lens of an earlier era. Perhaps the writers did not wish to appear like radical activists while addressing themes in kids’ books that still held meaning for them as adults. One social crusader, longtime editor and prolific writer Robert Kanigher, became DC’s go-to guy as the 1960s advanced. He could address the turmoil of being a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War era or tackle racial prejudice during the Civil Rights movement by staging his stories during World War II. By the time the ’70s commenced, thanks in part to rival Marvel Comics’ example, DC’s superheroes were maturing enough to handle the tougher issues in real time. Middle-aged Kanigher, now lead writer on the Lois Lane title, again tackled the matter of skin color intolerance but in the current day. First, he temporarily turned the woman reporter into an African-American. A few issues later Lois experienced hostility for wanting to adopt a Native-American infant. The stories appeared in Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #106 (Nov. 1970) and in #110 (May 1971), respectively. Kanigher’s attempts at relevance in current society were beginning to break new ground at the very conservative company. However, his delivery could be heavy-handed. His dialogue, too, felt like someone from another generation trying to be hip. The next highprofile writer who sought relevance in comic books was closer in age to the youth he hoped to reach. Dennis “Denny” O’Neil saw himself as a journalist, picking freely from the headlines of the day to involve his characters in matters that would have repercussions, no matter which actions they took. O’Neil tackled issues such as pollution in Justice League of America #70 (Mar. 1970) just before his Green Lantern/Green Arrow run (starting in #76, Apr. 1970) set a benchmark for superheroes crossing from their fantasy world into settings more like our own. Following editor Jack Schiff’s retirement in 1967, DC’s single-page PSAs went on hiatus for nearly a decade. When they resumed, the Bronze Age was in full bloom and the year was 1976. Sol Harrison became DC’s president and was also the point man for nine PSAs with the running title “Justice for All Includes Children.” Harrison assigned E. Nelson Bridwell to write the entries; six were illustrated by Neal Adams and three by Curt Swan. Instead of the National Social Welfare Assembly, this go-round the creators were donating their services to the National Council of Juvenile Court Judges. Though the creators were different, the PSAs were gently messaged and a throwback to previous decades. The same year that Sol Harrison became president of DC Comics, Jenette Kahn was hired as publisher. When Harrison retired in 1981, Kahn also assumed his station as president and was later promoted to editor-inchief. Under her nurturing hand, newfound creative freedom was granted. When addressing a societal problem, a storyteller could select an upbeat ending versus a more inconclusive finale with a modicum of hope. Or—in addition to telling stories with no pat answers as Dennis

Landmine Safety Awareness Superman: Deadly Legacy (1996) was a very important project to Jenette Kahn. Seen here are pages in two languages, with overlays added to change the word balloons. Written by Louise Simonson and drawn by Kieron Dwyer and Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

landmines, the US, by far the world’s strongest military power, should set an example for the rest of the world.” Leahy and company have had some success. While not using landmines itself since 1991, the United States, as of December 2011, remains one of 38 nations that has not signed a worldwide treaty to destroy all stockpiles and ban them from further use. (A postscript to the landmine project occurred at Comic-Con International 2010 when Paul Levitz did a panel interviewing his old boss Jenette Kahn. An audience member noted with emotion that he had witnessed children’s lives being saved in Latin America as a direct result of learning from the Superman/Wonder Woman books they’d been given.)

