$5.95In the USA

No.28September

2003

JOEMANEELY

1950s Timely/Marvel Great

Characters TM & ©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM ofRoy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

™

This issue is dedicated to the memory ofJoe & Betty Jean Maneely

and Pierce Rice

JOE MANEELY& The Atlas Age of Comics!

ContentsWriter/Editorial: Mighty Joe Maneely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2WHAT IF–-–Joe Maneely Had Lived and Drawn

in the Marvel Age? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Dr. Michael J. Vassallo takes a year-by-year look at the life and legend of this remarkable artist!

My Father, Joe Maneely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42Nancy Maneely talks about the father she loves, but hardly knew.

“Joe Was the Best!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Stan Lee looks back 45 years, and remembers one of Timely’s greatest artists ever!

A Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Potpourri . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: Our peerless publisher John Morrow designed this marvelous (or perhapswe should say timely) montage of five of the comic book characters most associated with JoeManeely—an artist who, because of the era in which he did most of his work (the 1950s), neverdrew a single flat-out super-hero story! John assembled the cover from a photo supplied by Joe’sdaughter, and color photocopies or original comics provided by Doc Vassallo and Roy Thomas.Even though we shortchanged the horror tales which were one of Maneely’s most prolificgenres, we think it captures something of the spirit of that remarkable talent. And here wethought John Morrow was just another pretty face—no, wait, that’s his wife Pam! [Art ©2003Marvel Characters, Inc.; photo courtesy of Nancy Maneely.]

Above: Ye Editor makes no apologies for preferring Maneely’s work on three issues (and fivecovers) of the 1955-56 Black Knight to anything else he ever did. When you put out your ownmagazine, you can spotlight Ringo Kid or Combat Kelly or Yellow Claw or a creeping corpse—or Dippy Duck, for all we care! They’re all great! To paraphrase Stan Lee—“’Nuff said!”[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above panel from Black Knight #1 by Lee and Maneely.

Vol. 3, No. 28 / September 2003

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorsBill SchellyJim Amash

Design & LayoutChristopher Day

Consulting EditorJohn Morrow

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry Bails (founder)Ronn Foss, Biljo White,Mike Friedrich

Production AssistantEric Nolen-Weathington

Cover ArtistsJoe ManeelyDon Newton

Cover ColoristsTom ZiukoDon Newton

And Special Thanks to:Lee AmesGer ApeldoornTerry AustinMike W. BarrAlberto BecattiniJohn BensonBill BlackSteve BrumbaughMike BurkeyTony CerezoScott DeschaineJaime EchevarriaCarl GaffordStan GoldbergWalt GroganGeorge HagenauerJohn Haufe, Jr.Mark & Stephanie

HeikeLarry IvieEd Jaster

Mort LeavStan LeeMark LewisNancy ManeelyScotty MooreBrian K. MorrisAnthony NewtonJohn PettySteven RoweJohn SeverinMarie SeverinSteve SkeatesJeff SmithRobin SnyderMarc & June

SwayzeDr. Michael J.

VassalloHames WareTom Wimbish

by Dr. Michael J. Vassallo[AUTHOR’S INTRO: On April 16th,as this issue was being assembled, BettyJean Maneely, the widow of Joe Maneely,passed away after an extended illness.Over the years I had written to Bettymany times, often encouraged by myfriend Nancy, Joe's youngest daughter.Nancy assured me that my letters wereappreciated and read by her mom, butshe doubted that they would ever beanswered, as Betty rarely spoke about herlate husband, especially to someonewhom she had never met. As predicted,my letters were not answered. In thoseletters I had expressed my admiration forher husband's work. I talked about his unique art style and prodigiousoutput, and I asked about particular recollections and memories abouthis career, trying to explain to her how truly important her husband

was to the fullhistory of MarvelComics. I wantedher to understandthat, despite thepassage of years,when you studythe history of thismedium, specifi-cally the history ofMarvel in thedecade of the1950s, you startand stop with asingle name: JoeManeely.

[With this issue's long-overdue lookat Timely/Atlas titan Joe Maneely, Ihoped Betty would have come to realizethis. With the passing of this strong andbeautiful woman, I like to think Joeand his Betty Jean are finally backtogether again. —MJV.]

[NOTE: Unless otherwise indicated, allart accompanying this article is fromphotocopies of vintage comic booksprovided by the author.]

Overview: The Fabulous ’50sThe decade of the 1950s was a strange

period of unique dichotomy in thiscountry. On the one hand, the American people were enjoying abooming postwar prosperity. The G.I. Bill had helped the returningheroes of the Second World War on the road to a hopeful future in thenew decade. The great evil had been conquered, industry was soaring,and a new medium,television, was a-borning.

At the sametime, however, apervasive feeling ofuncertainty wasevident. A “ColdWar” with ourformer ally wasbecomingentrenched, andthe world wasbeing dividedinto an “us vs.

WHAT IF... JOE MANEELYHad Lived and Drawn in the

Marvel Age of Comics?A Year-by-Year Look at the Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists

The Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists 3

Okay, so the above photo (which alsoappears on our cover) was taken while JoeManeely was in the Navy, a year or three

before he drew his first comic book in1948—but he’s in civvies and he’s at the

drawing board, so what the hey! Flankingthis caption are two great Maneely covers:

Adventures into Weird Worlds #25 (Jan.1954) and Sub-Mariner #37 (Dec. 1954).

Joe’s foray into super-heroics wasatypical—but his horror covers adorned

myriad Timely fear-fests! Photo courtesy ofJoe’s daughter, Nancy Maneely. [Art ©2003

Marvel Characters, Inc.]

them” scenario, with a concurrentbuild-up of weapons that werecapable of destroying this fragileplanet many times over. A new“police action” war was beginning inKorea, and as the decade progressed,a distinct, almost palpable uneasinesswas clearly evident.

A close study of the time willreveal that this uncertainty was alsoreflected in many aspects of popularculture. Films spawned Cold Warthrillers and radioactively-induced“B”-movie monsters. In the musicindustry there would be an explosionof youth culture music—i.e., rock ’n’roll—further worrying an alreadyconcerned adult populace.

It’s no surprise, then, that thecomic book industry would likewisereflect these diverse trends. TheGolden Age of Comic Books wanedwith the return of our boys from thewar in 1945. By the late 1940s, assuper-heroes began to fade from thenewsstands, they were replaced bygenres reflecting an audience withchanging and divergent tastes. Crime,romance, horror, and war titlesjoined the humorous ones alreadybeing published. At Timely Comics,a major publisher of the Golden Age,the editor-in-chief was a precociouswunderkind named Stan Lee, whohad been at the helm since 1941 andwhose cousin Jean was married tothe publisher, Martin Goodman.

Let me start with a little history....

First—the Fightin’ ’40sBy 1950 Timely’s super-hero

titles, a major force during the boomwar years, were all defunct. Previously, along with Marvel MysteryComics, Captain America, Human Torch, Sub-Mariner, et al., humorcomics (both funny-animal and “teen”) had filled the stands, as well.Teen titles had eventually eclipsed the funny-animal books, and by about1946 had even overtaken the super-hero titles in sales and popularity. By1947, with super-hero sales declining, Timely had expanded in otherdirections—first crime, followed by westerns, romance, and, by 1949,horror.

There was a last attempt in 1948 to jumpstart super-heroes again withthe quick introduction of new titles like Namora, Sun Girl, a secondAll Winners, The Witness, Venus, and Blackstone, but all except theever-adaptable Venus were quickly gone. Similarly, Marvel Boy, agorgeous science-fiction-based feature drawn by Russ Heath, then BillEverett, attempted in 1950 to cash in on the sf/horror trend and lastedtwo issues in his own title and another four after a title change toAstonishing before bowing out to the more popular all-horror format.

Creator-wise, Timely originally (starting in 1939) bought theirfeatures from the Lloyd Jacquet shop, Funnies, Inc., and from the Harry“A” Chesler shop. But, almost immediately, Martin Goodman, Timely’s

publisher, tried to wean hiscompany from the shops bystarting an in-house staff. Simonand Kirby, followed by Syd Shores,Al Avison, Fred Bell, Don Rico, AlGabrielle, Mike Sekowsky, GeorgeKlein, Allen Bellman, and a score ofothers joined a staff that wouldcreate and produce material “in-house.” Timely’s earliest creators,Bill Everett and Carl Burgos, bothJacquet shop alumni, continued tofreelance for Goodman, and Burgosjoined the staff only at the end ofthe decade. By mid-1942, twodistinct bullpens were operating,one turning out the myriad super-hero titles, and the other turningout the humor titles.

When Stan Lee went into theservice in the summer of 1942,Vince Fago, a funny-animalfreelancer, assumed the editor-in-chief mantle. This coincided withthe boom in humor titles, as Fago, aformer Fleischer animator,continued to draw numerousfunny-animal features concurrentwith his editorial duties. ComedyComics, Joker Comics, KrazyComics, and Terry-Toons all beganappearing in mid 1942. Fago’s initialhumor staff consisted of ErnieHart, Al Jaffee, Ed Winiarski,George Klein, Kin Platt, JimMooney, Moe Worth, Mike

Sekowsky, David Gantz, and later Frank Carin. Chad Grothkopf, andDave Berg freelanced, as did Basil Wolverton; Milt Stein was an evenlater freelancer. There was also a lot of crossing over, as many of thehumor artists (such as Mike Sekowsky, George Klein, David Gantz, andFred Bell) frequently worked on super-hero scripts. Pvt. Stan Leecontinued to send in scripts from where he was stationed in NorthCarolina.

