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Batman’s Weirdest Team-Ups • Orlando’s Weird Adventure Comics • Weird War Tales • Weird Mystery Tales Ditko’s Shade the Changing Man & Stalker • Chaykin’s Iron Wolf • Crumb’s Weirdo • Starlin & Wrightson’s The Weird

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Volume 1, Number 78 February 2015 Celebrating the Best Comics of the '70s, '80s, '90s, and Beyond!

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

WEIRD logo TM & © DC Comics.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Alan Craddock COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mark Arnold Carol Lay Terry Austin Paul Levitz Peter Bagge Andy Mangels Dewey Cassell Scott Nickel Howard Chaykin Luigi Novi Shaun Clancy Dennis O’Neil Jon B. Cooke Gary Panter Robert Crumb Martin Pasko DC Comics Tom Powers J. M DeMatteis Sasa Rakezic Mark Evanier Bob Rozakis Mary Fleener Rac Shade Drew Friedman Steve Skeates Carl Gafford Jim Starlin Macedonio Garcia Bryan D. Stroud Mike Gold Pvt. “Lucky” Taylor Grand Comics Steven Thompson Database Carol Tyler Robert Greenberger Jim Vadeboncoeur Bill Griffith Don Vaughan Jack C. Harris www.SamuelFrench.com Heritage Comics Len Wein Auctions Jay Williams John Holmstrom Marv Wolfman Bob Kathman Dennis Worden Jim Kingman Bernie Wrightson Aline Kominsky-Crumb

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FLASHBACK: Weird Batman Team-Ups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 The Caped Crusader’s out-of-the-ordinary co-stars FLASHBACK: Orlando’s Weird Adventures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10 The comic-book smorgasbord that was Joe Orlando’s Adventure Comics BEYOND CAPES: Those Were Weird Times: Weird Mystery Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .23 From Kirby to Destiny to Eve, you never knew who or what you’d find in this DC title BEYOND CAPES: The Horrors of Combat: Weird War Tales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 This bizarre battle book proved that war really was hell BEYOND CAPES: IronWolf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41 This early Howard Chaykin swashbuckler got his start in DC’s Weird Worlds DITKO DOUBLE-SHOT: The Brief Story of Stalker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46 Paul Levitz remembers the Man with the Stolen Soul DITKO DOUBLE-SHOT: Shade, the Changing Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47 Steve Ditko’s editor, Jack C. Harris, discusses one of DC’s weirdest heroes PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Weirdo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 Robert Crumb headlines an all-star panel of underground comix artists revisiting this offbeat anthology WHAT THE--?!: Weird Romance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72 The unusual Eclipse Comics one-shot that was also a stage musical PRO2PRO: Big-Eyed Superheroics: The Weird . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74 Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson look back at their unusual DC superhero series BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78 Reader reaction

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-in-Chief, 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 art by Alan Craddock. Batman and Deadman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2015 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Weird Issue

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In selecting Batman’s weirdest team-ups of the Bronze Age of Comics, and by “weird” I mean tales both supernatural and out-ofthe-ordinary, one clear pattern emerged: Never judge the weirdness of a Batman team-up by its cover. More than likely, the interior story will be weirder. The strangest team-ups often make the most sense. “Normal” superhero team-ups are sprinkled with the oddest moments. Supernatural elements are treated as so matter-of-fact that “weird” need not apply. And one particular story stands apart (barely!) as uncanny because it could not have happened. So what do I know for certain? It’s sure been a lot of fun researching for discussion the weirdest of Batman’s weird team-ups during the Bronze Age! Before we get to them, though, a different kind of weirdness requires some explanation, and that is Batman’s character as interpreted by writer Bob Haney in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) scripts credited to him in this article. Batman in B&B was a strong, tough crimefighter. However, he was not always the World’s Greatest Detective, escape artist, and hand-to-hand combatant as depicted by other Bat-writers during that time, among them Denny O’Neil, Frank Robbins, Len Wein, and David V. Reed. Haney’s Caped Crusader could be flawed to suit Haney’s stories. For example, whereas Batman could easily handle a group of attacking thugs in the pages of Batman and Detective Comics, the Batman in Brave and the Bold could just as easily be subdued by a similar group of ruffians, as long as it allowed Haney to put bob haney Batman in a dangerous situation that lent more excitement to the narrative. Bob Rozakis, former writer, “Answer Man,” and production manager at DC, recalls, “We used to joke in the office that all these stories took place on Earth-B (for Boltinoff, Brave & Bold, Bob Haney—your choice), but editor Murray Boltinoff’s primary goal with his books was to tell entertaining stories. Sure, Bob drove the continuity train off the tracks all the time, but the stories were always interesting.” Haney’s Batman also tended to act rashly, or inexplicably adopt an over-the-top Popeye Doyle tone to his temper, because the writer preferred his Batman reacting that way. Haney’s Batman deviated in personality from others’ interpretations, even his own, because in the end Haney’s creative concern was not about character, it was about plot—driving it, propelling it, catapulting it, taking the reader on a thrill ride from start to finish. Because of all these factors, and long after the howl-to-do over it, Haney’s Brave and the Bold stories have done something quite unexpected. They have stood the test of time. How weird, yet satisfying, is that? So here we go. I’ve arranged almost two dozen Batman team-ups into manageable sections, basically to keep some order to the weirdness, ranging from supernatural to out of the ordinary to peculiar one-shots, all leading up to, in my humble, slightly addled opinion, THE weirdest Batman team-ups of the Bronze Age!

The Things We Do for Love Our cover stars are at odds in this offbeat Batman/ Deadman adventure. Cover to The Brave and the Bold #104 (Nov.–Dec. 1972) by Nick Cardy. TM & © DC Comics.

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Jim Kingman

BATMAN’S SUPERNATURAL TEAM-UP BUDDIES Though a character grounded in reality, Batman encountered and enlisted a diversified quartet of supernatural beings on several occasions during the Bronze Age. Two of these adventures are among the best stories Haney ever wrote. Batman and Deadman Deadman appeared with Batman in The Brave and the Bold #79 (Aug.–Sept. 1968), 86 (Oct.–Nov. 1969), 104 (Nov.–Dec. 1972), and 133 (Apr. 1977); DC Special Series #8 (The Brave and the Bold) 1978; and Detective Comics #500 (Mar. 1981). There’s a contradiction here: Deadman, a truly supernatural character, was involved in some fairly realistic team-ups with Batman in The Brave and the Bold. I’ve reread his appearances in B&B, scouring for the “weird,” but other than Deadman himself—former circus aerialist Boston Brand, shot down before the launch of his trapeze routine and immediately resurrected as a wandering ghost by the spiritual Rama Kushna and given by her the opportunity to find his killer by possessing the bodies of the living—there’s not much weird to recap in B&B #79, 86, 104, and 133. Case in point, B&B #104’s “Second Chance for a Deadman?” by Haney and Jim Aparo. Batman “summons” Deadman to help him infiltrate, expose, and shut down an elite Florida spa that is actually a cover for a crooked outfit that gives old, endangered criminals new identities. Deadman possesses the boyfriend of the woman who runs the operation, falls in love with her, tells her who he really is, and then murders her to save Batman, taking a message given him earlier by Rama to mean that if he kills her, she will become a ghost and the two can spend eternity together. No such luck. Instead, we get one of the most compelling, emotional, and tragic endings in B&B history. There’s nothing supernatural about this story; it’s as brutally realistic a ghost story as can be imagined, which makes it weird in an out-ofthe-ordinary sense, and a highlight of the Haney/Aparo B&B run. Still, Deadman’s presence in this article simply cannot end here. He does after all share the spotlight on this magazine’s cover with Batman. Fortunately, Deadman did have one bizarre supernatural outing involving the Caped Crusader, and I will be appraising it shortly in the Batman/Sgt. Rock section.