when asked about his role in some of the aforementioned special books: “Jenette’s a rabbi’s daughter, and from a family that was deeply involved in social justice—so she came to her calling naturally. I don’t have any such background, and I think pursued such projects with enthusiasm, but without her unique courage… While I may have touched these projects, things like the Teen Titans Drug program or the landmine comics only happened because of her dedication. I was very far on the sidelines by comparison, dealing with contracts or the like. She rode through the minefields (literally in one case). The 9-11 book is really the only pro–social project that had more of me in it than Jenette.” DC’s 9-11, Volume 2 (Volume 1 was a companion book produced by Dark Horse, Chaos!, and Image Comics) rapidly came about after FROM DORIS DAY TO 9-11 its namesake day’s nightmare events. Levitz was still with Jenette in Though many single ads, full-length specials, and regular series DC his role as publisher. Nevertheless, he not only edited the comic books besides those mentioned have addressed social book but wrote two moving tales that appeared therein. issues, two more deserve special mention. Also providing the introduction, Paul scribed: “We had Superman for the Animals (2000) was prepared for stories to tell and images to share, in the hope that the Doris Day Animal Foundation. The former singer they will help you to remember September 11th and movie star has been strongly tied to rights for and to ease the pain you lived through that day. animals since 1971. Her Animal League has since We needed to lift our pens, measure them against merged with the Humane Society of the United the swords of vengeance and the crumpled steel States. Superman for the Animals was kid friendly. of anger. We hope this helps you, and we know Still, there was honesty as the warped leader of a producing it has helped us.” It was apparent that gang of more innocent boys was “sent into heavy Paul was more than ready to continue the legacy duty with a psychologist” after discovering he’d killed that he and Jenette shared “like a hundred” animals on his own. with so many, and which The story’s message of championing the underdog, began so long ago. even if that meant an actual dog, was meaningful to doris day This article is dedicated to the Ms. Kahn. She quoted writer Mark Millar’s dialogue many heroes who gave their while writing about social advocacy in the book, Superman: Cover to Cover: “You inspired me to do the right thing … and time and talent to serve the public through DC Comics. you did it just by being who you are. I realized I don’t need to be Special thanks go to Paul Levitz, Jerry Ordway, John Ostrander, Bob Rozakis, and Marv Wolfman for their Superman to stand up for what’s right! You showed me that being a hero insights, and to Jeff O’Bryant at Empire Auctions for isn’t about fighting tough or throwing your weight around. It’s really supplying original art images. about being willing to help those who can’t fight for themselves.” Paul Levitz served as DC’s president and publisher after Jenette retired Comics historian EDDY ZENO is the author of the in 2002; he returned to comic-book writing in 2009. Working side-by-side must-have volume Curt Swan: A Life in Comics with Ms. Kahn since she started at the company, Paul humbly responds (Vanguard Productions, 2002). 60 • BACK ISSUE • Jenette Kahn Issue

Alex Boney

By any objective measure, 1993 was a boom year for the comics industry. Comic-book companies were being launched left and right. Individual issues of comics were selling in the millions—the first time sales had reached that level since the Golden Age of the late ’30s and early ’40s. Thousands of direct-market comics-specialty shops were springing up all over the United States. Comics news and “events” such as the “Death of Superman” were making national headlines, and comics writers and artists were becoming pop-culture superstars. We all know how this story ends, of course. As the speculators who drove the boom lost interest and moved on, the industry contracted severely less than two years later, pulling the rug out from under retailers and exposing the deep flaws that existed in the economic model the comics industry had embraced. But despite all the handwringing of the mid-’90s, not everything that emerged in 1993 was toxic or doomed to failure. The story of DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint, which launched that year, is instead one of endurance, perseverance, and artistic integrity. Greenlighted by Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz and spearheaded by line editor Karen Berger, Vertigo remains one of the most successful and respected ventures in the history of comics publishing. Nearly 20 years after its launch, Vertigo continues to produce innovative material while nurturing some of the best new talent in the industry. It’s a company that probably shouldn’t have survived—especially during the ’90s, when surface and image seemed to trump depth and substance. But because Vertigo was defined both by the financial backing of DC and by a commitment to creativity, the company was able to weather the wild fluctuations of the market and endure as a model of adult publishing in a medium that was listing hard toward the juvenile.

