Comic Book Fever by TwoMorrows Publishing

Snyderman © Snyder Ventures.

A Celebration of Comics 1976 to 1986

Phil Seuling is the man who popularized comics conventions and pioneered a direct system solely for the distribution of comics. In 1968, Seuling, a school teacher, started the Comic Art Conventions (1968–83), the first true grand-scale comic book show held in New York City (and briefly in Philadelphia). In 1972, he founded Seagate Distributors, the first company to negotiate a deal with comic book companies and offer the direct wholesale distribution of their product (on a non-returnable basis) to specialty shops. Although these endeavors have closed shop with his passing (in 1984), his contributions have not been forgotten. Without him and his ingenuity, there may never have been the proliferation of comic cons and specialty comic book stores where fans gather and revel in our hobby.

elcome (or welcome back) to the pivotal comics era of 1976–1986. Contained herein are the people, comics, and artifacts that made our childhood feel larger than life, and shaped the comics industry into the pop culture staple that stands tall today. Each chapter and sidebar in this book tells a story, and together they form a much larger story about the evolution and maturation of the comics medium. The book is designed to look and feel as close to an actual comic book as possible—from the stories about the comics themselves, to the stories about the biggest comic book ads, on down to the letters’ page. Above all, this book is written for everyone—the lifelong fans and the comic book novices alike. And it’s meant to be shared. If you ever wanted someone—your spouse, your child, a friend—to understand your affection for this medium, this book is the place to start. Writer/Editor

George Khoury

/ Eric Nolen -Weathington Designer/Associate Editor

TwoMorrows Presents

Com C om i c Book B ook F e ver!

This book is dedicated to my friend Jason Hofius

Boy, i can’t wait to read Comic Book Fever!

But first things first... Special thanks to

Eric Nolen-Weathington and Alex Ross for their invaluable

contributions to this book!

COMIC BOOK FEVER is published by TWOMORROWS PUBLISHING, 10407 BEDFORDTOWN DRIVE, RALEIGH, NC 27614. Phone: 919-449-0344, Web: www.twomorrows.com. Copyright © 2016 by George Khoury and TwoMorrows Publishing. All rights reserved. Price $39.95 per copy in the U.S. Every similarity between any of the names, characters, persons, and/or institutions in this book with those of any living or dead person or institution is intended, and every such similarity which may exist is purely purposeful. Printed in the USA. First Printing, June 2016. ISBN: 978-1-60549-063-2.

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TwoMorrows.Celebrating The Art & History Of Comics. (& LEGO! ) TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: twomorrow@aol.com • www.twomorrows.com

CONTENTS 3 Introduction by Alex Ross 4 Celebrate the Spirit of 1976 6 Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. 8 The Ballad of the G.I. Joe Adventure Team 9 The Harvey Funny Books 14 The Marvel Team-Up Series 17 Sidebar: DC Comics Presents 19 ICON: John Romita 23 Sidebar: Spidey Super Stories 26 The Groovy Marvel Fireside Books 27 Forever Young—Archie Comics 29 Pryde (in the Name of Love) 30 Mutants! 32 Sidebar: Wolverine 37 SPOTLIGHT on Dave Cockrum 41 The Alternate Realites of What If…? 44 Grit: America’s Greatest Family Newspaper 47 Colorful Heroes 52 Street Ball 54 Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali 59 The Treasury Editions 61 Superman Vs. Spider-Man 66 The Hostess Cakes Comic Book Ads 68 Sidebar: Crazy for Krazy Straws! 70 Sidebar: Brain Freeze 71 Snyderman 73 Sidebar: Snyderman & Kubert 75 The Metagalactic Mind of Jim Starlin 81 The Neverending Story of… Star Wars 83 Sidebar: Dani’s Story 85 The Secret Origin of Underoos 88 The Comic That Rocked the World 90 How the KISS Comic Came to Be 94 Alice Cooper—Marvel Premiere #50 95 The Mile High Club 97 Sidebar: The Code of the Direct Market 99 Promotional and Educational Comic Books 100 Sidebar: With Our Compliments 101 Sidebar: Oh Yeah!—Kool-Aid Man 102 Dollar Sized Delight 104 Elfquest—Indie Trendsetters

114 The Kaleidoscopic World of Colorforms 116 ICON: Neal Adams 121 Sidebar: Neal Adams and Charlton 125 The Advent of the Limited Series 127 CLASSY CLASSIC: The Untold Story of the Justice Society 129 The Anniversary Issues 130 Saints & Sinners 132 The Spaceknight Rises 135 The Next Big (and Tiny) Things… (or Not) 136 The Genesis of Firestorm 137 The Human Fly 138 ICON: John Buscema 144 SPOTLIGHT on Sal Buscema 148 Los Hermanos Hernandez 151 Sidebar: Hermano Mayor 160 Forbidden Planet 163 The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe 165 Sidebar: DC’s Definitive Directory 166 Spider-Man’s Secret 168 The New Teen Titans—Acting Their Age 179 Deluxe Baxter-Paper Editions 180 Daredevil—The Artists Without Fear 184 Nexus—For the Love of Comics 188 Strawberry Shortcake 190 Sidebar: Star Comics 191 Dynamite! The Greatest Kids’ Magazine 195 Eliot R. Brown: Photographer of the Superstars 197 Walt Simonson’s Odinson 201 How G.I. Joe Got His Groove Back 203 Sidebar: Masters of the Toyverse 205 ICON: José Luis García-López 211 Sshhhh… It’s a Secret Wars 215 Crisis on Infinite Earths 218 Sidebar: Crisis Controlled 223 ICON: John Byrne 229 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 239 Alan Moore—Innovator 241 CLASSY CLASSIC: Good Night, Sweet Prince 243 Epilogue: Street Cred 1

Comic Book Fever was written and edited by George Khoury Designer, Copy Editor, and Associate Editor: Eric Nolen-Weathington Cover Artist and Consulting Editor: Alex Ross • Executive Editor: Jason Hofius Transcriber: Steven Tice • Publisher: John Morrow Thank you to everyone interviewed within this book! Without your inspiration and dedication, Comic Book Fever would have been just a dream. Neal Adams, Nancy Allen, Mike Baron, Mike W. Barr, Rick Barry, Brian Michael Bendis, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Stephanie Buscema, Eliot R. Brown, Chris Claremont, Paty Cockrum, Gerry Conway, Tom DeFalco, Jack Davis, Christian David Dickson, Jo Duffy, Kevin Eastman, Danny Fingeroth, José Luis García-López, Peter B. Gillis, Larry Hama, Gilbert Hernandez, Jaime Hernandez, Mario Hernandez, Robert Hingley, Adam Hughes, Sid Jacobson, Moss Kardener, Mike Lake, Erik Larsen, Stan Lee, Chip Lovitt, Mike Luckman, Bob McLeod, Alan Moore, Scott Neitlich, Mike Norton, Denny O'Neil, Jerry Ordway, George Pérez, Richard Pini, Wendy Pini, Dave Polter, Carl Potts, John Romita, Bob Rozakis, Chuck Rozanski, Joe Rubinstein, Steve Rude, Jim Salicrup, Peter Sanderson, Steve Sherman, Walter Simonson, Joe Sinnott, Mary Skrenes, Ivan Snyder, Jim Starlin, Joe Staton, Roger Stern, Roy Thomas, Tim Townsend, Alan Weiss, Larry Weiss, Bryan Welch, and Marv Wolfman.

Special Guest Contributors Christopher Brunn, Jackie Estrada, Michael Franzese, Paul Fricke, Fritz Herzog, Marc McKenzie, Eric Nolen-Weathington, Greg Preston, Peter John Rios, Alex Ross, and Mary Skrenes.

Additional Thanks Kris Adams, Blaine Borsic, Ken Branch, Paul Castiglia, Vivian Cheung, Jon B. Cooke, John Cogan, Aub Driver, Dave Elliott, Martha Farago, Beth Fleisher, Sean Gorman, Jim Hanley, Ron Hill, Paul Holder, Alex Jay, Ed Keenan, Nick Landau, Michel Maillot, Tom Mason, Sean McCord, Doris & Mario Palmieri, Nick Purpura, Virgina Romita, T.J. Ross, Roger’s Time Machine, Thomas Santiago, Steven Thompson, George E. Warner, Ned Ward, Nicola Warren, Len Wein, Pauline Weiss, George White, and the St. Ann’s Polish School Class of ’85 (Suresh, Martha, Carlos, Marco, Meetra, Venice, Ralph, Maritza, Carmina, Agnes, Jessica, Jenny, Aiman, and Sherif ).

SPECIAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Linda Aber, Muhammad Ali, Jim Aparo, Brent Anderson, Ross Andru, Terry Austin, John Byrne, Howard Chaykin, Ernie Colón, Dave Cockrum, Alice Cooper, Dan DeCarlo, Julius Erving, Ron Frenz, Archie Goodwin, Dick Giordano, Michael Golden, Roberto Gómez Bolaños, Mark Gruenwald, Hombres G, Carmine Infantino, Jenette Kahn, Klaus Janson, Jack Kirby, Peter Laird, Paul Levitz, George Lucas, Kiss (Peter Criss, Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, and Paul Stanley), Warren Kremer, Bob McLeod, Bill Mantlo, Frank Miller, Bob Montana, Steve Muffatti, Earl Norem, Joe Orlando, Tom Palmer, John Romita Jr., Julius Schwartz, Phil Seuling, Marie Severin, Jim Shooter, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Sim, Louise Simonson, Paul Smith, Jane Stine, Drew Struzan, Curt Swan, Don and Maggie Thompson, Lynn Varley, Len Wein, Al Williamson, Mike Zeck, and Kitty Pryde. Adam Warlock, Alpha Flight, Arcade, Avengers, Baron Zemo, Beta Ray Bill, Black Widow, Bullseye, Captain America, Captain Britain, Captain Marvel, Daredevil, Dr. Doom, Dr. Octopus, Elektra, Falcon, Fantastic Four, Firestar, Ghost Rider, Hawkeye, Hobgoblin, Howard the Duck, Hulk, Human Torch, Iceman, Iron Fist, Iron Man, Kingpin, Kitty Pryde, Luke Cage, Marvelman, Misty Knight, Mr. Mobius, Ms. Marvel, New Mutants, Nova, Phoenix, Power Man, Power Pack, Shang-Chi, She-Hulk, SHIELD, Silver Surfer, Spider-Ham, Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, Squadron Supreme, Stilt-Man, Storm, Sub-Mariner, Thanos, Thing, Thor, Vision, West Coast Avengers, Wolverine, X-Factor, X-Men, and all related characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. Aquaman, Bat Lash, Batman, Black Canary, Blue Beetle, Camelot 3000, Captain Comet, Captain Marvel, Creeper, Crime Syndicate, Deadman, Firestorm, Flash, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Hercules, Justice League, Justice Society, Karate Kid, Legion of Super-Heroes, Lex Luthor, Man-Bat, Mongul, New Gods, Richard Dragon, Robin, Ronin, Spectre, Starman, Suicide Squad, Superboy, Super Friends, Superboy, Supergirl, Superman, Swamp Thing, Teen Titans, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, Wonder Woman, and all related characters © DC Comics. Baby Huey, Casper, Hot Stuff, Little Audrey, Richie Rich, Wendy © Classic Media. Archie Andrews, Betty Cooper, Josie and the Pussycats, Veronica Lodge, and all related characters © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Dreadstar © Jim Starlin. ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. Love and Rockets © Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez. Nexus © Mike Baron and Steve Rude. Gobbledygook © Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc. Relish © Lucy Knisely. Optic Nerve © Adrian Tomine. Lumberjanes © Boom Entertainment, Inc. Saga © Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. Rog-2000 © the respective owner. Buck Rogers © The Dille Family Trust. Ben Casey © NEA, Inc. Heathcliff © Creators Syndicate. John Carter, Tarzan © ERB, Inc. Conan © Conan Properties International, LLC. Grit © Ogden Publications, Inc. Dynamite and all related characters © Scholastic, Inc. Indiana Jones, Star Wars, and all related characters © Lucasfilm, LLC. Goofy, Mickey Mouse © Disney Enterprises, Inc. Star Trek© Paramount Pictures Corp. El Chapulin Colorado © respective owner. Bionic Man, Emergency!, Gemini Man © Universal Studios. Man from Atlantis © Solow Production Co. Fred Flintstone © Hanna-Barbera. Kiss © Kiss. Alice Cooper © Black Widow, Inc. Human Fly © Human Fly Spectaculars, Ltd. Big Jim, He-Man and all related characters © Mattel. G.I. Joe, Rom and all related characters © Hasbro. Shogun Warriors © Mattel, Inc. Micronauts © Takara. Atari Force © Atari, Inc. Colorforms © Colorforms Brand, LLC. Care Bears, Get Along Gang, Strawberry Shortcake © Those Characters from Cleveland, Inc. Spalding © Russell Brands, LLC. Hostess Fruit Pie, Suzy Q’s, Twinkies © Hostess Brands, LLC. Krazy Straws © Fun-Time International, Inc. Snyderman © Snyder Ventures. Kool-Aid Man, Smokey Bear © Advertising Council. Campbell Kids © CSC Brands, LP. Underoos © Fruit of the Loom, Inc. TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids © General Wireless Operations, Inc.

When my friend George first told me about his plans to write this book, I thought that it might be too narrow a focus. It seemed to be one man’s experience in collecting comic books, merchandise, and related media in the ’70s and ’80s. As it turns out, this unique focus illustrates the transition from innocent four-color imagination into the more sophisticated fare we see today. Comics were originally considered as being for kids, and as those kids “outgrew” comics, new ones would take their place. Stores specifically devoted to comic books started to appear in the ’70s, and the direct sales market took over largely in the ’80s. The material started to mature along with the creators and the audience. More sophisticated stories and characters created new fans of the source material, and these fans stuck around. Comics and related ideas now saturate pop culture in a way kids like George and me could only dream of. The superhero characters, stories, and toys were an immediately intoxicating sight to a young, open mind. Their simple, colorful iconography has always conveyed ideas of strength, self-empowerment, and righteousness that were easy to absorb and become captivated by. Superheroes helped drive the comics medium into being an art form that would stick around, adapting to new entertainment platforms. The advertisements, related toy merchandise, different formats, and crossover media product are all a reflection of how this stuff affects our lives. A book dedicated to the whole of that influence is what George Khoury has created here. The time period of his study is important for how the comics would grow and change from a juvenile perception to a mature one. All of the people who made the art, wrote the stories, crafted the toys, and finally sold the goods were inspired. Comic books had been a fever of inspiration for me in my youth and, fortunately, my career. The flashpoint era of 1976 to 1986 was when one age ended and another began. This book is a testament to that period when most of the popular concepts we follow today were born, thrived, and became legend.

Alex Ross Introduction

CELEBRATE!

SPIRIT 1976 the

o f

acters, Inc. Captain America, Falcon © Marvel Char

rom sea to shining sea, 1976 was a year best remembered for the gigantic fashion in which America as a nation celebrated the bicentennial of their independence. The hopeful juncture provided Americans with a wave of much-needed optimism that ushered a return to national pride after the dark days of the Vietnam War, Watergate, and other crises of the era. It reminded the young country of its heritage and commitment to excellence, freedom, and liberty for all—without exceptions. In just two hundred years, our diverse nation united to triumph over many obstacles and accomplish the seemingly impossible through force of will and ingenuity. In 1976, all looked up to the United States as a stellar example of perseverance and progress. Being that comic books came of age as an art form during World War II, it was only fitting that the industry distinguished the bicentennial with a multitude of special issues and patriotic covers honoring the occasion with a touch of pomp and circumstance. And, really, there are few things more native and true to the United States than apple pie, jazz, baseball, and, of course, comics and superheroes. What better time, then, for Jack “The King” Kirby’s return to Marvel Comics and the universe of characters that he helped mold—and in particular, the Jack “The King” Kirby. most recognizable patriotic hero Photo © The Jack Kirby Estate of them all, a character he co-created with Joe Simon at the onset of World War II, Captain America! Kirby, a World War II veteran and a cornerstone of the industry, authored tales of sheer power and spirituality while defining the dynamic visual storytelling of action-laced superhero comics. From his boundless artistry spun arresting characters, indescribable wonderful new worlds, and epic stories that were full of determination and nobility. The staggering amount of books collecting his memorable comics and the staying power of classic figures like the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the New Gods, and a thousand others stand as a testament to his ability. For the bicentennial, Kirby produced two patriotic classics starring his co-creation Captain America: “The Madbomb” and Bicentennial Battles. In a time when multi-issue story arcs and 200-page superhero graphic novels were not yet commonplace, Kirby reclaimed the reins of the monthly Captain America series with the saga entitled “Madbomb,” his longest sequential story for the character. With impeccable timing the tale unraveled in Captain America

#193 and continued to build momentum over the subsequent months until its climatic conclusion in issue #200, precisely in time for the bicentennial. With each installment originally priced at just 25 cents, Kirby gave his comics fans everything he could muster in these enthusiastic stories he wrote and illustrated. “Madbomb” was the kind of the good oldfashioned, bombastic, epic that could only come from Kirby. In this grandiose story of wild imagination, a nationwide threat emerges in the United States when a group of self-entitled and delusional social climbers called the Elite unleash their plot to use this “madbomb” on the bicentennial to destroy America. The sonic weapon is capable of inciting a “diabolic wave” of furious insanity that leaves everyone in its path crazed, destructive, and, ultimately, dead. The Elite would then assert themselves as the ruling class over those beneath them on the social and economic ladder—it was human greed and ignorance of biblical proportions. Were they to win, democracy would fall. With such high stakes, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger personally recruits Captain America and his trusted partner the Falcon. With each passing chapter of this eight-issue page-turner, the reader can feel time slipping away as the the Elite’s plan comes closer to fruition. With the Falcon and U.S. troops by his side, Captain America defies all odds to obtain victory in a mission he can’t afford to lose, even Back cover of Captain America’s Bicentennial Battles. if that means participating in a lethal game of Captain America © Marvel Characters, Inc. Kill-Derby. Stories like this one show us, while he may not be the America as he witnesses the determination and grit in his most powerful character in the Marvel Universe, there is fellow countrymen up close. With each stop he becomes no hero with more resilience and goodness than Captain more and more reinvigorated, culminating in an epiphany America, the hero who bears the red, white, and blue colors of optimism. Surrounded by a diverse group of children, the future of our land, Captain America gleefully says, “That’s of the United States proudly and deservedly. A sharp contrast to the “Madbomb” thriller is the spec- America! A place of stubborn confidence—where both tacular, oversized Marvel Treasury Special Captain America’s young and old can hope and dream! And wade through Bicentennial Battles. Written and penciled with gusto by disappointment, despair, and the crunch of events—with Kirby and embellished with stellar inking from John Romita the chance of making life meaningful!” These eloquent stories are fine examples of mainstream Sr., Barry Windsor-Smith, and Herb Trimpe, this largerthan-life, soul-searching journey takes Captain America comics at their best and most patriotic. Perhaps not as grand as into the past and future of America via the powers of the the mythology of Kirby’s Fourth World, they are full of sincermysterious yet wise Mister Buda and his psychic talisman. ity, nationalism, and goodness. In these books Captain AmerAs the Captain travels through time, he encounters pivotal ica is a hero of the people who fights for what’s right and won’t moments, wars, and figures from American history like Ben- stop until the job is done. Back in the 1970s, these comics jamin Franklin, Geronimo, and Betsy Ross—Cap and his made an impression on kids—gigantic stories brimming with radiant colors, wholesome heroism, wall-to-wall excitement, uniform even inspire Ross’ design of the American flag. But this Frank Capra-like journey isn’t just a time-trav- and, most importantly, hope. Jack Kirby, thank you for all of that. elling adventure but an exploration of a skeptical Captain 5

S ’ M I J G BI

. K . C . A P.

double trouble

attel’s Big Jim toy line was inspired by the success “Whatever [Marvel] sent me I did,” says Joltin’ Joe Sinof Hasbro’s original 12" G.I. Joe. Big Jim and his nott. “John Buscema had penciled it. I got it in the mail, adventure- and sports-themed accessories debuted of course. It was no big deal. I inked it and sent it back to in 1972, becoming one of the first toys to have a line of Marvel. dedicated playsets (sold separately, of course), including “I don’t know who [assigned the book]. I’m sure [it was] the infamous sports camper, “The Beast.” To showcase their goods to boys, Mattel created a special eight-page Big Jim: All-Star mini-comic book featuring the character demonstrating his athletic prowess. In 1976, Mattel added a new series to Big Jim called P.A.C.K. (an acronym for Professional Agents/Crime Killers), which turned the characters into a team of international operatives. P.A.C.K.’s designers crafted these toys to embrace the spirit of comics and recruited the services of the biggest names in the industry. Because the figures and their ads had such a heavy Jack Kirby influence, Mattel hired the King himself to illustrate the packaging. “I know that there were a lot of Kirby fans at Mattel,” says Steve Sherman, Kirby’s assistant during the time. “A lot of the He-Man stuff was based on Jack’s Marvel work. He had an association with Mattel because he had done the series of card games with Tarzan, Superman, and the Lone Ranger. [I know] for sure he didn’t design the Big Jim dolls. Oddly enough, Jack really didn’t care too much for these jobs. The money was good—better than comics—but Jack really liked doing stories. Advertising art was kind of a cramp for him because he didn’t like to re-do stuff.” This time around Mattel raised the ante for their giveaway comic book by contracting Marvel to put it together. The artists who took on this high profile assignment were John Buscema and Joe Sinnott, Marvel’s top penciler and top inker. Original art for the opening page of the Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. giveaway comic. Big Jim and all related characters © Mattel [Note: No writer is credited in the book.]

(above) Ads for the Big Jim’s P.A.C.K. toy line drawn by Buscema and Sinnott. (below) Big Jim packaging art by Kirby Big Jim and all related characters © Mattel

John Verpoorten. He was the production manager, and he used to send me a lot of odds and ends. I did a lot of covers for John for different books. I did a lot of the commercial stuff and ads for Marvel, and this was more or less an ad, if you remember.” It may have been more or less an ad, but it was a job that stood well in his recollections among the many classics stories the veteran artist worked on. Sinnott explains, “I always liked it. That’s the reason I got the originals back; I liked the art. John and I did a good job on the characters. I don’t know whatever was serialized with them, but they were good characters. It was a nice little story. “I often got comments on it. A few people made the comment, ‘Geez, why don’t they keep expanding on that group?’ They were a bunch of odd characters. I think they would have made out well if they had their own book. We were doing superheroes back then, and this was more like a Boy Commandos-type thing. I think they were an attractive group.”

Often paired together as an artistic team at Marvel, Sinnott’s smooth inking over Buscema’s powerful pencils looked as dazzling as ever in the Big Jim comic book. Assignments with Buscema were jobs that the famed Marvel inker cherished. Sinnott notes, “I liked working with John. Later on I did many stories with him that were [over his] breakdowns. I was a penciler before I was an inker. I could draw over work that was not complete, just indicated. I did stuff with Kirby the same way. Of course, Marvel compensated me for it.” Mattel inserted the action-packed comic book with specially marked Big Jim P.A.C.K. figures, giving the characters a cool backstory and showing off their abilities. The actual story sees Big Jim assemble his “crack team of expert killers” (Dr. Steel, the Whip, Warpath, and Torpedo) to take on the sinister two-faced Zorak. Between the Buscema/Sinnott drawn story, Kirby’s brilliant packaging art, and the sweet Kirby-inspired 10" dolls… Big Jim was a product made in comic book heaven! 7

ATHE BALLAD ADVENTURE A

OF the

GIJOE TEAM

s the Vietnam War came to a close in the early ’70s, Hasbro moved its once almighty G.I. Joe line away from its military beginnings. Rebranded as the G.I. Joe Adventure Team, the 12" action toys were the first to feature their infamous (and patented) Kung-Fu Grip. To further demilitarize the line and cash in on other successful toy fads, 1975 saw Eagle Eye Joe (the figure with the creepy moveable eyes) recruit two colorful superhumans: Bulletman, the Human Bullet; and Mike Power, the Atomic Man. In the same vein of Mego’s already famous superhero dolls, Hasbro created their own champion and named him Bulletman—not to be confused with identically named (and similarly clad) Fawcett comic book hero of the 1940s. This shiny hero had a “metal” (chrome) helmet and arms, and wore a costume made out of red fabric. With a little elbow grease and imagination, kids could even make the figure “fly” by placing a thread through the metal hoops on the back of his uniform, and tying each end of the string (at an angle) to something solid. Thanks to Hasbro’s constant commercials on children’s television, the ludicrous Bulletman became an unforgettable toy. Atomic Mike was Hasbro’s apparent response to losing out on the toy license to the Six Million Dollar Man (which ended up being the top toy of 1975) to Kenner. Mike Power’s backstory was that of a man dissatisfied with being disabled, who built himself atomic body parts and an atomic eye. The toy was a Atomic Mike and Bulletman join Eagly-Eye G.I. Joe’s Adventure Team! dead ringer for the aforementioned bionic television star. He featured a transparent plastic leg and arm, G.I. Joe © Hasbro flashing eye, and an atomic hand that could rotate a propel- portions (8–8½"). These blunders proved fatal; the new ler (to achieve the illusion of flight). While not as successful Joes bore little resemblance to the popular comrades-inas the Six Million Dollar Man, Atomic Mike was a popular arms who preceded them. The killing blow was dealt by Kenner’s Star Wars line released the same year, and the toy Christmas item in 1975. In 1977, Hasbro retired the far-out Adventure Team to of choice in the boy’s market for years to come. Rightly so, make way for an ill-fated, futuristic Super Joe. In another Super Joe was a super flop and the line quietly faded away change, the 12" figures were shrunken down to Mego pro- until its 1982 revival.

SMILE AWAY

the H A R

V E Y Funny Books

o boy or girl was meant to live on superhero comics alone. There was once a time where real funny books, ones filled with laughs, roamed the spinner rack side by side with fantasy, adventure, horror, romance, western, war, drama, and superheroes titles. For many of us, the journey into comics began with beloved characters such as Casper, Richie Rich, and Hot Stuff, who delivered the good times like no one else. Founded in 1941 by impresario Albert Harvey, Harvey Comics became known for its licensed comics and horror line in its formative years. By 1952, the company began restructuring itself when it entered an arrangement with Famous Studios (Paramount Cartoon Characters) to publish a treasure trove of kids’ titles featuring characters like Casper the Friendly Ghost and Little Audrey. The New York outfit went on to produce an eyeappealing line of wholesome children’s comics. The company splendidly captured the lushness of high-quality cartoons and placed it inside a ten-cent comic. As fate would have it, humor is where Harvey found its calling. Prompted by its good fortune, the publisher acquires the rights to Casper and the rest of the Paramount Cartoon Characters stable in 1959. Afterward, Harvey stood tall as the predominant publisher of kids’ comics, thanks to their vibrant characters, guiltless humor, and everyday kindness. Just as the deal with Famous Studios went through, a young

man named Sid Jacobson began earning his editorial stripes as an assistant to Perry Antoshak at Harvey. Within a couple of years, the New York University graduate and former journalist became the company’s sole editor for the next four decades. He would help set and oversee the tone for the highly successful line, and took naturally to assuming responsibility and leadership. Right from the start, Sid worked alongside the crème de la crème in the industry, from Joe Simon and Jack Kirby on Captain 3-D, to Harvey all-stars Ernie Colón and Howard Post. Jacobson realized he had found his calling in comics, and it was a job that he loved. The father of the then-new “Harvey World” look was Steve Muffatti (1910–68), a former animator at the legendary Fleischer Studios and Paramount’s Famous Cartoon Studios. The illustrator came to the company and established an appealing artistic house style—one that magically infused an animated cartoon look into the humor books and their kid stars. The drawings looked deceptively simple, but they were highly stylized and energetic. The other Harvey artists would follow his lead. Immediately upon his arrival at company in 1952, the master animator worked his magic on Little Audrey, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Paramount Animated Comics, and, later, many of Richie Rich’s earliest stories. His influence ran full circle in the Harveytoons cartoon shows that brought these exciting characters to the rapidly growing television market. A Warren Kremer-drawn Richie Rich proudly displays Steve Muffatti’s original art for the cover of Little Audrey #29 (1953). Richie Rich, Little Audrey © Classic Media

All characters © Classic

The great Harvey editor Sid Jacobson explains, “All the books, which originally Harvey did, were licensed from Paramount Pictures, and Famous Studios was their studio arm. My first people that worked for me came out of Famous Studios. They were artists, inkers, and directors from Famous Studios. Steve Muffatti was a director then, and he also was an artist. He did the Little Audrey comic strip. He was a wonderful, extraordinary artist. And Warren Kremer, he did a lot of the illustration of the horror, war, and the love books. A wonderful illustrator. He learned how to do animation from Steve Muffatti.” As the dependable iron horse of Harvey Comics, Warren Kremer (1921– 2003) cast a tall shadow as the company’s prolific ace artist for 35 years. Adapting to the humor line after having worked in every other genre, he studied Muffatti’s technique and integrated (and expanded) it into his repertoire. The Bronx native’s eloquent brushwork proved to have broad appeal, consistently hitting the sentimental sweet spot and funny bone of the audience. Children, in particular, couldn’t resist the instant likeability and consistent quality of his cutesy storytelling. Among his creations are everyone’s favorite bad boy Hot Stuff, Stumbo the Giant, and Richie Rich—a figure he named after his son Richard. It was also his makeover of the original gloomy Famous Studios design of Casper that turned the affable spirit into the world’s most famous ghost. The artist left his stamp on practically everything related to Harvey. Jacobson remembers, “Warren used to come in once a week, or once every two weeks, because we’d work on covers together, and he would occasionally go over some of the art of some of the other artists—who were always very willing. Warren’s ability was incredible. During his really productive days, I would say that he produced something close to ten pages a week of pencils. This is extraordinary. These are eight-panel pages. Animation is certainly easier than illustration, but this is still extraordinary. But he knew the breakdown of any character so well that he could draw almost without circles, without anything. It was amazing. Ernie Colón has told me constantly that Warren would say, ‘Look, Ernie, look how easy it is!’ And Ernie would say, ‘For you!’ And Ernie, as far as I could see, was by far the closest to what Warren could do.” Casper was a throw-in in the Famous Studios deal. The animated character already had an unsuccessful (and uneventful) comic at St. John Publications in 1949. Harvey Comics would go on to revamp the character and his environment with smashing results. As Casper became more prominent as his sales soared higher, the publisher conjured up more titles in which to feature him. The lively ghost was seemingly omnipresent during the ’60s and ’70s between the reruns of his cartoons, toys, novelties, and books. “We really recreated Casper, and it was not famous until we did it,” states Jacobson. “The original Casper cartoons took place in a cemetery. It started in a cemetery with him over his grave, and then he was looking for a friend to accept. Okay. Warren and I threw it out immediately. We put him in a haunted house with three uncles, and we treated him as if he had been born a ghost. All of these characters were born ghosts. They were not dead people who had come back to some kind of life. That made a huge difference. And then that brought in the Enchanted Forest, and whole methods of adventure that could come from it. “We didn’t go into that [ghost] detail, but we worked from that detail. Harvey really got gifted with all the Paramount characters, because at the time they were going on ABC-Paramount. ABC was part of Paramount, and you could not own the characters that you were putting on your television show. So they had to get rid of them. What they did was make a deal with Harvey that would give them Casper, Little Audrey, Herman and Catnip, Baby Huey, Buzzy the Crow, and a few others. They gave them to Harvey, and the deal was that they

Media

pay a certain amount of money and when it would go on As the editorial head, Sid Jacobson ensured the compatelevision, it would have to be made at Famous Studios. ny’s books had a lively consistency and sharpness that their That was the deal: Harvey now owned the characters, and readers came to expect. Above all else, the secret to the sucthe shows were being made by Famous Studios. Now, the cess of these titles was their constant focus on storytelling, first stories, which were done for the show, were all comic art, and character instead of cheap laughs. The direction stories. So they went totally into the attitude of the comics for the company’s titles was imparted to Jacobson from its and what the comics had done. And it became immediately founder. successful.” Jacobson says, “I must say that Alfred Harvey, before When he stopped being a “dead boy,” Casper and his entire he had his aneurysm, was an exceedingly bright man, and world were refashioned, and given a new lease on “life”—a each time a book was completed, I would show the pages less scary one. The Harvey creators came up with a whole to him for approval, and later on to Leon [his brother]. I new world of personalities like the Ghostly Trio, Wendy the remember when he first talked to me about showing pages, Good Little Witch, and Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost. The he said, ‘I’ll tell you what I’m going to do. Every time that more kid-friendly environment opened all the doors. you give me pages, I’m going to put my hand over the balRichie Rich was an loons and see if I underoriginal Harvey Comics stand the story. That’s the creation that became key.’ And he’s so right. undoubtedly the most They don’t pay attention popular character in the to it anymore. They don’t company’s stable. The pay attention to it even in poor little rich boy with comic strips. I get the L.A. the heart of gold used Times, and they have two his imagination to make pages of comics—I don’t things happen with his look at them anymore, wealth, and he turned out and I used to like comic to be a genuine cash cow. strips. Because all they are Created in 1953, Richie is talking heads. If it’s talkwas a bit of a late bloomer ing heads, why the hell are who wasn’t bestowed his you doing comics? You own title until 1960. The may as well just write the character grew to be so stuff down. The point of popular so quickly that he comics is using the action, and his supporting charor the movement, or the acters carried over 50 diflooks of the faces that you ferent titles (on a monthly need to tell a story. But if or bi-monthly basis) over you’re not paying attenthe years. tion to it, what the hell Jacobson says, “The is it? And this is what he Cover art for Astro Comics, an American Airlines in-flight magazine. look for [Richie] that taught me early on, and I All characters © Classic Media Warren basically created always followed that.” was like a Little Lord Fauntleroy look. Any rich personalUnlike Archie with its predominately female readership, ity in comics, whether Scrooge McDuck, or Reggie Van Harvey was the last comic book company that catered their Dough, Richie’s cousin, this is the way it was treated. We books to boys and girls, children of all ages—and they sold tried to have a kid who was rich, but who wanted friend- millions doing so. But in the late ’70s, the company had a ship and the friendship of kids of any kind. His two closest hard time keeping up with the changes in the marketplace. friends were two poor kids. I figured Gloria, the girlfriend, Despite the television presence of their properties and the was middle class at best. He didn’t flaunt the money. He widespread distribution of their titles, kids began to stay liked to enjoy the things it got, and all the kids could away from the titles in droves. Part of the problem was that enjoy the things it got. So that’s the way we treated it— the books had lost their uniqueness. The line was simply and it worked! I see more and more that Richie Rich has too big. become part of the country’s vocabulary. I see it in ads, I “They kept pushing, and pushing, and pushing, adding see it on programs. Just this past week I heard them refer- more and more, and it became ridiculous,” says Jacobson. ring to someone as ‘a Richie Rich.’ So it really worked.” “The market couldn’t bear that. But that’s just one thing. 11

(above) Former Cub Scout Alfred Harvey put the support of his publishing company behind the organization. (below) When times got tough and the market changed, not even $uper Richie could save the day. All characters © Classic Media

Alfred had been a Cub Scout. He gave them Casper to use. He put out books for them. There are loads of bad decisions that didn’t help the company. They pretty much closed down. They kept an art staff there to be able to do reprints and do some covers for a year maybe.” The bubble had burst, and the company ceased publishing in 1982. Disturbingly, children’s comics just didn’t have a place in a direct market world dominated by superhero comics. The characters have returned now and then over the years, but they’ve yet to capture anything remotely close to the success of their prime years. It was the end of an era. The loyal comic book creators of Harvey placed a great deal of dignity in their work for the company. Many of these talented artists worked there for decades creating the stories that solidified the brand name. If there is tragedy in any of this, it lies in the fact that the Harvey staff worked anonymously and uncredited. Outside of a handful of exceptions, the majority of these nameless writers and artists never got the satisfaction of seeing their name alongside their work. Sadly, it was a long-running company policy. “[Leon and Alfred Harvey] wouldn’t allow the artists to sign their name,” confirms Jacobson. “Like Disney, the artists don’t sign their names here. At that time, all Marvel writers and artists had their names. DC had the artists’ names. We didn’t. The only names that appeared were friends of theirs. Simon and Kirby had their names; Bob Powell had his name; Lee Elias had his name; Al Avison had his name. That was basically the group. No writer could, except 12

Warren Kremer’s original artwork for Richie Rich #39, and his cover to a 1976 promotional comic. All characters © Classic Media

Simon and Kirby. This was a horrible, horrible thing to do to these people because they really became anonymous. For my money, the best artist I’ve ever known in comics was Warren Kremer—head and shoulders.” Although the audience was familiar with their stories and art styles, they didn’t have a single clue as to the true identity of the creators behind their favorite Harvey titles. But comic book fans are a determined bunch, and the passage of time and diligent research has revealed the names of these people. Amusingly, many of Harvey’s best talent later found sweet justice producing their brand of comics for Marvel’s Star Comics imprint, which proudly displayed their names in the credit boxes in 1984. Jacobson says, “I worked with Warren and a guy named Lenny Herman in preparing new characters for Marvel. In my office, I had the layout drawings that Warren had of these characters, the model shots, and I remember Marie Severin had come into my office, and she looked at these, and she said, ‘Who did that?’—with a gasp. And I said, ‘Warren Kremer.’ She said, ‘They won’t tell you here, but this guy is the greatest artist who ever walked through these doors.’ She was right. No one knew his name. Not until he used his name at Marvel. Never once was he allowed to sign anything. He did almost every cover of all those

books: all of Richie, all of Casper, all of the Baby Huey, the whole shebang. He did every cover. And never, even on the cover, would they let him use his name. This was a horror, as far as I’m concerned, and it would have become so much more important for them than any sale of their artwork for really giving a reason for their being. This whole thought of having anonymity was preposterous, and a lie. [It] was very painful for me, to try and try, [telling the Harveys], “It would be good. We’d pick up sales.’ ‘No. You can’t argue about this. This is what we’re doing.’ It was heartbreaking.” The depth of feeling with which Kremer, Jacobson, Muffatti, Colón, Post, and their colleagues imbued their work made Harvey Comics into an American institution. The stories and characters they created were a source of joy and laughter. One only has to see a child’s proudly engraved name on a well-worn Harvey comic book cover to see the impact of their work. The enduring gratification of Harvey Comics lives on in our childhood memories, and will forever remind us to smile. 13

A 34" x 22" 1983 promotional poster for Marvel Team-Up penciled by Ron Frenz. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

the MARVEL TEAM-UP series

rue friendship is rare. Remember how it felt discovering a new pal who liked the same things you did, or exposed you to something unfamiliar but wonderful? Someone who had your back no matter the odds stacked against you? Through good times and bad, real amigos are the ones that stick by you right to the end. As we get older and hopefully wiser, it becomes clearer just how hard it is to find friends like that, and how important it is to hold on to them. Marvel Team-Up is a comic book series all about friendships. Back in the day, Spider-Man befriended everyone in the Marvel Universe, so much so that characters were not “officially” a part of the Marvel Comics Universe until they traded quips with the friendly neighborhood web-slinger. Today’s clamoring for an interactive universe in Marvel’s movies and television shows has its roots in Marvel Team-Up’s 150 issues and seven annuals. True, heroes chumming up and combining their efforts was not exactly a new notion, but what Marvel did better than anyone was give their characters layers of personality and self-consciousness that made these partnerships much more genuine. “It was Stan Lee’s [idea], not mine. I suspect a desire to expand Spidey was the launching point… though it was also his idea—insisted upon—later, I think, to do issues without

Spidey, once it got going,” explains Roy Thomas. “Stan just asked me to write the first issue. I suppose it was a sort of template… but our other writers didn’t need one. They’d seen World’s Finest and The Brave and the Bold.” Initially, SpiderMan was to share the headlining duties of the series with other characters, like Hulk and Human Torch, but the public’s insatiable appetite for more Spidey books set a different course for the title. Assuming the reins of the series after its launch was a talented 19-year-old writer named Gerry Conway, on his way to authoring some of the greatest comics of the period. “It was a small group of people working at Marvel at that time,” recalls Conway. “I think there were less than a half-dozen writers working there, and Roy was the only editor. I think they had an assistant editor also working there, but, for the most part, it was a very small, collegial group of people, so we all knew what was going on, what was coming up, what the plans were. I don’t think Roy intended to write the book more than just the lead-off issue. I think the plan was always that I was going to work on it fairly regularly.” For kids, Marvel Team-Up was a great idea because you got two superheroes for the price of one. The magazine also was a perfect gateway into the wider world of Marvel Comics. It served as a sampler, introducing characters from other titles,

All Characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

he projected the familiar humor and feel that made the title a perennial favorite. Conway states, “I still read comics—not as frequently as I did, but I still read them—and I’m always amazed with the depth of knowledge of the story specifics, in the backstory and everything else, that writers assume a reader brings to any given issue. You can’t pick up a comic book today just randomly and start. [laughter] It’s not practical in any way, so it’s really kind of a problem. And that comes from four or five decade’s worth of mythology that you’re trying to keep in mind. But we didn’t have that problem back then. The Marvel era was only about ten years old, and the number of stories that had been told before, say, Team-Up #1, was maybe in the hundreds, as opposed to the thousands and thousands today. So we had a bit of an advantage.” In terms of his approach, Conway had a very clear vision for the direction of his work on Team-Up. The author says, “Well, my reference points would be the Brave and the Bold stories that had been done in the ’60s with Batman, and before that with a variety of oddball team-ups, like Martian Manhunter and Green Arrow, for example. It makes no sense, but it was fun to read. So we had two points of view. I don’t think we ever thought of any of the Marvel books as gateway books. We always assumed that we were dealing with the same group of readers, but we did know that they had varying degrees of familiarity with different characters, and someone who read Spider-Man might not necessarily also read the Fantastic Four, so you have to come in with the idea that you’re going to bring the (above) What would a superhero’s first trip to New York be without a readers of both books kind of up to speed, so in effect you’re writing proactively. You’re writing with the idea fight with Spider-Man before becoming friends with him? that perhaps those particular readers won’t necessarily (next page) The dramatic introduction to the villainous Arcade. know what the relationships are, or what the characArcade, Captain Britain, Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. ter’s back story is, and so on. Back in the early ’70s, even those not necessarily ready for the primetime spotlight. Marvel was still only about ten years old, and even though Interestingly, editor Roy Thomas admits that it was not ini- we were a very successful company, we didn’t have the kind tially conceived as such a vehicle. Thomas says, “No, if any- of media ubiquity you have today where everybody knows thing the opposite, because you had to be familiar with two who Captain America is, everybody knows who Thor is, characters, not just one, to get into the stories.” and so on. So you sort of had to at least be aware that your 1972 was a year of expansion for Marvel Comics as Stan readers might not know everything that they need to know Lee became Marvel’s publisher; it was the same year found- to enjoy the story.” ing publisher Martin Goodman sold his business to the Also among the talent crafting early Team-Up stories is a Cadence Industries Corporations (Perfect Film & Chemi- who’s who of Marvel’s best comic book creators: Len Wein, cal Corporation). Conway says, “There were two phases Bill Mantlo, Ross Andru, Jim Mooney, and Sal Buscema, of Marvel. There was the phase prior to the early ’70s as who enjoyed a multi-year tenure as principal penciler of Marvel was growing and creating its identity, and there’s the title. All of these aforementioned men did engaging the expansion that occurred when Stan became publisher work, but perhaps the high point of the series is the standand we ended up with a different distribution deal which out run (issues #59–70, plus #’s 75, 79, and 100) by writer allowed us to publish more titles. Marvel Team-Up was sort Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne, begun in 1977 of a consequence of that business decision.” before their now-classic collaboration on The X-Men. Their With Conway guiding the formative stories of Team-Up, issues raised the intensity of the book tenfold, with stories 16

DC Comics Presents

rman © DC Comics

pe Captain Comet, Su

that had real ramifications in the Marvel universe and presented noteworthy characters like Captain Britain (in his first American appearance) and the popular X-Men baddie Arcade (in his first appearance anywhere). Originally, Chris Claremont expressed his reluctance to write a book that by its nature was restrictive and inconsequential in Marvel’s pecking order. He sought ways to make his stories matter in the greater scheme of things. Claremont explains, “Well, a Team-Up is much more an exercise in technique than it is in, I suppose you could say, inspiration. You’re locked into the necessity of the format, which is every issue has to team up. You can’t do much with Spider-Man, because his focus, in terms of how his character evolves, and the inner relationship, the relationships with himself and with his friends all occurs in Amazing and Spectacular. Team-Up was visualized as much more of a surface reality where Spidey encounters another hero and they have a relationship for an issue, they fight a villain, and then we move on to the next adventure, and the next hero, and the next villain. To a certain extent, there’s not really a lot of room for a writer or an artist to creatively play.

Respected writer Mike W. Barr is one of a handful of men to craft stories for both Marvel Team-Up and DC Comics Presents, the distinguished competition’s team-up book starring their flagship hero Superman. An enjoyable series opened and closed by the esteemed editor Julius Schwartz, DC Comics Presents ran for 97 issues and four annuals between 1978 and 1986. [Note: Batman anchored the longer running team-up book entitled The Brave and The Bold.] Discussing the differences between both, Barr says, “Titles don’t set approaches for the readers, editors do. DC Comics Presents was edited by Julie Schwartz, the old master of the plotheavy story. I usually approached an assignment with Julie as a plot challenge first, then worked in the characterization. With Marvel Team-Up usually being a Spider-Man title, some sort of hook to draw Spidey into the story came first, then the plot worked itself out from there. I wound up writing my issues of those titles by pitching to the editor, all except for the issue of DC Comics Presents that teamed Superman with Batman and the Outsiders [DCCP #83]. Julie came to me, asking me to write that one, as he thought it would sell well.”

But immediately, once we knew the rules, it was then, ‘Okay, how can we break them?’ Which I quite happily did.” Claremont took the book to heart and never approached it as a second-tier Spidey series. Within the parameters set, the creative team did their best to make the title theirs by giving it its own continuity and ambience during their limited run. The results produced the best stories of the series, and a consistency the series never had prior. Besides Byrne, Claremont’s Team-Up tenure also saw him work with other artists, including Sal Buscema, Bob McLeod, Frank Miller, Mike Vosburg, and more. “Well, we built up our own supporting cast and our own relationships,” discloses Claremont. “For example, the Black Widow four-parter [issues #82–85] that Steve Leialoha and I did ended up with aspects of it, including the Widow’s secret identity of Nancy Rushman, being part of Iron Man 2 [the movie]. It turned out to be fun. And the other side of the coin was to also find guest stars and situations that caught the reader by surprise, that did things that were unexpected, that were dramatic, that were fun, that almost required the audience to take this book seriously as a 17

Inc. All characters © Marvel Characters,

Marvel title and a Spidey title and not just dismiss it as, ‘Oh, it’s Team-Up. Nothing fun is going to happen there from issue to issue.’ So that was very cool.” To corral higher profile heroes and villains, Claremont found himself lobbying with Marvel’s editors to scope out and secure the best characters he could. It was a skill he perfected, and it enabled him to pair Spider-Man with so many interesting notables: Thor, Ghost Rider, Red Sonja, Nick Fury, and even the Not-Ready-for-Primetime Players (NBC’s Saturday Night Live cast of 1978!), among other characters. Claremont reveals, “It’s finding out who’s available, who we can steal for an issue, how we can factor aspects into it or not. And there was a lot more technique in Team-Up than the raw inspiration that might go into, say, Dr. Strange or Uncanny, but the ultimate idea was if you’re going to use a villain, whoever the villain is, can you find a way to present that villain or the conflict that will catch the reader by surprise and inspire them to look on the character, or the confrontation, or the moment, in a fresh and hopefully excited sort of way. And then you just charged ahead and hoped for the best. The other side of it is that, if worse came to absolute worst, if I needed a hero, I’d just steal one of the X-Men. Of which there were many. Even then.” Once Team-Up passed its 100th issue, the series continued to showcase a regular succession of writers and artists; the tone of the stories also shifted back to its ‘middle of the road’ roots. According to its 1983 statement of ownership, the readership remained steady with an average monthly print run boasting a healthy 387,534 copies. In spite of its general lightheartedness and relaxed continuity, the TeamUp concept proved to be strong to the end. 18

“I don’t think the hallmarks of a great team-up are any different than those of a great story in general,” says Danny Fingeroth, the editor of Team-Up’s last 16 issues. “You try your best to make the team-up seem as natural as possible. Since the Marvel universe is interconnected, that was usually relatively easy. And as in any buddy picture, the best moments are those that contrast the stars to show how different and/or how alike they are, and how they figure out, or don’t, ways to work together effectively.” The sight of Barry Windsor-Smith’s somber cover to the finale [issue #150] served a bitter pill to swallow for anyone who grew up alongside the title, but the defiant series never wavered from being anything less than spirited. Fingeroth explains, “Then-EIC [Editor-in-Chief ] Jim Shooter thought that a comic that automatically had a Spider-Man team-up every issue was less realistic than the concept of the Spider-Man titles each having team-ups only when necessary for a given story. So he cancelled Team-Up and replaced it with Web of Spider-Man. I came up with the title. I guess having a #1 issue of Web of Spider-Man didn’t hurt, either.” While not every chapter of Marvel Team-Up was marvelous, the series remains fondly remembered. It was the old friend who introduced us to characters and compelling stories we would never have encountered otherwise. It made the word “team-up” a part of this generation’s vernacular. The stories showed that even a superhero like Spidey was not afraid to ask for help when his back was against the wall. If anything, the fallibility and humility of the character only endeared him more to readers. In its own peculiar way, intentional or not, Marvel Team-Up taught us that, with a little help from our friends, we can accomplish almost anything.

ICON C

JOHN ROMITA

omic books have shown that only the true masters, the icons, of this craft leave an everlasting lasting mark on it. John Romita’s glorious body of work is a testament to this sentiment. Shortly after joining Marvel’s staff full-time in 1965, the Brooklyn native began rendering his now-classic run on The Amazing Spider-Man. As an indispensable member of editor Stan Lee’s small crew, the versatile illustrator also provided art corrections, paste-ups, and most noteworthy, indoctrinated newer artists to Marvel’s method of storytelling during their expansion years. By 1973, he deservedly became the company’s official art director, a position from which he oversaw that the quality of all interior art and covers remained true to the standards of the House of Ideas. Alongside his duties as their principal character designer, his indelible influence and stamp (and touch-ups) can be viewed throughout Marvel’s output during his tenure. The good-natured Romita looks at the mid-1970s as a benchmark in his long illustrious career, a period of true personal satisfaction. Working alongside his lovely wife Virginia and their youngest son John Romita Jr. in the Marvel offices, he practically had the whole world in his hands. “I never thought I was making enough money,” states the affable artist, “but that was a personal thing. [laughs] John Romita at his drawing board in his office at Marvel. The thing is [because I was on staff] I never Photograph © respective owner. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. did a lot of jumping around to popular books. I was like Stan’s ace-in-the-hole. I was like a bullpen guy, was trying to become Milton Caniff and Carmine Infanand whenever he needed help on a book, I would jump on tino and everybody else. Stan led me to realize that I was it. It didn’t make a lot of money for me, but I certainly got a storyteller, and it didn’t matter what my artwork looked exposure, and I got a chance to show off my versatility. So like because the stories were carrying the books. And I believed that, because I always thought I was without a I was lucky. “It was also the time that I realized that a good comic style, a nondescript guy. I thought I was generic, you know? artist is not an artist as much as he’s a storyteller, and when And when I realized I was a storyteller, I didn’t have to I realized I was a storyteller, I stopped worrying about doing worry about my artwork anymore. All I had to do was tell beautiful work. The first ten years I was in the business, I a damn good story.” 19

Romita’s cover art for Power Records’ 12" 33 1⁄₃ r.p.m. Amazing Spider-Man L.P. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

The October 29, 1977, Amazing Spider-Man daily newspaper strip (above) and promotional artwork for the strip (below). Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Like his artistic hero Milton Caniff (of Terry and the Pirates and Steve Canyon fame), “Jazzy” John Romita became a syndicated cartoonist with the newly christened The Amazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip, on January 3, 1977. While the heyday of adventure strips had long passed, there still remained a prestige attached to working on an internationally syndicated feature. These strips would take SpiderMan into millions of homes on a regular basis, into places that the comic books never could when it debuted in more than 300 newspapers. Especially thrilling for New Yorkers Romita and writer Stan Lee was the sight of seeing their effort in The New York Daily News, the paper with the highest circulation carrying it. Their hometown tabloid loudly heralded Spidey’s arrival within their daily editions and as an eye-catching detail on their fleet of delivery trucks. “The only problem I had with [the strip] was, at the time I got in there were less papers every year, and I thought of it as a dead end kind of a thing. Not like in the previous decades, [when] anybody who got into syndication was guaranteed a nice, long run. All you had to do was be good. But I told Stan, the syndicated strip is perfect, except chances are it won’t last long. I told him, ‘I will do it, and I will stay on the strip until we start to lose papers.’ So, for the first four years, we were gaining papers, which was a very pleasant surprise for me. The only thing is, I was working, like, eight days a week, and I was killing myself, and I was aging in front of my own mirror. [laughs]”

For the children who hadn’t experienced the magic of comic books or were forbidden from reading them, the charming funny served its purpose as an effective introduction to Marvel’s flagship character by one of the medium’s all-time favorite creative teams. “[Stan Lee] always said it was a different audience, and that’s why we did [it]. I really plunged in there and tried to make them look like motion pictures because I wanted to appeal to the different audience that he kept telling me we were finding. So I did as good a job as physically possible, and when I needed help, I had guys like Fred Kida helping me, and other guys doing quick thumbnails for me to save time. But, whatever it was, I poured myself into that strip, at the sacrifice of some income. “It was great. I got a lot of ego-soothing stuff in the ’70s. In the late ’60s and the full ’70s, I got a great deal of satisfaction. The syndicated strip, the prognostication was that it was not going to be a success, because no adventure strips were surviving in those years. The best adventure strips were going under. The only thing that stayed on was Steve Canyon and a couple others. I didn’t have much hope for it, because I know that the newspaper business is not suited for superheroes. And the fact that it’s still running now, I take pride in that, because I put the first four years down, and we went from 200 to 450 papers at a time when everybody else was losing papers, and I remember that there was also a Superman and a Batman strip [The World’s Greatest Superheroes] around the same time. It didn’t last. The fact that we kept 21

running and were gaining papers… I was busting my butt with pride.” Always true to his word, the gentleman artist stepped down in 1980 from the funny papers business when he felt it was time to move on. While the successful Amazing Spider-Man strip still continues today, no one has been able to replicate the high energy and elegant storytelling Romita placed into his outstanding run. For him, it was a highly profound experience to see his efforts connect with a new legion of admirers. “Oh, let me tell you, those four years I got letters from places I never heard of. I had fans in John Romita promotional artwork and just a few of the licensed products on which his work appeared. Fantastic Four, Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Finland, Asia, and South America. It was like, ‘Wow! This is sensational! I’m getting stuff….’ Yeah, and it was printed in foreign languages. The Italians made me feel like some kind of hero. They treated me like John Buscema. [laughter]” Between his strip and art director duties, there weren’t many opportunities for Romita to draw interior artwork for the monthly line. Instead, what he did end up creating were many of Marvel’s most identifiable images of the era outside of the comics. He became the go-to man when advertisers, merchandisers, and special projects needed lively conventional art to push their Marvel-related wares—much of this imagery was used over and over again throughout the years. The sheer attractiveness and underlying sweetness of his fine line, stylistically, made it an ideal choice to represent Marvel because it appealed to the masses. Millions of children became well-acquainted with the avalanche of items bearing the now classic images created by the Jazzy One on toys, games, lunchboxes, backpacks, watches, soap, children’s books, coloring books, and other fun knickknacks. Although the majority of his art on these mainstream goods was unsigned, it became obvious to all that the distinctive art styling of Romita was synonymous with Marvel Comics and the childhood of a generation. Always the consummate professional, it became quite important to Romita that all outside artwork capture the integrity of Marvel’s characters faithfully. If he had a say or opinion on any licensing endeavor, he would do his best to express it. “It was a burden, but it was my way of trying to keep the trademark looking good, because a lot of times we would farm out stuff and the advertising agencies would screw them up. They would be really ugly. More than once I would send a sketch in for a newspaper ad and somebody would do a butcher job of inking it or tracing over it, and the ads invariably were very ugly, so I had to try and control the flow of stuff to make Spider-Man look like Spider-Man and not be somebody’s interpretation of it. I had a lot of problems

SPIDEY SUPER STORIES (As told by Jim Salicrup)

I’m eternally thankful to John Romita for asking me to write Spidey Super Stories. Working with him was a complete joy, but I don’t know how he ever put up with me! John Romita is an awesomely talented artist, and I have always loved his work! I got to help design some of my first comic book covers on Spidey Super Stories, and we even had Jack Kirby pencil a few covers—my favorite is the one with Spidey, Dr. Doom, and the Silver Surfer. John wanted to work on a comic that was more than simply entertainment, and he liked that this comic helped kids to read. I argue that all comics help kids to read, but Spidey Super Stories had the official endorsement of CTW, which meant parents were willing to let their children read it. As a result, I still to this day meet people who tell me that an issue of Spidey Super Stories was the first comic book they ever read. Several comic book writers have told me that too. So, yes, I certainly look back on both writing and then editing Spidey Super Stories fondly.

with that. But being in there every day and having Stan come in with requests constantly, and I was working with pop-up books for Mexico, and then things like the balloon at the Macy’s Parade—it was very exciting.” One more source of great delight for the icon was the successful Spidey Super Stories series, a joint project between Marvel Comics and Children’s Television Workshop (the non-profit production company behind of Sesame Street and The Electric Company), on which he served as a key

contributor and adviser during its 1974 to 1982 run. The master artist says, “I was so proud of that because they were out for years, with no advertising, and it was a public service that I was so proud of. We got a letter from groups of educators who gave us the credit for introducing reading to a whole generation of youngsters. I don’t know where that letter disappeared to. But it was one of the proudest moments of 60 years in comics. I can’t tell you how proud I was of that stuff.” 23

To kick off the 1980s, Romita began to take on more assignments from Marvel’s Special Projects department. He explains, “Well, actually, the special projects I thought was going to be a good variety. I don’t know why I did it. I did Barbie, and I did Smurfs, and I did a lot of Disney stuff, Aladdin. The variety was very enticing to me, because it could be very boring to do the same stuff over and over again.” Special projects proved to a constant juggling act and a slight source of frustration for the artist. These chaotic tasks came with a lot of strings attached due to the mad rush to turn these assignments around quickly and on-budget in order to appease the clientele behind these outside accounts. Whether they were customized Marvel efforts or the nonsuperhero fare, there were always many uncontrollable and unforeseen variables on these types of assignments. For a perfectionist like Romita, the environment of special projects made it difficult for him to create the brand of artwork he had grown accustomed to. He confirms, “What happened was we were only able to use second-line comics artists and writers. I broke some new writers in. I think the first time [Jim] Salicrup and people like that started writing was when we did the special projects. So we didn’t have the best artists, and I couldn’t do every cover, I couldn’t do every page. I would sometimes lay them out for people, and sometimes they would turn in a sort of bland version of what I wanted. It was a little bit hard because I wasn’t always proud of what we did there. “I remember we did three issues of The A-Team, but the thing is that they didn’t give me enough time. They gave me, like, three months, 90 days, to do three comic books, which we wanted to make as good as possible. Sol Brodsky [head of Special Projects] and I tried to make them as beautiful as possible and as close to Marvel quality as possible, but we didn’t have the best artists to use. In the fourth year, I was getting to the point where I was uncomfortable putting my name on some of that stuff because I didn’t like how it looked. But it was hard, because, when you try to turn a line of comic books into an assembly line and turning them out like sausages, that’s not me. I need to make them better looking than that.” When it came to his own artwork, Romita went to painstaking lengths to get the storytelling to look as sharp and as inviting as possible for everyone to (top) Romita’s color guide for the cover of Fireside’s Bring on the Bad Guys. (above) Romita’s cover art for the 1976 Mighty Marvel Bicentennial Calendar. enjoy: the comic book fans, the casual readers, and even the absolute beginAll characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. 24

(above) Romita’s painted album cover art for 1975’s Spideythemed rock opera Spider-Man: Reflections of a Superhero. (right) Original art for a promotional comic featuring the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders for Sanger-Harris, a department store chain based in Dallas, Texas. Spider-Man, Hulk © Marvel Characters, Inc.

ners. It wasn’t sheer talent alone that made his lavish powerpacked stories appear effortless, but also his relentless dedication to perfection. He poured all of himself into his craft because it was the only way he knew how to work. “What I had was clarity,” tells Romita. “I’m not going to mention names of my colleagues and my contemporaries because I don’t want to put anybody down, but a lot of guys were doing flashy techniques and flashy artwork, but what happened is they lost clarity. That’s what happened with Image, that kind of stuff. They were not clear enough for people to follow the stories.” “I managed it, but, of course, it cost me a lot of sleep. I used to work through the night a lot of times and stay home the next day, so it was always rough. You see, John Buscema and Jack Kirby were so fast that whatever they wanted to do, they could do, and it never even slowed them down, but whenever I started a new project, it took a long time for me to get it rolling because I was a perfectionist, and I was very slow.” In 1984, at behest of Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, Romita resumed being Marvel’s official art director—he had relinquished the duties of this position during the hectic days of the syndicated strip to the talented Marie Severin. Soon after that, an apprentice program sprung up affectionately called Romita’s Raiders. It taught dozens of young artists the ways of the comics craft under the mentorship of John

Romita. The veteran artist and art director continued in his day-to-day capacity until early 1996 when he finally left the company he’d witnessed grow from ragtag offices into a publically traded brand on the stock exchange. Romita’s interpretation of Spider-Man still remains Marvel’s standard. Its imagery and spirit lives on in film, animation, and merchandising. The humble artist is glad to know that his blood, sweat, and tears did not go to waste. He says, “The other thing that busts my butt is the fact that people say that they consider the image of Spider-Man my image, and that makes me very proud. I know Ditko created something from scratch—and he has a great deal of pride in it and he has a right to be proud—but the fact that I had an influence on it too is very satisfying, and that’s something nobody can ever take away from me.” And despite a blissful retirement, he’s never forsaken us, his fans. When we’re lucky, from time to time, the New Yorker continues to bless us with all-new awe-inspiring covers that sparkle with the trademark enthusiasm of the one and only John Romita—family man, teacher, storyteller, inspiration, and a true ambassador of the comic book arts. 25

THE GROOV Y

MARVEL FIRESIDE BOOKS

Photo courtesy of Stan Lee

Inc.