Following the war, as sales peaked, the years chugged along as Timelychurned out titles and features by the carload with an ever-changingbullpen staff, which by 1948 included Gene Colan and John Buscema.

It is into this milieu that Joe Maneely stepped in mid-1949.

Joe Maneely—A Man for a Decade

Ask anyone who reads and collects comic books today who JoeManeely was, and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Put the question tosomeone with a marginal knowledge of comic book history, and you

4 Joe Maneely

Rarer than rare! This original cover art for Black Knight #5 (April 1956)was featured in the Christie’s East Comic Collectibles catalog for a 1993

auction. Not only is original Maneely art extremely scarce—but, because of reprintings by Marvel, Black Knight is today the best-known of his

work. As for the Atlas globe symbol enlarged at right: from 1951 to 1957 it identified not only Martin Goodman’s distribution company, but—as

far as most readers at the time were concerned—his comic book company,as well. The name “Timely” was all but forgotten outside the industry.

[©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

may get a glimmerof recognitionpertaining toMarvel’s 1955Black Knightseries. That’s aboutit, and even thatwill probably bebecause Marvelreprinted some ofthose stories in thelate 1960s and early1970s, and again inthe 1997 tradepaperback TheGolden Age of Marvel (Vol. 1). What most peopledon’t realize is that, with the stars aligned a littledifferently 45 years ago, the birth of the MarvelUniverse as we know it might have been vastlydifferent.

Maneely was Stan Lee’s star artist for most of the1950s, during what is known as the Atlas period ofMarvel Comics history. Atlas, a name derived fromMartin Goodman’s distribution company and easilyidentified by a small “globe” on the cover, was byfar the industry leader in quantity of titles and issues published in thefirst 3/4 of the decade. Dell/Western sold more books, but no one had asmany redundant titles on the stands as Goodman’s Atlas. With Lee aseditor-in-chief, every imaginable type of comic book was published,flooding the market with score after score of books utilizing a hugestable of freelancers, many of them comic book royalty.

Joe Maneely was born in Pennsylvania on February 18, 1926, the sonof Robert and Gertrude Maneely and one of at least five children. Hegrew up in Philadelphia, where the Maneelys were poor, and attendedAscension BVM Elementary School, often embarrassed to go to schoolin worn, patched clothing. At North Catholic High School, he

cartooned for the North Catholic newspaper, creating an original mascotcharacter “The Red Falcon” before dropping out in his sophomore year.“The Red Falcon” was also drawn as a comic strip for the schoolnewspaper and remained the school’s mascot for decades; perhaps it stillis. Gertrude Maneely, a strong and proud woman, gave her son anultimatum: either return to school or “ship out,” which meant join theservice. Maneely chose the latter and served three years as a specialist invisual aids for the U.S. Navy, contributing cartoons to his ship’snewspapers.

Upon discharge from the Navy, he married Elizabeth Kane, hischildhood sweetheart, in 1947. Joe was 21 and “Betty Jean” was 20.Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, he began studies at Philadelphia’sHussian School of Art, where he met fellow artist George Ward. They

Joe Maneely’s Navy portrait photo, taken at age 17 (in 1943), juxtaposed with a comic strip he did for a Navynewspaper sometime by 1946. Both courtesy of Nancy Maneely. [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

The Life and Times of One of Timely/Atlas’ Greatest Artists 5

Doc Vassallo tells us these stories represent some of Maneely’s earliest work for Street & Smith, and thus his debut in comic books.All three stories appeared in Red Dragon #5 (Oct.-Nov. 1948). [©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

both entered the world of newspaper advertising art, and Joe’s firstprofessional stint was in the Philadelphia Bulletin’s advertising artdepartment. Maneely also made a trip to San Francisco to paint a muralfor a restaurant, the details of which are sadly lost.

1948—Rice and Red DragonsNewlyweds Joe and Betty Jean lived in an apartment on Algard Street

in Philadelphia, and in 1948 Joe began his comic book career at Street &Smith on titles like Red Dragon, Ghostbreakers, The Shadow, andSuper Magician Comics, at the age of 22. Features he drew at Street &Smith included “Tao Anwar,” “Dr. Savant,” “Russell Swan,” “DjangoJinks - Ghost Chaser,” “Butterfingers,” “Nick Carter,” “PublicDefender,” “Roger Kilgore,”“Supersnipe,” “Mario Nette,” and“Ulysses Q. Wacky.”

It was also here that Maneely met artistPeggy Zangerle. At some point Joe, Peggy,and George Ward formed a studio. Thereexists a piece of office letterhead bearingthe title “Joe Maneely, Adventure Comics”at the address 3160 Kensington Avenue,Rm. 501, in the Flo-Mar building inPhiladelphia. The exact dates of the studiohave eluded me, but Joe possibly used itfor all his work prior to his future move toNew York.

George Ward, a fellow graduate of theHussian School of Art in Philadelphia andan artist for magazines and newspapers,including the New York Daily News andthe Philadelphia Bulletin, would be alifelong friend. Ward also would becomean assistant to Walt Kelly on the Pogocomic strip for most of the 1950s.According to Ron Goulart, at Street &Smith Maneely was very possibly influ-enced by noted pulp illustrator EddCartier, who did a brief feature or twocoinciding with Maneely’s tenure there,particularly in developing Maneely’sdistinctive inking technique. [NOTE: SeeAlex Toth’s comments on Edd Cartiernext issue. —Roy.] The Street & Smithwork was vibrant and energetic, traits thatwould serve him well in the future. Hisdistinctive inking style is clearly evident,though not yet as bold, and while thepanels lack the degree of detail that

Maneely’s work would later exhibit, the overall effect is ofa talented young artist at an early age (22) and early stageof his career, a career that brimmed with promise.

1949—“The Tail-End of the Storied TimelyBullpen”

In addition to Street & Smith, Maneely briefly dabbledat Pflaum (on Treasure Chest) before settling in atGoodman and Lee’s nascent Atlas sometime toward themiddle of 1949. Older credit listings placing him atHillman and Superior (on crime features) in 1949 are likelyincorrect. Similarly, some recent Maneely-like inkingexamples spotted in panels of 1949 issues of Toytown’sWanted (on features otherwise drawn by Maurice Del

Bourgo) are inconclusive as of this writing, and most likely not Maneely.

Joe Maneely began work at Timely towards the tail-end of the storiedTimely bullpen, at a time when Martin Goodman expanded his line inwhat is known as the “romance and western glut.” Following anindustry-wide trend, Goodman flooded the market in 1949 with a delugeof titles. Westerns, recently introduced at Timely, appeared out ofnowhere, but even more prevalent was the glut of romance titles. In1949-50 alone, 33 romance titles debuted over a 12-month period.Eighteen of them lasted only two issues, and five lasted a single issue,before being canceled. The demand for story art was at an all-time high.A large bullpen was churning out stories for scores of titles and, as willshortly be seen, actually producing more than was necessary. Unlike the

romance glut, Timely’s western glutwas much more controlled andobviously character-driven. Titlesadded stayed around longer andprovided a fertile ground for thenewly-arrived Joe Maneely toblossom quickly.

By all appearances, Maneely madehis Timely/Atlas debut in WesternOutlaws and Sheriffs #60 (coverdate Dec. 1949) in the lead story“The Kansas Massacre of 1864”—job#6760, as identified by the minusculenumbers which appeared on thesplash pages of most Atlas-erastories. (“Job number,” also written“job #,” is the term often used forstory [script] codes that appear onthe splash page of everyTimely/Atlas story from roughly1946 through 1963. They wereusually handed out in order, butcould appear out of sequence frommonth to month, for various reasons.They went from “1” to “1001,” andthen added a letter-prefix “A-1” to“A-999,” then “B,” “C,” etc., up to“X” in 1963; a few letters such as“I,” “N,” “Q,” “R,” “U,” and “W”were left out, most likely to avoidconfusion. Job numbers can be usedto sort the order in which storieswere drawn by a particular artist.) InManeely’s case, job #6760 was eightpages of pencils and inks, and hisskill as a storyteller is dramatically

This “office letterhead,” says Doc V., was drawn by Joe prior to his move to New York—probablyduring the time he shared a studio with George Ward and Peggy Zangerle. ’Twould seems

Maneely’s trademark style was already pretty much intact by 1948! [©2003 Estate of Joe Maneely.]

6 Joe Maneely

Probably Joe’s first work for Timely/Atlas was this story for WesternOutlaws and Sheriffs #60 (Dec. ’49). The psychiatrist listed atop the

splash page was part of Atlas’ window-dressing during theWertham, pre-Code era. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Like my friend MichaelVassallo, I have asked thequestion, “What if...?”