compass and impales two soldiers working for Marshall Offal, a terrorist. He unleashes a giant squid that devours Offal. He also transforms a terrorist to stone and encases him on a cliffside. These violent sequences are not graphic by today’s standards, but for a 1970s Comics Code Authority-approved comic book, they’re pretty harsh. In B&B #116’s “Grasp of the Killer Cult,” members of a World War II outfit called the Dirty Dozers plowed over a sacred European cemetery and disturbed the rest of evil men, whose spirits then nested in the soldiers for decades. In 1974, the spirits awaken and possess the Dirty Dozers to murder innocents. During this story, the Spectre dissolves a pick-ax, traps a man’s arms in a tombstone, turns a gun into a spider, travels back in time, and impersonates the goddess Kali, ultimately freeing the Dozers of possession. Compared to the Spectre’s behavior in Adventure #436, the Spectre is downright civil in this team-up with Batman. The Spectre’s encounters with Batman in B&B #180 and 199 are more of a throwback to the more fantastic character depicted in the Astral Avenger’s late-1960s series. These are grander tales, with largerthan-life villains and cosmic battles between the Spectre and his foes. The epic scenes are depicted in large panels over several pages. It’s a visual treat, and fortunately Batman isn’t dwarfed by all the chaos.

Batman and the Spectre Batman teamed with the Spectre in The Brave and the Bold #75 (Dec. 1967–Jan. 1968), 116 (Dec. 1974–Jan. 1975), 180 (Nov. 1981), and 199 (June 1983). The weirdest aspect of Batman’s team-ups with the Spectre in B&B during the Bronze Age is that the stories couldn’t convey the dark tone of the Spectre depicted so convincingly and controversially in the Spectre’s ten-issue run in Adventure Comics #431–440 [see this issue’s Weird Adventure Comics article following—ed.]. It is interesting that Aparo drew that Spectre series and the Batman/Spectre team-ups in B&B #116 and 180, and writer Michael Fleisher wrote the Spectre series and the Batman/Spectre team-up in B&B #180, but neither could capture the menacing essence of their Joe Orlando-edited version and transfer it to the Murray Boltinoff- and Dick Giordanoedited B&B renditions. Not that these are bad stories; far from it. They’re just tame if you are familiar with the Spectre’s Adventure tales. We can actually compare the Spectre’s behavior in #116, published in 1974, to his actions in Adventure Comics #436, published a month earlier, to see just how different Haney’s version was. In Adventure #436, the Spectre, an uninhibited spirit of vengeance, enlarges a nautical

Tales of the Unexpected Three odd moments in Batman team-up history, courtesy of writer Bob Haney and artist Jim Aparo: (top) Deadman in love, from The Brave and the Bold #104; (center) Sgt. Rock enlists Batman to track down Hitler, from B&B #108; and (bottom) Batman joins forces with the Joker, from B&B #111. TM & © DC Comics.

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Batman and the Phantom Stranger The Phantom Stranger aided Batman in The Brave and the Bold # 89 (Apr.–May 1970), 98 (Oct.–Nov. 1971), and 145 (Dec. 1978). B&B #98, the notorious “Batman as godfather” issue, was discussed by editor Michael Eury in BACK ISSUE #66, so I will focus instead on another weird Batman/Phantom Stranger outing, “A Choice of Dooms,” by Haney and Aparo, published in B&B #145. Batman is determined to bust the Ice House Gang, a group of diamond smugglers operating out of Gotham City. The Caped Crusader learns from the Phantom Stranger, who uses cloud shapes to visually enhance his warnings for some unexplained reason (other than he finds them “strange and compelling”), that the Ice House Gang’s leader, Kaluu, utilizes voodoo to permanently remove all threats to his evil empire. For all of Kaluu’s needling power, and it’s pretty substantial as he’s even able to raise the dead as mindless slaves in his thrall, he is no match for Batman and the Phantom Stranger. In fact, given how the Phantom Stranger is able to turn Kaluu’s voodoo powers fatally against him, I’d say no one is a match for the mysterious “Master of the Unknown.” Batman and the Demon Batman first met Jack Kirby’s Demon in The Brave and the Bold #109 (Oct.–Nov. 1973), and then again in B&B #137 (Oct. 1977), which was actually a sequel to the Batman/Spectre team-up in B&B #75. If I were to select my favorite Batman supernatural team-up of all time, “Gotham Bay, Be My Grave,” by Haney and Aparo and published in B&B #109, would be it. A volcanic creature emerges from Gotham Bay and begins a deadly rampage, viciously murdering anyone who wears the uniform of a sea captain. Enter Batman and the Demon to hopefully destroy this monster. Everything about this tale, from the creature’s origin off Krakatoa in the late 1800s, to Batman’s first encounter with the Demon, to the fine use of Jason Blood and his supporting characters, to the Batman’s valiant but futile battle with the creature, to the Demon’s discovery of how to permanently destroy it, to Aparo’s sinister depiction of the Demon himself, is outstanding. There’s even an unexpected cameo by TV’s Lieutenant Columbo. It is a great story, as entertaining as when I first read it at the age of 11 to my present age of 52, having reread it several times for the purpose of this article.

Guardians Gotham and Ghostly Despite having the same artist—Jim Aparo—the Spectre teaming with Batman in The Brave and the Bold was kinder and gentler than the vengeful Spectre appearing in solo tales in Adventure Comics. Stunning Aparo original art from B&B #116, courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). TM & © DC Comics.

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On the flip side, I don’t suppose there is a weirder, goofier moment in Batman’s team-up history than when the Caped Crusader is transformed into a vampire bat, literally, in B&B #137. On page 13, panel 2, the evil wizard Shahn-Zi casts a mighty spell on the Caped Crusader. “You will stop play acting at being a bat…,” he commands, “and become one!” Suddenly, Batman transforms into an actual bat right before the reader’s eyes! Batman still retains his extraordinary mind, so he takes to the skies of Gotham, flapping his wings and startling the populace, all the while seeking aid to get out of this unintentionally hysterical predicament. He does, of course, at story’s end. It’s about as weird a situation as Batman’s ever been in.

