Back Issue #90 by TwoMorrows Publishing

THIS ISSUE: EIGHTIES LADIES! August

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Elektra Assassin • Dazzler • Captain Marvel • Wonder Woman Lady Quark • Dakota North • Somerset Holmes • Jezebel Jade featuring Kubert, Mishkin, Romita Jr., Sienkiewicz, Stern, Thomases & more

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“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.

“Flash and Green Lantern in the Bronze Age” (crossover with ALTER EGO #132)! In-depth spotlights of their 1970s and 1980s adventures, MARK WAID’s look at the Flash/GL team, and PAUL KUPPERBERG’s Lost GL Fillins. Bonus: DC’s New York Office Memories, and Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale by LARRY NIVEN and JOHN BYRNE. With BARR, BATES, GIBBONS, GRELL, INFANTINO, WEIN, and more. Cover by GEORGE PÉREZ.

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“DC Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” An indepth exploration of DC’s 100-PAGE SUPER SPECTACULARS, plus: a history of comics giants, DC indexes galore, and a salute to “human encyclopedia” E. NELSON BRIDWELL. Featuring the work of PAT BRODERICK, RICH BUCKLER, FRANK FRAZETTA, JOE KUBERT, BOB ROZAKIS, BERNIE WRIGHTSON, and more. Super Spec tribute cover featuring classic art by NICK CARDY.

“Bronze Age Events!” With extensive coverage of the Avengers/Defenders War, JLA/JSA crossovers, Secret Wars, Crisis’ 30th anniversary, Legends, Millennium, Invasion, Infinity Gauntlet, and more! Featuring the work of SAL BUSCEMA, DICK DILLIN, TODD McFARLANE, GEORGE PÉREZ, JOE STATON, LEN WEIN, MARV WOLFMAN, MIKE ZECK, and more. Plus an Avengers vs. Defenders cover by JOHN BYRNE.

“International Heroes!” Alpha Flight, the New X-Men, Global Guardians, Captain Canuck, and Justice League International, plus SpiderMan in the UK and more. Also: exclusive interview with cover artists STEVE FASTNER and RICH LARSON. Featuring the work of JOHN BYRNE, CHRIS CLAREMONT, DAVE COCKRUM, RICHARD COMELY, KEITH GIFFEN, KEVIN MAGUIRE, and more! Alpha Flight vs. X-Men cover by FASTNER/LARSON.

“Supergirl in the Bronze Age!” Her 1970s and 1980s adventures, including her death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and her many rebirths. Plus: an ALAN BRENNERT interview, behind the scenes of the Supergirl movie starring HELEN SLATER, Who is Superwoman?, and a look at the DC Superheroes Water Ski Show. With PAUL KUPPERBERG, ELLIOT MAGGIN, MARV WOLFMAN, plus a jam cover recreation of ADVENTURE COMICS #397!

“Christmas in the Bronze Age!” Go behind the scenes of comics’ best holiday tales of the 1970s through the early 1990s! And we revisit Superhero Merchandise Catalogs of the late ‘70s! Featuring work by SIMON BISLEY, CHRIS CLAREMONT, JOSÉ LUIS GARCÍALÓPEZ, KEITH GIFFEN, the KUBERT STUDIO, DENNY O’NEIL, STEVE PURCELL, JOHN ROMITA, JR., and more. Cover by MARIE SEVERIN and MIKE ESPOSITO!

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“Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints!” In-depth exploration of Marvel’s GIANT-SIZE series, plus indexes galore of Marvel reprint titles, Marvel digests and Fireside Books editions, and the last days of the “Old” X-Men! Featuring work by DAN ADKINS, ROSS ANDRU, RICH BUCKLER, DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, WERNER ROTH, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by JOHN ROMITA, SR.!

“Batman AND Superman!” Bronze Age World’s Finest, Super Sons, Batman/Superman Villain/Partner Swap, Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane go solo, Superman/Radio Shack giveaways, and JLA #200’s “A League Divided” (as a nod to Batman v. Superman)! Featuring work by BRIAN BOLLAND, RICH BUCKLER, GERRY CONWAY, JACK KIRBY, GEORGE PÉREZ, JIM STARLIN, and more. Cover by DICK GIORDANO!

“Comics Magazines of the ’70s and ’80s!” From Savage Tales to Epic Illustrated, KIRBY’s “Speak-Out Series,” EISNER’s Spirit magazine, Unpublished PAUL GULACY, MICHAEL USLAN on the Shadow magazine you didn’t see, plus B&Ws from Atlas/Seaboard, Charlton, Skywald, and Warren. Featuring work by NEAL ADAMS, JOHN BOLTON, ARCHIE GOODWIN, DOUG MOENCH, EARL NOREM, ROY THOMAS, and more. Cover by GRAY MORROW!

“Bronze Age Adaptations!” The Shadow, Korak: Son of Tarzan, Battlestar Galactica, The Black Hole, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Worlds Unknown, and Marvel’s 1980s movie adaptations. Plus: PAUL KUPPERBERG surveys prose adaptations of comics! With work by JACK KIRBY, DENNY O’NEIL, FRANK ROBBINS, MICHAEL W. KALUTA, FRANK THORNE, MICHAEL USLAN, and sporting an alternate Kaluta cover produced for DC’s Shadow series!

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Volume 1, Number 90 August 2016 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Michael Eury PUBLISHER John Morrow

Comics’ Bronze Age and Beyond!

