$5.95In the USA

No.40September

2004

PLUS:PLUS:

RUSS HEATHRUSS HEATHJIM AMASH INTERVIEWS

AN ARTIST FORALL SEASONS

Lone Ranger & Tonto ©2004 Lone Ranger Television, Inc. • Punisher & Marvel Boy©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. • Other art ©2004 Russ Heath

11994--2004

Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, 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.

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Contents“I Was So Interested in Drawing That I Didn’t Want to Do Anything Else!” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Russ Heath talks to Jim Amash about comic books, comic strips, and Playboy.

Gary Brown, Comic Book Reporter –– Part 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Bill Schelly completes his interview re Comic Comments, Gremlin, and Comixscene.

Comic Crypt’s Delightful “Clean-up” Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Michael T. Gilbert, Mr. Monster, Al Feldstein, Harvey Kurtzman, and more.

FCA (Fawcett Collectors of America) #99. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Paul C. Hamerlinck presents Marc Swayze & The Fawcett/Charlton Connection, Part 2.

Julie Schwartz & Gil Kane Section. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: As you’ll learn starting on the next page, if you didn’t know it already,Russ Heath has worked for a multitude of comics companies, in a multitude of genres—war,western, romance, jungle, horror, humor, science-fiction, adventure—and has even drawn a super-hero or two on occasion. Our cavortin’ colorist Tom Ziuko assembled this collage from a vintage photo and photocopies of original art provided by Russ himself, plus the cover of 1950’s Marvel Boy #1. Tom then applied his kaleidoscopic coloring skills to it. The result, we think, is a monumentally matchless montage. [Punisher & Marvel Boy art ©2004 MarvelCharacters, Inc.; Lone Ranger art ©2004 King Features, Inc.; soldier & Roman ©2004 Russ Heath.]

Above: In the final Sunday of their Lone Ranger comic strip, on April 1, 1986, Russ drewhimself and writer Cary Bates as a sheriff and deputy bidding farewell to the Masked Hero of the Plains. [©2004 Lone Ranger Television, Inc.]

Vol. 3, No. 40 / September 2004Editor 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 ArtistsGil KaneRuss Heath

Covers ColoristTom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to:

RUSS HEATH& FRIENDSSection

This Issue Is Dedicated to the Memory ofJACK BRADBURY

Neal AdamsGer ApeldoornManuel AuadBrian H. BailieBob BaileyJeff BaileyMike W. BarrNick BarrucciBlake BellAllen & Roz BellmanDave BennettKaren BergerBruce BristowMrs. Peggy BroomeGary BrownFrank BrunnerMike BurkeyJoe CaporaleNick CaputoMike CarlinBob CherryShaun ClancyJon B. CookePeter DavidTeresa R. DavidsonAl DellingesShel DorfTerry DoyleMichael DunneHarlan & Susan EllisonMark EvanierAl FeldsteinBill FieldElliot FineShane FoleyNeil GaimanCarl GaffordKen GaleJosé Garcia-LópezFrank GiellaJanet GilbertGlen David GoldScott GoodellBob GreenbergerBeth Gwinn

Jennifer T. HamerlinckJack C. HarrisIrwin HasenRuss HeathDaniel HermanRoger HillAndrea HopkinsTom HorvitzElaine KaneFred & Rita KellyAdele KurtzmanPaul LevitzGuy H. Lillian IIIJean-Marc & Randy

LofficierRicia MainhardtRich MarkowDonald Dale MilneSheldon MoldoffAlan MooreBrian K. MorrisFrank MotlerScott V. NorrisDenny O’NeilAdam PhillipsRobert PincombePaul RivocheSteve SaffelArlen SchumerScott SheafferBhob StewartMarc SvenssonMarc SwayzeDann ThomasMaggie ThompsonBrian ThomsenMike TiefenbacherAnthony TollinAlex TothMichael UslanJim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.Dr. Michael J. VassalloLen WeinTom Ziuko

“I Was So Interested in Drawing ThatI Didn’t Want to Do Anything Else!”

2

RUSS HEATH on Comic Books,Comic Strips, and Playboy

Interview Conducted and Transcribed by Jim Amash

[INTRODUCTION: Russ Heath is one of those greats who backs upgood draftsmanship with a terrific drawing style. Real people, notcardboard cutouts, dominate the visual planes of Russ’ pages. Almostno one conveys the realities of a war story like he does, and even hiscartoon work has a solid reality base that is pleasing and believable.Russ was the artist who made you believe you were underwater withthe Sea Devils, fighting high above the battlefields of war, and downin the mud with Sgt. Rock and Easy Company. For the purposes ofthis interview, and because of Alter Ego’s general franchise, we aremainly focusing on Russ’ earlier work (though we do straysomewhat), in order to discover how his artistic vision was formed,and his thoughts about how that affects artists personally and profes-sionally. Of course, since this interview was conducted specifically forA/E, we want to touch on his rare (but outstanding) forays intosuper-hero work, but Russ begins by explaining why he didn’t domore in that genre... —Jim.]

“I Couldn’t Believe Superman”RUSS HEATH: I was too much a realist and maybe too literal-mindedto ever really get into super-heroes. I couldn’t believe Superman couldjump over the Empire State Building without cracking the pavement onlanding, or carrying his Clark Kent clothes. The minute you create a

super-hero, who are you going to put against him? It leads to unreality.

JIM AMASH: And your earliest reading habits were not grounded inthat genre, either. You were born in 1926.

HEATH: September 29th, in New York, though I lived in New Jersey. I discovered comics in Florida, when I was a kid. I was in a store withmy parents and saw the eleventh issue of Famous Funnies. Later on, I looked at comics like Captain America, but I really started out to be an illustrator. Then, when I got married and was expecting a kid, I thought I’d better take whatever I could get.

JA: Did you have any previous involvement in comic books by thetime you were married?

HEATH: I had done a couple of freelance jobs in the summer when Iwas in high school, in 1943 or ‘44. I might have done this for twodifferent summers, but I’m not sure. I worked for Holyoke Publications’Captain Aero Comics, on the “Hammerhead Hawley” feature. My dadknew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody whopublished Holyoke. I had an interview and got the job. Well, it wasn’treally an interview... I just went to see this artist who was working forthem. His name was Charles Quinlan.

The page rate was so low that you tried to turn them out as fast as

Russ at the drawing board, circa 1998—framed bytwo dramatic personalized figure drawings. On theright, Storm of The X-Men, done in 1987—and on theleft, an illo of Sgt. Rock, dated 2002. For a guy whosays he never liked drawing super-heroes, he sure

didn’t do bad by Ororo! Photo courtesy of RussHeath. [Storm TM & ©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.;

Sgt. Rock art ©2004 DC Comics.]

you could. I didn’t spend that much time with him. Ihad always assumed that penciled pages were inkedwith a pen, and he said, “No, no, it’s brush work.”So he gave me a number three Winsor-Newton and Ibecame a brush man. I drew two complete stories forQuinlan. I had been practicing and had done pagesin school, just for my own amusement, so I wasalready into storytelling.

JA: Where did you go from there?

HEATH: I went into the Air Force inmy senior year of high school, in 1945. Ioriginally wanted to sign up with theRCAF, because you only had to beseventeen to join in Canada. The highschool said they’d put me in an accel-erated class so I could get through withhigh school. I almost made it, but thenthe [US] Air Force called me and in Iwent. I was in the service for ninemonths.

JA: Did you do any artwork in theservice?

HEATH: Yes. When they were waiting tofind out what it would take to finish offJapan, I went over to the camp newspaperand did cartoons for them. I could do threecartoons in an afternoon. I had my owndesk and a typewriter, and I’d write acouple of lines to my folks or something onit. I had a press pass, so I could leave thebase at any time for 48 hours. I’d leave,come back, and go out again. I’d spend all

morning on the beach, go to town, have lunch, and go to a movie.

I’d probably be there yet, because my papers hadn’t arrived and Iwasn’t getting paid. There’s only so much money your folks’ll send you,and I kept running up against this one sergeant, who said, “You’re lucky.You have nothing to do. Go away... you bother me.” After anothermonth, I called headquarters up and said, “I’m Lieutenant So-and-So.Where are Russ Heath’s papers?” That got them hopping. They foundthem in a dead file, or else I’d still be there.

JA: It occurs to me that you musthave developed very quickly as anartist in order to draw for CharlesQuinlan. Were you taking classes, orwere you self-taught?

HEATH: I was self-taught. I tookregular art classes in school, but theyhardly qualify.

(Above:) Russ as an infant, between his grandmother and mother.(Right:) Russ’ father in 1916. Photos courtesy of Russ Heath.

(Above & center:) Russ’ first ongoing assignment—in fact, his first comics assignment, period!—was “Hammerhead Hawley,” in Holyoke’s Captain Aero Comics. These two pages are from Vol. 3, #12

(real #14, April 1944)—the feature’s final appearance—and are courtesy of Jim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.

(Right:) The Holyoke artist/editor who basically hired Russ was Charles Quinlan, who drew its majorfeature, “Cat-Man.” Seen here is the cover of Cat-Man Comics #1 (1941), initiated after the hero hadbecome a hit in Crash Comics. Thanks to the guys at Heritage Comics; check out their auctions and

website at <www.HeritageComics.com>—and tell ‘em Alter Ego sent you, okay? We wanna keep ongetting those bee-yootiful catalogs! [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

“I Was So Interested in Drawing That I Didn’t Want to Do Anything Else!” 3

“I Figured I’d Better Get a Regular Job”JA: When you got out of the service, what did youdo?

HEATH: I was in the 52-20 club, which was 52 weeksat twenty bucks a week to adjust to civilian life. I spentmost of it in a bar, and then I got a job as a lifeguard ata swim club. I met a girl there and got married. Afterfinding a baby was on the way, I figured I’d better geta regular job.

I took my portfolio to New York every day, from10 a.m. to 4 p.m., looking for work. I used to visitfamous artists, which was easier to do in those daysbecause they didn’t have people to turn you away. Icalled up Albert Dorne, told him I was a young artistwith a portfolio, and he invited me up. That’s how it was in those days.

It took me seventy-some days to find a job. I’d go see someone andthey’d say, “We don’t have anything now. Check back later.” And they’dtell me to go see someone else, so the list kept growing. Eventually, I gota job as a gofer at an ad agency, Benton and Bowles. I was making $35 aweek, half of which went to travel expenses and laundry, so I decided Ineeded a better job.

Eventually, I walked into Stan Lee’s office at Timely, and he hired meat $75 a week. I staggered out of there, realizing that I had just doubledmy salary. This was in 1947.

JA: What was Stan like when you met him?

HEATH: He was exactly like he is now. I worked in the bullpen, andafter a few months, Stan said, “You don’t have to come into the officeevery day. You can work at home if you want.” I was still on salary. Ithink Two-Gun Kid was the first thing I worked on.

JA: What was it like to work in the bullpen?

HEATH: If I remember correctly, there were two other guys working inthe room with me. There were other guys in other rooms, but it’s allpretty vague to me now. I remember that Syd Shores worked there, butI’m not sure if he was in my room.

JA: Were many other staffers working at home, too? I know DaveGantz did that.

HEATH: It seems to me that there were. Some guys worked in theoffice and at home, too. Some only worked in the office. It varied fromperson to person.

I started off doing complete art on the stories. The pencilers werefilling in the black areas for the inkers (in pencil, not in ink) and I said,“That takes too much time. The inker can do that faster than thepenciler,” but they had their own ideas. I took one of my pages, made acopy, which I darkened, and told them that they could just print fromthis. They thought it was a terrific idea, so Stan fired most of the inkers.Quite a few inkers were down on me for a couple of years. But thenTimely found out that I was one of the very few pencilers who couldpencil that cleanly, so it didn’t last that long.