BATMAN’S MAYBE SO/MAYBE NO SUPERNATURAL TEAM-UP BUDDIES The following characters were created by super-science (bio-restorative formula, chemical serum, surgically implanted device), so they are not technically supernatural beings. They obviously look supernatural, and they’ve certainly dealt with the supernatural, and I’m not denying that some unexplained factors play into their origins. But by not being completely of the supernatural, I’ve chosen to place their team-ups with Batman in their own section. Batman and the Creeper Batman joined forces with the Creeper in The Brave and the Bold #80 (Oct.–Nov. 1968), 143 (Sept.–Oct. 1978), and 178 (Sept. 1981), and Detective Comics #418 (Dec. 1971) and 447 (May 1975). For something a little out of the ordinary, go with B&B #143’s “Cast the First Stone,” written by Haney and Cary Burkett and illustrated by Aparo. You and I may never understand why Haney picked on Walter Cronkite. Cronkite was a well-respected broadcast journalist, a good guy. Not in Haney’s comic-book universe. Cronkite—er, Monty Walcott, America’s most revered newsman— was revealed as the leader of a drug combine! Batman and the Creeper are each in immediate disbelief, but that doesn’t stop them from bringing Walcott down, and I guess expediting Dan Rather as his replacement. Then, for something both weird and thoughtful, check out B&B #178, by Alan Brennert and Aparo. Relevancy as a genre in comics had been dead almost a decade, which makes “Paperchase,” a resounding critique of the Moral Majority and its social-herd mentality, pretty much a weird anomaly at the time of its publication in June of 1981. A series of apparently unconnected murders has both Batman and the Creeper in pursuit of the killer, who turns out to be a “weirdo” (as described by Creeper on the cover) made of paper. This Paper Man exists through the subconscious of a bigoted commentator patterned after the Reverend Jerry Falwell and the hatred of his listeners, the Moral Majority. (The Paper Man regenerates itself with white paper, incidentally.) As bizarre and action-packed as any Haney tale, with fine Aparo artwork, it also invited the reader to think about how the country was shifting once again in its definition of democracy.

Weird, Wild Stuff You don’t see this happening every day in a Batman comic! (left) Cover to Brave and Bold #137 (Oct. 1977), penciled by Rich Buckler and inked by Jim Aparo. (right) Even the oddball Creeper considers this villain a “weirdo”! Cover to B&B #178 (Sept. 1981) by Buckler and Dick Giordano. TM & © DC Comics.

Batman and Man-Bat Bronze, but it’s a great tale and deserves a quick nod. Introduced in Detective Comics #400 as both friend and foe of Batman, In B&B #122, Swamp Thing is taken into captivity and strung up and also appearing in several subsequent appearances in ’Tec and for show on a Gotham City street. This inhuman act will ironically Batman, Man-Bat only made two Brave and the Bold appearances: lead to Swampy rescuing the city from destruction by a host of B&B #119 (June 1975) and 165 (Aug. 1980). invasive giant plants. “Bring Back Killer Krag,” by Haney and Aparo and published in “Murray enjoyed working with me as a colorist,” remembers Carl B&B #119, is one of my favorites, although it doesn’t do much to Gafford, whose first coloring assignment was in Detective Comics #443, enhance the reputation of Gotham Natural History Museum curator a reprint of the Creeper’s first appearance in Showcase. “Either Joe Kirk Langstorm, a.k.a. Man-Bat. Orlando or Paul Levitz didn’t want B&B regular colorist Jerry Serpe Hitman Killer Krag has fled to the Caribbean island of to color the Batman and Swamp Thing team-up as Serpe was Santa Cruz, where he will remain protected by its ruler, more concerned about getting pages done fast, so I was Domingo Valdez, after successfully making a hit on suggested, as I would follow the way Swampy looked racehorse enthusiast Augie Moran, despite Batman in his own comic, colored by Tatjana Wood. Murray and Commissioner Gordon’s attempt to assure his liked my work on that story, and in the following safety. Moran’s wife offers a reward for the capture issue I colored a team-up of Batman, Plastic Man, of her husband’s killer. While Batman is in it for and Metamorpho. Murray never got the recognition justice, Man-Bat is in it for the money, and his he was due, not at DC and certainly not by fandom.” arrogance, prompting Batman to call him an “ego-mad BATMAN’S OUT-OF-THE-ORDINARY nightmare,” will cost the lives of two ex-CIA agents TEAM-UPS who also attempt to claim the bounty. This is a taut Batman and Kamandi thriller until we get to page 16, and then matters get Time travel played a necessary role in uniting Batman really weird with one swig of the vial! Batman and carl gafford with Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth, in The Brave and Man-Bat have been taken captive, and are on the the Bold #120 (July 1975) and 157 (Dec. 1979). verge of execution. But Batman has become a batCaricature by Carl Gafford. B&B #120, by Haney and Aparo, stands out. beast, startling his captors. Langstrom had secretly slipped Batman a Deep in a cave in Mount Rushmore, on a post–apocalyptic Earth where pocketed bat-gland serum which transformed the Caped Crusader after he drank it. Two man-bats are better than one in this instance, animals rule and men have become animals, a small group of trapped and the two snag Killer Krag and flee Santa Cruz via immense men and women seek help from the past to find a better future. bat-wings. Later, Batman reverts to his normal self after administering Manton, the elder, sprinkles American Indian magic powder on the image of Batman on the cover of The Brave and the Bold #118, and then an anti-bat serum. Thank goodness! This climax is too much! something very weird happens. In 1975, Batman suddenly collapses, and his spirit leaves his body and transports into the future, where he Batman and Swamp Thing Batman’s collaborations with Swamp Thing were chronicled by four becomes whole and quickly learns he is in a world no longer his own. different writers over a 24-year period: Len Wein (Swamp Thing #7, Soon after, he becomes Captain Bat, leader of a gorilla slave squad, Nov.–Dec. 1973); Bob Haney (The Brave and the Bold #122, Oct. 1975); heading the pursuit to capture “a yellow-haired animal,” more familiar Martin Pasko (The Brave and the Bold #176, July 1981, which sets the to us as Kamandi, the Last Boy on Earth! Eventually Batman and stage for Swampy’s big comeback in 1982); and Alan Moore (Swamp Kamandi will team up to aid Manton and his tribe escape the mountain Thing vol. 2 #53, Oct. 1986). Moore’s entry leans more Modern than where the presidential sculptures elicit awe and reverence from the Weird Issue

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Adventure Comics was pretty super before it got weird. One of DC Comics’ first titles had cover-featured at least one member of the Superman family since Superboy moved over from More Fun Comics with issue #103 in 1946. When Joe Orlando was coaxed by DC editorial director Carmine Infantino to become a staff editor in 1968, readers immediately knew that he was there to shake things up. It was a transitional year for the company, as Jack Liebowitz sold the firm to Kinney Services and, preparing to retire, left Infantino in charge of editorial. As some of the old guard, such as Jack Schiff, also retired, Orlando’s hiring was the first of several changes Infantino made to revitalize a company he felt was stale and rapidly losing ground to Marvel Comics. Orlando cut his teeth at the legendary EC Comics and spent the intervening years honing his skills as a storyteller, eschewing superheroics for joe orlando other genres. You could tell someone new was living in the House of Mystery Photo by Bob Rozakis. as Robby Reed [Dial H for Hero] was evicted by Cain, the new caretaker. Supernatural tales signaled a changing of the guard and over the next few years, Joe’s editorial load avoided DC’s primary-colored cast of characters. That changed in 1970 when Mike Sekowsky was fired as an editor late that year, leaving Infantino little choice but to assign Adventure Comics, featuring Supergirl, to Orlando. At the time, Joe was being assisted by E. Nelson Bridwell, who wound up writing an eightpager in issue #409 (Aug. 1971), signaling a shift in tone. Orlando immediately replaced Sekowsky with writer John Albano, making his superhero debut, with artists Bob Oksner and Vince Colletta (who could at least draw pretty girls).

