Back Issue #80 by TwoMorrows Publishing

FLASH AND GREEN LANTERN IN THE BRONZE AGE!

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Mark Waid examines the Flash/GL team • The Lost GL Fill-ins • Larry Niven’s Gathet’s Tale BONUS ARTICLE! DC Comics’ New York Office Memories! featuring Barr • Bates • Gibbons • Grell • Infantino • Kupperberg • O’Neil • Wein & more

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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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“1970s and ‘80s Legion of Super-Heroes!” LEVITZ interview, the Legion’s Honored Dead, the Cosmic Boy miniseries, a Time Trapper history, the New Adventures of Superboy, Legion fantasy cover gallery by JOHN WATSON, plus BATES, COCKRUM, CONWAY, COLON, GIFFEN, GRELL, JANES, KUPPERBERG, LaROCQUE, LIGHTLE, SCHAFFENBERGER, SHERMAN, STATON, SWAN, WAID, & more! COCKRUM cover!

TENTH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE! Revisit the 100th, 200th, 300th, 400th, and 500th issues of ‘70s and ‘80s favorites: Adventure, Amazing Spider-Man, Avengers, Batman, Brave & Bold, Casper, Detective, Flash, Green Lantern, Showcase, Superman, Thor, Wonder Woman, and more! With APARO, BARR, ENGLEHART, POLLARD, SEKOWSKY, SIMONSON, STATON, and WOLFMAN. DAN JURGENS and RAY McCARTHY cover.

“Incredible Hulk in the Bronze Age!” Looks into Hulk’s mind, his role as a team player, his TV show and cartoon, merchandising, Hulk newspaper strip, Teen Hulk, villain history of the Abomination, art and artifacts by SAL BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, PETER DAVID, KENNETH JOHNSON, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, EARL NOREM, ROGER STERN, HERB TRIMPE, LEN WEIN, new cover by TRIMPE and GERHARD!

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“Tryouts, One-Shots, & One-Hit Wonders”! Marvel Premiere, Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Feature, Strange Tales, Showcase, First Issue Special, New Talent Showcase, DC’s Dick Tracy tabloid, Sherlock Holmes, Marvel’s Generic Comic Books, Bat-Squad, Crusader, & Swashbuckler, with BRUNNER, CARDY, COLAN, FRADON, GRELL, PLOOG, TRIMPE, and an ARTHUR ADAMS “Clea” cover!

“Robots” issue! Cyborg, Metal Men, Robotman, Red Tornado, Mister Atom, the Vision, Jocasta, Shogun Warriors, and Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot, plus the legacy of Brainiac! Featuring the riveting work of DARROW, GERBER, INFANTINO, PAUL KUPPERBERG, MILLER, MOENCH, PEREZ, SIMONSON, STATON, THOMAS, WOLFMAN, and more, behind a Metal Men cover by MICHAEL ALLRED.

“Batman’s Partners!” MIKE W. BARR and ALAN DAVIS on their Detective Comics, Batman and the Outsiders, Nightwing flies solo, Man-Bat history, Commissioner Gordon, the last days of World’s Finest, Bat-Mite, the Batmobile, plus Dark Knight’s girl Robin! Featuring work by APARO, BUSIEK, DITKO, KRAFT, MILGROM, MILLER, PÉREZ, WOLFMAN, and more, with a cover by ALAN DAVIS and MARK FARMER.

“Bronze Age Fantastic Four!” The animated FF, the FF radio show of 1975, Human Torch goes solo, Galactus villain history, FF Mego figures… and the Impossible Man! Exploring work by RICH BUCKLER, JOHN BUSCEMA, JOHN BYRNE, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE ENGLEHART, GEORGE PÉREZ, KEITH POLLARD, ROY THOMAS, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, and more! Cover by KEITH POLLARD and JOE RUBINSTEIN.

“‘80s Independents!” In-depth looks at PAUL CHADWICK’s Concrete, DAVE SIM’s Cerebus the Aardvark, and RICHARD AND WENDY PINI’s Elfquest! Plus see ‘80s independent comics go Hollywood, DAVID SCROGGY remembers Pacific Comics, TRINA ROBBINS’ California Girls, and DENIS KITCHEN’s star-studded horror/sci-fi anthology Death Rattle. Cover by PAUL CHADWICK!

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“Let’s Get Small!” Marvel’s Micronauts, The Atom in the Bronze Age, JAN STRNAD and GIL KANE’s Sword of the Atom, the rocky relationship of Ant-Man the Wasp, Gold Key’s Microbots, Super Jrs., DC Digests, and Marvel Value Stamps. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, JACKSON GUICE, ELLIOT S! MAGGIN, BILL MANTLO, AL MILGROM, ALEX SAVIUK, ROGER STERN, LEN WEIN, & more. Cover by PAT BRODERICK!

“When Comics Were Fun!” HEMBECK cover and gallery, Plastic Man, Blue Devil, Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, VALENTINO’s normalman, Bronze Age’s goofiest Superman stories, and the Batman/Dick Tracy team-up you didn’t see! Featuring MAX ALLAN COLLINS, PARIS CULLINS, RAMONA FRADON, ALAN KUPPERBERG, MISHKIN & COHN, STEVE SKEATES, JOE STATON, CURT SWAN, and more!

“Weird Issue!” Batman’s Weirdest TeamUps, ORLANDO’s Weird Adventure Comics, Weird War Tales, Weird Mystery Tales, DITKO’s Shade the Changing Man and Stalker, CHAYKIN’s Iron Wolf, CRUMB’s Weirdo, and STARLIN and WRIGHTSON’s The Weird! Featuring JIM APARO, LUIS DOMINGUEZ, MICHAEL FLEISHER, BOB HANEY, PAUL LEVITZ, and more. Batman and Deadman cover by ALAN CRADDOCK.

“Charlton Action Heroes in the Bronze Age!” DAVE GIBBONS on Charlton’s WATCHMEN connection, LEN WEIN and PARIS CULLINS’ Blue Beetle, CARY BATES and PAT BRODERICK’s Captain Atom, Peacemaker, Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, and a look at Blockbuster Weekly! Featuring MIKE COLLINS, GIORDANO, KUPPERBERG, ALAN MOORE, PAT MORISI, ALEX ROSS, and more. Cover by AL MILGROM.

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

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

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

COVER ARTIST George Pérez COVER COLORIST Tom Smith COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek SPECIAL THANKS Mike W. Barr Pat Bastienne Cary Bates Jerry Boyd Cary Burkett Johanna Draper Carlson Ivan Cohen Gerry Conway DC Comics J. M. DeMatteis Scott Dunbier Mike Flynn Dave Gibbons Alan Gold Mike Gold Grand Comics Database Robert Greenberger Arnie Grieves Jack C. Harris Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Comics Auctions Dan Johnson Gerard Jones Hal Jordan Barbara Kesel James Kingman Todd Klein Paul Kupperberg Paul Levitz Tom Lyle

Ron Marz Brad Meltzer Al Milgrom Stuart Moore Larry Niven Marilyn Niven Luigi Novi Dennis O’Neil Scott Peterson Janice Race Dan Raspler Bob Rozakis Michael Savene Lenny Schafer Robert Simpson Anthony Snyder Jim Spivey Rick Stasi Joe Staton Roy Thomas Anthony Tollin John Trumbull Michael Uslan Irene Vartanoff Mark Waid Matt Webb John Wells Marv Wolfman Michael Zeno Dedicated to the memory of Julius Schwartz