ANATOMY LESSON Although Vertigo was officially launched in 1993, the imprint is the result of a convergence of events (and people) stretching back to the late 1970s. Many of the things Vertigo came to be known for—creator ownership, mature-reader appeal, and alt-comix sensibilities—actually had been pioneered by earlier companies and creators. In 1977 brothers Jan and Dean Mullaney founded Eclipse Comics, a company that placed a heavy emphasis on artists’ and writers’ ownership over the material they created. Eclipse also favored the creation of original, full-length graphic novels and spearheaded the direct-market model for comics distribution. In 1978, Eclipse published Don McGregor and Paul Gulacy’s Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species—the first original graphic novel sold

You’ll Meet Her One Day An undated Dave McKean painting of the breakout character from Sandman, Death. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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NATURAL CONSEQUENCES Karen Berger, who majored in English and minored in journalism and art history at Brooklyn College in the late ’70s, was hired by DC Comics as an editorial assistant to Paul Levitz in 1979. DC had experienced a fair amount of turmoil in the years leading up to Berger’s appointment. Publisher Jenette Kahn had guided the company through both an explosion and an implosion in 1977–1978, and DC was trying to figure out its place in the new direct market that threatened to disperse sales and reduce readership. Berger entered the industry at a time of enormous flux, and her first assignments were instrumental in guiding the trajectory of her career. After working with Levitz for two years, Berger was given her own books to edit in 1981. When Joe Orlando stepped down as editor of DC’s

long-running horror/suspense anthology book House of Mystery, Berger took over editorial duties (#292, May 1981). According to Berger, the assignment was both a perfect fit and a testing ground: “I didn’t read comics as a kid, and like many women, I was not in tune with the superhero genre that totally dominated comics. Back then, DC was still (thankfully) publishing the last vestiges of the once-popular horror/ mystery titles of the early ’70s. And it was on House of Mystery, an anthology title of memorable and unmemorable stories alike, that I began to work on what many people call the ‘weird’ stuff: stories that probe into the complex and oftentimes dark facets of human nature, tales of ordinary people in extraordinary situations, and other odd things” (Vertigo “On the Ledge” column, Jan. 1993). Though House of Mystery was rooted in the darker, edgier side of DC’s publication history, Berger’s early work at DC was also tied firmly to the company’s predominant genre: superheroes. Berger was appointed editor of Legion of Super-Heroes shortly after Paul Levitz, her mentor, returned to write the title with #284 (Feb. 1982). She would go on to edit a vast array of Legion-related series and miniseries (some of the most complicated and continuity-dense superhero comics in the history of the medium) throughout the rest of the decade. Berger also inherited editorial chores on New Talent Showcase in 1984 and spearheaded the fantasy hero series Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, which was written by Dan Mishkin and Gary Cohn and illustrated by Ernie Colón. She worked on Arion, Lord of Atlantis and Blue Beetle, and she was appointed editor of George Pérez’s newly relaunched Wonder Woman in 1987 (a book she would stay with for more than five years). While Berger kept a foot in superhero comics throughout the ’80s (and into the ’90s), she never relinquished her interest in DC’s dark fantasy and supernatural books. A year after she began working with Levitz on LOSH, Berger took over as editor of Saga of the Swamp Thing. It was her experience on this book, perhaps more than any of her other professional work, that prepared her to adapt to (and ultimately shape) the literary and imaginative comics explosion at DC later in the decade.

SWAMPED Because the ’80s began with a comics-market field that was more level than it had been in decades, DC and Marvel quickly recognized the need to adjust to new readership expectations. In 1983, Marvel Comics launched its Epic Comics imprint, which published comics without the CCA seal of approval and which offered creators ownership rights and royalties. Epic co-editors Archie Goodwin and Al Milgrom allowed their writers and artists a vast amount of creative latitude, resulting in some of the most progressive comics of the decade. 1985 in particular was a watershed year for the company. In that year, Epic published David Michelinie’s The Bozz Chronicles (a six-issue series about an alien detective in Victorian England), Rick Veitch’s cerebral and psychedelic The One, and J. M. DeMatteis and Jon J Muth’s Moonshadow (a 12-issue whimsical coming-of-age tale that was the first completely painted American comic-book series). Epic continued to publish trailblazing work by new and experimental artists throughout the ’80s and into the ’90s. DeMatteis teamed with artist Kent Williams to create Blood: A Tale in 1987, while Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill produced the scathing and outrageous political satire Marshal Law. In 1988, Epic released Bill Sienkiewicz’s Stray Toasters as it was beginning to translate, color, and publish Katsuhiro Otomo’s Akira.