DESIGNER Rich Fowlks COVER ARTIST Bill Sienkiewicz (Unpublished trade paperback cover produced in 2003. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.) COVER COLORIST Glenn Whitmore COVER DESIGNER Michael Kronenberg PROOFREADER Rob Smentek Lady Quark Christopher Larochelle Marvel Comics Dan Mishkin Ann Nocenti Tom Peyer John Romita, Jr. John Romita, Sr. Philip Schweier Bill Sienkiewicz Louise Simonson Roger Stern David Suiter Martha Thomases Steven Wilber

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FLASHBACK: Elektra: Assassin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Our cover artist, Bill Sienkiewicz, takes us behind the scenes of the Frank Miller-written epic FLASHBACK: Dazzler Lights Up Marvel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 A dazzling array of creators sparkle with nostalgia in this history of Marvel’s disco mutant BACKSTAGE PASS: Dazzler in the Media (and Beyond) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 Alison Blaire on TV, in video games, and beyond INTERVIEW: Dan Mishkin’s Wonder Woman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30 The Amethyst co-creator discusses his early ’80s stint as Wonder Woman’s writer FLASHBACK: Call Her Captain Marvel … or Photon … or Pulsar … of Spectrum! . . . . . .38 What’s in a name? An all-star lineup surveys the identity crisis of Monica Rambeau BEYOND CAPES: Somerset Holmes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48 Bruce Jones, April Campbell, and Brent Anderson remember the amnesiac indie heroine FLASHBACK: The Charmed and Charged Life of Lady Quark . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57 The Crisis-generated regal hero and her failure to spark DC’s readers’ attention PRINCE STREET NEWS: Top Comic-Book Women of the ’80s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62 From Abby Cable to Love and Rockets, courtesy of cartoonist Karl Heitmueller, Jr. OFF MY CHEST: Guest Editorial by Martha Thomases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 The creator of Marvel’s Dakota North confesses that she has Daddy issues PRO2PRO: William Messner-Loebs and Adam Kubert Discuss Jezebel Jade . . . . . . . . . . . .68 The writer/artist team remembers their three-issue Jonny Quest spin-off from Comico BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76 Reader reactions 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. Eight-issue subscriptions: $73 Standard US, $88 Expedited US, $116 International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by Bill Sienkiewicz. Elektra TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2016 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing except Prince Street News, © 2016 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING.

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Dazzler print by Frank Cirocco (1987, First Team Press). Courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

SPECIAL THANKS Frankie Addiego Brent Anderson Roger Ash Tom Brevoort Kurt Busiek April Campbell Paul Chadwick Tom DeFalco Warren Ellis Al Ewing Danny Fingeroth Grand Comics Database Alan Grant Robert Greenberger Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Glenn Herdling Heritage Comics Auctions Stuart Immonen Geof Isherwood Bruce Jones

My heart pounds shamefully—how long have they held me? Unimportant. The guards and fence below will give way before me like a thicket in a hurricane. Of course I should not leave just yet. Leave nothing alive. It is the first order. But the wind is hot and wet and ripe with spring. And I jump.

Elektra thinks all of these things as she breaks out of an asylum at the conclusion of Elektra: Assassin’s first issue. The initial 32-page salvo of this story takes place entirely within Elektra’s mind as she considers what she knows about her life so far and what she thinks might be true about it. She learns of a horrible evil and realizes that she needs to stop it. The comic is a bold beginning to a bold miniseries, a contemporary to stories like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. Like these other series, Elektra: Assassin is a signpost of where comics were in 1986 and a display of just what could be accomplished within the medium. Despite this, Elektra: Assassin is sometimes forgotten in the shadow of the many significant works that came out of this era in comics history. The story in Elektra: Assassin might be summarized all too quickly by saying that it involves Elektra’s quest to defeat the Beast, an evil force aiming to bring about worldwide destruction. Along the way, Elektra crosses paths with an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. named John Garrett, faces a cyborg named Perry, and attempts to halt the plans of Ken Wind, the human face of the Beast. Because of its thick stew of imaginative elements, Elektra: Assassin has to be viewed in terms of exactly how it all came together as a result of the collaboration between writer Frank Miller and artist Bill Sienkiewicz. Elektra: Assassin was not the first project that Miller and Sienkiewicz planned to work on. The miniseries’ origin lies wrapped up in the process that got another collaboration by the same team off the ground (the graphic novel Daredevil: Love and War). “Frank and I had wanted to work on Daredevil together,” reports Bill Sienkiewicz. “I was going to be the guest artist on some of Frank’s run. That’s what I was doing. I was drawing Love and War as several issues of the main series. I was bringing in pages to the editor, Ralph Macchio, and people were blown away by what was being done with the Kingpin. These things were kept secret from Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief of Marvel. We were all in Ralph’s office with Chris Claremont one day and Jim Shooter walked in. Chris said, ‘Oh, Jim, have you seen these pages that Bill has done?’ without knowing what kind of secrets he was spilling. Ralph and I thought we were in big trouble. “Ignoring the twisted logic of our thinking for a second, we all knew Shooter was going to see the final result regardless, but we just hoped to delay him seeing it until it was too late to pull from the printer. Jim was actually far less upset than he had any right to be; I think he recognized our passion to try things, but in the end he felt it was too far from the continuity. My Kingpin was not ‘Marvel’s Kingpin.’ Readers would have kittens. So Shooter suggested that we turn these pages into a graphic novel, following the success of Jim Starlin’s Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel. When it got shifted to that format, and I realized I was going to be 2

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Christopher Larochelle

bill sienkiewicz © Luigi Novi/Wikimedia Commons.

Not the Kind of Girl You Take Home to Mother Detail from the controversial cover of Marvel/Epic’s Elektra: Assassin #1 (Aug. 1986). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