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FLASHBACK: The Speed of Life: The Bronze Age Flash’s Triumphs and Tragedies . . . . . .2 No matter what Cary Bates threw at him, Barry Allen kept coming FLASHBACK: Meanwhile: The Bronze Age Adventures of the Other Flash . . . . . . . . . . . .22 Jay Garrick had a pretty good run, here and there FLASHBACK: I’d Buy That for a Dollar!: The Flash and Green Lantern in Adventure Comics . . .25 The Dollar Comics stories of DC’s colorful crusaders OFF MY CHEST: The Flash/Green Lantern Team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 Guest writer Mark Waid examines DC’s brave and bold buddies PRINCE STREET NEWS: The B and the B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32 Barry and Hal belly up to the bar to bellyache about being B-listers FLASHBACK: Being Hal Jordan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34 Twenty-five years in the conflicted life of the greatest Green Lantern of them all GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Lost (or Discarded) Green Lantern Fill-ins . . . . .48 Guest columnist Paul Kupperberg revisits his unpublished GL tales PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: Niven’s Tale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54 Larry Niven, the Green Lantern bible, and the Guardian known as Ganthet BACKSTAGE PASS: An Oral History of DC Comics’ Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59 As DC moves west, BI strolls through its hallowed NYC halls BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79 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 George Pérez. Flash and Green Lantern 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, except for Prince Street News, which is TM and © Karl Heitmueller, Jr. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

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BACK ISSUE • 1

John Wells

Fast Friends From DC Comics’ 1978 calendar, Flash and Kid Flash take on Captain Cold and Mister Freeze in this pinup drawn by Irv Novick, THE Flash artist for most of the 1970s. TM & © DC Comics.

The honeymoon was over. On their first wedding anniversary, Barry and Iris Allen clinked glasses and the man who was secretly the Flash marveled at how much his world had changed over the past decade. The Central City police scientist had acquired super-speed in a lab accident, counted everyone from Superman to the star of his favorite childhood comic book as friends, and—best of all—married his longtime girlfriend. If Barry didn’t think she was one-in-a-million before, he certainly did after Iris’ response to his divorce-worthy disclosure that he had a double life: He talked in his sleep, she shrugged, and she’d known her husband was the Flash since their wedding night. Since it mattered that much to him, she continued, she’d just pretended not to know. The Scarlet Speedster’s world changed after those closing panels of September 1967’s The Flash #174, and not just because he had a life partner who was now fully invested in every aspect of his life. There’d been constancy in those 11 years as a human thunderbolt, and his name was Carmine Infantino. The sleek, modernistic style of the celebrated penciler had defined the Flash series and its colorful Rogues’ Gallery from the 1956 pilot episode in Showcase #4, earning him a well-deserved reputation (along with editor Julius Schwartz) as one of DC/National Comics’ foremost fix-it men. In 1967, the subject that DC publisher Jack Liebowitz wanted to fix wasn’t one title but all of them. As the company’s new art director, Infantino would now be bringing his striking design sense to the layouts on all of DC’s covers, but the job came with a price.

Obliged to end his tenure as the Flash’s signature artist, the 42-year-old cartoonist handpicked his successor and consciously eyed someone with a style thoroughly unlike his own.

THE POST–INFANTINO ERA It hadn’t been a good year for Ross Andru up to that point. Turned down by DC for a raise, the Metal Men and Wonder Woman penciler had fled to the seemingly greener pastures of Marvel Comics only to find himself a poor fit on the handful of stories he drew. From Infantino’s perspective, though, he was someone who was now equipped to bring Marvel-style dynamism to DC, and the newly minted art director wasted no time in assigning Andru and his inking partner Mike Esposito to both The Flash and Superman. The new team’s inaugural effort on both characters took place in the same comic book. Four months earlier, Superman and the Flash had embarked on an inconclusive race in Superman #199 to determine bragging rights on which hero was really the fastest. The Flash #175’s rematch teased a definitive answer, but both speedsters could claim victory depending on the angle captured in the photofinish footage. (Two more crossovers would follow in the next few years, one in 1969’s Superman #220 and the other in 1970’s World’s Finest #198–199.) In a departure from Julius Schwartz’s usual core of writers, E. Nelson Bridwell stepped in to write Flash #175, ensuring that the Man of Steel remain consistent with the stories overseen by his protective boss, Superman editor Mort Weisinger.

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A Visit to Earth-Prime Barry Allen drops in on Flash editor Julie Schwartz in The Flash #179 (May 1968). By Bates/ Andru/Esposito. TM & © DC Comics.

Another Weisinger writer paid the series a visit in 1968’s Flash #179 heads prevailed and the idea was scrapped,” Hanerfeld explained, when 19-year-old Cary Bates posed the question, “The Flash—Fact or although the kernel of the idea found its way into the BroomeFiction?” In a twist on the parallel world stories involving heroes of scripted Flash #176 wherein the Scarlet Speedster fought Death to the 1940s like the Flash of Earth-Two, Bates had the Scarlet Speedster save his critically ill wife. Enamored of the original cover sketch, accidently propelled into the “real” world, where a star-struck kid Schwartz eventually had it fully rendered by Andru and Esposito for referred to him as Barry Allen and handed him a copy of Flash #172 for issue #184 while Robbins wrote a plot to fit wherein Central City was an autograph. Rather than be a cosplayer in a world where cosplaying seemingly vaporized. wasn’t cool, the Flash made a quick trip to New York City to visit the The Flash himself appeared to perish in issue #186 and, editor of his comic book. Convincing an incredulous Julius Schwartz admittedly, those were his skeletal remains on the cover. As detailed to buy him the equipment necessary to build a Cosmic Treadmill that inside, though, they’d been pulled from the future via Golden would take him home, the Scarlet Speedster had no idea that the man Age hero-turned-villain Sargon the Sorcerer in a ploy to convince who wrote up his visit to “Earth-Prime”—as it was dubbed in 1975— the 25th Century’s Reverse-Flash to divulge the secrets of true would eventually be charting his destiny on a full-time basis. time-travel. Penning the 1969 story was Mike Friedrich, In the short-term, Schwartz counted John Broome as another newcomer whom Schwartz had used in several his primary scripter, but the writer’s relocation to Paris titles over the past year. He returned to The Flash four obligated a larger pool to draw on. One of those men times through 1971 (#195, 197, 198, and 207), the had been Gardner Fox, but, having alienated DC last of which saw Sargon’s return. management with his requests for better benefits, As writers dropped in and out, John Broome Fox was effectively frozen out of most assignments held firm in between their scripts as he’d done since and penned his last Flash story for issue #177. the second Flash story in 1956’s Showcase #4. By That final effort—“The Swell-Headed Super-Hero”— 1969, he’d had enough. “I wasn’t fired or anything sported a famously outrageous cover that depicted like that,” he emphasized at the 1998 San Diego the hero with a cranium the size of a watermelon. Comic-Con. “I just lost momentum. I lost steam. With sights like that and the antics of the campy I just couldn’t keep going.” He bid the series farewell Batman TV show, incoming writer Frank Robbins— with late 1969’s Flash #194, and he wasn’t alone. a well-regarded veteran of the Johnny Hazard From the beginning, Andru and Esposito had newspaper strip—took it for granted that all supercary bates a tough act to follow on the series and fans never hero comics were played for laughs and wrote let them forget it: The sleek hero was too bulky! © DC Comics. accordingly in a two-parter for Flash #180–181. Set The art was cartoony! And it didn’t look like Carmine in Japan, the Flash fought robotic Samuroids amidst locals who Infantino! The first shots were fired in an “extra” edition of the spoke in slurred English. It was tasteless at best. Having written “Flash-Grams” letters column in 1968’s Flash #179, and the hits were what was perhaps the worst Flash story of the Silver Age, Robbins still coming two years later even after the team’s final interior story adjusted to the superhero genre quickly, but his best work in issue #194. (Schwartz had pulled them off the covers with Flash appeared elsewhere in the Batman and Superboy series. #189, subsequently employing Joe Kubert, Infantino and Murphy The light touch employed in some of the 1968 Flash stories Anderson, and Neal Adams.) and the series’ general sense of security were at odds with a plot that In an interview in 1977’s Amazing World of DC Comics #15, Andru had briefly been considered to kick off the post–Infantino era. Head conceded that his efforts at emulating Jack Kirby’s larger-than-life in hand against a black backdrop in an Infantino sketch, the Flash heroics had been a misfire (albeit one that looks far better in retrospect). stood opposite a screaming declaration: “You are about to read the “I was trying to incorporate the Marvel superhero look into the most tragic day in the life of the Flash!” wrong character. He shouldn’t have been that beefy … that muscular. According to Mark Hanerfeld in The Comic Reader #69 (Sept. 1968), I was trying to create exaggerated camera effects, and overdid it. it was supposed to have been the day that Iris Allen died. “Calmer I look back at some of that stuff and I cringe.”