My reflections on thesubject are personal, andmainly speculative. Theyare based on fragments ofinformation I’ve managedto piece together about myfather, Joe Maneely, fromthe many friends and lovedones who respected andadmired the man and theartist.

I have no consciousmemory of my father, who

was only 32 when he died inJune 1958, leaving his widowBetty Jean and three

daughters: Kathleen, age 8; Mary Carole, 7; and me, the two-year-old“baby.” My mother assures me, however, that I missed my dad terribly.For weeks after he died, I would call out “Doe! Doe!” in my baby voice(in imitation of my mother’s calling “Joe” to the dinner table).

After my sisters were born, my mother went on to suffer two miscar-riages before I came along. My birth was dangerous and difficult forboth mother and baby. Joe stated firmly there would be no morechildren, but Mom felt differently;she believes I might have hadseveral younger siblings, had myfather lived.

I’m told I was my daddy’smuch-loved and fussed-over babygirl. He insisted on taking meeverywhere with him. I even hadmy own special booster seat, whichhooked over the passenger seatbackand came complete with a littlesteering wheel (child safety deviceswere not a part of consumerculture yet!).

My most cherished piece oforiginal art is a hand-inkedcaricature of baby Nancy (me!)against a giant shamrock backdrop(I was born the day after St.Paddy’s Day, 1956). There I am,wearing a diaper, cowboy hat, andholster, and my father’s black-framed eyeglasses askew. I don’tknow which of my dad’s co-workers in the “bullpen” had

drawn the card. It reads: “Heigh-ho, Daddy-O! Congratulations toBetty Jean and Daddy Joe!” It was signed by Stan Lee and the rest of theAtlas gang.

I have in my possession a meager collection of my father’s originalartwork. There would have been more—much more—but for a 1960sflood in the basement of my mother’s house that destroyed a trunk filledwith Joe Maneely panels and sketches. Not to mention hundreds ofcomic books that disappeared over the years. (I have been rebuilding acollection of my dad’s comic books, painstakingly, in recent years. I havesome 125 books, acquired from flea markets, comic book stores, onlineauctions—and from my friend Michael.)

Other treasures include a set of three framed pen-and-ink cowboypanels signed by Joe Maneely. They once graced his home office. Thetwo smaller panels hang in my guest room—we call it “The CowboyRoom.” The third and largest picture takes pride of place at my son’shome. Westerns were my father’s favorite theme (at least until The BlackKnight came along to capture his imagination), and so I cherish thesewonderful pieces.

In the years following my father’s untimely death, Mom struggled toraise us three girls. It was tough. In the ’50s and ’60s the working worldwas not clamoring for unskilled housewives seeking gainfulemployment. My dad had left us virtually penniless. In the mid-1950s,

My Father, Joe Maneely

“Westerns were my father’s favorite theme,” Nancy says,“at least till The Black Knight came along to capture his

imagination.” Here’s an early Maneely “Black Rider” splash,from BR #10 (Sept. ’50), while Joe was still honing his

craft—and Sir Percy of Scandia donning the dark armor forthe first time after being given it by Merlin the Magician, in

Black Knight #1. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

42 Nancy Maneely

A Loving Daughter Talks aboutthe Father She Never Got a Chance to Know

by Nancy Maneely

Wedding photo of Joe and Betty JeanManeely, 1947. Courtesy of Nancy Maneely.

[NOTE: In June 2003, as this issue was in preparation, I mentionedone of its principal subjects—artist legend Joe Maneely—to my 1960s-’70s Marvel Comics boss Stan Lee in an e-mail, and asked if Stanmight wish to write a few words about him. I was very pleased toreceive the following from him a few hours later. —Roy.]

Damn, I wish I had more time.

I’ve got a dozen things to finish by tonight, and then next week isfilled with meetings and interviews, so if I don’t bat something out foryou now, I never will.

All I can say, which I’ve said so often in the past, is—to me, Joe wasthe best! I mean the all-time, unconditional, absolute best. He coulddraw anything—and handle it magnificently. He was the fastest artist Ihad ever workedwith, bar none. Hispenciling looked likea bunch of hastilyscrawled stick figures(which he did in notime at all), and thenhe’d take pen in handand speedily drawover them as if hewas tracing somegreat illos thatnobody else could seeon that sheet ofpaper.

His versatility wasunmatched. He didfunny strips (ourMrs. Lyon’s Cubs,which was syndicatedin a ton ofnewspapers justbefore his death), hedid epic artwork likeThe Black Knight,westerns like TheRingo Kid, horrorlike dozens of stripswhose names I’veforgotten, romance,war—you name it,he did it—andusually better thananyone else.

Not only was his penciling superb, but nobody could ink like Joe.His ability to use blacks for drama, for emphasis, and for design wasalmost supernatural. Unfortunately, there’s no way I could try to tellyou how fast he inked, because you wouldn’t believe me! The incrediblybeautiful black lines and shadings just seemed to appear on the pages likemagic.

To top it off, Joe was the nicest, pleasantest, friendliest guy imagi-nable to work with. Not a trace of temperament or conceit did he have.He made every project we worked on seem like fun. He made it all seemeasy. There was never any strain or pressure. When he had something todraw (like all the time), he drew it speedily, magnificently, and seeminglyeffortlessly.

I used to feel that if I had a whole team of Maneelys there’d benothing we couldn’t have accomplished. In fact, even with one JoeManeely, in time we could have taken over the whole comic book world!

Oh, don’t let me forget that he was also easily as adept at working

“Joe WasThe Best!”

STAN LEE Remembers JOE MANEELY

Stan singles out Black Knight and Ringo Kid as two particularly memorable Timely/Atlas features drawn by Joe, and we heartilyconcur. The splendidly noble and evocative splash for the Lee-scripted, Maneely-illustrated Black Knight #1 (May 1955) was reprinted

in Fantasy Masterpieces #11 (Oct. 1967), and introduced a new generation of comics readers to the marvelous talent that was JoeManeely. Of the many, many fine Ringo Kid pages he drew, here’s the splash of an origin story for the Kid’s stallion Arab, from issue #2

(Oct. ’54). Thanks to Doc Vassallo. [©2003 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

Joe Maneely (left) and Stan Lee look over a Sunday pagefor Mrs. Lyon’s Cubs, 1958. Courtesy of Nancy Maneely.

Stan Lee 45

$5.95In the USA

$5.95In the USA

No. 28September

2003

PLUS:PLUS:

LEE AMESEXTRA:

TO PLEASE!

Cap

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Mar

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Mr.

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& ©

2003

DC

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Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 1812 Park Drive, Raleigh, NC 27605, USA. Phone: (919) 833-8092. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: Rt. 3, Box 468, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: roydann@ntinet.com. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Single issues:$8 ($10 Canada, $11.00 elsewhere). Twelve-issue subscriptions: $60 US, $120 Canada, $132 elsewhere. All characters are © theirrespective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM ofRoy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in Canada.

FIRST PRINTING.

A Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Potpourri!Contents

Writer/Editorial: Showing Our Age(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2“The Family of Cartoonists Is My Family!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Golden Age artist Lee Ames talks to Jim Amash about Iger, Timely, and others.

A Talk with John Benson (Part II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Squa Tront’s editor tells Bill Schelly about “Post-EC Comic Fandom”—and why Harvey Kurtzman left Mad!

Spot That Style!! (Part II) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Michael T. Gilbert shows what Golden Age greats drew when times where lean.

A Brief Tribute to Pierce Rice. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34re: [correspondence & corrections] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #87 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39P.C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze, Steve Skeates, and the 1980s Monster Society of Evil!

Joe Maneely & The Atlas Age of Comics! . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover & the Above Illo: From 1978-81, new pro artist Don Newton had a balldrawing the “Shazam!” feature in World’s Finest Comics, and in 1979 he executed a gorgeouspainting of Captain Marvel and his arch-foe Mr. Mind for renowned X-Men inker TerryAustin. Ever since Terry kindly sent us a copy of same, we’ve been looking for an opportunity touse it as a color cover on an issue of Alter Ego—with due thanks to Don’s son, AnthonyNewton, for his permission. By contrast, the above drawing of Cap dropping in on Mr. Mindand a pair of his minions from the original 1943-45 “Monster Society” serial was done in theearly 1970s and appeared in the RBCC Special #8 at that time—when it was still Don’s distantdream to professionally draw his favorite hero, let alone a full-blown “Monster Society” sequel.What a difference a few years made! [Cover & above illo ©2003 Estate of Don Newton; CaptainMarvel & Mr. Mind TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

This issue is dedicated to the memory ofJoe & Betty Jean Maneely

and Pierce Rice

™Vol. 3, No. 28 / September 2003

Editor Roy Thomas

Associate EditorsBill SchellyJim Amash

Design & LayoutChristopher Day

Consulting EditorJohn Morrow

FCA EditorP.C. Hamerlinck

Comic Crypt EditorMichael T. Gilbert

Editors EmeritusJerry Bails (founder)Ronn Foss, Biljo White,Mike Friedrich

Production AssistantEric Nolen-Weathington

Cover ArtistsJoe ManeelyDon Newton

Cover ColoristsTom ZiukoDon Newton

And Special Thanks to:Lee AmesGer ApeldoornTerry AustinMike W. BarrAlberto BecattiniJohn BensonBill BlackSteve BrumbaughMike BurkeyTony CerezoScott DeschaineJaime EchevarriaCarl GaffordStan GoldbergWalt GroganGeorge HagenauerJohn Haufe, Jr.Mark & Stephanie

HeikeLarry IvieEd Jaster

Mort LeavStan LeeMark LewisNancy ManeelyScotty MooreBrian K. MorrisAnthony NewtonJohn PettySteven RoweJohn SeverinMarie SeverinSteve SkeatesJeff SmithRobin SnyderMarc & June

SwayzeDr. Michael J.