MIXING THINGS UP Since these were the days of 25-cent/48-page books, each issue was rounded out with reprints, and Bridwell honored the title’s legacy by using Legion of SuperHeroes reprints. But incrementally, things were changing. Albano quickly dispatched the storylines Sekowsky had been exploring and went for more offbeat tales with fewer recurring players. And as Bridwell made way for Mark Hanerfeld, a fan who was hired by DC to write some fan-oriented text pages and briefly became an assistant editor, the reprints selected also got more interesting. The Legionnaires were gone and in #412 (Nov. 1971) we saw “The Man with Animal Powers,” the first Animal Man tale from Strange Adventures a few years earlier.

Weird Stuff Winging Your Way The Joe Orlando-edited Adventure Comics bore no resemblance to its Silver Age stint as a Superman Family title. Cover to issue #425 (Dec. 1972–Jan. 1973) by Michael Kaluta. TM & © DC Comics.

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Robert Greenberger

Teenaged Paul Levitz was a regular in the DC Comics halls, gathering up tidbits for The Comic Reader (which was once edited by Hanerfeld), and was therefore a witness to history. He comments to BACK ISSUE, “There was some neat stuff going on because Mark had more influence. Joe let Mark do the new-material backups by himself, and you can see his interests in what was produced. They have Mark’s footprints all over them, while Joe was playing with the Supergirl stuff. Superheroes were something [Joe] could never get himself patently excited about.” Hanerfeld’s tastes as a fan could also be found in the backup features which Orlando was commissioning to round out the 15-page lead stories. This explains the arrival of Zatanna in her first solo story, from Len Wein and Gray Morrow. Wein and Hanerfeld were contemporaries, but Morrow was a veteran who first began working in the 1950s and was an infrequent contributor to DC until that time. Wein went on to write several short Supergirl stories as Orlando experimented with the book’s rhythms. Steve Skeates, one of the newcomers editor Dick Giordano brought with him from Charlton Comics, got in on the fun with a Supergirl story in #417 (Mar. 1972), but he also co-wrote a Vigilante story with Marv Wolfman, illustrated by Morrow. “That Vigilante tale was an easy-as-pie example of what is usually referred to as the Marvel approach to comic-book construction— in large part due to Gray Morrow doing such a great job of pictorially telling Marv’s story,” Skeates said in his lengthy TwoMorrows interview (Alter Ego #84, BACK ISSUE #33–34). He continued to contribute to Supergirl tales, including stepping in to finish another Wolfman tale in Adventure #421. “I remember well one evening when Joe and I worked late into the night, rewriting, polishing, bouncing ideas off each other, trying to transform steve skeates Mike Sekowsky’s artwork based on a waytoo fannish Marv Wolfman plot outline, trying to force that thing into somehow becoming an actual workable, downright readable story. That was a truly creative fun time, and (quite honestly) a memory I’ll treasure forever.” Hanerfeld’s eclectic reprints included one of the few Frank Frazetta Shining Knight tales and an Enchantress story. Over the following months we were treated to a brand-new two-part Black Canary tale from Denny O’Neil and the wonderful Alex Toth, while an unpublished Golden Age Dr. Mid-Nite story finally saw print. With Orlando now editing The Phantom Stranger title, the Stranger’s original adventures were being reprinted in Adventure. By this point, Infantino cut back on DC’s assistant editors and Hanerfeld was out of work, although he later wound up replacing Gerda Gattel as librarian, and his reprint selections remained a fine mix. The Supergirl lead continued to shift to many hands including Sekowsky making a return to the drawing board, a situation that remained until issue #424. Skeates describes to BI his early work with Orlando, saying, “Joe Orlando had suddenly become my main source of income at that company—mystery stories for House of Mystery and House of Secrets, humor pieces for Plop!, and all sorts of fun stuff for Adventure! “I do believe Joe liked my dialogue and captions far more than my plots, which would explain why (subsequent to my first Supergirl story for which I did indeed provide the plot) I initially found myself Adventure-wise dialoging (that’s what it’s generally referred to, even though the so-called dialogist is also writing the captions) stories plotted by Marv Wolfman and E. Nelson Bridwell—mainly Supergirl tales,

Offbeat Superhero Stories (top) Bob Oksner’s bondage cover to Steve Skeates’ “All Men Are But Slaves,” from Adventure #417 (Mar. 1972). (This fall’s BI #84 is a Supergirl tribute, commemorating the 30th anniversary of her death in Crisis.) (below) Title page to that issue’s Vigilante backup, drawn by Gray Morrow.

TM & © DC Comics.

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Steven Thompson

Back in 1972, I was 13 years old and I said the word “weird” a lot. As I used it, it meant groovy, cool, or awesome. It also meant odd, strange, or off-putting as well as neat, super, or just plain enjoyable. In other words, to me, “weird” was an all-purpose word. It was my own special word. “Weird” was also a special word for DC Comics that year, with numerous titles bearing that adjective. Since 1968, Joe Orlando, the former EC, MAD, and Warren artist, had made a name for himself at DC editing its popular mystery titles. They weren’t technically “horror” titles. They weren’t allowed to be. After all, the Comics Code didn’t permit the use of the word “horror,” but it did, as DC noted, allow “Weird.” So DC put out mystery titles. In 1971, DC’s 100-Page Super Spectacular line debuted with a one-shot entitled Weird Mystery Tales. It had a cover and a bit of new art from Berni(e) Wrightson, along with some new gag cartoons, but was overall a collection of 1950s reprints. I remember enjoying my copy immensely and being surprised many months later to see what I thought to be a second issue of Weird Mystery Tales. Only it wasn’t the same. By 1972, both Marvel and DC were busy flooding the market in an unstated effort to drive out the competition … as well as one-up each other. Every week seemed to bring half a dozen new titles. Marvel’s entries were mostly low-cost reprint titles of all sorts. DC had some of those, too, but also offered up some all new, non-superhero titles. The late DC publisher Carmine Infantino, in an interview with Jon B. Cooke in Comic Book Artist #1 (Spring 1998), quoted by permission, said, “…They could knock us off the stands. So I matched them book for book. I had to cover my rump.” Paul Levitz, fan-turned-pro and himself later the president and publisher of DC, took over as assistant editor of Weird Mystery Tales starting with issue #10 (Feb.–Mar. 1974). He remembers, “At that time it wasn’t unusual for all comic-book companies to add titles in ‘hot’ genres very rapidly, then cancel them as fast when the genre grew cold.” On his blog, News From me (sic), in 2013 (and quoted by permission), writer Mark Evanier pointed out why DC opted for more all-new mystery titles instead: “Ghost anthology titles like House of Secrets were selling decently—not great, but decently—and were making a profit. Much of that profit was due to the sudden and recent availability of comic artists in the Philippines. Because of the different standard of living betwixt there and here, it was possible to pay those guys a lot less (like a tenth) of what American artists were paid. The catch was that their work didn’t seem to lend itself to superhero comics and was most commercial in America on the ‘weird’ books. Orlando suddenly had to ratchet up production on them.”