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

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BACK ISSUE • 3

THE BRONZE AGE BEGINS

Going for the Bronze The Flash #195 (Mar. 1970) was the title’s first Bronze Age issue. (right) Its Neal Adams cover. (left) Gil Kane begins his brief stint as Flash artist. Note to whom Flash is signing autographs! TM & © DC Comics.

Seeking a replacement for Andru, Schwartz decided to pull Gil Kane from a dying title to shore up the stronger Flash, thereby leaving a vacancy for Neal Adams to fill on Green Lantern #76. Kane’s run (1970’s Flash #195, 197–199) was comparatively brief and undistinguished compared to the landmark Green Lantern/Green Arrow series, but it immediately restored the sense of grace and motion that had been missing from the series. Kane successfully transitioned the feature from its mildly dated 1960s look to one suited to the 1970s. Barry Allen’s crewcut and bowtie went by the wayside and Iris’ hairstyle became more contemporary. Meanwhile, Schwartz went back to the beginning for Broome’s replacement. Robert Kanigher had been the man he assigned to recreate the Flash in 1956 and he was a worthy candidate to pick up the crimson baton. After an initial script in Flash #192, Kanigher was—the odd Friedrich story aside—on permanent duty from issue #195 to 208 in June 1971. Earnest humaninterest stories—like the Scarlet Speedster’s seeming failure to save the crew of the Trident submarine (#192), his defense of a supposed killer dog (#195), or his reversion to a childlike state thanks to a head injury (#198)—were a staple, but some issues veered from the pattern. Issue #200 (Sept. 1970)—peppered with

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references to that milestone number—took a page from The Manchurian Candidate and had an Asian-born beauty named Doctor Lu attempt to brainwash the Flash into assassinating the President of the United States. Kanigher’s most outrageous contribution to the series was his revelation that “The Flash’s Wife is a TwoTimer!” (1970’s Flash #203). In a twist on the origin of Superman, Barry Allen’s spouse had been born Iris Russell in the year 2945 A.D. and catapulted back in time as an infant by her parents when their civilization was threatened by nuclear annihilation. By the time the story was done, the Flash and Iris had paid a visit to the year 2970, reuniting with her alive-and-well parents Eric and Fran but affirming that their home was in the 20th Century. The issue was also notable for an experimental cover that depicted the Flash trying to hold Iris in the photographic real world as she was pulled into a Neal Adams-rendered vision of the future. Spearheaded by DC production man Jack Adler, the cover used a background photo snapped outside of DC’s 909 Third Avenue offices and required a conspicuous pedestrian in the background to have his features concealed with a beard, lest he object to appearing in a comic book. The Flash’s most significant visual statement was being made beneath the covers, where Irv Novick began a long and satisfying run as the book’s penciler effective with issue #200. The pairing with Kanigher made sense purely in terms of good working relationships since the two men had been friends and collaborators for nearly two decades. More importantly, though, Novick was able to distill the essence of Infantino—the cityscapes, the Flash’s runner’s build, et al.—while maintaining his own style and ensuring that the feature belonged in the 1970s rather than the 1960s. Novick was famously dismissive of his work on Flash and all his other series, regarding each story as just another job, but the pride in craftsmanship was apparent on the printed page. Whether inked by Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano,

Exposed! Barry Allen’s secret is out! Striking Gil Kane original cover art to Flash #197 (May 1970). Courtesy of Anthony Snyder (www.anthonyscomicbookart.com). TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

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Dan Johnson

Adventure Comics was one of DC Comics’ first comic books, and up until its cancellation with issue #503 (Sept. 1983) it was also one of the company’s longest-running titles. Unlike Action Comics and Detective Comics, which featured Superman and Batman, respectively, Adventure Comics suffered from the lack of a stabilizing lead feature as it entered the early 1970s. The book took on a schizophrenic quality that saw lead features being rotated in and out on a regular basis. During one of the book’s most memorable phases, from issue #459 (Oct. 1978) to 466 (Dec. 1979), it became a Dollar Comic and boasted a host of DC superheroes. Included in this initial roster were the Flash and Green Lantern. [Editor’s note: Dollar Comics were DC’s late-1970s experiment to produce a range of thicker packages with a higher price point in an effort to make comics more profitable for retailers. The full story of Dollar Comics was explored in BACK ISSUE #57.] “It was part of the [DC] Implosion in 1978,” says Paul Levitz, who served as the editor for the first three issues of Adventure Comics in its Dollar Comics format. “We were limiting the number of titles, and doing a few as thicker Dollar Comics kept more projects going.” Indeed, while featured players the Flash and Green Lantern (and Wonder Woman) had titles of their own, the new Adventure Comics also featured a wide variety of characters that had no solo title to call their own, including Aquaman, Deadman, the New Gods, and the Elongated Man. As Levitz wrote in the front and back cover’s editorial/title page of issue #459, “Adventure Comics has no single super-star. Unlike Superman Family or Batman Family there’s no hero dominating the entire magazine, or setting the tone for all the stories and characters … the fact that no hero dominates Adventure Comics gives us tremendous flexibility, and we hope to use that to great advantage.” While the role that Adventure Comics played in the history of the Flash and Green Lantern is often overlooked, there is significance to their Adventure stories that impacted Barry Allen and Hal Jordan, and to a lesser degree, Jay Garrick and Alan Scott.

paul levitz

GL, A FLASH IN THE PAN

While there was no single super-star in © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia Commons. Adventure, each issue, save one (#462, Apr. 1979), opened with the Fastest Man Alive. All of the Flash stories in Adventure were written by Cary Bates, the writer responsible for the solo Flash book, with art provided by The Flash’s regular penciler, Irv Novick. “[I have] no recollection of when I learned about the Dollar format,” says Bates. “In those days I was always grateful for work, and Flash was obviously in my comfort zone.” If Bates was in his comfort zone, the Scarlet Speedster was being taken out of his, at least initially. As Levitz wrote in the first Dollar Comics issue, “Unlike the Central City/supporting cast-oriented epics that appear elsewhere, our stories will concentrate on aspects of the Fastest Man Alive that have been ignored the past few years. Future storylines include journeys to far-off times and dimensions, and exploration of the unique powers that make Barry Allen the Flash.” The first Flash Adventure story, “The Crimson Comets of Fallville High,” finds Barry Allen attending his high-school reunion. While there, a former classmate with the ability to read minds senses one