VassalloHames WareTom Wimbish

Conducted & Transcribed by Jim Amash[INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: Lee Ames tells stories as well as hedraws them. His presence at various comic book companies over theyears enables him to comment on some of the all-time greats in thehistory of the medium. Still working at age 82, Lee continues a vitallygifted art career, of which we can give you only a taste. For more,visit his web-sites <www.draw50.com> and <www.leeames.com>, and indulge in the work of a master craftsman. Special thanks for their help to Lee, and to Jerry Bails, Tom Wimbish, and Dr. Michael J. Vassallo. —Jim.]

“The One Thing I Could Do above Everything Else Was Draw”

JIM AMASH: In looking over your biography, I see you spent time atseveral different comic companies, so I figure the best place to start isto ask where and when you were born... and what got you interestedin art.

LEE AMES: I was born in Manhattan, New York, on January 8, 1921.The name on my birth certificate read “Male Abramowitz.” Eight dayslater, I was given my first name, Leon. Twenty-five years later welegalized my nom de plume, Lee J. Ames.

From as far back as I can remember, the one thing I could do aboveeverything else was draw. There was never any question that this waswhat I was going to do. My father, however, always said I should learn atrade and become a tailor, like he was—or something like that

Many Jewish immigrants came over to America and got into the“needle trades,” as they called it then. My father was a presser and laterbought a store in the throes of the Depression. How he was able to getthe $400 to buy the store is still a mystery, but he didn’t steal it. [laughs]As was needed, he hired a tailor or furrier. Meanwhile, he managed tohold two or more outside jobs, day and night, to pay the store workersand keep us alive and eating. My mother would tend to the customersand I would make deliveries. We also lived in three small rooms behindthe store. But we were too busy to consider these things unusuallytough.

Later, after we had sold the store, at a loss, we moved to the Bronx.There, on a visit to the local public library, I saw a book by WashingtonIrving entitled The Knickerbocker History of New York, with illustra-tions by James Dougherty. Those illustrations just knocked me over. Atthat point I decided I wanted to be an artist, an illustrator, just likeDougherty. The first job I had, for a short period of time in 1938, was at

an advertising agency as a “go-fer.” Then I got another job with a sign-manufacturing company under the Third Avenue El [short for “elevatedtrain”]. It was a very grimy, Dickensian place. Along with a bunch ofother kids, I painted signboards and ground, cut, polished, and paintedmetal and wooden letters for the Ross Sign Company.

“Firebrand” splash page drawn by Lee Ames for Quality’s Police Comics #10 (July 1942). Well, actually, all art from that Golden Age story printed with thisinterview are taken from Men of Mystery Comics #23 (2000), with grey tones

and art restoration done by the caring crew at AC Comics, and used by permission of publisher Bill Black. See AC Comics’ ad elsewhere in this issue. [Restored art

©2003 AC Comics. Firebrand is TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

“The Family ofCartoonists Is My Family!”Lee Ames in a

recent photo.

Lee Ames 3

Golden Age Artist LEE AMES Talks about a Long and Lively Career

[Self-caricature©2003 Lee Ames.]

At the suggestion of ateacher at my high school,I applied for a job withDisney. I sent my samplesto the Disney Studio inHollywood and got thejob! And exciting thingsstarted happening... notthe least of which was, forexample, going to the busstop with my teary-eyedmother, who gave me a small medicine bottle filled with 90-proofbrandy, to tide me over in case I needed sustenance. While I was talkingto some of the other passengers, my mother got on the bus and startedtalking to a young lady, asking her to be friendly to her son who wasleaving home for the first time. The lady turned out to be a hooker. I hada great trip. [laughs]

Prior to that, I had received acheck from Disney for the bus fare. Ihad to pick the check up at theDisney offices in Rockefeller Center.I went up there and the man whogave me the check was RichardCondon, who later wrote TheManchurian Candidate. He was apublicist for Disney at that time.

I got the check, got on the bus,went out to California, and was hiredat $17 a week, $2 of which wenttoward paying back my bus fare toDisney. I was there for three months(that included the eight days of travelto and from California). However, itwas a glorious experience that I’vecashed in on ever since. I had worked asan in-betweener on both Fantasia andPinocchio, and some shorts.

“You Will Call Him ‘Walt’!”JA: Did you meet Walt Disney while you worked there?

AMES: Yes, a couple of times. That wasn’t unusual. In our trainingperiod, we delivered packages and equipment. One day I had to bringlunches to Cliff Edwards (also known as Ukulele Ike), who was thevoice of “When You Wish upon a Star!,” and to Leigh Harlene, who wasthe composer. That was a thrill! On one occasion, while deliveringpackages and standing in the foyer, there was a guy with what was thencalled a “candid camera,” taking pictures of me... I thought.

I assumed it was for a magazine article he was working on orsome other publicity thing. I did whatever I had to do, thinking,“How nice for my mother to see this when it comes out in print.”Then I turned and behind me were Walt Disney and someassociates. Whoops! I was embarrassed because I thought thephotographer had been taking pictures of me, but the subject wasDisney. I said, “Oh, excuse me, Mr. Disney.” He glowered at me,literally.

I learned the reason immediately from a woman who ran acoffee concession. “Why did you do that?” she asked. “What did

I do?” I asked. She said, “You called him ‘Mr. Disney.’ Weren’tyou told, ‘You will call him ‘Walt!’?” Well, I never called himanything after that. I later discovered this had happened to anumber of people.

In the in-betweening sector where we worked, the guys pinnedup drawings on the backs of their desks. One drawing, 20” longand 10” high, was a lovely nude woman, and Jiminy Cricket wasstanding there, dipping his toe into her groin and tipping his hat. Itwas lovely and funny. One day, some guests came through, whichwas unusual because we never had people come through the in-betweeners’ section. This was a special occasion. There were four orfive men and a teenage girl, and she saw this drawing and immedi-ately turned around and walked on with the rest of the group. The

girl was 15-year-old Gloria Vanderbilt, Jr. [heiress to the Vanderbiltfortune].

JA: Wow! You had an amazing three months there. Why’d you leaveso soon?

AMES: I got homesick. And at that time, Disney only gave out 13-week contracts—which I had during my training period, and whichwas about to end. If they wanted you, they’d give you another 13-week contract or they’d dump you. I couldn’t foresee myself, thisbeing the Depression, being dumped in California, not knowing

anything or anybody, so Isaid “The hell with that,”and went back home.

Another small story: Itook the bus back and forthto the Hyperion Studios,where Disney was thenbased. One time I was on thebus, sketching away, when anelderly woman, whoreminded me of the actressMarie Dressler, admired mysketches. I thanked her andmentioned that I washomesick and planned toreturn home soon. She said,“Meanwhile, if you’re lonely,why don’t you come and visit

me?” She gave me a slip of paper with her name and address on it. Shewas very nice. I had told her I expected to go home.

Ten years after that, I found an old shoe box in which I kept some ofthe things from my time at Disney, including cels of Donald Duck andMickey Mouse, from which all the paint had chipped off. Imagine whatthey’d be worth now intact! In the box I also found the slip of paperthat sweet, friendly woman had given me. What a warm, pleasantmemory. Now, for the first time, I turned that piece of paper over. I hadnever seen the back of it before. There she had written: “$4.” She was anold hooker!

Lee’s tenure at Disney in the late1930s may not have lasted long, but

he must’ve learned something, ’causelater he put together these authorized

books on how to draw Walt’s twomost recognizable icons. [Art ©2003

the respective copyright holder;Mickey Mouse & Donald Duck TM &©2003 Walt Disney Productions.]

Self-portraits done by Lee in 1936 and 1938, respectively.

[©2003 Lee Ames.]

4 Lee Ames

“I Went Right to Work at Terrytoons”JA: When you came back to New York, where did you go to work?

AMES: I went right to work at Terrytoons, in New Rochelle, N.Y., as aninker. The Disney connection helped. Being an inker was a step downfrom being an in-betweener, the difference being that inkers were tracers,while in-betweeners actually did creative drawing. At Disney, womenexclusively did the inking.

JA: You worked at Terrytoons in 1940 and 1941. I’m a bit confused,because you told me earlier that you weren’t sure if you worked atHarry Chesler’s shop before you worked for Jerry Iger.