All characters © Marvel Characters,

he lively Marvel Fireside Books Series set the precedent for the proliferation of superhero trade paperbacks and hardcover collections that followed years later. Yes, there had been a handful of other comic book compilations, like Jules Feiffer’s The Great Comic Book Heroes and the 1971 Crown Publishers anthologies (Superman: From the 30’s to the 70’s and Batman: From the 30’s to the 70’s), but these were few and far between. In terms of actual books full of heroic sequential art, we were in the Dark Age until the Fireside-Marvel union. “I loved those books,” states the iconic Stan “The Man” Lee. “It was a thrill seeing my comic book stories printed in a real prestigious format.” In 1974, Marvel Comics and Fireside Books (a juvenile imprint of Simon and Schuster) premiered Origins of Marvel Comics, the first of 24 books in their very fruitful union that altogether sold over half a million copies according to the publisher. These colorful volumes were among the very first Marvel Comics made readily available to the general public at mainstream bookstores and, more importantly, public libraries. In particular, librarians loved these titles because children gravitated toward them. These books, an ever-present sight under Christmas trees and at birthday parties of the time, served also as a much-welcomed icebreaker, turning local libraries into an inviting destination spot for both reluctant and young readers. Whether in hardcover or softcover, these finely produced entries were full-color wonders on heavy white stock collecting the crème de la crème of Marvel’s output alongside the amusing introductions and commentaries of Stan Lee—a far cry from the old flimsy Signet or Lancer pulp paperbacks. The radiant artwork of Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, and other key luminaries was on proud display in these high-spirited tomes: the aforementioned Origins of Marvel Comics, Son of Origins, The Superhero Women, and Bring on the Bad Guys, amongst other entries, which also include an entertaining cookbook and a how-to fitness guide—and usually adorned by exquisite painted covers from “Jazzy” John Romita. “Those books were the best way, at that time, to introduce the general public to the characters I had written and our artists had drawn,” recalls Lee. “Suddenly, the oft-maligned comic book which had always been printed in pulp form had attained a dignity and a status of its own.”

Forever Forever Young Young “Stand up and Cheer — Cheer Long and Loud for Dear ol’ Riverdale!”

et’s hear it for young love, for being true to your school, and for the good life! For Archie Andrews and his pals, that’s what it’s all about. Archie Comics is a rite of passage for anyone—boy or girl—who has ever touched a four-color wonder. Although the exuberance for Archie and his friends began way back in 1941 (Pep Comics #22), the good times for the gang continue to roll in the present day, because, frankly, the trials and tribulations of high school will forever remain the same. The jovial tone of Archie and its related family of titles came from artist (and co-creator) Bob Montana, who infused the stories with characters and experiences straight out of his own vivid teenage years in Haverhill, Massachusetts. The public would become so smitten with the Archie character that he ultimately became the face of the company when pulp publisher MLJ renamed itself after their star: Archie Comic Publications. Over the years Archie Andrews’ appearance evolved from the original gap-toothed kid with a slingshot in his back pocket to the present day incarnation with the freshfaced look sporting the classic Riverdale letter sweater. Much of that evolution for Archie and friends started with Montana, himself, but it was Dan DeCarlo’s slick art style

that established the look that endures today. With DeCarlo’s art steering the comic line into the 1970s, Archie Comics soared to the height of its pop culture and licensing popularity with help from the exposure provided by Archie’s animated television shows and from the bubble gum music smash success of the Archies (a fictional band based on the characters) and their top Billboard single of 1969, the classic “Sugar, Sugar.” As pre-teens and young teens, we longed to walk the idealized halls of Riverdale High inhabited by Archie, Betty, Veronica, and sleepy-eyed Jughead. These comic characters were different from most of the older teens we knew as underclassmen—they seemed to be having the time of their lives, and they never bruised anyone’s feelings in the process. Even the nerdish Dilton Doily and “Big” Ethel Muggs were accepted as part of the gang. By the 1970s, there was such an abundance of friendship and goodwill throughout the comic line that the meddlesome Reggie Mantle, Arch’s notorious rival at pretty much everything, backed down from his scheming ways and joined Archie’s garage band. Riverdale’s that kind of place, the kind of community that makes everyone feel welcomed, where everyone can be who they want to be. With its grounded humanity and Americana, this is

Archie rockin’ out in a cel from The Archie Show (1968), and three of Archie’s many 1970s titles. All characters © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

Selfless, helpful Betty and selfish, haughty Veronica—not even Archie can tear them apart. All characters © Archie Comic Publications, Inc.

what we wanted high school to be like… what it should be like for everyone. And why is Archie Andrews the center of this universe? Why is he stuck in the greatest love triangle of the ages? Archie is the world’s most famous teenager—but, at the heart of it, he’s really just your average All-American kid driving an old jalopy. With his freckled face, trademark smile, and red hair, he’s a distracted mediocre high school student capable of jumping through obsessions from strip to strip, but always willing to spare time for his friends. He wears his heart on his sleeve, and whatever this goodnatured daydreamer lacks in academic achievement, he makes up for by being strong-willed and true; he never quits once his heart is set on accomplishing a goal. And most importantly, Arch’s the guy with the most beautiful girls in Riverdale: Betty and Veronica. Betty Cooper is your classic wholesome girl-next-door and Archie’s biggest champion. Veronica Lodge is your classic wealthy, unobtainable beauty, and the object of Archie’s desire. And they both love Archie. Betty is an honor roll student, and her Achilles’ heel is that she’s crazy about Archie. Although Archie’s too blind to recognize most of her romantic advances, he knows he can always count on her to be there for him no matter what. Overly enthusiastic and good-hearted, Betty is Archie’s guiding light, even when her advice regrettably leads him straight into the arms of Veronica. When it comes down to it, Betty’s perfect in nearly every way: innocent, sweet, 28

hardworking, always true, (a pretty decent plumber), and far more beautiful than she realizes. All that… and she has a smile as bright as the sun. With her ravishing good looks, wealthy daddy, and infinite wardrobe full of the latest fashion trends, Veronica “Ronnie” Lodge is the young lady who never goes dateless on a Saturday night and is the center of attention at every party. At times, yeah, she’s a bit shallow, but her friendship and affection for Archie has brought her a trace of humility and shown her that money can’t buy everything. Their pursuit of Archie’s devotion initially set Betty and Veronica as adversaries, but over time the fashionable duo became inseparable BFF (best friends forever), and have been known to tie up the telephone lines for hours on end discussing school, parties, and of course, Archie. And while these sassy girls might flaunt the latest bikinis during summer vacation and disco dance the night away, both ladies are equally confident and intelligent female role models who are more than capable of standing up for themselves. The great secret to Archie’s eternal youth is love. Love— and the hope of someday falling in love—is what keeps many, including this author, going in life. And it keeps Arch, Veronica, Betty, and their friends forever young, happy, and together. These are characters that love life and live it to the fullest, because they know that each new day brings with it wonderful possibilities. So for those who are young at heart, there will always be the iconic Archie, the teen with the two valentines—and a good friend to all, including you and me.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN JERSEY CITY. . .

We can talk all night and day. we can hold our hands and sway-and when we dance, worries go away…

She doesn’t sigh. she doesn’t cry. she’s by my side…

when i was going to high school, i wanted a girl who was cool. one to be my best friend, my girlfriend… she could be my kitty pryde.

She’s my kitty pryde.

And when i’m down she’ll brighten my day. and when she’s gone i’ll write her every day. i can’t sleep. i can’t eat without my kitty pryde.

To a young, wide-eyed Catholic school kid such as myself, Kitty Pryde was the bee’s knees. Like me, she loved comic books, video games, and hanging out at the mall (who didn’t back then). She was smart, loving, and unafraid to let her hair down. But the thing that I liked the most about her was just her glow. Never did meet anyone like her. Kitty Pryde © Marvel Characters, Inc.

When we go down to the mall, she’s the best gal of ’em all! she’s the one with the lockheed. she’s the sassy chick who stole my heart.

you jerk!

she’s the one and only kitty pryde. Be by my side, my x-man, my sunshine, my mutant girlfriend… be my kitty pryde.

i’m not a mutant!

good grief!

FIN “Pryde (In the Name of Love)” STORY: George Khoury ART: Marc McKenzie 29

MUTANTS!

THE

All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

o a young and impressionable ’80s kid, there was something irresistible about the X-Men. But during the Silver Age of the 1960s, that wasn’t the case. Despite the best efforts of creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the X-Men seemed to be nothing more than a hiccup in the Marvel Universe, and they barely limped into the 1970s. For the X-Men nothing came easy; they didn’t receive the instant accolades and widespread approval given to the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, and Spider-Man. But their time eventually came, thanks to the legendary run of stories that began with their rebirth in Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975) by writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum. From there, and into the mid-1980s the X-Men title was guided by the vision of writer Chris Claremont and his artistic collaborators Cockrum, John Byrne, Paul Smith, and John Romita Jr., who together finally turned the X-Men into a perennial best-selling comic book series. It all began when then-Marvel President Al Landau expressed the notion of wanting to see an international superhero team to Publisher Stan Lee and then-Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas in a meeting. Thomas, a former X-Men writer with a soft spot for the mutants, right away envisioned the X-Men as a perfect platform to grant Landau his wish. Bringing in writer Len Wein and artist Dave Cockrum to helm the revival, Thomas directed them to form an X-Men roster that stood radically different and colorful next to their predecessors. To this new team, Wein brought a Canadian mutant character named Wolverine whom he had just introduced the year prior in the pages of Hulk; the Irish mutant Banshee and Japanese mutant Sunfire, both Roy Thomas co-creations and early X-Men acquaintances/one-time adversaries, were also brought into the mix. The rest of Professor Charles Xavier’s new team were composed of striking, original characters that included the beautiful African weather-powered Storm, the steel-skinned Russian Colossus, the acrobatic German teleporter Nightcrawler, and the Native American powerhouse Thunderbird. The group’s leader was the original X-Man called Cyclops, who served as bridge between the past and present teams. No one, not even Marvel Comics, expected this to be the book that would set the comic world afire. Right in the thick of the well regarded Roy Thomas and Neal Adams run on X-Men, a teenage Chris Claremont began working in Marvel’s small office as a gofer in 1969. Claremont recalls, “When Roy and Neal did their run on the X-Men, the sales jumped tremendously. The problem was the reporting system was so limited and antiquated that Marvel didn’t find out about it for eight months. So, by the time in the fall of 1969 when Marvel realized they had a potential hit on their hands, Neal had gone back to DC, Roy had gone on to other books, the X-Men as we know it had been cancelled. But that’s why they rescinded the cancellation and kept it going as a reprint for the next four years until they could figure out how to restart it. And that led to Roy and Len basically brainstorming with Dave and coming up with the new team, because the idea in 1974 was, ‘We’ve already done the five white kids from the Upper West Side kind of situation. Let’s try and introduce some international flavor to the series so that if we have any foreign markets, we’ll have characters that might appeal to them.’ Like Storm, like Nightcrawler, like Colossus, like Banshee.”

By the time Giant-Sized X-Men was released, Len Wein had assumed the duties of Marvel’s editor-in-chief after Roy Thomas vacated the position in 1974. Soon after, the editorial workload and time constraints forced Wein to choose between writing his favorite Marvel title, The Incredible Hulk, and his new bi-monthly X-Men title… and he ultimately chose Hulk. After scripting The All-New, All Different X-Men #94 (the new X-Men’s first regular series issue) and plotting #95, Wein chose young Chris Claremont, his spirited associate editor, to be his successor on the book. And right from the get-go, nothing was sacred in the unpredictable and chaotic world of the X-Men. Sunfire quit the X-Men at the end of his first excursion with the team and in X-Men #95 the shocking death of Thunderbird brought angst and sorrow to the forefront. In the eyes of its optimistic writer, the title seemed like the perfect opportunity to mold an uncut gem into something engaging. This interpretation of X-Men wasn’t going to be the one by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Roy Thomas, Neal Adams, or anyone else, but the one that changed the nature of Marvel’s storytelling from that point on. Chris Claremont says, “I was doing what any writer taking over a series would do, which is find a way to craft the future issues down a road that was the way I saw the book, the way I saw the concept, the heroes, the characters, the confrontations. The gift with X-Men that fundamentally separated it from Fantastic Four, or Spider-Man, or Avengers, or Defenders, or anyone else is that these were brand new characters. It was a brand new series; it was one issue old. Yes, it had a heritage to the Lee/Kirby X-Men, but the only regular character left from that run with the team was Cyclops. And, of course, Professor X. So it was all, for want of a better phrase, virgin territory. Any writer would just throw his hands in delight at that kind of opportunity. Everything is up for grabs. You can define the reality as you, and, especially in this case, because I was working with such a gifted artist in Dave Cockrum, as we thought, as we saw.”

(above) Lee and Kirby comment on the changes in X-Men #98. (below) The “Fastball Special” in action for the first time. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

“As the first half-dozen issues evolved, we came up with things like Wolverine’s claws are a part of his body. That wasn’t anywhere near Len’s original conception of the character. In Len’s eye, he saw Logan as a young man and the claws were part of the costume. Dave and I talked about it, and our feeling was, if they’re a part of the costume, what makes him special? What makes him scary? A scary kid is boring in a lot of ways. A scary guy with history could have a lot of potential. So we began pushing in that direction. The same applied with Ororo, the same applied with Kurt, the same applied with Peter. How do we take the characters from just that first presentation in GiantSize and evolve them, grow them, have the reader get to know them from issue to issue and want to come back to see what happens next? And then, when we brought Jean [Grey] back in #98, that in turn was…. We’d taken [issues] #94, #95, and #98, to figure out who she was and what we wanted to do with her, and once we got her, we hit the ground running. Little did we know what we were setting in motion.” 31

WOLVERINE

In Wolverine we have the last truly iconic character to come out of Marvel Comics—the character that became the heart and soul of the X-Men for a reason. Initially, he was the archetypical mysterious, misunderstood loner, but over time he finds acceptance and a family within the X-Men. With his adamantium claws and no-nonsense demeanor, Wolverine was easily one of the most popular characters of the era.

X-Men © Marvel Characte

rs, Inc.

With the initial bi-monthly run of issues, Claremont and Cockrum were free to collaborate and flesh the characters out with dramatic depth because the title was very much under the radar of Marvel’s brass. Together they added layers to their characters and displayed their understanding of the importance of team dynamics. And they seized upon the idea of a world where mutants were shamed for their gifts and dehumanized by society’s fear and hatred. Despite the high quality of those early issues, sales were relatively low and the title was threatened with cancellation in 1977. Marvel decided to take the title monthly in a bid to attract more readers, but Dave Cockrum couldn’t maintain such a grueling pace. While he stayed on to render the covers, he passed the penciling torch to a young Canadian artist named John Byrne. “When they decided to start up Uncanny, partly it was to fit Dave’s production schedule, which was he could handle 32

a bi-monthly book,” explains Claremont. “He wasn’t sure about handling a monthly book, especially a team book. So we started it as bi-monthly, and we knew by the time we got to #100, within six months or a year, that we had a hit on our hands. But Dave couldn’t handle a monthly workload. So we just kept going bi-monthly until he quit with #107, and then John came in. Once he was aboard, it was simply a matter of getting enough time for him to get ahead. I think that took about two or three months, so with #112 or thereabouts, we went monthly and never looked back. “Dave and I felt we had defined them fairly substantially. We had a solid foundation. John basically jumped on that foundation, and we built from it an even stronger and richer mix of, again, characters and stories. That in turn set up Dave’s return 30 issues later.” With stellar inker Terry Austin, Claremont and Byrne took the X-Men title monthly in 1979. Working closely

Space opera epics, Alien-esque horror stories, and whimsical fairy tales—X-Men had it all. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

with Byrne on plots, Claremont found himself paired not only with another great artistic collaborator, but one that was a storyteller just as driven as himself. The three-year run of intricate X-Men stories by Claremont, Byrne, and Austin are regarded by most fans as the pinnacle of comics of the time, with each story arc better than the one previous. The creative team reached their climax with the gripping “Dark Phoenix Saga,” in which the X-Men’s greatest challenge to date was to confront one of their very own in Jean Grey, an original X-Man now turned into the powerconsumed Dark Phoenix. The profound experience of the Phoenix saga affected everyone—the X-Men characters and their readers—on such an emotional and personal level that its poignancy still lingers. In 1980, John Byrne exited X-Men to write and illustrate Fantastic Four. With their final issues, Claremont and Byrne presented a powerful and tragic conclusion for mutant-kind’s future in “The Days of Future Past” storyline, but also provided a spark of hope in the form of 14-yearold Kitty Pryde (in #143—their last issue together). With Byrne, Claremont had clearly established a rhythm for the characters that continues to this day. Building stories upon stories, they kept readers coming back for more. Entering the ’80s, the X-Men series was not only a fan-favorite, but well on its way to becoming Marvel’s best-selling title. The book had acquired a cult of passionate fans and saw a major climb in sales.

Within the comics, Claremont and Byrne could do no wrong, but behind the scenes, the creators had grown apart in their vision for the book. “All creators butt heads,” states Claremont. “There are two sets of egos, two creators who are passionately involved in the characters and the stories, and each of us had our own specific vision of how we wanted the characters to look and behave and interact, and occasionally we disagreed. That’s the nature of the beast.” While some fans never got over Byrne’s exit from the X-Men, a determined Claremont successfully continued the momentum by pushing himself even harder. He even slowly expanded the X-Men line with The New Mutants, constantly producing stories as powerful and provocative as ever. Claremont says, “Well, bear in mind that we had a fillin issue to buy us some time by Brent Anderson [Uncanny X-Men #144]. And then Dave came back [Uncanny X-Men #145]. There is nothing to complain about when you have the guy who created all the characters and who is himself one of the top artists in comics, replaced by one of the top artists in comics, who then, after three years, leaves, and is replaced by the guy he replaced. From a creative standpoint, you couldn’t hope for a better situation. Because Dave was drawing faster, we had the benefit of not having to worry about the book being cancelled, and we could literally do anything. So we had the Shi’ar War; we had the Brood; we had “Kitty’s Fairy Tale,” which was, I think, one of the funniest stories I’ve seen from Dave. Even some of my lines make a laugh. Intentionally.” 33

John Byrne and Terry Austin’s original art for X-Men #141, page 19, part of “Days of Future Past.” X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

In the mid-’80s the X-Men rapidly expanded into a full line of titles. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Claremont continued producing top-notch work on the Miraculously, these outside factors and influences were kept X-Men regular monthly accompanied by the memorable at bay until the arrival of X-Factor #1 in 1986. The X-Men artwork of Dave Cockrum, the elegant storytelling of Paul became the victim of their very own success. Smith, and the dynamic choreography of John Romita Jr. Claremont explains, “The market changed, the company But he also wrote classic and influential changed. The problem with establishing opuses outside of the main book in the the best-selling book in the industry is that God Loves, Man Kills graphic novel with everyone wants to find a way to exploit it. artist Brent Anderson, the Wolverine limIf one X-Men sells really well, why can’t we ited series illustrated by Frank Miller and do two, or four, or eight? If we’re doing Joe Rubinstein, and the jovial X-Men/Teen new characters in Uncanny, why can’t Titans cross-company team-up rendered we bring the original team back together by modern masters Walter Simonson and again in X-Factor? But that’s the nature of Terry Austin. Besides his knack for charsales reality. There’s nothing really a creacterization, Claremont’s great talent was ator, writer or artist, can do about that. writing and collaborating to the strengths “It was more completely my vision of his artists. He always brought out the until X-Factor came along, and there the best in them. It was eminently clear readbalance started shifting toward editorial. ing the X-Men books that Claremont was But that probably would have happened not only fully invested in the multi-laysooner or later, it just happened then. The ered stories and distinctive characters, but management argument was, ‘Jean Grey is that this was a series he was born to write. a tremendous asset. Why do we leave her It is almost inconceivable today to imagdead?’ My counterpoint was, ‘Well, why ine that there was once a time when there not replace her with her sister and create Claremont as drawn by Val Mayerwas only one monthly X-Men title, but ick and Bob Wiacek for Man-Thing a whole lot of potential conflicts and resothat was exactly the case at the beginning vol. 2, #11. lutions that might expand the idea of the of the ’80s. Up until the mid-1980s, the © Marvel Characters, Inc. series.’ But there, the counterpoint to that creators had as much autonomy as anyone was, ‘We want Jean.’ You know? That’s could have within the environment of corporate comics. Edi- the nature of corporate publishing. Or TV, or movies, or tors were content to leave well enough alone. It was that rare anything else. It’s Marvel’s toys, it’s Marvel’s paycheck. Ultipurity of vision that was instrumental to the book’s appeal. mately, the creators owe the company the final word.” 35

After an impressive body of work, Claremont’s original tenure on the X-Men came to an end in 1991 after 17 years of service to the characters. Across three decades, his distinctive storytelling was brought to life by an impressive array of top artists, with each contributing a unique visual flair that enabled the writer to explore new possibilities. The resulting classic stories have remained in print as a cornerstone of Marvel Comics’ library. Claremont states, “I defy you to find any writer, any creative artist, who is not happy to see their work continuously in print and continuously enjoyed by the public. That’s part of why we do this. No, I think it’s a wonderful thing. It’s really cool that it is kids, and not just 50-year-old readers looking nostalgically back at their youth, who are reading these stories and thinking they’re cool, because that tells me I did something right, and that the characters have transcended the moment in time when they came into being. “The fact that the X-Men is as much of a lasting success as it is, is a tremendous tribute to Dave Cockrum for being the visual iconographer who brought most of these core characters into being. And it’s a tribute to John Byrne for taking Dave’s work to the next level. And to Paul Smith for taking it to the level beyond that. It’s a synergy. For the first ten years the series was around, we were just hitting the balls out of the park. That’s the kind of adventure and gift that doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, you should cherish it, because it’s cool. “But the key thing for me is the characters. There’s a part of my creative heart that always looks to them and thinks, ‘These are my friends. These are my kids.’ I love what I was able to do with them, as horrible as it was sometimes. The terrors I put them through. But the other reality is, they are, I guess now, the creative responsibility of other people, and other aspects of the corporation. As a creator, you have to learn to let it go.” Why did the world learn to embrace the X-Men? It’s because the book is about acceptance and tolerance—and 36

Cockrum and Byrne set a high bar for X-Men artists, but Paul Smith was equal to the task. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

anyone can relate to that. No one wants to live in a world of fear; no one aspires to be despised and prejudged on their appearance or talents. We’ve all experienced periods where we’ve felt like outsiders, lonely and misunderstood. We all seek to fit in and connect with someone, somehow. And we all crave to find somewhere that feels like home, a place where our individuality is welcomed. Readers warmed up to these characters because they understood the X-Men and became emotionally invested in their pursuit of happiness despite the odds. And because no matter how beautiful, incompetent, gifted, or flawed we think we are… we are all human.

Spot Light on

“D

DAVE COCKRUM DAVE COCK RUM

ave Cockrum, at the very least, was a brilliant, gifted, wonderful designer of characters,” says Chris Claremont of his longtime X-Men collaborator. “He could come up with visuals with inspiration, visuals that just took your breath away. And it was a joy, an absolute joy, watching him work, and listening to him and Len [Wein] bat ideas back and forth. And being young, impetuous, and altogether irrepressible, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I’d jump in and throw ideas of my own.” One of the premier Marvel artists of the ’70s was the late Dave Cockrum, who ironically grew up as a DC Comics fan. After serving the U.S. Navy, the artist immediately set his sights on working at DC Comics, and successfully landed work as an apprentice to the great Murphy Anderson. Soon afterward, DC Editor Murray Boltinoff gave the relative newcomer his big break as a regular contributor to Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes (1972). On the title,

the self-starter established a reputation as a fantastic costume designer after making over the team; his dazzling artwork also brought the super-group back as a lucrative DC brand. For Superboy’s 200th issue, Cockrum rendered an oversized double-page spread (which ran as one page instead of two) for Duo Damsel and Bouncing Boy’s wedding that he wanted to be returned back to him. While his editor relented to the request, Publisher Carmine Infantino would not allow this one-time art return as it was the company’s policy to keep all original artwork. For a man of principles like Dave Cockrum, there was no other recourse than to exit the Legion book and DC Comics. His wife Paty Cockrum discloses, “They were grooming him, because he had been doing the Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes, they had been grooming him to take over the Superman book. And the editor, whom Dave never forgave, said, ‘No, you can’t have it. It’s not our policy.’ And

The wedding of the century—the 30th century that is—from Superboy Starring the Legion of Super-Heroes #200. All characters © DC Comics

[he] walked off with it. Dave said, ‘I’m out of here.’ He went over to Marvel.” Given his obvious talents, Marvel Comics received the art whiz with open arms. Amongst his first tasks was doing finishes on John Buscema’s breakdowns for the Avengers #124–125 (1974), an eye-opening experience that served as his baptism of fire into Marvel storytelling. From there, Cockrum went on to the X-Men and fine-tuned his voice as a key architect in the building of Marvel’s mutant franchise. Cockrum readily (and freely) injected plenty of his ideas and himself into the X-Men revival. Mrs. Cockrum recalls, “He came in with his sketchbook of all his old designs that he had done over the years of characters. Roy [Thomas] says, ‘I want an

international group.’ Of course, they started with a core of the old group, which are Professor X and Cyclops. Then they added Nightcrawler, who was German. They added Storm, who was Afro-American. They added Banshee, who was Irish. They added Wolverine, who was Canadian. They added Thunderbird, who was American Indian. They added Colossus, who was Russian. And they added Sunfire, who was Japanese. That was the core group of the new X-Men international roster that was the story for Giant-Size #1.

(right) Cockrum’s original art for a house ad for the all new era of Uncanny X-Men. (below) A lovely 1970s painting of Storm Cockrum did for fellow artist Frank Thorne. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

“They all sat around and worked out the storyline. Storm was made up from two or three characters that were in his book. One where he had an AfricanAmerican girl who was called the Black Cat, and then he took part of that, and part of another thing, and then another character, and then he gave her white hair. [Everyone] looked around and said, ‘You don’t think everybody will think she’s too old, do you?’ ‘No.’ [laughs] “Nightcrawler was the one character he brought in that stayed the same. He had created Nightcrawler when he was still in the Navy. In fact, there is a picture of him somewhere out there that has him at his board when he’s still in the Navy on Guam, and Nightcrawler’s on the board behind him… Nightcrawler was Dave. It was his alter ego.” Prior to Chris Claremont writing the X-Men, he was an associate editor to writer/editor Len Wein during the period Wein and Cockrum were laying the foundation for All New, All Different X-Men. When Wein exited the project early on, Cockrum accepted the young writer without batting an eye. Claremont explains, “We’re all trained professionals. We were friends, and we were simpatico. I was enthusiastic; Dave was enthusiastic. Len just didn’t have room on his schedule to handle the workload, so this was the one expendable book, and was what he gave up.” 38

(left) Claremont, Byrne, and Austin bid a fond farewell to Cockrum. (below) Cockrum “liked pretty ladies” and designed nice costumes, as he did with Ms. Marvel. Ms. Marvel, X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc. John Carter © ERB, Inc.

In addition to the intriguing Nightcrawler, the X-Men title took great delight in showcasing Cockrum’s knack for design in creating some of the most arresting-looking Marvel characters of the era: Colossus, Gladiator, Mystique, Phoenix, the Starjammers, Storm, Thunderbird, and so many more. Making characters was so much his forte that he had sketchbooks filled to the brim with concepts and doodles. Before her eventful arrival in Ms. Marvel #16 (1978), the creation of Mystique was another happy accident. Paty remembers, “[Dave] did a picture of a pretty lady. He liked pretty ladies. [Marvel colorist] Andy Yanchus and I got together and did the coloring on it. And [Yanchus] came up with blue skin, and this white dress and the red hair. I say, ‘Well, she needs some more color, how about yellow eyes?’ And we put the yellow on, ‘Yeah, that works really well! That’s very striking!’ Andy looked at me, and I looked at him: ‘You don’t think anyone will think she’s Nightcrawler’s mother with that coloring, do you?’ ‘No, she’s got red hair, right?’ He tacked it up on his wall at his office at Marvel. Claremont walks in, sees it on the wall, and says, ‘I want her! Who is she? What’s her name? What does she do?’ Dave says, ‘She’s a pretty lady.’” As a haven for young creators, the jovial environment at Marvel in the mid’70s was a good place for Dave Cockrum to be. In this nurturing scenario, his life changed for the better as he rose to the upper echelon of Marvel artists. At the House of Ideas, more importantly, the artist also met his better half in a Marvel staffer named Paty. “The first time I met him I was working in the bullpen,” tells Paty Cockrum. “I didn’t have my own office at the time, but I was working in the bullpen, and I was doing corrections on pages, and doing paste-up. You have to pasteup the indicia and the banners, and the logos and the banners in the cover art, and that sort of thing. So I’m sitting there, and I’m working. [Artist and Marvel staffer] Duffy Vohland is at a board right next to me. I look up and I see this guy xeroxing pages. And I said, ‘Duffy, who’s that? That’s a new face here. Who is that?’ And he says, ‘Oh, that’s Dave Cockrum. He’s doing the new X-Men book.’ I said, ‘Oh, really?’ I knew his work from Fantastic Fanzine and other fan publications. So I finished up what I was doing, got up, walked the long way around the half-wall, walked up, and looked him up and down. As I walked by him, I patted his tush, and I said, ‘Nice ass,’ and kept going back to editorial, through the door. Dave was like, ‘What? Who? What? Who? What? What?’ And Duffy is at this point rolling on the floor laughing. Literally. Duffy looked like Volstagg. Acted like him, too. And finally he wipes the tears from his eyes and sat up and said, ‘Oh, that’s Paty. Don’t worry, she’s harmless.’ Bwa-ha-ha! That’s how much Duffy knew me.” When the change from a bi-monthly schedule to a monthly one became imminent on the X-Men title, Cockrum recognized how impossible it would be for him to maintain his high artistic standards on a shorter timeframe. 39

With the All-New, All Different X-Men #107, he stepped aside from the interior duties but remained as the book’s cover artist. In the interim, the artist also held a staff position where he used his acumen to design covers at Marvel, sometimes even drawing them. These magnificent covers were engaging images that instantly became part of the iconography of the time. “Dave was like Romita. Romita was faster than Dave. But every line, every panel, had to be right. And he always put so much into it,” says Paty. As a wife, she witnessed firsthand all the long hours her husband put in at his drawing table. In the tradition of the great artist seeking unattainable perfection, he drew and drew until he got it right. Mrs. Cockrum states, “Dave would work when he wanted to. He would work steadily on something he liked, but he was a perfectionist. I have seen him tear up virtually a whole page because one panel didn’t work. There had been times when I made him put the page down [by saying], ‘Stop working, go away from it,

pick it up tomorrow.’ He wouldn’t go on to the next page just because that panel didn’t work for him. I’d say, ‘It’s one panel out of the whole story. No one’s gonna know.’ ‘I’ll know.’ So I said, ‘Put it down. Leave it alone.’ After I saw him tear up a whole page because one panel didn’t work, I said, ‘Everything else worked.’ ‘Yeah, well, I can do it again.’ ‘Okayyy….’ ‘That was a cursed piece of paper.’” Eventually, the Marvel staff position became cumbersome, and Cockrum tendered his resignation to Editorin-Chief Jim Shooter. The funny thing is that behind this dilemma emerged a silver lining. Paty explains, “He got really pissed off at Shooter’s office politics. He wrote him a letter saying, ‘Yeah, I like you as a person, and I love Marvel, and I want to continue working here, but I can’t do this. The office politics are killing me.’ So about that time he went to Chris and he said, ‘Look, if Byrne ever decides to get off the book, I want it back.’ And Chris came in that day and said, ‘Byrne wants off the book. You’ve got it back. Here’s the story synopsis for the next issue.’ And that’s how he came back on.” After the somber drama of “Dark Phoenix” and “Days of Future Past,” Cockrum’s return on Uncanny X-Men #145 (1981) felt like a breath of fresh air. Without missing a beat, Claremont and Cockrum rekindled their creative chemistry. These new stories were far-reaching as the duo worked together to carve out a different breed of epics for their mutants. Uncanny X-Men #145–164, the artist’s second run, introduced many mind-blowing stories that today are integral to the team’s legacy. Among these classic X-Men stories are the haunting “I, Magneto” (#150); the lavishly offbeat “Kitty’s Fairy Tale” (#153); the flashback story of the bond between Magneto and Xavier in “Gold Rush” (#163); and the majority of the frightening “Brood Saga.” Beyond X-Men, Cockrum focused his efforts on The Futurians, his creator-owned series; he also wrote and penciled 1985’s Nightcrawler limited series (with Paty Cockrum on colors). In the 1990s, the illustrator worked mainly in the independent comics scene, but not necessarily by choice. Paty Cockrum explains, “He couldn’t get work except with small press. So he went over to a small press called Claypool Comics and spent the last years of his life drawing some of the best work he ever did for Claypool on Soulsearchers and Company.” Sadly, the great Dave Cockrum passed away on November 26, 2006, at the age of 63. But know this: Cockrum’s painting for the one-shot fanzine, X-Men Chronicles (1981), his restless heart beats on in his body of work and and Cockrum as he drew himself in X-Men #105. the fantastic creations that he passionately defined. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc. In comics and film, Cockrum’s influence lives on!

Daydreaming

the Alternate Realities of

WHAT IF…?

magine unlocking the door to a room full of never-ending possibilities where you encounter the incredible and the unimaginable, where yesterday’s hopes and regrets grow aplenty. True believer, you’ve crossed into the pages of What If…?, the series that travels the roads not taken and explores what might have been. From 1977 to 1984, the original incarnation of What If…? was the outlet for Marvel Comics’ wildest stories. Produced outside of story continuity, the anthology presented alternate takes on the company’s biggest stories, allowing an anything goes approach which continuity buffs and casual fans alike could enjoy. What If…? originated in the mind of Roy Thomas, a seminal figure in the history of Marvel Comics. During the first year and a half of the series, Thomas penned several and edited most of the stories. He recalls, “I was looking for comics to do that would keep me out of the Marvel mainstream, so that after having stepped down as editorin-chief I wouldn’t have to coordinate with other writers, etc. Been there, done that…. I wanted something different. The two Conan books and Red Sonja were keeping me almost busy enough in that vein, and The Invaders was far enough out of the mainstream even while using mainstream heroes… ditto when I did three issues with 3-D Man… but I needed one more, with built-in sales appeal by using mainstream Marvel heroes and yet not having to coordinate or keep up with what was going on in the regular titles, which no longer interested me much. So I came up with What If…?, using a phrase Stan [Lee] often employed in plot conferences and the like. The original idea was for me to script them all, but I soon decided I was busy enough without What If…?, and after about a year I dropped off.” Outside of the impartial Watcher as the regular host and single unifying character, each double-sized issue headlined a different character(s) in unique tales

Oatu (as drawn by Frank Miller and Klaus Janson from What If…? #28) presents What If…? #1. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

inspired straight from the pages of their own books and history. Being told outside of mainstream continuity ensured that What If…? stories pulled no punches. Nearly every issue delivered a complete self-contained page-turner… and not all of them had happy endings. In this series, no character was safe from heartbreak or death. “They weren’t intended to be intentionally bleak,” explains Thomas, “guess they just worked out that way sometimes. They weren’t all that bleak… the Conan issue [#13, “What If Conan the 41

Three of the most memorable issues of the original What If…? series (above), and Roy Thomas at the Polo Lounge in 1977 (below). Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Phoenix, X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan © Conan Properties International, LLC. Photo by Alan Waite.

Barbarian Walked the Earth Today”] certainly wasn’t. No, there was no intention to make the series a downer… but if I or another writer didn’t have to deal with a next issue starring the same character and dealing with the consequences of what had happened in a particular story, the temptation was probably great to do something with an air of finality to it.” Throughout its fascinating 47-issue run, the series showcased stories from the men who built the company’s legacy: Jack Kirby, John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, George Tuska, Joe Sinnott, and more. As the series progressed, it evolved into the perfect launching pad for thennew talent looking to make waves at the House of Ideas. One of those talents was the adept Peter B. Gillis, What If…?’s most prolific author with nearly a dozen stories to his credit. For a freelance writer like Gillis, the attraction to What If…? proved to be the freedom it provided. He states, “I always liked the idea. It was a chance to play with the character, but what I realized when I started to do them is it was really the opportunity to do the best damned story of the character that could be done without worrying about, ‘Oh, what do we do with him after we were done with him?’ or, ‘Doesn’t this contradict something?’ “The problem with a lot of What If…? ideas is that it’s conversation, it’s not really a story. And unless you can figure 42

out a way in which it builds up to a climax or it is tragedy, or a comedy, or somebody wins in the case, you don’t really have a story. I realized that this is a chance to do the best damned Doctor Strange story, the best damned Hulk story, the best damned Captain America story ever done, because nobody’s going to stomp on you and say, ‘No, you can’t do that!’ [laughs] If you get your hands on the regular book, there are all sorts of things you can’t do.” Before making his way to cherished efforts such as Camelot 3000 and Batman and the Outsiders, author Mike W. Barr made the rounds pitching and selling stories at the Marvel offices. One of his sales became the standout yarn entitled, “What If Daredevil Became an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.?” issue #28, completed in partnership with another rising star named Frank Miller. Barr recalls, “The ‘Matt Murdock, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.’ story came about when Frank’s idea of updating the way Matt grew accustomed to his super-senses—which included the isolation tank—was rejected for the regular Daredevil title. I had been trying to come up with a “What if…?” approach for Matt Murdock, which didn’t click until I thought of him working for S.H.I.E.L.D. I approached Frank about doing it as a What If…? and he agreed. The collaboration itself was a great deal of fun; Frank took my plot and turned it into a gorgeous story. I wish our collaboration had been the first of many.”

The bleakest of the original What If…? stories remains edited humor issue, What If…? #34, which featured an “What If Phoenix Had Not Died?” issue #27, starring the onslaught of short gags. The What If…? editors tried their X-Men, penned by Jo Duffy, and rendered by Jerry Bing- darndest to keep the title fresh by rotating their headline ham and John Stuart in 1981. Inspired by the recently con- characters and utilizing stories from throughout Marvel’s hiscluded events of the Phoenix odyssey by Chris Claremont, tory. But as the Marvel line continued to grow, the increasing John Byrne, and Terry Austin, this comic is so dark that Kitty competition amongst editorial for top talent made it imposPryde, the most innocent X-Man, is reduced to ashes by Dark sible to land marquee artists. This and other factors made Phoenix before the inevitable downfall of the entire universe. What If…? a hard sell, and in 1984 the title came to a close. “At that time What If…? was all about supposing someGillis ended the series on a high note, penning a sucthing canonical had gone a different way,” says Jo Duffy, the cession of six quality adventures—including the aforemenwriter of this dark gem. “And originally, Phoenix was not tioned What If…? #46—that left readers not wanting to supposed to die in the comics, [but] an editorial edict came say good-bye. Gillis feels no bitterness or regret; he savored down. Personally, I think it was from somebody either a little the experience. What If…? provided him the opportunity misogynistic or who had an issue with Chris and thought he to bring to fruition the type of schoolyard daydreaming we was getting a little too popular. But somebody suddenly said, embraced as kids. He says, “I enjoyed the hell out of it. I ‘This character can’t survive. You’ve got to kill this character.’ think the reason why I kept on coming up with ideas was So poor Chris and poor John had to go back and completely I’d just been a fan for so long, and [I remembered those] change the ending of their story. They made it sentimental, interminable afternoons with my brother and my friends and wonderful, and, of course, a few years later fixed the in elementary school [talking] about what would be cool.” whole thing, anyway. “But I was so intrigued by this hysterical notion that, ‘No, Phoenix can’t be redeemed, she has to be killed,’ that it got me thinking: ‘Is it really true that Phoenix is so horrible that she cannot become a good guy?’ And then I was like, ‘What if it was true?’ I realized that I had just ‘What-If-ed’ myself, so I went in, I pitched the idea, and I ran into Roger Stern, a good buddy, and he said, “What’s going on?” I said, ‘I’m doing “What If Phoenix Hadn’t Died?”’ He grinned at me and said, ‘How long does it take her to eat the world?’ So I wasn’t the only person thinking this way. It just seemed to me like a story that would have been so amazingly fun to tell.” Issue #46, “What If Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben Had Lived?” may be the finest hour of the series. In this heartfelt reimagination of Spidey’s origin, readers learn that Peter Parker’s fate would have been drastically different with his beloved Uncle Ben by his side. With the skillful talents of Ron Frenz emulating the art stylings of Ditko and Romita, the script gives life to a bona fide Spider-Man classic. Gillis, the writer of the story, says, “Doing Uncle Ben as just a male Aunt May, you [would] have exactly the same book as you did. But I said, ‘What if Uncle Ben was smart and tough, and so forth?’ with the justification that, like Uncle Owen in Star Wars, he’s the brother of a secret agent. … He’s this kindly old guy, but when we find out who Peter Parker’s actual parents are way back in the Larry Lieber Amazing Spider-Man Annual #5 [1968], they are secret agents. So chances are Uncle Ben was not a janitor. But I said, ‘No. The story I want to do is the story in which there is a good father in the story.’” Yes, there was gloom and drama, but there was also Uncle Ben gets the spotlight treatment in What If…? #46. laughter, even absolute hysterics as in the Tom DeFalco- All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. 43

GRIT America’s Greatest Family Newspaper

Comic Book Ad Classics Dietrick Lamade: Humble Beginnings Grit Sells One Million Copies Grit Boys (and Girls) Learn Value of a Dollar Celebrate Rural Life

Grit © Ogden Publications, Inc.

Grit—Going Strong from 1882 to Today The newspaper for rural Americans

efore smartphones, before the Internet, before television, even before radio, Grit was as a vital pipeline for stories of good news, inspiring tales of humanity, insightful advice columns, practical tips, handy recipes, earnest entertainment coverage, popular comic strips, and so much more. The Grit publication was a common sight in rural homes across the country. Generations of Americans stayed connected to the world through this national staple, which peaked with a circulation per issue exceeding one million copies in the 1970s. Founded in 1882 by young German immigrant Dietrick Lamade in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Grit was very much a family affair, remaining in the hands of the Lamade clan until 1982. Lamade designed the weekly newspaper to appeal to everyone from the youngest tot to dear nana, and it proved to be an indispensable source of merriment for the entire family. Each issue opened a window to the world, and, most importantly, it brought its readers together with a warmth and friendliness that even today’s latest advances in communications cannot touch. An integral part of Grit’s sales and national brand recognition stemmed from Lamade’s idea to build a nationwide sales force composed of young kids. This legion of devoted “Grit Boys” would soon distribute the newspaper to every corner of the United States from sea to shining sea. But to maintain this lucrative sales strategy, Lamade needed to reach kids on a constant basis. And so month in, month out, from the 1940s into the early 1980s, Grit advertisements appeared within the pages of the comic books. The familiar ads essentially served as a recruitment listing, calling out to all

A Grit Boy hard at work in front of his local grocery store. Photograph © respective owner

ambitious boys and, subsequently, girls to build their own Grit paper routes in order to earn cash and prizes for their sales efforts and hard work. The humble beginning of Grit’s distribution is a story that Bryan Welch, the former publisher of the publication, admires a great deal. He recalls, “The Lamade family owned the magazine for many, many decades, and one of the stories I always loved about Dietrick was that there was a way for him to get on the train on the morning that Grit came out, and to ride to some distant town by around midday, and then get on a different train and come by a different route back to Williamsport. And what he would do is stop at every station, get off the train, sell copies of Grit on the platform, and then get back on the train and ride to the next station. And I think that is so similar, in a way, to the way that the single copies would then be eventually sold by school kids over the decades, one copy at a time. I enjoy the way that it sort of tracks the Grit distribution tradition back to its very origin.”

Having worked in the newspaper industry since childhood, Dietrich Lamade and his family knew to never underestimate the determination and imagination of children. At its peak, Grit boasted over 30,000 Grit Boys delivering their paper to the doorsteps of folks around the USA. All good Grit Boys and Gals understood that better and friendlier customer service meant loyal subscribers, and, hopefully, enough good will and word of mouth to garner new customers, earning them more money and bigger prizes. But fiscal rewards aside, selling Grit taught these children self-worth, discipline, and the value of a dollar— invaluable lessons that would serve them well down the road of life. No matter the path destiny chooses for you, the lessons learned in childhood are the ones that stick with you. Welch elaborates, “Oh, I met newsboys all the time under every possible circumstance. I’ll tell you, one of my favorite stories about that, is I received a letter a few years ago with a twentydollar bill in it, and the letter was from 45

Grit © Ogden Publications, Inc.

As the former publisher of Grit, Welch encountered folks from all walks of life that remember it fondly. “There are people who only remember it from their childhoods. There are people who frequently mention reading about it in their comic books when they were children. There are people for whom Grit was a constant presence in their family’s life for generations, and so, of course, they have a very strong, nostalgic feel for it. And then there are people who have been introduced to it in the last few years, who are keen, passionate about self-reliance and rural lifestyles and growing your own food, who are in love with its present incarnation, as well as a fair percentage of people who have never heard of it at all. But among those familiar with it, it does sort of run that gamut from the purely nostalgic interest to people who are passionately involved with the publication today.”

The Grit recruitment ad that appeared in many a comic book.

a gentlemen writing on behalf of his father. Apparently his father had been a Grit newsboy in the ’10s and ’20s, and had never settled his final bill to Grit. The kids were advanced their copies and then they paid for them later, and he believed that he owed the magazine ten cents back when he stopped selling for them in the 1920s. I can’t recall the exact year. He figured, with interest, that would probably be worth twenty dollars today, and it had been on his mind those 70 years. He was in his late 90s. And so he sent us a twenty-dollar bill to clear his conscience.” After more than a centennial of spreading all the good news that’s fit to print out of Williamsport, Grit’s operation moved out of their hometown and changed ownership a couple of times until ultimately being acquired by Ogden Publications in 1995. Today’s Grit is neither a newspaper or grounded in sentimentality, but a magazine that does embrace the optimism and the reverence for the American rural way of life that was always a constant in the Grit brand. In a world where we are all overburdened with distractions and not enough time, Grit demonstrates that each of us can make our way and create space with our own hands by becoming better acquainted with the community and land around us. 46

EVERYBODY WING CHUN TONIGHT!

COLORFUL HEROES

o one was prepared for the cultural avalanche of amazingness that the premiere of Bruce Lee’s Enter the Dragon movie unleashed on July 26, 1973. The emergence of Lee’s film made the country stand up and applaud the beauty of martial arts and Chinese culture. While the Asian actor sadly didn’t live to see the fruits of his great triumph, his legend continued to grow into a much idolized, larger than life figure. Lee’s strength and zest for life shattered racial archetypes and Hollywood monotony. And his passion for the martial arts made an impression on the lives of the millions who strove to be like him. So if you love kung fu movies or have taken those afterschool

When it came to the kung fu craze, Marvel beat DC to the punch. Richard Dragon, Karate Kid © DC Comics. Shang-Chi © Marvel Characters, Inc.

lessons in karate, judo, aikido, jujitsu, kendo, kickboxing, tae kwon do, t’ai chi, etc.… bow down in gratitude to Bruce Lee, because he brought all these wonderful things to light in the Western world. At DC Comics, a new breed of staffers tried their darnedest to make the old regime of editors take note of the phenomenon Bruce Lee had ignited. DC writer Bob Rozakis explains, “I’m sure you remember when Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter came out, and Karate Kid got his own book. Well, we went through months and months of editorial meetings with Denny [O’Neil] saying, ‘You know, we really ought to do a martial arts book. Martial arts is big with the kids. Martial arts is big on TV [David Carradine’s Kung Fu show].’ “Carmine [Infantino] and Sol [Harrison] and the other editors would just nod and say, ‘Yeah, Denny, okay.’ And then I think Marvel came out with Master of Kung Fu and Iron Fist, and at that point they said, ‘Oh, Marvel’s stuff is selling. You know, Denny, we really ought to do that kung fu book you wanted to do.’ And, of course, by the time it came out, the phenomenon was over. I think that was the first time Denny referred to ‘DC misses the boat comics.’” DC writer/editor Denny O’Neil hints, “Well, when they tried to be hip, it was kind of embarrassing. These were suburban white guys, middle class, and they didn’t know from these freaks in the tie-dye, you know?” Next to Marvel, DC was pretty much vanilla, a company still living in the past and having a hard time showcasing diversity amongst their predominantly white male heroes. It wasn’t until 1977 that Black Lightning became the first black character to break the color line at DC by headlining his very own series. After much deliberation with his superiors at DC Comics, O’Neil did manage to get Richard Dragon, KungFu Fighter (1975–77) off the ground as a comics series. The Richard Dragon character originally debuted in Dragon’s Fist, a 1974 paperback written by Jim Dennis (a pseudonym of O’Neil and Jim Berry) and published by Award Books. Far from a success, all 18 issues of the shortlived cult series were written by the highly esteemed writer himself. 47

Charlton’s Yang, which pulled heavily from the Kung Fu TV show, beat Shang-Chi to the stands by one month. Bruce Lee wasn’t far behind. Shang-Chi © Marvel Characters, Inc. Yang © respective owner.

Kung fu mania also led DC to bestowing the Karate Kid, a longtime Legion of Superheroes member, his own (again) short-lived series in 1976. While the character was “the master of all martial arts,” his scripters didn’t necessarily have to be Black Belt Jones to pen it. “Well, when I got Karate Kid to write,” remembers Rozakis, “it was, ‘Turn this into a superhero book, please.’ Look at the issues I did; I think I had a guest star in every one. I think I had Superboy, and then I had the Legion, and then I had Robin. It was, ‘Okay, we’re making him into much more of a regular superhero rather than focusing on martial arts.’ Although I remember making up these alien fight techniques that he would use, and then I would have some kind of a demonstration about how it worked. I think I came up with one that was how could Karate Kid with no superpowers actually pin Superboy? I came up with this ridiculous explanation about how he was using Superboy’s own strength against him in the position he had him, and it was, ‘Oh, yeah, that makes sense.’ “I was having fun. I always looked at it, when I was writing, as, ‘Would I have enjoyed this as a kid?’ Not necessarily would I enjoy it today, but if I was a twelve-year-old reading a comic book, would I find this interesting? For one of those fight techniques, I told the readers, ‘Don’t try this on your brother. It probably won’t work.’ But it sounds good in a comic book story.” Pop culture is a fickle thing. If a company is too late jumping on a trend, then it’s a pointless gamble to proceed forward and invest manpower and resources. Unlike DC Comics, Marvel didn’t make that mistake when their quasi-

Bruce Lee character, Shang-Chi (a creation of Steve Englehart and Jim Starlin), landed his monthly in Master of Kung Fu. After its successful launch in 1974, the series endured for almost a decade. Nowadays the title is best remembered for the impressive storytelling of writer Doug Moench and the spectacular artistic efforts of Mike Zeck, Gene Day, and Paul Gulacy, a true visual stylist who captured the spirit of Bruce Lee for the book via some inventive use of skill, research, and invaluable photo reference. Gulacy and Master of Kung Fu served as an indelible influence on one impressionable young artist and martial arts enthusiast named Steve Rude. The Nexus artist says, “Well, I was always in touch with Paul Gulacy, because I loved his drawings on Master of Kung Fu. I was just beside myself about how great his storytelling was and the intricacies in his style, and all the detail, and the storytelling tricks that he did. I was just over the moon about them.” Sadly, due to rights issues over the inclusion of Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu in the dual-role of Shang-Chi’s father and arch-enemy, the cult classic Master of Kung Fu series was out of print for many long years. Fu Manchu and other related characters appeared throughout the vintage series and were no longer licensed by Marvel. Still, this martial arts warrior lived on in the Marvel Universe, and remains one of the few Asian characters to be a “leading man” in American comics, rather than a sidekick or secondary teammate. And at long last, the complete Master of Kung Fu series is finally being reprinted in a series of four omnibus volumes. Writer Chris Claremont wasn’t necessarily a karate aficionado, but as a consummate professional, he took the keys

武士

(above) Paul Gulacy often took a cinematic approach to the storytelling similar to that of Jim Steranko. (below) Mike Zeck’s Shang-Chi was a bit bulkier than Gulacy’s, but still relied on Bruce Lee as a reference point. Shang-Chi © Marvel Characters, Inc.

to the Iron Fist character and ran with it. “It was the same then as now. You tried; you made yourself available for whatever was open. If it was War is Hell, you gritted your teeth and wrote War is Hell. If it was Giant-Size Dracula, you did Giant-Size Dracula. So it was dumb-ass articles for Monsters Unleashed and Werewolf by Night, that’s the way you went. “It was cool, but, on the other hand, there’s nothing to stop you doing research, so I just wandered down to the Strand [bookstore] and stocked up on a half-dozen books that I still have on various forms of martial arts. And, again, no matter what research one might do as a writer, it also depends on having an artist that has the faintest clue what you’re talking about. So with the first two or three issues, it was kind of catch as catch can. This was when it was still a part of Marvel Premiere. But then, once John [Byrne] came in, we started coalescing right off the bat. We had a good year’s run.” In a 1974 comic by Roy Thomas and Gil Kane, Iron Fist (Danny Rand) made his unassuming debut in Marvel Premiere #15. After a ten-issue run on the anthology title (with a mix of different creators), Iron Fist graduated to a self-titled 1975 series by Claremont and artist John Byrne, their earliest joint effort. The writer recalls, “In the beginning I was doing pretty much full scripts, then it evolved down to typed plots broken down by page, and then, as John and I got more simpatico, we’d loosen the storytelling up a little more and allow him to play.” 49

El Chapulin Colorado © respective owner

EL CHAPULÌN COLORADO The friendly faces of Mexican actor/ writer/producer Roberto Gómez Bolaños and his comedy troupe have been a familiar sight on television sets in Hispanic households since the 1970s. Although Gómez achieved international stardom playing his signature character Chavo, a poor barrel-inhabiting eight-year-old orphan, many second-generation Latin American children distinctly remember him as El Chapulìn Colorado, their first genuine superhero. In this sendup of the genre, the kindhearted Chapulìn is the do-gooder with the mighty Chipote Chillón (his trusty mallet) who no one takes seriously because of his diminutive powers, physique, and silly outfit. Somehow, through sheer dumb luck or some outside assistance, the dimwitted character always ends up feeling like he’s saved the day. The Chapulìn Colorado character made enough of an impression on Simpsons creator Matt Groening that he based his recurring Latinflavored Bumblebee Man character on Gómez’s red-costumed hero. In the United States, satire or not, the appealing UHF comedy classic is more fondly remembered as an immersive staple Hispanic families could enjoy together. It crossed generations as a way for Spanishspeaking parents and abuelitos to share their colorful language, humor, and heritage with their English-speaking sons and daughters in their new homeland.

For those familiar with Claremont and Byrne’s X-Men work, Iron Fist is a bit of change of pace, full of mystery, well-choreographed action sequences, and a diverse cast of characters. “Well, it’s a kung fu series,” states Claremont. “It’s a one-onone kung fu series, also. You had a single protagonist, and, generally speaking, a single adversary. The other cast were supporting characters: Misty [Knight], Colleen [Wing], and Lieutenant Rafael Scarfe. They all were secondary to Danny’s story, which was the core of the book. So the essence of the story was to primarily stay focused on him. But, more importantly, if you’re writing a kung fu book, you’ve got to come through with the kung fu.” The title also found no resistance from Marvel when Iron Fist and Misty Knight, a black heroine, became a couple, one of Marvel’s earliest interracial pairings. Claremont answers, “Even in the mid-/late ’70s, I had friends who were in panracial relationships. You know? So why not have fiction reflect an aspect of modern, New York, urban life? And let the chips fall where they may and see what happens. I thought it worked rather well. It was certainly a lot of fun. “It’s not more fun writing the women as opposed to the men. It’s relationships. There’s only so much excitement you can generate focusing in on one rather inhibited early-20s hero who’s been out of the civilized limelight as he understands it for most of his life, and is trying to get used to a modern twentieth-century urban civilization, after growing up in the Himalayas. Having other characters in the book such as Misty and Colleen gave him somebody to play off of. And the idea is, you use the conversations, you use the confrontations, you Iron Fist and Misty Knight sealed their love with a use the dynamics of the action to kiss in Marvel Team-Up #64. explore and illuminate character: Iron Fist, Misty Knight © Marvel Characters, Inc. his and theirs. And the fun part was figuring, ‘What can we do that hasn’t been done? Well, let’s get him into a relationship with Misty and see what happens.’” It was only after the cancelation axe swung that the Marvel brass realized that sales figures of Iron Fist were on the upswing. So the very next year (1978), Claremont and Byrne planted the seeds of a beautiful bromance: Power Man and Iron Fist. Although their fling was short [Power Man #48–50], they laid the brickwork for Power Man to be rebranded as Power Man and Iron Fist with issue #50. Inheriting the reins to the title from Claremont was writer Jo Duffy, who followed her predecessor’s lead by continuing to shake things up. “These were two really, really exploitative concepts,” says Duffy about her two protagonists. “Power Man, let’s face it, it was Cleopatra Jones, it was Shaft, it was Blacula, it was the blaxploitation. Iron Fist was running the end of the Bruce Lee thing; it was the chopsocky. So there were two comics that were not really going anywhere, that had no legs under them that were just the remains of two different marketing trends that had run their course in Hollywood—except Claremont really loved Iron Fist. He was told he could keep Power Man going, but Iron Fist was so his baby, as much as the X-Men, and he’s like, ‘Well, what if we team them up and make it Power Man and Iron Fist?’ And they’re like, ‘Okay, yes, bless you, go forth and sin no more.’”

Bill Sienkiewicz’s memorable full-page ads for Power Man and Iron Fist reflected the light-hearted tone of the series. Power Man, Iron Fist © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Jo Duffy began working at Marvel Comics in 1977. The often overlooked Duffy is a key female trailblazer who broke into editorial’s old boys’ club atmosphere only because she wanted to work for a company whose characters she enjoyed. In due time, she proved to her “macho” skeptics that anything they could do, she would do it better. “The way I saw those characters was that Iron Fist, instead of just being a Mr. Punch-You-in-the-Face kind of guy, was going to be this person who was so evolved, spiritually, that even though he could punch you in the face, he always preferred not to, and really, he did not have an angry, mean bone in his body. And Luke Cage, I didn’t want to write anything offensive, so instead of the blaxploitation thing, I fell back on writing him as though he were the hero of an old-fashioned western. So, again, Roger [Stern], with that waggishness he has, said, ‘Great, Jo. So what you wound up giving us was the first comic book where the black hero had a white sidekick.’ And that was kind of true. Cage drove the stories. Iron Fist went along, because that’s what you do for your friends, and we were sort of doing John Wayne and Dean Martin with those characters.”