Russ in US Air Force uniform in 1945, juxtaposed with adrawing of another World War II flyboy (and his ladyfriend)that he drew in 2003 especially for collector Michael Dunne,

who generously sent us a copy. [Art ©2004 Russ Heath;Blackhawk & Lady Blackhawk TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

4 Russ Heath on Comic Books,Comic Strips, and Playboy

28

by Bill SchellyIntroduction

When one starts thinking abouthighly active “second-generation”members of comics fandom of the1960s, the name of Gary Brown popsright up, alongside Tony Isabella,Gary Groth, and Dwight Decker. InPart I (in A/E #37), Gary discussedhow he got involved in comicdomand came to publish two popular fanzines, Comic Comments andGremlin, with a lot of help from Wayne DeWald and AlanHutchinson. This time, we learn about some of Gary’s other fanactivities, including writing a popular column for Rocket’s Blast-Comicollector for several years. But before that, we must first coverthe second half of the publishing history of Comic Comments—thehalf Gary did as sole editor. [This interview was conducted bytelephone on October 2nd, 2003, and was transcribed by Brian K.Morris.]

Gary Takes OverBILL SCHELLY: After establishing Comic Comments as one of themost popular news and letters fanzines, there was a hiatus. You didGremlin #1, which was your general fanzine, and those issues ofComic Comments. But in mid- to late 1967, it ended. Why?

GARY BROWN: Basically, when Wayne [DeWald] didn’t come back toschool [at the University of South Florida], I couldn’t do it. I started totake over a lot of it that one summer because I had access to a mimeo-graph. But, in school, it was tougher to do by myself. It was my thirdyear of college; I was getting involved in a lot of other things. I decidedto kind-of drop it for a while, because it was just a hassle.

BS: Sometimes people don’t realize that fanzine publishing isn’t justtyping it up and getting the artwork ready—it was running it off, itwas collating the issues, it was putting on stamps, it was keeping trackof addresses and subscriptions. There’s a lot of time involved,especially when a fanzine was selling close to 300 copies per issue.

BROWN: Yeah, it would take up a good part of your weekend, just theproduction work alone.

BS: When did you graduate from college?

BROWN: I graduated in early ’70. My degree was in English Literature,with a minor in Mass Communications.

BS: At that point, in the spring of 1970, Comic Comments came back.So it was never too far from your mind, as far as something youmight want to do.

BROWN: Right. I wasn’t out of fandom or collecting at all. It was justdoing the fanzine that I couldn’t do. I stayed active in [comics amateurpress alliance] CAPA-alpha, which I joined in 1966. I think my firstzine was in ’67, early ’67.

BS: If I’m not mistaken, your Ibid zines have been in appearing in K-a ever since, and are still ongoing. And, of course, you wereCentral Mailer for a while in the 1970s, too. Has there been anybreak?

BROWN: I had an Honorary Membership for two or three years whenI first got married, and moved around, but I still was getting themailings, so there hasn’t been a break for me at all. It goes through a lotof different phases. Sometimes, it was, [flat voice] “Uhh, okay,” andother times, it’s like—I think, for the last seven or eight years, it’s beenwonderful. I’ve really enjoyed it, more than ever.

BS: Getting back to Comic Comments… you were the sole editorand publisher of its second heyday. Wayne contributed to itsometimes, though, didn’t he?

BROWN: He did a little. I told him I’d like to do this, and he kind-ofgave me his blessing. Wayne was just getting married. I was just out ofcollege; I was really into it. I decided I was going to do this monthlynewszine, maybe 6-10 pages at the most, and try to have a few letters,but mostly news. I talked to a few people who were my sources in NewYork, and had some editors who fed me some, basically, press release-type news.

BS: Sometime in its second run, your fanzine became a little bit morelike a Comic Reader, where there was more emphasis on news andwhat was coming out. You were more like a fandom reporter thistime.

BROWN: Right, that was my intent. I didn’t want to make it too big a

Gary Brown,Comic Book Reporter

PART 2 of Our Interview with the Editor of Comic Comments, Gremlin, & Comixscene

Gary Brown (on right) and science-fiction great Ray Bradbury at the 2002 San Diego Comic-Con—juxtaposed with SteveFritz’s art for the cover of Comic Comments #24 (April 1971). [Art ©2004 the artist; Batman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Comic Fandom Archive

job, because sometimes the early issues of CC would be 20-some pages,and I didn’t want to go through all that. I wanted to be able to do X-amount of pages and that was it. I could keep it on a monthly schedulethat way, too.

The 1969 New York ComiconBS: For a while, you stuck pretty much to that schedule. I supposesome of those news contacts came from people you met in New YorkCity at the 1969 Seuling con, so maybe now would be a good time totalk about that. Was that the first convention you attended?

BROWN: Well, we had a mini-convention in Florida with seven or eightof us, but that didn’t count. Wayne had gone to the 1968 SCARP-Conthe year before. He came back with sketches by Al Williamson, MurphyAnderson, and all these people, and just blew me away. So I said, “I’mgoing next year.”

BS: There’s that famous photograph—youactually were the one who provided it tome for The Golden Age of ComicFandom—of the banquet at the 1969 NewYork Comicon. Among the sea of faces,you can be seen sitting at a table with abunch of pros, including Archie Goodwin,and so forth—a lot of people you becameassociated with. Some of the Charltonpeople such as Sal Trapini. And there’sAngelo Torres and Gray Morrow. Justsitting at that table must have blown yourmind.

BROWN: You bet. That whole experiencewas the best I’ve ever had at a convention. Iknew Marv Wolfman and Murray Boltinoff,and I made arrangements. I got there a day

early and went up to DC. When I was waiting to go in, who shouldwalk up but Al Williamson! He was turning in his first DC work. It wasa science-fiction story, I can’t remember which mag it was for, maybeWitching Hour or House of Mystery. And Wayne had become fastfriends with him the year before; in fact, he even visited his house afterthe con.

So I introduced myself to Al, said I knew Wayne, and Williamsonsaid, “That’s great. Come on with me. We’ll go in.” Neal Adams wasthere, and Giordano—you name it! We talked for a while, and whenthey decided to go to lunch, Al dragged me along. So I had lunch withAl Williamson, Neal Adams, Frank Robbins, Dick Giordano, andmaybe Archie Goodwin. We were all there, sitting, talking comic books.I thought, “Boy, I wish I could take a picture of this!” [laughs]

BS: Luckily, someone did get that photo of you and those guys at thebanquet. That had to be a thrill, almost a surreal experience for a guyfrom Florida.

BROWN: It was amazing. It really was.

BS: And of course, that meant that, when you came back, yourcontacts were that much better for Comic Comments.

BROWN: Oh, yeah, yeah. That helped a lot. Some said, “I’ll just letyou know when I hear something,” and they did. Sometimes not forattribution, though. Occasionally, someone would call and say, “Hey,have you heard so-and-so?” I’d go, “No,” and they’d tell me what theyheard, and I’d try to confirm it then.

An International Scoop!BS: The news of Fatman [see A/E #37] was a great scoop, but an evenbigger one involved Hal Foster. How did that one come about?

BROWN: One day, out of the blue, Marv Wolfman phoned and said,“Hey, have you heard that Hal Foster’s not going to be doing PrinceValiant any more?” He told me Foster had arranged for some people totry out for the strip: Gray Morrow, and Wally Wood, and John CullenMurphy, and a few others. Marv said, “That’s all I know. I don’t evenknow if it’s true.” So I called King Features.

See, this wasn’t big news back then, outside of the comic book realm.It wouldn’t have been considered particularly newsworthy. Now they’dhave it on the front page of many newspapers. So King wasn’t reallyequipped to handle stuff like that. When they got my question, I talkedto Bill Harris—I think it was Bill Harris— and he confirmed it. It was aseasy as that. I wasn’t able to confirm it with Foster, who lived in Florida,but we ran with it anyway. As far as I know, we broke it before anyoneelse, worldwide.

An Alan Hutchinson Deadman illustration for Gremlin #2 (1970).[Art ©2004 Alan Hutchinson; Deadman TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

Gary Brown, Comic Book Reporter 29

A one-table detail from a panoramic photo taken at Phil Seuling’s first solo New York Comicon in 1969.Moving clockwise from Archie Goodwin (the man with glasses who has his hands folded under his chin,

the revelers are: [unidentified], Gary Brown (the only other guy wearing glasses), artists Jeff Jones and Al Williamson, Jerry Weist, artist Sal Trapani, [unidentified, with first goatee], and artists Gray Morrow

and Angelo Torres. For the big picture, pick up a copy of Bill’s ground-breaking volume The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, still available from Hamster Press (see ad on p. 42.).

33

WALLY WOOD: Wally Wood was recruited when he and his senior“partner,” Harry Harrison, solicited work from EC… and I conse-quently, after a job or two, talked Wally into getting Harry off his backand doing stories for me on his own.

JOE ORLANDO: I noticed the talents of Joe Orlando when hebecame Wally Wood’s assistant after Wally struck out on his own… andI encouraged him to break free of Wally just as I’d encouraged Wally tobreak free of Harry. (I don’t know what it is about these talented guysthat assist other artists while preferring to remain anonymous and in thebackground! Shyness? Insecurity?)

JACK DAVIS: Jack Davis walked into our offices, a hayseedSoutherner fresh from Atlanta, with a drawing andinking style like no other I’d ever seen before...(and I really doubt that Jack would have beenreceived with open arms at any other comic bookpublishing house with those hairy, scratchy earlysamples!)... but I saw his potential and grabbedhim for our newly-launched horror and crimebooks... later giving him sci-fi to do, as well.

Jack… was the personification of the “ArtPhilosophy” that I was promoting at EC... encour-aging artists to work in their own, inimitable,personal “signature” styles instead of imitatingwhat was being done by other, successful artists.

JACK KAMEN: Jack Kamen and I hadworked together after World War II in Jerry Iger’sstudio... until I decided to strike out on my ownand freelance. Years later, when Jack walked intoEC looking for an assignment, I made him aregular because I needed an illustrator-type whocould draw handsome men and beautiful womenin a clean, crisp illustrative style.

REED CRANDALL: Ditto Reed Crandall,with his distinctive style. We’d worked together atIger’s, and when he showed up at EC, I hired himon the spot as an EC team member.

AL WILLIAMSON: Al Williamson showed

me a spectacular portfolio and immediately earned his place on the ECteam based on those wonderful samples. I wasn’t to learn until muchlater that he had his own unofficial stable of artists (“The Fleagles”)helping him and ghosting for him, including Frank Frazetta, RoyKrenkel, Angelo Torres, etc., etc.

GEORGE EVANS: George Evans visited the EC office, solicitingwork, and was hired because he filled an empty niche somewherebetween Jack Kamen and Jack Davis... a more dramatic style thanKamen’s… but tighter and more illustrative than Davis. And, later on,his incredible knowledge of World War I airplanes was invaluable inAces High, one of our post-Code “New Direction” titles.

Introduction

by Michael T. GilbertThis issue we’re featuring some rare material by Harvey Kurtzman,

Wally Wood, and Al Feldstein, three of Mad magazine’s most famousalumni! So without further ado…

Follow That Girl! (Opposite page & p. 36:) A few months back, the“Crypt” reprinted a series of late-’40s Harvey Kurtzman cartoons fromVarsity magazine. Kurtzman, of course, was the genius who createdMad as a comic book in 1952. Dutch Kurtzmaniac Ger Apeldoorndiscovered these rare Varsity strips, drawn at the dawn of Harvey’sbrilliant career, and “lost” for half a century. The two articles in AlterEgo #33-34 collected what we believed to be all the strips Kurtzman haddrawn for Varsity. But, shortly before our article appeared, Geruncovered one more! This beauty is from Varsity, Vol. 2, #21 (Nov.-Dec. 1949). We’re delighted Ger allowed us to share his latest find withyou. Let’s hope there’s even more out there waiting to be rediscovered.

Next we have…

Color, Commando, Communication. The Harwyn PictureEncyclopedia (later reprinted as Art Linkletter’s Picture EncyclopediaFor Boys And Girls) was a multi-volume series published in the late1950s. The books featured art by many well-known comic book artists,including Al Williamson, Reed Crandall, and George Evans.