spending a lot of time painting, Frank Miller said, directions. I would change what was written but tried to ‘Hey, why don’t we do an Elektra miniseries for our stay true to the spirit of what Frank was writing. His writing bread-and-butter money?’ So Love and War and Elektra: inspired me to add twists, backstories, mechanics, and Assassin ended up being salt and pepper, companion psychological bits to create a credible world in which these characters and this story could exist.” pieces, completely unintentionally. Simultaneously.” This kind of give-and-take collaboration helped to When asked about how he and Miller first came to decide to get some projects going together, Sienkiewicz ensure that Garrett survived his near-death experience replies, “Frank had been on board for several months at in Elektra: Assassin #2. Sienkiewicz’s visual approach and connection to Garrett played a role in developing the Marvel when I got started. We would see each other at the offices. We became friends. I think he saw what I character into being a focal point for the entire miniseries rather than an adversary who lived and died entirely was trying to do with my work. We talked about our within the span of a single comic book. growth and our ideas and ideals. We were both “Garrett was the big surprise,” Frank trying to push beyond our influences but we Miller told Amazing Heroes #99 both really loved the medium and wanted (Fantagraphics, July 15, 1986). “Garrett to leave our marks, so to speak, in mainexploded as Bill and I tossed the stream comics. So we thought we character back and forth. It’s entirely would attempt that in Elektra: Assassin normal for me to be changing things and Love and War, with the aim of constantly. This is the way I like to keeping things in the wheelhouse work, with a lot of surprises along the of superhero stuff while going in a way. If I could see everything mapped direction that nobody had gone.” out in front of me, there wouldn’t be One of Elektra: Assassin’s standout any reason to do the piece” (pg. 31). characters is John Garrett. Garrett is introduced as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent tasked with hunting down Elektra; frank miller he later becomes infatuated with her. Garrett’s arc fills much of the storyline Beao/Wikimedia Commons. in Elektra: Assassin. In Elektra: Assassin #2 (Sept. 1986), Garrett’s internal monologue reveals how perplexed he is by what he learns when he searches a S.H.I.E.L.D. computer for information about his next case: “…seems a patient in one of those hellhole asylums down by the border went a little wild. Shoved her hand through a guard—punched holes in a surgical team—left a doctor with two scalpels in his eyes—where’d she come from?” He soon becomes intrigued by his quarry, learning many details about her life: how she is the daughter of a Greek diplomat, a student of martial arts who obtained a black belt by age 12, a girl left behind when her father was killed by gunfire. When their paths cross, John Garrett finds himself completely outmaneuvered by Elektra and caught in an exploding building. Garrett doesn’t even get the chance to die after this encounter and instead wakes up plugged into a wide variety of life-sustaining equipment. Even though he has been destroyed, S.H.I.E.L.D. has plans for Agent Garrett. Elektra silently slinks into the room where Garrett is being kept. “They won’t let me die, you know,” thinks Garrett. “The research boys started drooling when what was left of me came in. They’re hot to trot. But you don’t know. You look at the hunk of meat and tubes in front of you—and all you can tell is that I so dearly want to die … maybe I should thank you, honey. You’ve given me a reason to go on.” “Garrett was supposed to be killed at the end of issue two,” says Bill Sienkiewicz. “I would pick up the scripts at the office and read them on the train back to Westport, Connecticut. The looks I got from passengers were priceless. I was grinning and laughing like a loon. So essentially the floodgates of possibilities opened, I started to run with it in a whole bunch of different Eighties

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Under My Skin John Garrett and Elektra share a “quiet moment” on page 30 of Elektra: Assassin #6. (inset) Sienkiewicz’s Valentine pastiche cover for EA #4 (Nov. 1986). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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very ugly hero. He might do good for the right reasons; I just think it’d be in spite of the rest of his personality. I’ve been feeling lately that Garrett really is the reader’s character. He is the character through whom we really see the story” (Amazing Heroes #99, pg. 32). While the characterization of John Garrett sensibly fell upon Miller’s shoulders, the character’s visuals came about entirely through the filter of Bill Sienkiewicz’s efforts. “Part of Garrett’s design was my cartooning influence. It was also partly influenced by the time in which the series was done. The big shoulder pads were the thing at the time. I took the lunacy of that kind of clothing and pushed it even further. Garrett was a big, dumb guy who didn’t follow the rules. I was just having a lot of fun with developing him. I saw him as a James Bond/Dirty Harry wannabe who was actually good at his job, but who definitely had his own demons, that of mainly being a drunken a**hole.” John Garrett follows Elektra on all of her adventures throughout the series, changing from an opponent of Elektra to a man who has quickly discovered he can’t live without this mysterious woman. At the beginning of Elektra: Assassin #6 (Jan. 1987), Elektra and Garrett are cooling down in a hotel room, and Garrett can’t help but just watch her sleep: “I picked the place. That much, she let me do…” Garrett’s narration reveals. “…said she trusted me to find a hideout where nobody would look for her. She didn’t say it out loud, of course… Christ, look at her down there … heart-shaped water-bed, just like they advertise … no, she wouldn’t talk out loud. That’s too obvious for Elektra. Super-powered ninja—that’s right, ninja, as in assassin— they talk to you in your head. At least this one does. And she reads my mind. She knows exactly what she’s doing to me. She thinks it’s funny. Ten hours now, she’s been sleeping … ten hours— and she shifts and sighs just often enough to keep my interest up.” Garrett endures all kinds of dangerous situations just to be able to be with this captivating and mysterious woman. If John Garrett serves as a focal point into the story for the reader, what role does Elektra play in the story? Overall, she is a force of mystery throughout the entire series. “I think it would be impossible to pin Elektra to the wall like a butterfly under glass … the character writes herself,” Frank Miller said in Amazing Heroes #99. “She surprises me continually. Part of the discipline of writing the character is trying not to understand it too well. Because then you could wind up with a character who’d just be all the things you wanted to push” (pg. 31). Miller clearly accepted that Elektra would be a character who didn’t offer a lot of answers. Elektra: Assassin is the kind of story that takes the reader, and even the creators, on a ride beyond their own imagining. Again, speaking about his visual approach, Bill Sienkiewicz has much to say. “By the time of Elektra: Assassin, I had already filled about 40 sketchbooks (now more than 60), as books that were both my personal journal and places to draw out ideas and, of course, sketch. So I worked through a lot of my ideas and approaches within the safety of those pages, just working things out and trying to capture the essence of the character. Nothing was too stupid to try. It was something that had worked well when I was working on Love and War, in regard to the Kingpin. He just became larger and larger in the sketches. This came from my love for animation, especially Chuck Jones and Tex Avery. I was playing with animation proportions in the Marvel world. I just kept working on Elektra in my sketchbooks in the same kind of way, seeing what would come out of it.”