As seen in any entertaining issue of Power Man and Iron Fist written by Duffy in her three-year run, the camaraderie between her two heroes drove their stories. “Yeah, you’ve got to fight supervillains, you’ve got to fight them hard, but, at the end of the day, if you don’t care about the characters and whatever little bit of soap they’ve got going on in their lives, it’s not a Marvel comic. You know, for goodness’ sake, Spider-Man moping around over the girl, and moping around over the fact that he’s never going to get out from under the thumb of his beloved-but-frail aunt. The Fantastic Four with all of their family drama. Iron Man, and Pepper, and Happy. Nurse Foster and Thor. This has always been a company whose characters were as much about the drama in their lives as about the adventures.” By the mid-1970s, the comics industry as a whole had come a long way from the ridiculous stereotypes and exaggerated caricatures of minorities portrayed in the stories of yesteryear. It was a beautiful thing to behold characters of color and different ethnicities standing tall in the comics. It was a truer reflection of the world around us, and a sign that things could change. 51

efore all the bling and the tats, before the Air Jordans, the ESPNs, and the razzle dazzle, before everyone (and anyone) was all in your face… basketball was a game—the same game brought into being by YMCA gym teacher James Naismith in 1891. In the glory days, it was solely about the hoops. The men let their game do their talking, and their skills was the show. That was classic old school basketball. To the kids of the 1970s, nothing epitomized the sport better than master cartoonist Jack Davis’ memorable “Street Ball” strip, a glorious full-page comic ad for Spalding, starring ABA and NBA gods Rick Barry and Julius “Dr. J” Erving. During the mid-1970s, sports equipment maker Spalding ran their “Street Ball” advertisement prominently on the back cover of many comics. It was such a colorful sight that no one ever forgot it, and thus has become one of the most memorable comic book ads of all time. Although the ad was written by an advertising agency, its undeniable charm comes from Jack Davis’ gift for storytelling. In the 1970s, the veteran EC comics artist was one of the most in-demand, prolific, and recognizable superstar illustrators in the United States; his art was a staple on popular publications [TV Guide, Time, Sports Illustrated] and gigantic marketing campaigns of the era. The “Street Ball” assignment came Trading cards for the stars of “Street Ball.” to the artist courtesy of his then- Trading cards © respective owners 52

representative at Gerald & Cullen Rapp, one of the premiere illustration agencies. Jack Davis remembers, “My rep handles all of that [and particular photo reference], but he knows that I like to draw sports, and so, when something comes in like that, they turn it over to me.” For a sports fan like Davis, “Street Ball” is characteristic of the exuberance that he’s always been known for, but it also captures the inviting nature of the game of basketball. “I played basketball in high school. I was captain of the basketball team— not very good at it. I’ve always loved sports, and I enjoy drawing it. It changes now; I’m not up on that [or the sneakers], but back then I was.” The approval process behind the strip was relatively simple according to Davis. He explains, “Back then I had a fax machine, and they called it an Exxon Qwip, and it was on a roll, and I would put it on a roll and send [sketches] to the rep, and the rep would then send it back to me, ‘Okay, go ahead and do it,’ and that’s how we worked.” Although the behind-thescenes process of creating comics is pretty unglamorous, the proof of the pudding is in the results of the fine work that this Davis strip delivers in spades. For NBA Hall of Famer Rick Barry, one of our protagonists and one of the game’s best shooters ever, the strip was something that he remembers all these years later. The New Jersey native and

basketball perfectionist Barry says, “Thought it was good, It’s a celebration of the purity and magic of basketball, and but didn’t think it looked a lot like me. Spalding just did it puts the infectious nature of this game on display. It’s it as part of my deal with them. I never saw it before it enough to make you lace up your old Chuck Taylors, move ran. I thought it was clever with Doctor dunking and me and grove on the court, and shoot hoops with your pals shooting [from] outside.” One thing’s for certain: after until the sun goes down. Now that’s the stuff of memories! “Street Ball” no one would ever forget Rick Barry was the man with the effortless 30-footer and the signature “swish” sound effect. With his show ’fro and soaring prowess on full display, “Street Ball” also cements what every kid of the era knew, that there was no one cooler than Julius Erving, the slam dunk innovator and maestro. He was the first to make us all believe a man could fly. J was the superstar with mass appeal who reinvigorated the game when it needed reinventing. Perhaps no other player in the history of basketball added more color and finesse to the game than Dr. J in his prime. There’s no denying the undeniable… Dr. J was the man. Players like Dr. J and Rick Barry are basketball immortals; both gentlemen are ranked amongst the 50 Greatest Players in NBA history. “I remember [J and Barry],” says Jack Davis, “I remember them wearing their short shorts.” Those players of the ’70s were a scruffy looking bunch who proudly wore their colorful uniforms and short shorts alongside their big hair, sideburns, mustaches, full beards, and stubble, but they elevated the sport to new heights through their gritty gameplay and their style and flair. It was more than just a game to them. And “Street Ball” is more The Jack Davis-drawn ad for Spalding which filled many a comic book back cover in 1976. than just an advertisement. Ad © Russell Brands, LLC. 53

NO RADIO

.......

FOR THE FATE OF THE WORLD

Bodace Stadium

.......

NO HOME TV

Tues. Jan. 31, 1978

THE THRILLA IN OUTA SPACE

superman Metropolis — greatest superhero in the world

vs. Muhammad

ALI

louisville — heavyweight champion of the world 1960 Olympic Champion

the winner to face Hun’Ya of Bodace

uring the 1970s, there was no figure more beloved ment into professional boxing, and the Supreme Court‘s or celebrated than that of Muhammad Ali, a boxer reversal of the verdict against him. known for his refreshing honesty and sharp wit as Entering the ’70s, Ali became a larger than life figure. well as his physical prowess and graceful moves. The man His epic battles in the ring against the likes of Joe Frazier, born as Cassius Clay, a 1960 gold medal Olympian, became George Foreman, and Ken Norton, among others, was the a heavyweight champion at 22 and came fully into his own stuff of legends. Outside of the ring, the beloved fighter when he converted to Islam and soared to the stratosphere of pop adopted the name of Muhammad culture as one of the defining figAli. Always true to his beliefs and ures of the era. Everyone, chilconvictions, he refused his mandadren and adults, around the world tory Army draft selection during knew him. Becoming an industry the controversial Vietnam War in unto himself, the cultural icon and 1967. In the prime of his career Get your ticket! Promotional item for the 1978 Madison Avenue favorite entered Superman vs. Ali treasury. and convicted for draft evasion, the media ring with his own book Superman © DC Comics the champ lost his title and boxing (1975’s The Greatest: My Own license, and, sadly, was denied his livelihood (for almost four Story), movie (1977’s The Greatest), animated television years) when every state in the country categorically black- show (1977’s I Am the Greatest: The Adventures of Muhamlisted him from obtaining another permit. Adamantly, Ali mad Ali), toy (1976’s Mego Muhammad Ali line), and fought for his case and became a key critic against the war much more. By 1978, no man or obstacle could stop him. until, ultimately, he emerged victorious with his reinstate- The Greatest had done it all—all except take on Superman,

Neal Adam’s cover art for All New Collectors’ Edition #C-56. Superman © DC Comics

the Last Son of Krypton, who was no flesh-and-blood man but comic books’ very own greatest champion. 1978 remains a bittersweet year in the distinguished publishing history of DC Comics, for this dark period of freefalling sales known as the “DC Implosion” brought massive layoffs and cancellations. The silver lining of DC’s dismal year arrived in the form of the Superman vs. Ali treasury (#C-56 of the All New Collectors’ Edition series), an unlikely book that became the most talked about comic of the year, and one which remains popular to this day. As DC’s publisher since 1976, Jenette Kahn sought new ideas to generate media buzz and make her company look hip, so the idea of pairing Superman and Muhammad Ali, the biggest celebrity on the planet, was right in her wheelhouse. For an assignment of this magnitude, DC enlisted the best in the legendary creative team of Denny O’Neil and… Joe Kubert?!? “It sounded like an incredibly stupid project,” admits Neal Adams, “and at the same time a wonderful project. [Longtime DC editor] Julie Schwartz came up with the idea. Julie Schwartz was a very good idea person. He came up with this in spite of everybody’s laughing at him. And so they kind of put together a deal [to determine] whether

such a thing could be possible, and, in fact, it was possible. And Joe Kubert, I thought, was a great choice, except that Joe’s work is not quite as realistic and commercial as mine, and the Muhammad Ali people didn’t feel the likenesses were what they wanted to see. They were a little too crude and a little too rough, and so DC Comics then started to talk to me about doing it…. I was probably exactly the right person to do it, because I was out there in the commercial world doing commercial stuff on a regular basis, and I knew the standards. And they were not comic book standards. They were very commercial standards. So what I did was, since Joe Kubert had just done a cover at that point, I took Joe Kubert’s cover and I traced it, and I put my art over it so that it would still remain a Joe Kubert-inspired cover.” And inspired it was. While the original Kubert layout was a simple “night at the fight” scene, Neal Adams raised the stakes. As if the awesome spectacle of Superman going toe-to-toe Muhammad Ali was not enough, the artwork’s detailed background features a sea of humanity. Anyone who was anyone in 1978 is seemingly present within the audience. From the Jackson 5 and Donny and Marie Osmond, to Pelé and Joe Namath, to the incumbent President Jimmy Carter and scores of DC characters—Adams even worked in 55

his family and dozens of his fellow comic book professionals—the joy and anticipation on the faces in the crowd conveyed this was an event unlike any other, and the cover has proven to be one of Adams’ finest and most beloved pieces. But before O’Neil and Adams—the men who defined and modernized DC Comics with social relevance and coolness in their stellar collaborations on Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman—could work out a story, they, like Joe Kubert, had to receive the champ’s approval. Ali’s camp invited O’Neil and Adams to Chicago where they met with Herbert Muhammad (son of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad), Ali’s business manager and spiritual guru. O’Neil recalls, “We went to Chicago thinking we would talk to Ali. Ali, meanwhile, had embarked for Show Low, Arizona, to train there. But Herbert Muhammad said he would talk to us, and one of the memories I

(top) Muhammad Ali enters the ring with his crew. (above) Superman puts up a noble effort, but Ali is the champ. Superman © DC Comics

have is these two white guys getting into a cab, and giving the cabbie the address, and he was like, ‘Are you sure?’— because white people didn’t go to that address. But we did, and Herbert was very gracious, and very nice, and we talked to him—I don’t remember about what—for a while, and then he had one of his sons drive us back to our hotel.

“Ali was not happy about that project, I have reason to believe. I went up and watched him train for two days in the Catskills. I was a boxing fan at the time. I was a guy who paid to see fights—yeah, big pacifist, me. Well, Ali was a pacifist too, and there’s a huge difference between shooting somebody from three miles away with a Howitzer and facing an equal. Anyway, I shook hands with Ali, and he obviously wasn’t interested in talking to me. I’m looking at an ad that somebody gave me for that right now, stuck on my work door. It got to be a real mess, and by the time the comic got out, I, for various reasons—maybe 18 pages of it are mine, probably not even that.” The production of the book was a grueling experience for the veteran Denny O’Neil, who found himself having to depart the project after handing in a draft of his story. “I did a script which they rejected,” tells O’Neil. “And they may very well have been right to do so. I’m not going to get into the politics of that. I’m also not going to try and defend—I mean, that was at the absolute nadir of my life, and I probably wasn’t doing very good work, but by the time the thing got published, Ali was no longer champion.” Although some of O’Neil’s work remains in the final story, it was Neal Adams who took up the writing duties at the behest of editor Julie Schwartz. Adams, a man of many talents, had written wellregarded classics for “Deadman” and The Spectre, and with this book he focused on capturing the essence and bravado of Ali, of whom he was an admirer. Adams explains, “I’m a big fan of the work that Ali did for his people in America. We started in with slavery, and then we went to repression, and even in the ’60s it was hard to move out of that tremendously bad situation in America. And Ali was

Goaded by the Scrubb emperor, Ali shows why he’s not just the king of the ring, but the king of smack talk. Superman © DC Comics

balls-to-the-wall one of the toughest guys out there in the public. He wasn’t somebody who was going to pick up a gun and shoot anybody. He was out there. He was proud of who he was. He made demands and he required of himself a tremendous discipline. He wasn’t going to go to other countries to shoot people just because their skin was a different color. And he gave up a championship for the sake of that. I call that a man. And the opportunity to do a comic book with the greatest comic book superhero and one of the best heroes of our day together in a comic book, I can’t imagine a better project.” When it came down to rewriting O’Neil’s original draft, Adams says, “We kind of had to shorten that because the story broadened out a little too much a little too early, so we had to pull that back. I took selected stuff and I left sections out, and knitted [it all] together with a briefer beginning, and then moved the thing forward.” Any adventure story with characters as grand as Superman and Muhammad Ali requires an equally large threat. Enter the Scrubb: an alien race of “Star-Warriors” who threaten Earth to prove their superiority. In order to prevent an invasion, our heroes must fight one another to determine which of them will face Hun’Ya, the Scrubb’s invincible champion, for all the marbles.

Leveling the playing field between Ali and Superman presented its own challenge. O’Neil states, “I always wanted to make stuff accessible, and, of course, there was a huge, built-in problem from the get-go in that Ali may have been the toughest human being on Earth at the time, I wouldn’t dispute that—although his handshake was amazingly gentle. I thought, ‘Well, I’m going to shake hands with this guy and lose the use of my right hand for a month.’ But not at all. In fact, I later found out that my little knuckle was broken due to my hitting something with a fist, and it was hurting, and I thought, ‘I have to shake hands with him. My hand is already in pain and I’m going to shake hands with the toughest guy on Earth. Well, this is certainly going to be an unpleasant experience.’ And it wasn’t at all. He was quite gentle. But he was only a human, and Superman was pushing planets around and being way more than human, so it was the same problem we had when pairing Superman with almost any other character. How do you create a situation where conflict is possible for a demigod? And I don’t have any idea anymore how I solved that. I have no idea what happened to the script I wrote. I doubt that it exists anymore. It’s probably better for me if it doesn’t exist.” The treasury is a compelling tour-de-force, a time capsule that captures the spirit of the era. Its impressive opening 57

double-page spread of downtown Metropolis sets the stage for the impeccable level of detail and passion the artist put into the art. The Champ, in particular, comes to life as Adams captures his personality, fancy footwork, effortless moves and boxing prowess. Midway through the book, Adams impressively choreographs the rhythm of Ali’s verbal tenacity with the explosive emotions on his mug. Adams states, “Oh, we stole it from Muhammad Ali. If you read that dialogue, you’ll find most of Ali’s dialogue, especially in the center of the book, comes directly from Muhammad Ali. That was a certain prideful thing that we did. He’s in the face of Hun’Ya and he starts quoting himself.” Originally scheduled for 1977 publication, the Superman vs. Ali treasury hit the stands in the spring of 1978—just a few months after Muhammad Ali lost his title to Leon Spinks. To promote the book’s release, Ali attended a press conference at the DC offices. Denny O’Neil remembers, “It didn’t get done until Ali was no longer the champion, then we went ahead with publishing it anyhow, and there was a press conference at DC’s headquarters— I think it was probably on Third Avenue at the time—and Ali showed up for that. But he wouldn’t say anything. He did not utter a word for the hour or so that he was in that room. He looked very placid. He looked like some kind of Buddha figure, calm, collected, but he wasn’t going to talk. I think I shook hands with him again. It’s not like he was being out-andout hostile, but I have no idea what his agenda was.” DC staffer Bob Rozakis also remembers that day. “The biggest thing was, the day it was being announced, we were having a press conference and Muhammad Ali came to the office for the announcement. And that particular day or week, he was feuding with the press, so he came in to the press conference and didn’t say anything. He just stood there. It was, ‘Okay, well, you’re mad at the press for something they wrote somewhere else about you, and here we are trying to push this Superman/Muhammad Ali book, and you’re not helping.’” For DC Comics, the lavish project failed to ignite, saleswise, the way the brass had hoped it would. Although things did not go his way, Denny O’Neil’s appreciation for Ali still stands. He comments, “I thought it was going to be the pinnacle of my career as a comic book guy. I’d been in 58

Hun’Ya takes the opening rounds with his reach and strength (above), but it’s all part of Ali’s strategy, and in the later rounds, he taps into his reserves and delivers a series of crushing blows to a tired Hun’Ya (left) before sending him out of the ring and into the seats with a knockout punch. Superman © DC Comics

the business, I don’t know, seven or eight years by that time, and I thought, ‘Yeah, this is it. I’m going to associate with one of the culture’s great men,’ and I did consider him to be that, ‘and this is a very strange project unlike anything that’s ever been done before, and this is going to be it for me. This is where I hit the top.’ And [laughs] it didn’t work out that way for a number of reasons. Ali was physically the most impressive man I have ever met. He still is. I mean, he walked into a room of 50 people and you were suddenly aware of him.” Late 1978, in a rematch, the formidable Ali turned the tables on Spinks, regaining his championship belt for the final time of his career. Today, the living legend’s legacy endures as a symbol of black pride and good will, inspiring people to be the best they can be. As for Superman vs. Ali, the book has garnered its own devoted audience and was collected in a fancy hardcover edition in 2010. Once considered a black sheep, this classic proves that quality is never forgotten… it is just appreciated and savored all the more with the passage of time.

SUPER-SIZED FUN I

THE TREASURY EDITIONS

n the size-obsessed culture of the ’70s when everything bigger was better, kids wanted more bang for their allowance-buck. Comic book companies met this demand by providing more content and more pages in non-standard format books of all shapes and sizes, be they digest-sized, magazine-sized, double-sized, triple-sized, or giant-sized. But none delivered the thrills in as spectacular a fashion as the treasury edition. The adventures within were bigger, longer, and seemingly more colorful, and the experience of reading these tabloid-sized dramas engulfed readers in a way that still fascinates them today. In 1972, DC executive Sol Harrison pitched the treasury edition concept as a product with a more impactful display presence at newsstands and stores. At approximately 10" x 14", these whoppers were given a longer shelf life than the standard comic, and lent themselves as a better brand of stock for bookstores and airport shops. DC’s line of treasuries were a mixture of original and classic stories initially

published under the umbrellas of “Limited Collectors’ Editions” and “Famous First Editions,” both selling for a buck at a time when a standard comic was just 20 cents. The move must have paid off because Marvel Comics soon followed with their own line of treasuries. It wasn’t just comic industry management who liked the idea, as comic book creators enjoyed seeing their artwork and words presented on such a large scale. A veteran of treasury classics such as Superman vs. Spider-Man and Superman vs. Wonder Woman, Gerry Conway confirms, “It’s a lot of fun. At that point, I think Marvel was doing 18-page stories, and that’s really totally inadequate for developing a story. And for the treasury, what was it, 72 pages? It was like going from doing a half-hour sitcom to doing a two-hour widescreen epic. It was like, wow! It was fabulous. It was really a wonderful format that I wish they could bring back in some way.” By the late 1970s, the treasury’s days were numbered. The comic companies did not supply suitable display racks

All characters © their respective owners

to retailers, and offered the line little marketing support. As a result, company sales staffs found them impractical to push. Retailers, left to their own devices, often found it difficult to allocate shelf space to display the oversized wonders. With so many obstacles to overcome, it’s no surprise that treasury sales were so-so at best. In 1981, DC ended their treasury edition line with the release of DC Special Series #27: Batman Vs. the Incredible Hulk. DC’s then-recently promoted head of production Bob Rozakis comments, “I think it ran out of steam and there wasn’t enough market carrying it. I think that also Sol was hoping they’d be able to develop a mail order business with them, because there were the coupons all the time [for them]. You know, ‘Send in the dollar,’ and I think DC even paid the postage, which was probably a quarter at the time.” By 1982, Marvel stopped producing them as well. The format had run its course. But the aura of the treasury lingers today. The format is a riveting source of nostalgia that triggers powerful memories of wonder and joy. And like magic, every now and then, the format resurfaces, as it did with the 1998 to 2003 DC tabloid-sized books produced by Paul Dini and Alex Ross. Yes, there are some good things that never quite go away.

THE

CLASH OF THE CENTURY

VS.

S PI DER-MAN

he impossible happened in 1976 when Superman and Spider-Man went toe-to-toe in one of the most magnificent comic books the world has ever seen. Nowadays every season brings a so-called “event” in the comics industry, but this disco-era dance was the real deal. Not only did it serve as a peace pipe between bitter rivals DC Comics and Marvel Comics, where each placed their most prominent character on the marquee, but to sweeten the pot, this gigantic 92-page story was published in a treasury edition [an oversized 10" x 13" book], comics’ most glorious format. Delivering the goods with undeniable zest were the stellar talents of writer Gerry Conway, penciler Ross Andru, and inker Dick Giordano. If timing is everything in life, then a young 20-something Gerry Conway arrived at DC Comics just in time for the whopper of all assignments. Having been courted away for his formidable talents and accomplishments at Marvel, where among many things he succeeded Stan Lee as the writer of Amazing Spider-Man, and ultimately became Marvel’s editor-in-chief (in 1976), the talented wünderkind became a fount of creativity at DC Comics and an undeniable asset in stemming the tide of the company’s dwindling sales. Gerry Conway remembers, “I was in a very advantageous position because I had just come over to DC like a month or so before, and [DC publisher] Carmine [Infantino] didn’t operate from a straightforward business point of view. He operated from a schoolyard point of view. [laughter] For example, I think the main reason he hired Jack Kirby was not because he thought Jack Kirby was going to do great material that was going to turn DC around, but because he wanted to put a finger in the eye of Marvel, and he figured that he was going to get away from Marvel somebody that in his mind was crucially important to Marvel and that, without Jack, Marvel would not be able to continue. How he was going to use Jack, he didn’t necessarily know. He didn’t necessarily have a stratPromo ad for the Superman Vs. Spider-Man book. egy in mind. In the same way, when I came over, he saw me and he was looking at, ‘Oh, Gerry’s writing Spider-Man, Thor, and Fantastic Superman © DC Comics. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. 61

Superman © DC Comics. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

A manipulated Spidey takes a bit of the wind out of a red sun-weakened Superman in this spread by Andru Ross and Dick Giordano. Superman © DC Comics. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Four, and he’s one of their top writers. Boy, if I can get him, that’ll really throw a monkey wrench in Marvel’s operation,’ neglecting the fact that Marvel had a lot of other talented writers who could take over, as they did. So when he got the [Superman Vs. Spider-Man] project, he thought to himself, ‘Well, how can I really stick it to Marvel? I know! I’ll put Gerry on this book because we just got Gerry, and that’ll really show them that we’re tougher than they are.’ [laughs] I think that was his notion. “And I wanted to work with Ross Andru, because I had worked with Ross on Spider-Man, and he was also somebody who had drawn Superman, so in my mind it was perfect. And, again, from Carmine’s point of view, it was great, because it meant that Ross wouldn’t be able to draw Spider-Man. [laughs] So it had nothing to do with whether he thought we were the best team for the book. It was more that he felt like this was a good way to impede Marvel. It was very silly. I mean, he was not a good businessman at all. “It was sort of schoolyard politics. ‘How can I be the biggest guy on the [block]?’ And, to his credit, that actually worked out in some ways very, very well, but in other ways, not so much. He canceled Jack Kirby’s Fourth World books with no clear idea of why he was doing it, just that he didn’t think it was working out. The sales were fine. They weren’t

great. They weren’t disastrous. And he replaced them with books that were mediocre, totally mediocre, because he cut the heart out of Jack by doing that—and for no good reason. There was no strategic plan, no real sense of what he was trying to accomplish, and that was kind of his M.O. Which worked out for me. [laughs]” Until this project, the general consensus saw Marvel as an upstart company next to the robust DC Comics, but the actuality was that the surging House of Ideas [founded in 1939] had been around nearly as long as their distinguished competitor [founded in 1935] and had already surpassed them, sales-wise, during the early 1970s. This Superman/Spider-Man treasury helped change that perception because it legitimized Marvel by showing both companies as peers. Within the stagflation of the era and the crippling skyrocketing cost of paper, the book also generated a much-needed boost in good publicity for DC and Marvel, who were both facing financial instability in a marketplace that was shrinking. “I know that Stan [Lee] was kind of against the idea of doing it in the sense that he didn’t see any advantage to Marvel and DC doing something together,” recounts Conway. “He was not opposed to it, but he didn’t see an advantage to it. But Roy [Thomas] said to him, ‘Look. 63

What this does is it says, not just to comic book readers, because comic book readers are going to read comics for their own reasons, but it says in a very public way that Marvel and DC are equals, that Spider-Man and Superman are at the same level.’ And, in point of fact, Superman was still selling more than Spider-Man at that point—there were, like, four Superman titles—World’s Finest, and Superman, and Action Comics, and so on—so he was ubiquitous in a way that Spider-Man wasn’t. And I think [Roy] said, “Look, you put Spider-Man and Superman on the same cover together and you’re basically saying these are equal characters, and to the outside world, this would be a big, big deal.’ He was right.” Although DC was adamant about Superman getting top billing, the story’s Marvel Team-Up-like structure allowed it to evenhandedly shine the spotlight on Spider-Man as well. To the credit of DC and Marvel, both corporate entities were refreshingly confident in Conway’s ability to craft a story because neither presented any objections or notes throughout the entire making of this comic book. Conways agrees, “Yeah, because of the weird circumstances in which this was kind of the bastard child of both companies where neither company wanted to necessarily own it. Basically, I had Roy as the overseer from Marvel, and Roy was A team-up of big-time stars needs a team-up of big-time villains. always laissez-faire. As long as it made Lex Luthor, Superman © DC Comics. Doctor Octopus, Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. sense to me and I could explain it to him, he was fine with it. And then it was just Ross and I doing it. So pretty much it was an independent project between the two companies. We had very little oversight compared to what we would have subsequently, certainly on the books that followed it. I think they had more oversight.” The engaging comic is a crowd-pleaser that delivers the thrills, from its legendary cover (that’s often been imitated but never duplicated), to the primo back cover that features the protagonists chumming up for their fans. As for the insides (a.k.a. the story itself ), it is larger than life, good-natured, and filled with wall-to-wall action. After a beautiful introduction of the heroes in their respective elements, the plot begins when the twisted minds of Lex Luthor and Dr. Octopus befriend one another in prison and soon hatch a diabolical plan to extort billions from the American government. The centerpiece of the book is the brilliant showdown between Spider-Man and Superman (which the villains manipulate the heroes into having when they abduct their respective loves, Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane). Of course, good 64

prevails as the heroes become friends and team up to travel the earth and into space to save the day. Let us not forget all the captivating pages of action illustrated to perfection by veterans Ross Andru and Dick Giordano, perhaps the finest achievement of both their careers. Conway explains, “There was always a chance that the readers of one character would not know who the other character was, so I had to keep that in mind. But I also had to keep in mind that I was doing something that was very political in that I had to make sure that Spider-Man and Superman had equal representation in the book. They had to have the same number of pages; they had to have the same number of big panels; they had to have the same proportionate impact in the course of it. So it had to be equally balanced. I mean, it got to the point where Ross and I were talking about how, if we had a two-page spread in which Spider-Man is the main figure in the foreground in that two-page spread, we had to balance it off with another two-page spread in which Superman was the foreground figure. It was that technical. And at the same time we wanted a story that was going to balance off the supporting characters. Everything had

to be played very carefully, and I think we did a pretty good job of doing that so that it was kind of—I mean, if you sat down and you analyzed [it], I think you’d see that that was what was going on, but I don’t think it was apparent that that was what was going on.” The success of this special story cleared the way for more crossover classics which followed the tone set by Conway: the second Superman and Spider-Man installment (1981), Batman Vs. the Incredible Hulk (1981), and The X-Men and the New Teen Titans (1982). (A problematic 1983 Justice League of America and Avengers effort brought an end to these intercompany specials until they resumed in 1994.) Each crossover was meant to be accessible and entertaining to all readers—not bogged down with continuity or filled with unrecognizably changed characters. During the 1970s and 1980s, whatever happened in the DC/Marvel crossover books stayed in those crossover books. These classic comics were all about letting loose and having fun, because that, boys and girls, is what comics is all about.

Spidey, when you’re right, you’re right. Superman © DC Comics. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Afterschool Delights

THE SUGARY SWEET HOSTESS CAKES COMIC BOOK ADS

hen it comes to classic comic book advertisements, the colorful Hostess Cakes comic strip ads of yesteryear are A-number-1, top of the list, and king of the hill. From 1975 to 1982, this memorable series of sunny promotional one-pagers inhabited the comics published by DC, Marvel, Archie, Harvey, and Gold Key; the company’s campaign featured all the star power that these companies had to muster plugging the sweet deliciousness of the Hostess line of snack cakes. The blissful sight of seeing Hostess Cakes teaming up with popular characters like Wonder Woman, Archie, Hulk, Road Runner, Wendy the Good Little Witch, and so many others, not only saved the day but captured the hearts, smiles, and stomachs of children everywhere too. In 1975, the Continental Baking Company, the makers of Hostess snack cakes, launched two highly successful efforts to engage the attention of children, their target audience, via a couple of alluring American staples: comics and baseball cards. During every May to September of 1975 to 1979, Hostess produced a beautiful series of free collectible major league baseball cards that were printed on the backs of specially marked family-sized Hostess boxes and packs. But the ambitious one-page comic strips were a marketing achievement that was creative, effective, and had more farreaching effects since its charm didn’t exclude girls. From their debut, these sugary ads proved to be a long-lasting and successful campaign, one that generated more than 200 original strips illustrated by some of the comics industry’s finest talents. Illustrated by veteran artist Dick Giordano, DC’s maiden voyage was a strip entitled “Batman and the Mummy” (appearing within magazines with a cover-date of April and May of 1975) which cleared the path for all subsequent ads in showing kids that no one dead or alive could resist the taste of Twinkies, Hostess Cup Cakes, and Hostess Fruit Pies. Produced under the auspices of Sol Harrison, a DC Comics executive and comics pioneer, the majority of the Hostess ads showcasing DC Comics characters would be rendered by Curt Swan, the definitive Superman artist of the 20th century, and written by versatile company staff66

ers E. Nelson Bridwell and Bob Rozakis. The apparent guidelines set in motion between Hostess and the comic book companies required, one, that the heroes never taste the goods in the advertisement, and two, that these jovial endorsements couldn’t headline characters within the titles that featured them.

Hostess boxes featuring cutout baseball cards. Suzy Q’s, Twinkies © Hostess Brands, LLC

Behind the scenes the process of creating these classic strips was relatively smooth. Bob Rozakis recalls, “They would assign them in bunches, and it would be, ‘Okay, we’re going to do six or eight or ten of them at a time, and we need one with Superman and one with Flash, and let’s do a Batgirl.’ The thing was that you couldn’t have the ad starring a particular character in that character’s book or a book that character appeared in. So there would always be the oddball ones that could appear in the Superman books. Batgirl, for example, could pretty much appear in

any of the books, while the Superman ad would appear in the majority of the line. And the other thing, of course, was that the character could never actually eat the product. So the crooks would always eat the product. A great way to capture crooks is to give them golden sponge cakes filled with crème, because they will give up anything for that. But it was basically, these are the characters we’re going to use this month, and this is the product. It’s either going to be the Fruit Pies or Cup Cakes or Twinkies.” The month following DC’s release, Marvel’s entries began making their way into their periodicals. With the House of Ideas, the advertising agency handed full scripts to Sol Brodsky, Marvel’s V.P. of Operations, who coordinated and oversaw the completion of the strips. Unlike DC, Brodsky didn’t limit the illustration duties to mostly one artist but used his free rein to graciously spread out these nicely paying “extra” assignments among disciplined Marvel veterans and up-and-comers. The variation in styles and storytelling of the Marvel-Hostess ads gave the work a slightly higher degree of effervescent quality. Although none of the artists were credited in the actual published pieces, savvy comics fans instantly recognized the stylized illustrations of Ross Andru, Sal Buscema, Gene Colan, John Romita, and various others among the many entries. The esteemed writer Roger Stern says, “Marvel’s Hostess ads were written by unknown copywriters at whichever was Hostess’ ad agency at the moment. I remember seeing at least one script from the Ted Bates Agency, but I don’t know if Dick Giordano kicks things off with the first Hostess comic book ad. all of the Hostess scripts came from Bates. Batman, Robin © DC Comics. Twinkies © Hostess Brands, LLC. Regardless, there was often a problem with those scripts. I with their own villains to fight our superheroes. There mean, sure, these were ads for Twinkies and Fruit Pies; they was one instance where an agency copywriter invented were never meant to be high art or even pop art classics. But a Black Widow to fight Spider-Man, not realizing that it seemed as though the ad writers’ knowledge of superhe- Marvel already had a Black Widow… one who by then roes began and ended with the ’60s Batman TV show. was no longer a villain, but was a hero appearing in The “Those of us on staff—I was an assistant editor at the Champions! We saw that strip after Ross Andru had drawn time—usually didn't see the ads until they had already Marvel's Black Widow as the ad's villain. At that point, been penciled. At that point, we would do whatever we there was just enough time to alter her costume so that could to fix the scripts so that, say, Spider-Man would she no longer looked like our Black Widow, and to change at least be speaking a little more in character. The people her name to Madame Web; this was before there was a who wrote the ads apparently didn’t know much about Madame Web in the Spider-Man series. On another occathe Marvel characters, and they would often come up sion, Frank Miller was drawing a Hostess ad that called 67

CRAZY FOR KRAZY STRAWS®

There are certain products that never fail to turn a frown upside many knockoffs have been made and sold across the world, down. One of those wonders is Krazy Straw, the magical straw but whether it is our product or a knockoff brand, Krazy Straw that makes every drink fun. continues to be a commodity of high In 1935, Krazy Straw was invented by demand.” Arthur P. Gildersleeve of Denver, Colorado, In 1989, Fun-Time International, who also registered its patent, No. 2063803. Inc. acquired Krazy Straw. “Our current Christian David Dickson (of Fun-Time Interpresident and CEO, Erik Lipson, was the national, Inc.) recounts, “It is said that a glass inventor of the Krazy Glasses,” states blower was creating glass decorations to Dickson. “Weeks after graduating from sell when his son came into the workshop Vassar with a degree in mathematics, and distracted him. According to the myth, Erik used a patented heating element to the glass blower dropped his creation, and shape glass tubes into sunglasses that the only piece left intact was a spiraled could be filled with colored materials piece of glass. He smoothed the edges or liquids. Two months after creating his and gave the first Krazy Straw to his son first prototype, he contacted the owner of that day. The glass blowers son returned Krazy Straw and struck a deal to have his from school the next day with stories of product manufactured. Less than three jealous classmates who wanted their own years later, Erik bought the company from Krazy Straw. So, the glass blower decided its previous owner.” to make and sell the glass straws from Having celebrated its 50th anniversary then on.” recently, Krazy Straw keeps itself fresh Over the years, Mr. Gildersleeve by following the latest trends and creatwould go on to perfect the design with ing unique colors and designs tailored for the long loops and tight spirals we’re every season and event. Dickson affirms, accustomed to seeing today. The unique “Like you may imagine, we have people of straw proved to be a godsend to those all age ranges that will come to us with stoparents whose finicky children refused ries from their experience with Krazy Straw. to drink their milk or juice. Throughout Most people remember the original design the ’70s, Krazy Straw commercials were from the milk commercial and the more a familiar sight on children’s television recent orange juice commercial. We have shows; the product stills holds a ubiqnoticed that because our past was such a uitous presence in supermarkets today. Krazy Straws © positive one, Krazy Straw have continued to Fun-Time Internati onal, Inc. Dickson says, “Krazy Straw reached thrive and grow in today’s modern market.” mass popularity during the ’70s and carried the height of that These straws truly are a timeless product. As long as there popularity through the ’80s and into the early ’90s. Since then, are kids there will always be a need for Krazy Straw!

Josie and the Pussycats enjoy the big delight of Hostess Fruit Pies. Josie & the Pussycats © Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Fruit Pie © Hostess Brands, LLC.

for the Human Torch to be fighting a villainous ‘Iceman.’ He brought that script in to the office to ask about it, and we wound up cobbling together a new villain called the Ice-Master, which Frank then drew.” Jo Duffy, another accomplished writer and former Marvel editor, expressed a similar viewpoint to Stern. She states, “What happened with those Hostess ads is very funny, because the writers knew some of the characters, but clearly not all of them, and they were told who to include. You know, ‘So-and-so’s getting popular.’ And there’s an ad that saw print in one form you may remember, but the form it came to us in was just an appalling illustration of what happens when you have the work being done by people who know what the characters look like, but don’t know about them. They were talking, you know, ‘You get a big

delight in every bite,’ and there was usually a strip cartoon, and it was a crowd of Marvel heroes. And they were talking about whatever this great product is, and it’s this, and it’s that, and the other thing. And in the back, newly added because, thanks to Frank Miller, his popularity was on the rise, is Daredevil… the Man without Fear… and without eyesight! And he’s toward the back, and he says, ‘Let me see.’ And, luckily, somebody brilliant came up with the idea of just changing his line to, ‘Sounds great.’” Marvel staffer Paty Cockrum worked closely with Sol Brodsky as his one-artist art department on all his projects for the merchandising and licensing of superheroes in other media and products. She vividly remembers, “The art was done on staff, or inhouse. And where I came into it was, after they had done the art, we had the Twinkie graphics and logos and things like that that they had sent us. I have a big folder of them. When it came back from the penciling, and the inking, and the lettering, then the areas for the Twinkies or Cup Cakes or whatever they were at that time, for that ad, would come to me and I would do the production on it. And I would put in the logos; I would put in the little graphics of the Twinkies or the Cup Cakes or whatever. At that point it would be ready to go back to editorial, back for them to assign a colorist and to put it through the regular production with the book. “They were a joke to us,” affirms Cockrum. “They really were. ‘Oh, here comes another Twinkies ad! Yay!’ ‘Oh, okay. This is Hulk having Twinkies stuffed in his mouth. Okay.’ Or Thor going out swinging his hammer at Twinkies, or whatever. And it was; Spider-Man appeared in more Hostess ads than any other character. they were big jokes to us. ‘Oh, well.’ It was someSpider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. Fruit Pie © Hostess Brands, LLC. thing we had to do to support the money for the books. Like any other ad page, but this one took a whole know? And it was just a fantastic situation. I couldn’t have page, and it had a comic with it. It was just another ad page asked for anything better.” The act of producing the Hostess ads was just as painless for us to do. Mostly the paste-up for them was done in the bullpen, and if there was editorial on them, I guess, Sol at DC Comics. Rozakis comments, “For the most part they probably did it, being the chief person in the office. But this went through with minor editing on them. When I started writing them, there were plenty of them to look at, so it was was comic format, which most of them weren’t.” Sal Buscema, Marvel’s hardest working artist in this era, easy to get an idea of, okay, this is what they’re looking for. remembers these types of assignments as relatively stress- I would always try to throw in little tongue-in-cheek gags free work. He comments, “It may have been full script, and things like that. “You had to tell a story within six or eight panels. And too, for those pages, but we’re talking about, what, a half a dozen panels on a page, or eight panels, whatever, so that show the product. It had to be totally self-contained in was no problem. Yeah, look, any time Marvel called and terms of, here’s the villain, here’s what he’s doing, here’s how said, ‘Sal, we have this assignment,’ if I had the time to do the hero comes to stop him by giving him Fruit Pies.” Today the old Hostess Cakes ads continue to endure in it, I would always take it on, because this was my one client, period. Marvel Comics. And it was a wonderful client to the memories of the boys and girls who grew up with these have because they kept me busy constantly. If I wanted to artifacts of goodness. The everlasting appeal of these strips take a vacation, I was the one that had to tell them, ‘Look, isn’t lost on Bob Rozakis, DC’s Answer Man, either. “A lot just lay off for a week because I’m gonna be outta here,’ you of them were just humorous and entertaining little bits of 69

. Hostess Cup Cakes © Ho Wendy © Classic Media

business. It’s kind of like watching your favorite TV shows and seeing the characters do a commercial where they know they’re doing a commercial. I always played it like, ‘Superman knows he’s hawking Hostess Fruit Pies in this.’” To some, the Hostess ads are cheesy relics of a bygone era that served no greater purpose than pushing Hostess Cup Cakes, Twinkies, and Fruit Pies. But to the comic bookloving kids of the era, these were such an unforgettable source of delight that not finding one in a comic would turn a kid’s world upside down. As well as these candy-coated commercials being an extra page of sequential art to read, they also served as the perfect introduction to comics characters that were completely brand new to the unenlightened. Sometimes, in terms of sheer entertainment, those innocent little Hostess ads were even more accessible than the featured stories themselves. These are the types of memories and experiences that made these strips and their harmless gags priceless. The success of this advertising campaign comes in large part to Hostess understanding that comics are a kid’s game at heart. Characters like Aquaman, Spider-Man, Archie, Casper, Bugs Bunny, and all the other featured players of these advertisements were conceived and designed to provide loads of enjoyment to children. Between these innocent and sweet ads, the baseball cards, and their luscious line of classic snack cakes, Hostess engaged the full attention of practically every child in American for years with their brand of goodnatured cheer. Hostess taught us all that the sweetest things in life come from what’s inside.

stess Brands, LLC.

The children of yesteryear spent most of their summers outside—whether we wanted to or not—and the blazing summer sun had us all running for cover. Thankfully, a cold Arctic blast came in the form of the refreshing ICEE drink. Omar Knedlik, ICEE’s creator, made a beautiful frozen-beverage machine that brought together a carbonated mixture of high fructose corn syrup, flavoring, and ice—the ICEE. And the rest, as they say, is history. One could be sure to procure one of these frosty beverages at the neighborhood 7-11, the home of the Slurpee (created under license using ICEE machines). And as if the ICEE wasn’t enough of a treat on its own, 7-11 sweetened the deal by offering colorful plastic cups featuring comic book characters. The inaugural 1973 collection featured 60 different cups based on characters from DC Comics. Determined kids looked high and low, braving heat and humidity in their quest to complete a set of these plastic grails. Later on, 7-11 and Marvel teamed-up for two promotions: 60 cups in 1975 and 40 cups in 1977. Aesthetically, the 1977 editions are the most spectacular to behold. Instead of featuring a solitary character with little or no background, these featured lovely panoramic vistas that captured the excitement of Marvel. They were real works of art, the benchmark of this short-lived event. Sure, these items look like cheap nothrill plastic cups to people now, but they meant the world to a kid in the ’70s. A brain freeze was a small price to pay for ice-cold slushy deliciousness and a killer non-dishwasher safe trophy.

or a lot of kids in the ’70s, heaven opened its pearly gates the day that Ivan Snyder launched his Superhero Merchandise mail order business in 1975. To say the New Jersey businessman was ahead of his time is an understatement. He believed in the power and commerce of comics when most dismissed them. The entrepreneur understood that children—and children in spirit—loved superheroes and all their related merchandise. Snyder wanted to make childhood dreams come true by delivering wonderful superhero goodies right to the doorsteps of his customers. With Snyderman, every day could be Christmas Day. It all began in the early 1970s when Snyder, a certified public accountant, was executive vice-president at Marvel Comics. The budding executive felt the House of Ideas was missing out on the merchandising potential of their characters, so in 1972 he initiated a licensing division to explore additional revenue streams. As a result, Marvel discovered a bevy of licensees, among them the Mego Corporation, ready to produce toys and wares based on their properties. To support these new ventures and business associates, Snyder had Marvel devote a promotional page within their magazines, which spotlighted and offered most of these goods by way of their mail order division. Unfortunately, James Galton, the company’s then-new chief executive, felt the mail order venture had no place in his vision for the company in 1975. The ambitious Snyder took a leap of faith and purchased Marvel’s mail order division to start his venture, the biggest gamble of his life. The New Jersey family man founded Superhero Enterprises, Inc., a mail order company, and started advertising regularly within the pages

Ad for a Spider-Man “web shooter” dart gun, along with the actual toy. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. Snyderman © Snyder Ventures.

of Marvel comics in 1975. The astute merchant marketed his goods straight at the consumers who wanted them: comic book readers. The company also produced the Superhero Merchandise Catalog, a comic-sized magazine that brilliantly paraded the products with content provided by Marvel staffers. The voluminous response to the early listings made Snyder realize that he was going to need a much larger facility to process orders. “I actually started the business in the basement of my house,” 71

remembers Ivan Snyder. “When we outgrew the basement, I went looking for a place to move it to. There was a not so great shopping center not that far away, where the square footage cost the same as a warehouse, so I leased it. It was probably about 500 square feet in size, if that large. Using the same philosophy as Consumers and Unique Retail Catalog Stores, which was a division of Cadence Industries [Marvel’s parent company at that time], I put a retail catalog store in front. Since I already had the inventory, I took one item of each, priced it, and set it up in the display room, and never even advertised the stores. The means of advertising were in the mail order ads that I ran in Marvel and DC comics.” Located in Randolph Township, New Jersey, the original Superstore Shop location was never meant to lure in walk-in business since it mainly acted as a facility for the mail order business. But lo and behold, the children who saw the address in the magazines convinced their parents to make the trek to this comic book oasis. Upon arrival, visitors found the tiny upfront catalog showroom usually unattended since the staff was commonly in the back room area processing orders. Recognizing an opportunity when he saw one, Snyder rethought his game plan. “People were traveling an hour-and-a-half or two hours to this little store,” recalls the businessman. “This is kind of embarrassing, because it was nothing. That gave me the idea of going into the retail business, and the first store we opened up was at the Livingston Mall in Livingston.” In 1977, an impressively larger Superhero Shop opened its doors at the Livingstone Mall, a two-level complex with big name anchor stores. The hobby was just beginning to become organized; a location of this magnitude stocked full of comics, games, toys, puzzles, and related gifts existing in a trendy mall was unthinkable. But soon the store became

a destination point. Visitors were greeted by the sight of a gigantic 60-square-foot mural painted by the legendary Joe Kubert and students from his School of Cartoon and Graphic Art. The headmaster and his students also handled the artwork for the company’s catalogs and ads. Kubert even created Snyderman, Superhero Enterprises’ official mascot. Regardless of the shop’s success, the mail order operation was the bread and butter of the company. The dynamic advertisements in Marvel and DC comics were more far-reaching than anyone could have possibly imaged. Comic readers from every corner of the earth saw these precious plugs. Before the Internet, comic book stores, and toy stores were omnipresent, Snyder’s business served as a godsend to all the children and comic fans that had no other means to find most of these advertised treasures. In fact, Superhero Enterprises was the only place under the sun making a point to carry most products featuring Marvel and DC superheroes. Ivan Snyder says, “We had kids who would just send money in the mail. They didn’t care. I have currency from fifty different countries, a bunch from Africa and Canada. … Canada was a big source. And, of course, the Canadian dollar at that time was not equal to the U.S. dollar, and that caused some problems; most of the times if the amount was close enough we’d just send the order out. So I would get Francs and British Pound Sterling; I also received money from Tasmania, from Israel, from Egypt.” The difficulty of finding these wonders didn’t just extend to foreign countries; they were in the mainland as well. Snyder comments, “In a lot of municipal areas, the merchandise was attainable through toy stores and stuff, but you go out to Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Texas, and even a lot of parts of upstate New York and areas where they Snyder’s shop offered more than just toys! All characters © their respective owner

& KUBERT

Snyderman © Snyder Ventures

The great Joe Kubert created Snyderman, the “Stereosonic Superhero” and official company mascot of Heroes World (who was given his name by contest winner David Stebbins). Kubert and his students also provided artwork, lettering, and coloring for the Superhero Book catalogs and the memorable monthly ads appearing in Marvel and DC titles during the late ’70s. Instead of using photographs to showcase the products, the catalogs were designed almost as if they were themselves comic books, retaining the same dimensions and eschewing photography in favor of each item shown in illustrated form. Ivan Snyder described the process of collaborating with Kubert on the books: “I would lay out the catalog in sections… I would list these twelve items on a two-page spread and I’d write the verbiage for it, and [Kubert] would draw the item. We were trying to maintain the whole aura of comic books. “ Front and center in the catalogs and ads was always Snyderman, the sentinel of superhero toydom, and the keeper of the “komic krypt.” With his ever-present smile and sky blue costume, Kubert made this hero into the perfect pitchman.

were not cosmopolitan, if they wanted it, they got it from me or they didn’t get it.” Snyder and his wife Irene became impeccable at identifying trends. As buyers, their opinions were so highly prized that publishers and toymakers sought them alike. It was a cinch to figure out the right amount of books to stock on the shelves with many of their customers using order forms. But ordering toys and other goods was more challenging since many items were impossible to restock after their initial offering. The couple did their best to identify and stock up on hot sellers and crazes; they also made it their philosophy that it was better to sell out their supply than to have any inventory left over. Their only indulgences were ordering products bearing evergreen characters such as SpiderMan and the X-Men which always had a market later on. “Toys are unique,” states Snyder. “You have to place an order for toys usually within a month of Toy Fair, which is held every February, and you can’t buy them again. In other words, if you order a thousand Spider-Man widgets and that’s your order, generally speaking, you can’t reorder it. So it was a very big gamble. You had to try and calculate how many you could sell of an item in March that wasn’t going to arrive until October or November. That’s a hard job. “Mego was really great. Mego basically packaged each character individually for mail order, so I could order in advance, say, a thousand Spider-Man, and two hundred Hulk, and fifty of this one. The biggest problem I had is that most of the manufacturers of the product would sell everything in a mix assortment. I knew that Spider-Man or Wolverine would sell better than the other ones, but I had a very tough time in buying them individually.”

Ad for Mego action figures. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

While perplexed retailers and publishers didn’t know what to make of the lackluster sales behind their awkwardly large treasury editions in the late 1970s, Ivan Snyder couldn’t keep them on the shelves long enough. The businessman discovered that there were fans still clamoring for the format, and purchased all of Marvel’s remaining stock. “I sold them all through the mail,” says Snyder. “I ultimately ended up buying every treasury they had. They couldn’t figure out how to sell it. Years later, Joe Kubert and I partnered, and we put our own comic book out, which wasn’t really a comic book. It was more of a magazine called 73

All characters © their respective own

Sojourn, and it was folded in half. It was probably the size of The New York Times, and people didn’t know where to put it, to display it, to sell it. Ultimately it didn’t do well, and I think the size of it had a lot to do with it.” In 1979 Ivan Snyder renamed his company Heroes World, a necessary move that arose after Marvel and DC acquired joint trademark ownership of the word “superhero.” And as comics evolved from being a scarlet letter to a pop culture force, franchising became a viable option. At one point, there were close to 20 stores under the Heroes World umbrella. “In the late ’70s I actually had a letter from somebody in Michigan inquiring about it, and so that led me into exploring franchising,” says Snyder. “The franchise laws are very specific, and you had to register with the government and the state. It was a lot of paperwork to fill out. And, unfortunately, most of the people who bought the franchises were the parents of kids who were comic book collectors. So ultimately the franchising opportunity sailed. “We had to develop the entire package. We would send somebody out to do traffic counts in various areas. We recommended being in a regional mall mainly because of the drawing power of it. Although the rent was higher, the traffic does warrant it. Then we would design the store for them.” By the mid-’80s, the comic advertising campaigns became less central to the Heroes World business, and Snyder gradually brought them to a halt. “I stopped DC first,” says the comics pioneer. “DC was always far weaker than Marvel in merchandise sales for me so I stopped advertising initially in them first, and then Marvel secondly, because by the ’80s, Marvel’s licensing was very, very successful, and everyone was carrying almost everything, so there was nothing unique to what I had.” In 1984, the purchase of Seagate Distribution’s assets changed the nature of Snyder’s business. He explains, “Ultimately I took over the business of Seagate Distribution

created by Phil Seuling, and that led to the distribution portion of our company becoming larger than our mail order. Ultimately we stopped our mail order activities.” By the early ’90s, Heroes World Distribution was among the nation’s largest comics distributors. After its sale to Marvel in late 1994—when it became Marvel’s exclusive distributor—Ivan Snyder served as president of the Heroes World Distribution division until the company was dissolved in 1997. And although he and his wife are now retired, Snyder still encounters people who remember his business with great fondness. Snyder recounts, “Last summer I was sitting at a restaurant called the Crescent Club, which is on the north shore right near Glen Cove, it’s a great place to eat. You sit outside, and you watch the sunset at night. I was with friends of mine, and these two younger people sat down. They were probably in their late 20s. He didn’t order a drink, so I said to him, ‘You really should order a drink. The food’s not going to come for another 45 minutes.’ He looked at me, and he said, ‘You’re kidding.’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I’m serious.’ And then we got to talking, and he said he lived in Levittown. So I said, ‘Gee, I used to have a store in Levittown years ago.’ He said [awed voice], “Are you the Ivan of Heroes World?’ And his eyes lit up; he left this girl that he was dating, and he’d rather talk to us, and I’m glancing over at her and her eyes are rolling. My friends couldn’t believe it. I was like a hero to him. It shocked me. He said, ‘Oh, I’ve wanted to meet you for years!’” Snyderman may have worn the cape and goggles, but to thousands of children of the era, Ivan Snyder was the real hero. His catalogs and stores were an otherwise unobtainable gateway to worlds of imagination and wonder. Worlds filled with heroes.

THE METAGALACTIC MIND OF

JIM STARLIN “I

don’t recall that I had seen any of his writing. I just grander than their original designs. figured [that] if he really wanted to write it and Starlin’s heroes did not feel (or read) as any of Marvel’s already was doing a lot of the plotting, why not give typical superheroes; they possessed a three-dimensionality him a shot?” recounts Marvel editor Roy Thomas, and on and authenticity that the others did not. These tales not that simple whim began the profound writing career of a only entertained readers but challenged them to free their budding artist named Jim Starlin in 1973. minds and see more possibilities in life. Remarkably, the “I’ve always plotted everything. When Mike Friedrich roots of this forward-looking approach sprung simply from and I did our first Iron Man job together, I had it half-drawn Starlin talking shop with his friends. before he got home that night. We were sharing an apartHe relates, “Well, at the time Steve Englehart, Alan ment in Staten Island. So Stan and Roy knew I was plotting Weiss, and I hung out a lot together, and we talked about these things out, and finally knew I had this one story, this the fact that we would like to do more than what had hapCaptain Marvel story [Iron Man #55], that I had set it up pened. And there was a lot of bouncing off ideas while I with three plots, three sections in it. There was a Drax [the was doing the Captain Marvel stuff. Brunner and EngleDestroyer], a Captain Marvel, and a Thanos section. And, hart were doing their work on Doctor Strange, and there was basically, I came in and said, ‘I’d like to start writing my some cross-pollination there—the deity things, somebody own stuff.’ At the time Mike Friedrich had five books he turning into God in both stories. Those came from latewas writing, so he had plenty of work. Roy said, ‘Okay, night conversations. write one of the sections inside the book, and if it works, we’ll let you start doing it and we’ll give Mike a break.’ And Roy thought it was okay, so I started writing Captain Marvel. Unfortunately for Mike, at least five of the six books he was writing got canceled in the next couple months, so he was scrambling for work after that. [chuckles]” Subtlety had no place at Marvel Comics. Their stories were all about spectacle, action, cliffhangers, and high drama. For those with an appetite for a more refined reading experience, Starlin’s trailblazing efforts chronicling the definitive sagas of Warlock and Captain Marvel proved to be a literary windfall of awesomeness. Until Starlin fully embraced the two namesakes of his inherited series, no one at Marvel had really defined them; both characters were mainly relegated to their own sub-standard titles or supporting roles in bigger fare such as Avengers or Fantastic Four. While Starlin may not have created them, he reinvented them Starlin takes on the cosmic trio for a 1976 Marvel calendar. into a metaphor for something much Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel, Silver Surfer © Marvel Characters, Inc. 75

“Back at that point, there was sort of a set plot that you went with. It wasn’t written down anywhere, but you had to have a fight, and you had certain things that were expected—you know, the character’s secret identity might be threatened, or they had trouble with a date. But, come the ’70s, these young people came in and said, ‘Let’s try something different.’ We started looking at religion and mysticism. And Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams were doing stories, suddenly, that involved drug use, racism, and a lot of things that just were very rare in comics before then.” But before he could take on the universe and showcase his talents, Starlin needed a vehicle, his very own book, and in 1973 Captain Marvel became the proverbial lemon made into lemonade. For on this The move from Iron Man to Captain Marvel was just what Starlin needed. dark horse title and under the radar All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. of editorial, he could freely craft stories in a manner that best suited him. “It was the first book things were personal bits,” answers Starlin. “Well, it was I really had control over. The Iron Man issues were nice, but also young people angst. Why are the X-Men so popular? I knew I was temporary there because George Tuska was the Because it’s all about alienation.” regular artist on it, and he was just away for a medical thing Every great hero needs a great adversary, one whose ideals he had to take care of. But this was one that I wanted to are the antithesis of our noble protagonist. Starlin presented prove myself on, and, yeah, sure, I went to town on it, just Mar-Vell one of the most cunning villains of all time in the like any kid would who wanted to prove himself. power hungry Titan native Thanos. They are polar oppo“I was very comfortable with Captain Marvel right from sites in every single way: one is a champion of life; the other the start. I had been fired off Iron Man. Steve Gerber and is utterly smitten with death. I had done a story that Stan didn’t like, so after two issues “I actually created Thanos before I ever started working with Iron Man, Stan fired both of us. So Roy said, ‘Hey, we up at Marvel. When I got out, the service paid for me to have this one book. I don’t know if it’s going to last.’ Only go to school for a little bit, and among the classes I took two issues had come out, and it had sold terribly right from was a psychology class. The concept of Eros and Thanathe start. Roy said, ‘It’s a bi-monthly book. Take this one tos came up and stuck in my head. Everybody always says over and you can draw this for a while, and we’ll see how that Thanos was based on Darkseid, which he wasn’t. He that goes.’ He liked my work and said, ‘If Captain Marvel wasn’t based on Metron. I sort of kicked off with my origigets canceled right off the bat, we’ll find something else for nal drawings of Thanos, [where] he’s much skinnier, and you.’ So basically my first three issues of Captain Marvel, we he’s sitting in a flying chair. So the idea that he came from were like, ‘Gee, is this book going to still be around by the Darkseid doesn’t wash with history, because both of them time I finish this issue I’m working on?’” were pretty skinny to begin with, and they both bulked up, Under the upstart’s tenure, Captain Marvel [a.k.a. Mar- and it’s the later incarnations that look more like each other Vell] becomes a curious character, one seeking validation as than the originals.” he ponders his purpose in the grand scope of things. A born His love for Death drives Thanos’ insatiable lust for warrior of the belligerent Kree race, the alien hero becomes power. He will do anything to obtain her affection, and more human with each passing story as he seeks enlighten- his actions are defined by this one-way toxic love affair. ment and truth. “There’s biographical stuff in everything. Whether it is his acquisition of the potent Gems of Power You write what you know. I’m not making any claims to and the Cosmic Cube, or the eradication of the entire unihave been out in outer space, but some of the different little verse in her honor… she is rarely impressed with any of his 76

Thanos explains his sole motivation in life in this page from Starlin’s debut as the writer/artist of “Warlock” in Strange Tales #178, and the cover of Warlock #10, penciled by Starlin and inked by Alan Weiss. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

gifts or acts of violence. The ego of Thanos is so big that he cannot love anyone else, nor can he comprehend that he’ll never capture her heart. “I think a lot of it is going for the unattainable. Trying to win Death’s love is about as unattainable as you can get, even if she is personified, embodied,” declares Starlin. “He’s basically ego-driven, naturally, and what he wants is what he wants. And usually he can attain it, but love’s another matter.” The intensity of the grandiose climax between Captain Marvel and Thanos still lingers in the air. In it, Earth and

the rest of the universe are on their collective knees as the treacherous Titan finally wields the almighty power of the Cosmic Cube. Only with the assistance of a small band of Marvel heroes does the strong-willed (and near-dead) MarVell barely manage to topple his godlike nemesis. This was the compelling cosmic opera that proclaimed Jim Starlin’s presence as a creative force. Sadly, Starlin quit Captain Marvel shortly after completing his first opus due to an editorial dispute, and briefly went to work at DC Comics. But it was not long before he returned to the House of Ideas. 77

In 1980, Starlin penciled a multi-part story in DC Comic Presents featuring cosmic menace, Mongul. He revisited the character in the same title a year later in a tale he both drew and plotted. All characters © DC Comics

“Roy and I talked, and I agreed to come back and do some more work for Marvel, and he asked me what I wanted to do. So that night I went through this box of comics I had in the apartment, and there was this Gil Kane Adam Warlock story, and I went, ‘This is the guy I want to draw. Look at that outfit.’ I didn’t think about the lightning bolt at the time, which I quickly got rid of, because what a pain that was to draw. But then, when I actually sat down and started plotting out the story, I realized I had picked a character who was basically where Captain Marvel was already. I had taken Captain Marvel and turned him into Warlock. I like transitions, so I had to think of where he would go. My own particular psyche was pretty damaged at that point for a number of different reasons, so the whole idea of turning him into a suicidal, paranoid schizophrenic seemed like a really good idea, because I had a lot of raw material to work with there. [laughs]” Although his artificial life began in the pages of Lee and Kirby’s Fantastic Four #66, Warlock was another raw character/blank canvas who benefitted from a spectacular transformation courtesy of Starlin. He became a relatable figure with his actions dictated by his emotions and impulses. And this hero had his own dark side as Magus, his evil future self, which showed that sometimes we are own worst enemy. Breaking higher ground producing “Warlock” stories proved to be a much more challenging ordeal for Starlin than his prior experience on Captain Marvel. In a short time span during a very rocky period in Marvel’s history, the series went through several editors and even changes of venues; the run began in Strange Tales #178–181 and continued in the revived self-titled Warlock series (#9–15). Turned-off, the comic creator walked away yet again. 78

“I had another editorial disagreement with Marvel. They started redrawing some things after they agreed not to, and so I quit and worked at Warren magazines for a while, and worked with [animator] Ralph Bakshi out in California, and a couple other jobs here and there. And then, eventually, Archie [Goodwin] became the editor, and I ran into him at a party, and he said, ‘Why don’t you come finish the Warlock stuff off in the annual?’’ Then-Marvel Editor-in-Chief Archie Goodwin, a seminal and progressive industry figure for his creative contributions at Marvel, Warren, and DC as writer and editor, understood the personal and creative stake that Starlin had in his story and craft, having edited Warlock #15, the last issue. Although the Warlock series was never a commercial heavyweight, the late Goodwin offered the writer/artist the use of Avengers Annual #7 as his cosmic swansong (of sorts), and the scope of the story only grew from there as it extended and closed in Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2. The final episodes pit a hellbent Thanos against Warlock, Captain Marvel, the Avengers, the Thing, and Spider-Man in the mother of all superhero brawls as Thanos tries to destroy the Sun and our solar system. It concludes, quite poetically, with the “apparent” demises of the villain and Adam Warlock. In 1982, Starlin helmed The Death of Captain Marvel, the first of Marvel’s official graphic novel line and the final adventure of the hero he fleshed out. “They had announced that they were going to start doing graphic novels, and I had Dreadstar [Starlin’s creator-owned book and the first title of Marvel’s Epic imprint, also in 1982]. I had been doing Metamorphosis Odyssey with Archie, and I said, ‘Hey, are you going to do creator-owned?’ He said, ‘Yeah, yeah.’

Wraparound cover from the 1982 Warlock reprint miniseries (above), and a “Dreadstar” page from Epic Illustrated. Magus, Thanos, Warlock © Marvel Characters, Inc. Dreadstar © Jim Starlin.