Wally Wood also contributed a handful of drawings for the series. Wepublished some of these in A/E #26 & #28, but were unable to fit thesetwo fine examples of Wood’s commercial work. Now we have, on pp.37-38!

The EC Crew. And finally, directly below, we have a short piece byformer EC editor Al Feldstein. Here, Al discusses how he and publisherBill Gaines hired many of the EC creators, including fellow Mad-menWally Wood and Harvey Kurtzman. This sidebar got squeezed out ofAl’s two-part e-mail interview in Alter Ego #37 & #39—but those issues’loss is this one’s gain!

And now, without still further ado, anyway…

The EC Crew in a Nutshell...as seen by Al Feldstein!

The EC gang, as drawn by Bill Elder. [©2004 William M. Gaines Agent.]

[continued on p 33]

34 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt

[MTG NOTE: On this page and the next are Harvey Kurtzman’s contributions to the college-style humor mag Varsity (Dec. 1949 issue).©2004 the Harvey Kurtzman Estate.]

Delightful “Clean-up” Column 35

[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 the classic origin story “Captain MarvelIntroduces Mary Marvel (CMA #18, Dec. ’42); but he was primarilyhired by Fawcett Publications to illustrate Captain Marvel stories andcovers for Whiz Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. He alsowrote many Captain Marvel scripts, and continued to do so while inthe military. After leaving the service in 1944, he made anarrangement with Fawcett to produce art and stories for them on afreelance basis out of his Louisiana home. There he created both artand story for The Phantom Eagle in Wow Comics, in addition todrawing the Flyin’ Jenny newspaper strip for Bell Syndicate (createdby his friend and mentor Russell Keaton). After the cancellation ofWow, Swayze produced artwork for Fawcett’s top-selling line ofromance comics, including Sweethearts and Life Story. After thecompany ceased publishing comics, Marc moved over to CharltonPublications, where he ended hiscomics career in the mid-’50s.Marc’s ongoing professionalmemoirs have been FCA’s mostpopular feature since his firstcolumn appeared in FCA #54,1996. Last issue, Marc gave us a glimpse of what would’vehappened if Captain Marvel hadappeared in Fawcett’s romancecomics. This time, the artistdiscusses some of his drawingtechniques... specifically, “bodytorque.” —P.C. Hamerlinck.]

If there’s one thing I learnedalong the professional trail aboutdrawing people… it’s what I referto as “body torque.” I call it thatbecause of a long, completelyunsuccessful quest for words thatmight be considered more appro-priate.

At one point I even turned indesperation to the medicalprofession. “How do you guys sayit when you’re talking about thetwist the body takes… thatbusiness where the shoulders turnone way and the hips another?”

“Where does it hurt most?” wasthe reply. Those guys! There must

have been a last-minute med school directive that, when confronted withsuch a question, they busy themselves at something else… to mostassuredly denote utter indifference.

“No, no,” I explained. “When you discuss that turn of the torso…what is the language you use?”

“English,” said the doctor.

Okay… so much for his vernacular… I would try my own: “I call it‘body torque.’ It’s like when your hero stands flat-footed and swings afist at his evil foe, his feet stay planted and…”

“What’s wrong with ‘body torque’?”

“Sounds too mechanical… likein an auto shop.” The doc, whoalso happened to be my son, wasdeliberately giving me a bad time.“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll take anaspirin and call you in themorning.”

What I learned about bodytorque… other than there beingabsolutely no acceptable substituteterm for it…was like anawakening… a discovery. It hadbeen there all the time and I hadn’tnoticed.

Interesting subjects fordiscussion were plentiful duringmy first job after the milk wagon.Russell Keaton knew so muchabout the business, and I so little.Yet, I don’t recall one word about“body torque.”

In drawing Captain Marvel, alittle later on, it was not a topicfiled away in the back of the mindever ready for action, as were hissuper-powers. If the mighty super-hero twisted his hips a bit whileslamming bad folks around, it wasa natural action and, at my board,drawn as such.

“Phantom Eagle [was] quite active, but with littlemore flexibility than a bar of soap.” [Art ©2004Marc Swayze; Phantom Eagle TM & ©2004 the

respective copyright holders.]

(c) mds[Art & logo ©2004 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel © & TM 2004 DC Comics]

By

“Body torque… had been around all the time and I hadn’t noticed.”[Art ©2004 Marc Swayze; Captain Marvel TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

43

[EDITOR’S NOTE: Lastissue we presented Part I ofFrank Motler’s study of howFawcett titles and even art andstory were segued over toCharlton and its distributor,Capital Distribution Company,after Fawcett left the comicsbusiness near the end of 1953.Also examined was howCharlton/CDC releasedpublished and unpublishedmaterial from a third company,Toby Press, in a joint 1955venture. Frank continues thisaccount with, first, a look atCharlton and its history—thenhighlights some non-Fawcett inventory it also appropriated. —PCH.]

New Kid on the BlockBased in Derby, Connecticut, Charlton Comics began publishing

comics sometime in the mid-1940s. The company had been founded onthe unauthorized reprinting of popular song lyrics, with such magazinesas Song Hits and Hit Parader. While in prison for the offense, publisherJohn Santangelo formed a partnership with accountant Ed Levy, a fellowinmate, as detailed in Comic Book Artist #9. Upon their release, theysorted out the copyright problems and forged the necessary steps tobecoming a successful business.

Unlike most companies, they would print and distributetheir own publications. Most publishers of that time wouldcontract this work out. Early editions of the cult super-herotitle Yellowjacket Comics were published by “FrankComunale Publishing Co., 49 Hawkins Street, Derby,Connecticut,” and later “The Frank Publishing Co.,” sameaddress. This name would evolve into “CharltonPublications.” Yellowjacket ran ten issues between September1944 and June 1946. Issues #3-5 feature Rudy Palais’ finerenderings. Regular features included “Diana the Huntress,”

somewhat in the Wonder Woman mold, plus seven-page adaptations ofstories from the pen of horror maestro Edgar Allan Poe. Under thebanner “Famous Tales of Terror,” these included “The Black Cat,” “TheFall of the House of Usher,” and “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Duringthe period Yellowjacket Comics was in print, its super-hero star alsomade an appearance in TNT Comics #1 (Feb. 1946). Although publishedby the “Charlton Publishing Co.,” it is thought to be another Charltonprecursor.

With issue #11 (Oct. 1946), Yellowjacket Comics was retitled Jack in the Box, now published by Charlton; it featured the masthead “A Charlton Magazine” and corresponding indicia. Yellowjacket,presumably, was advised not to let the door catch his cape on the wayout! A companion title was the earnest but dull Marvels of Science. In

…And Then There Were None!46

Charlton and the Remnants of the Fawcett Comics Empire–-–Part IIby Frank “Derby” Motler

The champ and the not-quite-Charlton challengers: Captain Marvel, then the big chief among Superman rivals,

contemplates “Yellowjacket,” “Diana the Huntress,” and “TelltaleHeart” splashes from Yellowjacket Comics #6 (Dec. 1945). This mag(artists uncertain) was published by a forerunner of Charlton/CDC,

which in the mid-1950s would pick up the reins of many of Fawcett’snon-super-hero titles. In 1945, however, Fawcett was still riding high,

and even launched the brand new Marvel Family Comics. The C.C.Beck Cap figure at left is from the cover of Captain Marvel Adventures

#83 (April 1948). [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

1948, Jack in the Boxwas retitled with its17th issue and becameCowboy Western. Fansof the obscure willrelish its furtherretitling, as it becameSpace Western #40(Oct. 1952), featuring“Spurs Jackson andHis Space Vigilantes.”

Zoo Funnies was another early runner. This was also renamed—initially for real-life western movie star Tim McCoy #16-21 (1948-9),with the final five issues becoming Pictorial Love Stories. The latterquintet feature odd but attractive, semi-painted photo covers. Theweirdness continues inside with “Me, DanCupid,” with a mischievous semi-clad sprite asthe lead in the romance issues. New offerings in1951 were Sunset Carson, True Life Secrets,Hot Rods and Racing Cars, plus the crimetitles Crime and Justice and Lawbreakers.(Sunset Carson was another western film star,whose true name was Winifred MauriceHarrison.)

These titles were supplemented in 1952 byRacket Squad in Action, Space Adventures, andThe Thing! A large-format magazine, the short-lived Fantastic Science Fiction, also from 1952, isnoteworthy. Edited by fabled pulp writer WalterGibson, its issues contain covers and spot illus-trations by several Charlton comic book artists.

In 1953, the foregoing modest inventory oftitles was supplemented by Atomic Mouse, arevamped Zoo Funnies, and the Mad imitationEh! Dig This Crazy Comic!

The Big TimeWith the acquisition of around 30 titles

from Fawcett, Toby, and others, Charltonentered the major leagues. Before this, theirrange was modest, with no more than eleventitles. The loss of Fawcett, with its huge salesand quality product, would leave opportu-nities for the surviving comics companies.CDC’s early management was erratic.

Edward Levy appears to have been the senior partner, with fellow ownerJohn Santangelo assuming the role of business manager. Their respectivesons, both named Charles, were given editorship credits in several earlyindicias. However, the more important “Statement of Ownership,”required by the US Post Office, ignored this in favor of Burton N.Levey [sic], who in 1953 was also listed as a co-owner. Charles W.Bishop edited the early Hot Rods and Racing Cars issues, until AlfredV. Fago assumed a general editorship of all titles in 1953. After 1954, hiscredit was changed to “Designed by Al Fago Studios.”

Fago’s arrival in 1951 corresponded with an influx of interestingartists. Among them were John Belfi, Stan Campbell, Art Cappello,Albert Tyler, Bob Forgione, Frank Frollo, Dick Giordano, and LouMorales. Any lack of polish on the part of these craftsmen was morethan compensated for by their wild enthusiasm for the material they

“One short step for a man—one giant leap for mankind”(perhaps even into womankind!)—or, “From Sagebrush toSci-fi, in One Issue!” With #40 (Oct. 1952), Cowboy Western

became Space Western, starring “Spurs Jackson and HisSpace Vigilantes.” Frank Motler, er, points out Spurs’ “decentpair of breasts, shapely legs, plus riding shorts”—a hint that

this cover was probably partly redrawn (by bylined artistJohn Belfi or others) from art that had originally featured afemale protagonist. Fawcett horse operas were never like

this! [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

Some of Charlton’s earliest titles, published while FawcettComics was still a going concern, were: Pictorial LoveStories (#23, Jan. 1950—really the 2nd issue, featuring

a Don Ornitz cover photo of B-movie/Hal Roach TV actressJoy/Joi Lansing)—Hot Rods & Racing Cars #10 (June 1953;interior splash)—Crime and Justice #12 (March 1953)—andThe Thing! (#5, Oct.-Nov. 1952; inside front cover). Thelatter three pieces of art are all by Lou Morales, who inCrime and Justice #5-18 drew the husband-and-wife

detective team of “Curtis and Merry Chase,” doubtlessinspired by the 1930s-40s Thin Man movies starring

William Powell and Myrna Loy. The “Chase” stories in #19-21 were penciled by Joe Shuster and inked by Ray Osrin.

[©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

...And Then There Were None! 47

No.40September

2004

Well, Not Quite!We’ve Also Got:

NEAL ADAMSMURPHY ANDERSONANDRU & ESPOSITOSERGIO ARAGONÉS

KAREN BERGERHANNES BOK

JACK BRADBURYJACK COLE

REED CRANDALLDICK DILLINWILL ELDER

AL FELDSTEINLOU FINE

VIRGIL FINLAYNEIL GAIMAN

JOSÉ GARCIA-LÓPEZDAVE GIBBONS

JOE GIELLAMICHAEL T. GILBERTBOB GREENBERGER

JACK C. HARRISIRWIN HASEN

CARMINE INFANTINOJOE KUBERT

HARVEY KURTZMANSHELLY MOLDOFF

PETE MORISIIRV NOVICK

DOUG POTTERCHARLES QUINLAN

MAC RABOYBILL SCHELLY

MIKE SEKOWSKYSIMON & KIRBY

CURT SWANMARC SWAYZE

ANTHONY TOLLINALEX TOTH

MICHAEL USLANLEN WEIN

& WALLY WOOD!