AMES: I don’t recall Chesler other than being a publisher’s name, but Idid a lot of freelance stuff, though I don’t remember for whom. Ifanything, it would have been freelance work, not shop work, but thatwould have been after I worked for Iger. It would have been after WorldWar II, as I also worked in Iger’s shop for a brief period when I returnedfrom the service.

I left Disney in July1939, and I believe I began working forTerrytoons in late 1939. That would have carried on into 1940 and 1941.That was a transition period before going to work for Jerry Iger.

JA: I see. Any recollections of working at Terrytoons you’d like toshare?

AMES: Remember the cartoonist Al Stahl? [NOTE: At one time Stahlworked for Quality Comics.] Al was an in-betweener and an absolutelylovely madman. He lost his job at Terrytoons for, among other things,the occasion on which he came to visit the inkers who worked at apenthouse (with an extended outside area) where we lunched. Althought it was cute to take paper cups filled with water and drop themoff the building, and one happened to splash in front of Paul Terry. SoAl had to go looking for a new job. When I got the job with Jerry Iger, Ibrought Al Stahl in to meet Iger and he got a job there.

Al Stahl looked, walked, and behaved like a cartoon. All that was

missing was a word-filled balloon over his head! I remember a lot ofthings about Al.

JA: What do you remember about Paul Terry?

AMES: He wasn’t particularly well-liked. But many bosses, just by thedomination that goes with being a boss, are frequently disliked. I’ve hadother bosses that were wonderful!

“Iger Was the Object of All Sorts of Gags”JA: From there, you went to work for Jerry Iger. Will Eisner was outof the shop by then, wasn’t he?

AMES: Yes. But his old artwork was still there—frequently cut up, re-pasted, re-storied, and used again and again in a number of themagazines. “Hawks of the Seas” might have been one of those featuresthey did that with.

JA: What led you to Iger’s shop?

AMES: Damned if I remember, but someone must have told me abouthim. I went up with samples, which were pretty horrible, but I got a job.

JA: How much did you know about comic books when you went tosee him?

Because he only worked for Paul Terry circa 1939-41, Lee Ames wasn’t around whenTerrytoons’ most famous creation came along in 1942: Supermouse, who soon

transmutated into Mighty Mouse—whether under pressure from National/DC, orbecause by then there was also a Supermouse in comic books, seems uncertain.

This model sheet was printed in the 1981 Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoon Seriesby Jeff Lenburg—but apparently there wasn’t another Terrytoon image worthy of

inclusion in the book’s nearly 200 pages. [Mighty Mouse TM & ©2003 therespective trademark & copyright holder.]

Another Ames page from AC Comics’ retouched reprinting of the “Firebrand”tale from Police Comics #10. Lee says that he and later “Doll Man” artist John

Cassone sat side by side, with Cassone working on “Lightning”—but maybe hemeans “The Ray,” another Quality super-hero feature? Reed Crandall had been

the original “Firebrand” artist, while Lou Fine had initiated “The Ray.”[Restored art ©2003 AC Comics; Firebrand TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

“The Family of Cartoonists Is My Family!” 5

AMES: Not a damnthing. I wasn’t very inter-ested in them. I was about21 at the time, so thatmay be why. The firstcomic books I knew, backin the early ‘30s, werehardcover, moreexpensive books withsubjects like The Gumps.

JA: What did you startout doing for Iger?

AMES: Backgrounds.Then I graduated intopenciling figures.Incidentally, I was hiredabout the same dayJohnny Cassone was. Thetwo of us used to sit sideby side. I worked on“Firebrand,” while Johnworked on “Lightning.”Sitting behind me wasAndré LeBlanc, who wasone of my very bestfriends. I miss him sorely

now. A terrific human being. We did one of my Draw 50 bookstogether. It was Draw 50 People of the Bible, but he really did the bulkof the work.

JA: What was Jerry Iger like?

AMES: Ha! Take your tongue and stick it between your lower teeth andlower lip thusly... now you’ll sound like Jerry Iger. Mort Leav was theone who did the best mimicry of Iger, and we all used to love that. Everyonce in a while, he would regale us with such things as the one dancestep that he knew and flaunted before us. Of course, we laughed up oursleeves. He’d tell us about his exploits as a boxer... all kinds of nonsenselike that. He did luck out, though, when he got to know and live withRuth Roche.

I think Ruth Roche ultimately got a piece of Iger’s business, whichwas great. And she was a very beautiful woman. Iger was the object ofall sorts of gags that we pulled... not that he was aware of many of them.He was a scapegoat that we loved to deal with.

JA: Iger wasn’t a well-respected boss, was he?

AMES: I wouldn’t say so.

“Bob Webb Was a Charming Guy”JA: That’s not the first comment I’ve heard like that. How manypeople worked in the studio?

AMES: I don’t remember well, but I’ll try. I’ll give you names as I godown the list. Aldo Rubano. Arthur Peddy. Al Bryant. Artie Saaf. MortLeav. Bob Webb. I can’t recall any others right now. There was one smallincident comes to mind that knocked me over.

At one point, Jerry hired an Italian man whose name was Dic Young.He was hired strictly to be a clean-up artist, nothing else. He wasobviously sickly. I was surprised because I remembered a book writtenby a Dic Young, that I had picked up at Woolworth’s when I was ten oreleven. It had a title something like Funny Drawings You Can Make.

One example: if you arrange thecapital letters for “CHINA,” verti-cally, from the top down, you cancomplete the “C” into a circle, addlines to create an Asian face, thenadd other lines to the remainingletters, and finally complete alovely little Mandarin figure.Imagine that! I never forgot thatbook. I asked Dic if he was theauthor. He said, “Yes,” in a kind oftired voice. This may have felt likea punch in the face to him.

Bob Webb was a charming guywho had a weird, snorting laugh

During his career, André LeBlanc (1921-98) drew—often through the IgerStudios—for Fiction House, Quality, Fawcett, and other comics companies; atvarious times, he also assisted Dan Barry on Flash Gordon and Will Eisner onThe Spirit. This illustration was done for Robin Snyder, in whose monthly The

Comics! it appeared in Vol. 8, #8 (Aug. 1997). [Art ©2003 Estate of AndréLeBlanc; The Phantom TM & ©2003 King Features Syndicate.]

(Above:) Mort Leav panels from Our PublishingCompany’s Love Journal #19 (1953), repro’d froma photocopy of the original art, which is ownedby his friend Tony Cerezo. You saw the splash inA/E #19. (Right:) A much later cartoon sequence

by Leav—and who’s to say this isn’t the very samecouple, half a century later? Repro’d from

Robin Snyder’s The Comics! V7#4 (April ’96). [Love Journal art ©2003 the respective copyright

holder; latter cartoon ©2003 Mort Leav.]

6 Lee Ames

by Bill SchellyPart II

Last issue, John talked about his early life, andhow he became interested in comic books, especiallyHarvey Kurtzman’s Mad. He also discussed his firstcontacts with EC fandom in 1955, and lots more. Thistime, John fills us in on the fascinating “Post-EC Fandom”period in the late ’50s and his groundbreaking interview withartist Bernard Krigstein, andgives us his “rap” aboutKurtzman, Bill Gaines, andLittle Annie Fanny. Thisinterview was conducted inJanuary 2003, was transcribedby Brian K. Morris, and iscopyright ©2003 Bill Schelly.

BILL SCHELLY: Have youever written any comics profes-sionally?

JOHN BENSON: I wroteseveral stories for Warren: onein collaboration with BhobStewart, which was nicelyillustrated by Angelo Torres;one with Clark Dimond; andone on my own. Bill Harriswas editor when I wrote thatlast one, and he edited it heavily and I thought he messed it up. I had ittake place on the headwaters of the Orinoco River, and he changed it togive the river some fictitious name. I couldn’t understand the point. Ithink if you tie horror to reality it’s more interesting. He tried to make itall really simple, like for little kids. Not that my script was any classic tobegin with.

I wrote another story that appeared in a Warren book, though Ididn’t write it for Warren. Russ Jones, who was the editor of Creepy forthe first issue or so, had put out a comic book version of Dracula inpaperback for Ballantine. This was when Ballantine had just brought outthe EC Bradbury horror and science fiction comics reprints. Russ wasgoing to produce a book of famous short horror stories in comics formfor them, and he asked me to do an adaptation of Sheridan Le Fanu’svampire classic Carmilla. I think he knew it was a favorite story ofmine, which I got interested in because I loved Roger Vadim’s filmversion, Blood and Roses. Anyhow, Russ Jones did not have a verygood reputation for paying, so when he invited me over to his place,before he even asked me about doing it, he spread out some originalcomic pages on the floor and suggested that I pick one out and keep it.This was sort-of like those little gifts they give you when you go to see aproduct demo, a little bribe to get you to be there. So I took a BarksUncle Scrooge page.

BS: Really! Do you still have it?