And I said, ‘Let me do a Dreadstar graphic novel,’ because it had been getting a good response in Epic Illustrated, and he said, ‘Okay, you can do that, but we’ve got something we want to do first. We want to kill off Captain Marvel and bring the character back as a black woman.’ He said, ‘You do that one for us first and we’ll do this.’ “They wanted to kill the character off. They said nobody knew what to do with him,” confirms Starlin. He may not have originated the somber notion, but who better to scribe and render the closing story of a character than the man who understood his essence the best. The writer looked back to his own stories and found something disturbing in Captain Marvel #34: In a brawl with a villain named Nitro, Mar-Vell was fully exposed to a deadly nerve gas called Compound Thirteen. “I just went back and looked at it and said, ‘Oh, that’ll give him cancer.’ And originally the idea wasn’t cancer. I came up with about four different plots which I never showed to anybody because they were just the standard, ‘Oh, he dies heroically after a bomb,’ and it’d been done before. The Doom Patrol had 79

Captain Marvel receives the kiss of Death in The Death of Captain Marvel. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

blown themselves to pieces recently, and there were other heroes who had died heroically. I just didn’t want to do that. My own father had passed away maybe six months before of cancer, and that’s what keyed it in. It was just cheap therapy on my part.” Cancer was a heavy subject for comics, and the author was very mindful of not trivializing and sugar-coating the ordeal. Instead of using this new mature format as an ode to unrestrained violence and chaos, this became the rare Marvel superhero story that transcended childish theatrics and served as a life-affirming emotional treatise. Mar-Vell’s death is not cheapened at all by the sequential format. News of his cancer comes at the worst possible time in his life, precisely when he has found love and happiness in the arms of the lovely Elysius on planet Titan. His tough Kree side outwardly accepts the grim news, but his compassionate side spends those last moments amongst friends. Neither his optimism nor the most brilliant minds in the cosmos could save him from the deadly disease. At death’s door in a coma, he faces his nemesis Thanos, and it is then that he finally accepts his fate and makes peace with the self-realization that his life will begin anew in the hereafter. In death, Captain Marvel and Thanos together find the solace they never had in life. The fitting conclusion reminds me of the words of Mark Twain, “Death, the only immortal, who treats us alike, whose peace and refuge are for all. The soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and the unloved.” 80

“Well, the odd thing was that, aside from [Editor-inChief ] Jim Shooter, there was also a new breed of assistant editors at Marvel, and when I turned in the Captain Marvel plot, which Jim loved, a number of the other editors, I wouldn’t say all of them, started lobbying that it was no good. There was not enough of a fight there. They thought it was kind of trivial. They didn’t think it was worthy of one of their characters dying in this fashion. Fortunately for me, Jim said, ‘I like it. Go with it. Don’t pay any attention to what these guys are saying.’ And it all worked out pretty well in the end.” No one writes cosmic characters with the flair and nobility Jim Starlin does. His particular voice on the likes of Thanos, Captain Marvel, and Warlock is so distinctive and naturalistic that it is almost pointless to follow him. They have become his signature characters. The irony is that from day one he never had a definite plan for any of them; these sensational stories just sprung organically from his imagination. Set free as an artist, this storyteller’s mind still races today with the same vigorous fury. “To tell you the truth, I never think about who’s reading these books. I’m doing what I want to do. The stories are for me. I don’t follow anything on the Web about them, and I go to very few conventions. I think there should be sort of a Chinese wall between the writer and his audience because if you get too engrossed in what the audience wants, you start playing to their expectations, and nothing makes a book duller than playing to the expectations.”

STAR WARS A The Neverending Story of…

Star Wars and all related characters © Lucasfilm LLC

long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… the summer of 1977 to be precise, an audience of youngsters longed for more Star Wars. Anything and everything. The unique visual and auditory experience of the science-fiction flick left an indelible impression on an entire generation with its universal themes of good versus evil, loyalty, and faith. Star Wars immediately expanded into a robust industry fueled by the imaginations and desires of children. But in the days before merchandising tie-ins were all the rage, Marvel’s Star Wars comic book series was among only a handful of products available to rabid fans. The title served as an important gateway for an entire generation of new readers, but more than that, it became a lucrative bonanza that saved Marvel from closing up shop forever. The notion of a funny book based on Star Wars was a no-brainer for creator George Lucas—his story was littered with the influences of his favorite comic strips and books—but Marvel Publisher Stan Lee was unimpressed and passed on the first pitch. Ace Marvel writer/editor Roy Thomas convinced his superiors to reconsider, and his enthusiastic overture set the stage for a six-part adaptation of the movie. Marvel obtained the rights at no charge with the caveat that two issues of the series be released before the popcorn yarn’s big premiere. Star Wars #1 hit the stands in March 1977 and sold well right out of the gate. After the film’s release on May 25, 1977, it exploded. With artist Howard Chaykin manning the pencil art to Thomas’ script, the early Star Wars comics proved to be such a gold rush that the publisher couldn’t print enough books to keep up with demand despite multiple printings in various formats. Star Wars had been on Thomas’ radar since Ed Summer, a mutual friend of his and George Lucas’, introduced him to the Hollywood filmmaker and his thentitled The Star Wars concept in 1975. The writer explains, “I didn’t know it would be so popular, of course, but we were getting it free. I decided to try to convince Marvel to do it when I saw Ralph McQuarrie’s production sketch for the movie’s so-called cantina sequence, which introduced the Han Solo and Chewbacca characters—well, Chewbacca wasn’t pictured, but Han Solo was. It was a spacewestern kind of feel, and it was a lot like the old pulp magazines like Planet Stories that I read in addition to comics when I was ten, twelve years old. And I thought this was more adventure fiction—what used to be called ‘space opera’—really, than it was real science fiction, which hadn’t had a history of selling that well in comic books. And I thought, ‘This kind of thing might sell well, just as Conan was kind of an unusual adventure thing, because you’ve got heroes and villains.’ I thought it might sell well despite the fact that rockets and ray guns and robots didn’t generally tend to sell in comic books. That doesn’t mean that I thought it would be some great Marvel seller; it was just intended to be six issues, and after we completed the movie adaptation we could continue it if we wanted to. We didn’t know we were 81

getting onto the beginning of what would be such a huge franchise." Star Wars arrived during one of the darkest eras of the comics industry’s history. Thomas is unsure as to just how pivotal a role Marvel’s Star Wars series played in attracting new readers to Marvel and the comics medium, but says it was “apparently enough to have Editor Jim Shooter and Marvel’s president, Jim Galton, say it virtually saved Marvel’s bacon at a crucial point.” The success of the adaptation led Marvel to continue the series with new interstellar adventures based on the film. It provided the fans with a steady fix during the Publicity still of the majority of the main cast from Star Wars. tortuous waits between the releases of The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars and all related characters © Lucasfilm LLC Return of the Jedi. Following on the heels of Thomas and dynamo artists Ron Frenz and Tom Palmer—the latter had Chaykin, these original stories were chronicled by a succes- been a fixture on the book since issue #8. Duffy earned the sion of many well regarded writers and artists like Archie plum job after having spent years chasing it. As fate would Goodwin, Carmine Infantino, Tom Palmer, Al Williamson, have it, she turned out to be the perfect writer to mold new Walt Simonson, David Michelinie, Chris Claremont, and stories once the film’s original trilogy had apparently closed Gene Day. the book on the cinematic tales of Luke, Han, and Leia. Just in time for the opening of Return of the Jedi— Duffy recounts, “I saw the [original] movie the night it issue #70—Marvel mainstay Jo Duffy became the princi- opened, before anybody knew what it was going to be, and pal writer of the Star Wars monthly, teamed initially with just—oh, except Chris Claremont, who’d seen it four hours

Marvel may have gotten in early on the Star Wars licensing train, but Kenner was soon to follow, and their Star Wars toys dominated the market. Star Wars and all related characters © Lucasfilm LLC

Dani’s Story “Here’s what happened with Dani,” states Jo Duffy, her creator, “I felt really badly for Luke that Han Solo became the breakout sex symbol even though Luke was the hero of the series, that everybody was like, ‘Oh, yeah, Luke’s the great Jedi, but I’d do Han.’ And I thought, “Damn it, I want there to be somebody who Han would love, who wants Luke.’ That was the beginning of the Zeltrons. I wanted there to be somebody whose brain was dribbling out her ears for Luke, and I wanted her to be somebody who was very hot.”

earlier than I did and tried to spoil part of it, that dog. But I was dying to see it. My older brother, who is a big fantasy and science-fiction fan and a longtime comics reader, was dying to see it. Chris had already seen it and said, ‘It’s amazing.’ So we went out, we saw it, I came into the office, I was like, ‘Please, please, please, if this keeps going, can I write a fillin?’ And I did a couple of fill-ins, which took years to see the light of day. And every time Star Wars was open, somebody else got it. And then finally it was open, and I can’t recall, it might have been Denny O’Neil who was supposed to get it. But he was too busy, so I did a fill-in. And I sort of infiltrated. I kept volunteering to do fill-in issues until it was pretty clear that everybody had forgotten it was not legitimately my assignment. But I just had an amazing time with that book. I would still be on it if the plug had not been pulled in order to free up creators to work on the New Universe.” In 1986, Marvel created the New Universe as a new imprint designed to house a line of books featuring a freshly minted crop of characters set within a “realistic” backdrop. At best a marginal line, Marvel readers stayed away in droves from the utterly joyless results of the concept. While it was widely believed it was the tight restrictions of Lucasfilm that caused Marvel to shut down the beloved monthly, Star Wars died as a result of the demanding needs of the New Universe titles for editors and talent. Despite respectable monthly sales that still exceeded more than 100,000 copies, the “burdensome” Star Wars was canned before its time. After nine successful years, the monthly produced a grand total of 107 issues, plus three annuals.

Duffy confirms, “My act of rebellion was to not do any New Universe book, because I wanted to keep going, and, again, I talked about Chris and the death of Phoenix. [Fever Note: See “Daydreaming” entry.] They pulled the plug on Star Wars when we had already done what turned out to be the last issue. We were just setting up this big, multi-issue arc… and suddenly it was, ‘You have seven pages to resolve everything and end it.’

Marvel collected their six-issue adaptation of Star Wars in two tabloid-sized books, the first, Marvel Special Edition: Star Wars #1 (left). The Empire Strikes Back was adapted in Star Wars #39–44. Star Wars and all related characters © Lucasfilm LLC

“[Lucasfilm] had become extremely challenging to work with at the tail end only because they were not sure when they’d continue or what exactly was happening next. So my stories became very problematic for them because they kept saying, ‘We don’t know if you can do that or not. You shouldn’t do that.’ And at first it was pertaining to the Star Wars universe characters, the ones that legitimately existed in the films, and then suddenly they began doing that about characters that I created wholesale to keep the narrative going. ‘I’m sorry, we don’t think that people who live in the air dome under the water could possibly have this ability to generate spirit forms.’ And it’s like, ‘You don’t? But they’re not even created by

(above) When Marvel adapted Return of the Jedi, it did so as a standalone four-issue miniseries. Shown above are issue #4 and a promo poster for the film with its original title. (left) Earl Norem’s original painting for the second Star Wars volume in Marvel’s line of Marvel Illustrated Books. Star Wars and all related characters © Lucasfilm LLC

George Lucas!’ So it was getting a little tricky keeping it going without hitting the anxiety buttons of the people who didn’t know what George Lucas was going to do next when he resumed filmmaking.” During those final three years with penciler Cynthia Martin and other artists, Duffy’s work did the impossible and appealed to the fans longing for Star Wars when most of that audience had grown weary of the movies and toys. To the bitter end, she remained game to work things out with Lucasfilm and make the book happen. Her accessible stories captured the whimsical nature of the saga while strengthening the ties and good feelings that kept the characters loyal to one another. At a time when Lucas and company didn’t know the future of their own franchise, Duffy’s passion for the material demonstrated there were plenty of new stories left to be told within that faraway galaxy. 84

THE SECRET ORIGIN OF

UNDEROOS The Underwear That’s Fun to Wear! A

s a kid, there was nothing worse than the ordeal clear and easy to make those for pictures. I looked at that of getting dragged to a department store by your and said, ‘Hmm, that’s good, that’s nice.’ mother to buy underwear—boooring! It’s as mun“I’m a cartoon lover. When I was a kid that was my escape dane an activity as mundane gets in life. In 1978, all of that in the ’40s. My uncle was an assistant pharmacist in Chelsea, came to an end with the arrival of Underoos, the colorful Massachusetts, which was a Jewish, downscale community, underwear that empowered youngsters everywhere to feel and I thought that was the height of great work, to be an assislike a superhero. For the boys and girls of Generation X, tant pharmacist, because every month all the cartoons came Underoos were the first articles of clothing many would fall in. So he’d make me a hot fudge sundae and sit me down and in love with… the very first chance we had to look and feel let me read all the comics, which I had to be very careful not like our favorite comic book to get any ice cream on. But I heroes and heroines. read every single comic book: Underoos are the brainTales from the Crypt, Archie, child of Larry Weiss, a gifted Looney Tunes, Richie Rich, imagineer and businesseverything. I loved them.” man (with a background in In an era of cheap Ben experimental psychology) Cooper plastic Halloween with a magic touch for creatcostumes and decades before ing products tailored towards cosplay was all the rage in children. As a product group fashion (the modern day manager for Post Cereal, trend of adults dressing up as he created two pop culture superheroes), the businessbreakfast staples in Cocoa man innocently conceived a Pepples and Fruity Peebles line of children’s undergarwhen he had the genial idea ments that faithfully incorof making Flintstones licensed porated the lively designs cereals. Later, as an indepenand bright colors of Marvel dent entrepreneur, he turned and DC Comics characters. his attention to creating a line These weren’t novelty items, of kids’ toiletries featuring but practical everyday wear For every boy who wanted to be Spider-Man… now they could. the beloved Archie characmeant to survive the daily Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. Underoos © Fruit of the Loom, Inc. ters, but the overloaded projgrind of being a kid. ect crashed before it even lifted off. Undeterred, Weiss found Larry Weiss envisioned children embracing this proda silver lining amidst the ashes of his Archie project. uct’s concept wholeheartedly, because he, himself, has never Larry Weiss says, “Somebody came to me one day while lost that sense of wonder. “They feel the same escape, and I was working on the Archie toiletries, and said, ‘Can you the same pleasure, and the same connection with the old do something with T-shirts? We want to make a pitch to mythologies is what really worked. It’s not only escape… it’s Hanes Underwear.’ I said, ‘Well, I wouldn’t put a picture an escape to something, from where you are, from whatever of Archie on it like a polo shirt. Let me think about that.’ constraints of suburbia, or parental control, and so forth. I went home and I sketched out Underoos. I didn’t know It’s a way of participating in an ancient folklore. It’s like they were Underoos at the time. I just sketched out Super- fairy tales. Grimm’s fairy tales were the same thing. They man, Shazam, Iron Man, Green Lantern, you know, just were all done long before the Grimm Brothers did them. 85

That was the eighteenth century execution of those char- Fruit of the Loom, which is a very conservative company. It acters. So the cartoons did it, and I wanted to capitalize on would never do a thing like this on [its] own. We were using it in the sense of doing something that would really work, them as a supplier of blanks, that is, ‘Just make colored that kids would like. Because I remembered when I was underwear, colored pants, colored shirts, and put a colored growing up, there was the Davy Crocket cap. And I said, belt on them, and we’ll buy those in bulk from you. We’ll ‘By God, one day I want to do something like that, that put the logo on and package it.’ … Union Underwear [as makes kids really happy, that they really want to use.’ Fruit of the Loom was then known] was just the supplier of “I just liked the whole idea of being able to do a thing raw materials, sort of the product itself, the blank product. like that that just got every kid in the culture excited and happy. I had to have one, everybody had to have one, and it just made you feel good. Davy Crockett was, in a way, a cartoon character with a mythology about him. He was Odysseus. That’s who Davy Crockett was, and the Deer Slayer [too]. These are Odysseus, these are the travelers. Every one of these [heroes] that works over time is really just a contemporary execution of an ancient mythological character. Those were the good Young girls had several characters to choose from as well. Underoos, and that’s why kids Supergirl, Wonder Woman © DC Comics. Underoos © Fruit of the Loom, Inc. loved them. They loved them because they recognized the authenticity of them. And they “Scott decided not to do it. They chickened out also. It could, for a brief time, become that character.” was just too different from their toilet paper business, so they When it came time to name the product, Weiss named said, ‘We’re not going to do it.’ Fruit of the Loom said, ‘Well, them Underoos—but where does a name like that originate? can we do it?’ And they introduced me to Fruit of the Loom, “I was building these for my kids. I had kids at that time, and and I met Jim Johnston there, and the chairman, and told they were five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten years old, in that them, ‘I’ll give you the same deal that I was going to give range. And my nine-year-old son, who was actually autistic Scott Paper, and Hanes before them.’ They said, ‘Okay, we at the time—he’s now one of the few who’s come out of it, want to do it.’ Because they looked at it, at this point, as just and got a good job, and family, and he’s quite normal. But underwear, and they wanted to do something special for chilI asked him one day, ‘What are these things, Billy?’ because dren, and then they thought this was just right.” the agency working on it were having trouble naming them. In 1977 Weiss sold the Underoos concept to the Union They were thinking of calling them TV Strips and Comic Underwear Company. The company immediately went into Strips, funny things that I just didn’t like, that had double production and released the brand the very next year. The entendre to them. I said, ‘Billy, what are these?’ And he said, initial line-up featured many of the most popular heroes and ‘They’re Underoos, Dad.’ And I said, ‘Billy, you’re right. They heroines (Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, etc.) are Underoos.’ It’s like an angel gave him that name, because from DC and Marvel Comics. With a suggested retail price it’s as if he had lived in the future and came back to today and of $4.99, each unit was packaged within a sturdy, colorful said, ‘Well, those are Underoos, Dad.’ It was like, ‘You are record jacket-sized package that contained one top along with absolutely right, Billy. These are Underoos.’ And that’s how one brief for boys or one panty for girls. The masterstroke of they got named.” the entire concept was how beautifully each entry captured Before licensing comics, television, and movie properties the feel of each individual character simply by incorporating was big business, Weiss and his Underoos proposal were their emblem, colors, and costume design. From the minute shot down by the executives at Hanes. Weiss says, “I sold they hit the store shelves, Underoos were an immediate hit Underoos to Fruit of the Loom. Hanes decided it was going embraced by boys and girls far and wide. Made in various to be a fad and they didn’t want to do it, and I was work- combinations of cotton and polyester, even parents approved ing with [the Scott Paper Company], and we were using of them for their durability and practicality. 86

Fred Flintstone © Hanna-Barbera

YABBA-DABBA DELICIOUS! (as told by Larry Weiss)

I started with a Superman and Batman cereal, I had a Road Runner and Coyote cereal, and the organization kept shooting them down, saying they would be fads. So I finally was subversive, and I said, “Well, I’m not going to make a new product, then,” because I had to go through all these people. But what I had control over was line extensions of existing products. I had a product called Sugar Rice Krinkles, and I said, “I’m going to do a repositioning of Sugar Rice Krinkles,” and I repositioned it as Cocoa Pebbles and Fruity Pebbles. I introduced the product in California with advertising, and it was a huge success right away. But then, suddenly, the organization looked at it and said, “Wait a minute. That’s a new product. They’re not supposed to do those.” So they pulled all the advertising dollars away from it. But it didn’t matter because the product was selling, because there’d never been a cartoon character—a real, authentic cartoon character—cereal before. These were the first ones. This was 1968, ’69.

“Yeah, they did it just right, and they paid me, and the costume-like designs that made them a success. Many newer checks cleared the bank, and we had a three-year payout, releases featured shirts that sported no-frills stock images. which it did in the first year, it just sold so much. It was intro- No matter how many dollars are spent on market research, duced, actually, in three test markets. One of the test markets the kids’ market is incredibly difficult to steer, and children was the New York Metro area, which I really urged them to weren’t as enamored with the subsequent Underoos based do because if you want to start a real trend, you do it in New on the latest fads. Another charming element lost over the York. And it worked, and people years was the cardboard display were bootlegging it all around the that originally packaged them (now country out of the test market, so replaced by clear plastic and a small Union figured that, ‘This is going header). to go.’ Even Sears, Sears Roebuck at Thirty years later, Fruit of the the time, they put it in their cataLoom still makes Underoos, and log. It was their only product that consumers continue to respond was not a Sears product in the Sears enthusiastically to the core wave stores and the Sears catalog. It was based on characters like Batman, very, very hot. Superman, and Spider-Man which “I lost control of the product have never stopped selling. All of when I sold it to Fruit of the Loom. this is proof that a great idea lives I gave them instructions on what forever. to do, and for about two or three The appeal of comics and animayears, they followed my instruction is not lost upon Larry Weiss. tions, which were to locate the He was able to discover the founmain characters, and then have the tain of youth that Juan Ponce de minor characters like the Penguin, León never did. “It’s those cartoon Joker, Robin, all the secondary characters, thinking about them characters appear for a brief time, will keep you fresh. My mother, then disappear for years, so that by the way, when I was reading all they become rare products, they’re those cartoons and comic books hard to find, and the basic 16 charwhen I was a little kid in the ’40s, acters, you rotate them in a certain A 1978 ad for Underoos. was always arguing with my uncle, way so they stay fresh. And what I All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. Underoos © Fruit because she said, ‘He’s never going urged them to do was not put any of the Loom, Inc. to amount to anything if he reads contemporary characters in it. Keep the old ones.” all those comic books. They’re going to ruin his mind.’ But At the start of the 1980s, Underoos lines expanded what it did, of course, is it just makes your imagination very quickly by adding additional cartoon properties and char- fertile and work. And it was funny, I reminded her of that acters from contemporary television and film hits like after Underoos had come out and it had made millions of Star Wars and The Dukes of Hazzard. Gradually the newer dollars. I said, ‘Hey, Mom! Remember what you said about releases piled up and their design got away from their heroic the comic books?’ She said, ‘Oh, yeah.’” 87

ROCK Show T

THE COMIC THAT ROCKED THE WORLD

he 1970s were the golden age of American rock-andAs the details of the deal were hammered out, Marvel roll magazines. Everywhere you looked there was a Publisher Stan Lee selected Steve Gerber as the writer and titillating periodical championing the energy and editor of this Kiss project. The ambitious comics creator spirit of the music: Creem, Circus, Hit Parader, and all their took great delight in taking on this assignment despite high-flying competitors. And in this decade, no band was knowing next to nothing about the band or their music. more visible in these publications than Kiss. In typical Gerber fashion, the passionate Marvel staffer was The original Kiss lineup consisted of the Demon (Gene Sim- all in emotionally, and absorbed everything related to Kiss mons), the Catman (Peter Criss), the Space Ace (Ace Frehley), during his research. He learned to admire their showmanand the Starchild (Paul Stanley). The New York band withstood ship, their tenacity, and even their music. a shaky debut to become a multi-platinum selling powerhouse in the mid-1970s. Their sell-out rock shows and thrilling antics became the stuff of legend in schoolyards. With their astounding painted faces, shiny costumes, fire-breathing pyrotechnics, smoking guitar solos, and blood-spitting theatrics, the hard-rocking foursome were tailor-made for comic books. Marvel Comics understood that music magazines and Kiss were a lucrative business; it was clear the public’s appetite for them was insatiable. But when the band’s management pitched Stan Lee the notion of pro- Alan Weiss and Gray Morrow’s cover for Marvel Comics Super Special #1, released June 30, 1977. ducing a comic book featurDr. Doom © Marvel Characters, Inc. Kiss © Kiss ing the band at the height of their popularity, the House of Ideas got cold feet. The To illustrate Marvel Comics Super Special #1, Gerber powers-that-be at Marvel simply felt out of their comfort recruited the supremely talented Alan Weiss. Both writer and zone with this rock ’n’ roll business. artist, co-plotters of this rock and roll odyssey, were given

unprecedented access to see Kiss beyond the music and the- selves with and without the makeup in this fun adventure. atrics. The band’s management was more than accommodat- The hard work of Gerber and Weiss was a pitch-perfect reping, supplying Gerber and Weiss with everything they needed resentation of the Kiss phenomenon. for their work. When the creative team met the affable group, In true Marvel fashion, this high-flying magazine bestows they discovered that the foursome were genuine comics fans, Kiss with their own superhero origin and adventure. The particularly Gene Simmons, who had self-published ’zines in plot unfolds when the boys are given the box of Khyscz (read the ’60s. For Gerber and Weiss, it was imminently clear that “Kiss”) by a mysterious stranger named Dizzy the Hun, the comics had inspired the look and spirit of Kiss. man who trained the late mother of Victor von Doom in Just before Christmas of 1976, after many back and forth the mystic arts. This magical talisman gives the foursome meetings, the ink on the contracts between Kiss and House superpowers and transforms their appearances into the iconic of Ideas finally dried. In his words, Gerber’s proposed demonic look we all know and love. Their bliss is interrupted budget “would make the book into the single most expen- when Dr. Doom claims the magical Khyscz is his rightful sive project that Marvel had ever undertaken.” The editor heirloom, and he’ll stop at nothing to reclaim it or enslave the strived to make this a genuine event, a testament to rock band. Unfortunately for the villain, Kiss aren’t intimidated by and roll, the band, and their fans. “You wanted the best, his tough talk and give him a taste of their New York bravado. you got the best!” was the band’s promise to every single Marvel Comics Super Special: Kiss #1 is still the greatest member of the Kiss Army, and Gerber wanted to make sure rock show ever staged in comics. It was a massive success Marvel delivered on that promise. that impressively stood for twelve years as Marvel’s best“I loved how they looked. It was mostly watching them selling single issue until the arrival of Todd McFarlane’s on stage, and getting the feeling of how they moved. Ace Spider-Man #1 in 1991. And it will still make you want to Frehley moved his feet like they were magnetized to the rock and roll all night. floor,” says artist Alan Weiss. “These people were 100% professional. They didn’t look down on comics at all. Our version of living the comic books was to draw and write them. Gene Simmons decided to live the comic books. Now, that’s terrific.” The heat was on Gerber and Alan Weiss to prepare the book-length package for a June 1977 release. Why the big rush? Marvel wanted to get this out before the Kiss fad was over (as if it would ever end). Due to the hectic schedule, Marvel all-stars John Buscema, Sal Buscema, and Rich Buckler were recruited to join Weiss on penciling duties, alongside inker Al Milgrom and colorist Marie Severin. As far as pure talent, this glorious book was stacked with the best of the best. Artwise, this was the best looking Marvel book of 1977. Another fun fact: this passion project was printed with vials of blood drawn from the band members themselves. Yes, Kiss believed so much in this comic that they had their blood inserted into the ink at the printing press. The entire “blood sacrifice” is documented within the publication with accompanying photos. It was precisely the type of twisted stunt that made kids love Kiss, and that parents absolutely loathed. It only added to the legend of the band and made the book an instant collectible. Unlike the Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park television movie, the story delivered by Gerber, Weiss, and company was a delight—a fun fusion of rock and superheroes. Not only did they capture their physical appearances, but also their personas and voices. In a time before Kiss unmasked, readers got to see the mysterious Starchild, Demon, Catman, and Space Ace take form. band like never before. We got to see them be them- Kiss © Kiss 89

HOW THE KISS COMIC CAME TO BE (THE WAY I REMEMBER IT)

I nc .

teve Gerber was a very intelligent, witty, brilliantly imaginative and funny guy. Despite his enjoyment and acceptance of the weird and bizarre, he was straight in every connotation of the word. Black coffee and cigarettes were his only vices. The Superman television series had a profound effect on him when he was a kid. According to his brother, Michael, Steve watched the weekly show with an almost religious reverence. Steve truly believed in Truth and Justice. The American Way of Life, though, was fair game for social commentary. Steve had been a communications major in college. Marshall McLuhan was his hero and prophet. He had long tried to interest Marvel in publishing higher quality stories and longer format color books which he believed could command higher prices and be sold in book stores. He also believed they could venture into other compatible markets. Management did not believe that comics were anything but cheap advertising venues to be published as economically as possible. They didn’t want to hear about promoting the product because all they could hear was the cost of publicity. When we ran Howard the Duck for president, they didn’t even want to expend the effort to send out press releases and reap millions of dollars of free TV publicity for Marvel. It could have been on every morning show and the six o’clock news. It was disappointing to find out that Stan Lee, who had apparently revolutionized and reinvented the Marvel Universe, had no real power. He assigned ar Ch l projects but his word could be contradicted and projects Howa ve rd the D ck © Mar u canceled at the whim of management. He liked Steve but was slightly uncomfortable with the way his work was developing. In fact, many of the new writers were going into worlds where Stan could never follow, even if they were writing characters that he was supposed to have created. I always felt that Stan was kept on edge by management. At any moment everyone could be fired and he might be called in to write every single book again. He could never have done it. Gene Simmons was an enthusiastic comic book fan and he especially liked Marvel. (Paul Stanley was also a fan but to a much lesser degree.) As I recall, Kiss approached Marvel to do a Kiss superhero comic. Stan, who loved all things show business, was flattered and excited when they came to him. Gerber may or may not have been at the offices that day. Stan asked Steve what he would do with the idea. Steve was wildly enthusiastic. He had tried to talk to Stan before about Marvel doing something in the rock magazine market. He knew this was the chance to break into it and reach a whole new audience. He probably went on about it for an hour or more. He knew it could work and he convinced Stan. Stan became a believer. Stan was on board with Steve as the writer. (Of course, Stan often had his enthusiasms crushed by management. I don’t know how he survived their greed and ignorance.)

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By Mary Skrenes

The creative team mingles with the band in a photo that ran in Steve Gerber’s introduction for Marvel Comics Super Special #1. photo © respective owner

THE CHOICE OF AN ARTIST Alan Weiss is an old friend of mine from college. In fact, he introduced me to Dick Giordano at Phil Seuling’s July 4th convention in 1969 and drew the first story that I sold to DC. I don’t think there was another person, let alone an artist, that could dance like Alan Weiss. I thought he could capture these rock ’n’ roll freaks dancing in platform boots. Plus, he would approach it with an open mind. He took their tapes and went on a sort of anthropological expedition into their music. He didn’t come out until he “got it” and liked it! He really got it when he and Steve went to some of the regional live concerts. He has a great story about the first time he met Gene Simmons, in costume, at the “Blood Draw.” To answer your question about who of us were into Kiss, I’ve gotta say, probably nobody. Gerber liked rock and roll. He didn’t have any of their albums at the time but he knew who they were. He liked their logo which he had seen around New York. Most of the other writers and artists, if they did know Kiss, were pretty skeptical about the whole project. No one, besides Gerber and Weiss and especially management, could see it working.

I’m not sure when Gerber met with the Kiss group but I remember him coming back from meetings with them at Aucoin’s offices. I asked him what they were like. He said they were interesting and nice and pretty normal. He spoke mostly about Gene and Paul. He felt connected with Gene right away. Perhaps it was because they were both Jewish fan boys. He was surprised and pleased that they really understood the “ordinary guy becomes superhero” shtick. They shared their ideas, and he was excited about the plot that was developing before Marvel could put too much of a stamp on it. After they sent him to see a concert in Toronto, it all really clicked into place for him. Myth and reality were merging for these guys. They were using their imaginations and talents to become their dreams. They were rock and roll superheroes! He loved it and was on fire. When Steve was excited about a project, enthusiasm and happiness gushed from every pore. He hoped to accomplish a book that would make the Kiss guys happy, him happy, and have a different kind of book to reach an untapped audience. He had a vain hope that he could somehow get beyond the ignorance and convince the publishers to do a magazine format. 91

All was bliss. Stan was beaming. Kiss was happy with the story progress. Steve was delirious to be working on a project that would have contemporary marketing and working with people who weren’t confused by and suspicious of his creative style. THEN THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENED Steve came to me, white and shaking. His eyes were wildly searching every corner of the room, as if for an answer. In what began as a hoarse whisper and escalated into a high pitched shriek of incredulity, he told me that the Marvel publishers did not want to put out a book with characters that they didn’t own. They really had no idea who or what Kiss was. They thought they could put out their own rock ’n’ roll superhero book and own the characters and cash in on whatever piddling market there was. And, graciously, Steve could still write the book. Steve was horrified. No contracts had been signed yet but this was breaking an explicit trust. It was egregious dishonesty and theft! He could never be a party to something like that. He knew his career was over because if he didn’t go along he would be blackballed. He asked me what to do. I hesitated for a moment because I knew that this was a seminal moment in his life. But, for a man of his character, there was only one answer.

I told him that he had to go to Bill Aucoin and the Kiss boys (mainly Gene) and tell them what Marvel planned. He was in shock. It was a step into the abyss but, he agreed that, even if his career was over, it was the only honorable thing to do. Why didn’t he think of it himself, you ask? Because his first thought was to protect Stan. Even though Stan had nothing to do with Marvel’s underhandedness or Steve’s ratting them out, they would blame him for Steve’s insubordination. Thus, Aucoin’s lawyers descended on Marvel and scared the shit out of them. The book was back on, contracts were in place.

HOW DID THE BOOK PERFORM? Steve had argued long and hard to do the book in magazine format. The publishers and the circulation department did not believe that the book would sell at all. Somehow he convinced them, but they weren’t happy. In a moment of supreme arrogance, management bet that Gerber could have 2% of anything the book made over breakeven. Gerber may have bet his writer’s fee. I believe there was a contract to that effect. Gerber believed in marketing. He especially believed in the contemporary marketing that Kiss The Kiss comic proved to be successful, and Gerber soon brought them manager, Bill Aucoin, and their choreographer, back to team up with his famous fowl in Howard the Duck #13. stage manager, song writer, Sean Delaney, were Howard the Duck © Marvel Characters, Inc. Kiss © Kiss coming up with. 92

Ace “Space Ace” Frehley and Paul “Starchild” Stanley have their blood drawn to be mixed with the ink used to print the magazine. Kiss © Kiss

WHOSE IDEA WAS THE BLOOD IN THE INK? The Kiss people were all very interested in the comic book process, from story to art to printing. Delaney was extremely flamboyant and had come up with so many of the choreographed theatrics, including the Demon’s blood spewing. Stan said that “someone at Marvel came up with the idea” when he appeared on Dinner for Five a couple of years before Gerber died. I had always thought it was Steve. I asked him about it. I’m pretty sure he said that Sean came up with the blood in the ink idea. “The Kiss Army” was a very Merry Marvel Marching Society. I thought that was Steve’s idea but he said it was created by Kiss and promoted everywhere. I don’t know who came up with the “We Want You” demographic questionnaire in the book. It was definitely a good idea for future marketing for both Marvel and Kiss. It would be interesting to find out who won the page of original art. Did it actually happen? Maybe Alan knows. When I speak of “management” and the “publishers,” I didn’t really know who they were. Steve did. Probably everybody in the bullpen did, but I didn’t. I wasn’t into the politics at all. I just knew Stan, in a very limited way. These are the salient points that I remember. The attempt to rip off Kiss by Marvel did change Steve’s life. Despite the rhetoric, new ideas were never welcome in traditional comics publishing. They’d ask for something new and then say, “But what is it like?!” Steve could have revolutionized the comics business, but he wasn’t an artist. Artists finally had the power to break off from the establishment. Marvel did make some money off of Kiss, but I’ll bet that Todd McFarlane made a lot more. After Steve died, I found the Dressed to Kill album Despite their appearance, Kiss was ultimately on the side of the angels. on his MP3 player. There were a thousand others but Kiss © Kiss I thought that was sweet.

Yep. The book made money and so did Gerber. Steve was one of the first to get any sort of royalty out of Marvel. Steve’s career wasn’t over after he blew the whistle on Marvel, but he was subject to the usual easing out that comics had always done to get rid of people they couldn’t control.

ALICE COOPER

BACKSTAGE ACCESS: MARVEL PREMIERE #50 (as told by Roger Stern)

got to deal with Alice [Cooper], and that was great fun. But none of that would have happened if not for Jim Salicrup. He sold Marvel on the idea and made the contacts with Alice’s people. He lined up the artists and put the whole thing together. I got involved only because… well, Jim had the idea of basing the story on the themes and characters that Alice had developed on his (then) latest album, From the Inside. He lined up Ed Hannigan to write the story, but for some reason Ed couldn’t plot the issue, and the first deadline was approaching. So I volunteered to write the plot. Jim gave me the album and some of his ideas for the story. And I went home, listened to the album, and roughed out the plot. And then we flew to Detroit to join Alice on tour.

(above) From left to right, Roger Stern, Jim Salicrup, and the one and only Alice Cooper. (left) Tom Sutton’s cover for Marvel Premiere #50. All characters © Black Widow, Inc.

I still don’t know how Jim pulled that off. We put the plane tickets on my Visa card, but Marvel wound up reimbursing me—I think. Anyway Alice was on tour, and Jim and I flew to Detroit, stayed in the same hotel as the band, and got free seats—good ones—for the concert. The next day, we met with Alice and went over the plot with him. He made some suggestions—again, good ones—which we incorporated in the plot. Then we thanked him for his hospitality and few back to New York. I typed up the revised plot. Tom Sutton drew it. Ed scripted it. Orz [Tom Orzechowski] lettered it. Terry [Austin] inked it. Marie Severin colored it. And a bunch of people bought it. It was a fun project to be a part of. But, like I said, Salicrup should get the credit for making it happen. Alice is a nice guy, by the way. I hear he’s a helluva golfer, too. [Roger Stern is the influential comics writer who made his name creating many treasured stories for The Avengers, Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Fantastic Four, and Action Comics, among many other titles. His integral run on Amazing Spider-Man was recently collected into a prestigious omnibus edition by Marvel Comics.] 94

THE MILE HIGH CLUB

n today’s market, it’s easy to find just about any issue from any comic series from any year you could possibly want. Even if you don’t have a comic book shop nearby, there are a plethora of conventions and online web stores and auction sites—not to mention reprint collections and digital editions—that make the hunt a relatively simple task. But it wasn’t that long ago that many of the greatest comic stories ever published were not readily available to everyone. Back in the days when comic book stores were not necessarily in every city or even in every state, once a comic disappeared from the spinner rack, it moved beyond the reach of most readers. Young thrillseekers craving to whet their appetite for yesterday’s comics often had to rely

on trading whatever issues they had on-hand amongst their friends. Some found hope in the very small ads for back issue dealers who—for the price of postage—would proceed to send their sales list of back issues. Then in the 1980s, Mile High Comics, a business founded by Chuck Rozanski in 1969, introduced comic book collecting on a grander scale when the company began taking out full-page advertisements in the pages of Marvel Comics. Mile High not only gave you a chance to complete your collection but taught the uninitiated about the value of those comics. Every ad listing was an education. “Originally those ads came out of an idea that Richard Alf of San Diego had back in 1978,” says Chuck Rozanski,

Mile High Comics owner, Chuck Rozanski, center, in his mega store—one of his three locations—amidst some of his five million back issues. Photo by Christopher Brunn

the legendary comic book dealer and founder of Mile High Comics. “He was running a mail-order comics business and placing the typical ads that said, ‘Send 25 cents for our catalog.’ And he came on the idea of, instead of offering a catalog in those little bitty classified ads, that he would list about 30 different comics for direct purchase. He did that as an experiment and received orders for so many of them, that it caused him more harm than good because he had to refund so much money. So he then decided that he didn’t have the working capital to take this to the next level, so he contacted me about buying his mail order business, and he told me that if I would give him $40,000 for his mail order business, which had hardly any assets, that he would give me not only a really great idea, but also tools, operating systems, that would allow me to capitalize on that. I was skeptical at first, but I flew out there and I met with Richard, and I ended up buying his mail order business specifically to get the idea of running ads for comics in the comics themselves.” In an era before computers were common in the household, the mail order business that Rozanski purchased from Alf included 50,000 comics, a mailing list, and various manual systems, along with a card-based mailing machine, which had a carbon imprint that allowed the device to act as a “ditto master” and print mailing addresses onto catalogs. With the foundation of a mail ordering system in place and Mile High’s already legendary comics inventory, Rozanski was now ready to expand his Colorado business not only nationally but globally. His ingenious idea was to purchase two full-page ads in the comics themselves and sell back issues directly to the target audience. Unfortunately, in 1979, Marvel Comics 95

A 1983 ad for Mile High Comics that ran in every Marvel comic book. Ad © Mile High Comics

wasn’t quite as receptive. A Marvel advertising department research study indicated that readers had an intense dislike for ads within the books—especially classified ads. Rozanski explained, “They would not sell me those ad pages. I was really persistent, and I made friends with Jim Shooter at that time, and Shooter took me to meet the president of Marvel, Jim Galton. Galton and I had a bunch of discussions about this, and I told him that I thought it would really enhance his new comics sales if we showed that back-issue comics had value, and that putting a fullpage ad in the comics would actually create a price guide, and that that price guide would greatly increase new comics sales. Galton was really skeptical, but his job was on the line, because they had had a big problem with a magazine that they had put out the year before that failed on them after they spent a lot of money promoting it, and so he was under pressure from the Cadence Industries board to come up with something that would make comics sales take off. So he said, ‘All right. I’ll make you a deal. I will let you have two pages to put your price guide in our comics, but you have to pay for the pages upfront. We don’t want any billing 96

on this. So it’s going to be $22,000 cash.’ It was two pages for every Marvel book for two months.” With the opportunity of a lifetime before him, a determined Chuck Rozanski would not let it slip away… even if the sacrifice was a heavy one. “I had to come up with the money upfront. Now, here’s the staggering part. The only person in the comics business that had that kind of money at that time was Steve Geppi [founder of Diamond Comics Distributor]. So what I had to do was to go to Geppi and sell him about 50 key issues out of the Edgar Church collection, including the Batman #1, the Sensation #1, the Whiz #2, and a bunch of other books. We’re talking about books that today would retail for at least a couple of million dollars, because there was the All Star #8 in there—I mean, just all kinds of key issues. But that was it. And we did this deal on a pool table in the basement of Steve’s house. “Now, [Geppi] turned around and flipped a bunch of those books, and John Snyder ended up with those books initially, and then he ended up selling some of them soon thereafter, some of which ended up with David Anderson, who still owns some of them to date. But I got my $22,000.

The code of the direct market Prior to 1979, all unsold comics with a UPC code (except for a number of Whitman editions) were returnable to newsstand distributors for credit once their grace period was complete. Since comics in the direct market were non-returnable and heavily discounted, Marvel implemented a “diamond” around their prices and placed either a UPC code with a slash through it, or sometimes no UPC code at all, to distinguish these editions and avoid fraud—most comic shops didn’t have a point of sales system until the 21st century. At the time, the standard discount for the direct market was 40% while newsagents only received a 30% discount off the cover price. The “diamond” on the Marvel price box had previously served to identify Whitman editions of various Marvel books. DC would later follow suit with their own identifying methods for their direct market books.

And I took that $22,000 and I took it to New York, and I passion for comics, especially with the kids who enjoyed gave it to Marvel’s ad agency, and I got those first two pages reading and collecting them. in the books, which we had coded as MC-1, Marvel Comics “Well, that was on purpose. That was not accidental. I did Ad 1. I believe that was in June of 1980. Anyway, when we that by design. I took Alf ’s idea and I realized from having ran those ads, it cost me $22,000 seen ads in a magazine called Coin for the ads, but they grossed World, and also the ads that were $106,000 in the first 90 days after in the Comics Buyer’s Guide at I ran them. So, even though I had the time, that if people could see to sacrifice those key books out actual listings of books, not only of the Church collection, it really did they want to order them, it was worthwhile, because the mail created desire, but also it created order business that was created by validation. If people see things that sale has since grossed about a in print, they believe it, even if it hundred million dollars. ” maybe is perhaps a little specious, The first two-page ad, along with but it still, it has a validation effect. the subsequent listings, cemented And for young people in particular the Mile High Comics name with it has a validation effect. comic book fans around the world. “But there was kind of a dualFor many, not only were they the ity here. On the one hand, I had a first indication that you could even short term objective, which was to purchase back issues, but they probreak even. But on a longer term, vided a plethora of information what I was trying to do was to by indicating their extraordinary change the world. All of us come monetary value and highlighting into the world with the hope that the books which were illustrated we can change things in some by the top artists or featured a sigmaterial way, because there are nificant debut or guest appearance six or seven billion people on the by a popular character. And every A 1976 mail-order catalog for Mile High Comics. planet, and how many of us actucustomer who ordered a comic Catalog © Mile High Comics ally can say, ‘I did something that received a complimentary Mile made the world change.’ High Comic catalog that would expose them to another “With those first ads, I changed the entire direct market, treasure trove of fun by showing them a listing of nearly the comics business as we know it today, and I influenced every comic book ever published. As a collector himself, an entire generation, many of whom now are in their 40s every step Rozanski took was a way for him to share his and their 50s and are the ones who are the drivers behind 97

Just a few of the standout comics that were offered in the early Marvel ads for Mile High Comics. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan © Conan Properties International LLC.

the entire comics business. And I am very proud of that fact, but it’s something that most people aren’t even aware of. That’s why, when you asked me and you wanted to do an interview about this, I was really kind of surprised, because I just sort of live with the knowledge in the back of my own mind that a lot of what exists today has its seminal point with those ads. But, for most people, they just don’t realize, or have any idea what effect they had, and how consequential they were in those first few years, ’80, ’81, ’82, ’83, because I intentionally did, just like Bob Overstreet, I made sure that the prices rose with each subsequent ad so that if kids were looking at ads, and looking at changes over time, that it gave them this reinforcing effect.” After their first major ad, Mile High Comics went from a thousand dollars a week in sales to twelve thousand dollars a week. The growth happened so swiftly that it forced them to lay out an organizational structure (even if they weren’t ready for one). To keep up with the momentum, the business hired six new employees, who had to work from desks constructed from boards and cinderblocks because there were no desks for them to work from. Other growing pains included some poor hiring decisions—like the grief caused when an employee embezzled a hundred thousand dollars—and a cluster of customer service issues and drama that arose with trying to fill the great volume of mail orders they received. 98

“There were a lot of credit memos we had to send out, and I went through several different customer service managers, people who weren’t able to respond to mail fast enough, because in those days we had to do everything by typewritten letter. When you deal with logistics like that, it is not easy, and it was a strain all the way around. But we persevered, we kept the business going, we kept growing things, and gradually, over time, we worked a lot of those rough edges out, and then eventually we were able to transition the company into being an Internet company, which has made things easier on many levels, and more difficult on others.” Today Mile High Comics’ business continues to flourish, as does its influence. Pondering if he made the right decision by sacrificing his prized books for those early ads, Chuck Rozanski is certain that he chose the right road. He replied, “I will grant you that it would be really nice to have those old issues and to be able to sell them at an auction right now and that sort of thing, but just to give you one small case in point, the main person who currently is running operations at DC, Jim Lee, saw my first ad, and realized that the comics that he had in his closet were actually worth money, and it totally changed his life, and he decided to go into comics for a living. Jim Lee actually told me this story.”

K ! ! IDS Y E H

FREE

Mouse © Disn

PROMOTIONAL AND EDUCATIONAL COMIC BOOKS

Goofy, Mickey

COMICS

ince the 1940s, advertisers and manufacturers have the perennial classic The True Story of Smokey Bear, pubunderstood the importance of children as an invalu- lished by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which has able target market. Characters like Mickey Mouse, been in print since 1960 and details the inspiring origins Superman, Popeye, and other iconic cartoon and comic of Smokey along with making a heartbreaking case for the strip favorites became vital pitchmen to a great many cere- utter importance of forest fire prevention. als, toys, and other goodies during the rise of broadcast and “When I started at Marvel in 1975,” says Nancy Allenprint media because passionate Blum, Marvel Comics’ vice presikids found the products with the dent of advertising and promocolorful imagery of their favortion during the era of the 1970s ite characters simply irresistible. and 1980s, “Fortune 500 compaChildren instantly know what nies really looked down on comic they like when they see it and are books. It was a long process to get loyal to the things they cherish to them to understand the value and a fault. Recognizing the engaging impact on society. When part of nature of comics to children, it my responsibilities grew to include wasn’t long before advertisers and trying to get corporate sponsors organizations turned to creating for comic books, companies comic books to entice the attenliked the idea of them but didn't tion of boys and girls. know how to distribute them. So Free promotional and educatrying to figure out how to solve tional comics were nothing new— the problem, I came up with the to this day institutions like the idea of ‘the Newspaper Network,’ Federal Reserve continue to issue which eventually led to the Spidera multitude of comic book titles Man and Power Pack comic book. that teach the basics of econom“The first major social conics—but the surge in free comics scious comic book that we did— featuring popular characters from and I think it was the first—was the big comic companies kicked on energy conservation with the into high gear during the midU.S. Department of Energy. We 1970s. These books were kid got Campbell’s Soup Company to friendly, but the best of them were Smokey Bear © Advertising Council sponsor it, and we launched it at also wholesome teaching tools the White House, a major coup meant to engage young readers about important issues. because to my knowledge a corporate tie-in with the White Stellar examples of these charitable books include Walt House had never been done before that.” Disney and Exxon teaming up to produce various energy1980’s Captain America and the Campbell Kids: The awareness comics [1978’s Mickey Mouse and Goofy Explore Battle of the Energy Drainers was a major coup for Marvel Energy Conservation and 1985’s Mickey and Goofy Explore that earned the company good will, press clippings, the Universe of Energy, amongst other efforts]; there’s also and a follow-up invite from First Lady Nancy Reagan 99

WITH OUR COMPLIMENTS Not all free comics were created equally. Despite being handed out in American classrooms, some free books like the series of comics produced by Radio Shack and DC Comics offered little entertainment or educational value. From 1980 to 1982, this business collaboration created a trio of incredibly light informercial-type booklets that blatantly showcased and pitched Radio Shack goods to unsuspecting children.

Captain America © Marvel Characters, Inc. Campbell Kids © CSC Brands, LP.

TRS-80 Computer Whiz Kids © General Wireless Operations, Inc. All other characters © DC Comics.

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as headliners to the White House Easter Egg Hunt of 1981. The rising popularity of Marvel’s characters attracted other major corporations like General Mills, Lever Brothers [now Unilever], General Foods, and 7-Eleven to make their own promo comics featuring many of Marvel’s most popular heroes. With the newspaper network that Mrs. Allen-Blum started, Marvel also participated in a series of successful comic book supplements for the Dallas Times Herald. And, most importantly, charitable causes were never far behind as Marvel’s partnership with the American Cancer Society spawned a book entitled Smokescreen featuring Spider-Man, Storm, and Power Man confronting the dangers of smoking. Marvel writer/editor Jim Salicrup comments, “There always have been examples of educational comics, or comics used for advertising, etc. Stan Lee, Sol Brodsky, Stan Goldberg, and others in the early ’60s worked on the first Big Boy comics that were giveaways at the popular restaurant chain. ABC Television commissioned Marvel to create America’s Best TV Comics in 1967 to promote their Fall Saturday morning cartoon line-up. Will Eisner worked on PS magazine starting in the early ’50s, which was used by the military to help soldiers maintain their equipment. And there are so many more. In the ’70s and ’80s Marvel may have simply pursued publishing such comics more actively. Marvel in the ’60s was mainly focused on creating its monthly comic book titles. Marvel had developed other departments in the ’70s and ’80s that could pursue such business, and hand it off to Sol Brodsky’s [special projects] department to get them put together.”

OH YEAH! (As told by Jim Salicrup, author of The Adventures of Kool-Aid Man)

[Kool-Aid Man] is sort of a much nicer version of the Hulk, basically. Just a super-likable, big guy who will do anything to help kids beat the Thirsties. The image of the character says it all—a big pitcher of nice, cold, refreshing Kool-Aid. One of the things about most cartoon characters that we first encounter as children is that we tend to simply love them. Not like them, but actually love, with great affection. Unlike many other things that we all encounter in childhood, cartoon characters for the most part will remain the same—never aging, getting sick, or getting involved in any kind of scandal. Of course, if they ever do, people who grew up with those characters will not like it at all!

ng Council

Kool-Aid Man © Advertisi

Many giveaway comics served no other purpose than putting kids at ease with of some of life’s most difficult childhood challenges. For a youngster on his first big airplane voyage, a complimentary copy of Astro Comics produced by Harvey Comics and American Airlines was instrumental in calming down those pesky high-flying travel jitters. For some lucky kids at a dental check-up, Casper’s Dental Health

All characters © respective

Activity Book showed that there was nothing to fear from the sight of a dentist and his arsenal of tools. With Supergirl in her special comic sponsored by Honda, DC Comics, and the National Safety Belt Campaign, kids learned the importance of buckling their seat belts when entering a car. Even the epic challenge of flying a first kite got whole lot easier and cooler thanks to a copy of Fonz’s Kite Fun Book. Whether it was the best or worst of times, there seemed to be a comic book for every occasion. So for all those naysayers who say that comics never taught anyone anything… think again. Aside from helping millions of children with their reading and vocabulary prowess, comics has proven to be the perfect medium to teach us about the wonders and hurdles that life has to offer—and sometimes it didn’t cost us a penny.

owners

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DC Dollar-Sized Delight

ALL NEW STORIES, AND ALL FOR A DOLLAR

197 7

$1.00 1977

n the days of Slurpees and Twinkies, when 30-cent 17-page comic stories were the norm, DC publisher Jenette Kahn launched a new line of 80-page publications called Dollar Comics, which, naturally, sold for a buck. Instead of raising the prices on DC’s regular monthlies, a well-meaning Ms. Kahn had the novel notion of creating a higher price point by increasing the page counts on selected books to increase profit margins for DC and retailers. In 1977, the line originally consisted of long-running titles such as World’s Finest, G.I. Combat, The House of Mystery, and Superman Family. These thick books stood a quarter-inch taller than the standard monthly and bore an enormous DC banner to clearly emphasize the new price point. To properly set sail to the Dollar Comics program within Kahn’s “DC Explosion” campaign, superstar Neal Adams provided the brilliant cover art to the early wave of new releases featuring allnew interiors done by other DC creators. Over time more titles, including some special anniversary issues and annuals, would be incorporated under the Dollar Comics banner. Despite its modest success, the concept and the “DC Explosion” push weren’t strong enough to save the comics publisher from the “DC Implosion” of 1978.

Neal Adams and Continuity Studios produced this promotional strip targeted at the comic distributors and retailers. All characters © DC Comics

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DC staffer Bob Rozakis remembers, “That’s really the reason for the whole ‘implosion’ after the plan of the ‘DC Explosion.’ We had terrible weather in the Northeast. We had a blizzard, followed by an ice storm, followed by a blizzard, three weeks in a row. Lots of books got printed, went to warehouses, and never left the warehouses, and then they got shipped back. So the people in Warner Publishing looked at the sales numbers and said, ‘You’re not selling anything, therefore, you need to cut back substantially. Lay off X percent of the staff and cut back to 20 books.’ It was before the direct market, before they had any way of being able to track the books that actually got offered for sale.” By the early 1980s, DC Comics had recovered and turned around its image with an infusion of new creators. The Dollar Comics line was less fortunate as it faded into the sunset in 1983. But for those of us that still love our giant-sized thrills, the Dollar Comics line remains a sensation that will always be bagged and boarded away in our hearts.

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elfQuest Indie

Trendsetters

rafting their brand of unique stories in ElfQuest, who read comics in the whole world. So I wrote a response Wendy and Richard Pini have been at the forefront back, and according to Wendy, so did hundreds of other of the independent comics scene since 1978. When guys who were similarly motivated. But she saw something the couple started their inviting series, the independent arena in mine that was worth responding to, and we began a fourwas generally the home of counterculture and autobiographi- year correspondence/courtship that culminated in us getcal titles meant for adults. The ting married in 1972.” Pinis turned that all around So what made Richard when they embraced the stand out from the pack of uninhibited freedom of the smitten admirers? “According landscape to tell an epic fanto Wendy,” replies Mr. Pini, tasy story intended for a gen“I was the only one who did eral audience, a pretty radinot tell her everything about cal notion at the time. Their myself. What comics I liked, efforts inspired a generation who I thought was stronger, of indie comic book creators Thor or the Hulk….” to tell their own stories and “No, he was very sneaky,” discover self-fulfillment for recalls comic book creator themselves. Wendy Pini. “He said, ‘I The relationship between really liked what you had to Wendy and Richard began say, but if you want to know in the back pages of a comic more about me, you’ll have book. “Wendy and I met to write to me, and I promthrough the comics,” says ise a few surprises.’ And no Richard Pini. “Back in 1969, teenage girl can resist that.” we were both fans of Marvel [laughter] Comics, and the Silver Surfer Richard discloses, “In that title had just started up, the letter she sent me a sample original that was done by of her drawing, of her artistic Stan and John Buscema. I ability—as I recall, a portrait was on the East Coast, and of the Inhuman Triton, and Wendy was on the West I was just knocked on my Coast. She wrote a letter both butt by the level of accomcomplimenting Stan for his plishment. I knew nothing writing and taking him to of fandom. She was already a task a little bit for portray- The debut of “ElfQuest” before the launch of the series. couple of years in comics and ing mankind as being nasty ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. science fiction fandom, but to the Silver Surfer. It was I knew nothing about it, so a very compassionate letter, and it got printed. And back this gift, coming as it did right out of the blue, just gobthen, they printed mailing addresses in the letters column. smacked me. And my next letter to her was full of fanboy, So I read this letter and I was impressed by two things: one, ‘Oh my God, this is great,’ effusiveness. We got over that that it was a very thoughtful letter, and two, that it was quickly enough so that we could have as normal a relationby a female—because in 1969 there were maybe three girls ship as 3,000 miles separation could afford.”

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Their shared appreciation for the “Marvel Age of Comics” of the 1960s brought their two lives together. Both became intensely engaged with the comics art form because of Marvel’s refreshing reinvention of four-color storytelling. Richard says, “The mid-to-late ’60s and early ’70s was when we both were just head-over-heels as much as we ever were in what Stan [Lee], and Jack [Kirby], and Steve [Ditko] did, [Gene] Colan, Don Heck, and all those other great talents were doing. It was so passionate and so wonderful.” For Wendy, the connection with Marvel Comics was a little more profound because she enjoyed soaking in the dramatic developments of the characters themselves. She explains, “I think for me, as a girl reading comics, and that was a very rare thing back then, I was especially attracted to certain Marvel groups that resembled families, like the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, because it was the relationships that interested me more than the characters’ powers.” Although she enjoyed the artistry in comics, the notion of becoming an artist in this medium was the furthest thing on her mind. “ElfQuest was a big surprise to me,” admits Wendy. “It’s not where I thought my career was going to go at all. I thought I was either going to be a science-fiction book illustrator or some kind of animator. I thought it was very likely I was going to get into animated cartoon production in some way.” With no formal art training, Wendy built her drawing skills to what they are today through natural talent and dedication to the craft. “She has, and we have proof of this, been drawing since she was two years old. In the archives that we keep in New York, which is everything that she’s ever drawn that we were able to salvage, we have drawings that she did when she was two, and it’s recognizable. It’s just astounding,” confirms her husband. As for Richard Pini’s career aspirations, those were also up in the air. “Oh, heavens,” utters Mr. Pini, “I didn’t know what I wanted to be. When I went to college, for example, I knew I wanted something having to do with science, so I ended up going to MIT, which is where I wanted to go, and it was a case of ‘be careful what you wish for because you might get it.’ MIT is very demanding, and I barely made it through. But the first two years I was there, I was flailing about. ‘What do I want to do?’ And then I discovered my old, old childhood love of astronomy, so I graduated with a degree in astronomy and astrophysics. I was always interested in the sciences, but I also loved comics, and science fiction, and science-fiction and fantasy movies. So our paths converged in ElfQuest because, while I had done some writing of my own, I was swept up by Wendy’s vision for this grand, sweeping epic that she had been cooking, in one form or another, for many, many years. What I felt I was able to bring was a real world grounding to the concepts that she had imagined, and we discovered that the two world Issues #1 and 5 of the original self-published ElfQuest magazine. views, the two skills, dovetailed, and still do, very nicely.” ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. 105

With its grandiose flair and scope, the story of ElfQuest yet an audience starving for alternative entertainment outcould have easily been a great many things. It could have side of the superhero genre welcomed this new title with been a series of exciting fantasy novels. It could have been open arms. ElfQuest proved to be exactly the book that an animated film saga, à la Ralph Bakshi’s adaptation of readers were clamoring for it. Marching to their own beat Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Pinis ultimately would prove rewarding to Richard and Wendy personally, decided the medium that best served their story was the creatively, and financially. ElfQuest became a phenomenon. sequential art form of comics. “She always envisioned ElfQuest as an animated movie,” states Richard. “But having had some experience with making a film on her own in college for a project, she knew, and I knew, that it takes a studio, and many millions of dollars, and dozens, if not hundreds, of people to achieve such a thing. So when it came time to birth ElfQuest out into the world, we were wondering, ‘What’s the best way to do this?’ We thought about novelizing it, but, you see, her artwork is just so spectacular and so subtle that we ended up taking Will Eisner’s advice when he said that comics are the perfect melding of movies and the written word, because you have the words in the Cutter and his tribesmen have a long struggle ahead of them. speech balloons, but you can ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. also do movie-like effects on Richard recounts, “The direct market was just a few paper, like a storyboard. And that’s what led to ElfQuest as years old. It was growing. The number of comic shops in a comic.” The world-building of ElfQuest took place organically in the country was growing almost exponentially. There was Wendy’s imagination. With Richard’s help, the couple fine- almost no competition because you either had mainstream, tuned the narrative and set a business plan together. Mrs. which was Marvel, DC, and Archie, or you had the underPini says, “I pretty much sat down and told Richard the grounds, some titles were doing very well, but it was not story I did. That’s how we got started on the project, and I family-friendly stuff. What was called then ‘ground level’ had a really good, basic sense of where I wanted the classic was basically Bud Plant with First Kingdom and Mike FriedQuest storyline to go, and, of course, things evolved within rich with Star*Reach. At first we did not want to publish Elfthat framework as we told the story. I think our original Quest, because I sure as heck didn’t know how to go about it. plan was to have it be a 15-issue run, and it expanded to We approached Marvel, DC, Bud Plant, and Mike Friedrich 20 for various reasons. Various characters wanted more with ElfQuest. None of them were interested because they all exposure, and more incidents came to mind that would be thought it was a little too peculiar, so we ended up more or appropriate to have in the story, so the story evolved as we less having to do it ourselves. Luckily for us, Wendy already were telling it, and past the classic Quest, of course, there had a reputation in science fiction, and maybe a little bit was an overall plan for the story, but so much filling in to in comics, as being a very, very good artist. She was doing do, so many side stories that just seemed to grow naturally some professional work for science-fiction magazines at the out of different characters’ personalities, and how their lives time, so the two distributors, Bud Plant and Phil Seuling, God bless them both, gambled on our first print run of the fit together.” With its one dollar cover price, the first issue came out first issue of ElfQuest, and it sold out almost immediately. in 1978 when the direct market was still in its infancy. And And I have to crow a little bit here. We had no idea what we 106

were doing, so we did a first print run of 10,000 copies, not knowing that, at that time, if you had a run of 500 copies of a fanzine, you were doing very well. But we sold 10,000 copies very, very quickly, and we just went upward from there. It was a wide open playing field, and we just hit with a wonderful product that was not like anything else available, it was peculiar, that people discovered they wanted. I don’t think you could do that today.” To fund the extraordinary cost of the print job for the first issue of ElfQuest, Richard approached his parents. “We didn’t have that money,” says Mr. Pini. “I did some research, and to print those first 10,000 copies, it was going to cost around $2,000. So I went and got a loan from my parents, and, luckily, while they were incredibly skeptical, they said, ‘Okay, here. Go do what you’re going to do.’ I think they were surprised as hell when we paid them back within a month because of the sales of that first issue. And we never looked back.” In the beginning, Richard tried to balance his day job alongside his self-publishing obligations, but that proved excruciatingly impractical as the book’s popularity surged. He soon let momentum take its course and did what he had to do. He says, “We started ElfQuest when I was teaching high school, and I left that job and went to work for IBM. IBM at that time was an incredibly cushy blue-chip job with incredible benefits and very good pay. But by the fifth or sixth issue of the original ElfQuest, so we’re talking 1980 or 1981, I was putting in so many hours at IBM, and I was also putting in so many hours helping Wendy with ElfQuest. She was doing all of the heavy lifting, and she could do that at home, but we still needed to pay the bills. ElfQuest was growing sufficiently so that, by the fifth or sixth issue, I realized I needed to make a decision on where I was going to put my time, because I couldn’t give it to both ElfQuest and IBM. Wendy will attest that it took at least six months of agonizing, balancing upside versus downside, before I said, ‘I’m devoting myself to helping with ElfQuest,’ and I quit IBM. But by that time ElfQuest was making enough so that I could even entertain that inner debate.”