Well, Not Quite!We’ve Also Got:

NEAL ADAMSMURPHY ANDERSONANDRU & ESPOSITOSERGIO ARAGONÉS

KAREN BERGERHANNES BOK

JACK BRADBURYJACK COLE

REED CRANDALLDICK DILLINWILL ELDER

AL FELDSTEINLOU FINE

VIRGIL FINLAYNEIL GAIMAN

JOSÉ GARCIA-LÓPEZDAVE GIBBONS

JOE GIELLAMICHAEL T. GILBERTBOB GREENBERGER

JACK C. HARRISIRWIN HASEN

CARMINE INFANTINOJOE KUBERT

HARVEY KURTZMANSHELLY MOLDOFF

PETE MORISIIRV NOVICK

DOUG POTTERCHARLES QUINLAN

MAC RABOYBILL SCHELLY

MIKE SEKOWSKYSIMON & KIRBY

CURT SWANMARC SWAYZE

ANTHONY TOLLINALEX TOTH

MICHAEL USLANLEN WEIN

& WALLY WOOD! Art

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$5.95In the USA

$5.95In the USA

11994--2004JULIESCHWARTZ& GIL KANE’Nuff Said?

JULIESCHWARTZ& GIL KANE’Nuff Said?

Alter EgoTM is published monthly by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, 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 ofJACK BRADBURY

JULIESCHWARTZ& GIL KANESection Contents

Writer/Editorial: Three’s a Crowd––but That’s Not a Bad Thing! . 2The Julius Schwartz Memorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3March 18, 2004: Remembrances of a Legend.

My Second Favorite Julie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Mr. S. said to Jim Amash: “Tell these stories after I’m dead!” So he did.

Tributes to a Titan: The Sequel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Still more comics pros recall their close encounters with Julie Schwartz.

The Agent of Cthulhu. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28J.S. as science-fiction agent, recounted by Scott Shaeffer.

“You Can’t Measure Comics Up against Anything Else!” . . . . 33A short 1998 interview with the great Gil Kane, conducted by Daniel Herman.

Sort of The Atom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Prototypes, precursors, and maybe just plain parallels of DC’s Silver Age Mighty Mite, by John Wells.

Silhouettes Redux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Alex Toth on the awesome power of the outline in comic art.

Jack Bradbury Remembered . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Russ Heath & Friends Section . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Flip Us!About Our Cover: Collector Marc Svensson, who sent us this splendiferous piece of never-before-printed art, informs us that artist Gil Kane drew it as a gift for Julie Schwartz on his80th birthday in 1995, and that it became “Julie’s most favorite thing on his office wall.” It’s a superb piece, which just cried out to be a cover on Alter Ego—and who are we to resist such a siren call? You can see it in black-&-white on p. 43 in this issue. [Art ©2004 Elaine Kane; Green Lantern, Flash, Atom, Rex, & Johnny Thunder TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]Above: In the second “Two Flashes” team-up, in The Flash #137 (June 1963), Vandal Savageforced the Crimson Comets to duke it out, both on the cover and in these panels drawn byCarmine Infantino and Joe Giella, written by Gardner Fox, and edited by Julie Schwartz.Reproduced from a photocopy of the original art, courtesy of a generous donor whose name wehave ungenerously overlooked—but whom we owe a free copy of A/E! [©2004 DC Comics.]

Vol. 3, No. 40 / September 2004Editor 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 ArtistsGil KaneRuss Heath

Covers ColoristTom Ziuko

And Special Thanks to:Neal AdamsGer ApeldoornManuel AuadBrian H. BailieBob BaileyJeff BaileyMike W. BarrNick BarrucciBlake BellAllen & Roz BellmanDave BennettKaren BergerBruce BristowMrs. Peggy BroomeGary BrownFrank BrunnerMike BurkeyJoe CaporaleNick CaputoMike CarlinBob CherryShaun ClancyJon B. CookePeter DavidTeresa R. DavidsonAl DellingesShel DorfTerry DoyleMichael DunneHarlan & Susan EllisonMark EvanierAl FeldsteinBill FieldElliot FineShane FoleyNeil GaimanCarl GaffordKen GaleJosé Garcia-LópezFrank GiellaJanet GilbertGlen David GoldScott GoodellBob GreenbergerBeth Gwinn

Jennifer T. HamerlinckJack C. HarrisIrwin HasenRuss HeathDaniel HermanRoger HillAndrea HopkinsTom HorvitzElaine KaneFred & Rita KellyAdele KurtzmanPaul LevitzGuy H. Lillian IIIJean-Marc & Randy

LofficierRicia MainhardtRich MarkowDonald Dale MilneSheldon MoldoffAlan MooreBrian K. MorrisFrank MotlerScott V. NorrisDenny O’NeilAdam PhillipsRobert PincombePaul RivocheSteve SaffelArlen SchumerScott SheafferBhob StewartMarc SvenssonMarc SwayzeDann ThomasMaggie ThompsonBrian ThomsenMike TiefenbacherAnthony TollinAlex TothMichael UslanJim Vadeboncoeur, Jr.Dr. Michael J. VassalloLen WeinTom Ziuko

[EDITOR’S NOTE: On the morning of March18, 2004, a memorial was held by DC Comics for Julius Schwartz,who had passed away at the age of 88 on February 8. Because of thelimited time available, only a relatively small number of those inattendance were able to voice their thoughts about the man they hadknown… but those few words speak volumes. We have omittednoting points at which the audience laughed or burst into spontaneousapplause; but rest assured, there were many such. You can imaginethose places as well as we can. Julie was loved and revered by hispeers… as you are about to be reminded. The remarks have beenedited slightly, in spots, in the interests of space. These omissions aregenerally indicated by ellipses (…). —Roy.]

PAUL LEVITZ: Good morning. Before we begin the formalmemories—in his usual organized fashion, Mr. Schwartz decided to editthis event, and has had a long-standing arrangement with Rich Markow,who is the custodian of his jazz collection. Rich burned the CD you’relistening to, and it will play again as we’re going out, but Julie had aspecific selection that he asked to be played today. Organized, as always,and keeping us on our toes, as always. May we please have a selectionfrom the Schwartz Collection?

[Tape plays of “Flee as a Bird/Didn’t He Ramble” by LouisArmstrong]

LEVITZ: As far as I know, Julie had not arranged for anything else tohappen here—but none of us would put it past him, so we’ll just take it a

step at a time. Thank you allfor coming. Over the years,days like this have been avery special tradition withinour field. It’s now for me toshare the life experience we’vehad as a community and ofsome unique people who havecome through our lives andtimes. Julie was certainlyunique among the unique, ourself-proclaimed “LivingLegend.” He had touched atremendous amount of lives.

To those of you who havenot been to one of these before,we have no system, we have noorganization; we have an openmike, and there’s usually morethan enough love and enoughmemory in the room to carry us.Because of the venue in whichwe’re doing this, we do have towrap up by noon and then beout of here so the entertainmentcan go on for the rest of theworld. And Julie would not

approve of our missing our deadlines in the process. So I’m going tosimply turn the mike over to people as we go. And my preference wouldbe perhaps the suggested limit would not be more than a minute or twofor every decade you’ve known Julie. There are a few people here whomight account for quite a bit of time.

Just to start it rolling, Brian? If you’d be so kind as to read the formaleulogy? Harlan Ellison sends his deep regrets at not being able to makeit here, but a combination of the snow canceling a flight and last-minutehealth problems has stuck him in California, waiting for Julie’s call, andI’ll ask Julie’s collaborator to fill in.

BRIAN M. THOMSEN: Nobody can deliver a piece the way Harlancan, so if you’ll bear with me. Also, it now gives me the rare honor tohave now collaborated with two living legends…. In deference to thepiece, I’m only going to take a minute before reading it and a minuteagain, and one minor interruption, in reading it. This piece came toHarlan about the Friday before Julie passed. I got a phone call fromHarlan and he basically said, “Kiddo, the time has come. I’ve got to putsomething together and I don’t know where to start. And can youpossibly just give me the key dates and facts and I’ll fill in everythingelse so that I don’t have to keep referring back to the book?”

So I basically put together a one-page that was decade-by-decade…probably no more than 125 words. Oh, he hit the Lovecraft time, he hitthe Solar Sales time, and all that, to send it all off to him so that he

The Julius SchwartzMemorial Service

Remembrances of a LegendTranscribed by Brian K. Morris Videotape Courtesy of Marc Svensson

We couldn’t think of any more appropriate way tobegin this transcript of the memorial than to reproduce

the front and back covers of the four-page pamphlethanded out that day. The photo by Beth Gwinn was oneof Julie’s all-time favorites of himself, a fuller copy ofwhich adorned the cover of his 2000 memoir Man ofTwo Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics—

while Joe Kubert’s masterful caricature-plus had firstbeen published in color in a 1970s issue of DC’s own

house fanzine, The Amazing World of DC Comics.Thanks to Marc Svensson for loaning us his personal

copy of the pamphlet. [Art ©2004 the respectivecopyright holders; heroes TM & ©2004 DC Comics.]

3

would have something to framethe story, but he was obviouslyupset, too. And then at the end, hesaid, “And while you’re doingthis, you can’t tell anybody,”because we were doing this inpreparation for Julie. So I sent offthe research and Harlan put ittogether and I was quite surprisedto see that I got a collaborativenote on it by Harlan. And withthat in mind, I will start reading itand please forgive me for notbeing Harlan’s equal. He doesn’thave many, and one of them hasjust passed. [begins reading; pieceis ©2004 The KilimanjaroCorporation]

“‘Softly, A Living Legend Passes’“Obituary by Harlan Ellison“There are great men, and there are

good men. Seldom are both qualities met in one person. But even MelBrooks knew how to honor this great, good man: ‘May the Schwartzbe with you!’ And now he has gone through that final doorway, if notthe last of the great Golden Age editors, then surely the oldest. JuliusSchwartz died peacefully from complications of pneumonia atWinthrop Hospital, Mineola, New York, at a minute or two of 2:30AM, Saturday night/Sunday morning, 8 February 2004.

“His vita of achievements will read, to anyone even passinglyfamiliar with 20th Century literature and popular culture, as ifsomeone had combined the dossiers of a dozen men and womenworking overtime, 24/7, for decades. He was the quiet, balding, gentletaskmaster whose creativity was pumped into hundreds of writers,artists, editors, and fans of the heroic milieu on a daily basis for at leastthree generations. His name again was Julius Schwartz, though everyonecalled him Julie; and his going confounds all of us who knew him, truly,as a Living Legend; and stuns us because we were convinced he wasimmortal. And until Sunday, none of us had lived in a world where Juliedid not exist. Now he is gone, and 88-plus years doesn’t seem, somehow,nearly as amazing a run as we’d thought. The great educator and socialreformer John William Gardner once noted, ‘Some people strengthen thesociety just by being the kind of people they are.’ Great, but also good.

“That he was Ray Bradbury’s first agent, you may know.

“That he was the editor of Superman for close on a quarter of acentury, you may also know.

“That he was the man who got Lovecraft’s At the Mountains ofMadness published, is also common legend. But here is a skeletalchronology of the Horatio Alger-style climb of Julie Schwartz fromchild of poor immigrants to, well, Living Legend:

“His parents, Joseph and Bertha, emigrated from a small townoutside Bucharest, Romania. Julie was a Jew, and damned proud of it,despite the tsuriss that pride would later bring. He was born at home.817 Caldwell Avenue in the Bronx. 19 June 1915, smack in the middle ofWorld War I. There is no truth whatever in the canard that he emergedfrom Bertha waving a New York Yankees pennant. But he did teethe onone.