The Big ’80s DC Comics’ Dick Giordano and Karen Berger. Courtesy of DC Comics. 62 • BACK ISSUE • Jenette Kahn Issue

through the direct market at comic-book specialty shops. Eclipse went on to publish a number of key creator-owned titles throughout the ’80s, including Max Allan Collins and Terry Beatty’s Ms. Tree and Steve Gerber’s Destroyer Duck (1982), Scott McCloud’s Zot! (1984), and Tim Truman’s Scout (1985). Eclipse wasn’t the only company to steer the trend toward creator ownership and experimental publishing in the ’80s. The directmarket model had put smaller comics companies on more even footing with publishing giants DC and Marvel, and most of these smaller companies were operating without the constraints of the Comics Code Authority (CCA). As a result, a steady stream of diverse and genre-bending material began streaming into comics stores throughout the decade. Capital Comics, founded in 1981, was the early home of Steve Rude and Mike Baron’s Nexus and Baron’s The Badger. While Capital’s comics venture was short-lived, startup First Comics recruited many of Capital’s creators under the editorial leadership of Mike Gold in 1983 and went on to launch high-profile projects such as Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! and Mike Grell’s Jon Sable, Freelance. Based in San Diego, Bill and Steve Schanes founded Pacific Comics in 1981 and jump-started both Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer and Sergio Aragonés’ Groo the Wanderer. Comico, founded a year later, was the home of Matt Wagner’s Mage and Grendel. Dave Sim had experienced early underground success with Cerebus (1977), but Fantagraphics and Mirage Comics initiated the more widespread black-and-white indie comics boom with Los Bros. Hernadez’s Love and Rockets (1982) and Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1984). In short, the comics industry looked much different in 1985 than it had just five years earlier. But as rapidly as the scene had changed in the first half of the decade, the evolution of the industry throughout the rest of the ’80s relied predominantly on the creative and editorial direction of someone who got her start at one of the Big Two at the beginning of the decade.

And in 1990–1991, Epic recruited Ted McKeever to write and draw the darkly humored, post–apocalyptic Plastic Forks and Metropol. Epic was probably the company that most directly influenced Vertigo’s imprint-within-a-majorcompany model, but Epic never quite consolidated its work or branded itself in a way that prepared it for longevity. DC Comics didn’t launch a “mature readers” imprint as early as Marvel did, but the company did move toward more inventive publishing in an attempt to compete with independent publishers. The first major, high-profile work in this mold was Frank Miller’s Ronin (1983). Miller had become wildly popular after a critically acclaimed stint on Marvel’s Daredevil, and his DC miniseries about futuristic sci-fi samurai warriors early ’70s, couldn’t really cut it for an perfectly captured the pop-cultural ’80s audience. The audience has zeitgeist of the early ’80s. But DC’s changed, their environment has biggest hire came in 1984, when Len changed, and their notion of horror Wein called the relatively new British has changed. For me, the only areas in talent Alan Moore to ask him if he which we can successfully compete would take over writing chores on are in the novel things that we can Swamp Thing. Wein was editing a do with our storytelling that cannot ALAN MOORE book starring the character he had be successfully duplicated by other popularized in the 1970s, and he media, and in the weight, depth, thought the dark and serious sensibilities Moore had and moment of our actual stories…. With Swamp displayed in British anthology comics 2000 A.D. and Thing, we’re trying the best we can to construct Warrior made Moore a natural fit for the title. stories that have some sort of real human resonance The biggest struggle Moore had early in the series and some moments of genuine unease” (The Comics was finding a voice that could effectively convey Journal #93, p. 81). horror to an ’80s audience that had become desensitized Only a few issues after Moore began working on by the prevalence of slasher flicks and post–Vietnam Swamp Thing, Wein departed the book and left editorial cynicism. As Moore noted in an interview with Gary duties to Karen Berger. But according to Moore, a Groth in 1984, “Specifically, when approaching creatively supportive structure had been established that Swamp Thing, I could see a number of problems. The allowed him to tell the provocative, pensive stories he was first was that Len and Berni[e]’s original conception of hired to write: “Working with Len on the book was an the character, while it had worked perfectly back in the absolute dream. Everything seemed to come together Jenette Kahn Issue