Wendy faced the emotional turmoil of uncertainty that all artists face when they begin a new career. Luckily, the deeper she delved into her saga and artwork, the more at home she felt at the drawing table. The magic of sequential storytelling was uniquely instinctive in her case. Wendy explains, “I think I had a natural inclination towards it because I had been doodling comics for myself as a child on just any random piece of paper, and as a teenager in high school I developed a couple of fanzine strips. One was called ‘The Rebels.’ And I just had a knack for it, although I never had real big ambitions to be a professional comics artist so that when the time came to interpret ElfQuest this way, I did fall into it pretty naturally. This is not to say that I didn’t have a lot of learning to do.

The original art and published cover for Marvel Epic’s ElfQuest #2. ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc.

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“As each issue went by, I grew more confident and better able to pace the work, better able to show different cinematic angles in the panels, and from my influences in comics, which are an East/West thing, my strongest Western influence was Jack Kirby. He was an early mentor for me, although he didn’t really know it, but his artwork taught me, as a girl, a tremendous amount about structure and giving weight and heft to your figures, and positioning them compositionally within the panel for maximum dramatic impact. There’s no other go-to artist better than Jack Kirby for high impact in dramatic comic book storytelling, so he was my main Western influence. “My main Eastern influence was Osamu Tezuka, who was the creator of famous characters such as Astro Boy and Kimba the White Lion, and many, many others. He’s considered the Walt Disney of Japan. I discovered his work when I was in my early teens, and even though I had very little access to Japanese animation and manga back in the ’60s, I found what I could and learned from that as well. So my artwork was a blending of Eastern and Western influences, and I think that is one of the factors that led to ElfQuest being judged as a very peculiar comic book, because nobody knew anything about manga or anime back then, or they knew very little, especially the predominant superhero crowd, and so they didn’t know how to evaluate ElfQuest, and I think it wasn’t even considered a comic book for a long, long time.” What readers discovered in ElfQuest The Wolfrider tribe gathers in ElfQuest #2. was an absorbing story that had an elegant ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. maturity within it unlike anything else in the industry. They may not have known about its Japanese characters, we like to joke that when we kill a character, influences, but what they did know was that they couldn’t they stay dead. You know, that happens in real life. If you resist it. The Pinis constructed one of the first true long- fight with somebody, it can be nasty and brutal, and that form sagas of the art form. And, ultimately, what sepa- happens in real life. Relationships are not simple, necessarrated ElfQuest from the pack was its confident and inspired ily, in real life, and ElfQuest explores that.” storytelling, the foundation of any real classic. Looking Wendy adds, “Well, we used the elves as a metaphor for back, not many comics from the era have aged gracefully. the human experience, and I think we really had that attiElfQuest is one of the rare exceptions that continues to reso- tude from the very beginning that we created the elves to nate. For a title about elves, it’s loaded with more originality look human enough that you can relate to them, but at the and humanity than the bulk of the comics on the stands. same time they have these animal characteristics, these large Richard says, “Wendy’s storytelling has always been very pointed ears, and their strong relationships with different honest, which is to say, it speaks truth to people’s experience animals that cause them to be elevated outside the human of life. When somebody asks us a question about certain experience as well. And when readers get involved with 108

these characters, they know they can expect to see a race of beings acting out of their higher impulses rather than their lower impulses. The elves represent mankind at its best. Not that they don’t have flaws, but they do represent a way of treating each other and getting along together that seems to be more relevant now than ever. “Back then we were the hippie generation, and there was certainly a strong hippie vibe among the Wolfriders, very tribal, wearing leather and fringe a lot. But the environmental consciousness, the idea of the outside trying to get along in a harsh world, was very much the theme of the hippie lifestyle back then. But it’s more relevant now than ever. More people feel like outsiders and don’t know where they belong in the world than ever. I’m personally very surprised to see that. I thought our society was going to be further along, more evolved now than it is, and I’m surprised that ElfQuest is still so relevant.”

One of the themes that readers gravitate to the most is the strong sense of family among the company of elves called the Wolfriders. Against all odds, this devoted band does whatever it takes to stay together and persevere. At the center of it all is the gallant Cutter, a born leader who is unafraid to lead his tribe forward even if he doesn’t possess all the solutions to life’s worries. “Cutter is the glue that holds the story together,” states Wendy. “He’s the elf of all of them that most expresses my personal point of view as an artist and writer, and just as a human being walking the Earth. His goal is just to do the best he can no matter what kind of situation he’s thrown into, and he’s often thrown into situations that he’s never encountered before, and he has to do a lot by guess and by gosh, and I think that speaks to my experience in this particular business. I have needed to stay true to my vision and do things my way though many, many people over the

Cutter, a leader in words and actions. The original cover art to Epic’s ElfQuest #9. ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc.

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A Skywise plate from a 1979 ElfQuest portfolio. ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc.

years have said, ‘Oh, you’re not doing this right. You need to do it this way. You need to change this, that.’ Over the years many people say, ‘Sure, we’d love to option ElfQuest for a TV show or a movie, but you’ve got to change this, this, this, and this to make it fit our vision.’ And so I’ve had to be strong through the years and hold onto my original vision and keep telling the story the way I saw it from the beginning, and that’s expressed in Cutter’s leadership of the elves. He just tries to do the best he can no matter what’s thrown at him.” As a character, Cutter continues to evolve with each new adventure. Wendy replies, “He tries.” [laughs] Richard says, “You know, some members of the cast, and all of the different members of the Wolfriders in particular, because they are the main group, represent facets of ourselves, and there are some ways in which we, Wendy and I, each in our own way, are very open to new ideas, and there are some ways in which, I speak only for myself, 110

here, I feel very conservative about some things.” “Oh, you can include me in on that, too,” chimes Wendy. Richard continues, “Okay. And, for example, just as Cutter is the avatar for Wendy, Skywise is the avatar for me, but also, sometimes, Strongbow, who is very, very conservative, and who very much wants to stick to the old ways of things. And I know I have felt that sometimes, particularly now, when life goes faster and faster with every passing week, I find myself taking the old fart position of, ‘Oh, back in the day, I remember….’” Wendy counters, “Well, there’s nothing wrong with that, because quite frankly, without structure, without a firm foundation, there isn’t any way to go forward in any kind of a solid way, and one of the themes of ElfQuest is that the elves keep returning to asking, “What is the way, and how can we preserve it in the face of all the change that we’re experiencing?” I’m working on ‘The Final Quest’ right now, and that is the main theme: can ‘the way’ survive in the face of all the change and all the growth that the elves have experienced, and what if it comes to a choice between that change and growth and ‘the way’? Which are they going to choose? It’s an exploration of that.” The inviting nature of these all-ages stories has ensured their longevity in the public eye. It’s now become a comic book that crosses generations. Richard says, “I don’t think we knew enough when we started to think about demographics, but we got introduced to that fairly early on. Wendy wrote and drew the story as she wanted to do it, and we discovered that it had a very wide appeal. We were getting fan mail from males and females almost equally divided, raising in age from ten to eleven on up to senior citizens. And we were getting mail from parents, and teachers, and pastors, and people in jail, and other writers. It was all over the map. There was a maturity to ElfQuest that was just an inherent part of its structure that under, say, age ten, not that it would be harmful to them, but that they wouldn’t get it, and the mode of expression might be a little much for them. We always like to say that if a child is ten or eleven or twelve, that’s a good starting age, although we have heard from parents who have read ElfQuest to their younger kids, just putting it through the parental filter for them.” Wendy says, “Yeah, it’s a generational thing. But I think one of the things that we are most proud of is that ElfQuest is responsible, and I think it still is, for bringing more young

women, teenage girls, and adult women into reading comics. It seems to be the entry drug for women to start reading comics, even to this day. Everywhere we go, every convention we go to, we get told by women of all different ages that ElfQuest was the book that got them started in their interest in comics.” That this story appealed to everyone is what every writer wants for their work. That ElfQuest brought females to comic book stores on a regular basis was the icing on the cake. “Well, as a young woman, myself, I simply wrote and drew what pleased me, and I think what pleased me pleased a hell of a lot of other young women like me, and I think it’s just a case of the law of attraction. Like attracts like,” confirms Wendy. Richard says, “Wendy is, in my opinion, just about unique among comics creators in that she, given her background and her mentors that she spoke about, has managed to integrate what a lot of people call a masculine style of storytelling and drawing, and a feminine style of storytelling and drawing, about as seamlessly as I have ever seen, and I have been reading comics since I was nine or ten years old. And I think that whether you’re a young woman or a young man reading comics, there’s enough of that crossover. I think a young woman wants something hefty to let her imagination and her sensibilities chew on, and I think a lot of young guys want something a little lighter as a relief from all of the ‘big fist bludgeon for six pages’ kind of comic book action that you get a lot of today. ElfQuest has both of those in just a nice enough proportion so that a guy can read it and not feel like he’s reading a ‘girly’ book, and a girl can read it and not feel like she’s reading some mindless testosterone superhero punch-fest. It appeals to both in equal quantities. And, as Wendy said, ElfQuest has been a gateway to get more women into comics. It’s also been a gateway to get more guys interested in fantasy. ElfQuest has sometimes

For Leetah and Cutter, it was recognition at first sight, but Cutter still had to earn Leetah’s affection. ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc.

been dissed as being ‘cutesy,’ but once somebody picks it up and actually gets into it, they go, ‘Whoa! This is not cute at all. This is substantial stuff.’ Guys would pick up ElfQuest because they wanted to impress their girlfriends, and the side effect of that was that they got into the story.” Those who read ElfQuest knew that its story hit all the right notes. Even the romance between Cutter and Leetah was unparalleled to anything seen prior in the medium. No matter the undeniable attraction between these two characters, Leetah would not give away her affection to Cutter—he had to earn her devotion. This courtship was an invaluable life lesson to a teen learning about the laws of attraction. One thing’s for sure, you never saw anything like it in superhero comics. Wendy explains, “Yeah, but that’s actually a cliché that comes from way, way back in heroic mythology, from ancient times, the idea that the hero has to win the love of the girl, that he can’t just carry her off. So I totally confess that Cutter and Leetah’s initial love story has elements that are extremely old-fashioned and go way, way back. However, the twist is that we introduce the concept of ‘recognition.’ 111

Recognition is not love at first sight. Not by a long shot. Recognition is, and it happens sometimes to elves who don’t really want it to happen, a powerful mating urge. This is a race of immortals, by and large, that does not give birth very often, so to have more elves, what became necessary as a survival mechanism was the introduction of recognition into their way of life. “So Cutter and Leetah are initially drawn together by recognition, but she insists on some formulas and some trials and tests primarily to keep him back from her. She’s aware that recognition has happened, but she wants to keep this guy off of her, so she comes up with all these delaying tactics and putting him through the ropes, because she wants to get his measure and she does have the ability to say no. As a healer, she is fortunate in that she can turn off the effects of recognition if she wants to, but Leetah doesn’t, in the story, turn it off immediately, because she does see some good things about Cutter. She just wants a chance to get to know him better. Of course, he would be all over her without the delaying tactics because he’s very impulsive and right to the point. So she’s very smart about how she handles it, but, unfortunately, I thought it was very funny how she got interpreted to be a bitch by some reviewers who didn’t understand what was going on for her.” As in any proper love story, Leetah turns out to be the person who gives Cutter all the qualities he’s lacking. She civilizes the hero by taking him to places he’s never seen. It’s another dimension to a book already filled with so much uniqueness. “And that’s often a human experience for young girls,” says Wendy, “They have to find ways to keep eager young men off until they can get to know them, and sort of slow them down. [laughs] So they have to think of all sorts of ideas. I guess that’s why dating was invented. But Leetah never had a chance to date. She was kind of swept off her feet from the get-go there. [laughs]” In 1985, Marvel’s Epic line collected the original run of ElfQuest in monthly installments. [Note: Years later, DC and Dark Horse would publish the series, both the classic stories and new ones.] This particular expedition exceeded all of their expectations since it introduced their stories to a whole new world of readers. “It did,” says Richard. “As I had said earlier, we took it to both Marvel and DC and they said no, so we went on our merry way, and for seven or eight years we published what we now call the Original Quest, and at its peak, just on our own, we were selling 100,000 copies per issue right off the press. We found out that that was higher than some of Marvel and DC’s numbers for some of their titles, and so we were feeling pretty smug about that. But this was all through the direct market, and I always had wondered, ‘Gee, I wonder what ElfQuest might do if it had wider distribution?’ But no way was I, as a publisher, going to get into the quagmire that is newsstand distribution. “Actually, Wendy and I both knew someone at Marvel Comics, a friend from way back who was in their acquisitions department, so when ElfQuest was wrapping up, I went to this person and said, ‘You know, we’re coming to the end here. Do you suppose Marvel might be interested in a reprint license?’ And she did not hesitate and said, ‘Hell, yeah!’ because she was fully aware that Marvel had had its chance eight years earlier, so it was a very quick and happy courtship. It was purely a reprint license. Marvel never owned the property. Also, Marvel right around then was ramping up its Epic creator-owned brand of comics. I think their first one was Sergio Aragonés’ Groo. So we were able to bring ElfQuest out under that umbrella, and it did nicely. I’m not going to say it did Todd McFarlane Spider-Man #1 kind of numbers, but, then, nothing else ever did. But it did get us a whole lot of new readers, it did sell us a whole lot more copies, so it was a three-, four-year worthwhile experiment for us.” For Wendy and Richard Pini, the longevity and adoration of ElfQuest changed their lives. If there are thoughts of regrets, they are few. “Yes, absolutely I have 112

thoughts like that,” says Wendy. “I have no clue what kind tious and very, very pleasing, but it’s not something you of person I am when I’m not working. I’ve worked every should ever rely on. If you don’t have everything that it day of my life since I was about 19 years old, and I’m very takes to do the story within you whether you get feedback much looking forward to taking a long break after I’ve or not, it might not be worth it to do the story. When we finished Final Quest, but my major regret is that I over- got started, we just plunged ahead and did it, and we had designed the characters, and if I had known I was going to no idea what kind of audience we were going to attract. be drawing them for 35 years, I would have made Leetah And nowadays, especially because of the advantages of the bald and designed all their clothes to look like they were Internet and social networking, we are able to actually be in sprayed on, because all the details, and the fringe, and the direct touch with our fans and speak to them directly and hair, and the eyelashes, and everything, can really drive answer questions, and I think this is one of the things that has kept their enthusiasm up over the years.” you crazy.” On the subject of regrets, Richard replies, “As I said, I graduated with a degree in astronomy. My love has always been in studying what’s up there. But, even though I taught high school and I worked for IBM, ElfQuest has become what I love to do. I have no regrets because there’s no other path that I feel that I left behind in order to follow ElfQuest. I consider myself ElfQuest’s number one facilitator among anything else I do, and that’s very satisfying.” Wendy adds, “We literally would not be where we are today without Richard’s guidance and in many cases learning by the seat of his pants as he went as to what is the best direction to go and how to make the best business decisions.” For more than 35 years, Wendy and Richard have taken delight in seeing the impact that ElfQuest has had in the lives of so many. Every positive interaction, whether a fan’s testimonial or the sight of someone cosplaying as their favorite elf, it’s all helped to fuel their creative engines. It’s a great feeling for any self-aware creator to receive acceptance from an audience, but the Pinis are aware it all starts with having belief in themselves as creators. “Oh, absolutely!” states Wendy. “Yeah, the audience The Wolfriders of ElfQuest ride on into comic book history. enthusiasm can be very infec- ElfQuest © Warp Graphics, Inc. 113

TRUE COLORS

The Kaleidoscopic World of

n the year 2000, the Toy Industry of America proclaimed it as one of the top ten toys of the century; and in 2011, Time magazine celebrated it as one of the top one hundred toys of all time. Since its debut in 1951, Colorforms has captivated generations of children with a unique brand of fun that stimulates the imagination with limitless playability and possibilities to create art. A typical Colorforms set features an assortment of vinyl images and shapes that children can freely arrange on a laminated graphic background in whatever manner they see fit to tell their story—no scissor or paste required. The inspirational toy promotes “finger dexterity, sense of spatial relationship, size matching, building ability, color sense, and sense of neatness and order.” “It sort of happened by accident,” says Moss Kardener, the brand director of Colorforms at University Games Corporation about the beginnings of Colorforms. “There’s a fair amount of documentation of this, but as Patricia tells the story, she and her husband Harry Kislevitz were sort of starving young artists at the time, living in a railroad flat in Manhattan across from the French hospital, and they had these salons where friends would come over. It was the Beat-

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(above) If there was a licensable property that kids loved, more than likely there was a Colorforms set to go with it. The iconic Colorforms logo was created by master graphic designer Paul Rand in 1959. (below) Tell your own story of the DC universe with the Superadventures Colorforms set, featuring Superman and Lex Luthor. All characters © their respective owners. Colorforms © Colorforms Brand, LLC.

nik era, and people would do all kinds of things. Someone had donated a semi-gloss orange paint to them, and they had painted a bathroom of theirs in that orange. A friend of theirs who was working in pocketbook manufacturing—wallets and so forth—was experimenting with a relatively new material, vinyl… using it instead of leather in things like coin purses and so forth. They had samples all made up in different colors, and the material stuck to itself. It was really too ideal because it made it hard to open the wallets, or coin purses, or whatever. “The story was that these bolts of material were sent to them, and at these salons people would cut out shapes, much like Matisse kinds of constructions that we see as collages, and they learned that they stuck to the bathroom wall that was painted with this orange paint. Patricia said, ‘Our friends would go and do the most marvelous Matisse things on the wall, and they’d never come out [of the bathroom]. They just took a pair of scissors and cut these things out.’ So that’s what gave them the idea, and originally they didn’t think that it would be a kids’ product. They really saw it as something for creative people like themselves, and they approached different retailers. One of the first stores they got into was the Museum of Modern Art in New York. They also got placement shortly after that at the original FAO Schwarz, and they went from there. They realized quickly that there was a lot of opportunity for children’s products, and they sort of shifted from the original set, which was geometric only, and then started developing. This started in 1951. In 1957 they actually introduced the first licensed character, which was a Popeye character set.” After the Popeye set, Colorforms would go on to produce more sets based on popular licensed The box top for the Superadventures Colorforms set, and the adventure waiting inside. In 1997, the Kislevitz family sold their company to Toy Biz, a properties like Peanuts, Holly Hobbie, Barbie, division of Marvel. University Games acquired Colorforms in 1998. Sesame Street, and amongst other trendy fare, All characters © DC Comics. Colorforms © Colorforms Brand, LLC. the 1970s saw an avalanche of entries based on the comic-book superheroes become their bestsellers. The control of what they’re doing with those pieces. And it’s heavy hitters like Superman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, completely forgiving. You can’t really make a mistake. You Hulk, and others had their own adventure sets, all con- can change things; you can move things up and down, tained within lavish boxes illustrated by top industry talent. depending on the background, because of the relationship The union of Colorforms and comics was a seamless one of the piece, which stays one size. If there’s perspective in considering the four-color medium lends itself so readily to the background, you can essentially create an illusion of a this toy. Any child could easily use their mind and hands to giant as it moves in the distance, or a normal-sized charcreate unique comic book storylines with his or her favorite acter if it’s in the foreground. And the sets were designed characters via the magic of Colorforms and good old fash- over the years so that they would inspire that kind of play. Whenever we can, we do things so that kids can essentially ioned imagination. Kardener states, “The beauty of Colorforms is that it can animate the pieces or the characters to give them life on be adapted to a kid’s imagination, so the child is really in their own.” 115

ICON L

NEAL ADAMS

et’s get something out of the way first: Neal Adams is part of the bedrock of the comic book industry. He’s a greatly admired comic book creator whose artwork beautifully fused the crisp finesse of commercial illustration and the explosiveness of Jack Kirby-like sequential storytelling. During the late ’60s and ’70s, the visionary’s unrelenting ingenuity served an integral role in redefining Batman, Green Lantern, Green Arrow, the Avengers, the X-Men, and Deadman into the beloved characters that stand amongst us today. The sheer power and elegance of his graphic works are enthralling. His new brand of dynamism provided inspiration for the careers of a host of highly regarded comic book artists like John Byrne, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Alex Ross. In the realm of comics and pop culture, the legacy of Neal Adams in his early 20s, working on a Ben Casey daily strip. Neal Adams is undeniable. Ben Casey © NEA, Inc. Born and raised in New York City, The artist joined the commercial illustration field at Adams is a resilient figure: a passionate man who never backs down from a challenge, nor hesitates in standing up for what’s Johnstone and Cushing, a firm that specialized in producmorally right. Straight out of the School of Art and Design (in ing advertising comic strip art and cartoons for a big-time 1959), the teenaged artist and his stellar portfolio discovered client list. By age 21, he impressively helmed Ben Casey, his that opportunities were non-existent at the National Comics very own syndicated newspaper strip based on the popular Company (later DC Comics) for new talent. Determined to television show of the era, which was carried internationally work in the industry, the tenacious youngster made his debut throughout its three-and-a-half-year run. After Ben Casey, at Archie Comics and picked up valuable experience learning in 1965, Adams revisited DC Comics as a well-seasoned the trade from veteran artists such as Howard Nostrand (who veteran (in his mid-20s), and this time around the company welcomed him with open arms recognizing the impeccable Adams assisted on the Bat Masterson daily strip). Neal Adams explains, “When I graduated high school, I draftsman he had become. The illustrator remembers, “DC Comics was used to gettried to get to do comic books because that’s what I wanted to do, and they weren’t letting anybody in in those days— ting kids out of high school who were not trained artists so and I resented it. There’s a difference between beginning much, starting them at 15, 16, 17 years old, and unfortuyour career and trying to get into doing something and nately—you may or may not be aware of this—when you then raising a family, and paying rent, and stuff like that. start paying people money, they focus on doing [the work] Reality does strike me. Fortunately for me, I was able to do rather than learning their trade or their craft. So what hapadvertising and comics at the same time. Comics were a pens with an artist is that he stops getting better as soon as they start giving him money. It’s not totally true; it cerrough row to hoe. They just didn’t pay that well.”

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tainly wasn’t true of Joe Kubert. But it kind of holds you in place and makes you think you are maybe successful even, if people give you money for drawing anything. And so they weren’t really used to a trained artist coming in. I did illustration before that; I did a syndicated strip that lasted for three-and-a-half years; I did ‘big foot’ stuff; Archie comics; I did a lot of advertising stuff; certain advertising illustration. I was kind of a prodigy in my way, and I was a monster of a learner. “By the time I moved around through all of those things and came back to a point where I actually needed to do comic books once again, and they let me in that time, well, I was a finished illustrator. It was like, ‘Who is this guy? What planet did he come from?’ They had no idea. People in comic books didn’t even read the comic strips. They were in this dark world of repression that began in 1953 with the Congress attacking comic books, and the leftover people in comic books felt they would survive maybe one more year and then they would be out of business. It was a dreary time.

“To give you an example, outside of people who came into comic books through the side door, through another direction, there is nobody that is within five years my junior, or five years my senior. It was a dead time. I may be able to extend it to seven years on either end. It was a bad time for people to come in. Maybe Mort Drucker was the one that came in before I did. The only people who came in after that are people who did other things, like Denny O’Neil is somewhere near my age, but was a reporter to begin with. Jim Steranko was a magician, so he came in kind of through the side door. But, essentially, it was a blank era in comics between 1953 and, say, 1963.” Unflappable, the confident whiz took on all manner of assignments that the DC editors threw his way: The Adventures of Bob Hope, The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, The Spectre, fill-in stories, short stories, and covers. When Adams took up the reins of “Deadman” (in the Strange Adventures series) as the artist and eventually the writer, the cult title proved to be a visceral experience, unlike anything else in the stable of cookie-cutter books produced at DC Comics. With its

Early 1970s work from Neal Adams, including the original art to page 11 of Detective Comics #407 featuring Man-Bat. All characters © their respective owners

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Batman and Robin from the 1976 Super DC Calendar, and (next page) The Art of Neal Adams volume 1 (1975). All characters © their respective owners

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radical stylized layouts, dramatic angles, and energized photo-realistic figures, the “Deadman” stories filled readers with excitement and enthusiasm, and spearheaded a shift in the nature of sequential storytelling. Neal Adams was also largely responsible for moving the Batman image away from the farcical 1966 Batman television program and restoring him as the crime-fighting badass he was always meant to be. The Adams association with Batman began in the team-up book The Brave and the Bold, where the dynamo teased late-1960s comic readers with his darker rendition of the Caped Crusader. Soon enough editorial picked up on the fans’ outcry for this intense and mature portrayal of the character. In 1970, Adams and his moody, cinematic storytelling and unique dramatic flair, was assigned to Batman and Detective Comics. Among his contributions to the Dark Knight’s mythos are the creation of the iconic characters Ra’s al Ghul (with frequent collaborator writer Dennis O’Neil) and Man-Bat (with writer Frank Robbins)—not to mention the lively revivals of the Joker and Two-Face (both written by O’Neil). As if shaking things up at DC Comics wasn’t enough, Adams made the gutsy move to work also for Marvel Comics under his own name at a time (1969) when other DC creators typically used pseudonyms in order to avoid blacklisting; soon others would follow his lead. Without reservations, Adams agreed to pencil X-Men, a title on the brink of cancellation, and produced a truly majestic run of issues full of vibrancy. Not only did he and writer Roy Thomas revitalize this second-tier title, they also went on to shape the dramatic pathos that dominates the team to this very day. Amongst his various Marvel exertions was the KreeSkrull War epic (1971–1972) in the pages of The Avengers, another impressive effort with Thomas that this time resulted in a mind-bending intergalactic treasure trove of righteousness and sensational artwork. 1970 saw Neal Adams and writer Denny O’Neil work together on the rebranded Green Lantern/Green Arrow series (formerly Green Lantern), breaking important new ground in the medium as the most socially conscious and relevant series the company had published to date. The title didn’t flinch as it handled, head-on, heavy topics like racial prejudice, drug addiction, religion, politics, and other matters previously unheard of in the pages of the funny books. Although their provocative stay was short-lived, Adams and O’Neil succeeded in beginning to elevate the perception and storytelling of comics away from kiddie fare into something so good and hip that it engaged high school students, college students, and national headlines alike. At Marvel Comics, the Kree-Skrull War saga set the mode for epic storytelling not only in the Avengers series but for the entirety of the Marvel Comics publishing line. It’s such a fundamental story that its repercussions are still felt in today’s storylines. 119

In the mid-1970s, Continuity Studios produced several covers and comic stories for Power Records, including multiple Superman and Star Trek records and Gemini Man, based on the shortlived 1976 TV series. All characters © their respective owners

The former youth of the ’70s still look at Neal Adams as a full-blown comics superstar. Yes, in the eyes of savvy (and slightly older) comic readers, he is second to none. But his work has reached beyond the spinner rack. In the ’70s, the art of Adams was ubiquitous as his work became the face and the benchmark of all things DC. It appeared on toys, coloring books, and other goodies. Kids connected with his style because it unlocked the inherent goodness and jovial adventures awaiting us within the characters he portrayed. Justly so, his work is a part of the DNA of an entire generation. The New York artist brought out the very best out of these characters and shared that enthusiasm in every piece of artwork he produced. “I believe in comic books,” declares Adams. “I believe comic books is a form of literature that is fun. It’s a lot like rock and roll. ‘Rock and roll isn’t music.’ Oh, yes it is! You are mistaken, sir. Rock and roll is music; jazz is music; musical comedy is music; and comic books are music, only in their own way. It’s a tremendous form of 120

literature, a tremendous form of communication, a tremendous form of culture, a tremendous form of being able to do the kind of thing that an artist has always wanted to do down through the centuries, and that is to communicate by creating pictures.” Perhaps no comic book exudes the exuberance of the medium and the era more than 1978’s gigantic Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali treasury, possibly the pièce de résistance in the brilliant career of this iconic comic creator. The beautifully drawn page-turner serves as a masterful textbook on the incredible elasticity of the comics narrative, the only medium where such a fantastical starry bout like this could take place with such compelling awe and delight. In the pages of this old comic book, there are no limitations: the imagined is conceivable, and you can go wherever you like with it [if you have a little vision]. But the heartbeat of this story is that it’s all about fun—a transcendent bliss poignantly captured in the closing double-page splash of Ali (sharing the spotlight alongside Superman as they shake

hands) proclaiming, “Superman, we are the greatest!” after their epic rumble. Superman Vs. Muhammad Ali is an ode to happiness, proof to the empowering nature and enduring dreamlike magic that resides within the four-color arts. You’d never know it from looking at the impeccable quality and utter craftsmanship of his artwork, but in the mid-1970s Neal Adams became uncertain about his future at DC Comics. While he was the bee’s knees and DC’s most marketable artist, the reality behind the scenes was that, no matter how much he loved the DC line, the artist felt insulted by the grossly low page rates. Adams confirms, “I didn’t feel that I had a career at DC. DC Comics was paying 50 dollars a page, maybe 55 dollars a page, and I was working for advertising agencies, for the most part, in between doing comic book pages, and making something in the area of two hundred dollars a frame, a single frame. Anybody working in comics was practically throwing their life away.” Adams became a principal figure in the public successful pressuring of Warner Brothers, the owners of DC Comics, into doing the right thing for Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, the penniless Superman creators, which resulted in DC restoring their bylines and providing each with a steady annuity for the rest of their lives. For Adams, the 1975–76 incident brought to light how out of touch and uncivil things remained in the comics industry. “I was in a battle with Warners,” remembers the artist. “I don’t know why they argued with me. I only asked for, and got, finally, in the end, the salary of a good secretary in those days for [Siegel and Shuster], and I insisted that in our discussions and our debates that all that was really necessary was to just treat them like human beings. Why they fought with me, I do not know. But while that was going on, Jerry Siegel unselfishly told me, as president of the Academy of Comic Book Arts [an organization for comic professionals during the 1970s], that I should be in Congress representing our business and fighting against the insertion of the work-made-forhire provision of the new copyright law. I, in response to that, was, ‘Huh? What? I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m busy right now, fighting a big fight.’ Stupid of me. I probably should have done that. “And so the new copyright law of 1978 has the workmade-for-hire provision in the law, probably the dumbest and most outrageous and nearly slave-minded addition to a book-length law encapsulated in two small sentences. I’m only paraphrasing because I didn’t memorize it. The first sentence is, ‘If you make a contribution to a larger 121

Bionic Man, Emergency! © Universa

Neal Adams and Charlton Comics l Studios

(as told by Carl Potts)

When I moved to New York to break into comics, I was asked to join Continuity Associates, then a partnership between Neal Adams and Dick Giordano. Continuity was beginning to package black-and-white magazine comics for Charlton. The three titles were based on TV series at the time: Six Million Dollar Man, Space: 1999, and Emergency! Each title contained several stories. The original idea was to have one of the young/new artists pencil each story. Soon, however, deadline concerns often necessitated having more than one person penciling a story. Some of the penciling work was done by established pros who worked outside of the Continuity offices. Of those working at Continuity, the main pencilers were Joe Brozowski (a.k.a. J. J. Birch), Joe Barney, Mark Rice, John Fuller, and me. This was the general methodology: • The penciler read the script and drew thumbnails, four comics pages to one page of 8 ½" X 11" paper (folded into quarters, each quarter providing the space for a story page’s thumbnails. • Neal would go over the thumbnails, using a felt pen to make changes and corrections. Often, he ignored what the penciler had done and redrew parts or, sometimes, the entire page. He did this with the felt pen without doing any preliminary work in pencil. • There were several large Art-O-Graph opaque projectors in a room at Continuity. The pencilers took the revised/approved thumbnails and, using the Art-O-Graph, projected the preliminary art onto full-sized art board, tracing off the images. We then tightened the pencils and handed them in for approval. • After any revisions had been made, a variety of people inked the pages. Major figures and foregrounds were usually inked by Dick Giordano. Neal Adams, Russ Heath, and others also did some of this work. Backgrounds and secondary figures were usually inked by Terry Austin and Bob Wiacek. Joe Rubinstein also worked on the books, I believe. Adhesive Zipatone film was applied by a variety of people. I believe Rick Bryant did a lot of the Zips. Many other artists contributed to the Charlton comics. Those visiting New York and Continuity often pitched in. I worked on all three titles, penciling and doing some background inks and Zips.

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work, you may be considered work made for hire.’ Sort of to editor Julius Schwartz, the artist set his sights elsewhere. like if you wrote one science-fiction book out of a publish- Even in the early 1980s, Adams stood true to his word when ing company’s 17 science-fiction books, that could be con- he refused to draw the X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills graphic sidered to be a contribution to a larger work. novel because Marvel could not amend a suitable contract “The second sentence is, ‘If you’re willing to sign a piece (outside of their standard work-for-hire one) for him. of paper that says you’re work-made-for-hire, or employed Adams states, “I quit DC Comics, and I wrote a public for hire, then you may be considered letter to everybody saying, ‘I am on an employee for hire.’ Oh, really? You strike because of the work-mademean if you hold a gun to my head and for-hire provision of the law.’ Except say, ‘This is the only contract I’m giving that I had agreed to do Superman you,’ and I sign it, that means I’m work Vs. Muhammad Ali. Ba da bump. for hire? Excuse me? Is that fair? I don’t After that job was done … I said, think it is. Because, in fact, there are ‘I no longer intend to work for DC only two conditions for employment, as Comics,’ and Julie Schwartz called I understand it, in the civilized world. me personally and he said, ‘Neal, It’s called either being an employee or you promised me four covers. That a freelance contractor. There’s no such has nothing to do with your strike. thing as a ‘work made for hire.’ This has to do with your promise to “Well, I didn’t go to Congress, and me to do four covers for me, and I’m apparently some encyclopedia salesman going to hold you to that.’ I did do said—this is maybe an apocryphal story. those four covers for Julie Schwartz I am told that an encyclopedia publisher because he was correct. I did in fact said, ‘I don’t want to give a seven-page promise to do covers for him, but contract to a guy who writes one paraafter that point I was on strike. graph for me. This is ridiculous. We So I didn’t stop because I had have to come up with some solution reached the pinnacle of my career for me.’ To which I would have said, by doing Superman Vs. Muhamhad I been there, ‘Make a goddamned mad Ali. Though, indeed, I basically copy of it, you stupid mother****er, stopped working for comics, and I and give it to him, because he is a started working for advertising and freelance contractor, and you’re trying other things. Since that didn’t work, I to destroy the law!’ But I didn’t, and I then did some comics; I did work for didn’t get to go, and guess what? We Pacific Comics. They went bankrupt have a law now that takes advantage owing me 40, 60, 70,000 dollars, and of all freelance contractors because it I decided, ‘Huh. I can’t afford this loss. implies, for some reason, that they Why don’t I publish this stuff?’ And are not freelance contracts in which that’s how I became a publisher.” they can fight for their contracts. Adams focused his time and energies They are work made for hire, which on his Continuity Studios, an adveris the most outrageous thing you can tising studio originally modeled on be, because there is no such thing.” the Johnstone and Cushing template, The new work-for-hire agreewhich he co-founded with fellow comics ment, which became the industry legend and pal Dick Giordano as Contistandard, was the point-of-nonuity Associates. Continuity provides all return for Neal Adams. He refused manner of specialized artwork in all sorts to sign any document that demon- Two of Neal Adams’ last covers for DC for of styles and mediums for their clientele: many years. strated so little respect for creators advertising art, conceptual art, specialSuperman © DC Comics and the creative process. The new ized comics, storyboards, etc. He opened contract made it abundantly clear to creators that their work his doors and employed other comic artists over the years, would belong to the company (with no room for argument and enlightened a multitude of young artists seeking unsolicor incentives), and no one could work for them without ited art reviews by offering practical advice and tough love by signing it. Once he completed Superman Vs. Muhammad always telling it as it is. Via Continuity Comics, from 1984 Ali and a number of DC covers he had already promised to 1994, the energetic studio head found time to publish his 123

Page from a 1976 twelve-page booklet DC produced in conjunction with Nutra-Child Vitamins, Inc., and two pages from the five-page story included with the 1974 Aurora Tarzan model kit. Aquaman, Batgirl, Batman, Robin, Wonder Woman © DC Comics. Tarzan © ERB, Inc.

own brand of comics featuring his own characters, such as Ms. Mystic. Over time, he did sporadically illustrate covers for the Big Two, but it’s only recently that he has taken on creating new stories—Batman: Odyssey and The First X-Men for instance— now that the industry has become more accommodating. Unbeknownst to many professionals today are the contributions and sacrifices this one artist made for their livelihoods. Without Adams taking a stand, professional comic book artists would have lost out on lucrative incentives such as the return of original art, domestic and foreign book royalties, and competitive page rates. Not only did he elevate the overall quality of comics in terms of art, but his imposing figure improved the quality of life for the entire freelance community itself. Neal Adams held the powers-that-be accountable for their cold actions and penny-pinching, and helped make fairer treatment of working professionals the standard. When it comes to comics, Adams is still a man who wears his heart on his sleeve, whose method of leadership is by example. His timeless art forever conveys excitement and connects with people of all ages all over the world. For this hard-traveling hero, his notoriety, good fortune, and influence in the field of comics remain a badge of honor that he rightly and proudly wears wherever he goes. The confident legend notes, “If I didn’t understand it, there are people today who tell me. [laughs] Every convention that I go to, people come up and talk about what an influence I had on their lives, in their careers, in their thinking, in their life goals. I don’t think I could have had more of an impact if I was the Beatles.” 124

NO STRINGS ATTACHED

All characters

THE ADVENT OF THE LIMITED SERIES

t DC Comics, it’s called a mini-series. At Marvel, it’s labeled a limited series. Regardless of their branding, they share the same idea: a short (mostly) self-contained comic book series, with a definite beginning and end. The boom of the limited series/mini-series coincides with a spike in comic specialty stores during the early ’80s. The economics and non-returnable basis of periodicals in the direct market gave comic book companies the financial wiggle room to try fresh ideas by showcasing underused and new characters; it also served as fertile soil for new and veteran creators to play. Readers gravitated towards these short-term affairs because they delivered complete stories and required relatively little investment. 1979’s World of Krypton, a three-issue series by Paul Kupperberg, Howard Chaykin, and Murphy Anderson, is widely acknowledged as the very first mini-series in comics. DC’s one and only Answer Man (a.k.a. “Gentleman” Bob Rozakis) recalls, “World of Krypton was going to

be a three-issue Showcase run initially, because they were still using Showcase in some cases for previews, and, in other cases, leaning more toward the self-contained threeissue story. I don’t recall the reason for the decision that Showcase no longer worked, but I think it probably had a lot to do with the direct market at that point, that you could do a new number one, and have it run only three issues, and then cancel it. I think the philosophy with the newsstand was if they were actually keeping track of the books and you kept coming out with new ones, they would eventually say, ‘We’re not going to carry your stuff because nothing lasts.’ That was the thinking back in 1956, when the Flash was relaunched in his own magazine, that it was #105 rather than #1, because it would look like the book had been around for a long time. “And then, if you look at a lot of the series after that, Green Lantern and the other series that came out of Showcase and Brave and the Bold, their first few issues don’t 125

have issue numbers on them because they didn’t want the newsstands to think, ‘Oh, this is a new title. I’ll just not put it out.’” Although a limited series could be anywhere from two issues to twelve issues, the ’80s standard for a limited series became the four-issue variety; the twelve-issue allotments were reserved for more epic fare. Intrinsically, a four-installment release felt right; it was short enough to be inviting, while being long enough to provide weight to the story. The success of the format demonstrated that audiences wanted self-contained fare with clarity and solid storytelling in an otherwise serial-minded industry. And the platform also proved it could be a great launching pad—see 1982’s Wolverine, 1984’s West Coast Avengers, etc.—for an ongoing monthly series. “There was definitely a collectors’ market out there that would buy number ones of anything, and the direct market certainly supported it,” says Rozakis [about the surge of limited series which led to the proliferation of #1 issues]. It wasn’t long before the publishers also noted that the accessibility of this shorter form was an ideal host for sweeping events like Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars and Crisis on the Infinite Earths. In 1982, the majestic Camelot 3000 broke bold ground both as DC’s first maxi-series (twelve issues) and as a title sold exclusively in direct markets, both pretty radical notions at the time. Writer Mike W. Barr explains, “The [limited series] venue already existed; if Camelot 3000 helped make it more popular, swell. I wasn’t sure that the public was clamoring for such work, but DC thought there might be such a need and acted to fill it. Sometimes people don’t know what they want until you give them something they never

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thought they’d want. Marvel already had a handful of titles published exclusively for the direct market, so DC finally responded with one after their one-shot Madame Xanadu special. But that was put together from stories commissioned for Code-approved titles. Camelot 3000 was written for the direct market from the first page of #1. “The direct-only format made Camelot 3000, as published, viable as a series. The story was always intended to have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Had the directonly format not been used, I don’t know if DC would ever have published a ‘maxi-series’, that is, a title that was not an ongoing series. And, of course, if the title had been published under the Comics Code Authority, the story would have had to undergo considerable revision. It was recommended by a research firm DC hired that Camelot 3000 be a regularly-published title, but it never would have been as good as an ongoing series.” The limited series/mini-series format still stands as a life force in the comics industry; it is an invaluable and inviting tool. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a better source of fun in comics today.

All characters © their respective owners

Cl assy CLASSIC THE UNTOLD STORY OF

THE

J USTICE

SOCIETY

hile all comics aim to please readers with entertaining stories, there are some books that have loftier goals of striving to present unprecedented epics of mindblowing proportions. DC Special #29 (1977), “The Untold Origin of the Justice Society,” is one of those rare books that succeeds in reaching the apex of juvenile delight. This out of the ordinary comic not only unveiled the baptism by fire that necessitated the Golden Age’s greatest heroes to team together as comics’ first inter-company superhero team, but also delivered an action-packed page-turner that might well be the team’s finest adventure.

Levitz, Staton, and Layton were already producing the adventures of the Justice Society (and the young Super Squad) in the pages of All-Star Comics when this special hit the stands, but despite its opening splash page, only the original members appeared in the story. Levitz would later gift Neal Adam’s original cover art to Jim Lee. All characters © DC Comics

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Staton’s bold cartooning style and larger than life characters evoke much of the qualities that make this tale so unforgettable. Layton’s accomplished inking over Staton’s pencils results in an impressive collaboration and provides us with a book full of dazzling art and crystal clear storytelling. Regarding his approach, Staton says, “Well, the Justice Society stuff … Wally Wood had been working on it. I loved his stuff, so I tried to pick up as much of his approach as I could, and since it was Earth 2, I wanted it to look different from the mainstream stuff—the normal stuff. I didn’t want it looking like Jack Kirby or Curt Swan, so I went for that Wally Wood look, and trying to pick up stuff from the ’40s as I went along. “For me, that one wasn’t hard, because I really, really love the ’40s characters. I loved Earth-2. I was into this whole alternate reality, so that was a good one for me. And like I say, I was young, and I thought I could do anything. ‘How many characters have you got thrown at me? I’ll draw them all, and I’ll put in thousands of Nazis, and Franklin Roosevelt, and the rest of the world, and it’ll be fine.’ I thought I could do anything, and that one actually worked out okay.” This one-shot wonder has everything a kid could want: heroic camaraderie, dastardly villains, deadly perils, a glorious Neal Adams cover, and so much more. For a team created in 1940’s All-Star Comics #3, the Justice Society did not show their age in this classic story—and you won’t need any other issues or crossovers to enjoy it. It’s a compelling and jovial experience from a time when the skies were the limit for where a comic book could take your imagination.

(below) Adolf Hitler wields the Spear of Destiny. (bottom) The Atom shows that size and power isn’t everything as he saves FDR’s life. All characters © DC Comics

In the tradition and scope of grand World War II adventure films like The Guns of Navarone and The Great Escape, writer Paul Levitz, with artists Joe Staton and Bob Layton, delivered in spades the never-told backstory of the Justice Society of America (JSA). The moxie it took to create this 34-page classic still lingers in the memories of beloved comics artist Joe Staton. He says, “There were a lot of locations. There was a lot of reference. We had plenty of stuff to look up, and Paul had to do a lot of reference to get all the history stuff. I had to look up bombers and artillery and stuff like that. Yeah, it was really a superhero war comic. It was throwing all the guys from the ’40s into World War II.” The story unfolds in 1940 during World War II when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt calls upon colorful new heroes to band together for the first time in order to aid England against a German invasion. Shockingly, in their debut scrimmage, the first three recruits (Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern) are defeated in Glasgow by the German forces and their mighty robot. Upon Dr. Fate witnessing these events in his mystic crystal, he too joins the cause, and recruits Hourman to the save the captured heroes from the clutches of Adolf Hitler and his newly acquired Spear of Destiny, with which he commands a deadly legion of Valkyries. As the plot thickens in Germany and England, the group takes shape when Fate invites Hawkman, Sandman, Spectre, and Atom to join the fray. When Hitler’s evil Valkyries and a deadly lone bomber plane proceed to bring the war to the shores of America, Superman emerges in truly spectacular fashion to help save the day and the life of President Roosevelt as the tenth and final recruit of the JSA. 128

ARTY ON ! P

THE ANNIVERSARY ISSUES

o one knew how to throw a party in comics better than the folks at DC Comics! That’s a fact, happy people. If you don’t believe me, I implore you to look at their magnificent milestone issues from the ’80s: The Brave and the Bold #200 (1983), The Legion of Super-Heroes #300 (1983), Detective Comics #526 (1983), Action Comics #544 (1983), Superman #400 (1984), Superboy #50 (1984), Batman #400 (1986), and all the rest of the anniversary issues during this decade. These benchmarks were full of special guest heroes and villains, but the roster of stellar talent that DC assembled for these festivities was truly unique. Luminaries such as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Arthur Adams, Frank Miller, Jim Steranko, Steve Ditko, Dave Gibbons, Brian Bolland, and more were the icing on the anniversary cake. In an era of the four-color printing process, DC also went out of their way to roll out a “fifth ink” unto the celebratory header: gold. It may not seem like a big deal now, after all the holograms, die-cuts, and 3-D covers of the early ’90s, but the special added touch made kids of the era cognizant that such feats of longevity are something to cherish. While extra-length comics may have been a scheduling nightmare for both the production and creative teams, these specials were perennial charttoppers in the days when adding content was the only gimmick readers wanted. Anniversaries should be celebrated, and DC truly gave their readers a reason to jump and shout for joy. Seriously, who doesn’t love double-sized or triple-sized comics? Who doesn’t love surprises and special guest-stars and special creative teams? And what better way is there to celebrate an anniversary than to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon reading a gigantic thriller alongside a tasty beverage and some favorite munchies. What a party!

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ou might think that comics and religion make strange bedfellows, but that isn’t really the case. In fact, religious book stores are full of dedicated comics material ready to teach scripture and morality to young readers. It’s also evidently good business, because publisher Spire Christian Comics sold millions of comics back in the ’70s, including a number of faith-driven books featuring Archie and his friends from Riverdale. What might come as a surprise to some is that Marvel Comics produced one of the most lavish religious comics of all time in their telling of St. Francis of Assisi’s life story. Released in 1980 and entitled Francis, Brother of the Universe, the book features the formidable writing talents of Jo Duffy alongside legendary Marvel artists John Buscema (on layouts) and Marie Severin (on fin- The project that kicked off a run of highly successful religious comics. ishes and coloring). The fruits of their © respective owners labor produced an epic. The genesis of this special project began when Father Roy to swiftly approve the project. When it came time to scribe M. Gasnick of the Franciscan order met with the Marvel the actual book—because Fr. Gasnick was not a pro comics Comics brass about developing a St. Francis comic book writer—Marvel turned to writer/editor Jo Duffy to do what to spread the good word of Francis through pop culture. she does best. About her involvement with the book, Jo Duffy says, “I Father’s Gasnick’s pitch evidently impressed Marvel enough am a Roman Catholic, and somebody, probably [Editor-inChief ] Jim Shooter, or [Marvel President] Jim Galton, or the pair of them, came to me and said, ‘We need somebody on our team who knows how to actually write a comic book doing it.’ Unlike with the Hostess ads, they recognized that to o do a 64-page comic book, you needed Marvel creators. They came to me—and Father Gasnick was kind enough to give

Saints

&Sinners W

hat happens when the most notorious Marvel villain of the ’80s encourages you do something immoral? Do you heed to his call to mischief? Do you betray the values and principles your parents have instilled within you? Are you strong enough to resist the temptation? In 1983, that was the moral crossroad that readers (and altar boys) had to face as they stared into the corner box of Amazing Spider-Man #250. A bargain of a deal at a mere 60 cents, Amazing Spider-Man #250 was not a hard sell since the issue featured an eagerly awaited showdown between the webbed hero and the Hobgoblin, all delivered in true epic fashion by beloved Spidey writer Roger Stern and popular artists John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson. And the cherry on the top was the unforgettable sight of the Hobgoblin with his twisted sense of humor, joining the jubilation, proclaiming, “It’s great! Steal it!” Danny Fingeroth, the editor of this classic issue, says, “Once we decided to go with the Hobgoblin head—which in retrospect seems a little odd to me since it was a landmark numbered issue—

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me at least ten different biographies of Francis of Assisi, all loved to have been the Pope’s biographer. And the message we of which I read. Then I took his outline, and the ten biog- got from his people was that he wanted his story done by the raphies, and turned it into the comic book form. And that’s same people who had done St. Francis. I did start working why he gets co-writing credit; he really launched the whole on the comic about His Holiness before the changing of the thing. Although he didn’t do any of the actual writing, it was guard. And after the Pope came Mother Theresa. As I said, the his baby. And the funny thing that happened is, right after Catholic comics had become perceived as a cash cow, and at it came out, somebody [realizing], that point I was out of it.” ‘We’ve got to keep in mind who The success of Francis, Brother our audience for this is,” bound a of the Universe was followed up copy of it very nicely and gave it by Marvel with 1982’s The Life to John Paul II, who had only just of Pope John Paul II and Mother been invested as the Pope. And Teresa of Calcutta, each of these [the Pope] sent a messenger back one-shot titles was printed in within a half-hour saying, basically, high volume and translated into ‘Ooh-ooh, please do me next.’ other languages. But the wonder“There never was a note. His ful story of St. Francis and its topHoliness said it, and the mesnotch creative team made Marsage was repeated back to us. Jim vel’s first religious effort the finest Shooter and Mike Hobson told of all three uplifting books… me. But something very sad from maybe even one of the best relimy standpoint happened along gious comics ever printed. there, which was, between when About veteran artists John Buswe did St. Francis and when the cema and Marie Severin’s involveidea of doing the Pope came along, ment on this book, Duffy says, the royalty program was intro“As far as I know, John would duced. Meaning the writer and have done it regardless, because, artist would be paid a percentage God, he was a wonderful profesof the sales, as well as their regular sional. But being able to do somepage rate. And the audience for the thing that had to do with your religious comics was potentially religion I think is pretty appealing any literate Roman Catholic on to some people, so having Marie the planet. And, as a result, with Marvel’s efforts earned the Pope’s blessing. Severin on there—having her on the potential to make a great deal © respective owners the ongoing comic books, also—was of money now a consideration, a great blessing and made a ton of suddenly I went from the only person who would touch that sense. John did such an insane, incredible job, and he was job with a ten-foot pole to probably last in consideration for always one of my favorites to work with anyway, so from it. Although they got excellent, excellent writers for the next first to last, that was such a fantastic project for me. Not to two Catholic comic books, I still feel kind of miffed, because mention, and this is no small thing, it completely redeemed I broke that ground with the first one, and I would so have me in the eyes of my mommy.” it seemed that he should say something. Then-Editor-inChief Jim Shooter used to refer to ads that didn’t really give you a reason to buy the thing advertised, especially a comic, as ‘It’s great! Buy it!’ ads. In other words, it’s assumed if something is being advertised, the advertiser wants you to think it’s great. It’s almost always better to have some reason stated or implied why it’s great and that you should buy it. As I recall, the copy for the Marvel house ad for the first issue of the toy-based comic Crystar: Crystal Warrior was done as the ultimate in-joke, ‘It’s Great! Buy It!’ “Since it was the Hobgoblin, it seemed natural he’d say something snarky. This brought to my mind Abbie Hoff-

man’s 1970 book, Steal This Book. Combining that with ‘It’s great! Buy it!’ just sort of automatically happened in my brain, and ‘It’s great! Steal it!’ was the result. It’s to Shooter’s and the company’s credit that the cover was allowed to be printed with that gag on it. Jim and I discussed it, but not at any great length. How it affected sales, and/or shoplifting, of the issue, I couldn’t say. Most people who mentioned it thought it was amusing, but I can’t say it generated a lot of discussion. Imagining myself as someone perusing the titles on display at a comics shop or newsstand, I would think it would have made me at the very least look at the comic and consider buying it, if I hadn’t already decided to do so.” 131 131

THE

SPACEKNIGHT RISES T he highly successful comic adaptation of the original Star Wars film and its inevitable ongoing series steered Marvel Comics away from the financial abyss in the late ’70s. Searching high and low for the next big thing, the House of Ideas aggressively courted entertainment and toy companies in the hopes of striking gold with other potential cash cows. One by one, Marvel unleashed them into the world: Shogun Warriors, Godzilla, and Star Trek, among others. And one by one, these new titles gradually succumbed to the axe of cancellation as their readerships dwindled. But a funny thing happened on the way to the ’80s, a real contender with staying power and fan appeal emerged in the character of Rom, the greatest of the Spaceknights. Rom started life as a single electronic toy conceived by Lawrence “Bing” McCoy for Parker Brothers, one of the earliest toy forays for the company best known for board games like Monopoly and Clue. The 9-volt powered 12-inch plaything was ahead of its time with his realistic breathing sounds, bright LED eyes, and three futuristic accessories (Neutralizer, Analyzer, and Universal Translator). Not a part of any toy line or an overburdened franchise, Rom was a toy without a concrete backstory until Marvel and Parker Brothers reached an agreement to unleash a comic book series to support the toy. After its launch and a disheartening Time magazine review in the holiday season of 1979, the spaceman doll crashed and burned when he underperformed in retail outlets. While the toy was quickly forgotten, the comic series wasn’t. Amongst Marvel editorial, the majority of licensed comics were despised projects branded as second-rate assignments in spite of the fact that children enjoyed seeing the expanded adventures of their favorite movies, television shows, and movies. Fortunately, editor Jo Duffy didn’t subscribe to that notion; she became Marvel’s go-to editor on many of these fondly remembered adaptations and expansions. Duffy states, “I got involved in a bunch of them, because I approached each one as if it was going to be Spider-Man. You never knew when something was going to be incredibly great in spite of being licensed, and I wrote some of them along the way, as well as edited a few. And some people felt that if it wasn’t a superhero in the Marvel Universe, it wasn’t worth doing. I did not feel that way. I felt that there were great stories to be found in other projects and in other media, and if we could bring them over to Marvel, then yay, us!” With the Marvel and Parker Brothers arrangement finalized, the House of Ideas assigned the editing duties to Ms. Duffy, and the writing chores to the prolific Bill Mantlo, a veteran of other licensed fair like Micronauts, Man from

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Frank Miller and Joe Rubinstein’s cover for Rom #1. Rom © Hasbro, Inc.

Atlantis, and Battlestar Galactica. Since everything with Rom was a blank slate, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter, Mantlo, and Duffy constructed and mapped out a story of the toy in a brainstorming session. Duffy says, “He was called Rom because he had a readonly memory, and this was a big thing. This was before things like a CD-ROM drive. Everybody thought it was so clever to name the toy after the computer chip that made him work. And I’ve got to say, the elements of Rom’s backstory that got too close to the Silver Surfer may have been Bill’s, some of it. Jim contributed a lot of the angst and the drama, and the thing I remember I contributed was keeping Bill on track a bit, because he kept wanting sympathy for the Dire Wraiths, and I was like, ‘No, no, no. If you make your villain sympathetic, your hero becomes unsympathetic.’ But he saw them as a persecuted underclass. It took a while to get, ‘No, no, no. These are not the refugees.

Photo © Greg Preston. Rom © Hasbro, Inc..

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(above) Many Rom readers were drawn into the series because of Michael Golden’s outstanding run of covers (issues #7–12). (below) Brandy and ol’ Toaster Head dream the impossible dream in the original artwork of Steve Ditko and P. Craig Russell. Rom © Hasbro, Inc.

These are, in fact, the Nazis. The Dire Wraiths are Hitler. They are not the people Hitler is oppressing, because if they are, we are Hitler.’” Alongside artist Sal Buscema smoothly handling the pencils and inks of the book, Rom #1 sets the course for the entire 75-issue run of the series. Traveling across the cosmos from his home planet, Galador, Rom arrives on Earth in hot pursuit of the Dire Wraiths, an evil race of powerful shape-shifting aliens from Wraithworld. And on his way to hunting down his sworn enemies, the Spaceknight befriends the human Brandy Clark and, over time, other Marvel characters—a key component to the character’s enduring popularity was his and the Dire Wraiths’ integration into Marvel’s superhero continuity. Bill Mantlo would write the entirety of the series, with Buscema and Steve Ditko (Spider-Man’s co-creator) serving as his two principle artists on Rom. “My other contribution was giving Brandy a boyfriend [Steve] who was not a complete jerk,” states Duffy. “If her boyfriend is the usual tool, then of course she’s going to prefer the alien [Rom]. But if her boyfriend is a really nice guy, then there are legitimate grounds for concern if she still prefers the alien. So, we worked on it on that level. 134

Bill was a great choice to write it, and he did an amazing job, and, of course, stayed with it years after I was gone. But the only people I really remember being in the room when we discussed plot fundamentals were Jim, Bill, and I. And once the thing was launched, Jim stepped back, and once it was rolling, I stepped back except for editing Bill’s work.

It was Bill’s baby. The concept was all of us. I have a feeling Roger Stern was probably in there, because he’s such an invaluable creative mind, and because he was on staff at the time, he [probably] sat in. We all sat in a lot on things like this for each other, but the main thrust of the book I recall being Jim Shooter, Bill Mantlo, and myself.”

The N ext Big ( a n d Ti ny ) ThingS... (or not)

(above) The Shogun Warriors toy line lasted four years in the US, as did the Micronauts line. Photo by Alex Ross. (below) A Herb Trimpe/Al Milgrom cover for Shogun Wariors #1, and two Michael Golden Micronauts covers. Shogun Warriors © Mattel, Inc. Micronauts © Takara.

he Shogun Warriors was a toy line put together by Mattel in 1976 from a pool of giant Japanese robots featured in various Japanese anime and tokusatsu shows. Marvel received the license to three characters of the dozen-plus lineup—Raydeen, Combatra, and Dangard Ace—to create the Shogun Warriors comic book. The short-lived Marvel book (1978–80) helmed by writer Doug Moench and artist Herb Trimpe featured a Marvel-based (and more American) storyline for the characters. Interestingly, the series ended at virtually the same time as Mattel’s grand experiment. The die-cast metal toys, with their plastic missiles/rockets and small loose parts, outraged parents who considered them unsafe for young children, which resulted in new stricter regulations and a drop in sales. Micronauts (1978–84) was a Marvel series constructed from a Mego toy line. This cult title is best remembered as a showcase for penciler Michael Golden’s inventive brand of cartooning (pencils only: #1; covers and pencils: #2–12; covers only: #13–24, 59). Alongside writer Bill Mantlo and inker Joe Rubinstein, Golden mesmerized readers with the perils of these tiny heroes and their inner space adventures against the wicked Baron Karza. Golden’s work on this series influenced a multitude of comic creators, including greats like Arthur Adams and Todd McFarlane. Adams explained, “Something about [Micronauts] just blew me away. This was the book that made me say, ‘Yeah, this is what I’m going to do for my career, for the rest of my life. I’m going to find a way to draw comic books, man.’”