A Must-Buy Comic GL and Flash, plus Wonder Woman, headlined this first issue of the Dollar Comics incarnation of Adventure Comics, #459 (Oct. 1978). Cover by Jim Aparo. TM & © DC Comics.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

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DC editor Julius Schwartz was a clever, clever man. Not only was he responsible for the Silver Age revivals of most of the company’s superheroes (Flash, the Justice League, Batman, Hawkman, the Atom, and many more), but he was always looking for a “hook,” a “twist”— a way to set that hero’s next adventure apart from all that had come before. “Be original!” was a phrase he barked at dozens of his writers (including me) over the course of his career. Historians know of Julie’s many “be original” accomplishments, but one that too often gets overlooked is his invention of the Annual Event. Julie loved his Annual Events. Sales on the very first Golden Age/Silver Age Flash team-up (The Flash #123, Sept. 1961) were so strong that Schwartz scheduled a Double-Flash story every spring. One of these led to the revival of the Justice Society in 1963, and for nearly 25 years, readers could count on seeing a bombastic Justice League/Justice Society crossover every summer in Justice League of America. But even before the JSA resurfaced, Julie first reached outside the doppelganger trope and—perhaps inspired by the time-tested Superman/Batman team in Mort Weisinger’s World’s Finest Comics—took two very dissimilar characters in his editorial stable and forged a lifelong friendship between them. In Green Lantern #13 (June 1962), Scarlet Speedster Barry Allen joined his fiancée, reporter Iris West, on a California assignment to interview test pilot Hal Jordan. Despite the fact that Barry (as the Flash) and Hal (as Green Lantern) served together on the Justice League, neither knew of the other’s dual identity— but when fate teamed them up to thwart an alien mark waid invasion, their secrets were revealed, creating a bond of brotherhood between them. At the end of the © Luigi Novi / Wikimedia tale, this statement was made to the readers: “This Commons. is the first of a proposed series of stories featuring Green Lantern and the Flash working together as a team! If you would like to see more of this dynamic duo in action, let us know!” And with that, another Schwartz Annual Event was born. For the rest of the decade, skipping only 1968 (a year in which Green Lantern’s personal life was in violent transition), the Emerald Gladiator and the Fastest Man Alive took turns guest-starring in each other’s books, usually the ones cover-dated March. Over the years, they fought alien conquerors, supervillains like Major Disaster and T. O. Morrow, and … well, okay, more aliens. Schwartz was big on aliens, but to be fair, no ordinary Earth-born villain was likely to be able to defeat such a winning team. But why did they click? How is it they worked so well together? Schwartz tried a few more combos in the Silver Age—Starman and Black Canary, Dr. Fate and Hourman, Batman and Elongated Man, the Earth-One and Earth-Two Atoms—but they didn’t take. (He never even bothered pairing up the Golden and Silver Age Hawkmans.) Yes, Flash and GL were the biggest superpowered stars in Schwartz’s editorial stable, but there had to have been more to it than that— and I believe that 1968, the first “skip year” for the team, provided a clue that I picked up on some 31 years later.

Fast Friends Barry Kitson deliciously renders Barry’s and Hal’s pals and gals on the cover of the Waid/Peyer-written Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold #1 (Oct. 1999). TM & © DC Comics.

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Mark Waid

In 1999—outside the usual timeframe covered by this fine magazine, but forgive me, I promise this is relevant—friend and co-writer Tom Peyer and I produced for DC Comics a six-issue miniseries called Flash & Green Lantern: The Brave and the Bold. Therein, we chronicled, issue by issue with artist Barry Kitson, the “untold” Flash/Green Lantern team-ups of the Silver and Bronze Ages: the time Kid Flash became “Kid Lantern” for a day, the first four-man team-up between Barry and Hal and their Golden Age counterparts, and so on. It was a lot of fun, but before plot came character, and Peyer and I sat down and thought hard about why (other than editorial convenience) these two men would have become such fast friends. The commonalities were obvious. Not only were they fellow JLAers, but they were both cops—Barry as a forensic scientist with the Central City Police Department, Hal as a member of the 3600-strong interstellar Green Lantern Corps. Clearly, as superheroes, they shared certain values that defined their heroism and sense of self-sacrifice, and (as was true with most of Schwartz’s characters) their powers and adventures were very alike in tone, grounded very heavily in science fiction rather than fantasy or magic. On the other hand, Barry was a methodical man, a little shy and withdrawn, whereas Hal was charming, charismatic, and commanded the room when he entered. Barry’s job as a “lab rat” was relatively dull and kept him behind a desk; Hal’s civilian occupation as a test pilot, especially during the Space Age ’60s, was the height of glamour. Barry, from the day we met him, was engaged to be married; Hal was a swinging bachelor with a lot more romance in his life. In fact, in 1967, Schwartz and his GL writer John Broome shook up the status quo of the eightyear-old Green Lantern series by breaking off Hal’s relationship with his longtime girlfriend Carol Ferris,

Through Thick and Thin (top) This brave and bold team first paired off in the Silver Age, in Green Lantern #13 (June 1962). Cover by Gil Kane and Joe Giella. (bottom) Although their team-ups were infrequent by the time The Flash #332 (Apr. 1984) was published, Hal and Barry’s friendship remained. Original art panel courtesy of Arnie Grieves. Art by Carmine Infantino and Frank McLaughlin. TM & © DC Comics.

making Hal leave his Coast City base, and even having their lifetime flyboy embark on a series of short-lived careers, from insurance investigator to toy salesman. Meanwhile, Barry’s (and the Flash’s) life stayed almost exactly the same. It wasn’t until Schwartz handed the series over to editor Ross Andru after 20 years with issue #270 (Feb. 1979) that Flash’s world came down around him with the same dramatic urgency as Green Lantern had endured previously; all through the Bronze Age, Barry Allen’s life was a rock of stability compared to Hal Jordan’s. And I maintain that’s why the team drifted apart. After 1969’s Flash/GL team-up (The Flash #191), outside of their JLA appearances, the two heroes didn’t meet up again for four years (“The Heart That Attacked the World!”, The Flash #222, July–Aug. 1973)—in a book-length story that, infamously, they shared virtually no scenes together! Worse, while GL had appeared in Flash’s book, the favor could no longer be returned— from 1972 to 1976, there was no Green Lantern series outside of short backups in Flash’s own title. Their next—and final—official Bronze Age team-up came in The Flash #235 (Aug. 1975), in which GL shared his co-star billing with the Golden Age Flash, hardly a “return to tradition.” The ’70s saw no more pairings or crossovers, and once Schwartz left Flash, Barry’s life was so filled with tumult and chaos that there was no time for two old friends to band together to thwart an alien invasion like in the good old days. Like so many buddies, Barry and Hal had grown apart—and that was the end of the partnership. In retrospect, the Barry/Hal team worked best when, despite their differences, they each had some measure of stability. As Tom Peyer and I saw it—and your mileage may vary—while their friendship stayed forever strong, their kinship suffered every time they lost common ground. (In Flash & Green Lantern #4, for instance, we made a big point of how much ground the straight-and-narrow Barry Allen lost once Hal became inseparable with Barry’s polar opposite, the anti-authority hippie Green Arrow.) Hal, buffeted by the whirlwinds of change, was always relieved to ground himself in Barry’s life from time to time, but it’s entirely likely that as Hal’s lifestyle morphed and shifted, Barry had a more difficult time getting a read on his old buddy. Then, after Iris West died and Barry’s tumultuous life was no longer a port in the storm for Hal, the two friends simply drifted apart. Times change, people change, no harm, no foul. That’s life. Even still, their team-ups—fewer in number than we tend to remember—nevertheless became a thing of legend, and rightfully so. In their day, they had one of the best and most recognized friendships in comics. And the fan in me believes that, somewhere out there, there’s still one last adventure of the Flash/GL team to be told, one final epic set just before Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths that reaffirms the core of that brotherhood one final time, in a spectacular blaze of glory. Perhaps someone will have the opportunity to tell that tale someday. It seems unlikely, but I hope so. In fact, Tom Peyer and I just had an idea…. Among writer MARK WAID’s many, many credits is an eight-year run on DC’s Flash.

Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

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Almost everything I’ve ever needed to know about Green Lantern Hal Jordan’s character I learned at the age of ten when reading my first Green Lantern story, “…And Through Him Save a World!” in Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) #89 (Apr.–May 1972). In this classic “relevance” story by writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams, edited by Julius Schwartz, there would be no mention of GL’s civilian identity, Hal Jordan; of Hal being a former test pilot at Ferris Aircraft, a company run by his girlfriend, Carol Ferris; that he was a member of the Green Lantern Corps, proudly protecting his sector (2814) of the galaxy; and that his superiors were red-robed, little blue men known as the Guardians of the Universe. That history would be filled in for me later. Here, for the first time, I got inside Hal’s head. I saw him reflect on a country steeped in beauty but marred by industrial pollution, and bore witness to his strong sense of law and order. Yet, Green Lantern did not let duty blind him. When Hal realized he was wrong, he could swallow his pride and willingly change. In this tale, change was brought on by tragedy. Isaac, an ecological activist who had been vandalizing and sabotaging Ferris Aircraft property, had chained himself, crucifixion-style, to a grounded Ferris airplane that was set to test a new fuel that could seriously harm the environment. Up until this point, Green Lantern had sided with the law, aiding in Isaac’s arrest, while his partner, Green Arrow, had joined Isaac’s cause. GL soon realized the nobility of Isaac’s actions, although it was too late to prevent Isaac’s death from the pollution that ravaged his lungs. With Isaac laying lifelessly at his feet, GL stood hurt and angry, and listened with growing frustration as Carol’s assistant foreman called Isaac crazy and Carol insensitively stated that progress must always claim victims. GL snapped, and with a burst of will and a sweep of his power-ring charge he destroyed the airplane, dramatically, effectively stating that this kind of progress was not worth the cost of a human life. “What’s the idea?” shouted the foreman. “That was a nine-million dollar aircraft!” “Send me a bill!” Green Lantern dared, turning away. Hal’s reaction remains tremendously moving. Here was a man who could be stubborn when it came to duty, conflicted by mixed emotions, yet aware that in all of us there reside gray areas of right and wrong. Then and there Green Lantern became my favorite superhero, and Hal Jordan my favorite comic-book character. What I also did not know at that time was that Hal had come a long way from years of personal turmoil that had eaten away at his pride and confidence, and more recent accusations of alleged inexperience when it came to his performance as a Green Lantern.

On-Again, Off-Again Hero Hal Jordan calls it quits on this unforgettable Dave Gibbons cover to Green Lantern #181 (Oct. 1984). TM & © DC Comics.

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Jim Kingman

THE WANDERER What I also didn’t know was how good a man Hal Jordan was since his debut in DC’s Showcase #22 (Oct. 1959). As a test pilot at Ferris Aircraft outside of his hometown of Coast City, Hal was confident, daring, intelligent, courageous, alert, stable, and steady. As a man, he was honest, firm, kind, likeable, loyal, respectful, and responsible. As a Green Lantern, he was fearless, willful, and driven by a strong sense of duty. Hal Jordan was not perfect, however. His impulsiveness often misdirected him into lifechanging decisions and his naiveté blinded him in situations that required thought. Combine the two and matters got really rocky. Still, there was an uncanny levelheadedness to Hal that eventually reasserted itself in times of intense crisis or emotional trauma. His decency, the better of him, always supplanted the worst life had to offer him and the worst he threw at himself. “Hal is an old-school hero,” asserts Denny O’Neil. “Brave, skilled. He’s used to being part of a hierarchy. Life, though, is making him question his values.” Jack C. Harris, who edited Green Lantern from 1978 until 1981, tells BACK ISSUE, “When Hal Jordan was first introduced, he was described as being totally without fear. While this was a great aid to him as a superhero and a test pilot, I always thought it hampered him with his ‘people skills.’ Fearless people tend to be cocksure of their actions and tend not to question anything, including authority. I recall a number of John Broome[-written] stories where Hal was totally (and happily) subservient to the Guardians of the Universe. O’Neil picked up on this point when he began the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories. Green Arrow was able to point out these flaws to Hal and, on some level, GL was able to change. However, I always believe it is very hard for people to actually change their personalities. So the best Hal could do was reach a happy medium, intellectually realizing

he should be feeling differently about a situation, but emotionally having trouble doing so.” There is a classic moment in Green Lantern (co-starring Green Arrow) #76 (Apr. 1970) where Hal Jordan is confronted by an African-American gentleman atop a Star City tenement. GL had just made a miscall during an aggravated assault, attacking a group of young men apparently intent on harming a defenseless older man. What Hal didn’t realize, and what he couldn’t possibly have known when he entered the fray, was that the older man, Jubal Slade, was a lousy landlord and these young men, the landlord’s tenants, had had enough. In defending the landlord, GL was subsequently struck with thrown trash and was harshly criticized by Green Arrow. Then the African-American man stepped in and said to GL, “I been readin’ about you … how you work for the blue skins … and how on a planet someplace you helped out the orange skins … and you done considerable for the purple skins! Only there’s skins you never bothered with—! …The black skins! I want to know … how come?! Answer me that, Mr. Green Lantern!” And with those words Hal Jordan was forced to confront his values, and his value. In the accompanying caption, it reads: “In the time it takes to draw a single breath … the span of a heartbeat—a man looks into his own soul, and his life changes…” Let the torment begin. The thing is, Hal was already tormented, and not with being a Green Lantern. It was more personal than that. At the dawn of the 1970s, Hal Jordan was much like his country at the height of the Vietnam War: fractured, conflicted, spirit in decline, identity and resolve slipping. Yet this was because GL was heartbroken, and had been for some time. Hal’s life changed abruptly and dramatically during the course of Green Lantern #49 (Dec. 1966). In the wake of Barry (the Flash) Allen’s marriage to Iris West, Hal decided to propose to Carol Ferris. She had made other plans, however. While Hal was away performing his duties as Green Lantern, she met the handsome and wealthy Jason Belmore, and after a whirlwind courtship she had accepted Belmore’s proposal to marry her. Hal took the stunning revelation from Carol with extraordinary understanding. But later, he was devastated, and even considered resigning as a Green Lantern. His good friend and work colleague Tom Kalmaku convinced him otherwise. After defeating the story’s villain, the Dazzler, Hal’s emotional pain was still Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

“Send me a bill!” In the last issue of Denny O’Neil/Neal Adams’ awardwinning Green Lantern/Green Arrow, #89 (Apr.–May 1972), GL gives Big Business the (ring) finger. TM & © DC Comics.