“He attended Theodore Roosevelt High School and was the humoreditor of The Square Deal, the high school paper at that time edited byhis mentor, the famous Norman Cousins. Mid-teens, and already an

editor; already reading science fiction pulp magazines; already writing(his column was called ‘Jest a Moment’); the cultural amber in which helazed was already setting firmly. He graduated high school at ageseventeen. In 1931, a mere five years after Hugo Gernsback publishedthe first science fiction magazine, Julie made contact with a kid namedMort Weisinger, through the letter column Gernsback had initiated inAmazing Stories. In 1932 he and Weisinger and Allen Glasser started thefirst science fiction amateur magazine, the fanzine titled The TimeTraveller. Letter columns that solidified a literary community, amateurpublications that had the imprimatur of professionalism and editorialacuity, friendships with writers struggling to find their voices…foreshadowing.

“1934, the year the writer of this encomium—” Mr. Ellison, not Mr.Thomsen “—was born, Julie, with Mort, started the first sf literaryagency, Solar Sales Service. Their first sale was of Edmond Hamilton’s‘Master of the Genes’ to Wonder Stories. They got 10% of the magnif-icent fee. The sale was for $35, do the math.

“In 1935, Julie actually met H.P. Lovecraft, the great recluse, andsomehow convinced him to let Solar Sales market one of his stories. Anastounding $350 sale to Astounding Stories, the only time the super-natural scrivener managed to get into any of the top-paying markets. By

DC President and Publisher Paul Levitz (top left) and Brian Thomsen (left), whocollaborated with Julie (seen here with B.T.) on Man of Two Worlds—flanking apage from the first JLA-JSA team-up ever, in Justice League of America #21 (Aug.1963), “Crisis on Earth-One,” which Paul has often said was the first comic bookhe ever bought. That’s what we call starting off at the top! Sekowsky/Sachs art

repro’d from photocopies of the original, courtesy of Jerry G. Bails. Script byGardner Fox. Thanks to Locus Publications at <locus@locusmag.com> for the

Thomsen/Schwartz photo. [JLA page ©2004 DC Comics.]

4 Remembrances of a Legend

the time Weisinger left the agency for editorial jobs, Julie was repre-senting the absolute caviar of that pool of imaginative writers: HenryKuttner, the magnificent Stanley Weinbaum, Leigh Brackett, ManlyWade Wellman, Eric Frank Russell, Otto Binder, andeven Robert Heinlein for one story. 1938: Julie snagsRobert Bloch, eventually selling 75 stories, includingthe memorable, many-times-reprinted ‘Yours Truly,Jack the Ripper.’ 1940: a kid named Alfred Bestercomes to Julie, is mentored by him, and Julie makes hisfirst sale, ‘Life for Sale,’ to Amazing Stories. 1939: Juliemeets a kid named Ray Bradbury, takes him on, sells‘The Pendulum’ to Super Science Stories, and itappears on newsstands on Bradbury’s 21st birthday.

“In February of 1944 (Julie remembered it was the23rd of February; he remembered that at age 87; he wasold, he wasn’t senile), Julie entered the next phase ofhis career when he went to work for All-AmericanComics as an editor. All-American was one of thedivisions that we know today as DC.

“He wrote for DC and edited for DC and createdfor DC from 1944 till 1989 when he retired as EditorEmeritus, Comics Ambassador Plenipotentiarywithout Portfolio, and endless resource for the comicbook industry.

“But for those 45 years, nearly half his life, duringwhich he went to the office every day in a jacket andtie like a real adult, during which time he worked onvirtually every important DC title that shaped themorality and ethics of kids everywhere in thiscountry—editing more than 160 issues of StrangeAdventures, and more than 90 issues of Mystery inSpace, and shepherding the revival of Batman—one ofDC’s two most important, flagship characters—withhis assumption of the editorship of Detective Comicswith issue #327, and in 1970 becoming the group editorof all the Superman comic books, a job he held fortwenty years, even through the legendary Neal Adamsrevamp and the Man of Steel’s appearance on the coverof Time magazine—for those 45 years he supported

and encouraged what came tobe known as the finest cadre ofwriters and artists who workedin the era famed as the SilverAge. Silver, because Juliebrought back to life a pantheonof great comics heroes who hadbeen dormant since thedemented witch-hunt days ofWertham, the Kefauverhearings, and the Legion ofDecency. He started byredesigning and reintroducing, incontemporary terms, The Flash.Then Green Lantern; The Atom;Hawkman; and then the JusticeLeague of America from theashes of the Justice Society in the1940s.

“He was the turbine that drovethe resurgence of comic bookpopularity. He saved from near-extinction one of the few trulyAmerican art-forms. He was theSimon Bolivar of his genre.

“And all through those times, those decades, no matter how manyfriends he had—and anyone who met him usually came away with a

smile, an anecdote, and a tiny lapel pinof Superman—he was also the lovinghusband of Jean, and the loving fatherof Jeanne. Though few who knew him,however intimately, knew of the painand difficulty that existed in hismarriage to his beloved Jean. Not myplace to speak of such here, but Julielived to see not only his children growinto estimable adults, but his grand-children, as well. He doted on them,brought them into his comics world,and led two separate and equallybeguiling lives. Jean’s death… well, henever got over it.

“This is his story, and I won’tshoehorn myself into it, save to say thatone of the delights of the last eighteenyears for me was the weekly call fromJulie. Every Wednesday morning, 8:15Los Angeles time, 11:15 in the DCoffices whence Julie made his subwayhegira every week, Julie called and wetalked about what each of us knew ofthe week’s gossip, events, scandals, andhiring-firings. He was amazed that if hecalled me, 3000 miles away from theoffice in which he sat, I knew secretstuff that no one in the halls would talkabout. He always wanted to know whomy ‘inside man at the skunk works’was. I never told him.

“We talked about the Yankees(which he loved)—”

I’m going to interrupt for a momentnow. I, too, always had a weekly phone

(Above:) From left to right, three giants of science-fiction—authors RayBradbury and Harlan Ellison, and agent & super-fan Julie Schwartz—

with awards they received at the 1998 Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia.Photo by Scott V. Norris, from the Julius Schwartz Collection. (Right:)By his accounts, Julie’s Solar Sales Service agented the first 70 stories

young Bradbury sold, including his first—“Pendulum,” written with anassist from Henry Hasse and appearing in the Nov. 1941 issue of thepulp magazine Super Science Stories, with title illustration by Ray’s

close friend, the talented Hannes Bok. [Art ©2004 the respectivecopyright holders; text ©2004 Ray Bradbury & Henry Hasse.]

This photo is one of a number taken in 1946,featuring (left to right) Mindy & Dave Feuerstein

(she was the sister of Mrs. John Broome), JeanOrdwein (the future Mrs. Schwartz), and Julie.Though we weren’t aware of the fact when we

printed several other pics from this period in AlterEgo #38, many of these photos were digitallyrestored a year or two before Julie’s death by

comics fan & historian Marc Svensson. Marc says:“There are a bunch [of photos] from ’46 that I wantto put all together in print someday, and write up

the stories that resulted. I have video of Mindy,David, and Peggy [Broome] going over these

photos.” Thanks, Marc, for sending us this one—and we hope you’ll give us a chance to print thoseadditional photos and your notes in a future issue!

The Julius Schwartz Memorial Service 5

My sister Julie is my favorite Julie. The great Mr. Schwartz is insecond place, and, knowing him, he would approve of my selection. Infact, he would insist on that ranking. And so would my sister. This isone of the few times Julie Schwartz ever took a back seat to anyone.

I knew Julie for twenty years. I was aware of his work because DCComics used to print the editors’ names in the indicia of their comicbooks. I quickly discovered that most of my favorite DC comics wereedited by Mr. Schwartz. Whenever DC put out a new title, I almostalways checked the indicia to see who the editor was. If I saw Julie’sname listed, I immediately bought the book. It didn’t matter what thebook was about, because Julie always gave me my money’s worth.

Julie’s letter pages were a lot of fun to read. He had a way of makingyoung kids feel connected to his books, a feat few others managed. Onhis worst day, on his worst title, Julie was still the overseer of qualityentertainment. A fan for life, I remained loyal to Julie’s books, neverdreaming that I’d someday meet him.

That changed in 1984. I was working for Acme Comics inGreensboro, North Carolina. The previous year, original co-ownersTom Wimbish, John Butts, and Mark Austin held the first of a series ofAcmeCons, and one of their guests was Murphy Anderson. It wasthrough Murphy that we got Julie as a guest for the second-year show.There were several other guests, including Will Eisner, Terry Austin,Archie Goodwin, Dave Sim, and Murphy once again. Despite thatimpressive roster, Julie Schwartz was the one I was most eager to meet.

Murphy knew how much I admired Julie, so at the first opportunity,he introduced us to each other. Julie did not disappoint me: he wasfunny, warm-hearted, and charming. And he hit me with that larger-thanlife personality right away. As we shook hands, I said, “I’ve alwayswanted to meet you.” Julie gruffly replied, “What for?” Immediately, Istarted laughing, loudly. Once I managed to stop, I could tell Julie reallygot a kick out of my reaction. He loved to hear me laugh (something Ido a lot of), and started telling funny stories, just to hear that laugh ofmine.

At dinner that night I sat across from Murphy Anderson, and we hadan extended conversation about comic book art. Julie was seated to hisright. Now, Murphy Anderson has one of the great bass voices of ourtime—a contrast to Julie’s higher pitch. Every so often, while Murphywas talking, Julie’s voice drowned his out, and I’d have to ask Murphy

to repeat what he said. At one point, Murphy said, “Are you listening tome?” I said, “I’m trying to, but I can’t hear you over Julie.” Murphychuckled, “I know what you mean.”

A few months later, Tom and John were planning the next AcmeCon,and because I knew Jack Kirby, they asked me to invite him to the show.It took a couple of weeks to get Jack and Roz to agree, primarilybecause they were going on a trip to Israel and we’d have to workaround it. I suggested to the guys that we change the convention date inorder to accommodate the Kirbys. They agreed, making the Kirbys’appearance possible. A few days later, Julie called the comic shop, saidhe had talked the Kirbys into coming to the show. Julie was so eager tohelp us, that we never told him that Jack and Roz had already agreed tocome. That’s the kind of man Julie was: always willing to help people heliked.

The convention was held June 1, 1985, eighteen days before Julie’s70th birthday. Murphy Anderson told us a secret: DC planned a specialissue of Superman to celebrate Julie’s birthday. Elliot Maggin, CurtSwan, and Murphy had surreptitiously created the story and were goingto spring it on Julie on that special day. We had a secret, too. We planneda surprise birthday party for Julie at Tom and Alyce Wimbish’s house.

My Second Favorite Julie“Tell These Stories after I’m Dead!”

by Jim Amash

Jim Amash with his “second favorite Julie” at the 1985 AcmeCon in Greensboro,North Carolina—and the Julie-edited, Murphy Anderson-drawn main splash

from Hawkman #12 (Feb.-March 1966), as repro’d from a black-&-whiteAustralian reprint, with thanks to Shane Foley. Script, as noted, is by Gardner

Fox. Photo by Teresa R. Davidson. [Hawkman page ©2004 DC Comics.]

20

(The same house, coincidentally, thatMurphy played at when he was growingup in Greensboro.)

After a home-cooked dinner for all theguests, everyone settled down in the denfor conversation. Before long, everybodywas asked to come into the kitchen. Juliewas surprised by the cake and that we’dremembered his birthday. We sang “HappyBirthday” to him and he blew out thecandles. As I was to find out some yearslater, Julie never forgot that party.

That was the last time Julie was able toattend an AcmeCon. Normally, our showswere held the first Sunday in November,and Julie always attended Pulp Con thatweekend. But Julie and I kept in touchthrough phone calls and Christmas cards,and spent time together at other comicbook conventions. Every Christmas, Imailed Julie a box of his favorite treat:chocolate-covered cherries.

In 1986, Julie and science-fiction writerAlgis Budrys were guests on The JimBohannon Show, then a late-nightSaturday radio talk show. I decided to callin. When Jim Bohannon said, “This nextcall is from Greensboro, North Carolina.”Julie said, “Who is this?” I told him it wasme and we started talking... well, wealmost started talking.