Miller went on to mention that “I threw a very strange narration at [Bill], and he threw back at me a character who walks onto center stage and fills it. And we then proceed to make tons of Garrett jokes back and forth as he took shape, both of us getting a great deal of affection for this very ugly character” (pg. 31). The flexibility of the creators let Garrett’s importance develop throughout the eight issues of Elektra: Assassin. While the initial blueprint for the series did not call for such a major role, Frank Miller seemed to find that the character served more than one important purpose to the narrative: “Garrett is to a certain extent a hero. It takes most of the series for that to be revealed. He’s in rebellion against Elektra in the late scripts. He is surrounded by forces that are much larger than he is. In spite of that, he does the right thing more often than he does the wrong thing, and he effects a great deal of good. He’s a

Beauty vs. the Beast An example of the fluid merger of Miller’s scripting and Sienkiewicz’s painting; page 5 of EA #5. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Secret Agent Man John Garrett—who would later become a character on TV’s Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—in action in this gripping original art page by Bill Sienkiewicz. Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auction (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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that when our comics came out we would be literally showered with rose petals and kisses. The truth is, aside from the newspaper articles the silence and lack of response was deafening. Crickets made more noise. I mean zero … zip … no response to it. Because it was so new, and nothing like it had been done. People had to digest it, they didn’t have the luxury of seeing it grow and change the way Frank, myself, Archie [Goodwin], and Jo Duffy had over all those months. “I shared a studio in lower Manhattan with Denys Cowan and Michael Davis. My girlfriend lived way uptown. So I would get up in the morning and go to museums or book shops and just suck in all kinds of influences, gradually working my way down 60 blocks to get to work in the afternoon. I would eat a small dinner at my drawing board, and then dive into work, releasing in a mad rush all of the ideas and pent-up feelings and concepts that had been percolating during the day. “I would be spent, exhausted, and literally I would break out into a sweat. I would turn to Denys and Michael and they would bust my chops mercilessly as guys do: I mean ‘take no prisoners’ abuse. F---ing hysterical; the most secretly supportive smack talking among colleagues and I loved them for it. Ironically, all of that made me relax. Because if they really had hated it, they would’ve just been silent or—God forbid—kind. “Still, I wasn’t sure if it was going to make any sense at all. You can see a lot of wildly divergent approaches in Elektra: Assassin. And when it was all bound up together in a book, that is what ultimately pulled it all together for me. The general industry and readership response started off as a murmur after the initial silence. Frank and I had felt we’d given it our best shot, and it had failed. We commiserated over how we would pick ourselves up, brush ourselves off, and get back to work after the flameout. But the response kept getting louder. It took a while for people to start to talk to each other about it, sit with it, and let it sink in. We didn’t intentionally try to upset the apple cart. What I was trying to do was bring in all kinds of influences—all kinds of art and eras and schools, like impressionism, abstract expressionism, fashion illustration, collage, sculpture, film … everything that comics to that point were forbidden to explore or had never even considered. Now, you see these things everywhere, and how wonderful is that? “Early on, and even post–Elektra: Assassin—as on my stint on The Shadow—I was told, ‘You can’t do that … or that … or that … or certainly not THAT in comics; it’s just not how they’re done. People won’t understand it. That’s NOT COMICS!’ “The problem was, and still is, that I never, ever felt those reasons were valid ones, nor did they make any sense to me at all. Comics were perceived as an afterthought, a medium for children or emotionally stunted young males, which to some extent was accurate for many years. But Frank and I both hated that perception, we both respected comics as a total art form, capable of wonderful transformative things. Nothing was off limits and we were out to show what was possible, to express our love of the medium … and to succeed or to fail on our own terms. Not on anyone else’s.”

Portrait of an Assassin 2013 watercolor illo by Bill, from Heritage. For more on Sienkiewicz, see Draw! #33, shipping this fall from TwoMorrows. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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At a young age CHRISTOPHER LAROCHELLE discovered superheroes on the small screen in cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men. He got his first comics a short time after that and still adds to the collection today.

“Sometime in early 1979, Marvel’s in-house counsel and V.P. of business affairs Alice Donenfeld proposed that we create a super-heroine/singer character,” wrote Jim Shooter on his blog JimShooter.com (www.jimshooter.com/2011/07/debutof-dazzler.html). “She was hoping to set up a joint venture with a record company—we’d produce comics featuring the character and they’d produce and market music using studio musicians, as was done with the Archies.” That record company was Casablanca and the character was the Disco Dazzler, Alison Blaire! Disco was huge at the time, so it made sense that Marvel would go in the direction of something already big in popular culture. During the development, the Disco part of her name was dropped.

DAZZLING DEVELOPMENT

Roger Ash

Popular artist John Romita, Jr. was assigned the task of designing the Dazzler. “They asked me to pick something that would be fashionable,” Romita, Jr. told interviewer Alex Dueben at Comic Book Resources (www.comicbook-resources.com/?page=article&id=51427). “Back at the time, going to nightclubs, women were wearing clothes that left nothing to the imagination. Skintight outfits—it was easy enough to draw and design a costume or a character like that … roller skates and skin-tight outfits and makeup.” Writer Tom DeFalco was brought in to help develop the character. “I was brought in and I think they showed me an image and they said, ‘Okay, you just have to develop it as a comic book,’ ” recalls DeFalco to BACK ISSUE. “I said, ‘Okay.’ I was paired with a woman by the name of Roberta Mackenzie. I remember the first meeting. I said, tom defalco ‘What are Dazzler’s powers?’ They said, © Luigi Novi/Wikimedia Commons. ‘She has the power to make people tell the truth.’ And I said, ‘Tell the truth? That’s not very interesting for a comic book.’ Somebody said, ‘Well, what do you think her power should be?’ I said ‘Her name’s Dazzler. It should have something to do with light. Y’know, dazzling people.’ Everybody sat around for a second and said ‘Yeah. That might be more visual. Why don’t you go in that direction.’ I said, ‘Okay! Terrific!’ I remember starting to walk out of the office with Roberta and somebody said to me, ‘Oh, by the way. She may be black.’ I said, ‘That’s gonna really affect how we develop this character. So as soon as you know, let us know.’ Roberta and I went back to work on it. I don’t remember why, but at some point Roberta had to drop out of the development. The way her powers worked, changing sound into light, I know that was mine. The origin story that appeared in the comic books was mine.” Shooter related on his blog that Neil Bogart of Casablanca Record and Filmworks also wanted to do an animated special and Shooter wrote the pitch for it. It was so big that it was more suited to a film. However, the project never happened.