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There are stories that have never been told … and then there are stories that have been told but just never got published. Over the course of my years in the comic-book business, I’ve had a (relative) handful of stories that fall into the latter category. Including five different issues of three separate magazines starring Green Lantern. Needless to say, as a 1960s comic-book fan growing up in the shining light that was the Julius Schwartz-edited world of DC superheroes, I was an early and devoted fan of Hal Jordan. Green Lantern, along with the rest of Schwartz’s heroic stable, was about the best DC had to offer in those days. Unlike most of the rest of the DC line at the time, his stories always felt rooted in at least a sort-ofreal-world scientific logic that played off long-established and comfortable science-fiction tropes. Julie kept a shelf full of science textbooks in his cabinet that he used for reference and inspiration. The filler pages in his books weren’t “Cap’s Hobby Hints” or “Casey the Cop” but “Flash Facts” and “Spotlight on Science.”

STRANGE SCHWARTZ TALES My association with Green Lantern—or should I say, with the Green Lanterns—began not under the auspices of the great Schwartz, but for later editor Dave Manak, in Green Lantern #148 (Jan. 1982), with an untitled “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” story that introduced my one and only enduring contribution to the pre–Crisis GL mythos, the Green Lantern from H’lven, Ch’p, the bushytailed chipmunk member of the Corps. Thirteen more GL Corps stories followed, along with a GL Corps Annual and a (published!) fill-in, GL #187 (Apr. 1985), before the post–Crisis Englehart/Staton run began. But, circa 1985, I was finally to write an issue of Green Lantern about Hal Jordan, and for Julie Schwartz. In anticipation of the major paul kupperberg changes coming to the DC Universe in the aftermath of 1985–1986’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, Julie was wrapping up his run as editor of the Superman titles with the two-part “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” crossover in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583, and DC Comics Presents #97 (all cover-dated Sept. 1986); the Superboy and Supergirl titles (written by yours truly) had already come to end with #54 (June 1984) and #23 (Sept. 1984), respectively; and he was also about

Your Three Favorite Heroes—Together! Rick Stasi’s suggested color guide for page one of the unpublished Green Lantern fill-in, written by Paul Kupperberg, with art by Rick Stasi and Bruce Patterson. Artwork accompanying this article is courtesy of Paul Kupperberg. TM & © DC Comics...

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Paul Kupperberg

through with the line of 14 graphic novels he had produced in the DC Graphic Novel and DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel series (published between 1983 and 1987, including my own 1986 adaptation of Larry Niven’s The Magic Goes Away, with artist Jan Duursema). “As I recall it, after the SF Graphic Novels were discontinued, they wanted to let Julie stay busy, justifying his office space and consulting salary,” says Robert Greenberger, then on staff as DC’s editorial coordinator. “So [editorial director] Dick Giordano assigned him the task of creating a bunch of fill-ins for various DC titles, hoping whatever interest he still had could be instilled in newcomers and those in need of work.” While continuity played a fairly big role in the DCU of the mid-1980s (there wouldn’t have been the need for Crisis if it hadn’t), so did the problem of late-shipping books. Whether the causes, late books were epidemic at the time. Finally, the powers-that-be put their foot down and ordered the fill-ins to be created and kept in the drawer, threatening Swords of Damocles hanging over the heads of editors and creators who were unable to get their acts together. Now, as I write this in late 2013, almost 30 years since their creation, it’s difficult to determine how many fill-in stories Schwartz actually ended up commissioning. “I don’t recall if any of them actually made it into print beyond one or two,” Greenberger says, although one that did see print was Bob Rozakis’ 18-page Blue Devil fill-in that was incorporated into the 38-page final issue of the title, #31 (Dec. 1986)… …And, of course, my own scripted, penciled, lettered, and inked Green Lantern tale, “The Eyes of the Beholders!” with art by Rick Stasi and Bruce Patterson. DC’s comics at the time ran to 23 pages of story and art, but like the Blue Devil tale, it was written as a shorter story to allow for the addition of a fouror five-page framing sequence that could be created relatively quickly and serve, however loosely, to tie the non-continuity fill-in story in with whatever was happening at the time of its use. “The Eyes of the Beholders!” is a Rashomonic take on Hal Jordan’s origin and earliest experiences as Green Lantern. It opens with Superman carrying the Batplane, damaged by skyjackers’ artillery, and Batman on a detour across the desert to investigate the crash of an unidentified aircraft he had spotted on the way home. The World’s Finest team arrives just in time to see a glowing green flare shoot from the ship. “It’s … like a beacon,” Superman tells Batman, “or tracking signal … criss-crossing the planet at the speed of light.” The Man of Steel tracks the beacon with his super-vision while the Caped Crusader muses over its purpose and sees it pick up “that flightless trainer … along with the man operating it! Batman! We know that man!” They do indeed. It’s test pilot Hal Jordan, who they had met, according to the footnote, when he had helped the Justice League of America on a case (in JLA #144, in a flashback story entitled “The Origin of the Justice League—Minus One!” from July 1977). With Superman eavesdropping via his super-senses and narrating the story for Batman, they watch as the spaceship’s dying pilot, Abin Sur, passes the power battery and ring of the Green Lantern on to his human successor, a sequence I lifted directly from the Showcase #22 (Oct. 1959) origin tale, “S.O.S. Green Lantern,” by John Broome, Gil Kane, and Joe Giella. “Well, well! Looks like we’re about to witness history, old chum!” says the Man of Steel, who’s been around the universe enough to know of the Lanterns.

The story cuts to Washington, D.C., and a highspeed police chase in progress which is being joined from the air by Wonder Woman and her invisible robot-plane. Wonder Woman disables the escaping vehicle, driven, we learn from the grateful cops, by crooks who had just hijacked a shipment of experimental military weapons, one of which is activated, unleashing a storm of flying black spheres that project absolute blackness to cover their attack. She’s overwhelmed by the spheres, which break off their attack before they can do her any damage. One of the cops on the scene— a cameo appearance by editor Schwartz, courtesy of fellow Schwartz fan, artist Rick Stasi—explains that they and she were saved by a costumed, flying, masked man with a power ring which created a giant green hand to swat aside the spheres and dissipate the darkness, followed by a giant boxing kangaroo to take out the bad guys. He called himself Green Lantern. Wonder Woman is impressed by what she’s heard and is happy there’s a new superpowered protector around … not a bad thing, considering that “three hours Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

Furry Fury Paul Kupperberg introduced Ch’p (one of our favorite GLs) in a “Tales of the Green Lantern Corps” backup in Green Lantern #148 (Jan. 1982). Art by Don Newton and Dan Adkins, with Anthony Tollin colors. TM & © DC Comics.

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From the very beginning, Green Lantern has had connections with literary science fiction—his “In brightest day/In blackest night” oath was originally written by The Stars My Destination author Alfred Bester, and the names of Green Lanterns Arisa and Eddore paid homage to the Lensmen books of E. E. “Doc” Smith. But the biggest GL/SF crossover yet came from renowned science-fiction author Larry Niven. At the request of DC Comics, Niven wrote a comprehensive Green Lantern bible mapping out the entire 15-billionyear history of the Guardians of the Universe, which led to Ganthet’s Tale, a 1992 one-shot revealing much of that secret history.