BENSON: Yes. Barks worked on these huge boards and he cut themin half for ease of handling. This page was cut in half, and the

two halves happened to be completely different scenes.One was just a bunch of town-father pigs standing

around in the street, and I gave that half to MikeMcInerney. But the other half has Scrooge

sitting on a pile of money and also has himpointing at Christmas on a calendar and

saying, “Bah!”—which is probably theclosest he ever acknowledged his

Dickens namesake. So, yes, I stillhave that half-page, you bet.Anyhow, Jones never did pay me,

and the paperback never came out.Jones had gotten my script illus-

trated by Bob Jenny, who probablynever got paid, either. But that didn’t

stop Russ from selling it to Warren,and it appeared in Creepy or Eerie.

The writer is listed as “unknown” inThe Warren Companion. Which is my

own fault, because I think the author ofthe book tried to contact me throughsomeone else and I didn’t respond. Iguess I didn’t realize he was going toinclude a checklist.

BS: When you graduated fromWesttown, what did you do? Was itcollege or was it the military?

BENSON: I was a Quaker,remember? [laughs] I went on to

college, Grinnell College, in Iowa. I wanted to go to a small liberal artscollege. I looked at various ones. Probably that was the wrong one tochoose. It was culture shock. Actually, the guys who were farmers fromIowa, they were great guys. But most of the people there were from thesuburbs of Chicago, and I wasn’t really on their wavelength. [laughs] Ibecame friends with several people from the East there, though,including Clark Dimond, whom I later collaborated with, and whowrote some comic scripts on his own for the black-&-white horrormagazines

BS: Did you continue your fannish activity at college?

BENSON: Yeah, I did. I published my fanzine Image during thatperiod. And I continued to correspond with various fans, like like MartyPahls, Gary Delain, Dick Voll, Ron Parker, of course, and Ken Winter,Doug Brown, Doug Payson. Payson was the principal artist for Image.You can see the great cover he did for me reprinted in Squa Tront 10. Avery good artist. Esmond Adams was another guy I corresponded with,a contributor to Hoohah! from Huntsville, Alabama. I think he laterwent to Harvard and had culture shock. I exchanged a few letters withRobert and Charles Crumb, too. Then there was Fred, of course, andLarry [Ivie]; those are probably my principal correspondents. I still havemost of that correspondence.

John Benson in 1957—and art from the cover of the first issue of Gamut (Sept.1960), which graphically illustrates the high volume of fanzine activity during the

1958-62 period. All the covers depicted on the Gamut cover are of real issues ofreal fanzines, and include Ec-hhhh, Fanfare, Tales from the Shag, Spoof, Foo,

Hoohah!, Frantic, Concept, Image, and Insight—many of which are discussed inthis installment. Gamut had “dittoed” front and back covers, with mimeographedinteriors. It was published by Gary Delain, and contributors to the issue includedKen Winter, E. Nelson Bridwell, Marty Pahls—and Robert Crumb. Photo courtesy of

John Benson. [Art ©2003 the respective copyright holder.]

A Talk with JOHN BENSON An Overdue Interview with the Editor of Squa Tront about “Post-EC Comic Fandom”

—and Why Harvey Kurtzman Left Mad !

Title 19Comic Fandom Archive

BS: So you started buying backissues of ECs then? Were therewere some places where you wouldfind some old comics for sale, likebookstores?

BENSON: There was a store inPhiladelphia, which may even stillbe there. The guy’s name wasBagelman, and I remember going inthere around 1958. At the time hehad a mail order business, and hewas selling Golden Age comics. Ilooked behind the counter and hehad these Golden Age comics. Infact, there was one that, somehow, Iwas able to flip through, wherethere was a story about a dwarf inthe subway, and it was rather goryor horrific, and I’ve never been ableto find that since. [laughs] A verystrange comic, and before thehorror era. I can remember seeingU.S.A. Comics and Golden Agesuper-hero comics that he waspacking up to sell through the mail,and for pretty good prices, I’m sure.

In Squa Tront 10 I wrote about how Charles Crumb came over andvisited, and how he had bought Barks comics from a store at big prices.And then, when he needed money, he took them back and the guy gavehim peanuts for the same stuff he’d sold him. Well, that was the samestore I’m talking about. But I do remember he had huge racks of usedcomics in the back, and I was really livid one time. I spent about an hourgoing through all those used comics and I found a Crime SuspenStories,the one with the Evans cover of a guy throttling a woman in therowboat. All the comics were a nickel, you know. I took it up front andhis mother was about to sell it to me. And he happened to come up, andhe said, “Oh, that one’s not a nickel.” I said, “It’s in the nickel section.”“Well, that was a mistake. If you want that, it’s going to be 50¢.”

BS: [pained] Ohhhhh. [laughs]

BENSON: I just realized this is like the story of Flip #1, only the endingis different. I said, “Forget it,” because that was pretty high. It reallywasn’t that old at the time. I bought nearly all my back-issue ECs bymail. I was buying a lot from a guy named Dick Phipps, who was sellingoff his collection. The newer ones were, like, 15¢ and they worked backup to 50¢ for the earlier ones. I was getting $2 a week allowance, which Ihad to use for school supplies and other things.

BS: Did you ever have a paper route or other source of income beforeyou got out of high school?

BENSON: No. Obviously, at Westtown I didn’t have anything like that.In Haddonfield, I got an allowance of 25¢ a week, and then later, 50¢.And I would mow a few lawns, and I had all the money I could want.My only expenses were the occasional comic, Popsicles... which were anickel. You could buy a balsa plane for a dime, and your parents boughtyou your roller skates, and your bicycle, and stuff. But if you have it,you find a way to spend it. I pissed away a lot of money on Ravellplastic models. But at Westtown, I didn’t feel nearly so flush. I wanted tobuy all those ECs, and that was tough. I was sending this guy a buck ortwo a week, ordering the later ones because I got more comics for thebuck that way.

BS: But were they in decent shape when you got them?

BENSON: I’ve never been able to evaluate the condition of a comic.

[Bill chuckles]

At Westtown I became veryinterested in popular music. I likeclassical music, and at Westtown, ofcourse, you were exposed toclassical music. I loved classicalmusic, but I also was very, veryinterested in popular music. Ithought that Chuck Berry, JerryLee Lewis, and Little Richard... Ithought they were Art! I still do. Istill love rock ‘n’ roll, from the ’50sup until... uh, let’s say about whenMick Taylor left the Rolling Stones.

I’ve always been a child ofpopular culture. I’m not an intel-lectual. My parents were not intel-lectuals, either, although theyapplied a sort of critical judgmentto them. We would go to BobHope movies, and Martin andLewis movies, even occasionalAbbott and Costello movies. Butwhen I had an interest in going to

see the Bowery Boys or Ma and Pa Kettle, I was told, no, I could not.[laughs] You know, “That’s too trashy, and too below your interest, andyou just can’t go to that stuff.” But yeah, I’m totally popular culture.

BS: Maybe this is a good place to segue to your fanzine Image, whichwas, after all, devoted to popular culture.

BENSON: [laughs] Well, theoretically. I said that in my—what’s theword?—my prospectus, my one ad in Sata, but I never really meant it. Itwas just a fanzine. How Image came about, and my attitude towards it,is all really well spelled out in Squa Tront 10, which is currentlyavailable.

BS: Okay, so we won’t go over it again here. But I would like to talkabout the period after Hoohah! and before the start of Alter Ego,from about 1957 to 1961, because that was the thing I learned fromyou, that there was a real fandom after EC comics had died, thatoffered a substantial amount of comics material.

BENSON: I consider that I’ve been in comics fandom since 1956, andwhen I arrived it was already going strong. It’s kind of strange that Xerois considered a beginning of comics fandom, because Xero’s art director,Bhob Stewart, published the first EC fanzine, The EC Fan Bulletin in1953, and had been pretty much continuously a part of fandom in oneway or another since that time. In fact, I would say that if there is adefining moment for the start of comics fandom, it was the publicationof The EC Fan Bulletin. It was the start of EC fandom, EC fandomevolved into “second fandom,” and there were many people whocontinued on into the fandom later developed by Alter Ego and Xero.

BS: Can you tell me a little more about that “second fandom” in thelate 1950s?

BENSON: It was a very active time, with a lot of fanzines. I’d say therewere two main groups, with considerable overlap. One was primarilyinterested in writing about comics and satire magazines, and the otherwas primarily interested in producing their own amateur satire publica-tions. There must have been well over 30 fanzine titles during thisperiod, quite a number being substantial publications. In the first groupI guess the most substantial ones were Spoof, which was called GoodLord! the first issue, Marty Pahls’ Fanfare, Mike Britt’s Squatront, andJoe Pilati’s Smudge.

20 John Benson

As detailed last issue, Larry Ivie drew illustrations on many of his letters. This one, from a missive to John circa 1958, is one of his most ornate.

Used with the artist’s permission. [©2003 Larry Ivie.]

27

[NOTE: All art on the following five pagesis ©2003 the respective copyright holders.]