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SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT: FIRESTORM T H E G E N E S I S OF

(as told by Gerry Conway)

irst of all, my confession for Firestorm was I didn’t feel like DC had a standalone teen hero that could compare with anything that Marvel had in the teen hero genre. They did have Teen Titans, but Teen Titans was a group book. They did have Superboy. But Superboy was just a younger version of Superman. So I wanted to create a teen character. And the other aspect of it was kind of a challenge I made to myself, which was the archetypical teen hero is the alienated geek who gains incredible power and then basically shows everybody that he’s really cool after all. And I thought, “Well, what if, this time around, the guy who gets the powers isn’t the alienated geek, but the captain of the football team?” I started playing with the notion of why do these guys always have to be smart? Why do they have to rise to the occasion? Maybe they don’t rise to the occasion. Maybe they just sort of bumble along. So I

Firestorm, Justice League, and all related characters © DC Comics

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had this kind of subversive notion about it. Then, the other aspect of it was that Roy Thomas had always talked about how he liked Captain Marvel, and I never got it. [Firestorm is a creation of writer Gerry Conway with artist Allen Milgrom. The Nuclear Hero made his debut during 1978’s unfortunate DC Implosion incident as a short-lived series entitled Firestorm, The Nuclear Man. In the comics, the character originated in a nuclear accident that fused teenage Ronnie Raymond and nuclear physicist Martin Stein into one super-powered body—the generational differences between them made for an interesting odd couple. As the writer of Justice League of America, Conway made his unique hero a prominent member of the premiere team. During the early ’80s, the character’s surging popularity earned him a new comic book series, The Fury of Firestorm, and a roster spot on Saturday morning’s Super Powers: The Legendary Super Powers Show animated show.]

THE

HUM A N

FLY

Human Fly © Human Fly Spectaculars, Ltd.

ere you aware that the inspiration behind those old issues of Human Fly was a real-life daredevil? Behind the mask and red costume, the real Human Fly was Canadian Rick Rojatt, a constant showman who never appeared out of character in his death-defying feats and media outings. The phenomenon and his team designed their stunts to be even more outrageous than those of their rival Evel Knievel, the top dog of the stuntman circuit. Fly’s most insane stunt was the time he flew standing atop a Douglas DC-8 at 5000 feet. His final feat took place in 1977 when he jumped over 27 school buses and broke his ankle at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. In 1977, Marvel licensed the persona from Human Fly Spectaculars Ltd. to produce a series that lasted a brief 19 issues, but which outlived the actual stuntman’s exploits. Writer Bill Mantlo and a revolving team of Marvel artists (primarily Lee Elias and Frank Robbins) turned him into a superhero, granting him an immortality within the quarter bins he was unable to achieve through his exploits.

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ICON

JOHN BUSCEMA

f the walls at Marvel Comics could talk, they would happily admit that the company would not be where it is today without the artistic gifts and prowess of four cornerstones: Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Romita, and John Buscema, the man who wrote the book (with co-writer Stan Lee) on How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way in 1978. Born in 1927, the Brooklyn-born John Natale Buscema was an artistic wunderkind enamored with drawing and the illustration of the old masters. He broke into the still primitive comics industry in 1948, and steadily worked for a multitude of publishers through the ’50s before succumbing to the grim financial realities of an industry in freefall. The ambitious illustrator entered the field of commercial art and advertising where he acquired a whole new set of techniques to add to his repertoire. While his early comics work may have been invisible to most, it was not so to Stan Lee, the editor who gave Buscema his first staff position back in ’48. Naturally the craftsman had reservations about reentering the comics field, but in 1966 a surging Marvel Comics pleaded with him to come back, and the allure of working at home ultimately sealed the deal. Not having kept up with the comics scene during his absence, Buscema had to figure out how to give readers the dazzling storytelling to which they had grown accustomed at Marvel—but just how was he going to do that? “I learned everything about comics from the books that Jack [Kirby] did,” said the late “Big John” Buscema to this humble writer in 2000. “I devoured them. They were all so fabulous.” In Strange Tales #150, Buscema’s maiden voyage, Kirby set the story’s pace by breaking it down for Buscema to finish, so “the newbie” could get his feet wet and see his process up-close. After a short trial and error period on Tales to Astonish, the Brooklyn native began to grasp the dynamic tones of Kirby’s mythmaking work, and he used the King’s comics as a travel guide to how far his own stories could soar. By 1967, Buscema was ready, which he demonstrated with his exquisite line work on The Avengers (with writer Roy Thomas), his first signature series. “What really stood out about John Buscema to me was his figure work, and way with expressions,” recalls Jerry Ordway, an extraordi-

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(above) John Buscema, 1978. (next page) A 1975 Buscema poster. photo © Jackie Estrada

nary comic book artist in his own right. “I recall taking a chance on buying Avengers—a dollar only went so far in 1968—because of that great bickering shot between Hawkeye and Goliath on the splash page. I also noticed that he had both pencilled and inked the issue, and that it looked so much better than previous issues I had looked at and not purchased. That opened my eyes to his work, and made me realize how much the inkers could ruin his pencils. I became a huge Avengers fan, and followed John’s work after that, whether he inked it himself or not. Lucky for me, Tom Palmer became the inker, and they quickly became my favorite art team.”

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Two of John Buscema’s most iconic covers and a FOOM (Friends of Mighty Marvel) poster featuring a recolored version of Big John’s cover for Sub-Mariner #1. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Invisible no more, Buscema quickly rose to the upper echelon of the company’s most prolific and popular artists. Having successfully merged his flair for beautiful figure work with Kirby’s explosiveness, Big John had pushed the quality of Marvel’s artwork tenfold, bringing a touch of class to the affair. Often working on two or three titles in any given month, he proceeded to stints on Amazing Spider-Man and Sub-Mariner, while providing plenty of fill-in issues across the publishing line. Whatever was asked of him, he did. His second signature series was the acclaimed 1968 Silver Surfer with writer/editor Stan Lee. The title represented such a thematic and artistic benchmark for Marvel, the self-contained issues were given extended page counts and a higher price point at 25 cents when most comics sold for a mere twelve cents. On Surfer, Buscema desired to elevate his own storytelling away from the familiar Kirby-like layouts, and into something much more refined and true to his own sensibilities. Unfortunately, Stan Lee made some critical comments about these layouts which the artist took to heart, and which caused him to regress to the familiar Kirby playbook. The issue arose during the making of Silver Surfer #4, today considered a masterpiece, and ranked amongst the finest comic books ever published by Marvel. With his younger brother Sal embellishing his inspired pencils, John gave comic readers the stylish thrill of a lifetime in a classic that pitted the Silver Surfer against Thor that has yet to be surpassed in its artistry and bravado at the House of Ideas. 140

The book and its crisp cover are truly elegant works of contemporary art. But despite the title’s unbound imagination and starry hero, it did not find an audience, a fact that perplexed both creators. At the height of his influence and productivity in the 1970s and early 1980s, Buscema lost interest in superheroes and became a somewhat reluctant expert of the art form. As a creator, the thrill and satisfaction came purely from producing the artwork. Buscema really wanted to paint; comics became simply a medium in which he could channel his creativity into earning a livelihood. Regardless, he was a force of nature and Marvel’s prized ace in the hole, drawing practically every Marvel title at one time or another alongside his extensive runs on Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Mighty Thor. As a marquee name, Buscema became the only choice to draw major projects—1981’s Superman Vs. Spider-Man treasury; Francis, Brother of the Universe; and big movie adaptations like The Wizard of Oz and Raiders of the Lost Ark—or launch a new series—Amazing Adventures, Chamber of Darkness, Doc Savage, Epic Illustrated, Marvel Comics Presents, Marvel Comics Super Special, Monsters Unleashed, Ms. Marvel, Nova,

The pencil that launched 1,000 titles. Okay, it wasn’t quite that many, but it goes to show how important Buscema was to Marvel. Man from Atlantis © Solow Production Co. Tarzan © ERB, Inc. She-Hulk, Nova © Marvel Characters, Inc. Conan © Conan Properties International, LLC.

Rampaging Hulk, Savage Tales, Savage She-Hulk, Tales of the Zombie, Tarzan, and Wolverine. “John’s outward version of comics was that it was crap,” states John Romita, his friend and fellow Marvel colleague. “He used to tell us all, ‘It’s only comics. What are you worried about? Why are you wasting that panel?’ He’d come into my office and usually beat me down and tell me, ‘What’s the matter with you? What was wrong with that panel?’ ‘Well, I didn’t like it. I had the figure too big,’ or too small, or it was in the wrong place. And he said, ‘You’re crazy! It’s only a comic book! It’s crap! What are you worrying about?’ But the truth of the matter is, he used to say that out loud, but down deep, nobody could do the delicate, beautiful stuff he did and not really want to make it look right. The worst stuff he ever did was sensationally beautiful.” In 1973, Buscema began his long and hugely successful association with Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian. For Buscema, a fan of the source material, Conan was a windfall that became a great source of pride and enjoyment. With little interest in rendering superheroics, modern architecture, or automobiles, he was eager to explore his daring imagination and just draw beautiful vistas, women, and unrelenting savagery.

Buscema took on the penciling of the Conan the Barbarian comic series, The Savage Sword of Conan magazine, and even the Conan newspaper strip. By 1979, King Conan, the Cimmerian’s third monthly title, completed a working trifecta which kept the artist busy enough to step away from the superhero grind for several years. By the end of his career, he had rendered hundreds of seminal barbarian epics, and no other artist is more associated with the character than John Buscema— heck, the Schwarzenegger films were patterned after his vision. If the world-class artist ever felt dejected, you’d have a hard time seeing it in his beautiful, solid compositions. Although he learned to let go of his pencil art, Buscema preferred inking his own work when time and finances allowed it—moneywise, to himself and Marvel, he was far more valuable penciling stories and covers. And despite his gruff exterior and bluntness, those who knew him remember him as a good friend and reliable co-worker, one who always told it how it was. In other words, Buscema had all the right traits to be a great teacher. From 1975 to 1978, Buscema found the time to start a small workshop entitled the John Buscema Art School, where he taught students the art of creating comics. The 141

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way was (and remains) an incredibly successful and influential book. Buscema drew pencil sketches for the chapter title pages, such as this Sub-Mariner sketch (right) for chapter six. (below) A Buscema painted cover. Conan © Conan Properties International, LLC. All other characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

artist advertised his venture in the Marvel books themselves, and a handful of his pupils went on to become comics professionals. When Stan Lee visited the program as a guest lecturer, he was inspired enough to team up with his frequent artistic collaborator, and write How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way, published in 1978. A decade later, the perennial bestseller was adapted into an instructional video hosted by the authors. As an influence, Buscema captivated a legion of comic book artists who grew up with his remarkable works, such as Marc Silvestri, Joe Jusko, Claudio Castellini, and Stephanie Buscema, his very own granddaughter. Ms. Buscema recounts, “I was always in complete awe of my grandfather and the work he made. There are so many early memories of his work, and him at the drawing table in the studio—he was always in there. From seven in the morning until the evening, there was constant drawing in that studio. One of my fondest memories was sitting in the studio with him—I must have been about six or so. I specifically remember watching him draw lots of Wolverine around that time. We lived only a few houses down from my grandparents when I was growing up, so I was there after school almost every day. Watching him work left a huge impression on me, and I expressed to him how I wanted to be an artist, too. When he saw I was taking an interest, he put a little drawing table in his studio for me. 142

“His painting work is really what I tend to resonate [with]. He always spoke about how he wanted to be a painter and I think it really shows in his painted pieces. Out of his comic work, my personal favorite has to be his work on the Conan books. The work breathes life, especially the pencils he inked himself. I believe that out of all of his comic work over the years, Conan was his book and character.” With his legacy long assured, the visionary artist remained a bankable name at Marvel for more than thirty years, working steadily into the 1990s. And despite announcing his retirement in 1996, the distinguished ItalianAmerican continued spoiling his admirers by taking on various prestigious projects, including a handful at DC Comics, and commissions. During the years before his unfortunate passing in 2002, John Buscema took great pride in meeting admirers, but above all else, the nurturing teacher enjoyed talking shop and passing his unwavering appreciation for the rewarding splendor of art forward. “He always stressed the importance of a good work ethic… and delivering on time,” says Stephanie Buscema. “That was drilled into my head at a young age! The most important piece of advice he gave me was to make art every day. Even if you aren’t working on an assignment, create constantly.”

Big Conan jobs from Big John, and an inked sketch Buscema drew on the back of the original art for Conan #36, page 30. Conan © Conan Properties International, LLC. Red Sonja © Red Sonja, LLC.

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SAL BUSCEMA SAL BUS CEMA

ike his older brother John Buscema, Sal Buscema prefers to ink his own pencil work. And like his kin, the younger Brooklynite became an indispensable artist on the Marvel Comics roster. With his smooth storytelling and ever so dependable professionalism, the affable Sal hands-down became the company’s most prolific artist by the mid-1970s. “In ’76, I guess I’d been working for them for about eight years,” says Sal Buscema, “and [Marvel] kept me as busy as anybody could want to be. In general, I was very happy with my career at the time. I was enjoying what I was doing. It was the best of all worlds, as far as I was concerned, and I couldn’t have been happier. “I tell that to people today and they look at me like I’ve got three heads,” kids the comics creator. “But, yeah, there was a time when I was penciling and inking two books a month, and I think that would probably be unheard of today. But that’s just the nature of the beast, I suppose. I was blessed with speed, and I guess this is one of the reasons that Marvel kept me busy all the time, because of the fact that I was dependable. They had deadlines to meet. The books had to be sent to the printer at a certain time. Otherwise, it cost them a lot of money. I was one of the guys that they would go to, to solve that problem.” Buscema had a ton of memorable runs at Marvel: Incredible Hulk, Marvel Team-Up, Captain America, The Avengers, Thor, Spectacular Spider-Man, Rom, Fantastic Four, and so on. In any given month, readers could find the distinctive style of this driven artist on two regular monthlies, sometimes even a third title. Outside of Jack Kirby, this type of output was far from the norm. With top-notch results, he accomplished this by focusing on the job at hand with no looking back. A true professional, he didn’t play favorites among the many comics he was assigned. He gave his all to the stories no matter the job. Buscema comments, “There are so many books that I’m very, very proud of. I’m one of those individuals who’s never satisfied with what I did, but there were a few standouts, I guess.

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Did you know Sal Buscema is a painter as well as a great comic book artist? With this painting (above) he used himself as the model. And although Buscema drew 57 issues and one annual for Rom, this (left) is the only cover he drew for the series. Painting © Sal Buscema. Rom © Hasbro, Inc.

Maybe that first Rom issue, although it wasn’t done the way I wanted to do it. The first couple of pages I did them in a certain way, and because there was a disagreement between me and the writer, they decided to go with what he wanted, and I don’t think it was nearly as powerful, nearly as effective. But that’s just a question of opinion.” Interestingly, during the ’70s, despite being the perfect age to be

Buscema drew this Hulk origin for a poster that was used as part of a Coca-Cola promotional campaign. Hulk © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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Buscema drew more than 50 issues of Captain America, and well over 100 issues each of Spectacular Spider-Man and Sal’s favorite series Incredible Hulk. Buscema penciled and inked the Cap and Spidey covers here, while John Byrne inked Sal’s Hulk cover. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

a test audience for their dad’s work, Buscema’s sons weren’t exactly comic book fans. The artist answered, “No. [laughs] I wish! I was pretty much on my own. My wife was a big help to me. She was a good yardstick, and she helped me quite a bit, but the guys, I really can’t recall when they got that involved. Absolutely no interest. They went on to other things. All three of them are wonderful musicians today. One of them has played professionally quite a bit. They had some comic books.” In just about any Marvel book by the New York native, there was no shortage of the irresistible trademark Marvel energy that readers have come to expect. “If I didn’t [do that], Stan Lee would have fired me,” laughingly notes the great illustrator. “He was a stickler for that. He wanted you to put as much energy and power into every page as you possibly could muster. I think that’s what made Marvel so successful, because he gave us the freedom to do what we wanted. I realized that the artists were the ones who told the story, pictorially, and that’s why he came up with the idea of just giving us loose plots, just outlines of stories, and let us fill in the gaps. And it proved to be so successful that Marvel became far and away the number one comic book company in the world. I think, for a period of time there, that Marvel 146

was actually selling probably twice as many books as DC, which would have been our nearest competitor.” When the irreplaceable Jack Kirby left Marvel in 1970, it was up to artists like John Romita and the Buscema brothers to keep the King’s torch lit within the line. Along the way, whether they knew it at the time or not, these men stamped their imprint on Marvel’s history as well. It has rewarded them with admirers around the world, for these creators established much of the foundation on which Marvel’s current success stands. “I’m a company guy,” states Sal. “So I want to do what’s going to sell comic books. That’s what we’re in the business of doing. And I don’t know if it was a conscious effort on my part. First of all, let me say that every one of us, including both Johns, Romita and my brother, myself certainly included, and every guy who ever touched a comic book page in those days, we were all influenced in one way or another by Jack Kirby. And anybody that says that they weren’t, well, they’re not being honest. “In my opinion, [Kirby’s] the greatest comic book illustrator of all time. I mean, bar none. Absolutely. When you talk about energy and power and drama, he was phenomenal. He was just phenomenal. And also, insofar as creativity was concerned, he was untouched by anybody. It’s a shame, in some ways, that we got away from that, but I guess it’s considered passé today, you know?

“If you look at the books, you would still see the Kirby Marc that, frankly, I don’t mind admitting it, when I got influence. It just never went away. Today, I think it’s gone. I to the end of the story and Peter watches his friend die, I don’t look at comic books anymore, but if I happen to be in got very emotional about it. And I guess it was reflected in a bookstore that sells comic books and I happen to be pass- the pages, because when Marc got the last few pages of the ing by, I’ll pick one up just out of curiosity and leaf through story, he looked at the last two pages, which dealt specifiit, and I don’t see that influence at all. And I think that’s cally with Harry Osborn’s death, and he decided he didn’t maybe one of the reasons why the industry is not doing as want to write any dialogue for it. He said the pictures told well as it used to. That’s another story. That’s, I guess, food the story, and it didn’t need any dialogue. I said that to tell for thought and discussion. Speculation. Just my opinion.” you that, yeah, there were times when I was very involved, In the past, the men and woman who worked in comics emotionally and every other way, in the story—some more didn’t do it for the glory. They weren’t concerned about media than others, obviously. [Not all of them] grab you by the headlines, mass adulation, and the Hollywood razzle-dazzle. throat right away, but a lot of them certainly did.” To the general public of yesteryear, the “funny books” were kids’ stuff, disposable entertainment that everyone eventually outgrew. For these artists, the real glory was to use their exceptional artistic abilities to provide for their families. “At first, yes,” answers Sal about the aforementioned notion. “But then I began to see that the comic book industry was turning into something that was a lot more important than it was, say, in the ’40s, and maybe even into the ’50s. Look at what it’s evolved into. They make major motion pictures about these characters now, and, for my money, the movies that they produce today are a reflection of the books that we used to do 25, 30, 40 years ago. They’re not doing the movies the way they’re doing the books today. They’re as different as night and day. So I think that speaks volumes right there. “I may have [once] felt that this was something that was relatively unimportant. In the commercial art industry in general, if you were a comic book artist, you were part of a subculture. You were looked down upon, where it certainly is at a point now where that no longer exists. We’ve achieved a level of respect that did not exist 50 years ago. So there is that.” Every great artist puts a little bit of themselves into their work. Sal Buscema is no different than the rest of his peers in that department. “I’ll just give you a little anecdote,” tells the beloved figure. “When I was doing Spectacular Spider-Man #200 and [John] Marc DeMatteis was writing it—the book that dealt with the death of Harry Osborn—I got so emotionally involved in that particular story because No one penciled more Marvel Hostess ads than Sal Buscema. Inks by Joe Sinnott. it was such a beautifully done story by All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. 147

Por Amor “I

grew up in a house of comics,” states the celebrated comics creator Jaime Hernandez, “I was the fourth brother in line, so [my brothers] were already reading comics, collecting comics by the time I came up. They were just there, so of course I loved them. We grew up different from a lot of people in that I thought comics were normal.” In the Hernandez’ Oxnard, California home, comics were as common as air in an era when most American parents frowned upon them. The close-knit family’s admiration for the art form was a common bond that the six siblings—five brothers and one sister—enjoyed together.

GILBERT, JAIME, & MARIO

LOS HERMANOS

HERNANDEZ

but I do remember it. We read Marvel comics, DC comics, and Archie comics, anything that was comics, pretty much—except for romance comics. [laughs]” “In those days it wasn’t just superhero stuff,” affirms Jaime. “We had Marvel, DC, Archie comics, Dennis the Menace comics, things like that. Harvey Comics, Richie Rich, Hot Stuff, Little Dot, Herbie comics—there were all kinds. And I usually gravitated toward the ones that were drawn the best.” Mario remembers, “What was really cool was my mom liked it because she was a comic collector as a kid, so she

From left to right, Mario, Gilbert, and Jaime Hernandez. Photos by Jackie Estrada.

Of the children, the first to reach a fever pitch with comics was Mario, the eldest. The Number One Son recalls, “I remember going by my grocery store and seeing comics in the spinner rack, and my mother, to keep me quiet, bought me The Secret World of Private Strong. It was a Jack Kirby comic, and I’ve been hooked since then. I was about five years old, and as soon as I got old enough to read and knew what I was doing, I just started collecting comics, anything with Superman in it. Mario didn’t keep his fanatical enthusiasm to himself. The second oldest son Gilbert “Beto” Hernandez explains, “Well, I grew up in the ’60s, so I was lucky enough to enjoy what was coming up then. I remember the first Fantastic Four comic when it came out. Barely—I was a little kid— 148

saw these new heroes along with Superman and all that stuff she already knew about. She was already a comics geek in her own way, and we just kept buying books. I’ve got an addictive personality, so I became a completist, where I had to have every issue of everything. It ran the gamut of whatever interested us. Classics Illustrated—whatever looked cool to us. If the art looked good, I just went that way with it.” By the time the Marvel Age of comics rolled around in the ’60s, the Hernandezes had gone from admiring comics to rendering comics of their own. “First it was drawing,” tells Mario, “and then tracing comics, and then we’d pretty much make our own little [stories]. It was kind of a training ground, and the boys did hundreds [of them]. Gilbert always did Captain America, Superman, and stuff like that,

In the early issues of Love and Rockets, the Hernandez brothers incorporated all the genres they loved, including sci-fi, as seen in Gilbert’s back cover for issue #1, and superheroes, as seen in Jaime’s early ’80s sketch of Maggie as Go-Go Girl and page from Love and Rockets #3’s “Maggie Vs. Maniakk.” All characters © Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez respectively.

under the dubious title of ‘The Fabulous Two.’ That really rolls off the tongue. [laughs]” The passionate Hernandezes proved to be born storytellers. And like most creative young minds, they were observant and conscientious, absorbing everything they saw without knowing how those real life experiences would pay dividends later in their storytelling. “I didn’t do that so much when I was young,” says Gilbert. “I was just trying to copy the comic books that were coming out. But as I started to draw more and more, I found it more interesting to draw the way my friends and neighbors acted like and looked like. In my crude way, but it was just more personal to me to do it that way, because I couldn’t draw very well and I couldn’t copy very well what was in regular comics, so I just came up with my own way.” At the Hernandez household, creating comics was a way to both express and amuse themselves. They drew together, and together they learned the craft. “Originally it was just something to do,” says Gilbert. “My older brother [Mario], he’s four years older than me, and he was drawing a Superman comic one day, and I thought, ‘I should try that.’ I had my own little spaceman comics. Very crude for a five-year-old, but it just seemed like fun to me. It seemed like a lot of work, but a lot of fun.” Like Beto, Jaime’s earliest comics influences were also family. “It was already being done by my brothers,” explains Jaime, “so I just copied what they did. [laughs] They drew, so I drew… and I found out I liked drawing. I liked to make up comics. At first we were doing Batman comics and things like that, but after a while we started creating our own characters. And as crude as they were, they were still our characters, and we held onto them like they were real. “The cool thing about being a kid, which I try to use now, is that a kid has no rules, so the comics I was doing may not have made sense in the big picture for other people, but to me it was just storytelling, and that’s how I learned. I didn’t follow the rules that I was supposed to. I didn’t look at comics to say, ‘This is how it’s done.’ It was my version of it.” The young brothers gravitated to any artwork and styles that called out to them. Always with an open mind—humor, horror, superheroes—the boys found something to admire in virtually every genre. Oftentimes, they didn’t even know the names of their favorite creators—many of them working uncredited in that era—but the astute Hernandez clan became savvy at distinguishing the differences in the lines, inks, and drawing quirks of their unsung heroes. 149

Gilbert remembers, “I would gravitate toward, I don’t publishers. I was out of high school, had no future, that know… Jack Kirby’s Marvel comics. But a lot of them kind of thing. [laughs] And we got into the punk scene, and were kids’ comics, especially Archie comics and Dennis the the music took over. I was still doing my comics, but [the Menace comics. I gravitated toward the art on those because music] was the exciting part of my life at that time. And so I liked the way they told the stories.” the punk stuff started to get into my comics. My characters “I liked the Fantastic Four,” says Jaime. “I thought [that started to cut their hair and wear straight-leg pants and stuff was] the best superhero comic. I liked the Archie comics, like that.” but I didn’t know who the artists were for a long time. I “In my case,” says Gilbert, “I didn’t dislike [mainstream learned about Dan DeCarlo [in the] late ’60s, early ’70s, comics]; I just didn’t have anything to say. And I didn’t care but my favorite artist, Harry Lucey, I didn’t know who to pursue what was going on with superheroes after a while. he was until the ’80s. And Warren Kremer, who did the I was more interested in high school, in rock and roll music, Harvey stuff, I didn’t know him until about five years ago.” girls, partying, and that kind of thing, but I still liked comics. The dream of having careers of their own in the comics They just weren’t in the forefront. It wasn’t until later on, industry began with Mario. “When I was a teenager,” says after I got burned out on the partying and all that stuff that I the oldest of the brothers, “I kept thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, one thought I would put more of what I was into in high school of these days, we’re gonna save DC. We’re gonna come in, into [my] comics than what was already in comics.” and we’re gonna take over and make everything better.’ [laughs] Because the comics were starting to change around the time the Batman TV show came on. They started getting sillier. Not that they weren’t silly before, but it just seemed like they went in a different direction that drove me to Marvel, and I just stuck with that for a while until that ran its course for me.” Gilbert and Jaime never seriously entertained the notion of working for Marvel or DC. They needed to find their own way. “I didn’t really want to continue with what they were doing, because other people were already doing it, so I gravitated toward self-expression,” says Gilbert. As they got older, Mario A panel from the original art of Jaime’s first Locas story in Love and Rockets #1. became more interested in Locas © Jaime Hernandez “girls, driving around, and just hanging out”—in other words, being a teenager—than in Music made a permanent impression on the Hernandez being the savior of the comic book industry. And while Gil- brothers; it became their obsession in the ’70s. “They were bert and Jaime began to feel some of that burn-out, neither the exact right age, but I was a little older,” says Mario, were truly done with comics. “I would say types of comics,” “I was a headbanger. I was a heavy metal guy, hard rock, stresses Jaime. “By the early ’70s, there were just certain you name it. That’s all I was buying. And then punk comes kinds of comics that I wasn’t into. Like, I wasn’t into the along, and it’s faster, it’s quicker, and it just entertained the ’70s Marvel. After Kirby and Ditko left, I wasn’t charmed hell out of me, man. But [Gilbert and Jaime] could adopt by them. the look because they were at that age where they could get “What was interesting me [in the late ’70s] was doing Mohawks. I was a lot older. I looked like Freddie Prinze my own comics. Gilbert and I were trying to break into back in the day.” fanzines, because we didn’t think we could be professionThe allure of making music is the immediacy in the way als. So we were sending single illos to different small-time the audience feeds off the songs and the performance of 150

MARIO HERNANDEZ: HERMANO MAYOR Big Brother Mario was an invisible force in the early issues of Love and Rockets. He often provided a little help to Jaime and Gilbert behind the scenes, including writing the first Errata Stigmata story (with Gilbert). Mario also illustrated a number of back covers and contributed a whole story entitled “Somewhere in California” in issue #2. “I was kind of full of myself,” says Mario. “Everything was an epic to me. We had a manifesto of sorts for Love and Rockets, what it was going to be. It was mostly Gilbert. He goes, ‘We’re just gonna put out stuff that’s not influenced by anybody. The fans, if they write and say, ‘We want this,’ we won’t do that. We’re just gonna surprise them every time.’ We were all like, ‘Yeah! We’re going to give them comics our way!’ I don’t know. I’m a big fan of screwball comedies from the black-and-white days, and all these intermingling stories I found fascinating, so I just thought maybe I could do my own. I tried. I gave it a good shot.” He also tried his hand at inking both brothers, but the styles weren’t compatible. Mario remembers, “I was inking for both Gilbert and Jaime on ‘Space Stories,’ the early ‘Mechanics,’ and they didn’t really like it. [laughs] They didn’t like my inking, so I stepped back. But Gilbert trusted me to write stories when he’d kind of run dry, so I’ve been able to work with him pretty easily. Jaime’s pretty much set on his universe, and he doesn’t like to get away from it. He’ll take suggestions or maybe just a quick look at his stuff and you can critique it, but it’s always his. It’s z nde rna He solidly him, and what you see is right out of his gut.” rio Ma © here in California

Somew

a band. Gilbert admits, “The perks and the rewards for playing in a band are so much richer. Because, with a comic book, you’re home, you finish it, it gets published, and maybe, if you’re lucky, you get a signing and you talk to people. With a band, if you keep playing and you get good enough, people want to buy you beers, and girls want to meet you.” But within the hypercompetitive atmosphere of a band, Gilbert discovered that playing music came with a catch: every bandmate wanted their contributions heard. He could never have a purity of vision within a group setting. “[Music’s] more of a democracy,” confesses Beto, “you deal with other musicians who have completely different personalities; it’s a different thing. And that’s probably why I didn’t stick with music, because I was really into doing my comics and [saying] what I wanted to say, and in music it’s more of a broad type of entertainment. You want to please everybody in the room.” The punk scene in Southern California made Gilbert and Jaime more restless than ever, reawakening their natural urges to find artistic ways to channel their ideas and excitement. With punk’s “anything goes” attitude, they infused the raw energy of their music—along with their life experiences—into the intimate setting of comics. Jaime says, “I grew up in low rider culture, and I thought those stories were fun stories. I had a backlog of ideas because my life was so different from what comics and the media were giving you. Very few people knew about real Southern California life at the time. ‘I’ve got Maggie © Jaime Hernandez all these ideas. It would be cool to do a story about guys hanging out and getting drunk.’ Just stuff like that. And we had nowhere to do it, because we knew we couldn’t do it in a Marvel comic. We couldn’t go to someone else to do it. And that’s how Love and Rockets eventually came about.’” 151

Illo for the cover of Lone Star Express #123 (1983), and the self-published Love and Rockets #1. Love & Rockets © Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez

By this time, Mario had set aside his artistic ambitions to focus on his family. “I was a working guy, and I was married,” explains Mario. “I got married and just settled down. And then these guys, as they grew older, in their late teen years, their art style, because of drawing so much, started to look like the polished stuff that they do now. It was a cool transition, and that’s what inspired me to say, ‘Wow. The art has become this whole different thing, so let’s do a funny book.’” It was the perceptive Mario who roused his younger brothers and encouraged them to make their very own book. He was a true believer in the talent within Gilbert and Jaime, and helped finance their one and only self-published Love and Rockets #1 in 1981. With pride, the three brothers printed and collated all 800 copies of their blackand-white ’zine themselves. At a cover price of a dollar, the book was everything they wanted: a comic without a net that uniquely reflected everything they were about. “We had done barbarian comics,” states Mario, “and we had done, just for ourselves, space comics, early Star Wars-y type of stuff. By the time Love and Rockets came around, they [still] had a little bit of the space thing, and action/adventure and stuff like that, but I could see that their ideas were going in a different direction that nobody seemed to be doing.” Los Bros. Hernandez now had an arena in which to present all the stories from their imagination with their refreshing perspective. The enthusiasm for their first printed effort ensured that this adventure was not only a pleasant one, but far from their last. “It happened quickly,” recalls Gilbert about the ’zine. “We were playing in local bands, and that was just more real to us than doing superheroes. It was 152

never a decision; it was just more of a natural progression of where we were at the time. “There were a lot of funny stories from high school, a lot of funny stories from when you’d go to a club and see bad punk bands. It was also funny to talk about the way that our friends and [other] people acted. I didn’t see any problem putting that into comic books, because we’d seen that they, in the late ’60s, had done that with underground comics, so I figured we could just be ourselves and tell those kinds of stories.” As if the ’zine needed further justification, the longtime comics fan within Mario was thrilled in particular by the exceptional growth of Jaime’s drawing and storytelling abilities, and instinctively understood that his younger brother was a real comics prodigy. Mario recalls, “I saw Jaime’s art had gone from middle range fandom to good fandom art to this real polished look that he has now, and it just blew me away. It hit me from left field. I was like, ‘What? You’ve gotten this good? Let’s print our own little comic book and see if we can sell it through the mail or something,’ because they had these fan books like Rocket’s Blast Comicollector, where you could put an ad in there for 50 cents and you could sell your comics through the mail, so we started doing that.” Like any big-hearted big brother, Mario was an equally firm believer in Gilbert’s endeavors as well. The three brothers used their lifetime of comic book savviness to make this publishing effort happen. “The world had to see it,” proclaims Mario. “It was this thing like we can’t waste time trying to go to DC [or Marvel] because they weren’t doing anything that was very interesting. It was all still slopping out the old superhero stuff, and we were beyond that…. Underground comics

Pages from Gilbert’s “BEM” (left) and Jaime’s “How to Kill A by Isabel Ruebens” from Love and Rockets #1. BEM © Gilbert Hernandez. How to Kill A by Isabel Ruebens © Jaime Hernandez.

were a big influence because you could write about anything. And then, once we discovered Heavy Metal magazine, it was all over. It was like, ‘Oh, you can do anything. You don’t have to do superheroes.’ It just blew up from there. “Gilbert and I are closest in age, and we’re the closest brothers. I remember partying with him as a teenager, and he’s sitting there going, ‘You know what comics should be about man? They should be about people living in a village, like, in Mexico,’ and blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. And that’s what it became, eventually. He had these ideas in his head, even as a young kid. These guys were just full of all these ideas about what comics could be and should be.” Of course, there would be growing pains in a project as large and ambitious as the one the brothers were cooking up. But like self-taught musicians, the boys learned to break down their pages by establishing a rhythm in their sequential storytelling. Since so much of this project was instinctive, and they wanted this work to stand apart from everything else, they had to set the beat. It was a tall order. “I actually didn’t know,” says Gilbert regarding the ins and outs of making comics. “My brother and I simply have

a knack for creating characters and putting them in some situation that creates a story. There’s no real planning. Not consciously anyway. There were a lot of mistakes. Basically, finishing a story was the most challenging thing. [laughs] From beginning to end, just to finish it and not let it sit for so long without being finished, that was the hardest.” The Hernandezes put their all into the first issue of Love and Rockets as if the opportunity were to be their one and only shot at being published. In particular, Jaime shined with his awe-inspiring art and his effervescent storytelling. The youngest of the Love and Rockets creators had impressively fused many different genres, creating a world where anything goes: romance, science fiction, dinosaurs, wrestling—you name it, he had it in there. And as an artist, Jaime showed a degree of confidence in his eye-popping illustration that no one expected from a young unknown. Jaime says, “I just threw in everything because we said, ‘Let’s go for it.’ We didn’t know if we were going to fail, we didn’t know if we were going to succeed. We just hoped that we could continue. Doing that first one was almost like, ‘Okay, let’s do our comic and see what happens.’ 153

“There were no rules. This was our comic, and there were no editors to tell us otherwise. So we just said, ‘This is what I want to draw in this story. This is what I want to draw in this panel.’ And that’s how the first few issues happened. When Love and Rockets took off, the only responsibility I had was to communicate and connect, so I was thinking about the reader even then.” Gilbert and Jaime even pushed aside the conventional page layout. In one single page (in their very first issue), Beto used up to 20 panels on a single page. These Hernandez brothers didn’t play by the traditional rules. “Sometimes that happens when you have a really, really long story to tell,” says Gilbert. “It’s a space restriction situation, so to have 20 panels on a page, whatever it was, was simply economics, and just trying to [give] more bang for your buck. Putting more comics [into the issue].” Love and Rockets was a cruise without an itinerary. Gilbert and Jaime worked on their stories separately, though they would also use each other as sounding boards afterward. Boldly, the Hernandezes let their stories take them wherever the characters wanted. “For me,” says Jaime, “The only real plan was to have Maggie and Hopey—my Betty and Veronica, my Abbott and Costello, my Laurel and Hardy—lead me. No matter what, they always stood tall. It was very organic. They were consumed with so many ideas.” When the title proved to be a breakthrough hit with audiences, no one was more surprised than Jaime. The feedback generated from the first issue was overwhelming to say the least. Gilbert remembers, “It was pretty quick…. I was living in L.A., and it’s pretty ethnically diverse, so we saw all kinds of people right away. We didn’t have any problems finding the particular audience we were looking for. They came to us, which was great.” It was punk music that set the Hernandez brothers free. It helped loosen their outlook and removed any inhibitions they may have had to the way they looked at life. As far as they were concerned, if they could imagine it, they could draw it. Love and Rockets turned out to be a declaration of independence in all that could be accomplished in comics. “We were following ourselves,” says Jaime. “Punk freed us with that. We just said, ‘I know what I’m doing. This is better for me than what you’re telling me.’ [laughs] I didn’t care about what other people thought, outsiders. If my brothers gave me input, I thought about it, but by that time I wasn’t listening to any outsiders because I know the kind of comics I want to do.” Love and Rockets was so different from anything in the industry, it couldn’t be labeled. One minute it could be a poignantly told slice of life story, the next minute a roaring space adventure or meta-science fiction. Again, the Hernandezes created their own categories in comics, one with a dash of MexicanAmerican flair. Jaime says, “I always thought that the subject matter we were doing, the punk stuff I was putting in, the growing up being Mexican I was putting in, didn’t need any stylizing, because it was a style itself. So that’s why I took a classic comic approach that had been done since the ’30s and ’40s up to the ’60s and ’70s. Just take a classic, almost cinematic approach, and let the lifestyles and look of the characters handle, I guess, what you would call the punk part of it. “If there’s one thing I’ve always tried to do with the comic, it is truth,” concludes Jaime. After eyeing the original ’zine, publisher Gary Groth pursued the brothers and became their publisher and the editor of a magazine-sized Love and Rockets, one of the first comic series published by his company Fantagraphics. Gilbert and Jaime expanded their original ’zine for the first issue of their new 154

Locas © Jaime Hernandez

series in 1982, and the rest, as they say, is comic book history. For their part, Fantagraphics has lived up to their end of the bargain by ensuring the bulk of the Hernandez brothers’ library remains in print to this day. Mario says, “We were lucky enough to have Fantagraphics be interested after we had shown [the ’zine] around for a long time. Nobody knew what to do with it. They were very confused by it. But it was timing, too. The timing was right for people that were ready to read a different kind of comic, during the beginning of the black-and-white boom of the ’80s. It was timing. It couldn’t have happened even two years earlier. People were saying, ‘Oh, this is cool. What are you going to do with it?’ Nobody had any idea. And self-publishing was still in its early phases.” The world of the Locas is where Jaime found his calling. It’s a wild and

highly unpredictable universe, where a band of women who call themselves the Locas are anything but crazy. Jaime’s expressive storytelling brought each of these characters to life on the page, even if he isn’t quite sure how exactly he does it. “That’s something I don’t think about much,” states Jaime about his process. “There are certain characters that run stories, and certain characters that follow stories, all of it from the different personalities. Maggie is the character that everything happens around, and she has to cope. She doesn’t make the action, she reacts. She follows the action and tries to survive the circumstances. “But, at the same time, she’s looking for something. She’s looking for some great love or something. For Maggie, somewhere in her past she lost something, and she’s been looking for it for the rest of her life. And that’s her character.” 155

Maggie (Margarita Luisa Chascarrillo) is the heart and soul of the Locas. Jaime describes her as someone who “was taken from her family, in a way, where she didn’t get to live with her mom and brothers and sisters, and her dad left, and so it becomes a search for her.” As conceived by her creator, Maggie is not exactly his ideal woman, but someone far more personal. Jaime says, “I put a lot into her that’s me. I had to create Ray to put the stuff of me that I couldn’t into Maggie.” Far from perfect, Maggie is also a striking, beautiful woman, and yet a very relatable character. As a skilled mechanic, she can fix any machinery, but fixing things in her personal life continues to be a struggle. “That goes for a lot of people in the world,” says Jaime. “They can be the smoothest character to the rest of the world, but at home they’re just bumbling idiots.” When Jaime unleashed

Maggie, he broke the mold for female characters in comics. If Jaime’s art and refreshingly hip stories took our breath away, his brother Gilbert’s Heartbreak Soup stories (now better known and collected as Palomar) went for the jugular. No one was prepared for its grandness when it initially began in Love and Rockets #3, 1983. These tales are set in Palomar, a city full of heartbreak and despair; the type of town where residents seem distressed, and everyone’s misery comes with an equally sad song attached to it. For Beto, Palomar proved to a true magnum opus, the type of unfolding novella that every writer dreams about. As if cut from the same cloth as the great works by Gabriel García Márquez and Isabel Allende, Palomar’s moving narrative is just as eloquent and passionate as any obra maestra. “Well, I never thought of it that way,” laughs Gilbert. “I took, basically, what I thought was good about Spider-Man comics and left Spider-Man out. Or watched a crime drama, and just left the crime out, at least as a plot thing. Just simply, I always liked the connection between characters, and I just wanted to make Palomar a surreal world, even though I was using humans, more or less. That they’re in a weird, as they call it, ‘magic realism’ situation.” The eloquent art to Heartbreak Soup (Sopa de Gran Pena) also represented a significant shift from his BEM and Errata Stigmata stories that the artistically versatile Gilbert did in the first two issues. While it might have been love at first sight with the Locas, Heartbreak Soup now commanded just as much of the reader’s attention. Together Jaime and Gilbert shaped Love and Rockets into a powerhouse experience from cover to cover, without an ounce of fat to it. Even Beto’s brothers were taken aback with the richness of Heartbreak Soup. “I was blown away, and confused, at first,” admits Jaime. “’What is this he’s doing?’ It was new. And new can be scary, but at the same time exciting.” Mario was equally amazed by the powerful characters and story of Heartbreak Soup. “When I talked with Gilbert away from Jaime,” says Mario, “I was like, ‘Man, can Original art for the first page of “Heartbreak Soup” for Love and Rockets #3. you believe this? You know what Heartbreak Soup © Gilbert Hernandez he’s doing?’ And Gilbert’s like, ‘Oh,

156 156

yeah, yeah. He’s gotten really good.’ He got spooked. He thought, ‘Shit, I can’t let him pass me by, man.’ And so he stepped up his game with the artwork and stuff. He was good, but he just didn’t seem to be advancing as fast as Jaime did. And then he changed his art style slightly, and I was blown away by that, too, and I thought, shoot, he could just do that, say, “I’m going to draw better,’ and he did.” At the center of Palomar is the unsinkable Luba, a single mother of four kids, who no one or thing can knock down. She’s a Latina in control of her destiny. “Yeah, she is,” says Gilbert, “but that’s only on the surface. She’s just as neurotic as anybody else. On the surface, she’s become very defensive of the way people look at her. For one thing, when she was young, she became very defensive and goes on to live her life the way she felt it was right. She doesn’t have a filter. She doesn’t know how to not be herself, and that was what I think appealed to a lot of the readers.” Independently of one another, Jaime’s Locas and Gilbert’s Palomar share one common bond: female protagonists. “[It was] by accident and just a natural progression,” states Gilbert. “We just liked drawing girls. We just liked drawing them, and we saw no reason not to make them as fully

fleshed out or fully characterized as a male character. We were just trying to be a little different at the time, because there were so many male characters, and there weren’t a lot of great female characters in comics, so just doing that, it was a challenge. Because, as an artist, no matter how successful or how much good response you get, you’ve still got to challenge yourself all the time just to stay there.” “In a way accidentally,” confirms Jaime, “but at the same time I wanted to make women characters because it was something missing [from what] I was reading in comics. I’m putting in stuff that I don’t see in other comics. And some of it I wanted to right a wrong. Like, I hate the way they write women in mainstream comics. I’m going to do it my way, and I’m going to make them lead characters.” With female icons as unique and vibrant as Luba and Maggie, Gilbert and Jaime changed the way people saw female characters in comics. For the most part, comics portrayed women as eye candy, sex objects without a real voice. The brothers helped turned that around. Their females are fierce and independent thinkers who believe in themselves. Far from perfect, they aren’t hardened by bad experiences; they usually rise above them. In the early

Luba and Ofelia headline a cast of strong, fully realized women in the pages of “Heartbreak Soup.” The story resonated with its audience, and was quickly collected in a trade paperback book (above) during a time when comic books were rarely collected. Heartbreak Soup © Gilbert Hernandez

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A page from the Locas story “At the Beach” from Love and Rockets #15. Love and Rockets © Gilbert, Jaime, and Mario Hernandez. Locas © Jaime Hernandez.

’80s, the characterizations of the liberated females in Love and Rockets were a pretty radical notion in this male-dominated industry. “They were weak characters,” states Jaime. “They could never be as strong, or strong-willed, as the men. Think back to the old Fantastic Four comics, Sue Storm does one of her invisible shields and then passes out after. ‘Ooh, I feel faint.’ [laughter] I never heard the Thing say, ‘I feel faint.’ You know? It was something that just seemed wrong, but so easy on my part. It felt like, oh, just write the Thing, but change him to a woman.” For Jaime, the response he received from his female readers towards his work was gratifying. “The first time I got a positive reaction from women, I was pleased,” says Jaime. ‘Oh, good. I’m doing something right. I get to continue.’” And for Gilbert, there’s only one secret to writing a strong female character. “Well, you do honest characters, you get the women interested,” stresses Beto. “There’s more interest for women in comics within comics. It took a long time for a lot of women to get into comics because there was [primarily] Marvel and DC for so long. They don’t give a shit about superheroes,” says Gilbert. He credits the popularity of indie comics and manga for making that so. As storytellers, the range and depth of the Gilbert and Jaime’s stories are immeasurable. Any issue of Love and 158

Rockets is a gold mine full of insight and entertainment. For example, an early Locas story entitled “At the Beach” (issue #15) even addresses topical issues such as the culture clash between Mexican-Americans and recent Mexican immigrants. The cold treatment towards the Garcia brothers, migrants from the old country, is a staggering wake-up call. Jaime says, “I had to be truthful, that me, being Mexican-American, and my friends, we were all born here. Our primary language is English. And then these immigrants come over, and, of course, we were not that cool, I have to admit, because they were like hillbillies.” It’s an interesting story about a harsh reality that stresses the lack of compassion and sad differences that exist between people who share the same heritage. Such profound social commentary was a rare feat on the stage of comics. “I did that story about those characters, just to show that there is that difference and that balance that everyone goes through,” adds Jaime.

Los Bros. Hernandez joyfully put their Latin heritage on charts in this superhero-dominated industry. But unlike full display in their work, but they also crafted universal any of those Marvel and DC books, the electric Love and stories with broader themes. Their unique points of view Rockets is driven by the passion and the sheer joy of achievallowed them to create some of the most authentic tales told ing the best comics possible. “That was pretty much it,” says in any form of literature. At their core, their stories speak to Gilbert, “because we never made a lot of money doing Love anyone with a pulse. and Rockets. We made just enough. But the most important “They’re for everybody,” states Gilbert. “I just happened thing was getting positive feedback from both critics and to do something that hasn’t been done too much in Ameri- the readers, people writing about it saying how much they can comics, making human beings that happen to have a liked it, and meeting the readers. That’s one thing I never different cultural background.” ever expected was to have a strong readership.” Jaime says, “While I think it is imporTheir readers continue to fuel their seductant for me to show Latinos in comics tive magic and creativity, even today. To because it’s still rare, I’m not preachknow there’s a whole world out there ing. I’m putting it down on paper, that continues to savor their work is and it’s up to the reader to decide enough to keep any comic book crewhat this is about, what this is. ator going. “That’s far and beyond I guess you could say Love and my expectations,” says Gilbert. “I’m Rockets is one of the groundbreakable to do my comics, and I have ing Latino pieces of art, blah, people who want me to do them. blah, blah. Well, yeah, but I did [laughs]” it without barking your head “It’s been a great ride,” says Jaime. off. I just did the work, and it “It’s always been very positive, overwas up to time passing to tell if all. And I’m grateful. It’s been fun.” it made a difference.” One look at the book, you can In 1996, the original incarnatell that the Hernandezes are having tion of Love and Rockets concluded the times of their lives with the freedom after 50 issues, and the brothgiven to them. To Jaime and Gilbert, ers went their separate this is their dream book—it always ways, doing their has been—and they’ve had a separate projects. blast making these comics. But blood is thicker “Yeah, yeah,” agrees Jaime. than water, and the “And it’s all a goof, you know. brothers returned to the There’s no real big meaning classic title in 2001. Since behind it. It’s just fun. I still 2008, Jaime and Gilbert have like to try to throw fun stuff continued to work on the third in there.” volume of Love and Rockets, now The comics scene has An older, somewhat wiser Maggie. an annual series of 100-page trade changed greatly since the Maggie © Jaime Hernandez paperbacks of brand new material. influential Love and Rockets And the familiar characters, like their creators, have contin- launched back in 1981. For one thing, a vital independent ued to age gracefully with the same undeniable charm. culture exists today thanks in part to the hard work of some “I like them growing old with me,” says Jaime, “because great indie creators, including the Hernandez brothers. If that gives them a past and a future, and I think that makes you just want to do comic book today, you don’t have to a more rounded character because they do have a past and a work for Marvel, DC, or Image to make your mark. You future. I know there are some people in this world who would can publish yourself. When you have a passion for what prefer to forget their pasts because they were too painful or you’re doing, you can do amazing things. It’s an honorable something, or who don’t want to think about the future, but path, and the formidable Hernandez brothers are living to me it’s all one package. It’s all this big circle of who we are, proof of that notion because their rich legacy is undeniable. and what we are, and I think that helps you to understand “If you want to express yourself in a different way,” says my characters more if you know that, if you know all about Gilbert, “there are places for that, and there’s an audience them from when they were 17 to when they are 50.” for that now. That’s what’s different. There’s already an audiWhile their work has always been a critical success, the ence there, so you just have to fill in the good art if you Hernandezes’ endeavor has never hit the top of the sales possibly can.” 159

New York City

n a perfect day in 1980s’ Manhattan, if you felt like didn’t have any material for them to learn from, because all forgetting yourself and your problems, there was no the textbooks in schools are totally irrelevant to most kids. better place to do so than Forbidden Planet at 821 So I decided to try comics, which, of course, was a huge Broadway (at 12th Street). In term of comic book stores, it success. The kids were so desperate to read the comic book, was like nothing seen before in the Big Apple: 4,000 square they really applied themselves, and we got some really good feet filled to the brim with comics, genre books, international results. And that’s really how it came about, because I met toys, games, and more. In other words, it was paradise. some people who I used to try and scrounge comics off so I The Forbidden Planet comic book store was founded in could take them for the kids.” England in 1978 by three partners who shared a passion for comics: Mike Lake, Nick Landau, and Mike Luckman. Their London store was an immediate success, a revolutionary destination that became a cultural trailblazer throughout Europe as an authority in science fiction and as a major importer of American comics. In 1981, partner Mike Luckman, a late bloomer to the comics medium, headed to America alone and opened a Forbidden Planet shop in New York City which Forbidden Planet’s original New York City storefront on Broadway. Photo by Fritz Herzog. developed into an influen- Photo © Fritz Herzog tial trendsetter at the epicenter of everything cool in comics. Pursuing his heart, a smitten Luckman came to America “I was a teacher in London,” states Luckman. “I used as he began courting an American named Jonni Levas, the to be the guy who was brought in to take the problem business partner of Phil Seuling (the founder of the comics kids, and I had a bunch of kids that were leaving school direct system of distribution—the drop ship delivery of who couldn’t read or write properly. I think the same with Marvel, DC, and other comic titles to specialty stores) at American education, these kids just got pushed to the edge, Sea Gate Distributors. During this period, comics were you know? Nobody gave a shit. I was trying to take a class slowly disappearing from newsstands and becoming a staple after school of these kids who desperately wanted to read mostly found in comic book specialty stores. Since a man’s and write, [but] didn’t know how to go about it because got to make his own way (and Luckman wanted to extend no one had given them the time. I quickly realized that I his stay in America), he used a little divine inspiration, and

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A mid-’80s photo of the science fiction and comic book goodness that awaited inside Forbidden Planet. Photo by Fritz Herzog. Photo © Fritz Herzog

the store just followed. “It was a gamble,” confesses Luckman. “What we were trying to do was make it a supermarket, have everything to do with science fiction, comics, toys, all in one store. And it really wasn’t that difficult to figure out. If the material is good, the people will come.” The British impresario found his ideal location at 821 Broadway, a retail space of 4,000 square feet—about double the size of the original London store. As he began to put his unprecedented megastore and staff together, his efforts started to intrigue the media and whet the public’s appetite. As the day of the grand opening arrived, any nervousness subsided with the steady arrival of enthusiastic customers, all wanting to catch a glimpse of the latest sensation in town. Luckman says, “The opening day was phenomenal. We did have press releases, and Channel 7 (WABC-TV) did a whole news thing on us. It was quite amazing. I can’t remember what they said, but, ‘Coming up at eleven, we’ll show you a new store that’s opening tomorrow.’ And you couldn’t buy that space. It was unbelievable. I think they gave us three minutes out of a 30-minute spot on the network. It was just unbelievable.” In the primitive days of geek culture, stocking the shelves and comic book racks full of eye-catching merchandise represented a daunting challenge for a store of this size. “It was interesting,” discloses Luckman about those early days. “One of the guys from London came over here because

he was a book expert, and we opened the store and we’d had a huge science-fiction book order, and everything was selling so fast, he came in and said, ‘I have to do another order. We’re running out of stuff. What should I do?’ And I said, ‘Well, whatever you ordered the first time, order it a second time.’ Because these were pre-computer days, and listing thousands of book titles took forever, so we just said, ‘Repeat that order.’ “We advertised in the local magazines and stuff, and they had features on us. But after the first couple of days, it settled down. It went down quite a bit, and I had no idea what to expect, you know, what the levels would be like. It was a nightmare ordering stuff, because you really had no idea what you were ordering and how many would move.” Making the move across the pond to assist Luckman was Robert (Rob) Hingley, the man who would become the lead singer and guitarist of the Toasters. Rob remembers, “In London, I was helping, generally, over most of the separate departments, which primarily were science-fiction books, comics, and film and television. Forbidden Planet London at that time was less multi-faceted than the NYC rollout. One of my clients was [musician] Joe Jackson, who was collecting Silver Age DC and EC comics at that time. Co-incidentally he and I moved to NYC at the same time. He ended up being a major booster of my band and mixed several records for us. When I moved to New York, I was a ‘consultant’ 161

basically with a brief to overhaul operations in New York, their journey to this unique paradise. Whether you were which branch wasn't performing well at the time. When I looking for 20-sided dice, Japanese robots, or the latest arrived in New York City, I became de facto store manager issue of X-Men, they all basked in the store’s enticing glow. alongside Alan Williamson. Apart from grappling with staff “Weekends were a human wave of people coming in to get turnover, I was doing more of the buying, specifically on their titles. Doing signings in the store was very exciting the science-fiction books, developing accounts like Arkham with standouts from Stephen King, Clive Barker, and [ItalHouse and other specialty publishers, but also buying collec- ian graphic artist] Liberatore. One of my favorite customers tions of comics, pulp magazines, and toys.” was Robin Williams, who collected Japanese The store’s business arrangement with toys and held the floor whenever he came Sea Gate ensured a reliable pipeline in. Joey Ramone, Glenn Danzig, and for a constant supply of all the Ric Ocasek were regular customnew comic book releases. The ers. We even had Johnny Cash most instrumental form of in there one day. I think the advertising became ForJohnny Cash day was the bidden Planet’s key to best. He came in with success: word of mouth. Waylon Jennings. Two Kids everywhere in mean looking dudes in the Tri-State area dayblack clothes. Johnny dreamed about it; drew a rat in the visilocal college students tors’ book. I wonder couldn’t stop talking where that is now.” about the place; and Forbidden Planet New Yorkers, out-ofmaintained its hustletowners, and tourists and-bustle momengradually made it a tum throughout most go-to destination for all of the decade despite things in comics and scithe difficulties of keeping ence fiction. In some ways, everyone happy, employees Forbidden Planet was a Disand customers alike. Hingley neyland in New York, offering replies, “Most of the problems something for anyone young at stemmed from the staff turnover. At heart and full of imagination. first it was necessary to get rid of most After an overwhelming launch and of the original employees, as they had no subsequent lingering dropoff, the cus- Brian Bolland artwork on Forbidden work ethic and many helped themselves Planet’s custom shopping bags. tomers did eventually come, and when to the inventory. I felt that mostly the Artwork © Forbidden Planet they did they came in droves. Recalling customers were happy, but it was difficult the tipping point, Luckman states, “[Starlog] did an article to keep everything in stock all the time. Dealing with the on us. I think we opened in April, and I think their July edi- small publishers was particularly hard. Some comic titles tion—because I had to lay some people off because [sales] sold through like there was no tomorrow. We developed a went a little bit lower than I thought [they] would. And great relationship with guys like the Koch brothers [Joe and then I think it was primarily that article in Starlog. They did Peter] and Gary Dolgoff, who kept us supplied with back a piece on us and it just exploded.” issue titles and older books as well.” “Forbidden Planet was a rush,” remembers Hingley. As time has shown us, things change, and the Forbidden “I immediately hit it off with NYC, and so it was easy to Planet of 821 Broadway is no more. Gone are the creaky extend the originally projected six-month posting to some- floor boards of the gigantic first floor that held shelves full thing more permanent. The Lower East Side, at that time, of science-fiction and pop culture books, and the racks dishad an electricity about it that was unmatched anywhere playing all the latest comics. Also a sad memory is the wonelse. Because the store was so much more than just a straight derful cellar full of American and international toys, games, comic shop, it had a much wider appeal and became a cult and vintage comic book back issues. Over the decades the fixture in a very short time. I liked the lifestyle, and the store has changed ownership and locations, but it continues store began to do well.” to endure in the heart of the Big Apple’s Union Square. But The comics fans of the early 1980s were a passionate for all who visited the shop in ’80s, the magical experience bunch, and one by one, people from all walks of life made of the original Forbidden Planet will forever linger. 162 162

WHO THE OFFICIAL HANDBOOK OF THE

ARE

YOU?