Larry Niven, the Green Lantern bible, and the Guardian known as Ganthet

LOOKING INTO CREATION

To properly understand Ganthet’s Tale, we need to look back to its origin. It was 1989, Hal Jordan’s 30th Anniversary year, and classic GL writer Denny O’Neil had just become the new Green Lantern editor. DAN RASPLER, Assistant to Editor Denny O’Neil: One of the themes of Denny’s illustrious comics career has been to insert some form of reality into the fanciful world of superheroes. I know he’s tired of hearing about it, but that now-classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow #76 (the one that inserted “relevance” into the DC Universe) was a real revolution. I worked in his office for years, and since I was an enthusiastic superhero fan, it sometimes resulted in some funny arguments and Denny shaking his head in dismay. Denny hadn’t been editing a GL comic (Green Lantern Corps had been Andy Helfer’s title), but that franchise went to Denny when we started up Action Comics Weekly. After ACW ended [in 1989], Green Lantern sort of languished for a while (there were a few specials, but not a monthly title). Then Denny was tasked by [editorial director] Dick Giordano to shake up the Green Lantern franchise. Naturally, Denny’s impulse was to add a strong dose of reality. I remember him talking about the absurdity of a single individual being assigned responsibility of 1/3600th of the galaxy, of the outrageous arrogance of the Oans declaring themselves the Guardians of the Galaxy, and so on. “Actually, they’re the Guardians of the Universe, Denny,” was my precocious comics-nerd correction. “That’s even more ridiculous!” he’d cry. He’s right, of course, but also wrong—because superheroes are wonderful kid stuff, and I don’t think they need any more reality … but that’s just me. Anyway, Denny’s impulse was to look outside of comics, to bring in a science-fiction writer to add some hard science to the traditionally vague Green Lantern cosmology.

Niven’s Playground The GL-loaded cover to Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale (1992), with foil logo. Cover art by John Byrne, with colors by Matt Webb. TM & © DC Comics.

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J o h n Tr u m b u l l

Sci-Fi Master (left) Perhaps Larry Niven’s best-known work, Ringworld, shown here in a 1977 hardcover published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. (right) Niven’s The Magic Goes Away was adapted into comics form by Paul Kupperberg and Jan Duursema as DC’s Science Fiction Graphic Novel #6 (1986). Ringworld and The Magic Goes Away © Larry Niven.

DENNY O’NEIL, Editor: The idea was partially to expand the boundaries a little bit. To get people who might bring a different viewpoint to the discipline. Very much like what [Gene] Roddenberry tried in the first year of Star Trek. His theory was: It’s easier to teach sciencefiction writers how to write television than it is to teach TV writers how to do science fiction. I was thinking along similar lines. The science-fiction writer that O’Neil selected was Larry Niven, a five-time Hugo Award winner and author of more than 50 books, including Ringworld. Comic-book fans likely remember Niven’s “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex,” a whimsical essay about the problems of Superman’s sex life.

stories, he was basing his stories on hard scientific research. That’s what made him appealing to Denny. DENNY O’NEIL: There’s always a danger that things get a little ingrown. It’s a tricky thing. If you grew up reading comics and they were at the center of your life for a time, the tendency is to try and duplicate what you so much loved when you were 15. That’s not always healthy for the art form. Things have to change, and they have to grow. And I think that’s one of the bigger hurdles. Now, virtually everybody who is a professional comic-book writer has been, in one way or another, a fan at one time. LARRY NIVEN: I was a fan. I still needed to bone up, read all the issues I’d missed or forgotten. I did that courtesy of a collector, Bruce Pelz, working at his house.

DAN RASPLER: I’m pretty sure Larry Niven was my suggestion. I’d been reading a lot of Niven (Ringworld, RECREATING THE UNIVERSE the Known Space stuff), and I thought it would be a DAN RASPLER: [Our questions] came down to all coup to get such a popular master of the genre. Denny the wonderfully screwy stuff that Gardner Fox and liked the idea, and I offered to make the initial contact. Julie Schwartz used to make the GL engine run. DENNY O’NEIL: I knew [Niven] socially, from science How does a battery in the center of the universe fiction or SFWA [the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers power rings a zillion light years away? Why is there of America]. I remember seeing him at parties. I was a weakness to yellow? How can a mad scientist an admirer of Niven’s, though I could never possibly introduce evil into a young universe? What is the write the kind of fiction he did. green energy made of? What does willpower or LARRY NIVEN, Story [from his 1991 book larry niven fear have to do with it? All the themes and tropes Playgrounds of the Mind]: Every so often I have to do that Green Lantern writers are still talking about. Photo by Marilyn Niven. something to prove I’m still versatile. Norman Spinrad LARRY NIVEN [from Playgrounds of the Mind]: once warned me against getting into a mental rut, and I took it to heart. I ran down their list of the questions they most wanted answered. “Why DAN RASPLER: Larry wasn’t a comics fan per se, but he knew the a ring?” Because it’ll stay on almost any shape of alien. “Blue skin on the character, and we were offering a lot of money for the overhaul. Guardians? They evolved pink.” It’s a gene-engineered uniform. “Krona We flew him in, took him to lunch at the Top of the Sixes (back when introduced evil into the universe—” No, Entropy! “The oath that recharges DC was at 666 Fifth Avenue), and shook hands. the magic rings—” is for timing and to concentrate the will power (as LARRY NIVEN: The original letter [I received from DC] was just a Denny suggested), “Antimatter—” Hopelessly fouled up; drop it entirely. somewhat generic questionnaire. I have been assuming that nobody else found entertainment in answering speculative questions about the Niven’s GL bible built off of John Broome’s story from Green Lantern #40 DC Universe, as I did. But I don’t know who the other letters went to. (Oct. 1965)—where Maltusian scientist Krona unleashed evil after attempting to view the origins of the universe. This issue was where DC readers first I assume they went to other science-fiction writers. DAN RASPLER: I don’t believe we contacted anyone else. We chose saw creation represented as a gigantic hand holding a spiral galaxy—a Niven because he wrote stories that revolved around hard science. visual that became an iconic image of Crisis on Infinite Earths 20 years He would take a phenomenon of astrophysics, and figure out how later. Krona’s crime was shown to have also created the multiverse, the to add characters to it. He wasn’t basing his stories on other comics antimatter universe, and shadow demons in Crisis #7 (Oct. 1985).

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By the time Ganthet’s Tale was published in 1992, Green Lantern had gained a new monthly series. In it, Hal Jordan sported a new salt ’n’ pepper hairstyle, suggesting he was older than in previous years.

Big Bang Theory Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com), original cover art to Ganthet’s Tale, signed by both Larry Niven and John Byrne. TM & © DC Comics.