Earlier in this piece, I mentioned howJulie loved to hear me laugh. By this time,he’d invented a greeting for me. Everytime we met in person or talked on the phone, Julie would say, “Startlaughing,” and damned if I wouldn’t! It was an involuntary reaction andtrying to stop only made it worse.

When I identified myself on the air, Julie said, “Start laughing.” And,of course, I did—loudly—for millions of people, who probablywondered what kind of madman was loose on the airwaves. JimBohannon started laughing, and Julie said to him, ”Don’t worry, this isjust a game we play.” It was a game, but my part of it was real. Julie hadthat power over me, and he never, ever let loose of it; he had too muchfun making and hearing me laugh. One time, we were in the conventionlobby at the San Diego Con, waiting for Gil Kane to join us for dinner.When Gil showed up, Julie looked at him and said, “Watch this.” ThenJulie looked at me and said, “Start laughing,” and I did. When I stopped,Gil looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, my boy; we’ll have the lastlaugh, because Julie’s paying for dinner.”

Which reminds me of another story. Gil was famous for calling men“My boy.” It didn’t matter whether you were older or younger thanhim—or even if he knew you. Gil knew me well enough to remembermy name, but he always said, “Hello, my boy.” That expression droveJulie crazy. Julie told me that “my boy” used to be his greeting, and thatGil stole it from him. Sounding much like Perry White from the 1950sSuperman TV show, Julie grumbled, “I’m older than he is, and he callsme ‘My boy!’ “ For at least a couple of years after that, Julie and Iwould occasionally greet each other with “Hello, my boy.” Not beingone to let a good joke die, Julie once called me up and said, “Startlaughing, my boy.”

Julie loved to make people happy. Once, Julie and I were at the DC

Comics booth at a San Diego Comic-Con, when he asked me if I had anydinner plans. I said I hadn’t and he said,“Come with me.” When we got to therestaurant, I found myself sitting withJulie, Greg Theakston, Gil Kane, andRuss Heath (whom Julie knew I wantedto meet). Julie smiled at me and said, “Iinvited a few friends, too.” He got a bigkick out of my surprise. By the way, itwas funny watching Gil and Julie argueover who was going to pay foreveryone’s dinner. Julie said, “I can putthis on my company card.” Gil said,“Put it away, my boy, I’ll pay for this.”Julie said, “Why should you?” Gilanswered, “Because I can!”—and so hewon the argument.

Another time at the same convention,I was walking by myself and saw Julie.He said, “Walk with me. I want you tomeet someone.” A few moments later, Isaw this impossibly long line, leading toa convention guest. Julie cut through thiscrowd to get to the person who wassigning books: Clive Barker. Barker sawJulie and gave him a big hug. Julie intro-duced me and a short conversationfollowed. As we were walking away,Julie said, “Stick with me and you’llmeet everybody.”

Truer words were rarely ever spoken.Because of my friendship with Julie, Imet and/or shared meals with peoplelike Ray Bradbury and Robert Bloch. I

even became the escort of the wife of a famous writer. We were at aDragon*Con, and had just finished dinner. Julie and I went to meet afew friends of his, one of whom was a stunningly beautiful woman(whose name I cannot remember). They locked arms and Julie said,“Now I’m ready to go to the costume contest.” He then realized that Ididn’t have an escort, since my wife was not along on this trip. Julie said,“Wait just a minute,” walked away and returned with another beautifulwoman. He introduced us and said to her, “Jim needs an escort. He’ssafe: he’s married.”

The four of us went to the show. On the way, we ran into thehusband of my “date”: Martin Caidin, the novelist and creator of TheSix Million Dollar Man. Until that moment, I had no idea that this ladywas married to someone famous. Julie introduced us and told Caidin,“Your wife needed a younger man, so I got Jim to take over.” Everyonelaughed and Caidin said, “How can I argue with Julie?”

Once in a while, I played a joke on Julie. Again, this happened at aSan Diego Con. Julie was supposed to have dinner with Harlan andSusan Ellison. Julie said, ”If you see Harlan, tell him to quit botheringme.” After we laughed, he said, “Seriously, if you see Harlan, tell him tocome to the DC booth, so we can make plans about where we’re goingto eat.”

About fifteen minutes later, I saw Harlan Ellison, and said, “JulieSchwartz told me to tell you to quit bothering him.” The Ellisons—whodidn’t know me—looked at me as if I was crazy. That’s when I told themwhat Julie really wanted, but with a special twist. I told them why I hadgiven them the greeting I had, and to ask Julie why was he going aroundtelling people that Harlan Ellison was bothering him. I don’t know howHarlan did it, but he must have followed through on the joke, because

Only the Golden Age Atom is seen in costume in this mostlytalking-heads page from the team-up story in The Atom #36

(April-May 1968), as penciled by Gil Kane, inked by Sid Greene,scripted by Gardner Fox—and edited by You-Know-Who.

Repro’d from photocopies of the original art, courtesy of JoeCaporale. [©2004 DC Comics.]

My Second Favorite Julie 21

[EDITOR’S NOTE: In A/E #38 we printed numerous tributes toJulius Schwartz that were sent in by pros and fans who had knownand loved him. Because of the sheer volume of the responses—and wecould have had far more, had we solicited them—several folks gotbumped from that issue to this. Also, at the last minute, I remem-bered that I had forgotten to invite one of Julie’s most prominentartists, Neal Adams, to contribute, so I remedied that at once. So hereis another round of tribute, from “Adams” to “Ziuko”! —Roy.]

NEAL ADAMS[Neal Adams is one of the most influential artists in the history ofcomic books, most noted for his contributions to DC’s “Deadman,”Green Lantern/Green Arrow, and the “Batman” titles, and onMarvel’s X-Men and “Kree-Skrull War” issues of The Avengers. Hiswork on GL/GA, “Batman,” and The Spectre was done for JulieSchwartz.]

When I was in high school, I wrote and drew comic book stories…that never saw print (because they were bad).

I drew my stories and Bob Kanigher-type stories and JulieSchwartz stories. I figured out Julie

Schwartz’s style of story. Heloved science gimmicks andconcepts and discoveryconcepts. To do a JulieSchwartz story, you had toinsert a scientific or techno-logical concept that hadn’t orhad rarely been exploredbefore in a comic story.

I never knew why thisnear-legendary comic bookeditor had this way of doingstories, but I knew it was true.

Then, as a professional, Imet him. He was exactly likeI’d expected him to be, cranky,brusque, and sometimes loud.I was drawn to him immedi-ately.

In time I drew an “Elongated Man” story for Julie, then later a“Spectre” story, then another and another. I watched the painful processwriters went through to sell a story to Julie. I wanted to jump in andhelp as Julie shot down story after story. I wanted to tell the writers thesecret: “insert a concept.” The secret that, apparently, only I knew. I saidnothing.

Finally, I asked Julie if I could pitch a “Spectre” story. I gave mywriting credential and he said okay.

I quickly threw up the first two “shoot-down” concepts which heinvariably “shot down,” and got to the real story I wanted to sell.

Tributes to a Titan:The Sequel

Still More Comics Folk Remember Julius Schwartz

(Above, left to right:) Neal Adams, Julie Schwartz,and A/E founder Jerry G. Bails, circa 1971—flankedby two superb specimens of Adams art featuring

heroes he drew for Julie: a page from Green Lantern#89 (April-May 1972) and a Batman cover. Theformer page, in the mag then often unofficially

called Green Lantern/Green Arrow, was inked byDick Giordano. Both illos are repro’d from

photocopies of the original art, courtesy of Scott Goodell. [Comic art ©2004 DC Comics.]

24

He went for it like I knew he would. It was astory called “Stop That Kid before He Wrecks theWorld!”

It was concept-driven.

A month later I did the same thing. This timeit was a Psycho-Pirate story, and I convinced himit should be a two-parter (a rare “sell” to Julie).

He wasn’t finished with me. He was curious.He said he intended to give me a really hard time.He wasn’t a big booster of artists who write.How did I make such an easy time of it withhim?

I told him my secret. I even told him aboutthe story I did in school in which the scientifichook had to do with electro-plating, and even then I saw the twinkle inhis eye. He knew he was trapped, and he smiled and relaxed. Then hesaid, “Do you know that I worked with Ray Bradbury?”

I was stunned. And then Julie told me about his history in science-fiction. I must’ve sat there slack-jawed listening to him tell me about thepioneer science-fiction writers that I’m sure others will tell you about inthese tributes.

Well, we made some news, Julie Schwartz, Denny O’Neil, and I, andthat’s all well and good, but the story I just told you is the soil in whichmy relationship with Julie Schwartz grew. It was an oddly richrelationship. I have many stories that I won’t tell here. I resent Juliebeing taken away. I wish he was with us. I wish I could have given him ahug, damn it. I loved you, Julie.

JEAN-MARCLOFFICIER

[As “R.J.M. Lofficier,”Jean-Marc and his wifeRandy have written and/or editednumerous comics. Their Black Coat Press, as seen in A/E #37, haspublished two Shadowmen books about the heroes and villains ofFrench pulp magazines and comics.]

Randy and I remember going in to see Julie at the DC offices in 1985,during his penultimate year there as editor of the Superman books. Hewas such a character. He’d tell great stories about the early days ofscience-fiction fandom; he was a fount of information about all kinds ofDC-related things (such as the German-produced-for-the-German-market Superman)—and he could always make you laugh.

But when it came to working with him as an editor, which we didwhen we wrote that infamous Superman-“Asterix” cross-over (ActionComics #579—art by Keith Giffen, 1986), he was a real pro. That’ssomething that is often missing today. Julie knew how to work withwriters. He was clear in telling you what he was looking for and didn’tbeat around the bush if you weren’t coming up with something that hewanted. He was wonderfully receptive to new ideas—let’s face it, aSuperman-Asterix cross-over was a rather odd and unusual proposal—and he also stood up for his writers. That’s a rare trait, and one that wasgreatly appreciated.

JOHN MORROW[John Morrow and his lovely wife Pam are the co-publishers ofTwoMorrows, and John edits The Jack Kirby Collector.]

Whenever I stop to remember Julie Schwartz, I’ll always picture himwalking down the aisles of a comics convention (take your pick; heseemed to be at nearly every one I ever attended), with a beautifulwoman on at least one of his arms. And, though he had probably morethan a hundred people to see at each convention, he would, without fail,

stop at our booth and chat for a while. It wasalways something encouraging about what wewere publishing, mixed with some useful,constructive criticism, and an offer to help us inany way he could. I guess, coming from hisbackground in early sci-fi fanzines, he could relateto the trials and tribulations we face in putting outour fan publications.

I’ll also remember the day when, out of theblue, I went to my mailbox and found a copy of

Jean-Marc and Randy Lofficier scripted this Superman-“Asterix” story, featuring an homage to the famous

French comics character, in Action Comics #579 (May1985). Art by Keith Giffen. [Page ©2004 DC Comics.]

John Morrow—and a pencil-and-ink illo done by Jack “King” Kirby for the1983 San Diego Comic-Con program book. Seems only fitting to print the

latter here, since Julie helped pull off the very first science-fiction conventionin 1939, and contributed materially to the founding of comic book fandom in

the 1960s. Thanks to Shel Dorf. [Art ©2004 Estate of Jack Kirby.]

Tributes to a Titan: The Sequel 25

by Scott SheafferThe Colour Out of Providence

Before he revived super-heroes andignited the Silver Age, Julius Schwartzalready had accomplished a great deal—outside of comics.

The milieu he moved in before he tooka job at All-American Comics in 1944contained all the wonder of the four-colorcomic books he later oversaw. He and hispal (and fellow future DC editor) MortWeisinger rank among the founders ofscience-fiction and fantasy fandom.Together with Allen Glasser, they createdthe first real sf fanzine, The TimeTraveller. Julie also helped stage the firstWorld Science Fiction Convention in1939. Though agents like Otis AdelbertKline already represented pulp authors,Julie and Mort had earlier established the firstscience-fiction literary agency, which they christened Solar Sales Service.When Mort became an editor for the Thrilling group of pulp magazines,Julie carried on alone. Among many other now-legendary clients, Julierepresented a fledgling Ray Bradbury, Alfred Bester, and Robert Bloch.