KIRBY IS HERE! (EXCEPT ON THE COVERS) Thus the Weird Mystery Tales name was revived and the first issue, cover-dated July–August, snuck out onto America’s newsstands in the late spring of 1972. The first three issues, though, were cut from a very different cloth than the remainder of the series. In fact, they seemed to exist solely for the purpose of burning off unused inventory stories, some from Jack Kirby’s never-published Spirit World #2 and Howard Purcell stories from, according to the third issue’s letters column, “a proposed book of supernatural tales a few years back.” Even the legally required (in order to maintain second-class mailing privileges) text pages in the first couple of issues were leftovers

Reach Out and Touch Someone Michael Wm. Kaluta’s creepy cover to Weird Mystery Tales #1 (July–Aug. 1972). TM & © DC Comics.

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Amazing Chan Scan Courtesy of Heritage, original cover art to Weird Mystery Tales #23 (Oct. 1975), signed by artist Ernie Chan (a.k.a. Chua). (inset) The published version. TM & © DC Comics.

Weird Mystery Tales #18 (May 1975): Lee Marrs arrives with “A Feline Feast.” It’s only two short pages, but it’s even more amusing in this age where cat lovers are everywhere on the Internet! There’s nothing the least bit amateurish about her art here but her non-mainstream style, as stated earlier, probably gave pause to the casual reader. Weird Mystery Tales #19 (June 1975): Marrs appears again in this issue with “Flight.” It’s twice as long but more of a trifle as a young woman on the run boards a most unusual airplane to escape her crime. Weird Mystery Tales #20 (June 1975): Mal Warwick and Reuben Yandoc serve up “The Friedman’s Monster.” Yes, it’s punctuated incorrectly in the original. This is a truly weird tale of a middleclass couple whose teen children are running wild. In flashback, we learn that they are just like their parents were in their youth until a demon appeared and made a deal to help the parents find the straight and narrow path. But in time, the parents locked the demon away. Now, he returns both to help them—and their children— and to punish them.

strange, unusual powers who turns to the dark side. Nice twist ending, too. This is powerful storytelling even today, but in 1973, the average reader was most likely overwhelmed by how different it looked compared to normal DC fare. Weird Mystery Tales #10 (Feb.–Mar. 1974): “The Sunken Pearls of Captain Hatch”: Michael Fleisher, best remembered today for his weird (There’s that word again!) Spectre revival in Adventure Comics, scripted it, and Jess Jodlomon drew it, but it’s a testimony to the power or the art that, in spite of printing so bad it had to be apologized for in a later issue, this story of greedy treasure hunters sticks in one’s mind. Weird Mystery Tales #14 (Oct.–Nov. 1974): “Flight Into Fright”: Script by George Kashdan, art by Ernie Chan (as Ernie Chua). This slight, silly, but scary confection reminds me of the short, tongue-incheek filler pieces on TV’s Night Gallery. The modern-day plot deals with how Count Dracula and his assistant, Quasimodo, expand their Transylvanian Tours operation. Weird Mystery Tales #16 (Feb.–Mar. 1975): “The Curse of the Fool Moon”: Love him or hate him—and opinions differ strongly!—one can’t deny that Frank Robbins’ artwork makes you sit up and take notice. Robbins started out in a Milton Caniff style doing the great aviation newspaper strip Johnny Hazard for several decades. He turned up at DC as an editor/writer in the late ’60s and went on to do many memorable art jobs including this one, on a story written by David Michelinie, known for his long, defining run on Marvel’s Iron Man. The story here deals with a bullied teen who uses a spell to turn himself into a werewolf in order to get revenge … only to have his mother inadvertently destroy the counter-spell!

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Weird Mystery Tales #22 (Sept. 1975): “Meet My Murderer”: Robert Kanigher, veteran editor and writer most associated with Sgt. Rock and Wonder Woman, teams with Teny (a.k.a. Tenny) Henson, one of the Filipino artists with a more familiar art style. Unlike most of the rest from the Phillipines, Henson’s style lent itself well to superheroes during his DC period. He would later end up working in animation for Filmation. This is another nicely drawn, atmospheric Twilight Zonestyle story in which an amateur ghost hunter accidentally captures her own murder on film. Weird Mystery Tales #23 (Oct. 1975): “Fair Exchange”: With a plot credited to MAD’s Sergio Aragonés (who had done some spot cartoons in a previous issue) and a Steve Skeates script, this story is drawn by legendary EC Comics artist Wallace Wood (along with uncredited assistance from his then-studio mate Jack Abel). The story is a very reminiscent of an EC story, too, dealing as it does with a man who makes a deal with Death … or thinks he does. Weird Mystery Tales #24 (Nov. 1975): “The Strange Ones”: Written by Jack Oleck, this is the final story in the final issue, and it is also the only straight science-fiction story to appear in the run of Weird Mystery Tales (although a few others touched on it around the edges). It is drawn, appropriately enough, by Michael Wm. Kaluta, the artist who started it all with his cover for the very first issue. At the end of the day, Weird Mystery Tales was not that special— just another of DC’s many mystery titles that flooded the market almost as badly as Marvel’s often poor-quality reprints. But, man, there sure are some shiny gems to be found in its pages, and the discerning comics art fan will certainly enjoy the effort in finding them! Oh, and Destiny? Don’t feel too sorry for him. He ended up getting his own Vertigo miniseries in 1997. Now, that’s just weird! STEVEN THOMPSON, a.k.a. Booksteve, has worked behind the scenes on many pop-culture books and magazines and at any given time has at least ten blogs related to comic books, movies, and television.

D o n Va u g h a n

In the early 1970s, as the Comics Code Authority gradually eased restrictions on horror content in comic books, things quickly got “weird” at DC Comics. While the preceding articles in this issue cite DC editorial director Carmine Infantino’s edict that “Weird” would sell comics, Bob Rozakis observes that it may have been MAD Magazine founder William Gaines who suggested the use of the word “Weird.” He reports that Gaines was an unofficial advisor to Infantino and even had an office at DC. “Gaines may well have suggested using it, since Weird Science and Weird Fantasy had been mainstays of the EC era,” Rozakis notes. Nonetheless, DC’s first official entry in the “Wonderful World of Weird” was DC 100-Page Super Spectacular #4, a “Weird Mystery Tales” one-shot— followed one month later by the first regularly issued “Weird” book, Weird War Tales, which premiered on July 1, 1971. While DC’s other war titles, such as Our Army at War, Star Spangled War Stories, and G.I. Combat continued to feature Nazis and other traditional foes, Weird War Tales dealt with the horrors of war in a decidedly different context.