All That Glitters Marvel’s singing superhero skates into her own series. Cover to Dazzler #1 (Mar. 1981) by Bob Larkin. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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According to DeFalco, “I know that at one point the movie people made a deal with John Derek and Bo Derek to do the movie. There was a treatment done with the idea of Bo Derek being the Dazzler. They went back to the original premise that her powers were to make people tell the truth. This was going to be the movie that John Derek did right after Tarzan, the Ape Man. After that movie came out, there was no more talk of John and Bo Derek or a Dazzler movie.” So we never got an album or a movie, but what about the comic? According to DeFalco, that got off to a rough start as well. “The first appearance of Dazzler was supposed to be in a Marvel Super Special. We did the first issue. The Marvel Super Specials weren’t selling that well or whatever and they ended up putting it in a drawer for a couple of years.” Dazzler finally made her comic-book debut in Uncanny X-Men #130 (Feb. 1980) by Chris Claremont, John Byrne, and Terry Austin. Cyclops, Phoenix, and Nightcrawler go to find a mutant that Cerebro has discovered in New York. In an underground disco, they find Dazzler who can dazzle opponents with light. Things

You Light Up My Life (top left) Courtesy of John Romita, Jr. a Grace Jones-looking Dazzler, with the X-Men, from 1979. (bottom right) Dazzler’s debut in X-Men #130 (Feb. 1980). Cover by John Romita, Jr. (bottom left) Dazzler cuts loose on page 14 of that issue. Original John Byrne/Terry Austin art courtesy of Heritage (www.ha.com). TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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get off to a crazy start as she helps them in a battle against armored goons from the Hellfire Club. In the following issue, she helps to rescue the rest of the X-Men and Kitty Pryde, who are being held by the White Queen and more Hellfire Club goons in Chicago. Professor X offers Dazzler a place with the X-Men, but she declines. Dazzler next appears in Amazing Spider-Man #203 (Apr. 1980), by Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard. In this outing, Spider-Man foe Lightmaster kidnaps Dazzler as her powers would give him an unlimited source of power. He even takes control of her body and tries to kill Spidey! But Dazzler was not to be without her own book for long. “At a certain point they decided that, ‘Hey, we’ve got this 38-page [Dazzler] story. We should publish it,’ ” says DeFalco. “They read it over and said, ‘This is not bad. This is actually pretty good. We should do this as a monthly comic book.’ The original plan was just to split it into two. I remember looking at it and saying, ‘Wait a minute. There isn’t a good cliffhanger.’ So we did some juggling.”

DAZZLER, THE COMIC BOOK And not only did she get her own book, but Dazzler #1 (Mar. 1981) made history as the first Marvel title to be Direct Sales only. Shooter shared on his blog he wanted to test doing a Direct Sales-only book, and he suggested Dazzler #1. However, doing that caused a different kind of concern for DeFalco: “I remember that on the first page of the second issue I have this shot of the Dazzler looking in a mirror and recapping everything that happened the issue before. There are like, ten million words on that page, trying to get the readers up to date. In those days, there weren’t as many comic-book stores. At least three quarters of the audience are never going to get to a comic-book store and see the first issue, so we really gotta recap. I probably went way overboard.” Dazzler #1 and 2 are by Tom DeFalco, John Romita, Jr., and Alfredo Alcala, with some uncredited art by Walter Simonson in the second issue. Dazzler started out strong, facing off against the Enchantress, and guest-stars included the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, and the Avengers. Why so many heavy hitters? According to original editor Louise [Jones] Simonson, “As I remember, because Shooter had a hand in its creation, he wanted it to be noticed and do well.” The story includes Dazzler’s origin. Alison Blaire was raised by her no-nonsense father, Carter, who’s a respected judge, and her grandmother, Bella Blaire. Why her mother isn’t in the picture isn’t revealed yet. Alison wants to be an incredible power. This portal will open entertainer but her father wants her to in a disco. The Enchantress casts a spell follow in his footsteps. Her powers first so the singer who is to perform the manifest themselves at a high school night the portal opens to become ill, dance while she is singing. Suddenly, a causing the owner to advertise for a gang called the Blazing Lords bursts in, new singer. The Enchantress arrives smashing up things and people. in human form, confident she will Alison uses her new power to stop them, become the new songstress. but the experience frightens her and she Unfortunately for the Enchantress, vows to never use her powers again. the Dazzler shows up at the audition, She continues performing, but too, thanks to a friendly heads up from also enters a pre-law program. Upon louise simonson the Beast. They both perform for the graduation she decides what she really owner and the Dazzler wins, earning © Killiondude/Wikimedia Commons. wants to do is sing. This is more than the enmity of the Enchantress. her father can take and he cuts her out of his life until she On the night of the performance, many of Dazzler’s changes her mind. And that’s how she ends up in New superhero friends, dressed to the nines, arrive to hear York City, pursuing her dream. She uses her mutant powers her perform. Unfortunately, the Enchantress and her onstage for a personal light show. If anyone asks about it, minions arrive, too, leading to a slobber knocker of a battle she just says it’s a trade secret and lets it go at that. between them, the Dazzler, the Avengers, Spider-Man, Meanwhile, the Enchantress learns that the cosmic the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. Dazzler manages to axis is about to shift and a portal will open into another stop a mystical beast who tries to enter our dimension dimension of sorcerous energies that will give her when the portal opens and thwarts the Enchantress’ plans. Eighties