The name of one client arrests particular attention: H.P. Lovecraft,author of such stories as “The Colour Out of Space,” “The Rats in theWalls,” “Pickman’s Model,” and “The Call of Cthulhu,” and of coursethe creator of what has been called the Cthulhu Mythos. In his study ofthe horror field, Danse Macabre, Stephen King calls Lovecraft “thetwentieth-century horror story’s dark and baroque prince.” Writers suchas Robert Bloch (later author of Psycho) and Robert E. Howard, creatorof Conan, regarded the Providence, Rhode Island, resident as a friendand mentor.

Working with such a legend must have been great, right? Julieremembered it with fondness, but others might have pulled their hairout. Some of Lovecraft’s friends undercut Julie’s efforts to represent him.In addition, by then the writer’s productivity was virtually at an end.Even so, Julie aided the biggest financial success of Lovecraft’s literarycareer. All of this earned $35 for Julie’s agency. And yet, the meeting thatmade it possible nearly didn’t happen.

Despite Lovecraft’s current posthumous reputation, in life he earnedlittle from writing. Though he could live on $10 a week, he often foundhimself in desperate financial straits. His sales usually came courtesy oflow-paying and slow-paying pulps like Weird Tales. The latter oftenpaid not on publication, as promised, but months afterward. While somepulp writers compensated for low rates by cranking out material, HPL, aperfectionist, worked slowly. Nor did he tailor stories to the markets,

but rather he insisted on writing what he wanted to write the way hewanted to write it. He sometimes went long periods without producingany work.

Nor did he follow Robert Heinlein’s sage advice about putting astory on the market and keeping it on the market until it sells. When onemagazine rejected a story, Lovecraft often gave up submitting it profes-sionally and merely sent it around to his friends. After FarnsworthWright, editor of Weird Tales, rejected it in 1931, his short novel At theMountains of Madness—the longest tale he ever wrote—shared thisfate. Lovecraft told one friend:

“Its hostile reception by Wright and others to whom it was shownprobably did more than anything else to end my effective fictionalcareer.” [H.P. Lovecraft: Selected Letters, Vol. 5, Arkham House, 1976,p. 224.]

On their own initiative, Lovecraft’s friends submitted his stories toWeird Tales, but Lovecraft himself wouldn’t send another story to thatmagazine until 1936—only a year before his untimely death. There areother cases in which Lovecraft didn’t market a story at all. Dissatisfiedwith his work, he sometimes destroyed stories he’d labored over. Anearly version of “The Shadow Out of Time” met this end. He alsoconsidered destroying the final version. Lovecraft thought so little of thestory that he didn’t type his handwritten manuscript; yet it is nowconsidered one of his greatest stories.

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: Much could be written about Julie Schwartz’s career before he started his job as Sheldon Mayer’s story editor on Feb.23, 1944… but for the most part, we’ll let the reader interested in that aspect of his life read his 1985 memoir Man of Two Worlds: My Life inScience Fiction and Comics, written with Brian Thomsen. This piece by Scott Sheaffer, however, can suggest that earlier period even as it shedslight on Julie’s relationship with the brilliant 20th-century horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. —Roy.]

The Agent of CthulhuWhen the Future Architect of Comics’ Silver Age Met the Master of the Macabre

(Left:) A 1934 photo of horror/science-fiction master H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937).(Above:) By 1937, sf literary agent Julie Schwartz was hangin’ with science-fiction heavyweights in what they called “The Steuben Gang.” From left to

right standing are: Jack Williamson, L. Sprague de Camp, John D. Clark, FrankBelknap Long, Mort Weisinger, Edmond Hamilton, Otis Adelbert Kline. Kneeling,left to right, are: Otto Binder, Manly Wade Wellman, Julie. If you never heard of

some of these guys, trust us—one day, virtually all of them would be pulp sfand/or comics legends! Photo from the Julius Schwartz Collection.

28

Challenges from BeyondLovecraft knew Julius Schwartz through the latter’s fan activities. He

read and contributed to fanzines Julie edited. Lovecraft also met Julie inperson prior to their fateful 1935 encounter. Writing to Robert Barlowon January 13, 1934, HPL discussed visiting Frank Belknap Long inNew York City:

“On one occasion Long and I received a call from the youthfuleditors of Fantasy Magazine—formerly The Science Fiction Digest—Conrad Ruppert and Julius Schwartz. Both are admirably bright andpleasant boys….” [HPL: Selected Letters, Vol. IV, p. 342.]

On another occasion, Lovecraft spoke about a crisis he and Juliefaced with the all-star cast writing “The Challenge from Beyond.” Julierecruited five top science-fiction writers for a round robin sf story basedon the title; he also asked five top fantasy writers to write a fantasy storyusing the same title. Julie originally set the fantasy order as C.L. Moore,Frank Belknap Long, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, and Robert E.Howard. Disaster loomed when Long devised a clever plot twist for thesecond chapter. Merritt balked at following Long. Back then, Merrittwas a bigger name than either Howard or Lovecraft. He demanded thathe get the second spot instead of Long. Julie gave in. Merritt’s behaviorso incensed Long that he dropped out of the project. However, Julie andLovecraft changed Long’s mind, and he wrote the final chapter. [SeeHPL: Selected Letters, Vol. V, p. 200, for Lovecraft’s account.]

The Shadow Out of MinnesotaIn summer of 1935, Lovecraft visited his friend Robert Barlow in

Florida. During the visit, Barlow typed “TheShadow Out of Time,” creating a profes-sional-looking manuscript for magazinesubmission. Heading homeward in lateAugust, HPL left word of the addresseswhere he’d stop along the way. This allowedhim to continue getting letters as he headednorth. He said he wanted to visit his NewYork City friends, but that he was so brokehe’d probably skip the stop.

Enter Donald Wandrei.

Lovecraft and Wandrei became friends inthe 1920s. The Minnesota native corre-sponded with and visited Lovecraft in RhodeIsland. HPL encouraged the young writer,and Wandrei began selling stories and makinga better living at it than Lovecraft did. Sinceso many publishers resided there, Wandreimoved to New York. After Lovecraft’s death,Wandrei and August Derleth foundedArkham House, a small press centered onHPL’s work. Wandrei also conducted a smearcampaign against Robert Barlow, HPL’sliterary executor. He gave up his share inArkham House during World War II, whenhe served in the Army and fought in France.

After Derleth died in 1971, Wandrei foughtDerleth’s estate over HPL copyrights whichWandrei and Derleth co-owned. In his lastyears, Wandrei refused permission for his ownwork to be reprinted, and he battled KirbyMcCauley, the World Fantasy Convention,and Stephen King. Wandrei saw the WorldFantasy Convention as literary agent Kirby

McCauley’s plot to exploit the memories of HPL, Robert E. Howard,and Howard Wandrei. Stephen King? He was a client of McCauley’s.

In a recently published collection of Lovecraft and Wandrei’s corre-spondence, Wandrei mentions Julie only once. He says:

“Copy of Fantasy Magazine arrived, containing interview with me.Schwartz & Weisinger garbled a remark I made about ‘The Call ofCthulhu’ into an anecdote that is discreditable to both you and me. Ihave already taken them to task, and I herewith extend apologies for myunfortunate part in the incident. I knew nothing of their action until theinterview appeared, and the quotations are flatly not mine.”

Joshi and Schultz quote the passage from Fantasy Magazine, Vol. 3,No. 3, May 1934, p. 11, that bothered Wandrei:

“When I met Lovecraft I chanced to comment on his excellent story,‘Call of Cthulhu,’ and I pronounced the word as it was spelt. Lovecraftenlightened me on its correct pronunciation, which sounds like a seriesof witches’ whistles. I asked Lovecraft how he could possibly pronouncethe name different from my version of it, which was correct phoneti-cally. He then said to me, ‘Look here, I ought to know how to say it,don’t you think?’”

Anyone wondering where the fireworks were? If it was a misquote,setting the record straight is understandable, but what was “discred-itable” about it? On pages 10-11 of HPL: Selected Letters, Vol. V, HPLtells Duane Rimel the anecdote was “largely fictitious,” but that heprobably did explain the pronunciation to Wandrei. Lovecraft sayshuman attempts to replicate the non-human pronunciation would soundlike a man imitating a steam whistle or a crowing rooster or a neighing

horse. Lovecraft answered Wandrei’s protest:

“Leedle Shoolie can be pardoned forcareless reporting considering the wideterritory he covers.” [See Mysteries of Timeand Spirit, pp. 344-346, edited by S.T. Joshiand David Schultz, Night Shade Books,2002, for the full exchange betweenLovecraft and Wandrei, as well as theinterview quote.]

“Leedle Shoolie” refers to Julie. Lovecraftnicknamed members of his circle: ClarkAshton Smith was Klarkash-Ton, Robert E.Howard was Two-Gun Bob, Robert Blochwas Bho-Blìk, etc., etc.

At the Mountains of Manhattanor, The Greenwich Horror

In the summer of 1935, Wandrei shared aGreenwich Village apartment with hisbrother Howard at 155 E. 10th Street.Howard Wandrei departed. Learning ofLovecraft’s plight, Donald Wandrei invitedHPL to stay with him. Arriving in NewYork on September 1st, Lovecraft stayednearly two weeks. During this visitLovecraft met Julie, now a fledgling agent,again.

When Julie asked Lovecraft if he hadanything which he hadn’t been able to sell,he must have made quite a pitch. Lovecraftmentioned to more than one correspondentabout how insistent and anxious Julie had

Although Howard Phillips Lovecraft was one of WeirdTales’ most popular authors, his oblique, moody proseand the difficulty of artistically rendering many of his

concepts meant that his stories rarely rated a coverpainting—not even on this May 1941 issue, four years

after his death, when a “never-before published novel”of his was bruited on that cover! Seabury Quinn’s tales

of occult detective Jules de Grandin were for manyyears the most popular thing in WT. Cover by Hannes

Bok. [©2004 the respective copyright holders.]

The Agent of Cthulhu 29

“You Can’t Measure ComicsUp Against Anything Else!”

GIL KANE Speaks—Mostly about LOU FINE, JACK COLE, & MAC RABOYInterview Conducted & Transcribed by Daniel Herman

33

CITIZEN KANE—BEFORE & AFTER!Gil Kane—in a photo which

appeared in the Fall 1973 (#3) issueof Foom!, Marvel’s “house fanzine”—is remembered for various projects

and many series, but probably mostof all for his body of work on the

Silver Age Green Lantern.

(Above:) A page from GL #26 (Jan. 1964), from a period when action art was mostly

eschewed at National/DC. Gil referred to thisas the era when “the Dan Barry look”—by

which he meant “good but bland drawing”(though of course Barry had shown himselfadept at action earlier)—dominated at thecompany. Repro’d from a photocopy of theoriginal art, autographed by Gil, inker Joe

Giella, and editor Julie Schwartz, courtesy ofJoe’s son Frank. Script by John Broome.

[©2004 DC Comics.]

(Above:) Yet you can already see Gil’sresumed feel for action in this far more

dramatic Green Lantern page from issue #48(Oct. 1966). Inks by Sid Greene. Thanks to

Mike Burkey. [©2004 DC Comics.]

(Left:) Beginning in 1966-67, Gil sought to re-capture his Jack Kirby roots, partly

by drawing several “Incredible Hulk” storiesfor Stan Lee at Marvel. This pure-Kane cover

for Tales to Astonish #89 (March 1967).[©2004 Marvel Characters, Inc.]