MARK GRUENWALD Real Name: Mark Gruenwald Alias: Gru, Mr. Mobius M. Mobius Occupation: Mastermind/Captain/Editor of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (1982) Legal status: United States citizen with no known criminal record, deceased Identity: Public Known Associates: Michael Carlin, Ralph Macchio Place of birth: Oshkosh, Wisconsin Group affiliation: Marvel Comics, Time Variance Authority Base of Operations: The Big Apple First Appearance: 1953 Origin: Mr. Gruenwald was a writer, penciler, and editor throughout three decades (1978–1996) at Marvel. During his short lifetime, he wrote popular comics such as Captain America, Hawkeye, Quasar, and Squadron Supreme. Powers: At the time of his passing, Gruenwald’s knowledge of comic book trivia, big or small, was second to none. This power made him a natural for assembling The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.

his is it, kids! It’s everything you’ve always wanted to know about Marvel Comics’ heroes and villains but were too afraid to ask! Wonder no more how many pounds Man-Thing can bench press. Find out exactly how fast Quicksilver can run. Or even learn the color of Kitty Pryde’s eyes. (They’re hazel, by the way.) All of this and much more can be discovered in the pages of 1982’s The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (OHOTMU), an ambitious project developed and compiled by the late editor and writer Mark Gruenwald. Gruenwald was the ideal man for the job. The easy-going native Wisconsinite spent his entire life fixated on the history and continuity of comics, and possessed an encyclopedic knowledge without equal at the Marvel offices. To support the handbook, he rounded up an equally committed bunch of formidable talent consisting of Peter Sanderson, Eliot Brown, Joe Rubinstein, Mike Carlin, and other Marvel staffers. Together they set out to detail practically every character, team, vehicle, place, and planet within the Marvel Universe. They worked day and night (and Saturdays) to bring this bible of geeky arcana to fruition. “In a way, [Jim] Shooter had originated the idea, but he thought of it as comparable to baseball cards, the sort of statistics you’d see on baseball cards about 163

Jackson Guice and Joe Rubinstein’s original OHOTMU art for Stilt-Man. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

people’s batting averages and things. But Mark started developing the idea and it became more like an encyclopedia,” states writer Peter Sanderson. “Mark and I had just been very interested in the history of the characters, and I never questioned why there would be a handbook. It just seemed like a good idea that there would be a place to set down the history of the characters. I know there was a thought that they really wanted to try to establish not just the powers of characters, but also how the powers of characters compared to each other; they wanted to make it clear that Spider-Man was not on the same strength level as the Thing, say. And that was the reason for trying to set one of us to establish the strength limits of the characters. To that step, it would be sort of a guide to writers who were working with the characters.” The resourceful Eliot R. Brown wore multiple hats: technical writer, typesetter, researcher, consultant, mapmaker, and the man behind all the wonderful schematics and blueprints of Marvel’s architecture, vehicles, hardware, and other paraphernalia. His main job became to turn these incredible concepts into something a lot more credible. 164

Brown recalls, “I was really, really lucky to be in comics at that particular point in time. Mark Gruenwald had put together a team of comic experts. He, as well as those guys, went through all—our library of bound volumes was intact back then, so I mean all—the comics and gave me the perfect set of images. Sometimes, a single image was all that was needed. More often, a few copied pages. Often, I would meet with some or all of the gang during the day and start on the page that night, so I rarely took notes. Unless things got involved! “The Avengers’ headquarters had some ‘gentlemen’s club’ images, but when I was told it could look like the Frick Museum, which is what it was patterned after in the first place, I had everything I needed. The tougher parts were figuring out how to land a highperformance jet in Midtown Manhattan! Taking off was easy! Just [design it] like an aircraft carrier… easy! Everything else sort of falls into place. Basically, one plays architect with an unlimited budget.” OHOTMU featured drawings by many of the top artists in the industry, so it was down to artistic wizard Joe Rubinstein to give the series a consistent aesthetic by inking and embellishing nearly every entry. Outside of the first twelve gorgeously penciled interlocking covers by Ed Hannigan, which Joe also inked, Rubinstein’s work shines throughout. He not only gave the

Who’s Who

DC’S DEFINITIVE DIRECTORY

books uniformity but also simplified the process for the editors in terms of trafficking the art back and forth. “It was just, ‘Draw me a figure. Don’t have him flying or jumping, just have him standing there being him/her in a representative pose.’ And that was it,” says Rubinstein regarding Gruenwald’s art direction for the book. “Well, firstly, whenever possible, they would cast it with the right artists, somebody who was familiar with the characters. Byrne, of course, being Byrne, insisted upon doing all the Fantastic Four people, so [Mark] would just say, ‘John, draw me Mr. Fantastic,’ or whatever. And Simonson did a lot of the Thor people, naturally.” “What I did to make it a lot more interesting for myself, and it ultimately became a dream job, was I would call up or go visit artists whose work I admired, like Joe Kubert and Will Eisner—who didn’t say yes, by the way—and say, ‘I’m doing this project. Would you please draw something for it?’ And when I told them the rate, which was about half of a

Bat Lash © DC Comics

Leave it to DC Comics to try to outdo their main rival with a bigger, more extravagant guide of their own universe. Their monthly 26-issue series came together as a collaboration between writers/editors/amigos Len Wein and Marv Wolfman to celebrate DC’s 50th anniversary in 1985. Strikingly designed but lighter in text, Who’s Who: The Definitive Directive of the DC Universe showcased DC’s characters as interpreted by the best of the best artists in the company’s history. One thing Who’s Who and The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe shared were the prized talents of Peter Sanderson, who provided writing and research for both. He was originally hired by Wein and Wolfman to read and annotate the entire DC library for an early incarnation of The History of the DC Universe. When Who’s Who emerged, the editors didn’t hesitate to hire him again. Sanderson explains, “The big difference with the DC Who’s Who is that my impression was that they thought of it more as an art book. If you think about a DC Who’s Who page, there’s a big picture, and it was really good, art-wise, because they had a wide selection of artists. They’d get original artists going back decades… Jack Kirby would be doing the New Gods characters; Carmine Infantino would be doing the Flash characters. They’d get original artists whenever possible, but there was a very limited amount of space for the actual text, and you could not exceed that amount of space. Occasionally, they’d give you a double-page spread so you’d have twice as much text as usual, but you had to stay within a certain word limit for the text, no matter how complicated or long the character’s history was, you just had to boil it down to that amount, whereas in the second version of the Marvel Universe Handbook, Mark basically allowed you to take as much space as you needed in order to cover a character. So when I wrote an entry like Professor X or the Red Skull, that went on for pages. But he gave me the room to do it.”

page rate to just draw a single figure, that’s it, no background, they would go, ‘Oh, okay, well, if that’s it,’ and they drew it. I got to ink all kinds of wonderful artists consequently.” The original twelve-issue OHOTMU run caught on so well that Marvel immediately commissioned three additional issues. Gruenwald’s triumphant effort ensured future expanded and revised editions of OHOTMU over the years. “Mark loved comics more than anything, I think, and he just wanted the stuff to make sense,” states Rubinstein. “He wanted characters to act the way they were supposed to act, and this was Marvel’s way of producing an encyclopedia, a consistent style guide, and letting the public pay for it.” At first glance, 400-plus pages loaded with minutia about imaginary characters and their imagined world might seem tedious. But for those with a youthful spirit and boundless vision, the original 15 issues that constituted The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe were a source of fascinating lore that would be referred to for years to come. 165

s ’ S PID ER-MAN

SECRET T

he most important Spider-Man story ever published did not take place in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man, Peter Parker: The Spectacular SpiderMan, or even Web of Spider-Man. It occurred within a special giveaway comic that the company produced with the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse (NCPCA) in 1984 featuring Spider-Man and Power Pack. The book features two stories, but it’s the one entitled “Secrets” that unveils a heartbreaking revelation about everyone’s favorite friendly neighborhood hero, and which served as an imperative lesson on a very sensitive subject to a lot of young readers. The genesis of this project initiated when Dr. Anne H. Cohen, an executive director for the Prevention of Child Abuse, visited the Marvel offices to discuss the possibility of producing a special poster featuring Spider-Man on behalf of her organization. Nancy Allen-Blum, Marvel’s vice president of advertising and promotion at the time, had a counterproposal. “I said we could do one better and actually create a whole comic book on it, and insert it into newspapers. I had already aligned Marvel with newspapers all over the country for comic book inserts, and I thought this was a perfect fit. Anne helped us to secure the MacArthur Foundation to underwrite it, and we inserted it into 15 million newspapers. The success was so profound that it exceeded anybody’s expectations. I believe we received literally thousands of letters from kids, parents, educators, etc., thanking us for the comic book.” The task of editing this special Spider-Man/Power Pack #1 fell on the shoulders of longtime Marvel editor Jim Salicrup, who would go on to write the Spider-Man segment himself. Salicrup explains, “I thought it would be best for me to write the Spider-Man story myself, as I knew there would be a lot of feedback from many sources on that script. Rather than pass the information that I received from the NCPCA onto a writer, and possibly leave something out, it was much simpler and faster to just write it myself. I clearly knew this was a sensitive issue, and couldn’t be handled like any other comic, so I tried my best to do as much research as possible, and to write the story as honestly

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A letter from the Houston Chronicle praising a job well done, along with the source of all the praise. All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

as possible. Most of the attention was on the Spider-Man story, but Louise Simonson did such a wonderful job on the Power Pack story, I don’t believe there were any changes to her script at all.” In the eight pages of “Secrets,” Peter Parker (a.k.a. Spider-Man) is compelled to help Tony Lewis, a young boy who lives in the apartment next door to him, upon overhearing a disturbing conversation between the child and his babysitter, Judy, about their secret. As SpiderMan, Parker puts the emotionally conflicted boy at ease by starting a conversation that allows the youngster to explain his sad dilemma: the fact that his babysitter has inappropriately touched him. To encourage Tony, Spider-Man opens up about a painful ordeal from his youth where he reveals that he too was a victim of molestation. As a result of their frank talk, Tony heeds Spidey’s advice when Spidey encourages him to tell his parents the painful truth about his babysitter, because there are some secrets that you can’t keep to yourself. In turn, Tony’s experience gives Parker the ability

to realize that he was never to blame for the abuse brought that comic. Then Senator Al Gore read a special commenupon him years ago, and that realization helps to lift some dation regarding the comic into the Congressional Record, of the burden he’s carried within himself for far too long. so that was pretty cool.” About weaving such heavy themes into a story designed The impact of this book was certainly felt in Houston, for children, Jim Salicrup says, “The National Committee where the Houston Chronicle not only gave away the book for Prevention of Child Abuse had very specific messages within their newspaper, but also distributed an additional they wished to communicate to children—mainly it was 39,000 copies and still continued to get requests for it. not the child’s fault if they were being abused, and that they Officials in Harris County Children’s Protective Services should report the abuse. When dealing with such a sensi- indicated that reports of sexual abuse increased by at least tive and vast subject, it’s better to focus on a simple message one-third following its release—some callers specifically than to try to cover everything. That tends to lead to confu- mentioned the comic. The newspaper did not receive a sion and possible misunderstandings; keeping the message single letter of complaint about the hypersensitive subject as simple and as clear as possible helps greatly to increase of this book. Other major newspapers that distributed the understanding. Communicating a message in a simple, book were the Chicago Tribune, The Boston Globe, the Philaclear manner is something comics are especially good at. delphia Enquirer, and the Kansas City Star. While I’m unaware of any tests of this comic, I was also The national praise this book garnered was welcomed valiinvolved with Marvel’s Spidey Super Stories comic for many dation for the comics industry. The stigma from the empty years, and was familiar with the testing that was done there accusations of psychiatrist Fredric Wertham and the media to create a simple, easy to understand comic.” witch-hunt of the 1950s against the comics medium as a corBehind the scenes, Nancy Allen-Blum did her part by ruptible influence upon young readers still lingered amongst contributing a powerful element to ensure this story reso- the narrow-minded. Comics like this special showed that the nated with young readers. “What I humbly and personally medium of comics had come a long way. This book successalso felt very good about was when the drafts of the comic fully engaged children with the very delicate subject of sexual book kept coming by my desk to look at, I felt it was ‘dry,’ so abuse, and demonstrated that comics could connect and I came up with the idea that Spider-Man had actually been teach kids like no other forum could. It not only humanized abused as a child, and we used that as the message. This Spider-Man but the comics medium itself, and made true was a major gamble for Marvel to allow themselves to be so believers of many parents and educators across the country. vulnerable and risk negative feedback on such a huge subject matter, but I give Jim Galton (Marvel’s president), Mike Hobson (Marvel’s vice president), and Stan Lee (Marvel’s publisher) credit for being willing to take the risk. The comic book was never tested first. We just didn’t do that back then! The publicity that we received was vast, including an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America, where we were interviewed by Joan Lunden; Anne Cohen was also interviewed on The Today Show. The comic book was featured in Time magazine, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Ladies’ Home Journal, [and] most major and smaller newspapers as well.” Jim Salicrup remembers well the impact that the book had on children. “There were millions of those comics distributed for several years! It ran in newspapers, as its own comics section, it was shown in schools as a slide show. It was endless! Everyone seemed happy with the results, even though it’s often mocked online these days. I was forwarded, from time to time, newspaper articles that reported cases of child abuse that were The final panels of “Secrets,” where our hero makes a breakthrough. reported as a direct result of a child reading Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc. 167

THE NEW TEEN TITANS Acting Their Age

een Titans, a concept straight out of the pages of The Brave and the Bold, became a moderately successful 1966 title under DC stalwarts writer Bob Haney and artist Nick Cardy. The founding members of this superteam were Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl, all junior sidekicks to top-tier DC characters. The kid-friendly funny book ran until 1973, and then was resurrected for a short-lived comeback that lasted from 1976 to 1978, once and for all canceled with issue #53 when the group disbanded. One of the notable highlights of the series was issue #18, featuring early work by a spunky Marv Wolfman (with friend and fellow future comics legend Len Wein). What no one foresaw in that 1968 issue was that it would prove to be the beginning of a beautiful relationship. “I read and enjoyed the Titans from the early Brave and the Bolds, but no, with rare exceptions I wasn’t a big fan of them,” says the influential wordsmith Marv Wolfman. “I loved Nick Cardy’s art but never felt the characters talked

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or acted like their age, which I think was closer to twelve than the 18, 19, George [Pérez] and I had them be. But I had written some of the early Titans, including the original origin of Wonder Girl story, so I had a fondness for the characters if not the stories. But I wanted something to write that I could control as I had Tomb of Dracula at Marvel. Hence, I suggested doing Titans, whose previous incarnation had been cancelled a year or so earlier, so I could come in and redesign them as I saw fit.” While Wolfman, a lifelong devotee of the comics medium, made his earliest professional impressions at DC Comics, it was Marvel Comics where he would make his reputation. As one of the top writers and editors at the House of Ideas, this man wrote it all: Amazing Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Incredible Hulk, Daredevil, Marvel Two-in-One, and more. Tomb of Dracula, with artists Gene Colan and Tom Palmer, became the centerpiece of his Marvel work, an extensive run regarded as one of the era’s greatest creative works. As

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an endless source of originality, he (and his artistic counter- needed be an inventive title full of youthful characters and parts) displayed a knack for creating characters with long- a freshness that reflected the attitude, the language, and lasting appeal such as Blade, Bullseye, Spider-Woman, Black the diversity of the times. Full of enthusiasm and ideas, the Cat, and Nova. Wolfman even served as the editor-in-chief imagineer was at the right place to make his new generation of the company for a spell during the mid-1970s. At the of heroes. The only piece missing was a high-energy and end of the decade and a tumultuous period at Marvel, the stylized artist committed to the vision as much as himself. writer exited in search of a publishing outfit where his work This visual storyteller needed to blow the fans away and could flourish. That Shangri-La came in the form of the make this concept sizzle. Enter: George Pérez. welcoming arms of DC Comics. “When I left DC in 1970, ’71, it was still the old guard,” recalls Wolfman, “the people who’d been there for decades. Many of them were suspicious of the younger talent—probably for good reason, as we’d really argue for what we believed. When I returned in December of 1979, it was mostly new and younger folk in charge and in editorial capacity. Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz were in charge and that made all the difference. Of course there were some exceptions, like Julie Early ’80s photo of Marv Wolfman (left), and a 1986 photo of George Pérez (right). Schwartz, but I rarely worked with Photos courtesy of Shel Dorf and Andy Mangels respectively, and © their respective owners. him in the beginning, and I held him in such high regard that getting the chance to do books “I frankly never gave anyone else any consideration, since with him then was great. On the other hand, when I left I was I asked George even as I was developing the characters,” still a beginning writer. I came back as a recent editor-in-chief states Wolfman. “If he said no and I developed the characof Marvel and a proven writer. That’s a world of difference. ters on my own or with someone else, the origins, powers, “I felt that DC was still catering to a somewhat younger etc., would have been the same but not the later handling. readership when at Marvel we knew the readership was It was important to me that Titans feel like the comics I’d older. I didn’t think aiming any book I was doing to a been doing at Marvel, filled with character and action, and non-existent eight- to twelve-year-old audience would help George was perfect. He and I meshed so well, we created DC in any way, so I wrote Superman, Green Lantern, and, a unique book that fit both our sensibilities. But truth be of course, Titans with an older readership in mind. I also told, I didn’t know that would happen; I thought he’d be believed and still believe that the characters need to be really, really good, which is why I asked him, but I had no upgraded every few years. I came in at the beginning of the idea how great we’d be together.” Silver Age, and I had all-new heroes who fit into the world The iconic comics artist George Pérez remembers, “One I knew. If the comics I read were the same 1940s heroes of the things that Marv and I did was to get a bit of that and approach but now in the 1960s, I doubt I would have Marvel electricity to DC Comics since Marv and I both had found them satisfying and might have stopped reading once Marvel history. In fact, for me it was the only history I had I was 13 or 14. Society changes and fiction needs to change since I had never worked for DC up until that point. That’s with it. Every generation should have the comics recreated what we injected, that same type of mindset. [Marv and I for them, made relevant to them.” brought] a lot more of a collaborative effort between the In the good old days, the previous—and older—DC writer and the artist [to DC]. Not to insult DC, but, again, management was content to let the chips fall where they DC’s sales were suffering and the characters were languishmay with the characters that built the company. Entering ing at the time. At DC, many times they would write a full the ’80s, a more buoyant—and younger—administration script and then give it to the artist, so the artist didn’t parsought to reinvigorate the place instead of being content ticipate nearly as much in the storytelling [only] following with complacency and losing readers to Marvel or anyone what the script said. We were working ‘Marvel style,’ and else. Wolfman sought to sculpt the New Teen Titans into we’ve got two creators, one who had been in the industry an experience unlike anything else in DC’s line. The book a few years, and me, who was basically still a tyro, going in 170

and giving our best shot to characters that, we didn’t wish to fail, but, ‘If we’re going to fail, we’re going to die trying. That’s the deal. Let’s do the best we can.’ And creativity and enthusiasm seem to have won out.” A gifted artist since childhood, Pérez was a rising star at Marvel Comics in the 1970s. The fledgling New Yorker’s career trajectory took him from banking, to being artist Rich Buckler’s studio assistant, to ultimately taking off as a penciler in his own right. The young Latino ascended rapidly from rendering no-frills assignments to top-tier titles such as Fantastic Four and The Avengers. Fans instantly took to Pérez’s alluring figures, lush storytelling, and his painstaking commitment to filling his pages with the smallest of detail. By the end of the decade, the still-young artist faced some growing pains; his confidence and reputation had taken a hit as a result of his difficulties at meeting up with deadlines. Around the time of this creative rut, Marv Wolfman presented the artist with the chance of a lifetime, one that would turn his whole life around. Pérez admits, “The one reason I’d been thinking about going to DC at the time was to diversify, but I was hoping to do the Justice League [of America] after doing the Avengers over at Marvel. I’ve always obviously been a fan of team books, and JLA was my goal. I was hoping that I could get a fill-in issue or two if Dick Dillin needed a rest. And, of course, we all know that Dick Dillin passed away a couple weeks after I was offered Titans, so I ended up getting the JLA after all, not knowing Titans would be a success. “When I went in, Marv had a pretty good idea of what he wanted with the book already. He and Len Wein had already worked out the basics on the Titans because Len was the editor on the book. I honestly went in there as a favor for Marv. I had no idea Titans was going to be successful. I had an interest in developing new characters, but the way DC was at the time, I figured after six months the book would be canceled, and that would be the end of it… having no idea it would be not only successful, but a major turning point in my career.” The book’s rapid chart-topping success and positive reception came as a surprise to Wolfman, as well. “At the

time DC hadn’t created any new title that lasted more than six issues,” says the writer. “George and I felt we’d do exactly the comic we wanted to do, and then six issues later, when it was cancelled, we’d go on to do the regular DCU characters. Didn’t quite work out that way. I stayed on the book for 16 years. The fan response was incredible and incredibly gratifying since we produced the book doing what we honestly wanted to do.” Initially, the New Teen Titans made their debut as a special bonus 16-page comic insert within DC Comics Presents #26 with very little fanfare. Even the launch of the ongoing series had little promotion and anticipation, but once it premiered everything changed as the title promptly rose to become the face of a DC in transition. By the sixth issue, the title had become the company’s best-selling comic book. As a result, the names of Wolfman and Pérez became known as one of the elite creative teams in comics. The initial tone of The New Teen Titans was superbly set and controlled by writer Marv Wolfman. Although simpatico from the start, the personas of the Titans characters

The New Teen Titans’ 16-page preview and their “first collector’s item issue,” and a panel from the last page of The New Teen Titans #1 where Raven hints at the reason she gathered the team together. We wouldn’t find out why in this issue, but would find out that someone is already plotting against them. Teen Titans © DC Comics

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and stories became more refined as Wolfman and Pérez became better acquainted. With each passing monthly installment, the emboldened Titans creators pushed themselves and the quality of their work into places they never imagined. “There’s the beginning of the characters, and then there’s the beginning of the stories,” says Wolfman. “I had worked up my ideas for the characters before George came on board, but once he started to design them, things changed. For the first seven issues, I wrote out my fairly extensive plots [broken down page by page], but George had the freedom to change things around as he needed to. Also, I don’t “A Day in the Lives…” marked Perez’s increased involvement in the series. remember when, but we began talking out Teen Titans © DC Comics the stories very early on. I’d come in with an idea and plot, but then we’d discuss it. George pretty ing to develop from the inside out. I wasn’t just going to be much ran with issue #8 in that I don’t think I did a written drawing figures, I was helping the characters live through plot first. I think we talked it out, then he set up the pacing my participation in the storytelling visually, so I became and everything from that point on. I continued to write out much more emotionally involved with the characters. Issue my plots [after we talked them through] for another year, #8 was also the issue I was working on when I met the but then slowly we dropped the written plots altogether. I’d woman who would become my wife. I was working on that still come in with the basic idea, but we’d break it down and book when I had my first date with her, so it was a turnpace it together. George would then draw it up the way he ing point in more ways than one. Of course, Marv always saw fit, and I’d come in and dialogue it.” encouraged me, and that issue I took him up on it, becomPerez notes, “I became much more involved in the plot- ing even more involved with the plotting. Of course, from ting of the ‘A Day in the Lives’ story [issue #8], when I real- that point on it became much more of a symbiotic relationized that now the characters were characters that I was help- ship wherein Marv and I shared a lot of the plotting, and I 172

would come up with certain ideas. What made Titans the great book it was, was the relationship between Marv Wolfman and me.” New Teen Titans became a tent-pole title at DC Comics and signaled a new direction the organization desperately needed. These comics were dynamic, full of personality, and most importantly, distinctive from anything else in the industry. Young readers couldn’t get enough of the book as it was the only place where the teenagers sounded their age. Readers immediately took to the team as if they were old friends, and believed in their sincerity. As Wolfman had envisioned, “The new characters were part of my ‘every generation needs heroes created for them’ philosophy.” There were real consequences and emotions in Titans, where poor decisions and regrets would come back to haunt these relatable teen heroes. As a must-read title for youth of Generation X, Titans had it all: the perfect balance of peril, drama, and laughter. The New Teen Titans team consisted of original members Robin, Wonder Girl, and Kid Flash, along with ex-Doom Patrol member Changeling (Beast Boy), and three fascinat-

ing brand-new characters: the half-cybernetic, half-adolescent Cyborg; the saturnine Raven; and the alien beauty Starfire. Even their villains were all-new and different from the usual suspects seen at DC or Marvel. These take-noprisoners adversaries—Brother Blood, Deathstroke, Terra, the H.I.V.E.—were a conniving, colder, and lethal bunch that didn’t pull back in their unrelenting physical and mental torment of our young heroes. Wolfman says, “I wanted an all-new gallery of villains— and by the way, I never saw Deathstroke as a villain. To me he was forced by circumstances into doing what he did and couldn’t find a way to get out of it. But if his son hadn’t gotten killed, he’d never have had a reason to fight the Titans. I wanted to see if I could come up with as interesting a rogues’ gallery as Flash, Batman, and Spider-Man had. Also, I wanted most of them to have reasons for going after the Titans; I hated the idea that villains challenged heroes just for fun. Also, the Titans historically didn’t have any interesting villains, and because I think you should create villains that have a reason to be fighting your heroes, it meant creating brand-new characters.”

The introduction of H.I.V.E. and Deathstroke the Terminator, as well as Deathstroke’s villainous motivation in New Teen Titans #2. Teen Titans © DC Comics

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Co-plotter and penciler George Pérez found crafting when the new Batman editor asked for Robin back—with characters to be such an absorbing experience that it became plans to make him the young partner again—I think I sugsecond nature to him. The artist comments, “By Marv and gested they could have Robin but we wanted to keep Dick I having really strong ideas of what the characters were Grayson. Let them create a new Robin and make a big like, the stories became character-driven, so certain stories splash about it; that would be huge back then as nobody became dictated by how the characters reacted, or how the had ever done it. Meanwhile, with Dick free of any outcharacters’ history would affect stories as opposed to just side constraints, we could do exactly what we wanted to contrivances. That’s one of the things we took great pride with him. That led to him becoming Nightwing so Batman in, and people were able to sense that there was a certain could once again team up with Robin.” familiar aspect to the characters, not only to each other, but Pérez says, “One of the things that bothered [Marv] to the audience. ‘Yes, I understand what this person’s going about the last incarnation of the Titans was the fact that through. Oh, yes, I understand Vic. I understand Kory. I they were always going to be kids, because they had to understand Raven. I understand Dick [Grayson].’ I think follow an adult authority figure, in that case Mr. [Loren] that resonated. Jupiter. He said, ‘No. We need to establish that they are “And in no small measure from Marv doing such a great now becoming young adults and treat them that way. Don’t job with the characterization, but he also gives me credit go for the fad. Deliberately try to avoid faddish movements because I drew the characters so individualistic—they weren’t that would date them.’ So they didn’t talk in current slang. interchangeable characters just wearing different costumes— They talked normally. You read some of the older Titans that I made it easy for him to get into their minds based on books and you see guys in their 30s and 40s trying to write how I handled their body postures, and their facial expres- stories about teenagers and trying to copy the lingo. It’s like sions, and stuff like that. It older actors trying to look cool by dressing up as kids. was a turning point for me, We were trying to make them more universal. because all the things that I “Part of the plot motivations for the characters was was doing already with the the fact that they were trying to get out of the shadow Avengers and Fantastic Four of their mentors, that they had to become individuals. before that, I got to do with characters that were created by me. I wasn’t just reinterpreting them; I was helping to define them. People just seemed to gravitate to that.” The impressive maturation of Dick Grayson, from Robin the Boy Wonder into Nightwing, is a classic example of Wolfman and Pérez’s progressive style. This reinvention changed a character everyone took for granted and turned him into a compelling figure, a natural born leader who finally became his own man. “George and I began to age Dick from day one,” notes Wolfman. “If he was the team leader, we needed to show why; he had to be smart, he had to be good, and he had to be an adult. Also, since we were doing a slightly more adult comic than previously, all the characters needed to act their age. Titans very quickly became DC’s best-selling book, so we managed to get control over Robin, who’d also been Dick Grayson decides a change of identity is overdue, while Wally takes a break. written out of the Batman book. Later, Teen Titans © DC Comics 174

sonal to them. So no, I never thought we were in competition with X-Men.” Besides timeliness being on their side, the secret of the Titans’ success could be found in their foundation: Marv Wolfman and George Pérez. Their original issues were an emotional gut punch and resonated with youngsters in ways nothing else could at time. No one could forget the heartbreak and grim drug lessons of the two-part “Runaways” story, or the traumatic soul-searching that takes place in “Who is Donna Troy?” And it was mind-blowing to see that beneath Garfield’s (Beast Boy) clownish antics was a complex teenager hiding his hurt and anger behind empty smiles. In terms of quality, the gravitas of New Teen Titans set the bar high in superhero comics as one of the few to appeal to boys and girls, now and then. “Writing real characters is something we all try to do, so thank you,” says Wolfman. “I think if you treat your fictional characters as real and make them react the way a real person would react, it builds credibility. It may be why the characters translated so well even to cartoon animation meant for the youngest viewership. The stories were written for young kids, but the emotions were real and understandable. Real people, kids and teens especially, run the gamut of emotions, and to write them as single-minded clichés would have rendered them as totally fake. But the emotional problems we gave them were the kinds of problems real people their age could have. If you’ve read ten comics,

Teen Titans © DC Comics

It’s like every child who tries to grow up under the shadow of a very famous parent and tries to find their individual identity, and that was a very strong story element for Titans. Of course, adding new characters in there with their own new histories gave us a little bit of diversification so it wouldn’t always be a story about: ‘How am I going to get out of the shadow of the Batman, or the shadow of the Flash, or the shadow of Wonder Woman?’” From the beginning, the electricity that DC’s new sensation generated brought the inevitable comparisons between the New Teen Titans and Marvel’s top gun, Uncanny X-Men. Outside of a friendly rivalry as the top books of their respective companies on the sales charts, the similarities between the two teams ended there. More than thirty years later, Wolfman is still confronted with the question about whether or not there’s any correlation between the Titans and X-Men. The writer answers, “No. I’ve said this a million times, but nobody ever believed me. My view was that Titans was DC’s Fantastic Four, not DC’s X-Men. I wanted to write a family book, and the FF was family. The characters were created to function as a family, emotionally and power-wise. I also loved that the FF could have any kind of adventure, so I created each Titan as a gateway to whatever kind of story I ever wanted to do. Detective: Robin. Sci-Fi: Starfire. Horror: Raven. Tech: Cyborg. Humor: Changeling. Each had a field of interest that could spark completely different stories and yet be per-

The two-part “Runaways” story in NTT #26–27 dealt with drug addiction, and led to…

…a very special issue promoting drug awareness, with the Protector standing in for Robin.

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Like Marvel’s Fantastic Four, part of what made the New Teen Titans series special was the feeling of family at its core. Here are just a few of the Titans’ “normal human” extended family: Cyborg’s grandparents, Tucker and Maude Stone; Wonder Girl’s then-future husband, Terry Long; and Beast Boy’s on again, off again love interest, Jillian Jackson, who was carried over from Gar’s days in Doom Patrol. Teen Titans © DC Comics

you’ve probably seen all the fight scenes you’ll ever see. But if you make people interested in the characters, readers will stick with the ‘stop the bad guy stories’ as long as the characters are interesting. “If you’re on a title for 16 years there are times when it becomes second nature. But those are the bad times when you fall back on rote storytelling. You have to stay alert. Writing fight scenes is repetitive, but writing real character stories never can be. It gets harder and harder to not want to really age the characters, let them face the new questions they’d have as they grow older, so that’s a limitation and problem, but you need to make the characters work. One of the things I’m proudest of is we had a huge extended cast of characters; each hero had family and friends of their own. They weren’t only surrounded by other heroes. If I had a problem with X-Men, it’s that I always felt any normal human soon was revealed to be a mutant, too. I think we understand our heroes by having real people around them, to not only ground them but to remind the readership of their humanity. We’re not writing gods. We’re writing real people with real problems who happen to have special abilities.” By 1984, the grand success of Titans saw to it that the covers featured the names of the creators—including that of their prized inker, Filipino Romeo Tanghal—a true feat! DC management understood that their names were an undeniable selling point that meant big business. With New Teen Titans #39, the company officially made the unprecedented move of listing Wolfman and Pérez as the proud co-editors of the book. This final gesture granted them enough editorial power and confidence to ensure that Titans continued being faithful to their vision. Pérez says, “It was a time which, unfortunately, at least for my feeling, is long past, so it’s a nice nostalgia. It’s the creators having a lot of control over their creations. Marv and I pretty much were the Titans creative team. We decided how the team went, and as long as we didn’t do something that 176

would have repercussions in the rest of the DC Universe— obviously we couldn’t suddenly kill Nightwing off. It was a great creative time where we were allowed to create. We were individuals creating comics, as opposed to companies and corporations dictating how comics would be based on focus groups or what they felt they needed to stir up for marketing and everything else. No, we were just trying to tell good stories, personal stories. I look back on those times as a real creative Eden there for both Marv and me, and I think for a lot of the creators involved in comics at the time. I don’t want to sound like an old fogey, but [I] lament that same atmosphere that allowed us to be so creative doesn’t seem to be de rigueur these days.” “George and I did the entire book on our own,” confirms Wolfman, “starting with coming up with the stories, and then, when it was done, that is the first time it went to the editor who essentially proofread the book and occasionally changed my bold words. It’s not like we worked out the stories with the editor as I had with Julie [Schwartz]. He saw the book only after it was finished. Since the editor wasn’t involved from the beginning, we didn’t see any reason

In 1982 Wolfman and Pérez produced a four-issue Titans miniseries, and starting in 1984 they did two ongoing Titans series. Teen Titans © DC Comics

someone had to come between us and the readership. We always had an assistant or associate go over the material to catch any and all mistakes or logic gaps, but since we were pretty much doing the entire job, we felt we should be so credited.” While DC had faith in Wolfman and Pérez’s vision, corporate felt that their hottest phenomenon was a bit underexposed. With the success came the inevitable tendency to expand the Teen Titans universe. After the epic high of “The Judas Contract” multi-part storyline, the new addition came in the form of a prestige New Teen Titans (Baxter edition) series in 1984 (the original newsprint series was retitled Tales of the Teen Titans). At a shocking fifty cents more than the standard DC comic, this second monthly promised a premium experience, as the stories were offset printed on high quality, acid-free paper to better showcase the artwork. The new title was sold exclusively in comic book shops and did not carry the Comics Code Authority seal on its covers. Best of all, the original plan called for both Wolfman and Pérez to continue writing and drawing their characters in both titles. “We were pressured to add more Titans titles,” tells Wolfman, “but I always balked at the idea and fought it until I was no longer the editor. I didn’t want to overexpose them. Today, of course, we have 97 Spider-Man titles and 140 X-Men books and 55 Green Lantern titles, etc. But I wanted my own little corner of the DCU and knew if it expanded I couldn’t keep control over it.

As for the Baxter book: printing in comics got worse, and DC started doing these Baxter books that were so well printed. George saw that and wanted his art to look the way he drew it, and I 100% agreed. So we asked for the betterprinted book. Unfortunately, that led to doing two Titans books a month for a year, and that killed us. In retrospect only, that part was wrong. We should have kept to only one title which we could concentrate on.” Pérez mentions, “The pressure was more heavily on Marv, because I ended up leaving the series pretty soon after the wedding issue. Marv now was soldiering on doing Titans stories, and I confess not having read most of them after I left the book. But whether they were better, whether they were not quite as good, whatever anyone’s opinion was, it was different because of the fact that Marv and I were both equal partners creating this book.” For an artist as proud and committed to detail as George Pérez, the reality of working on two high-pressure monthly titles did take a toll on him. The artist hints, “Oh, there was more I could have said, [but] I couldn’t do what I thought the Titans deserved. I couldn’t give them my best anymore because of the schedules and everything else. I was starting to slow down, and the more I worked on protecting my art, the slower I became. And, on a monthly title, that became something that I just couldn’t manage. Even though the characters were so ingrained in me and so natural to write and draw, at less than my full output, I would feel it would be giving the Titans a lie. My layouts never changed. It’s 177

those little, subtle things, like not being able to do the final, finished rendering. But even my layouts are considered full pencils by others, but I was the one who felt like, ‘No, I need to do more. I don’t want to coast on my reputation.’ There were a lot of stories I would love to have been involved with, and they probably might have been different if Marv and I had been working together. Again, it was my choice, and when I announced that I was leaving the book, I announced it at a convention with Marv Wolfman by my side so there would never be any rumors of any friction between us, and moved on.” In typical fashion, Pérez saved his best for the doublesized swan song: Tales of the Teen Titans #50, the wedding of Donna Troy and her love interest Terry Long. This poignant issue served as the rare anniversary issue that blissfully celebrated the lives and relationships of evolving Teen Titans without any costumes or a single punch thrown. After all the adventures, drama, and tears of the first 49 issues, this story placed the focus and festivity on what always mattered most: the characters. “This was George’s idea, and it was the perfect 50th issue,” Marv said proudly. “It was also George’s last regular issue. He’d been on Titans longer than he’d ever been on a series before, and he felt his work would stagnate if he kept doing the same thing. Remember, as a writer I could write the book in less Teen Titans © DC Comics than a week and still write other comics, too. George could only do one title a month, and that meant he never had any Titans time off. Of course, we still remained friends. George and I continued to work together on Crisis on Infinite Earths and then several other Titans stories and even a year ago on the Titans graphic novel Games.” Pérez explains, “Marv and I had both been divorced, but I had already remarried quite happily to my wife, Carol Flynn, and I wanted to show a happy wedding instead of the cliché of a wedding being invaded by villains to make the comic more exciting. We love these characters. The fans love these characters. Let them participate in the wedding. We worked so hard to make their personalities so strong that they didn’t always need to fight an enemy in order to have a good story. 178

“One of the proud moments we had was ‘Who is Donna Troy?’ It was pretty much a detective/love story, with Dick showing his love for his dear friend by solving the mystery of her birth. And the wedding was another one that we wanted to visit because we could. We had the luxury. The Titans were a family unit. The fans felt like part of the family. I even snuck fans into the wedding. There are some fans at the wedding from the Titans APA, Titan Talk. Some of them are in the wedding; they ‘signed’ the guest list. That’s how close I felt with the characters, how close the fans felt, and I just wanted to prove that we could do it. The only character that appeared in a costume was Raven, and she wasn’t at the wedding, so it was a nice challenge. And it was a lot of fun.” Pérez’s exit did not spell the end of the Titans—far from it. Wolfman’s vision and pen remained to steer the New Teen Titans (later renamed New Titans) successfully into the next decade. Joining the writer was an exceptional list of artists, including José Luis GarcíaLópez, Eduardo Barreto, Tom Grummett, and even George Pérez, who returned for a short period. What did change during the late 1980s was the environment at DC Comics. The company’s more corporate and editorial-driven approach made it impossible to repeat the magical creative synergy Wolfman and Pérez had years earlier. “I miss the idea of just trying things and being willing to fail, of making the stories personal and not universal,” states Wolfman. “I miss experimenting with new characters and seeing how far they let me go. Because there was less at stake and we had the freedom to do whatever we wanted. Today I think we’d have to fit it in more with every other comic. That has its own benefits because there are so many other good writers today, but back then it would, I think, have hurt us.” Today the spirit of the New Teen Titans created by Wolfman and Pérez endures. As Marv intended, the Titans characters have flowed with the times. Whether it’s the playful chibi version of the Teen Titan Go! animated series or the live-action heroes being developed for primetime television… the Teen Titans are forever!

Deluxe

BAXTER-PAPER EDITIONS

ans today have it so good. Think about it: We live in an age where pretty much all the greatest comics are readily available in beautiful hardcover and trade paperback collections. But for kids of the ’80s, the only way to read a small selection of DC and Marvel classics were the impressive deluxe lines of comics unofficially known as Baxter-paper reprints. Mostly distributed within specialty shops on a monthly and “limited series” basis, the delightful format came to prominence in 1982 after the success of The Uncanny X-Men and the New Teen Titans crossover and Camelot 3000—both original books. These extra-sized saddle stitched comics featured Baxter paper, a heavier, brighter paper stock that lent significance to the featured stories. These $1.75 to $2.50 premium showcases were loaded with clever perks during an era when such features weren’t the norm: brand new cover art, introductions, biographies, cover galleries, interviews, unpublished material, checklists, etc. Due to his prevailing influence and popularity, the bulk of those Baxter reprint series singled out the DC and Marvel work produced by the incomparable Neal Adams: Green Lantern/Green Arrow (1983–84), Man-Bat Vs. Batman (1984), Deadman (1985), Saga of Ra’s Al Ghul (1988), Best of the Brave and the Bold (1988–89), and Avengers: Kree/Skrull War (1983). DC production manager Bob Rozakis says, “I think that Neal [Adams] always had a following, and so there was an audience for it. I think in the ’80s, since there were no trade paperbacks and there wasn’t any wide reprinting of the material, this was the way to go to repackage it in another comic book format. Now, of course, everything goes into hardcovers and trades.” But Neal Adams, whose name and artwork were the main selling points of these books, was not flattered by these fancy editions. “If I got paid for it, I’d feel great about it,” states Adams. “That was another little fight that Neal had to have. So I did. And I got royalties paid for everybody. I hate to say ‘single-handedly’ because it sounds so cocky, but [I] single-handedly got the artwork returned, and got the royalty program for DC and Marvel Comics, each time effectively doubling and redoubling artists’ income. Writers have done very, very well under this program. So I did not come back in thinking that this shit was going to stand. I came back in and said, ‘If I’m going to be in this damned business, things are going to change.’” Since the comics at Marvel and DC are produced under a work-for-hire basis (and the republishing of comics was at its infancy), there were no financial guarantees for creator royalties from subsequent printings of existing work. Adams set the moral precedent that comics publishers needed to pay such royalties to their writers and artists. By the end of ’80s, the trade paperback and hardcover formats became a more desirable approach to reprinting comics, and made the Baxter editions passé. Rozakis says, “I think that Dark Knight [collections] probably had a lot to do with it. It became something that bookstores were willing to carry, and once you established that you could get these into bookstores, it became much more viable.” But it was the Baxter-paper reprints which first showed publishers that readers were willing to pay a premium for quality reprinted stories. 179

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THE ARTISTS WITHOUT FEAR

aredevil never had a chance. The title had become an afterthought, a book of last resorts if there was nothing else better at the spinner rack. It didn’t help matters that the unpopular character even resembled Hot Stuff the Little Devil. With his generic red looks, silly billy club, and run-of-the-mill stories, no one took him seriously until the artistic pairing of collaborators Frank Miller and Klaus Janson hit their stride on the series. “It was a perfect storm in that I think I was the editor Frank [Miller] needed at the time,” states Daredevil Editor Denny O’Neil. “There was eventually some conflict between him and [writer] Roger [McKenzie], and I didn’t know who was right. I just

knew that the book’s sales were going up, and it had always been like a road show Spider-Man that nobody ever got terribly interested in the character. I thought it was pretty neat to have a blind superhero. That appeals to me. But it was never a top seller. I think it was probably one of those titles for which cancellation was always a possibility. And then, after a little while, the sales went up. Now, I think insofar as there was any way for us to judge reader reaction… that got better.”

Decades later, many readers still haven’t forgotten the unbelievable experience that only comes with unearthing one of their most treasured comic book experiences. “I discovered Frank’s work on a family road trip to Florida,” recalls Brian Michael Bendis, Marvel’s popular writer. “We had stopped by the drugstore and I took whatever money I had and bought whatever comics they had. I was so desperate for comics I even bought Daredevil. [laughs] I had these comic books with me for days and hours of a road trip. One of those books was Daredevil #166, where Daredevil fights the Gladiator. “Now by most people’s standards this was just an okay issue of this magnificent run. It was still building up steam, as it were, yet sitting in the back of my mom’s car going over and over it, I was completely transformed as a writer and a reader.” Inker extraordinaire Klaus Janson had, more or less, become a staple on Daredevil since 1975; wunderkind Frank Miller entered the book’s picture as penciler on issue #158 (1979). But, in 1980, things began to coalesce when Editorin-Chief Jim Shooter recruited Denny O’Neil away from DC Comics, as part of the EIC’s initiative to acquire seasoned editors for his line. And under the watchful eye and guidance of O’Neil, the fearless creative team of Miler and

Janson turned around the negative perception of “The Man Without Fear” into the series that everyone wanted to read. “The editorial package I was given included Daredevil,” recounts O’Neil. “Frank Miller and Roger McKenzie were the relatively new team on the book, and were both unknowns. Frank was maybe 20 years old. I knew him from the volleyball games in Central Park on Sunday afternoons,

which was when 20 or so comic book guys got together and batted a ball around for an hour or two and then went and had hot dogs at Nathan’s. He was this young guy I knew nothing about… but he had very intelligent questions about my work.” By 1981, some friction had arisen between writer Roger McKenzie and Frank Miller, and Daredevil’s editor had a tough decision to make. Under McKenzie’s tenure, the hero of Hell’s Kitchen had stories that were more rooted in Marvel’s traditional superheroics. Miller wanted to take title’s protagonist elsewhere. O’Neil explains, “Roger was doing what he had been asked to do. There was a similar situation later at DC when Cary Bates was writing Superman and The Flash that he had written for years and years and done a steady, professional job, and suddenly he was told his stuff was dated. And, well, it’s not a fair universe. I hope that doesn’t shock you. So there was this hassle between Roger and Frank, and I thought, ‘Toss a coin, but probably the art is slightly more responsible for this book’s upturn than the scripts,’ so I resolved it in favor of Frank, and made Roger a lot of promises, which I tried to keep. In that kind of situation you try to make sure that the injured party does not starve, does not lack for work. In those days royalties weren’t a consideration, and it didn’t make any difference whether you were 181

Miller turned Kingpin into a deeper and more threatening figure. He even put a little Marlon Brando into the character. Daredevil and all related characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

writing Millie the Model or Fantastic Four, you got the same page rate that they had assigned you.” As soon as Frank Miller assumed the writing reins on Daredevil #168, the young storyteller unleashed the femme fatale Elektra, one of his most compelling creations. As a writer set free, the man was furious and unrelenting in his approach to the craft. The intoxicating storyline of Elektra and Daredevil (Matt Murdock) consumed every issue Miller did afterwards, and ultimately became a grand composition about love and death. Having grounded Daredevil in a sophisticated and gritty pulp setting full of style, angst, and realism completely elevated the title. Bendis says, “As far as I was concerned, it was a completely new language of storytelling. I have been buying and reading comic books since I was old enough to buy and read things, but even in its earliest incarnation I had never seen anything like what Frank Miller was attempting to do. It rocked my world. In fact, I think it rocked me to my very foundation. It was one of those books that determined the course of the rest of my life.” 182

“[Miller] got tremendously creative without ever violating the continuity,” replies O’Neil about the title’s evolution. “I think it’s what Mark Gruenwald later called ‘story implants.’ It’s as though you’re saying, ‘Yeah, everything we’ve told you so far is true, but, doggone it, you know, we forgot to talk to you about Stick, because there was this guy who taught martial arts to young Matt Murdock. We’re going to tell you what happened with Stick.’ And that was his point of departure. I remember that Mike Barr and I took Frank to his first martial arts movie on Broadway and 47th Street, and it was like the scales had fallen from his eyes. He came out of there like the world had opened unto him, and then he got, on his own, into the Japanese comics. He may have been the one who introduced me to Lone Wolf and Cub.” Starting with Daredevil #171, thanks to its surging popularity, the series moved from a bi-monthly release to a monthly one. As Miller encountered difficulties keeping up with his deadlines as a writer-penciler, Klaus Janson’s role gradually increased from inker to, ultimately, pencilerinker-colorist by the end of their run (DD #158–190).

Miller and Janson worked in unison and produced spec“I would do what he did. I would make personal, inditacular results. With Janson setting his signature shades of vidual choices. The only thing I did that he did was I went moods into the artwork, the book never lost a beat as it back to the original premise of the book, which was more a made the transition to monthly. pulp hero than a superhero, and started to build my story Daredevil #181 serves as proof that the men behind this around that concept in the modern world. I’m really proud book didn’t pull their punches. The death of Elektra at the of myself, but I’m very proud that I fought every instinct hands of the maniacal Bullseye resonated in such a way that not to do a cover version of him. I think the closest I came no one who read the story would ever forget its haunting was I used his often repeated line about Ben Urich: ‘My quality. “The only thing that my generation of comic book name is Ben Urich, and I’m an investigative reporter for creator doesn’t have is the ability to truly surprise people,” the Daily Bugle.’ Using that line was as close as I came. And says Brian Michael Bendis. “Everything gets spoiled online. even now I’m working with Klaus Janson on a Daredevil When Elektra died, spoilers, I had no idea that was going project and all of us are doing our best to respect him by to happen. No idea. There was no Internet to spoil me. not imitating him. Nobody knew ahead of time. It just happened. We were “And [Miller’s] influence on me? This influence was huge. told it was a special double-sized issue, and all that meant Obviously. Because not only did it show me a Marvel comic to me was, ‘I’m getting more pages this month.’ unlike any Marvel comic I had ever seen, but Frank’s influThe book was a cut above pretty much anything else at ences became my influences. I reached back through Frank Marvel. An intelligent and involving read that didn’t exclude Miller’s work and found Jim Steranko and Jim Thompson anyone in the audience. O’Neil observes, “I perceived the and Wally Wood and Will Eisner and Stanley Kubrick and average Marvel reader as a college kid. I didn’t think we were martial arts movies. writing for children, and I don’t think that there’s anything “You have to understand,” stresses Bendis, “Frank Miller in that run that I would not have wanted my son to read was a rock star to me. There was no difference between Frank when he was still pretty little at the time. Probably he did Miller and Bruce Springsteen in my world.” read it all. I don’t think we ever crossed the line. The line is purely arbitrary and purely imaginary, and everybody has a different idea of where it is. With the Comics Code, it depended on who was going to get to censor your book. If it was somebody who was hung up on sex, an overly large bosom might be sent back for a redraw. If it was somebody who was a patriot then a joke about a silly congressman might not make the muster.” Brian Michael Bendis is a writer who made good. When his time came to write Daredevil, the talented storyteller’s approach to the series was every bit as original, aggressive, and gripping as that of one of his idols. “I made a very conscious decision not to imitate Frank,” confirms Bendis. “Not only had he made it very clear in the press that he more or less hated his imitators, but I thought what I loved about Frank was the individual choices that he had made. So if I were ever to follow in his footsteps, as a true fan, The shocking death of Elektra at the hands of Bullseye caught everyone by surprise. I wouldn’t imitate him. I couldn’t. Daredevil and all related characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. 183

NEXUS COMICS

FOR THELOVE

“T

he beginning of the ’80s was this dividing line,” remembers Steve Rude. “There was this yearning to go beyond the natural borders of the way things had been done up until then. And one guy had to start it, as it normally begins, and then there has to be somebody else that looks at that and says, ‘What a great idea! Maybe we should try that.’ And we were part of that explosive growth of alternative thinking that marked the ’80s.” With the advent of the direct market, opportunities began to arise for independent comic creators. In a self-sustainable marketplace, comic books now reached more dedicated stores and venues than ever before. The system paired titles with their target audience; such advances allowed independent efforts to establish their names and garner a fan base. One of the first major independent successes was the debut title of Capital Comics, Nexus, the sci-fi book that overnight launched the careers of writer Mike Baron and artist Steve “the Dude” Rude into the stratosphere. The friendship of Baron and Rude sprang from their mutual appreciation for comics. The one and only Rude explains, “Well, the friendship sort of came out of necessity because we both on our own, apart from each other, were looking [to do] things that we needed other people. I needed a writer.” For Mike Baron, the feeling was mutual: Rude was the artist he needed. “As soon as I saw his drawings on the pages of the Wisconsin Student Union, I knew we were going to work together,” recalls the writer about his artist, friend, and fellow collaborator. “Dude and I are so different. I think that’s one of the reasons we’ve remained friends for so many years.” In complete agreement with his partner’s assessment, Rude says, “Well, Baron and I were very different people. Baron was almost ten years older than I was, and he came from the true hippie generation. I was this young, wetbehind-the-ears kid who was naïve about everything, but I think the only thing I really had was this tremendous drive, as I call it, not to fail.” The first concept developed by the team was a whimsical idea that publisher Capital Comics rejected. Although completed before the release of Nexus, the rejected strip ran retroactively in Pacific Presents after the Nexus series launched. Baron says, “The first thing was a story called ‘Encyclopedias’ about some hapless schmuck in the future after a

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Of Nexus’ design, Mike Baron says, “Well, I’ve got to take credit for the lightning bolt. That was my idea, and the ruby goggles. But everything else is Steve’s.” Back cover to Nexus Vol. 1, #1. Nexus © Mike Baron and Steve Rude

nuclear war or something trying to sell encyclopedia subscriptions door-to-door. This just goes to show you how badly I foresaw the future, because today you can download any encyclopedia right off the Internet. Nobody in their right mind would buy a 60-pound pile of books. “I had been introduced to Milton [Griepp] and John [Davis], who were heads of [comic book distributor] Capital, and I heard they were looking to publish now, so we showed them ‘Encyclopedias,’ and Milt [said], ‘No, we want a costumed superhero.’ So at that point I went back and brainstormed Nexus and we put together those first twelve pages and showed it to them, and they said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to go with this.’”

Intelligent, beautiful, confident—a lover as well as a fighter—Sundra Peale was quite a catch for our hero. On Sundra, Baron says, “The story called out for a female lead, so I created Sundra. Dude has always treated her much more as his idealized woman. To me, she’s an interesting character and part of the Nexus universe.” Judah Maccabee, a.k.a. the Hammer, stood in sharp contrast to his more reserved idol Nexus. On Judah, Baron says, “Judah was my idea. He was the loud, boisterous sidekick. He was our Falstaff, only certainly a lot more physical. All characters © Mike Baron and Steve Rude

Nexus turned out to be an idea that got both Baron and Rude excited. Although the two creators are quite different, the character and setting represented common ground for their mutual interests. In creating Nexus, they fueled the high-energy book with their passion for the art form and their favorite influences. And without the restraints of a corporation dampening their creativity, Baron and Rude were free to tell their story exactly the way they wanted. As a result, the newcomers’ talent and confidence grew by leaps and bounds with each passing issue. The writer attributes the book’s success to many variables coming together. Baron explains, “I think it was a lot of things, but mostly it’s a very strong concept. I just said, ‘What’s dramatic? Well, what if this guy, every time he shows up, somebody dies? That’s dramatic.’ And that’s a crass way of putting it, but that’s why there are so many medical thrillers

on TV all the time because that profession has inbuilt drama. [His] profession is the guy’s an executioner, but an otherworldly executioner. And then Dude, of course, brought his Space Ghost background to it, so it’s a weird mix.” Rude comments, “Well, [Nexus] was presented to me as an opportunity at the time. Baron was also very hungry to make his mark as a writer. He also loved comics, but he and I came from very different backgrounds and influences. The things he liked weren’t things that I was real big on. I didn’t care about Scrooge McDuck. I cared about Captain America. “Baron has always been a guy of few words. He seems to have an aversion to going into depth about his feelings about things—completely the opposite of me. I love to go under and dissect things and let ideas, and concepts, and the whys of life and things like that swim around in my head. This unnatural philosophical drive to understand the 185

things like that in life which are very hard to understand at 20—that are just as hard to understand when you’re in your 50s, which I am now. Baron and I were just very different people, but we had goals and drives to tell stories through comic book art. He as a writer and me as an artist.” For many comics readers, Nexus represented their first taste of an independent title with a firm mainstream flair. The title proved to be neither overtly violent nor radical, but an abundance of riches in adventure and humor. Readers expecting buckets of bullets and blood were in for a pleasant surprise. “[Nexus] is a reluctant hero,” says Baron. “He’s not like Judge Dredd. He agonizes over a lot of his killings.” Rude reveals, “The story is themed about a guy who kills people—that’s the springboard from which all comic books come. You see an injustice and you want to correct it. The idea of the superhero, to me, is a guy who has abilities and can do things that I would like to do, but can’t because I don’t have superpowers. So there’s a strong fantasy element there. Bad guys should get punished. Baron and I were both

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very big on that concept. So Baron set out to create this character who he envisioned would kill people that were really bad people. They were mass murderers. And I was all for that. I loved that idea. “[Our sensibilities] dovetailed, but they also were in shocking contrast to the way Baron would normally approach something. He can be really macabre sometimes. I’m normally far less macabre because of my nature, but at the same time, Baron has this really goofy sense of humor… and he knew I had a quirky sense of humor myself, based on [my] liking Dr. Seuss. Who knows where these things come from? They’re just a giant grab-bag of things that we look at as our preferences in our lives that make us laugh based on our certain sense of humor. Those things are going to come out when you’re collaborating creatively.” The Nexus creative team was flying by the seat of their collective pants—there was no long-range plan written in stone. If there were any growing pains for Baron and Rude, it hardly showed; they seemed to be pitch perfect in unison as storytellers. The reception of their comic book only emboldened them more so to stay true to their readers by striving for originality and freshness to stay ahead of the curve. Although their collaborative process is slightly different today because of distance, their beginnings were more humble and personal. Without any pretensions, the two established an open channel of communication that still exists between them. Rarely disagreeing, the longtime friends have always been simpatico and champions of each other’s work. “In those days I would draw each page out by hand completely with everything—more than thumbnails,” says Baron. “I’m a half-assed artist. Everything was in there, and everybody loved it, including Dude and editors because he could look at one page and see exactly what was happening. I’m good enough [as an artist] to do that. But nowadays I write a full script. Because we lived in the same town, we would sit down and go over it panel by panel, but now Dude’s in Arizona, I’m in Colorado, so I write full-script and send it to him. And he often makes suggestions.” “Baron is this funny guy,” discloses Rude. “In the early ’80s, because we both lived in Madison, we would go to dinner or lunch, and he’d say, ‘Well, I have this idea.’ And I’d just listen to him. Our relationship has changed over the years. I actually ended up making a stronger contribution to concepts in the book as it exists now because I matured over the years, and the maturing process that took place in me was suddenly having these concepts come springing forth from my head. I got excited about concepts and ideas, and what I would do is call Baron up and just tell him about them. And Baron was always really receptive to that, but at the time, for the first 20 years, Baron certainly didn’t need any help from me. The stories were all flawlessly executed, and I was just really excited about taking that story and then making it come from my little world of pencil drawings.”