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Colorful Comeback Dazzler drops by, in Amazing Spider-Man #203 (Apr. 1980). Cover by Frank Miller and Jim Mooney. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Wonder. Woman. Two words that combine to make the name of one of the world’s most well-known and beloved icons, an Amazon Princess imbued with the strength of the Greek Gods and armed with magical weapons, sent from hidden Paradise Island to help resolve warring Man’s World’s constant conflicts. One might expect that a superheroine with such a dramatic background would have a never-ending track record of success in comic books. Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been the case. Wonder Woman made her debut in All Star Comics #8 (Dec. 1941), receiving her own title in 1942, with its popularity waxing and waning over the years. In 1975, The New Original Wonder Woman premiered on ABC. The hit television series, starring actress/singer Lynda Carter, moved to NBC and continued to air until 1979. Without an added boost from TV, the Wonder Woman comic book struggled to maintain footing as it entered the 1980s. In August 1980, with issue #269, Princess Diana and her cast of supporting characters went through a reboot, only to undergo another soft reboot two years later in Wonder Woman #288 (Feb. 1982) by comic-book superstars writer Roy Thomas and artists Gene Colan and Romeo Tanghal. With “Look out, World! The sensational new Wonder Woman is bustin’ loose!” emblazoned on its cover, the Amazing Amazon seemed like she was finally ready to take on the new decade in style. Unfortunately, this was not to last, not completely. With issue #291, Thomas would plot a story, leaving dialogue to fan-favorite Paul Levitz, and later with new talent Dan Mishkin in issue #295. Mishkin would officially take over the reins of Wonder Woman with issue #297 and would immediately begin one of the most applauded runs in the series’ 75-year existence. dan mishkin Following New York Comic Con 2015, BACK ISSUE was able to sit with Mr. Mishkin and talk with him at length about writing the Princess of Power. Go back with us, as we talk about the Wonder Woman of the early ’80s, an era where the Cold War and a severe nationwide recession continued to impact life in the States. When songs like Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger” and Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” were playing on the radio. Popular shows Knight Rider and Fame were first airing across America’s television screens, the EPCOT Center opened, Chariots of Fire won four Academy Awards, and Batman adopted a second Robin in Jason Todd. – Steven Wilber STEVEN WILBER: You scripted over Roy Thomas’ plot in Wonder Woman #295 before officially taking over the book two issues later. How did you initially become involved with the series? DAN MISHKIN: Marv Wolfman was the editor, and I was in a pretty nice position at the time because I’d

New Man on Paradise Island! After scripting a couple of issues over Roy Thomas’ plots, Dan Mishkin took over the writing chores of Wonder Woman with issue #297 (Nov. 1982)—and this astounding Michael Wm. Kaluta cover launched his run in a big way! This issue is also noteworthy for its Masters of the Universe preview insert. TM & © DC Comics.

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Steven Wilber

done some work at DC Comics, and I’d shown my derring-do, my facility, my agility, whatever. I’d written some anthology stories, House of Mystery things, and co-created Amethyst, and I was present in people’s minds. If not the go-to guy, I was a go-to guy. And so, Marv needed somebody to dialogue and probably knew at that point he needed somebody to take over the full scripting, and so he asked me if I would do it, and I said, “Sure.” I was 26 years old, I was doing new characters I’d created, [and] I’d already been writing Superman stories. WILBER: The tone of Wonder Woman seemed to change slightly when you took over. Was there a direction you wanted to you wanted to take the Amazon Princess in? MISHKIN: Sometimes you surprise yourself, and you should surprise yourself, but I can’t really reconstruct the thought process. But I must’ve been confident with the notion, especially coming off of Amethyst (Princess of Gemworld), that this is something that a 12-year-old girl should enjoy reading. WILBER: So you had free rein? MISHKIN: This was a very different time; even just the fact that you could have Amethyst, you could have Blue Devil, you could have Booster Gold, you could have Arion, all these things. And [executive editor] Dick Giordano was a guy who wanted people to be their best selves as writers and artists and make it happen, and have fun! WILBER: You started your run by introducing three new foes: Nikos Aegeus, Bellerophon, and Sofia Constantinas, the latter who defected from her terrorist cell, befriended the Amazon Princess, and was eventually adopted by the Amazons. On top of this, you also introduced the ancient city of the Amazons, Themyscira, and revealed Princess Diana had not been the first Wonder Woman (issue #298, Feb. 1982). MISHKIN: Oh, yeah, that was because I had an idea for an ancient Wonder Woman who was going to come back. I don’t remember how far along I was in my thinking. At that time, I remember Len Wein was talking about the “black box” version of subplotting, where he’d have a gift delivered to somebody’s house, and the next issue, they’d open it, and there would be a black box inside, and he might not know where it was going. I don’t think I wasn’t that freewheeling, but … the idea that she [Sofia] becomes someone who was doing bad and can become someone who is good. That’s why Sofia is there, but then she does get mixed up with all these other subplots, which again, I’m surprised I was as deft as I was, because I didn’t remember being nearly that skilled when I was writing that. WILBER: Greek mythology is the cornerstone of Wonder Woman, and it was no more evident in your stories. Aegeus, Bellerophon, and Sofia all had ties to the Greek gods, plus you created the

Magnetic Personality Gil Kane’s generic (but cool) cover to Wonder Woman #303 (May 1983) offers no hint that a villain he once drew in Green Lantern, Dr. Polaris, appears inside to plague the Amazing Amazon. TM & © DC Comics.

Be All That You Can Be (inset) The Ed Hannigan/Dick Giordano cover to WW #301 (Mar. 1983), featuring Diana’s first clash with Artemis. Cover signed by Dan Mishkin. (right) Sofia gets good advice on this beautiful Gene Colan/Frank McLaughlin page from that issue. (Check out BACK ISSUE #41 for a “Pro2Pro” interview between Roy Thomas and Gene Colan, discussing their Wonder Woman collaboration.) TM & © DC Comics.