28 Spot That Style!

MARC SWAYZEon the Golden AgeGEORGE HAGENAUER on Fawcett DigestSTEVE SKEATES remembers IsisDON NEWTON & E. NELSON BRIDWELL’s Monster Society of Evil

No. 87Our 30th Year!1 9 7 3 - 2 0 0 3

[Ibis & Taia penciled by Mark Lewis, inked by P.C. Hamerlinck. Art © Mark Lewis & P.C. Hamerlinck; characters TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

[FCA EDITORS NOTE: From 1941-53, Marcus D. Swayze was atop artist for Fawcett Comics. The very first Mary Marvel charactersketches came from Marc’s drawing table, and he illustrated herearliest adventures, including her origin in Captain MarvelAdventures #18, Dec. 1942; but he was primarily hired by FawcettPublications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories and covers for WhizComics and CMA. He also wrote many Captain Marvel scripts, andcontinued to do so while in the military. Soon after leaving the Army,he made an arrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories forthem on a freelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he createdboth art and story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, inaddition to drawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip (created by hisfriend and mentor Russell Keaton) for the Bell Syndicate. After thecancellation of Wow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line of romance comics. After the company ceased publishingcomics, Marc moved over to Charlton Publications, where he endedhis comics career in the mid-’50s. Marc’s ongoing professionalmemoirs have been FCA’s most popular feature since his first columnappeared in FCA #54, 1996. This time, he tells more about his earlydays at Fawcett... and his own musical background.

—P.C. Hamerlinck.]

I never knew Captain Billy Fawcett. Our paths probably would neverhave crossed had he still been around when I joined the company ranks.The two levels on the organization chart were simply too extreme tosuggest such a possibility.

But I wish I had known him. I liked his way ofthinking big. The grand manner in which he blew intotown with his business, his ideas, his family… the wholeshebang… and set up shop not at the outskirts, but in theheart of the world’s greatest metropolis, to occupy severalfloors of a most prestigious of office buildings…was afirm assertion that he and his domain were not to besneezed at. And they weren’t!

Yes... I wish I had known Captain Billy. He createdand left behind an aura of success… the atmosphere intowhich I strode in 1941, my heels yet stained with cowmanure.

Comic books were new. Let there be no mistake aboutthat. Legitimate, accurate historical accounts describe their

having already been around for several years… as well as the relatedstudios that supplied art for them. But let’s have no misunderstanding…comic books, as we came to know them, were still new in ’41.

Newsstands, which existed mainly along the sidewalks of the verylarge cities… and magazine racks, which existed in drug stores, postoffices, and pool halls throughout the land… had to make room for thisoutrageous little thin, limp, cheap, stapled newcomer that had crept infrom nowhere.

The intrusion, however, could be taken as only temporary. There wasno way for these novelties to stay around long… slanted almost exclu-sively for boy readers of pre and early teen-age… and only the ones witha little pocket change to spend.

How many generations ago was that? Three? Maybe four? More?Long time.

A lot of things were new around that time. I stopped in the lobby ofthe Grand Central Station behind a crowd of commuters attracted bysomething going on against one wall…a display or demonstration ofsome kind.

“What is it?” I asked a fellow at my elbow. “A receiving set,” heanswered. “Radio?” I asked. “Television,” he replied. I stood on tiptoeand peered over the heads to see what he was talking about… a box…with no dimensions of more than 2 or 3 feet…the foremost side with ascreen… showing people moving about. And you could hear them

talking… just like on a smallmovie screen. That box musthave contained a lot of wiresand things to bring all thatabout. I went on my way,certain that the averageAmerican family would neverbe able to afford such acomplicated device.

“What orchestra was it youwere with?”

It was the voice, later in theday, of Fawcett art director AlAllard, who had just come infrom conducting a tour ofHollywood guests through hisdepartment. “I was asked thatand had to make up ananswer,” he laughed.

“There were several,” I

[Art & logo ©2003 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2003 DC Comics]

By

A pair of Swayze panels: from “Captain Marvel and the Return of the Trolls” in Whiz Comics #37 (Nov. ’42) and PhantomEagle story in Wow Comics #32 (Jan. ’45). [Phantom Eagle TM & ©2003 DC Comics.]

40 Marc Swayze

by George HagenauerEdited By P.C. Hamerlinck

To this day it’s not uncommon for undocumented older comicbooks to be discovered that are giveaways or from the more obscurepublishers. It is rare that an undocumented story or comic is foundfeaturing a major character or super-hero.

That’s why I was quite surprised when I stumbled upon the firstand only issue of Fawcett Digest.

I have been involved in doing background research for thehistorical novels of Max Allan Collins, creator of Road toPerdition, among other solid accomplishments. Thus, I spend a lotof time digging through older magazines and looking for materialthat may relate to future stories he has planned. This involves goingover many piles of all sorts of odd magazines at book fairs, antiquemalls, flea markets and shows.

During one of these quests some months ago, I stumbled uponFawcett Digest. The little 162-page magazine is about the size of aReader’s Digest and sports a beautiful full-color cover by WalterKlett. Originally I thought this was perhaps some short-livedcompetitor to Reader’s Digest; but the first page states that it is alimited edition, printed in 1946, and reprints examples of materialfrom every Fawcett magazine published in 1945. It obviouslyappears to have been a Fawcett promotional magazine (since thereis a warning that it is not to be sold) geared towards distributorsand advertisers, allowing them to view samples of all of themagazines Fawcett published at the time... including their comicbooks.

Several years ago, while meeting with Roscoe K. Fawcett, former co-owner and circulation manager of Fawcett Publications, P.C.Hamerlinck reports having viewed several promotional and inter-company type publications (including Fawcett Distributor) which wereproduced in the ’40s and were developed by Roscoe Fawcett himself.[EDITOR’S NOTE: Even more surprising was to learn, by perusingRoscoe’s bookshelf, was that some of these promotional magazines—and Fawcett comics—were also produced as deluxe hardcover compi-lations! —PCH.]

Prior to this, Fawcett had worked hard to upgrade the quality ofmany of their magazines, such as converting their True magazine from asleazy men’s magazine featuring women in bondage on the cover to avery slick publication featuring major writers and illustrators... and withcovers depicting wildlife hunters and men at work. True had become thetype of magazine no one would feel ashamed to have on their coffeetable. It’s interesting that Fawcett were apparently as proud of thequality of their comics as they were of their major slick magazines... andpromoted the comics equally in Fawcett Digest, even though advertisingrevenue from the comic books must have been minimal compared toslicks like True, Today’s Woman, and Mechanix Illustrated.

While they don’t reprint an example from every Fawcett comic book,they do reprint a complete “Captain Marvel” story (“Capt. Marvel andHis Mission to Mercury”) from Whiz Comics #69 (Dec. 1945). Themagazine’s introduction tells of 5,000,000 readers a month for Fawcettcomic books and lists their editorial board.

There is also a list of 28 different comic book titles in the front ofFawcett Digest, though a number of the titles seem never to have beenprinted. Listed are Radar the International Policeman, Sherlock theMonk, and Benny Beaver and Fuzzy Bear, none of which werepublished separately under those titles. Also listed are All Hero Comics,America’s Greatest Comics, and Commando Yank, although none ofthose had been published since 1943 (“Commando Yank,” aside frombeing one of the Fawcett “Mighty Midget” giveaway comics, neveractually had its own title).

It may be possible that, with the post-World War II relaxing of paperrestrictions, some of the titles listed were planned but never appeared.1946 did see a number of Fawcett titles resume publication, and at leastone comic on the list (Animal Fair) may not have been published at thetime the digest appeared.

Walter Klett’s cover for the rare Fawcett Digest from 1946,printed at approximate size of the magazine. [©2003 the

respective copyright holder.]Fawcett DigestDiscovering a Rare Captain Marvel

Appearance from the 1940s

42 Fawcett Digest

by Steve SkeatesEdited by P.C. Hamerlinck

A quick glance inside acomic book shop and—Yipes! What is this?Women blowing men away,seventeen or eighteen at aclip, with but the slightestflick trigger-wise of one oranother impossibly hugehand-held laser-canon!Women decapitating menwith an effortless swipe ofa razor-sharp ceremonialépée! Women who kill withtheir thighs!

It’s hard to imagine inlight of this so-called “badgirl” mania (is it not?) that women were once anathema as far as comicswere concerned—that all but every pencil-wielder in the industry hadbut one stock woman he knew how to draw, that he’d use her (that oneand only) whenever called upon to incorporate into a story someone ofthe feminine persuasion and nobody much noticed (let alone cared)because women were that far from important story-wise—that theconventional “wisdom” at DC, Marvel, and elsewhere was: “Femalecharacters simply do not sell!!”

In other words, when (back in 1975, to be exact) the only work Iseemed to be able to find within the comic book industry was fulfillingthe scripting chores for DC’s Isis comic book (based of course upon thatstrangely unexciting half hour live-action Saturday morning Filmationtelevision program on CBS), it was as though (at least as far as I wasconcerned) I were being punished for something (being a malcontent?arguing with editors? caring a bit too much how previous scripts of minehad been transmogrified into entities even I had a hard time recognizingas my own?) via being relegated to working upon a comic that obviouslyhad no chance of ever selling! To say I was unhappy would be putting itmildly and then some! Truth be known: even today, I can (though forsome reason I rarely wish to) look back at those four “Isis” tales I wrotefor DC—plus the one I co-authored (the plot by me but the words byup-and-comer Jack C. Harris)—and abruptly find myself (thanks to myown steel-trap memory) sadly sinking fast beneath huge ungainly gobsof utter embarrassment.