[A/E EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2001, a year after Gil Kane’s untimelypassing, Daniel Herman and Hermes Press produced Gil Kane: TheArt of the Comics, the first book-length study of the artist’s career. In2002 the same author/publisher put out a second volume, Gil Kane:Art and Interviews, made up of transcriptions from Dan’s interviewswith Gil, Julius Schwartz, Roy Thomas, and sf/mystery/comicswriter/comics historian Ron Goulart. The following is a short conver-sation Dan had with Gil on September 5, 1998. Though Dan quotedfrom it in the earlier book, it has never before been published in itsoriginal form, and is ©2004 Daniel Herman. —Roy.]

DANIEL HERMAN: Gil, you have always been very fond of LouFine, and it’s clear from looking at your work that he was a biginfluence. This comes throughespecially in the Green Lantern andAtom strips you did in the 1960s.

GIL KANE: Louie Fine was alwaysone of my heroes. I remember when Iwas searching for his stuff the veryfirst time and it just knocked me out. Iwas extremely devoted to him andhave been for most of my adult life.Then someone swiped my clippingfile. I had been clipping and savingLouie Fine material for years andyears. Slowly, someone started sendingme material that comprised a lot of theearly stuff that Louie Fine had done.At that point I realized that his earlywork was very crude. However, as hisstyle more fully developed, it’s clearthat his work became much moreassured, and that’s the Louie Fine thateverybody admires. Ultimately hefollowed that early work with themore polished work that he is remem-bered for, but it’s still in the spirit ofthat early material. The spirit wasalways there.

DH: At the end of his career as acartoonist, Fine worked on Eisner’sSpirit and the work was toned downconsiderably. It’s clear that not onlywas Fine attempting to modify hisstyle, but he was also clearly inter-ested in keeping with the style of thestrip at that time. Nevertheless, it’sclearly Lou Fine and not WillEisner—or Jack Cole, who worked intandem with Fine during the 1940safter Eisner had been drafted.

KANE: When Fine went into advertising he became almost photo-realistic. The fact is that his early stuff really influenced my take onaction, and there was a very emotional connection between that workand the work that I was trying to bring forth. I never lost my connectionwith Fine because of the lyricism in his work, and that’s still part ofwhat I am trying to convey in my work up to the present.

DH: Your point about lyricism is very well taken. Clearly the workthat Fine did on “The Ray,” “The Black Condor,” and “Uncle Sam”has a lyrical, almost gliding quality about it.

KANE: All of his work during that period had a lyricism that Iabsolutely loved. Ultimately I discarded Fine as a teacher of anatomy or

as an influence on my anatomy, and he was replaced immediately byother figure men. I was reading Crandall, who was a classic Bridgmanman, and who was interested in composing a classic 19th-century sort ofbody, right out of the old Michelangelo school. And the fact is thatBridgman epitomized that approach to anatomy. Ultimately, the qualityof grace that I was looking for I found in Bridgman. It took me a longtime before I was able to finally crack the code of Bridgman.

DH: Lou Fine turned in a lot of work for Eisner as well as BusyArnold at Quality. Another artist that I already brought up who alsoworked on The Spirit after Eisner left was Jack Cole. What was yourtake on Cole’s cartooning?

KANE: Well, of course, I watched the progression from the time hebegan working in comic books untilafter the Second World War. He didsome of the most remarkable stuff Iever saw in comics. He wasabsolutely brilliant and going off in anew direction with enormouscreativity, but he left after gettingbored and ultimately ended up atPlayboy.

DH: Then for some unknownreason he killed himself.

KANE: Yes, no one really under-stands why Cole did that, since hewas successfully turning outcartoons at Playboy for Hefner andhe had sold a humor strip to theChicago Sun-Times Syndicate, calledBetsy and Me. Nobody could evermatch Cole’s work on “PlasticMan.” There was something inCole’s personality that clashed withsome people, but that is a separatesituation. In any case, the fact is thathe was a remarkable artist. Therewas also an artist named JohnSpranger, and he did a lot of Cole’swork at Quality on “Plastic Man,”and he had Cole’s style down soclose very few people could tell thedifference. Ultimately Spranger wasreplaced by Alex Kotzky, and afterthat “Plastic Man” became more andmore watered-down.

DH: You worked on an homage toCole with DC Comics when youdid Plastic Man in the mid-’60s.

KANE: Yes, it was an homage ofsorts, but that never seemed to take

off. Plastic Man is a great character, and I still think that he could beappreciated by new audiences.

DH: If I remember correctly, in our previous conversation we hadspoken about your working for Bernard Baily and Mac Raboy. Youworked on strips in Baily’s shop, and if I remember correctly youworked on the “Captain Marvel Jr.” strip. It is very well documentedthat Raboy was extremely slow. What was your firsthand experiencewith Raboy?

KANE: Well, first thing is that Raboy worked with a hand mirror. Heused to hold it up to his face, and that is how he would draw. I thoughthe was excellent in his best work, but I always found there was a certain

Working with writer/editor Roy Thomas in the late 1980s, Gil Kane drewLou Fine-influenced pencil layouts for a 19-page retelling of The Ray’sorigin for an issue of Secret Origins—but due to changes in companypolicy, it was never inked, let alone published. [©2004 DC Comics.]

34 Gil Kane Speaks––Mostly about Lou Fine, Jack Cole, & Mac Raboy

by John Wells[All art accompanying this article, except where otherwise noted, isfrom scans provided by the author, who points out that they should beduly credited to “the folks at ABPC.” Be it so noted.]

It was 1958, and DC Comics was actively seeking the next big trendin comics. Sputnik had gone up late in ’57, and the word came down thatDC editors would develop two new comicsheroes set in outer space. One would be basedin the present, the other in the future. JackSchiff took the latter concept, launching“Space Ranger” in Showcase #15-16, andJulius Schwartz went with the former, intro-ducing “Adam Strange” in Showcase #17-19.

Just imagine, however, if that approachtowards creating new characters hadcontinued beyond that point. If there hadbeen a subsequent editorial conference inwhich some of those present were chargedwith creating other new heroes, spinning outof the same general concept. But what shouldthat concept be? Maybe a flip through DC’srecent output might help. Let’s imagine animaginary editorial director’s thoughtprocesses, with mental memos to himself:

Hmmm... Action Comics #245 has astory called “The Shrinking Superman!”Mort Weisinger really seems to be runningwith this new concept about a bottled city

named Kandor in theSuperman books. Andy’know, there’s a lot ofpotential there. Kids loveseeing ordinary objectsturned into threats andweapons, a normal man orwoman suddenly renderedan underdog in a world ofgiants.

Sure, DC’s run its shareof stories of that sort in thepast, but maybe it’s time togo one better and actuallycreate an ongoing seriesfeaturing tiny heroes. Julieand Jack can each take astab at the concept, and, tomake things a little moreinteresting, Bob Kanighercan, too. Oh, and get Mortcracking on another Kandorstory ASAP!

The foregoing mentalconversation probably did not

take place; but it’s interesting, in retrospect, to note that all four of theabove-named editors dabbled with the concept of tiny heroes duringthat fertile period of comics history in 1959. They couldn’t have donemuch more if there had been such an editorial Master Plan!

(Above:) In the final panel of the first “Kandor” story, fromAction Comics #242 (July 1958), the Man of Steel uses his

Kandor-scope to broadcast a message to the denizens of thebottled Kryptonian capital. Script by Otto Binder, pencils by

Al Plastino. (Right:) The Curt Swan/Stan Kaye cover ofWorld’s Finest #100 (March 1959). [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sort of The AtomOr, “It’s A Small World, After All!”

The size-changing Silver Age super-hero called The Atom, under the aegis of writer Gardner Fox, pencilerGil Kane, and editor Julius Schwartz, had adventures inwhich human beings were smaller than he—larger than he (the usual menu)—and the same size as he, as seen

in these splashes from The Atom #30 &!32, 1967. Repro’d from black-&-white Australian reprints,

courtesy of Shane Foley. [©2004 DC Comics.]

38

Weisinger’s Kandor, of course, needs little introduction. Shrunk andbottled by the evil Brainiac, the surviving but miniaturized Kryptoniancity was rescued by Superman in 1958’s Action Comics #242 (with storyby Otto Binder and art by Al Plastino) and was provided sanctuary inhis Fortress of Solitude. Even as hevowed to one day restore thepopulation of Kandor to its normal size,the Man of Steel began having adven-tures inside this tiny direct link to hisalien past. In just its first two years ofexistence, Kandor figured in nineseparate stories, including anothermemorable shrunken-heroes cover onWorld’s Finest Comics #100 (March1959).

Schiff’s contribution to this partyappeared in a six-page episodic pieceillustrated by Bill Ely in House ofMystery #86 (May 1959). “The AtomDetective” was one Vic Randall, aprivate eye desperately seeking evidenceto put a mobster named Lober behindbars. In the course of his investigation,Vic was doused in chemical steam andended up only a quarter-inch tall.Suddenly, the mere act of securingevidence from Lober’s lair became anear-impossibility, and Randall wasforced to employ all his resourcefulnessin order to escape with his life andbring down the gangster.

Randall managed to find (and hide)some evidence in Lober’s office, butescaping was more of a trick. Nearlydrowned when the thug spilled hisinkwell, Vic left a trail of blackfootprints and found himself pursuedby the entire gang. Yanking on the cord

of a windowshade, the “atomdetective”managed to getenoughmomentum fromthe jolt upward toswing outside thewindow and makeit to the alleyoutside.

Regaining hisnormal size asabruptly as he’dlost it, Randall tookdown threesurprised crooksand laughed offpolice inquiriesabout Lober’s

claims that he’d been a doll-sized man. “Forget it, lieutenant,” hesmiled. “We can overlook those … er … small details.”

Next up was writer/editor Bob Kanigher, who, with artists RossAndru and Mike Esposito, turned out two tales of tiny titans in thesame month.

As part of their test run in The Brave and the Bold, The SuicideSquad were temporarily shrunk in issue #26’s “The Sun Curse” (Oct.-Nov. 1959). The set-up, which involved the team of three men and a

woman being strangely affected by cosmicradiation while returning to Earth in arocket, seems familiar in its own right, butI somehow doubt that Stan Lee and/orJack Kirby ever saw this one. In any event,the story is one of Kanigher’s characteristi-cally visual ones, wherein the shrunkenSquad ride a box of matches in a lake anduse all their ingenuity to fend off a sea gulland to fire a machine gun at enemy agentsbefore returning to their full height.

For the Squad, life at the size of actionfigures had merely been an interestingdiversion. For Sarge and the Corp, though,it was to be (you should pardon theexpression) the start of something big.They were “The Minute Commandos,”and their probably Kanigher-scripted storywas recounted in the 13-page lead of All-American Men of War #74 (Oct. 1959).

The duo were part of a commando unitassigned to find a Nazi secret weapon inthe midst of occupied France. They foundit, all right, each man bathed in a green rayof light as they parachuted towards Earth.Sarge didn’t immediately realize what hadhappened, until a seemingly gargantuanhawk dived for him. “Whatever had madea Minute Commando out of me,” herecalled, “had also reduced the size of mygear—which was a good thing.” Blastingthe bird with his machine gun, Sargehooked up with the Corp [short for

With an off-kilter title like “The Atom Detective” (why not “The AtomicDetective” or even “The Atom-sized Detective”?), it’s hard not to see this storyas a precursor, or even a test run, for the Mighty Mite who debuted two yearslater. But, as John Wells points out on p. 40, none of the Fox/Kane/SchwartzAtom team was involved in this tale illustrated by Bill Ely and edited by JackSchiff. Writer uncertain—but it probably wasn’t Gardner Fox, who at this time

wrote fairly exclusively for Schwartz. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Since penciler Ross Andru and inker Mike Esposito’s cover forThe Brave and the Bold #26 (Oct.-Nov. 1959) has often beenreprinted, here’s their splash for the issue . Writer/editor Bob

Kanigher’s “Suicide Squad” would go on to star in variousissues of his Star Spangled War Stories; but two issues hence, in

Brave and Bold #28, the “Justice League of America” woulddebut and sweep all before it. [©2004 DC Comics.]

Sort of The Atom 39