Pushing Boundaries The relationship between Swamp Thing and Abby Cable (later Holland) took root under the pen of writer Alan Moore. (left) The Saga of the Swamp Thing #34 (Mar. 1985), by John Totleben. (right) An original art page from that issue, penciled by Stephen R. Bissette and inked by Totleben. TM & © DC Comics.

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Sweet Dreams A Tony Harris painting from 1994’s The Sandman: Gallery of Dreams. Courtesy of Heritage.

sought to fill the void of (and capitalize on) Vertigo’s most lucrative property. While the flood of Sandman-related books could be dismissed as derivative, some of the works that emerged from this period (especially Mike Carey’s ongoing Lucifer series) stood as strong independent works that eventually carved out critical reputations of their own. It would be easy to make the argument that the main reason Vertigo survived the industry collapse of the mid-’90s is that it had the backing of a larger corporate engine. Vertigo is owned by DC Comics, which in turn is owned by Warner Bros. But this argument dismisses the quality and innovation that have been the hallmarks of Vertigo since its inception. Vertigo’s critical and commercial misses are at least as prevalent as its hits. For every Sandman, Invisibles, and 100 Bullets, there are dozens of titles that never quite found an audience for one reason or another. But this doesn’t mean that Berger and her team haven’t tried to keep Vertigo fresh and relevant. While other DC imprints (Paradox Press and Helix) have come and gone and other comics companies have folded in the face of crushing market forces, Vertigo has continued to build on the trust it established among its readership and its creators in the early ’90s. After two decades of publication, Vertigo has to be considered a success story in the alternative comics field. According to Berger, there are clear reasons for Vertigo’s longevity: “It’s a couple of things. We’re known for producing work by writers who have become sort of icons in comics—and even outside of comics, if you look as someone like Neil Gaiman and his success. And the writers who started Vertigo still continue to be on my short list of the greatest writers still working in comics. The books that they’ve worked on—Sandman and Preacher and Invisibles and Hellblazer and Y: The Last Man and Fables—have become perennials. Vertigo’s biggest success story as a publisher is that we also became a book publisher, as opposed to just a periodical 74 • BACK ISSUE • Jenette Kahn Issue