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“Who’s that lady?” was asked on the first page of Monica Rambeau’s first appearance in 1982. That question never fit a character more than Monica Rambeau. Being named the new Captain Marvel after the death of the original catapulted Monica to the forefront of Marvel’s stories. She was a fresh face as an African-American woman given as much power as any of Marvel’s heroes. But as time went on, Marvel forgot just who this lady was. She was moved from the A-List to the B-List and then the C-list, frequently changing names before she found new life 30 years after her debut. BACK ISSUE catches up with the creators behind Monica’s adventures to find out the story of this hero of the 1980s. Jim Starlin was going to kill Marvel’s original Captain Marvel. The Kree-born Mar-Vell had a spotty history, having undergone many changes in hopes of sparking interest in the character. Starlin’s stories built a cult following, which made it easier for Marvel to continue to publish the adventures of Captain Marvel, but it was not until Marvel Graphic Novel #1: The Death of Captain Marvel (1982) that the character had a poignant story … but this was the end of Captain Marvel. The name Captain Marvel was important, though. Marvel did not want that trademark to lapse. Instead, Marvel had to find the right character to carry on the name of the company. “It was always planned that we’d have a new Captain Marvel to succeed Mar-Vell,” Roger Stern tells BACK ISSUE. “If Marvel was going to maintain the rights to the name, they needed to periodically publish a Captain Marvel of some sort. “After Jim Starlin produced The Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel, a number of us started thinking ahead about introducing a new Captain Marvel. “The idea was for this Captain to be a new and very different character— and someone who would be easier to explain than Mar-Vell, who had had something like three different origin stories in a six-year period,” Stern continues. “Someone submitted a proposal to give Rick Jones [Mar-Vell’s roger stern sidekick] powers and make him the new Captain Marvel, but even that was thought to be too derivative. “While I was in the process of developing my ideas for the character, my wife Carmela pointed out that Captain Marvel was a gender-neutral name. So, why couldn’t Captain Marvel be a woman? “That tweaked my memory of a standup routine I’d heard in the 1960s, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement… The heart of the story was about a lifelong bigot who had an epiphany after a near-death experience. As he sat wide-eyed in his hospital bed, he told his friends, ‘I saw God!’ And when one of his friends asked what God was like, he replied, ‘Well, for one thing, she’s black.’ And I thought, why not. “I was writing Amazing Spider-Man at the time, and I was looking for a big story that would be worthy of an Annual. Introducing a major new character seemed to fill the bill. “Once I figured out who Captain Marvel was—and outlined her powers—everything just fell into place. My editors liked the idea. And since I was writing 38

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WANTED: A NEW CAPTAIN MARVEL

David Suiter

Spider-Man at the time, it was decided that we’d introduce her in the next Amazing Spider-Man Annual.” Stern’s collaborator on Amazing Spider-Man was John Romita, Jr., who designed the look of the all-new, all-different Captain Marvel. Romita said in Modern Masters vol. 18: John Romita, Jr. (2008) that his influence for the look of Captain Marvel’s secret identity had come from the actress Pam Grier, but as the artist tells BACK ISSUE, “I incorrectly made that statement. My father reminded me later that we were sitting at a restaurant where there was a stunningly good-looking waitress with ‘the hair’ and my father said she had to be a hero.” John Romita, Sr. was the inker for the Annual. When asked about the woman the hero was based on, he said, “Both of us felt this about the waitress—she was tall and beautiful and very friendly. She was working at a restaurant in the building where Marvel Comics was headquartered at the time. We had been talking about the new Captain Marvel and this waitress had this amazing, beautiful Afro, and we both remarked how impressive she was.” The younger Romita would design an elegant costume to go with his elegant heroine as she readied for her debut (see sidebar). The character just lacked an interesting backstory that Stern was happy to provide. “I always wanted Monica to be a hero in the classic Marvel tradition— a normal person who suddenly had incredible powers thrust upon her—not unlike Spider-Man before her,” Stern says. “At the time I was developing Captain Marvel, a lot of the newer superheroes didn’t seem very heroic. A lot of them were seriously messed up. I wanted to give the world a new character who was … let’s say, better adjusted … someone from a strong, stable, and supportive family, a family with a background of service.” Monica was serving as a lieutenant in the New Orleans Harbor Patrol when she was introduced. While she excelled at her duties, she continued to be passed over for the rank of captain. “That was the glass ceiling aspect of the story,” Stern says. “Monica was good at her job with the Harbor Patrol, skilled and conscientious, and by rights she should have been captain. But the harbormaster had kept her from achieving the rank she deserved. Basically, he was a sexist jerk and a bad boss, something a lot of people can identify and sympathize with.”

speed, and exactly how she transformed back and forth. It was great that they got so involved. “I had already come up with the premise of a hero with energy powers, and I couldn’t tell you how I came up with that. Looking back, I can see that my Captain Marvel is sort of E-Man [a comical character published by Charlton Comics in the 1970s] in reverse; E-Man was a packet of sentient energy that could transform into a human, whereas Captain Marvel is a human who can transform into energy. And, of course, my Captain Marvel wasn’t played for laughs. I had been a fan of Nick Cuti and Joe Staton’s early E-Man series, but I don’t think I was consciously thinking of that. Maybe it was an influence, but I can’t say for certain.” It was Stern’s science background that allowed him to develop Captain Marvel’s power set. “Monica can transform her mass into any form of electromagnetic energy,” he explains. “As Professor LeClare [the scientist responsible for Monica receiving superpowers] said, she can become ‘a sentient packet of radio waves, light, even electricity!’ Now, of course, electricity involves the transfer of charge, not electromagnetic radiation. But having Monica become an electrical discharge was big and dramatic, and it was also my sneaky nod to Fawcett’s Captain Marvel, of the 1940s. As you may recall, Billy Batson was transformed by a lightning bolt into Captain Marvel, whereas Monica is the lightning bolt.” Following her debut in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16, Captain Marvel showed up in Avengers #227 (Jan. 1983), written by Stern, where she became an Avenger-in-training. “The idea from the beginning [was] I would introduce her in the Spider-Man Annual, and she would next go on to become an Avenger,” Stern explains. “I just didn’t suspect that I would be the one to write her adventures with the group.