THE WEIRDNESS BEFORE It must be noted, however, that DC was no stranger to unconventional war stories prior to the premiere of Weird War Tales. Star Spangled War Stories #90 (Apr.–May 1960), for example, introduced what quickly became known as “The War That Time Forgot,” a long-running series of stories that featured American servicemen fighting dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures on a mysterious island in the Pacific. Eleven issues later, in Star Spangled War Stories #101 (Feb.–Mar. 1962), readers met G.I. Robot, a mechanical soldier that made occasional appearances throughout the series, and was resurrected in Weird War Tales #101 (July 1981). The first G.I. Robot, created by Robert Kanigher and Ross Andru, was known as Joe. A second robot, named Mac, followed a few issues later. The character’s later incarnation in Weird War Tales was known as J.A.K.E. 1 (J.A.K.E. being an acronym for Jungle Automatic Killer, Experimental), and was soon followed by an improved model, J.A.K.E. 2. Interestingly, a more contemporary G.I. Robot, created by Lex Luthor for use by the US military, was featured in Batman Confidential #4 (May 2007). The horribly disfigured Unknown Soldier also added an element of weirdness to DC’s war comics early in the game. Introduced in Our Army At War #168 (June 1966), with story by Robert Kanigher and art by Joe Kubert, the character didn’t make a return appearance until 1970, when he popped up in Star Spangled War Stories #151 (June–July 1970). A remarkable master of disguise, Unknown Soldier was an immediate hit and was featured in Star Spangled War Stories through #204 (Feb. 1977). With issue #205, the title

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Howling Commandos The Creature Commandos tackle a real-life universal monster, Adolf Hitler. Original cover art to Weird War Tales #108 (Feb. 1982) by Joe Staton and Bruce Patterson; courtesy of Heritage. TM & © DC Comics.

Before the sentence can be carried out, we learn that the group has been given a final mission: to man an ICBM and hit Hitler’s Chancellery in Berlin. However, a malfunction sends the rocket and its crew into the outer reaches of space instead. “The end (or the beginning),” reads the final panel. And so concluded Weird War Tales. Cause of death: declining sales. “With the newsstand drying up as the major venue of comics sales, titles aimed at comic shops were replacing newsstand-oriented books like Weird War Tales,” notes Paul Levitz. “It was just a matter of time.” Oddly, while the title lasted 124 issues—a healthy run by any standard—it generated few fan letters and little excitement within mainstream fandom, especially when compared to DC’s superhero titles. Nonetheless, Weird War Tales managed to find its niche. “I don’t know about overall sales, but I can say that Weird War Tales was one of the more popular titles I had for sale when I drove the DC Comicmobile,” reports Bob Rozakis.

“Those who liked the war books would often buy it based on the cover. (‘Wow! He’s fighting a skeleton!’)” Adds Wein: “I think it walked the line between two entirely different genres. It attracted what war fans were still left, and it attracted fans of supernatural stories. The wonderful aspect of it was it said ‘weird war,’ not ‘weird World War II,’ so you could do stories set in any combat situation. The French Revolution, the American Revolution, cavemen, whatever you could think of. I thought that was one of the book’s advantages.”

MORE WEIRD WAR

Weird War Tales was resurrected for a fourissue revival in 1997 under DC’s Vertigo imprint. A more mature version of the initial series, it featured stories and art by some pretty big names, including Richard Corben, Brian Azzarello, Michael Kaluta, and Joe R. Lansdale, among others. In 2000 and 2010, DC issued Weird War Tales one-shot anthologies, and in 2012, the first 21 issues of the original series were collected in a thick Showcase Presents black-and-white omnibus. len wein In 2000, the Creature Commandos were brought back for an eight-issue miniseries, scripted by Tim Truman and penciled by Scot Eaton. The convoluted story, set in an unidentified future, finds the Commandos battling an inter-dimensional enemy hellbent on taking over Earth. But this isn’t the Creature Commandos from the days of yore. There are some new members, including a bogman reminiscent of the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Gunner Mackey (a recurring character in Our Fighting Forces), who was killed during World War II and brought back to life as an android complete with a .50-caliber mini-cannon for a right arm. Project M also had a new leader: Capt. Lucius Hunter. The Creature Commandos appeared in various storylines in other DC titles in the years that followed, and in early 2014, DC reprinted all of the original Creature Commandos stories from Weird War Tales in a special collected edition featuring a great Joe Kubert cover. In the summer of 2014, Creature Commandos animated shorts began airing on Cartoon Network (see inset), and the Weird War Tales tradition continued on in the New 52 with the release of the new series Star-Spangled War Stories featuring G.I. Zombie. Weird War Tales was an unusual experiment TM & © DC Comics. that ultimately proved successful for DC, comfortably chugging along for more than a decade before finally running out of steam. “Hopefully the series’ legacy is a bunch of stories that entertained people, and work given to talented people,” observes Paul Levitz. “I’m glad it’s remembered.” DON VAUGHAN has had a love affair with comic books since he was 11 years old. His writing has appeared in an eclectic array of publications, including Military Officer Magazine, Nursing Spectrum, Filmfax, and The Weekly World News.

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Philip Schweier

When asked to be interviewed for BACK ISSUE, Howard Chaykin responded with an enthusiastic affirmative, followed by, “What’s the article about?” “IronWolf,” I answered. Over the phone, I could hear his eyes rolling back in his skull as he responded, “Who gives a sh*t?” Anyone familiar with Howard’s constant self-reinvention shouldn’t be surprised. IronWolf is Chaykin’s earliest creation, its original incarnation lasting only three issues. He is content to let it rest in peace deep in the fathoms of his professional history. IronWolf dates back to Weird Worlds #8 (Nov.–Dec. 1973). At the time, Chaykin was still somewhat new to the comic-book business. Becoming a professional comic-book creator was all he ever wanted to do, and his career path was such that it became all he was suited to do. “I had limited skills, so I taught myself to compete,” he says. Following apprenticeships with Gil Kane, Neal Adams, and Gray Morrow, Chaykin was part of a new generation of artists. Forty years later, Chaykin continues the tradition of mentorship. On behalf of Marvel Comics, he and artist Klaus Janson frequently conduct seminars for the benefit of new artists who might be superb draftsmen, but whose storytelling skills could use some coaching. In one such seminar, it was said that a young comic-book artist can expect to endure a great deal of shame and embarrassment the first ten years or so, as he or she develops and perfects his or her craft. “I didn’t have the opportunity to do it in howard chaykin school,” says Chaykin, “so I have ten years of shame, but I did it in public, so I can’t disavow it. That was my education.” Denny O’Neil, who collaborated with Chaykin first on Sword of Sorcery and later on Weird Worlds, says the young artist seemed to have a flare for fantasy material. “He is and was a dream to work with. He was young, he was enthusiastic, he was a real pro from the get-go. He once told me, ‘I’m in this for the long haul,’ meaning that he saw it as a job.” O’Neil defines what a good comic artist is: “Someone who understands that what this is about is narrative. It’s his job to provide more than half of the storytelling. A comic-book story is not 125 pictures, it is 125 pictures that form a continuity and a narrative. [Artists] have to either have learned or been instinctively familiar with all the tricks that movie cinematographers use, and at the same time bear in mind this is a printed medium; it’s not a movie, and print has its own restrictions. “All that, Howard was eager to learn, and he learned fast. By the time I got hold of him he was by any definition a working comicbook artist, and he continued to get better.”