publisher. Our books live on in collections that constantly pull in new readers and new generations. You can go and pick up a book, and it’s still in print, and we’re constantly going back to press on so many of these books. We’ve become a healthy backlist publisher, and in many ways our backlist has become our frontlist. ‘New classics’ always sounds like an old term, but our books really have become touchpoints for people who really want to read cool, smart, out-there, challenging comics. I think that’s one of the reasons why Vertigo has become—and remains—as successful as it is. “I think the other reason is that we’re always looking to bring in new writers and artists. People will rattle off the names of writers who come out of Vertigo and still write for Vertigo or have gone off to work for Marvel or other companies or to self-publish. But if you look at the track record of writers who started their careers here, it’s pretty incredible. I don’t mean to sound cocky about this, but it’s a really long list. If you look at Marvel’s top writers— Ed Brubaker, Mark Millar, Jason Aaron— a lot of those guys got their start here. I think it’s a testament to the editors here, too. We’re always looking to bring in and to train new talent. The exciting thing about comics is that it’s such a fresh and raw medium, and takes a relatively quick amount of time to do a comic as opposed to, say, a film. You have a better shot of getting your foot in the door at a comics company. The emerging talent thing has always been prominent in my viewpoint of what comics should be about. People like Scott Snyder and Jeff Lemire and G. Willow Wilson—we’re always trying to bring in new people and get them started.” After nearly two full decades of publication, Vertigo continues to renovate itself and adapt to new market realities. Some things change, while others remain the same. In the case of Vertigo, these things always seem to be intermingled. When DC launched its “New 52” initiative in 2011, many of Vertigo’s DC-based characters were pulled back into the DC Universe proper. Swamp Thing and Animal Man received their own titles again, while Shade and Madame Xanadu were pulled into the new Justice League Dark. John Constantine, Vertigo’s most enduring mainstay, inhabits a nebulous place between the two lines. Despite losing the supernatural characters that had anchored the line during its 1993 launch, Vertigo is not particularly worse off. Recent critical successes The Unwritten, Sweet Tooth, Daytripper, and American Vampire reflect the diversity and breadth of what the company has become, and Vertigo debuting a number of additional new titles in 2012 as others draw to a close. Despite the challenges of publishing in such an uncertain and unpredictable industry, Vertigo remains a touchstone for creative invention and renewal. ALEX BONEY is a freelance writer and English teacher currently living near Kansas City, Missouri. His graduate work in English at the Ohio State University explored the connection between superhero comics and modernist art and literature. He regularly contributes articles to BACK ISSUE magazine and presents work at the Comic Arts Conference in San Diego. While most of Alex’s academic and professional work is focused on 1930s and ’40s superheroes, he remains partial to the Question, Power Girl, and the Martian Manhunter.

Tied to His Job

An anniversary tribute to DC Comics’ Bob Wayne, done a few years back by cartoonist Sam Viviano. Courtesy of Bob Wayne. (inset) Bob Wayne, ca. 1980, at his original comic shop, Fantastic Worlds. Photo from Bob’s archives.

Brett Weiss

Bob Wayne has been a professional in the comics industry since 1976, when his first story was published in issue #5 of Charlton’s Scary Tales. Prior to that, beginning in 1974, he published Tales from Texas, the official fanzine of the Dallas Area Science Fiction Society. Tales from Texas ran for 19 issues and featured contributions from such luminaries as Roy Thomas, Lewis Shiner, Buddy Saunders, Tony Isabella, Joe Staton, and Christopher Lee (the latter via a lengthy interview). In 1980, Wayne opened the first of several Fantastic Worlds retail stores, a Fort Worth-based chain noted for hosting big-name comic-book creators and science-fiction authors, including Chris Claremont and Douglas Adams. In 1987, Wayne joined the staff of DC Comics, where he co-wrote (with Lewis Shiner) the eight-issue miniseries, Time Masters (1990). Currently, Wayne is DC’s vice president of sales. – Brett Weiss BRETT WEISS: Do you remember your first comic book? What was it, and where did you get it? BOB WAYNE: My paternal grandfather was a bus driver in the late 1950s. He used to go through the bus after his shift, and if anyone had left behind a comic book, he picked it up and brought it to me. And I

wanted the Superman titles. I couldn’t comprehend why anyone would abandon their comics—how could you not want to re-read them? I suspect that is the start of why I chose to keep and collect comics. My mother would read the comics to me, which soon lead to her teaching me to read them myself. I don’t remember which issue of which Superman title was the first comic book that I read, but I remember the first one that I bought with my own money: Superman #137 (cover-dated May 1960), which I saw on a convenience store spinner rack in Galveston, Texas. (I keep a copy in my office at DC Comics.) WEISS: Times have changed to some degree, but during the ’60s, ’70s, and even the ’80s, telling someone in school that you read comics was a good way to get your head flushed down the toilet. Did you have any comic-book reading friends in junior high or high school, or did you keep the hobby to yourself? WAYNE: I had friends in school that also read comics, but none that read as many as I did. Never tried to keep it a secret. The debut of the Batman television series was well timed for me! I bought one of my friends’ Marvel collection when I was in the seventh grade. A couple of years later I met Paul McSpadden, the first person I knew who had more comics than I did, and the first person I met who knew more Jenette Kahn Issue

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Back Issue #57