LIGHTNING STRIKES: AN AMAZING DEBUT Captain Marvel II was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (Apr. 1982) alongside Marvel’s web-slinging hero. The issue featured a full-length origin story, going into detail about who Monica Rambeau was. “I structured the Annual so that the Origin of Captain Marvel could be reprinted separately, on its own [without the Spider-Man part of the plot],” Stern says. During the events of the story, in addition to meeting Spider-Man, Monica met the Avengers. The story saw the former lieutenant finally reach the rank of captain outside of the New Orleans Harbor Patrol. Her race and gender never mattered to Spider-Man and the Avengers. “I hope it was a big deal,” Stern says in regard to introducing Captain Marvel alongside the company’s most popular character. “Spider-Man had pretty good visibility in the marketplace, and I know that the Annual sold over 160,000 copies, so a lot of people saw her debut and learned her origin. “The response was very good,” Stern continues. “All my readers seemed to like her. Spider-Man and The Avengers got a lot of letters from readers who were in college, and the more science-savvy of them seemed to delight in hypothesizing as to how Monica’s powers would work. They had all sorts of ideas about how she could fly at sub-light

“Who’s that lady?” She’s Captain Marvel—at least for the time being. Cover to Monica Rambeau’s coming out party, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 (1982). Cover art by John Romita, Jr. and John Romita, Sr. TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In the 1982 film Blade Runner, it is said that the light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. With that philosophy in mind, from time to time there is a short-lived burst of excellence, still fondly remembered decades after its initial debut. Somerset Holmes is not only a comic-book story, but represents a moment in time when three comic-book creators—Bruce Jones, April Campbell, and Brent Anderson— managed to capture lightning in a bottle.

PACIFIC THEATER The six-issue miniseries was initially published by Pacific Comics, which Steve and Bill Schanes had launched in the 1970s first as a retail outlet, then as a distributor. In 1981, as the direct market solidified, the brothers chose to dip the company’s toes into publishing. Several high-profile comic-book creators, such as Jack Kirby and Mike Grell, signed with Pacific, contributing to the growing “creator-owned” business model. David Scroggy, who had helped launch Pacific’s publishing business, approached Bruce Jones, who was writing Marvel Comics’ Ka-Zar series with April Campbell. “I guess he liked my writing,” Bruce says, referring to creepy horror stories he’d written for Warren Publishing. “I think the anthology stuff and the episodic stuff was the stuff I did the best. I didn’t have a lot of interest in superheroes. I just thought that’s what I did well; it’s what I read as a kid.” Scroggy asked Bruce if he’d be interested. “I said that I would if I could do the sort of stuff I wanted to do. And to my amazement, he agreed.” As Bruce Jones Associates, Bruce and wife April Campbell wrote and packaged such titles as Twisted Tales and Alien Worlds for Pacific, which Bruce describes as one of the easiest and most fun companies to work for: “Part of that had to do with our proximity, I guess. We were living in San Diego. There was a lot of excitement that year, a lot of electricity, a lot of willingness to try something crazy and fun, and we had a good time with it. We were all young, and there was that corporate haze that hangs over the bigger publishers, and editorial interference.” Such creative liberty opened the door to the development of Somerset Holmes, which evolved from Bruce and April’s interest in the mystery/thriller genre. “We were also trying to make a comic that was Hitchcockian in the way it unfolded,” says April Campbell. “It seemed like an interesting idea to try to do that. We hadn’t seen that done in comics before, so we were basically writing a Hitchcock film when working on Somerset. That’s where the mystery and suspense comes in.” Somerset Holmes is a story of a woman suffering from amnesia. Unable to recall her own name, she christens

Who’s That Girl? The amnesiac heroine’s adventures begin. Cover to Somerset Holmes #1 (Sept. 1983). Cover art by Brent Anderson (and Al Williamson, on the “Cliff Hanger” backup feature). Somerset Holmes © Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson.

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Philip Schweier

herself after a housing development advertised on a billboard. As she begins to piece together the few sparse clues to her past, her investigation leads her down a dangerous path, but somehow, she possesses the skill set to defend herself more than adequately. April says, “We just tried to write something we would be interested in reading. We weren’t really targeting any one audience. We just thought if we loved it, then they’d love it.” However, Bruce regards the process as a two-edged sword. “We wanted to do something different, but we were also under the gun because, you know, it could’ve backfired. Luckily for us it didn’t, but that’s always a risk you take.” Joining Bruce and April on the project was Brent Anderson, with whom they had previously worked on Ka-Zar. “We had a good working relationship and liked him as a friend, and he was available at the time, so it was kind of a no-brainer,” explains Bruce. Bruce and Brent were introduced by Marvel editor Louise Simonson—affectionately known as “Weezie”— who had worked with Bruce at Warren Publishing. She had also seen Brent’s work on some fill-ins, and offered him Ka-Zar. Despite initial hesitation, he accepted the assignment. According to Brent, Weezie had a feeling he and Bruce would have a lot in common, and when talking over ideas for Ka-Zar, they hit it off. It was this relationship that led to his participation in Somerset Holmes.

Though Brent admits his memory may be a bit off, he remembers visiting Bruce in Kansas, where Bruce and April were living before moving out to southern California. “Bruce invited me to Kansas to stay at his house,” Anderson says. “As I recall, we started talking about our mutual interest in the comic strip Modesty Blaise by Peter O’Donnell.” In the course of these discussions, Bruce showed him a vampire nourish photo novel he and April had been working on entitled Dime Novel. It was a graphic novel fotoromanzi, as photo comics are called in Italy. Bruce and April modeled for characters in the story. “So we started talking about these different projects, like maybe I could do a graphic-novel version of Dime Novel,” says Brent. “One thing led to another and we decided we wanted to continue the conversation when I got back to New York. We did, talking off and on about what we’d like to do.” In early development, Bruce and Brent discussed a concept similar to Modesty Blaise, featuring a strong female lead caught up in a world of deceit and intrigue. Brent recalls it was Bruce who wanted to call the series Somerset, maybe in tribute to Somerset Maugham. “The word ‘Somerset’ had a soap-operatic quality to it. There was something universal in the title both Bruce and I liked. It was romantic and intriguing and gauzy, dreamlike. “I think it was my suggestion to have her name herself after the billboard,” recalls Brent, “which was not a particularly original idea, having been done many times in literature and film before I thought of using the trope.” Eighties

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Coming Soon (left) Anderson’s cinematic storytelling is clearly on view in this Pacific Comics house ad for the Somerset Holmes miniseries. (right) Behind the scenes of the new series, from this Pacific text page. Somerset Holmes © Bruce Jones and Brent Anderson.

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