GERARD JONES: Andy Helfer and I wanted to make Hal distinct from the other mainline DC heroes, who all seemed to be perpetually 29 years old, by making him a notch older and more life-experienced, more weathered, giving him some of that Reed Richards/ Nick Fury gravitas. I always found a certain romance in the craggy old heroes who were slower but tougher than the young guys around them. The gray temples were a visual shorthand to convey that. John Byrne disagreed with Hal’s new appearance, feeling it aged the character unnecessarily, so he used the climax of Ganthet’s Tale to suggest a possible explanation. Hal wasn’t drawn with white hair until the last seven pages, after Ganthet de-aged him. MATT WEBB: John was basically answering the question as to why Hal Jordan now has white temples. Ganthet

can only give him a portion of his energy back, so he was aged a little bit. But this idea was either rejected or forgotten about, and Hal ended up colored with white temples throughout the book. MATT WEBB: I didn’t know anything about it until I got my color guides back. They pay you to do the work, and once they would separate it, they would return them. I got the color guides back and somebody had methodically gone through and whited out the temples right over my coloring. SCOTT PETERSON: I assume someone simply saw that it didn’t match the current iteration of Hal and “fixed” it without paying attention to the story reason. I have no memory of that decision at all, and hope I had no idea at the time. White also worked to Webb’s advantage, however. At the story’s climax, as Entropy was engulfing the universe, Webb had a brainstorm to give Byrne’s double-page spread even more impact. MATT WEBB: I came to the point in the book where there was a really cool two-page spread of the galaxy. I was thinking about all kinds of color and stuff but then it came to me to leave it white! White is, after all, the presence of all color! I called John and said, “John … how about I just make this two-page spread white?” and he said, “Yeah, that’s a good idea!” and I said, “They’ll pay me, right?” John said it was an artistic choice, one he endorsed. So I got paid for doing two pages of white [laughs].”

EPILOGUE SCOTT PETERSON: It was only years later that I really realized how unusual a project I’d been fortunate enough to work on. At the time, I was just sorta, “Oh, right, I get to work on a project by a legendary science-fiction novelist and one of the great comic-book creators ever. That’s pretty cool.” As the Bard wrote, youth is wasted on the young. Ganthet became one of the most significant Guardians of all time, participating in most major GL storylines of the last 20 years, giving Kyle Rayner his power ring and co-founding the Blue Lantern Corps. Although Ganthet went unnamed in the 2011 Green Lantern movie, he appeared in both the Green Lantern and Duck Dodgers animated television series. When asked if he’s kept up with any of his creation’s appearances in comics and other media, Larry Niven confesses, “No, but [DC] sent me a statue of Ganthet.” Green Lantern recruit Percival subsequently appeared in Green Lantern vol. 3 #35 (Jan. 1993) and 45 (Sept. 1993), as well as in Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #4 (Mar. 1993). Dawlakispokpok, Thwarcharchura, Doranchatok, and Darthartheen have not had any other appearances since Ganthet’s Tale, for which DC’s letterers are eternally grateful. While Niven’s Green Lantern bible has never been seen in full outside of the DC offices, excerpts appear in Niven’s 1991 collection Playgrounds of the Mind. Hopefully, Niven’s world building will someday inspire more tales of the GL Universe. After all, 15 billion years is a lot of ground to cover. JOHN TRUMBULL is vulnerable to redheads. Thanks to Larry Niven, Gerard Jones, Denny O’Neil, Scott Peterson, Dan Raspler, and Matt Webb for sharing their memories with BACK ISSUE, and to Loston and Carolyn Wallace for proofreading assistance.

58 • BACK ISSUE • Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age

assembled by

Robert Greenberger

[Editor’s note: Response to Bob Greenberger’s request for DC office stories far exceeded our expectations—and our allocated page count. Please forgive the condensed layout of this feature, but these remembrances were far too enticing to edit or serialize.] DC Comics closes the door on an era of its history in April 2015 when it relocates from New York City, the birth of comic-book publishing, to be part of the Warner Bros. complex in Burbank, California. The move is significant in terms of how the business has changed, and has emotional resonance for those who worked there and for the fans who visited the offices, dreaming of a chance to one day work there. Todd Klein, at his website KleinLetters.com, has been doing a series of in-depth features on the various places the company would call home. He politely declined to share his memories, saving them for his own space. He did, though, share DC’s early history. Irwin Donenfeld was first recorded in 1932 to have his pulp-magazine companies based on the 9th floor of 480 Lexington, lasting there through 1960. He added distribution with Paul Sampliner, becoming Independent News, and comic-book publishing with Jack Liebowitz, becoming National Allied Publications, Inc. Major Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson’s last offices for his fledging comic-book company, before losing it to Donenfeld and Liebowitz, was at 49 West 45th Street. Todd’s research revealed that Detective Comics, Inc. listed its offices at 432 Fourth Avenue (Park Avenue South), which he assumed to be a mail drop. When Donenfeld partnered with Max Gaines to form sister company All-American Publications, they established offices at 225 Lafayette Street, on the corner of Spring Street. After Gaines sold out his share, the comicbook staff relocated to Lexington Avenue while Gaines remained at 225 Lafayette, giving birth to EC Comics. Around the time National Comics changed its name to National Periodical Publications, Inc., they also relocated up the block to 575 Lexington. What follows are building-by-building memories from a variety of professionals who graciously gave their time to reminisce.

575 LEXINGTON AVENUE ROY THOMAS, fan, writer, editor I recall that, the morning I first arrived in June of 1965, walking up Lexington Avenue with my suitcase and electric typewriter in either hand (I’d just got to town and had nowhere to stay yet); I was so excited about my new job as editor Mort Weisinger’s assistant editor on the Superman books that I marched a block or two past the correct address

and had to double back, my load getting heavier all the time. The offices were laid out in a row for the editors, with a big bullpen area (you should excuse the expression) off those. Because of my relationship with Mort, I quickly got to hate the office I shared with the woman who was Jack Miller’s assistant on the romance titles (and who never spoke a word to me until two minutes before I left the place forever). Still, my memories of the other things up there continue to shine. Joe Kubert, my favorite artist since I was, like, four, was very friendly and took a bit of time to talk to me that first day, since Mort somehow managed to affect surprise at my arriving precisely when we had agreed that I would and informed me he couldn’t start paying me till the following week. Joe’s kindness made it all a bit more endurable … even more was that of Murphy Anderson, who invited me to stand around and talk with him one of those very first afternoons after 5:00, and I marveled at seeing a Hawkman page appear virtually before my eyes. How many people worked in that bullpen area? How many desks were there … how were they arranged? I couldn’t have told you, then or now … but I remember Joe and Murphy … and a few kind words from production man Ed Eisenberg, as well. Julie Schwartz was friendly, too, with just a few words … he didn’t want Mort think he was poaching on his preserve, in all probability. And going to lunch one day with Mort and writer Otto Binder was a highlight. One of the few, I fear, before a happy happenstance allowed me to depart for Marvel Comics after eight days in the DC offices. Which is weird, because I’d always wanted to work for DC, and had never even considered working for Marvel (or that Stan Lee wanted anybody to do any writing or editing for that company). I was up there once or twice during the latter part of Carmine Infantino’s reign, in the mid-’70s. Gerry Conway brought me over, very hush-hush, to talk to Carmine, and we discussed in a vague way the idea of my coming back to DC sometime. I used the occasion to plug one or two ideas which Carmine liked, such as bringing back The New Gods after Kirby had gone back to Marvel. But I didn’t spend a lot of time there, as I wasn’t eager for word to get back to Marvel that I’d been there. In the early 1980s, after I’d signed a contract with DC, I was up at the offices a number of times at Rockefeller Center or wherever it was, but I never could relax there. I always felt like an outsider, despite my affection for Dick Giordano and Pat Bastienne … and Julie, who was there off and on. I can still draw a picture of the Marvel offices in 1965 … but I couldn’t draw you a map of the DC offices at any time and get anything right except the fact that there were two or three other editors’ offices in between the one I shared with the romance editor

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