BEYOND THE FARTHEST STAR In 1972, DC Comics acquired the rights to Tarzan. Weird Worlds was later launched as a companion title featuring other Edgar Rice Burroughs (ERB) creations such as John Carter of Mars and Pellucidar. As a boy, Chaykin had devoured the Edgar Rice Burroughs books. “I read A Fighting Man of Mars, the seventh in the series, the day before

During the Conan Craze Weird Worlds #8 (Nov.–Dec. 1973), featuring the first appearance of Howard Chaykin’s IronWolf (a.k.a Iron-Wolf and Iron Wolf). TM & © DC Comics.

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The house ads in DC comics in the mid-’70s were trumpeting a slew of new titles as the fabled “DC Explosion” began in earnest. One ad in particular featured seven new titles to include Justice, Inc., showcasing pulp hero the Avenger; Claw the Unconquered; Joe Kubert’s latest incarnation of Tor; The Warlord; Beowulf, Dragon Slayer; Kong the Untamed, a literal descendant of Howard Post’s Anthro; and finally, “The Man with the Stolen Soul”: Stalker. Most of these titles didn’t see an issue #7 and Stalker itself only made it four issues, but Stalker left its mark through some particularly imaginative settings and moving, dynamic artwork that truly transported readers into another realm. The creative team in place for this new saga of sword and sorcery was Joe Orlando as editor, Paul Levitz providing scripts, and art by the team of Steve Ditko and Wally Wood. Any comic fan worth their salt already knew that Ditko and Wood had collaborated numerous times in the past, even as early as 1966, right around the time the co-creator of Spider-Man walked away from his most well-known work. Steve did some penciling followed by Wood inks on Wallace’s own T.H.U.N.D.E.R Agents title and later contributed to Witzend. The artistic team could also be found on a couple of issues of Atlas’ Destructor and even a short humor piece likely planned for an issue of Plop! but printed in issue #13 of The Amazing World of DC Comics. Wood’s lush inkwork was always a terrific embellishment to Ditko’s pencils, but as Bernie Wrightson, who also inked Steve on an Atlas title (Moorlock 2001 and the Midnight Men #3, July 1975) has observed: “Everything was there paul levitz with Ditko’s pencils. No matter who’s inking him it always comes out looking © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. like Ditko. He gives you very little to work with. It’s just kind of basic shapes and outlines and if you’re just going to ink him you just follow what he gives you and it comes out looking like Ditko. It’s that strong.” One other notable thing about that house ad was the common factor of the majority of the characters wielding swords. Coincidence? Not according to Paul Levitz: “The success of Conan was the motivating force behind four of those titles (Kong, Beowulf, Claw, and Stalker).”

continued on page 52

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THE MAN WITH THE STOLEN SOUL So, what was this new character all about? The opening page of Stalker #1 (June–July 1975) gives us a determined man climbing the turret of Castle Loranth, sword and scabbard at his side and dagger between his gritted teeth. He then begins quickly engaging a guard. The captions speak of the legends surrounding the nameless man known only as Stalker: “Damned by his own choosing, he dared challenge the lord of demons himself! Fear was his tool and death his weapon…” For any who didn’t note the cover, it isn’t until the turn of the page that one notices there is more to Stalker than meets the eye. In fact, speaking of eyes, he bears only a crimson stare with no discernible pupils. Grimly, he forges onward until he is above a massive dining hall

Bryan D. Stroud

This past Saturday, at this writing, my brother and our wives went to the movies to see Amazing Spider-Man 2. My brother, a now-retired Fortune top 20 executive, has always loved Spider-Man, and the two of us had a great discussion of the history of the Web-Slinger. We loved the fact that in the credits of the movie they gave credit to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as the creators. This led me to think of Steve’s other superhero creations or cocreations: Captain Atom (Charlton), Dr. Strange (Marvel), the new Blue Beetle (Charlton), the Question (Charlton), the Creeper (DC), Hawk and Dove (DC), and last but not least, the very weird Shade, the Changing Man. DC Comics’ Shade, the Changing Man first appeared on the newsstands on March 8, 1977, its first issue cover-dated June–July 1977. Shade #1 has an ad for itself between story pages 10 and 11. This is just one more thing that makes this title weird. DC was the dominant comic-book publisher from 1956 to the early 1970s. By the early 1970s, Marvel caught and passed DC. To reclaim that number-one position, DC, under the editorial direction of Carmine Infantino, tried two things. First, in 1970, Infantino helped bring Jack Kirby to DC. Jack’s magic at Marvel did not come over with him as he wrote his Fourth World series. After four years, Jack Kirby returned to Marvel. DC’s second attempt was a line expansion which lasted from Infantino’s tenure to the early days of his successor’s, Jenette Kahn, culminating in 1978’s page-count (and price) expansion, the DC Explosion— which quickly collapsed in the infamous DC Implosion. One of those new titles added in the ’70s was Shade, the Changing Man, created by Steve Ditko. For most people, Shade was a weird comic and just one of the many failed titles of DC’s Bronze Age. If it had not been for the great team of Steve Ditko (pencils, inks, and story), Michael Fleisher (dialogue), and Jack C. Harris (editor), this title might have joined the likes of many of the DC Implosion titles in the bin of forgotten comic books. Yet Shade, the Changing Man is a complete contrast to Ditko’s more straightforward late-Silver Age DC creations, Beware the Creeper and The Hawk and the Dove. You will find that Shade, the Changing Man is very much in the style of Steve’s work on Dr. Strange in Marvel’s Strange Tales.

Jay Williams

THE WEIRD WORLD OF RAC SHADE

Shade, the Changing Man saw eight issues hit the newsstands, plus a ninth issue that was published after the DC Implosion in Cancelled Comic Cavalcade #2. As soon as you saw the cover of issue #1, anyone who knew much about comics recognized Steve Ditko’s art. But it was not like a Spider-Man cover … it was more like a Dr. Strange cover, but a whole lot weirder. Shade covers looked like no others being published by DC. Each progressive issue’s cover seemed weirder and weirder. One of the first things you will notice about Shade, the Changing Man is the bizarre names of almost all the characters: Rac, Mellu, Wizor, Ezak, Goens, Gola, Klugs, Xeleo, and Zokag. The main character is Rac Shade. Rac was a N-Agent (secret agent in our terms) from a dimension called the Meta-Zone. The Meta-Zone dimension was separated from the Earth-Zone Dimension by the Zero-Zone dimension. (In panel 2 of page 2 of Weird Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 47

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Features an in-depth interview and demo by R.M. GUERA (the artist of Vertigo’s Scalped), behind-the-scenes in the Batcave with Cartoon Network’s JAMES TUCKER on the hit show “Batman: The Brave and the Bold,” plus product reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and Comic Book Boot Camp’s “Anatomy: Part 2” by BRET BLEVINS and MIKE MANLEY!

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WALTER SIMONSON interview and demo, Rough Stuff’s BOB McLEOD gives a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work, Write Now’s DANNY FINGEROTH spotlights writer/artist AL JAFFEE, JAMAR NICHOLAS reviews the best art supplies and tool technology, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS offer “Comic Art Bootcamp” lessons, plus Web links, comic and book reviews, and more!