Then again, though, shouldn’t it have been the producers of that TVshow who were, deeper than any of us others, dipped in absolutecomplete industrial-strength embarrassment? Didn’t they know that theoriginal Isis, that Egyptian goddess of yore, fell out of favor with thePharaohs because too many orgies were being held in the templesdevoted to her worship, thus just flat-out tiring out too many of thatsociety’s workers? Is that any sort of a proper goddess upon which tobase a Saturday morning TV show?

All such “hoo-hah” aside, however, even as we return to consid-erations of my own reckless involvement—okay, okay, so I’m notthe only one who’s to blame for the egregiousness of that particularcomic book (and, for the record, what I still perceive as particularlyterrible are issues #2 and #3!). DC itself had rather cheapened out—no longer numbering the pages of its comics in hopes that thereaders wouldn’t notice that the books which for so many yearshad possessed at least 23 or 24 pages of story were now down to amere seventeen. Artist Mike Vosburg may have been (and in factwas) particularly adept at drawing comely women, yet his story-telling abilities in this series left a lot to be desired; he seemed infact infused with an uncommon knack for making even the mostexciting scene come off with all the color and flair of a PBS pledge

What It Is Is IsisA Writer’s True Confessions of the Shazam! Spin-off Egyptian Goddess Super-hero from the 1970s

(Top left:) On the Filmation CBS-TV series, Isis was played in the 1970s by JoannaCameron. (Right:) The Egyptian goddess/heroine seemed to be off to a goodstart when she flew from TV directly into comics, premiering in Shazam! #25

(Oct. 1976). Repro’d from the original Kurt Schaffenberger cover art, which waspresented to AC Comics publisher Bill Black in exchange for a donation to the

comics cartoonists’ Milt Gross Fund. [Captain Marvel TM & ©2003 DC Comics; IsisTM & ©2003 the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

44 Isis

by Walt GroganEdited By P.C. Hamerlinck

As the bad-guy contingent in the first extended comic bookserial, the Monster Society of Evil wasn’t even a formal groupwhen it first appeared in its original Fawcett version from 1943to 1945... although it contained the major and several minorCaptain Marvel villains of the time. This assemblage, formed bythe mysterious Mr. Mind– who was eventually revealed to be amere worm, though one from another planet—plagued theWorld’s Mightiest Mortal between issues #22-46 of CaptainMarvel Adventures. (The entire serial, crafted by writer OttoBinder and editor Wendell Crowley and illustrated by the C.C.Beck studio, was beautifully reprinted in a limited slipcase-hardcover edition from England’s Hawk Books in 1989.)

Captain Marvel eventually captured Mr. Mind after 25 eventfulchapters and, after a brief court trial, the wicked worm wasexecuted—never to be heard from again.

In the Golden Age, that is.

For, when DC Comics licensed and revived the Marvel Familyin 1973, with original “Captain Marvel” artist C.C. Beck as illus-trator for a brief spell, it soon resurrected Mr. Mind. After that, itwas only a matter of time till the nefarious alien worm re-formedhis band of evildoers, and in Shazam! #14 (Sept.-Oct. 1974) he didjust that! “The Evil Return of the Monster Society” was written byDenny O’Neil, with art by Kurt Schaffenberger. They were unableto capture the excitement of the original “Monster Society of Evil”adventure within the mere 20 pages they had to work with, andwith a much-reduced roster of villains that had the Sivana Familyand Ibac joining forces with Mr. Mind. This was the last appearanceof the Monster Society drawn in the traditional style. To reviveflagging interest in the revived Marvels, DC Comics took drasticaction and updated both the art and stories of the World’s MightiestFamily.

The Shazam! series went through this radical change with issue#34 (April 1978). Artists Alan Weiss and Joe Rubinstein gave Cap,Mary, and Junior a muscular, more realistic look in a story thatfeatured the Marvel Family battling the evil Captain Nazi in theskies over Chicago. With #35, Weiss and Rubinstein were replacedby Don Newton and Kurt Schaffenberger, while E. NelsonBridwell continued as writer. Newton would become the artist mostassociated with the “new look” Captain Marvel and was vilified byboth fans and C.C. Beck himself for this updating. [EDITOR’SNOTE: Cap’s “new look” period will be dissected further in afuture edition of FCA. —PCH.] The Shazam! series wascancelled after the 35th issue, and Captain Marvel immediately

Low SocietyThe MONSTER SOCIETY OF EVIL Struck Back–––and Struck Out–––in 1980-81

(Above:) With Captain Marvel serving as prosecutor in the trial of Mr. Mindin Captain Marvel Adventures #46 (May 1945), the worm from another world

was found guilty of murdering 186,744 people in cold blood, with script by Otto Binder, art by the C.C. Beck shop. (Left:) In Shazam! #14 (Sept.-Oct.1974), the O’Neil/Schaffenberger/Schwartz team pitted the revived Marvel

Family against a new version of the Society. [©2003 DC Comics.]

48 Monster Society of Evil

moved over to a DC anthology title, the dollar-sized World’s FinestComics, with issue #253.

With a new creative team in place, the Monster Society of Evil wassoon re-formed in World’s Finest Comics #264-267 (Aug.-Sept 1980-Feb-Mar 1981). The splash page of “The Monster Society of EvilStrikes Back!” by E. Nelson Bridwell, Don Newton, and inker DaveHunt revealed the new line-up of Mr. Mind’s gaggle of felons: Dr.Sivana, Mr. Atom, Ibac, Black Adam, and Oggar (who had appeared inhis own short-lived serial back in Captain Marvel Adventures). Mr.Mind’s objective had not changed between reorganizations; he stillwished to “crush” Captain Marvel with help from the other villains.Oggar and Black Adam, neither of whom was in the classic “MonsterSociety,” took center-stage in the first chapter.

“The Monster Society of Evil Strikes Back!”Oggar had originally been a student of the great wizard Shazam.

When he was granted immortality, Oggar became part of the septet ofelders that formed Shazam’s name, changing it to Shazamo. WhenOggar turned evil, Shazam dropped the “o” from his name, banishedOggar from the group of elders, and gave Oggar cloven hooves andhorns. The sorceress Circe imprisoned him in the body of a boar andtossed the boar over a cliff. And Oggar was nearly never seen again.Unbeknownst to Captain Marvel, during a battle with that wickedworm, Mr. Mind, he unwittingly helped Oggar, the World’s Mightiest

Immortal, resume his true form.

Black Adam had been Shazam’s champion in ancient Egypt. Soonafter gaining the powers granted by Shazam, Adam turned evil. Shazambanished Adam to the farthest star in the universe. Black Adameventually made his way back to Earth after a 5000-year journey andlanded in the United States in 1945. After a brief battle with the MarvelFamily, he was tricked by Uncle Marvel into saying the wizard’s nameand turned back into his mortal form of Teth-Adam. Captain Marvel’stap to Teth-Adam’s chin caused Adam’s millennia-old body to crumbleto dust, and it seemed as if Black Adam’s first appearance from theFawcett-era in Marvel Family Comics #1 would be his last. DC revivedBlack Adam during a series of city-visiting stories in the 1970s. Hisreturn was Dr. Sivana’s doing. Sivana used a reincarnation machine of hisown design to reincarnate the body of Teth-Adam. The newly-livingAdam wasted no time into changing into his super-powered form byshouting the name of the ancient wizard Shazam! But Captain Marvelwas successful in defeating Black Adam and placing him in jail.

In the 1980 World’s Finest serial, the warden of the prison that heldmost of the Monster Society members alerted Cap to their escape. BlackAdam was immediately spotted in Cairo, Egypt, and Cap realized hewould need help from a secret weapon. After landing near Cairo, Capchanged to Billy Batson to do some reconnoitering of the area and wassoon confronted by Oggar, who made Billy mute so that he couldn’tturn back into Captain Marvel. Soon joined by Black Adam, Oggarcreated an army of soldiers from the sands of the Egyptian desert toconquer Cairo.

Just as the army was to set off for Cairo, Cap’s secret weaponswooped down: Mary Marvel, the World’s Mightiest Girl. Since hispowers had a built-in limitation of ineffectuality against the fair sex,Oggar called down a bolt of magic lightning to change Mary Marvelback into her mortal form. Mary’s quick thinking allowed her to placeBilly into the path of the bolt. He was changed back into CaptainMarvel, and he and Mary quickly mopped up the sand army and had allbut defeated the villains when Oggar used his powers to return them allto the Monster Society headquarters. Realizing that the Monster Societyhad once again banded together, Cap knew he and his fellow Marvelswere in for the fight of their lives.

Oggar, who’d had his own brief serial in the ’40s, was back in World’s Finest #264. [©2003 DC Comics.]

“The Monster Society of Evil Strikes Back!” The beginning of the four-part serial, by Bridwell, Newton, and Hunt, in World’s Finest Comics #264

(Sept. 1980). [©2003 DC!Comics.]

Monster Society of Evil 49