Urban Barbarian DAN PANOSIAN talks shop about his gritty, design-inspired work with editor MIKE MANLEY, DANNY FINGEROTH interviews “Billy Dogma” writer/artist DEAN HASPIEL, plus more of MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, product and art supply reviews by JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

Interview with inker SCOTT WILLIAMS from his days at Marvel and Image to his work with JIM LEE, and PATRICK OLIFFE demos how he produces Spider-Girl, Mighty Samson, and digital comics. Also, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

PATRICK OLIFFE interview and demo, career of AL WILLIAMSON examined by ANGELO TORRES, BRET BLEVINS, MARK SCHULTZ, TOM YEATES, ALEX ROSS, RICK VEITCH, and others, MIKE MANLEY and BRET BLEVINS’ “Comic Art Bootcamp”, a “Rough Critique” of a newcomer’s work by BOB McLEOD, art supply reviews by “Crusty Critic” JAMAR NICHOLAS, and more!

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R. Crumb in PG Detail from R. Crumb’s cover to The Weirdo Years: 1981–’93, released in 2013 by Last Gasp, compiling all of Robert Crumb’s material from Weirdo. TM & © R. Crumb.

Editor’s Note: This article contains material that some readers may find offensive. Especially the heirs of Tor Johnson.

When you think of humor magazines, the obvious ones are MAD, Cracked, or National Lampoon. Thinking a little harder, you might come up with Marvel’s Crazy or even Joe Simon’s Sick. Admittedly, most humor magazines typically do not last more than a handful of issues, but one that lasted an admirable 28 issues, despite being somewhat forgotten today, is Robert Crumb’s Weirdo. Weirdo took its cue from MAD and Humbug, both edited by Harvey Kurtzman, by having silly images surrounding the front cover border. Kurtzman also edited Help!, and Weirdo utilized its format as well, by including photo fumettis and introducing new and younger artists to national prominence. Robert Crumb, Gilbert Shelton, and Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam all made their national debuts in Help!

Aline Kominsky-Crumb (Robert’s wife) comments, “Quite a few great artists got their start at Weirdo, such as Joe Matt, Ted Jouflas, Julie Doucet, Dori Seda, Carol Tyler, Phoebe Gloeckner, Dennis Worden, Ace Backwards, Bruce Duncan, and many more.” Among those who contributed to Weirdo that are no longer with us include Harvey Pekar and Spain (M. Rodriguez), and S. Clay Wilson has unfortunately been incapacitated for a long time. Lorraine Chamberlain, who speaks for S. Clay Wilson, says, “Wilson can’t speak, but he can answer yes or no questions. Frustrating, to say the least.” Last Gasp Publisher Ron Turner discusses how Weirdo started: “It was Robert Crumb’s idea from the start, not mine. Crumb did the first nine issues, Peter Bagge the second nine, and Aline Kominsky-Crumb the third nine, with the last one happening after Weird Issue

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BACK ISSUE • 57

TOM POWERS: How did you two first meet? JIM STARLIN: Hard to say at this point. I imagine it was at one of the First Fridays that the Brunners used to throw. That’s where I met most of my contemporaries in the business. BERNIE WRIGHTSON: That sounds about right. I really don’t remember. We may have met at the Bullpen at Marvel or the lunchroom at DC. Those were big gathering places back then. POWERS: Before you worked together on The Weird, Bernie contributed two eight-page backup strips to Dreadstar,“The Interstellar Toybox,” for issues #6 (Sept. 1983) and 7 (Nov. 1983). You both later proposed the idea to Marvel for the massively successful faminerelief jam comic, Heroes for Hope (Dec. 1985), and its follow-up, Heroes Against Hunger (Aug. 1986), to DC. What are your memories of these comics? STARLIN: “The Interstellar Toybox” was Bernie looking for something to write and draw and me needing a break from filling all the pages of a monthly (or was it a bimonthly?) book. The famine-relief books? I can’t recall if it was my or Bernie’s idea originally to propose this project. A lot of musicians were doing similar fundraisers around that time. As I recall, both Bernie and I felt we’d get a better response from the companies if we approached them about it together. Later, I was involved in another fundraiser with a number of comic publishers without Bernie’s participation, and it just fell apart and never happened. WRIGHTSON: “Interstellar Toybox” grew out of the “Captain Sternn” story I had done for Heavy Metal a year or two earlier—funny science fiction inspired and influenced by Star Wars. Jim was in an overload situation at the time with all his projects and asked me if I’d do a backup story or two to help fill out Dreadstar. As it happened, I already had done some ideas for some short stories, so it worked out perfectly. As I recall, Heroes for Hope was initially my thought, just that—a thought. But Jim ran with it right away—how to break it down into two-page segments, each assigned to different teams of writers and inkers, all us working for free on the notion that all the writers and artists would hop on board unpaid if their workload was no more than two pages each. Jim got the ball rolling immediately. 74 • BACK ISSUE • Weird Issue

To m P o w e r s

conducted by email, Winter 2014

In the creative riches of the post–Crisis DC Universe, The Weird (Apr.–July 1988), written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Bernie Wrightson, with inks by Dan Green, exists, arguably, as one of the rarer gems. A superhero comic that confidently integrates horror and science-fiction elements, this four-issue miniseries explores new territory, positing the Justice League as the well-meaning antagonists against the inevitably explosive titular character, who is struggling to understand his newfound humanity and fatherhood while trying to save Earth from the evil Macroletts. Equally interesting as the story of The Weird itself are Mr. Starlin’s and Mr. Wrightson’s memories of this thoughtful collaboration. jim starlin – Tom Powers

He called Jim Shooter right away and got the go-ahead. We made a rough list of all the writers and artists we could think of and started making phone calls. It all happened very fast. Everyone involved got very excited about the project and couldn’t have been more enthusiastic and cooperative. We all wanted to do something to help the famine victims, and I’m very happy we were able to help, even in our small way. POWERS: How did these professional connections lead to you working together as a writer/artist team on the Marvel Graphic Novel, The Incredible Hulk and the Thing: The Big Change (1987)? STARLIN: I’m not sure it was the professional connections as much as the fact that we lived only a few miles away from each other and used to hang out regularly that got us working together on the Hulk/Thing Big Change. On that job, Bernie worked from just a loose plot. All our later projects I did a full script on. I think I recall Bernie felt more comfortable working in the full-script format. WRIGHTSON: Our hanging together was, for me, the real starting point for The Big Change. Jim in person can be hysterically funny. When we started talking about this story, it was supposed to be a straightforward, serious superhero story. I can’t take superheroes completely seriously—I think they’re actually kinda silly. I’m serious about monsters. So, as the story discussion

Dynamic Duo (top) One of BI’s favorite Starlin/ Wrightson collaborations: Marvel Graphic Novel #29 (1987). Autographed copy courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com). Two peeks at Bernie Wrightson’s renditions of DC superheroes: (bottom left) page 8 of The Weird #1, and (bottom right) page 21 from issue #4. TM & © DC Comics.

bernie wrightson

Weird Issue

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Back Issue #78