Steve Rude’s 1985 painting for the wraparound cover of the first Nexus trade paperback collecting the first three-issue volume. Nexus © Mike Baron and Steve Rude

Rude’s dedication to the craft of drawing comics shows in his work. His focus and deft touch for creating lovely figures made him into one of the masters of the craft. It was that dedication that led to the noticeable jump in the quality of his draftsmanship from the initial three black-and-white issues, to the full-color ongoing series. Heads turned everywhere. “I adored the standards of high-quality work, and that was what I kind of based my identity on,” says the Dude. “If I had completed an issue and I knew that it was everything inside of me, and I had accomplished that goal one more time, then it fed going into the next issue. So I looked at it as a concept of going from success to success to success. Baron and Rude made Nexus into their dream book, one beaming with optimism and energy. In its pages, they could do any story imaginable, and the shifting tones kept the readers on their toes. One minute you’d have a galaxy-spanning battle, and the next minute you’d have a fat Elvis. The adventures of Horatio Hellpop, a.k.a. Nexus, were a pretty wild ride. The writer says, “The idea that Nexus would become this dissolute, I-don’t-give-a-damn character was obviously patterned on Elvis’s latter years. But, of course, we realized it wasn’t Elvis, it was Horatio, so the story kind of kept true to

his persona. We called that his ‘Elvis stage.’ Once you create the characters, if they’re a strong enough concept, they start dictating the story themselves.” “We had no constraints whatsoever,” confirms Rude. “We never had any sense of anything other than ourselves to answer to. We certainly had our standards of what a comic book should be. It shouldn’t go this far over the top, but at the same time, this was a chance to speak to some things that we felt inside. We never had the editorial thumbscrews put on us. We were never put in the editorial stocks for daring to go [too far] because of either a comics code or an editorial preference or whatever. We never had those things happen to us, and thank God we didn’t. Besides having our natural boundaries of good taste, this was a chance to as go as far as we could go with this character, Nexus.” With an increased monthly presence throughout the ’80s following a move to First Comics, Nexus became a staple of the era, and a concept that continues to endure more than 30 years later. Baron and Rude’s creator-owned effort changed the perception of independent comics and made an everlasting impact, stylistically and commercially. “I didn’t know [Nexus] was going to take off,” concludes Baron, “but I knew it was good comics.” 187

Sweetie Pie

Strawberry Shortcake

ittle girls held one doll closer to their hearts than any Strawberry was created in the heartland of the United other in the ’80s: Strawberry Shortcake—a creation States: Cleveland, Ohio. Muriel Fahrion served as the initial of American Greetings Corporation and the bright- designer of the character in 1977, but a lot of the heavy liftest star of a line of dessert-inspired characters. With a loving in shaping her essence and the rest of the line became able Kenner toy line as the centerpiece, Strawberry and a team effort for the staff at American Greetings. Initially her friends were everywhere, and fans ate it up. The affec- conceived as a greeting card character, it became apparent tionate sweetheart earned this widespread devotion as the to all that Strawberry Shortcake’s future lay in the stars. embodiment of wholesome all-American values: good oldPolter remembers, “Lynn Anderson Edwards, who died fashioned spunk, practicality, loyalty, a number of years ago, was my original and never-ending supply of pies at her boss, and she played a pretty big role in Berry Bake Shoppe. the development of Strawberry ShortDave Polter earned a staff position cake as a licensed character. Its startat American Greetings in 1980, during ing point was the Humor and Juvethe third year of product and characnile Team. The team at that time was ter development for Strawberry Shortlooking at a new character to exploit cake, and witnessed the meteoric rise the already observed popularity of the of the character from the front row. Strawberry design motif, so they were At the world’s largest greeting card looking for a way to bring it down to company, the talented artist became a kids and be funny. And, oddly enough, writer and editor for the world of the it worked out well for the property Care Bears, among many other duties. because it hit three generations at once. One of Polter’s contributions to StrawIt worked very, very well with grandmas berry’s world was bestowing the name and children. Moms liked it because it of Elderberry Owl to the pet companfelt nice and wholesome and different ion of Plum Puddin’. from Barbie. Not to slam Barbie, but “Strawberry Shortcake was actually just to say that it allowed a little girl to off the ground already and doing really be a little girl. So there was that kind well when I got there,” says Dave Polter. of appeal. “In the ’80s, I would be involved in “So we had Lynn Edwards. We had a brainstorms for new characters, and I The back of the box of the original number of women who were the illuswould be given assignments. I was one Strawberry Shortcake dolls. trators for this. And then the rest of the of the people in Those Characters from Strawberry Shortcake © Those Characters from staff were guys, and that created a little Cleveland—that was the name of the Cleveland, Inc. bit of weirdness sometimes, because, American Greetings subsidiary that created these characters, well, we were all sort of frustrated. We really wanted to be although when Strawberry was created, that department working on something far more masculine. [laughs] But, name didn’t even exist yet. I worked mainly on entertain- yeah, the brainstorms did get out there, but I think most of ment development for Strawberry. I was being used more in us were frustrated humor writers, or, in the case of a couple new product development on what would become the Care of them, already successful humor writers, so we were able to Bears. On Strawberry Shortcake, I worked on the basic story play with Strawberry Shortcake almost like a parody, where treatment for the third Strawberry Shortcake [TV] special, sometimes we were almost making fun of the program to and the fourth Strawberry Shortcake [TV] special.” make it what it needed to be. You would take it out to the

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Star Comics hoped to get young girls to read the Strawberry Shortcake comic books, but the readership was just never there. The toothsome series lasted only six issues. All characters © their respective owners

extremes. You knew it was going to be cute, so you would say, ‘How could I make this even cuter? How cute could this possibly be?’ [laughs] So there was some of that going on. It was a very creative group, headed ultimately by Tom Wilson, who created the Ziggy character. Ralph Shaffer was involved with Tom Wilson, and they already had some character development success with Holly Hobbie before they began working with Strawberry, so they really applied some of the lessons they learned from [Holly Hobbie] in terms of making Strawberry a character that had the widest possible appeal to a mass audience.” Beyond the Ziggy connection, Strawberry Shortcake also shared a common bond with the Star Wars franchise: Kenner Products. Polter notes, “There was a marketing executive named Bernard Loomis who had been influential in bringing the Star Wars brand to Kenner and launching it with such huge success, and he was stomping around looking for something that he could do the same thing with for girls.” The business relationship with the Cincinnati toy giant played an instrumental role in turning the characters into a big-time brand name. With her strawberry scent, countryside attire, comb, and special “Thank You” card, Kenner

made their original Strawberry Shortcake doll into something so adorable that it could carry the imagination of any girl away. Young schoolgirls were just as aggressive collecting these dolls as boys were their Star Wars action toys. It set the mold for the marketing of Cabbage Patch Kids (with their birth certificates and adoption papers) and other cultural fads that followed. The two Ohioan companies had excellent chemistry, and their success created unprecedented brand awareness for the property. “When it was truly launched and introduced to the world,” remembers Polter, “a day was picked on the calendar much in the same way a movie was released, only in this case it was not going to be a movie, it’s going to be a half-hour TV special, and a whole toy line, and a whole bunch of pajamas, and stuff that the girl could wear to school. Literally, a section of the Kmart turned red overnight. It was, ‘Here’s a Strawberry boutique in Kmart. Here’s a Strawberry collection.’ They did go to the mass-market stores rather than the department stores, so the marketing is a piece of it, but the scent was one of those elements. You had a reason to buy every one of those little collectible dolls. The girls at that time just loved the scent, and it was truly a phenomenon. “Each character themed to a different berry, themed to a different scent, automatically had a different color. They were distinct. Every one of them looked like they belonged together. They formed a collection. It was just like this huge presence instantly, and it would be one thing if it was there and it sat, but it blew out of the stores. And with the toys, which I had less exposure to at the time, it was the same 189

STAR C O M I C S

Star Comics was a comics line for kids that Marvel launched in 1984. Michael Z. Hobson, Marvel’s head of publishing, initiated the effort with the hopes of attracting a younger readership in order to expand the marketplace. To make these kid-friendly new books, Marvel recruited longtime Harvey Comics editor Sid Jacobson and writer Lenny Herman. Other former Harvey talent soon followed and brought their golden touch for creating sweet, innocent comics. Sid Jacobson says, “Marvel, for all its success in superheroes, was never successful in kids’ books, ever. We made a presentation, and they liked it. I went on staff, and Warren [Kremer] became my main artist, and Lenny Herman at that point became my main writer—the funniest writer we ever had. We started doing the books at Marvel, and, lo and behold, they became very famous. They made a lot of money. This was the first time that ever happened.” All the Star Comics titles featured humor, child protagonists, and talking animals. To entice children, many of the titles were popular licensed properties from media (Heathcliff, Strawberry Shortcake, The Muppet Babies, Fraggle Rock), but there were also original titles (Top Dog, Planet Terry, Wally the Wizard) created by ex-Harvey Comics staffers in their familiar style. In the long run, the licensed character books sold better. But soon sales dwindled, and eventually Marvel replaced Jacobson with another editor to set a different path for the line. When that move produced even weaker results, Star Comics fell away in 1988. Jacobson recalls, “What they tried to do was to do a superhero approach, an action approach, to kids’ books. They made an appeal to basically the same people who were buying the superhero books. And it doesn’t work. DC tried to do it, and the same thing [happened].”

kind of thing. Like I said, the girls loved them. Little girls really just went crazy over them.” American Greetings worked closely with their licensing partners. From the cartoon specials to the wide variety of ancillary goods featuring Strawberry and her friends, the synergy between the greeting card company and their corporate colleagues resulted in a unique experience for their young clientele. The cohesiveness ensured that the look of the characters remained consistent and tasteful at all times. Everything seamlessly fit together. Whether it was Strawberry Shortcake television specials, books, lunch boxes, oven mitts, music boxes, baking pans, video games, breakfast cereals, or comic books, American Greetings did their best to ensure these efforts met their high standards. “We worked very closely,” says Polter about these licensing efforts. “It’s one of the things that I would say made us successful in that era. One was that I do think we were a very innovative, creative group. A lot of people look at greeting cards in general, and they look at it as a lesser medium. I have executive producer credits for children’s animation. I’ve worked in that. I was a gag cartoonist who was never 190

able to make a sale to The New Yorker with my art, but I sold two cartoons to them that they had Charles Addams, the creator of The Addams Family, redraw. I’ve worked in a number of different mediums, and I honestly think greeting cards are one of the hardest things to do well. “All of the people who were involved in Those Characters from Cleveland were people who already had quite a few years of experience with the greeting card area, and it made them a lot more creative than people realized from the marketing point of view, and much more sophisticated just from the creativity and product.” As Strawberry’s admirers blossomed into tweens and teen angels, their interests moved on to Duran Duran, Swatches, and boys. Childhood doesn’t last forever, but it’s nice to know that Strawberry Shortcake was there to brighten the day with her effervescent goodness. The loving character proved to be the perfect contrast to the superficial glamor dolls with their high heels and loud clothes. In a culture where everyone seems to be in a rush to grow up, Strawberry’s wholesome values taught her audience to enjoy every precious moment of their childhood by simply being themselves.

m a i t n m e a i y t n ! e y ! D

D S

THE GREATEST KIDS’ MAGAZINE OF ALL -TIME

omewhere between the exciting world of comic books and the monotonous grooves of Highlights, a magazine fixture at every doctor’s and dentist’s office since the dawn of mankind, there was Dynamite, a colorfully upbeat publication for kids that celebrated their ingenuity, youthfulness, joy, and the world of pop culture that defined them. This practical magazine empowered children by teaching them how to use their voices and self-confidence, and instilled in them the belief that their opinions mattered. Dynamite was the victory song of kids of the 1970s and ’80s, and a place where their creativity could roam free. Dynamite was conceived by future DC Comics publisher Jenette Kahn for the Scholastic Corporation, a children’s publishing and media empire. By design, the publication’s target market was to be pre-teen children from ages eight to twelve, but what separated this peri-

odical from the herd was its fun and easy-going nature in covering all the popular fads enjoyed by youngsters; it was never preachy or condescending. The breezy style of Dynamite clicked, and the first issue sold 750,000 copies. Not long after its launch, founding editor Kahn departed to create another youth-oriented magazine called Smash before settling at DC Comics in 1976. Under the direction of a new editor named Jane Stine, the magazine continued to flourish as it became better defined, more jovial, and even somewhat practical along the way. Stine—the wife and editor of R. L. Stine of Goosebumps fame—ensured that the Scholastic publication remained topical and engaging. Another vital addition to the Dynamite family was a fresh-faced college graduate named Chip Lovitt, who landed an interview with Stine through a contact at Scholastic named Michael Z. Hobson (a future

Dynamite covers typically featured film and TV stars of the day, like Cheryl Ladd, the Fonz, and Harrison Ford. Dynamite © Scholastic, Inc.

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Marvel publisher). Lovitt recalls, “I met this woman who would eventually become half the brains behind Goosebumps. But 1974 was a really cool time. I had to write a trial piece, and they gave me, ‘Okay, here’s a calendar entry. It’s National Legume Week.’ Now, peas are legumes. So I wrote ‘Give Peas a Chance,’ and this woman was a Beatles fan, so I got the job just from that one line.” With a little bit of charm, Lovitt began his long association with the magazine and eventually became its fourth editor. Dynamite understood the allure of placing celebrity photos on their covers, and they featured them on nearly every single one. Due to their vast readership, many publicists went out their way to court the attention of the kids’ magazine, even offering all-expense-paid press trips in the hopes of getting coverage for their clients. “It was easy to be hip in those days,” says Lovitt, “you slap Fonzie on the cover, and you sell it to Scholastic. Scholastic is a marketing behemoth; they own the school system. The magazine was a huge hit. If you’re competing against dull books about government or fascinating facts about the 50 states, and all of a sudden you slap Mork & Mindy on the cover, you’re going to sell a million copies a month.” As for the celebrities themselves, they enjoyed the change of pace of being profiled for a younger audience. Many of these superstars did their part to set a good moral example, even if they sometimes told tall tales. The questions may have been “softball” in nature, but the magazine’s readership enjoyed seeing the celebs let their hair down and talk about their childhoods. It was that type of relatability that allowed youngsters to believe that they too could reach for the stars. Interviewing big-time celebrities was a simpler game in an era before the field became saturated with media outlets. Lovitt had his finger to the pulse of all things in pop culture, and wound up interviewing hundreds of celebrities for Dynamite. From speaking with movie and television stars to profiling his favorite musicians, like Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen, as a journalist he wrote it all and enjoyed every second of the experience. “Let me tell you, there was a lot of access to people then,” states Lovitt. “You could actually interview people. And I was a music editor there, too, so I got to talk to a lot of musicians.” 192

Dynamite spotlights Lou Ferrigno and The Incredible Hulk, along with a reader-contributed “Bummers” gag cartoon. Dynamite © Scholastic, Inc.

But behind the shiny celebrity covers, every issue was packed with a wealth of insightful articles. There was topical coverage about anything and everything: party tips, video games, horse riding, breakdancing, pinballs machines, fashion, ice skating, biking, and even handy recipes. Dynamite was an interactive experience where, via survey cards and contest entries, its readership practically determined the magazine’s content. Chip Lovitt attributes the periodical’s success to “a unique confluence of a lot of influences. Kids were getting hipper. TV was getting really big; cable was coming up. It was easy to capitalize on that.” Also, thanks to tremendous paper engineering, any given issue might contain enticing giveaways such as posters, iron-ons, stickers, trading cards,

(above) Title box art for Joe Kubert’s “how to draw” column. (below) Arthur Friedman’s Count Morbida. Dynamite © Scholastic, Inc.

patches (remember those?), perforated cut-outs, or a plastic “Dynamite Disco” record, written and recorded just for their far-out readers. Dynamite understood that kids love surprises. Thanks to its success, the staff of Dynamite received plenty of leeway from Scholastic. “We were non-educational,” explains Lovitt. “That was the fun thing about Dynamite. We used to do joke pages. So when we put Farrah Fawcett-Majors on the cover, we did a joke page dedicated to Farrah FawcettMajors jokes, like, ‘What happens if you’re an Egyptian king and you’re a star in Charlie’s Angels? You’re a Pharaoh FawcettMajors…. We did a whole page of that stuff.” Reader participation sections like “Bummers” encouraged readers to send in gags for the chance to see their name in print and earn a five-dollar cash prize. In “Hot Stuff” children could offer practical solutions to big kid problems and receive a T-shirt in the process. These features had readers coming back for more. “It was real brand loyalty,” tells Lovitt. “But you have to remember, the kids at that age were getting liberated. I’m a child of the ’60s. I got liberated in the ’60s. But a lot of kids got liberated in the ’70s, where all of a sudden there was a culture that was aimed at them. And we were able to capitalize on that. And it was very creative. We had a lot of fun. Anything went.” Other popular features included “Magic Wanda,” a magic column by writer/editor Linda Aber, who also appeared in the column as the semi-mysterious lady magician. Then there was the inventive “Count Morbida’s Monthly Puzzle Pages.” The Count’s intricate cartoons were done by Arthur Friedman and paired with amusing puzzles with irresistible results. “It was drawn by a Hasidic Jew from Brooklyn,” says Lovitt. “He was a strange illustrator, but he was good with vampires.”

Dynamite also understood the appeal of comics, and used the medium to communicate with their readership. “We realized comic books were a common denominator for a lot of kids,” recalls Lovitt. “They wanted to read about how Spider-Man started, or Mad magazine started. So I got to interview Stan Lee, who once offered me a job on a children’s magazine that never succeeded called Pizzazz.” [Note: Pizzazz was Marvel’s short-lived attempt at doing a youth periodical in the fashion of Dynamite.] Besides a comics history column called “Super-Heroes Confidential,” all of the top comic book creators and cartoonists were spotlighted in this publication: Jim Davis, Charles M. Schulz, Bill Gaines, Al Feldstein, John Romita, and many more. Another comics column was “Joe Kubert’s Corner,” a series of drawing lessons from the iconic artist. Lovitt recalls, “We signed Joe Kubert up when he started his comic book school. Greg Wozney was the designer at Dynamite, and he set that up. He knew some of the illustrators. Illustrators could make $450 doing three spot illustrations in Dynamite.” An early feature was “The Dynamite Duo,” a humor strip for superhero fans, with a number of entries written by the versatile Lovitt. He admits, “Yeah, that was so cheesy. I’m sorry. It was really nicely drawn. There was a guy named Robert Dale. I don’t know whatever happened to him, but he was an excellent artist. But it was just cheesy.” Chip also wrote the crowd-pleasing “Now a Word from Our Sponsor” ad parodies, which were often beautifully rendered by artist Sam Viviano, the current art director of Mad magazine. “Neal Adams did a 3-D poster for Dynamite very early on,” remembers Lovitt. “We bound in glasses and he created that for us. So, yeah, [Dynamite] was very comics-oriented, but comics was like television. It was [part of ] this 193

youth culture. Think about it. In the ’60s Marvel and DC were the reading matter of choice for kids, so comics was something we were going to cover. I loved comics. I’m a DC guy. I loved Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and all that stuff.” Yearly subscriptions were a big part of the magazine’s success. Scholastic even offered a special summer subscription for vacationing kids. But in the early ’80s, magazine sales started to stagnate as the marketplace shifted. Lovitt notes, “Eventually Scholastic, like a lot of companies, got financially tight, and they started cutting back on things. I left in ’86 because when a monthly magazine goes to eight issues [a year] and then six issues… you don’t have to be Einstein to know where that progression’s going. “I was told they were canceling the subscription business. We had basically 200,000 library subscriptions, not because there were 200,000 libraries that subscribed, but they all bought five copies because the kids would just tear them

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apart. They enjoyed them. But the day I heard that news is the day they said, ‘Well, we’re going to shut you down eventually.’ So I moved on into children’s publishing at Golden Books, another defunct company. “[Scholastic] got more corporate; they got more what was called ‘trade-driven.’ They all of a sudden wanted to push paperback books like The Babysitter’s Club, and eventually Goosebumps—series that could sell every single month. And eventually they just started shrinking things. They started cutting people. Eventually there was a staff of three. And, like I told you, I could see it coming. At one point, we were selling 450,000 summer subscriptions.” Sadly, Scholastic closed the Dynamite shop in 1992. While Lovitt had exited the outfit in 1986, he could not help feeling sentimental about the demise of the magazine in which he’d placed a dozen years of his life. “Definitely,” says Lovitt, “It was the end of an era. But we knew it was coming, too. It was unfortunate, but the priorities had changed. A magazine like that started to cost more money than they wanted to spend. If you have a bind-in poster, you have 3-D glasses, at the end they started to cheapen out. We used to do die-cut back covers that would have decoders. “Here’s the thing to remember: it’s targeted marketing. Dynamite was [part of ] the Arrow Book Club: fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, the biggest reading block there is. Bananas reached a little older audience, a little more sophisticated—that was sixth, seventh, and eighth graders. And who reads more? Fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. [It was the] right place at the right time. A great, fun magazine. “Here’s the irony of this: many of my friends who graduated college in 1974 went into jobs at insurance companies, medicine… and they hated what they did, so they went into other fields and they finally found what they wanted to do. Now, I had the best job on the planet, I think, a boy reporter for this very hip magazine, and I used to say to my friends, ‘If only I was dissatisfied, I would have gone into a better field than publishing and become a doctor or a lawyer.’ “I was just a humble vessel through which things passed. I was a reporter,” concludes Lovitt. “When you’re 22 years old, and someone gives you an expense account, sends you to Hollywood two weeks a year, you get to interview rock stars and go to free concerts, it’s all good!” And that pretty well sums up Dynamite magazine. For kids of the 1970s and 1980s looking for fun and feeling groovy, it was all good.

ELIOT R. PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE

BROWN SUPERSTARS

veryone knows that if you want to make the scene, you need to be seen on the cover of a magazine—and when costumed heroes needed that exciting photograph for their big shining moment out in the public eye, savvy editors turned to the best idolmaker in the comics business: Eliot R. Brown, photographer of the superstars. Brown is the gifted artist who gave a pulse to Marvel’s characters by capturing these magic moments via his good eye and camera. In the early 1980s, his inventive photo covers were realistic images that made an immediate impression on a dreamy audience craving to see their favorite heroes come to life in an era long before superhero movies were the box-office phenomenon they are today. Although Marvel rarely engaged the use of photographic images as covers, Brown’s beloved works left an indelible impression.

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His first assignment came from editor Danny Fingeroth. The task was to modernize one of Marvel’s earliest photo covers—1968’s Sub-Mariner #7—with a brand new fullcolor photo background for Tales to Astonish #7 (1980). The photo was taken from the swing-open windows of Marvel’s office at 575 Madison Ave, and was meant to evoke the surreal wonderment of having the aquatic Prince Namor walk amongst us in the real world. Brown comments, “I’m not sure why more photo covers had not been done between the two versions of that cover. Perhaps the artists rose up in outrage over their covers being taken away. [I] don’t know.” After the positive outcome of his first effort, Brown became Marvel’s go-to photographer and producer of the memorable covers shown here—commentary by Brown:

AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #262 “Amazing #262 was a standout for me because that’s me! I’m the photographer catching Peter Parker in his Spidey togs. I could not say who thought this up, but the fellow portraying Peter, Scott (whose last name escapes me right now), was an ‘in-store Spider-Man’ hired by the marketing department to appear at comic shops and supermarkets around the country as Spider-Man. He bore a remarkable resemblance to the traditional Romita, Sr. Peter Parker. So, he was around the office and, best yet, he had his own Spider-Man costume! “The idea was to have him in a ‘broom closet’ and caught by some snapping newshound photog, right in the act of becoming Spider-Man! Now how to do that? I needed a closet and a doorway. We were at 387 Park, and the nasty old interior room that was used for ‘reprint roll storage’ was perfect—out of the way and quiet. I believe Scott and I shot on a weekend. The technical challenge was to have my flash go off at the same time as the ‘taking’ flash that lit up Scott. This way, my flash would ‘blind’ the camera and obscure the fact that it was me. “The other technical challenge was to have a ‘camera’ in my hands! I only had my one camera, so... [I’m holding] a Scotch tape dispenser. Once you know that, you can see it. There’s also a big ol’ wire hanging down. That wire is connected to the camera, as was the taking flash. I could only afford the 12-foot synchronization cord, and it had to hang down in front of me. I hoped that it would be lost in the glare. It wasn’t, but no one has written in to complain yet!” All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc.

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MARVEL TEAM-UP #128 “The two jamokes on Marvel Team-Up #128 were my bestest bud, Jack Morelli, as Spidey and Joltin’ Joe Jusko as Cap. We were prancing around on the rooftop of 387 Park, defying death with every step and gust of wind! The separation was so disappointing that Ron Zalme had to engineer in some Spidey web-lines. Oh well. That was a suggestion by Tom DeFalco, editor and my boss at the time. He also corralled Joe in to wear the in-store-appearance Captain America costume (the shield is a kid’s winter sled). Jack was easier to get ahold of; he worked in the Bullpen as a letterer!”

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FANTASTIC FOUR #268 “The mask that had been built for the in-store appearance guys looked really good! Editor Bob Budiansky wanted a pic of the thing. This was around the time John Byrne had the thing floating around, menacing everyone. So in the big, new stat-room with large tables, I built a little puppet stage out of illustration board. I cut a hole in it that fit under the mask. Under it, I stuck a 500-watt flood lamp. I was hoping to get an ‘eye beam’ effect, but didn’t know how to really get it. We enlisted Luke, the security guard who watched over the place for years and who smoked, to blow some smoke up through the eye holes. It’s pretty evident on the slide what’s happening, but not good enough for comics! Again, chum Zalme added some glitzy, blitzy eye beams. Now I know I could have double-exposed it in with some swishy gauze.”

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WALT SIMONSON’S

ODINSON

he Mighty Thor #337 was the comics event of 1983. It rocked fans like a hurricane, but hit the stands without any real anticipation or grand publicity. The issue didn’t even get a nod in Marvel’s hype box that month. No one saw it coming, and no one expected anything this groundbreaking from an Avenger everyone took for granted. In the period before trade paperbacks were the norm, this was one of those precious monthlies that you had to be there to get. As a reading experience, it served as a once-in-a-lifetime thrill that kept you guessing and wanting more. “I was stunned,” says the highly esteemed writer-artist Walter Simonson about the comic book that shot his career into a higher stratosphere. “I’d been doing comics at that point for better than ten years and really enjoyed it, but the fan market had only developed in the time I was in comics. I got into comics in 1972. While there were comics fans at the time, and there were fanzines, there was an underground network and there were guys who sold comics out of their parents’ basement. But there weren’t comics for fans, there were no comic shops, there wasn’t a direct distribution system. All that stuff evolved between the time I got into comics and the time I began doing Thor. It still was nothing like it is now. “There was a store up on the Upper East Side back then called Supersnipe, and it was a big, big deal comic shop at the time. It was a hole-in-the-wall with eight billion comics everywhere. I was living at the West Side back then, so I schlepped across the park and went over there maybe two or three days after issue #337, my first issue, came out. Usually, I keep about three copies just to have for record-keeping as it were. I asked for copies, and they said, ‘Oh, we’re sold out.’ I said, ‘You’re what?’ ‘We’re sold out.’ I said, ‘How is that possible?’ I was stunned. I discovered it was sold out everywhere. The direct books came out a little ahead of the newsstand books at the time. I discovered that when the newsstand copies came out, like in 7-11s, comic shop owners were going to 7-11s and stripping all the spinner racks of all the #337s. At the time, comics’ on-average sell-through of a print run was, I’m guessing, somewhere in the 25–30% range. I’m kind of remembering that book sold somewhere about 90% because everyone went out and got all the copies off the newsstands and resold them as well.” Thor #337 wasn’t Simonson’s first rodeo on the Asgardian’s book; the illustrator had provided breakdowns on a previous run in issues #260–271 (1977–78). This time around everything was different, as the enthusiastic virtuoso now had creative control as the title’s writer and artist. He had established himself as an in-demand artist years ago on “Manhunter,” Star Wars, the X-Men and the New Teen Titans crossover, and the Alien graphic novel, among various other projects. On the other hand, his career as a writer had just begun to take flight in Marvel books such as Battlestar Galactica, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and his creator-owned Star Slammers. Mark Gruenwald, Thor’s editor, saw something in Simonson’s talent and confidently gave him the keys to drive the book in any direction he saw fit. “That was a different time and a different place,” says Simonson. “What [Gruenwald] offered me on that book was carte blanche. He said, ‘You can do whatever you want. If you want to kill Thor off and give somebody else the hammer, you can do that. Whatever you want to do is just fine.’ And he meant it. He gave me a list of ideas, about a page or a page-and-a-half typewritten. We’re talking probably the end 197

(above) The only indication of the historic epic to come, a small house ad that ran one month before Thor #337 hit the stands. (right) So begins the 17-issue long Surtur Saga. Thor © Marvel Characters, Inc.

of ’82, and there were mainly five or six ideas in there. One of them was killing Thor. I don’t remember the other ideas at all. Mark did not want me to do those ideas. I loved the character. He knew I was delighted to do it, but he wanted to persuade me that I could just go anywhere I wanted to go.” Simonson certainly made his presence known immediately with a cover that has become one of the most iconic images of all time. The radical imagery of Beta Ray Bill shattering the classic Thor logo to smithereens—the very logo the title had worn proudly since 1964—was inconceivable. Without any blurbs or gimmicks, the cover of Thor #337 served as a proclamation for change, a clear sign of the excitement to come. Simonson explains, “At the time I took over Thor as the writer and artist in ’83, that Thor logo was the only logo that Marvel had left that went back to the ’60s. Every other comic they had, the logo had changed. Now, in the case of the Fantastic Four, they’d gone back to the original logo, but it had been changed, I think, more than once. But the Thor logo was exactly the same logo it had been since the early days of Journey into Mystery when they finally put a Thor logo on the cover. This was an indicator of the change I was going to make. “Alex Jay, who’s a remarkably wonderful designer, worked up at Continuity Studios, the [Neal] Adams/[Dick] Giordano studio, for a while. It was in midtown, and we all used to hang out [there], so I persuaded Mark to let me get Alex to redesign the Thor logo. We went through it together, and eventually arrived at the logo that was on #338. So putting Beta Ray Bill on the cover and having him shatter the logo and carrying Thor’s hammer, it all kind of came together. Part of it was that my first issue I wanted to try and tell a story that felt like you had not read it before. A lot of readers guess ahead of you, or think they can guess ahead of you, so I thought if I did a story where someone actually lifted Thor’s hammer, that would be something that had not been done. At the 198

time, the comic had been running for 20 years, so it’s hard figure out what happened to his father. I knew what had to find stories that haven’t been done somewhere. happened to him, but I was never able to resolve that in the “The idea was just to indicate that I was kind of shak- comic. If I’d stayed on the comic longer, we would have gone ing things up, although I didn’t think it would have quite back eventually and revisited that idea and found out what the dramatic effect it did have. You mostly don’t do draw- was going on. I like short story arcs that are not that long, ings and go, ‘Oh, this is going to be a classic cover.’ Mostly, but I like an overarching, longer structure to everything if I you’re going, ‘Oh my God, this cover is due in three days. can manage it. Thor was the first time I had a chance to try I’ve got to think of something.’ But it worked out pretty that. … I had the Surtur story as my underlying story for the well, and it was a pretty effective cover really. I rarely do first batch of issues, but my model for all this stuff was Lee covers that are that simple. I should probably wise up.” and Kirby’s Journey into Mysterys and then Thor, in particular Between the covers, Simonson’s energetic artwork was from around issues #114 to about #139 or #140. That, to just as breathtaking, among the finest work ever produced me, is the primo Thor that Stan and Jack did together.” in the medium. His layouts and compositions were highly The Thor book ensured a following for the stylized cinematic and so poetically bold that panels couldn’t contain work of Walt Simonson and all of his future endeavors. them. For younger readers, Thor, Loki, and the rest of the The humble artist remains startled by fans who hold his cast of colorful characters had never looked so good or so vigorous. For older readers, the work harkened back to the explosiveness and inventiveness of Jack Kirby’s in his glorious Silver Age splendor. But it all would have been just pretty pictures if the story itself hadn’t equaled the art—and Walter Simonson delivered a tale for the ages. The fast-paced saga is as a master class in epic comics storytelling. The tension pulsates from the first page and never loosens its grip. Amazingly enough, momentum carried the story from the creative end. Simonson recalls, “I thought that the Surtur story would be a good place to start, but I didn’t have any of the earlier chapters, I just had the climax. [laughs] So I had to go back and think about some new ideas to begin to build toward where I wanted to go. The whole deal with the doom and the sword was all stuff I created while I was doing the book.” Although the thrilling story of Surtur’s quest for vengeance against Odin drives the gravitas early on, it was the inventiveness, action, and subtle humor that lured readers in. There’s the shocking emergence of the fan-favorite alien Beta Ray Bill, who proves himself worthy enough to lift the enchanted hammer Mjolnir in his first appearance. We also witness the surprising fallibility of Thor, who slowly learns to admire Bill’s spirit on his path to humility. And, naturally, there are plenty of mischievous Loki moments, such as when he unites with his half-brother in order to rescue their father from the fire demon Surtur—and that’s just scratching the surface. Simonson says, “Once Surtur was gone, (above) Beta Ray Bill shows there’s room enough for two Thors. there was a time when Thor was trying to Thor © Marvel Characters, Inc. 199

work in such high regard. His output is relished just as much as that of George Pérez and John Byrne, two men who inspired a generation of artistic imitators and admirers. This mainstream acceptance surprises Simonson because his fusion of influences and styles were much more eclectic and global compared to those of his contemporaries. “There’s a lot of Kirby under my stuff,” admits the gentleman comic book creator. “I admired the energy Jack put in the stuff, as well as a lot more subtle things he did that people don’t appreciate as much, including his acting of his characters. But I wanted that kind of unfettered energy if I could achieve it. That was one of the wonderful things about Jack’s stuff and was one of the things that made his comics alive. “Right before I got into the business professionally, I discovered the work of Jim Holdaway, (above) All-Father and sons united as one—a rare occurrence—from Thor the newspaper artist who did the Modesty Blaise #353. (below) Promo ad and cover for the much beloved “Frog Thor” story. newspaper strips. Holdaway died young. He Thor © Marvel Characters, Inc. was gone before I got into comics in ’72. He died about 1970. But beautiful, beautiful graphic work. kind of drawing with the ink, using ink almost calligraphiMuch more realistic, but still very graphic—not photo- cally. That’s also probably part of my art school training, realistic exactly. And it was gorgeous. A lot of my inking going back to RISD—Rhode Island School of Design. A comes from looking at and studying Jim Holdaway’s work, big component of their education at the time was lettering and letter forms.” Simonson made Thor relevant again, but he set out with the simple goal of making a good comic. “It’s fun to do these stories,” elaborates the artist. “But you didn’t do them, at the time, with any expectation that they would be remembered 25 years later. You did them with the expectation that, hopefully, if they were good enough now, they’d catch an audience, and you’d be able to keep doing them for as long as you wanted.” Simonson lavishly illustrated the interiors until #367, when he passed the art baton to Sal Buscema, who did an excellent job in his own right, but he continued writing through issue #382 in 1987. By the end of it all, Marvel’s mightiest Norse hero had soared as high as he ever had, and readers no longer took for granted that magnificent hero, the mighty Thor. 200

YO JOE!

HOW G.I. JOE GOT HIS GROOVE BACK

.I. Joe had their heyday as the most popular playthings for boys in the swinging ’60s. But anything that goes up must come down, and the actionhero line was deep-sixed in 1977. It wasn’t long before the Hasbro think tank was back at the drawing board staging a comeback for their soldier boys. The company planned to turn G.I. Joe into a major brand again by spearheading a massive marketing, media, and product campaign in 1982 centered on toys, an animated show, and a comic book starring a new team of diverse characters. To say the plan worked is an understatement. The resurgence of the G.I. Joe team toy line proved to be a financial success for all parties involved. With over 500 different action figures, the toys dominated store shelves. The cartoons became a staple of children’s television throughout the decade. But the comics series was where it was at; the stories by writer Larry Hama gave the toy line a soul. “I was an editor at Marvel, and before that [Hasbro] meeting happened, they were trying to get somebody to commit to writing that book,” says Hama. “I had been trying to get writing work. I was a full editor at Marvel. I couldn’t get writing work from any of the editors. I had gone to every single editor, and they all said I couldn’t write, that I was a guy who drew.” At Marvel and DC Comics, creators are often pigeonholed creatively for one thing or another. For someone who came up the ranks as an artist like Hama, it could prove next to impossible to get a reluctant editor to even consider their other talents. This creative roadblock led Hama to seek opportunities outside of Marvel to fulfill his ambitions. “It was to the point that I could actually prove to the editor-in-chief, Jim Shooter, that I had asked every single editor, and I had been turned down,” recalls the writer. “There was a rule that you couldn’t write or draw for another company if you were employed at Marvel but since I was able to prove that nobody at Marvel was going to give me any work, I had dispensation. So I started writing for Weezie Jones [now Louise Simonson] at Warren Publishing.

(above) Herb Trimpe’s cover to G.I. Joe #1, and (left) Larry Hama signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe in New York. G.I. Joe © Hasbro. Photo courtesy JHU Comic Books.

“I was writing for Eerie when Hasbro first came to Marvel about doing a G.I. Joe comic. They asked every single writer and editor at Marvel, and they got turned down by every single one because nobody wanted to do a toy license book.” While licensed titles were a valuable source of revenue for comic book companies, few major creators wanted to work on what most considered second-tier material at the time. Many veteran writers and artists flat-out refused these media-type assignments. The projects also carried a stigma 201

as being problematic because license A file card from the first wave of G.I. Joe figures holders could sometimes demand edifull of info pulled from Larry Hama’s dossiers. torial changes to the writing and artwork in the book. “Joe changed everything because until that point nobody wanted it,” says Hama. “One main reason is that the royalty or incentive system had just started. It didn’t exist before. You have to understand that licensed comics paid less because they took the money that they paid for the license right off the top. So nobody who was an A-list or a B-list writer would even think about doing a licensed comic. You’d have to take a real loss of pay to do it! “I had nothing to lose. I was literally the last person they characters were. And when the people at Hasbro saw those asked. They physically came down the hall going to every they said, ‘Wow. We should put these on the backs of the office, and my office was the next to the last office.” packages.’ So we just edited it down to two short paragraphs Determined to prove himself as a writer, Larry Hama and all this data like place of birth, qualifications, that stuff. accepted the job. And when the opportunity was given to That’s how the file cards began, and that sort of became an him, the talented creator discovered that the G.I. Joe uni- industry standard, but that was the first time it was done.” verse was a blank canvas he could mold as he saw fit. Apart The Marvel series brought out each character in ways from a few illustrations shown at an early Hasbro meeting, Hasbro had never imagined. More than any writer of any their story was for him to tell. licensed series previously, Hama’s “Yeah, all [Hasbro] had was ten work contributed to the look, feel, drawings of the ten original charand marketing of the actual toys. The acters,” states Hama. “They had a toymaker injected many of his ideas drawing of a guy in a black outfit into how they presented and sold and it said, ‘Commando.’ They had the goods to their adoring public. a drawing of a guy in a green suit To G.I. Joe fans, the file cards, chock and it said, ‘Infantry,’ and that’s all full of information, turned the gears they had.” of their imaginations and created an To avoid the pitfalls that other updraft of excitement for the toys. writers had faced helming team The Hasbro vendors even used the books with their enormous ensemcards to sway their major buyers ble of characters—not to mention into ordering more merchandise. an assortment of weapons, vehicles, Hama recounts, “As a matter and costumes—the genial Hama of fact, that was the feedback that wrote dossiers to keep track of Hasbro’s salespeople got from their everything. As the title’s engineer, salesmen. The salesmen came back these documents allowed him to to Hasbro and said, ‘On this prodadd depth and backstory to the This carrying/display case, with art based on uct, all we’ve got to do is read the G.I. Joe cast. They proved to be an Trimpe’s cover art for G.I. Joe #1, had a special file cards to the buyers, and they slot for the cut-out file cards. invaluable asset to Hasbro as well. love it! It’s a lot easier to explain this “I didn’t really build a bible per G.I. Joe © Hasbro product by reading those file cards se,” says the respected comics creator. “They didn’t ask me than it is by reading from some copy list that’s been given to to do a bible. I wrote the first script, and I figured, “If it us by your copywriters.’ So that was a big encouragement. keeps on going, I’m going to add more characters”—and They said, ‘Let’s keep up these file cards!’ We had immediate there were already a lot of characters! reaction right away, so that was what triggered all the stuff. “I decided to write what I call dossiers. They were longer “But still, up until this point no toy line had ever really than what was printed on the backs of packages. They were lasted more than a couple of years. And every time there more complete; little file folders about who each of these seemed to be a fluke, they got burned. Nobody in the toy 202

Masters Comics also played a crucial role in making the ambitious Masters of the Universe toy line into the biggest action figure line of the 1980s. The company originally packaged every figure with a mini-comic insert, usually with a story that corresponded to the respective toy. The booklets provided a backstory and context to the characters and their environment. Mattel’s Scott Neitlich says, “The mini-comics came about when they were selling the original Masters of the Universe brand back in 1980. Some of the buyers asked what the content would be since they wanted a story around who these characters were since the He-Man animated series didn’t come until later on. The Mattel marketing managers at the time were like, ‘Oh yeah, we are going to include comic books. That’ll be the way we’ll tell the story,’ and the buyers got very excited. It came out at a meeting where they were throwing ideas around with the buyers about ways to provide content. Any way you can tell a story to back up a toy is always beneficial.” To present Masters of the Universe (MOTU) to comic book fans, Mattel and DC Comics teamed up to produce DC Comics Presents #47 and a MOTU three-issue mini-series. “That was ’82,” states Neitlich, “The toys had already been out for a year. Mattel wanted something a little bit deeper, more epic. So they worked with the folks at DC to develop both the Superman vs. He-Man one-shot (the DC Comics Presents mini-story), and a three-issue mini-series called Masters of the Universe. [The mini-series] was the first time that a lot of key elements like Prince Adam [and the] King and Queen of Eternia were introduced, the sorceress, the transformation from Adam to He-Man—although it happened in a cave not through a magical sword as it did in the Filmation [animation] series. A lot of those elements were first introduced in that DC comic. My understanding was Mattel brought DC all of the prototype toys and the toys in development, and put them down on the table and said, ‘Hey, we want a story to go with these toys. Let’s work together and come up with something.’” In 2012, DC and Mattel reunited once more to produce a series of MOTU books for a new generation of fans.

industry will ever forget the Cabbage Patch Doll fiasco. They [were convinced the dolls] were gonna be running off the shelves forever, and when it died, it died this grisly death. They were stuck with warehouses full of these ugly things. So at the end of the second season of G.I. Joe, they were ready to start winding it down. They just took a chance and went for three years, and it just kept going. It’s very hard to get around what people see as established facts about an industry, and this is true in comics and toys.” In the early years of the Marvel run, Hasbro devoted four television commercials a year to promote newly released issues. No other monthly comic book series has ever had an ongoing major television campaign backing it. These spots aired during the broadcast hours of programming

mics.

to y verse

t h e

o f

designated for children’s television, and were produced in Disney-like full animation by Marvel Productions, a subsidiary of the House of Ideas. The 30-second animated commercials were so well received they led to two five-part animated G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero mini-series followed by the 1985 regular series. “The thing was, it was the first comic that ever had television advertising,” confirms Hama. “So the first issue sold incredibly because there was a TV ad for it. The second issue… well, there’s always an immense drop in the orders for issue #2 because everybody buys issue #1. But that’s why with issue #2, the collector value is so high. There are physically less of them out there of the original run. But the sales were high enough to keep the thing going.” 203

From 1982 to 1994, Marvel’s G.I. Joe series put together 155 issues that proved it was much more than just a fad. The popular title served a vital gateway that lured many new readers into the comics medium, more so than any other book of its era. And Hama’s work shone as the stories fueled G.I. Joe to the upper echelon of the bestselling titles of the ’80s. He proudly admits, “I brought in lots of readers! I still get people who come up to me at a convention saying, ‘Thank you, I wouldn’t have gone into a comic store if it hadn’t been for G.I. Joe, and that’s where I discovered all this other stuff.’” For the most part, the secret to his success was that he did it his way. He had the freedom to write these stories how he best saw fit without having to worry about being micromanaged. In Two classic G.I. Joe stories, G.I. Joe #21, “the silent issue” with pencil breakdowns by Hama, and G.I. Joe Yearbook #2, with cover and story art by Michael Golden. the process, he was the law when it G.I. Joe © Hasbro came to the story of G.I. Joe. Hama says, “I had a lot of control over G.I. Joe because isn’t immersed in it sees it as an insurmountable obstacle, nobody else wanted to do the research. By the time your so they would just defer. The liaison at Hasbro was always universe has over 150 different characters, anybody who some 22-year-old just out of college who’d have the job for a year and then get promoted out of it. And then they’d get into the office they’d go, ‘Oh, my God! There’re a hundred characters here!’ So they just deferred it all to me.” Like his idol before him on the great Duck comics of yesteryear, Larry Hama followed the grand Carl Barks tradition of adding a bit of humanity to everything he touched. “I’ve said this dozens of times before that G.I. Joe is basically Junior Woodchucks with guns,” explained the greatest of all the G.I. Joe creators. “Barks was always my biggest influence.” The majority of the readers were children, and Larry Hama never wrote down to them. And they came like an avalanche, as each adventure seemed bigger than the one before. “It was always written for kids,” proclaims the storyteller. “It had to be written for kids. But I don’t think that kids who read comics are stupid. First off, any kid who spends his own money on reading material is probably smarter than some kid who spends it on other stuff. So I tried never to write down and make it a ‘kiddy’ book. I tried to write it so somebody like me could be entertained by it but still make it acceptable for kid standards and understandable at G.I. Joe comics were readily available at many toy stores, sold in a kid level. It’s always done with two levels, but so are the packs of three, adding to the visibility of the title. file cards. I wrote the file cards so that a kid could take them G.I. Joe © Hasbro absolutely seriously, but an adult could get the joke.” 204

ICON T

JOSE LUIS GARCIA-LOPEZ

he unstoppable José Luis García-López is a quiet and unassuming gentleman who speaks to us through artwork so charismatic it makes hearts roll with delight. His illustrations are filled with a captivating sense of power and eternal optimism. Although many have tried to emulate his style, no one has quite succeeded in capturing the smooth intricacies of its unique effervescent magic. For this virtuoso, the only secrets to his technique are experience and a dedication to the craft that knows no bounds. These attributes serve as a testament to the artist’s incredible ability and lasting popularity, and have made him a mainstay at DC Comics since the mid-’70s. More than any other artist, the great García-López stands as the true successor to the Neal Adams influence, and, like Adams throughout the ’70s, has been looked to as the standard for all things DC since the early ’80s. “I learned to read with comic books when I was about five years old,” says García-López. “The Disney characters first—Donald Duck, etc.—and then Superman, Batman, and lots of western and other genres of comics. But I didn’t know and didn’t care if they were ‘superheroes’ or cowboys, from the USA or China; I was too young to mind that. I just enjoyed reading and looking at the art. “I remember liking some art more than other. Later on I learned the names of the artists I liked the most when I was a kid: Joe Maneely, Joe Kubert, Russ Heath, Carmine Infantino, etc. “Anyway, at this stage (about 12 years old), the truth is I was more into American comic strips and Argentinian comic magazines. Hal Foster, Alex Raymond, Milton Caniff, Frank Robbins, Roy Crane, John Cullen Murphy— the list is immense because besides these [artists] and the high quality of the material produced in Argentina, we also had access to British, Italian, Spanish, and even Australian comic book art. “I re-encountered the superhero genre in the early ’70s by way of Neal Adams’ Batman. After admiring his work in the

Ben Casey strip, I just fell in love with the way he portrayed those old characters I was so fond of in my childhood. “The appeal for me was more the art than the characters,” concludes the artist. For him, the allure of the comics medium will always be the artwork itself. Born in Pontevedra, Spain, and raised in Argentina, José Luis began drawing as soon as his hands could hold a pencil. Throughout his teenage years, the mostly self-taught artist labored and created sequential art at various small comic 205

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companies around Buenos Aires. This invaluable drawing experience acquired alongside his production work (lettering, paste-ups, etc.) would prove useful down the line. At 16 years old, the youngster enrolled at the Buenos Aires art school, Escuela Panamericana de Arte, and received an education from many of Argentina’s most well-regarded artists, including lessons from el gran maestro Alberto Breccia. As word of his reputation and technical ability grew, there was never a moment in those early years where the young in-demand illustrator was without work. By the time GarcíaLópez drew for Columba, the country’s top comics publisher [and where the wunderkind did the lion’s share of his early work], an art agent even landed him assignments at Charlton Comics in America on various romance and horror titles. Without knowing a single soul in America or having much money in his pocket, an unflappable José Luis made his way to live the American dream in 1974. He had been smitten with the United States, its traditions, and other aspects of its fantastic culture for as long as he could remember. Through his colleagues at home, García-López acquired the phone number of the talented American-Argentine artist, Luis Dominguez, who not only became a friend, but helped the younger colleague familiarize himself with the ways of Manhattan and the comics companies within it. It was also Dominguez who introduced his new amigo to DC Comics editor Joe Orlando and other DC staffers, and the rest, as they say, is history. From there on the young man let the art do the rest of his talking. The good times flowed as the artist felt at ease at DC Comics, a fortuitous and amicable working relationship that proved to be a godsend to the publisher too. At the

company’s headquarters at 75 Rockefeller Center, editors Joe Orlando, Julius Schwartz, and their peers became firm believers in García-López’s remarkable talents and, justly, increased his workload steadily. For the reliable Argentine, there would never be a lack of assignments. And in return, he became a dedicated company man, gratefully giving DC his unwavering loyalty. Outside of a single profile in an Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, the artist has never rendered a story for Marvel Comics. “The best of times, right from the beginning, the first day I stepped in at DC everybody was nice, respectful, and generous to me,” remembers José Luis. “I want to believe I have friends there, from those early days until this date, and you’re right, the people I met there and work with were and still are the main reason for my long relationship with DC.” A quality that’s always been front and center within García-López’s portrayal of the DC Comics universe is a romanticized essence that serves as a jubilant hallmark. “I guess it has to do with all my previous work. I was 26 years old when I did my first superheroes after doing only romantic, adventure, and epic stories,” explains the creator. “I suppose all that experience in other ‘softer’ genres conditioned the way I approached Superman and other characters. I didn’t concentrate my efforts in the action, but in the body language, something I was more familiar with mainly during my ‘romantic’ period.” Much to his amusement, the Argentine began to take great delight in drawing superheroes because it was an entirely brand new world to him. In Buenos Aires, the artist had drawn everything under the sun except such superpowered beings, but he studied the sequential art of 207

(above) Superman and Wonder Woman were on much better terms in this piece from a DC booklet on promotional comics. (below) Superman artwork from the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, used by DC artists as well as DC character licensees. Superman, Wonder Woman © DC Comics

Neal Adams, Ross Andru, and other DC notables to learn the nuances in this brand of storytelling better. Gradually, García-López gained such fluidity with the genre that it became second nature to him. Time and time again, the young Latin artist showed that he not only had a lot of heart, but that he also had the talent to produce some of the most stunning masterpieces ever published under the DC banner. He proved himself working on all manner of books, like Weird War Tales, Adventure Comics, The Joker, Hercules Unbound, Detective Comics, Tarzan, and other assignments. In 1977, the late editor Joe Orlando, a legendary EC Comics artist and a great champion of García-López, thrust the freelancer into the spotlight with the first high-profile project of his career: Superman Vs. Wonder Woman (All-New Collector’s Edition #54). This 72-page treasury is another of those fondly remembered treasury editions, one where the action is every bit as enormous as the book’s proportions. “Superman Vs. Wonder Woman was a real challenge,” recalls García-López. “It was done after the extraordinary Superman Vs. Spider-Man by Ross Andru and Dick Giordano. [Outgoing publisher] Carmine Infantino and Joe Orlando were more confident than me that I could do something of that caliber. They infused in me a confidence I didn’t feel. I agreed to do it only because of them, and lucky me, they liked the result. Even [incoming publisher] Jenette Kahn, who inherited the project, liked it. What can I say? They were very kind. 208

“I think this was my first collaboration with Gerry Conway. He was the one who set the look of the book; those big splash pages, the action sequences are all pure Conway. I only tried to honor his script and follow his directions. He had ample experience, and I was just a newcomer with luck.” The release of the treasury seemingly elevated the artist to the top tier of creators at DC Comics. Julie Schwartz entrusted García-López’s pencils and star power to launch the big-time DC Comics Presents, a team-up series starring the company’s most iconic character, Superman, on his 40th Anniversary in 1978. In rendering the first four issues and a

handful more later on, José Luis ably laid a solid foundation in setting the thrilling tone of this book’s successful run. “The ones who really set the tone were the editors and writers,” states García-López. “I was just a tool. You have to remember, I didn’t have enough experience with the characters, so my only input was just to do them the best I could. “I guess this was a very democratic book where stars and co-stars had equal time and chance to shine. For myself, I can say I didn’t favor one or another [hero] but had to pay especial attention to Superman, who was the star not only of the book but, more importantly, of the company. Professionally, it is always challenging to do the Big Guy because all the eyes of DC are watching how you handle him. “And the satisfaction came years later, because at that time I didn’t think about the responsibility and future rewards of doing a new Superman title. This came in the ’80s when I started doing the DC Comics Style Guide and saw my and Dick Giordano’s Superman in all kinds of merchandising.” The mark of a true artist is to make even the most uninteresting subject seem interesting. In the famous 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, José Luis García-López does just so by turning an effort that could have been rather mundane into

a captivating and definitive visual bible. Unknowingly, the pivotal industry-only book turned him into “the artist” of all DC artists, and this uncredited effort became synonymous with everything DC as licensees selected images from the handbook’s enticing pages to represent their own products and campaigns. To millions of impressionable young children, these images keyed them into the charm of DC’s magnetic characters regardless of the products on which they appeared—and they appeared on so many products! Another García-López treasure is the jaw-dropping Batman Vs. the Incredible Hulk treasury (DC Special Series #27). Sure, everyone knew he could draw a terrific Batman, but the artist’s interpretation of the intensity and rage in the Hulk is sheer awesomeness, one of the very finest renditions you’ll ever see of Marvel’s monster-hero. Artwork from the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide. All characters © DC Comics

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“I don’t think I portrayed him as a savage monster,” humbly declares the artist. “Let’s say that Hulk got this angry attitude, but you can say the same thing about

A page from Atari Force #2, and García-López licensing art. Atari Force © Atari, Inc. Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman © DC Comics.

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Batman. In some ways they have a quite similar personality. I tried to handle all characters with the same impartiality; the three of them [with the Joker] were fun to do. I really enjoyed working on the book, and having Len Wein writing it and Dick Giordano at the inks was like being part of a dream team.” The cult favorite Atari Force, a joint production between DC and video game pioneer Atari, Inc., proved to be a liberating experience for García-López. It was a book filled with new worlds and characters which the artist created from the ground up. The effort resulted in one of the most rewarding experiences of his illustrious career. Garcìa-Lòpez says, “It was liberating. I never dared to change the looks of any character already established, unless I was asked to, and in Atari Force I had a chance to start from zero. The character designs were approved very fast and only slight changes were required, but besides that, I worked over plots. It wasn’t the first time I worked this way with Gerry Conway, but this time I felt my contribution was more substantial than in former projects. The same thing happened with Cinder & Ashe, what I consider my best work, and again, with a magnificent storyline by Gerry.” The era of 1975 to 1986 is the period where the passionate José Luis García-López cut his teeth and cemented a reputation in the comics industry that remains untarnished. The artist’s relentless commitment to excellence has ensured that his powerful yet finessed art will stand the rigorous test of time. With such an abundance of riches in his body of work, there are many notable comics that make the beloved icon proud. The artist chimes, “The books I remember fondly from this period are Jonah Hex, The Joker, Batman Vs. Hulk, Atari Force. Of course. And the DC Comics Style Guide started in 1982 and is still alive and well.” In Spanish, there’s a word for men as honorable and true as García-López. That word is caballero. So here’s to José Luis García-López, the Caballero of Comics!

sshhhh… It’s a

ome might be surprised to learn that behind the colorful packaging and the joyous toys they contain is an industry as fierce and competitive as any business on earth. Toy companies study and size up one another ruthlessly while monitoring the markets for the latest trends to stay current in the marketplace. It is all about keeping up appearances because business is business, and success comes from having foresight and good intel. At some point in 1983, Kenner struck a deal with DC Comics to produce the Super Powers Collection of action figures and vehicles based on their comics universe. In a countermove against their rival, the Mattel toy company courted Marvel Comics to make their own superhero toy line, and it was these playthings that inspired the bestselling smash mega-crossover series of 1984. Secret Wars editor Tom DeFalco recalls, “Originally we were just talking to them [Mattel] about which characters to use for the Marvel license and that sort of thing. And, like everybody else who ever gets involved in any sort of license, the first thing they say is, ‘Are you going to do a comic book to support these characters?’ And they were talking about characters like Thor, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, and our attitude is, ‘Oh, yeah! We’ll produce monthly comic books for each of those characters!’ [laughter] And eventually they came to us with this concept of Secret Wars because they had come up with the lenticular lenses and the figures, and they were so excited about it, because kids love secrets. Kids love wars and secrets, so ‘Secret Wars.’” When Marvel Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter reorganized his editorial staff, he asked Tom DeFalco to join because of DeFalco’s professional editing experience and previous success at Archie Comics. Although the job was supposed to be temporary, the versatile writer stuck around, ultimately becoming Shooter’s successor as Marvel’s editor-in-chief (serving from 1987–1994). Under Shooter, he became the go-to editor for many of the company’s most important books during the early 1980s on titles such as Amazing Spider-Man and the earliest issues of G.I. Joe. “We wanted them to call the series Marvel Super Heroes,” recalls DeFalco, “and at one point, they sent me to work out the final details with the licensing people. I was at a meeting with them that lasted all day, from early in the morning until night. … Shooter said to me, ‘I don’t care what you do, the name of this line has to be Marvel Super Heroes.’ So I went there and I spent the whole day fighting to get Marvel Super Heroes as the name. Ultimately, the compromise I got was Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. “I remember I was crushed, because I was given one main thing to do, and as far as I was concerned, I’d failed. At one point our licensing people even called Jim Galton [Marvel’s then-president]—went over my head—and Jim Galton, when he heard ‘Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars,’ said, ‘Okay, we can live with this.’ So I went to Shooter and said, “Ohhh.” He said, ‘How did it work out?’ I said, ‘Terrible. I failed.’ He said, ‘What are they going to call it?’ I said, ‘Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.’ He goes, ‘Actually, you did pretty good. I thought we’d end up with Secret Wars.’ [laughs]” With its wordy title and Mattel’s involvement, no one at the House of Ideas was keen on the idea. DeFalco got drafted to edit the toy’s challenging companion limited series because 211

of his knack for building a comic book series and working with licensed properties. “Somewhere along the line, they decided we should come out with a comic book called Secret Wars. And, you know, hindsight is 20/20. When we started to work on this comic book called Secret Wars, connected to the Mattel toy line, nobody really wanted to have anything to do with it. It was a toy comic book. It was like Team America or something. “Shooter kept saying, ‘No, no. We could do Contest of Champions done right.’ [Note: 1982’s Contest of Champions was Marvel’s first limited series and not highly regarded in the slightest.] And I said, ‘Yeah, we could pit all our top heroes against all our top villains. Yeah, we can make it big.’ And then eventually he decided he was going to do it, and spoke to Mike Zeck. I got involved with Mattel because I had worked with Hasbro, with the G.I. Joe stuff and the Transformers stuff. … At some early point, somebody had sold the story to Shooter about Spider-Man getting a new costume.” Helming the art of this twelve-issue limited series were the aforementioned penciler Mike Zeck (of Captain America and Master of Kung-Fu fame), inker John Beatty, and penciler Bob Layton (filling in for Zeck on issues #4 and #5). Writing the series would be Jim Shooter himself. Working closely with his boss did not faze the veteran DeFalco at all. “Now, when I first started doing superhero stories, one of my first editors was Denny O’Neil, and Denny had a sign on his wall—I know I got the quote from Denny, but I don’t know who he got the quote from. And the quote is, ‘The job is boss.’ [laughs] I remember looking at that and saying, ‘Yeah, that’s right.’ The job is the important thing. So I didn’t care that Shooter was my boss. The job was the most important thing. So when we sat down and he would tell me what he wanted to do in the plot, [for] the stuff I liked I said, ‘Okay, that’s good,’ and the stuff I didn’t like, I said, ‘We’ve got to work on this.’ Sometimes he balked, and

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sometimes he said, ‘Yeah, okay.’ Shooter was a professional. … It was mainly his story and mainly his plot, but I was the editor, and what I wanted to edit, I edited.” Orchestrating the Secret Wars series and its tie-ins represented a daunting challenge to DeFalco. Never before had Marvel attempted such an intricate story with so many layers. The cliffhanger set-up for the limited series played out in the final pages of Marvel’s April 1984 cover-dated top monthlies, where one-by-one, the heroes come face-to-face with a mysterious alien transporter in New York’s Central Park that proceeds to banish them into the unknown. The wave of mystery swept up Marvel’s A-list: Spider-Man, the Avengers, the Fantastic Four, the Hulk, the X-Men—there were no-second stringers in sight (sorry, Moon Knight and Daredevil). Of course, readers would not have to wait twelve months to see what happened next as the heroes returned to their titles the very next month… but each of them had undergone a life-changing journey, and some even sported physical and psychological ramifications. In time, all would be revealed in the Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars limited series; it was there that readers would find those answers and more. The twelve-issue series was everything a kid could want: Marvel’s most popular heroes battling their most notorious villains on the newly-formed planet named Battleworld in an unknown galaxy far, far away—no distractions and no

(above) Despite the initial outcry against Spider-Man getting a new costume, fans (well, most of them) quickly came around to his new duds. (below) Rick Leonardi’s tweaks to Mike Zeck’s design at one point had a red-and-black color scheme. Spider-Man © Marvel Characters, Inc.

pesky innocent bystanders. Orchestrating events was the all-powerful entity the Beyonder, who promises the victors everything their hearts desire. The repercussions of the series were immediate and felt across the Marvel line before the actual Secret Wars series explained it all. For example, the Fantastic Four lost founding member the Thing and returned with She-Hulk in his slot; and Spider-Man’s world became even more complicated when it turned out that his newly acquired black symbiote suit had a mind of its own. If Secret Wars is remembered for anything, it is for the sensation and uproar that Spider-Man’s black costume created among comic book fans. DeFalco states, “When word leaked out that Spider-Man was going to get a new costume, we got a ton of hate mail. A ton of hate mail! By that time, I was actually writing Amazing [#251–252]. Everybody thought this was going to be a big bomb. I

think John Romita Jr. in hindsight says, ‘Oh, yeah, they took me off that issue.’ Actually, they didn’t take him off that issue. He left that issue to work on X-Men. This was not considered a prime assignment at the time. Before the first issue came out, Shooter said to me, ‘Everybody hates this new costume thing. We have to get rid of it. What issue is its appearance?’ I said, ‘252.’ He says, ‘Get rid of it in 253.’ I said, ‘No, we can’t do that, because we have to at least wait until he gets it in Secret Wars before we get rid of it.’ We ended up having a big discussion. He said, ‘Okay, okay. You’re right. Let it go. Spider-Man can handle it for a few months.” Amazing Spider-Man #252, the debut of Spidey in his black costume, hit the stands the same month as Secret Wars #1. The full story behind the new threads unraveled seven months later in Secret Wars #8. Each of these issues was an immediate sellout. In the follow-up issues of Amazing Spider-Man (#253–258), DeFalco wrote a string of intriguing stories showing the black costume to be not just a new costume, but a creepy living alien symbiote that is slowly merging itself with Peter Parker’s body and mind. With artists Ron Frenz, Rick Leonardi, and Joe Rubinstein handling the art chores, these tales made even the skeptics fall in love with Spider-Man’s cool new costume. About the 213

development of these Spider-Man comics and the alien symbiote, DeFalco comments, “We knew [the costume] gave him special powers, but we didn’t know why or anything. The alien symbiote and all that other stuff—it was [I] and Ron Frenz who came up with everything. All the good ideas were Ron’s.” Interestingly, the germ of the black Spider-Man costume began with a fan submission that caught Shooter’s eye. The Marvel editor-in-chief bought the idea and apparently liked it enough to insert the notion into his own Secret Wars series. DeFalco explains, “According to comic

book legend, we used this guy’s ideas, but the truth is, the only idea he came up with was doing a new Spider-Man costume, something darker. When I became the editor of Spider-Man, I made Spider-Man’s costume red and black. So I’m trying to figure out, how do you make a darker costume than black? [laughs] But Shooter hired a bunch of artists to come up with ideas for a different Spider-Man costume, and I think Mike Zeck came up with the design that we ultimately used, and then Rick Leonardi got a hold of that design, since he was actually going to be the first guy to draw it. [Rick] made some revisions to it, and we ultimately went with Leonardi’s version of Zeck’s costume, which had nothing to do with the guy’s original idea.” Behind-the-scenes of Secret Wars, penciler Mike Zeck may have been the person under the most stress as the penciler of a book filled with literally dozens of protagonists that had to come out on time. Always fighting the clock, his art looked amazing out of the gate, but it would be tough for any great artist to maintain such high standards on such a grueling book. Editor DeFalco says, “Well, what happened was, Shooter kept looking at the art and saying, ‘No, no. I want this changed. I want that changed. I want the other thing changed.’ He asked for a lot of changes, and as time went on, we were getting more and more changes, and I think Zeck got discouraged— everybody got discouraged.” Despite it all, Secret Wars was a tremendous success and a gamechanger. For Jim Shooter, Secret Wars was the apex of his regime at Marvel. DeFalco says, “Before we got the sales numbers, everybody was convinced this thing was going to be a toy book and wasn’t going to sell. And then when the sales numbers started to come in in big numbers, everybody got nervous.” With chart-topping sales in the neighborhood of 700,000 copies per month, this limited series ensured that the days of mega-crossover events were here to stay. All in all, not bad for a comic book series Our heroes (and villains) “meet” the Beyonder with art by Mike Zeck. that many considered just a “toy All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. comic.” 214

UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLDS ON INFINITE EARTHS “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” —George Bernard Shaw

t the beleaguered offices of DC Comics, the reality had finally sunk in that the only way to make everything right was to embrace change and start all over again… to being anew by rattling the foundation. The facts were the facts: the decades of multiple worlds, burdensome continuity, and blandly massproduced stories had taken a toll on the company’s characters, books, and image. In spite of their better-known iconic properties, competitor Marvel Comics had consistently trumped DC in sales, year after year, for over a decade. To the general readership of the early 1980s, DC had become old hat, and their perceived reputation was of a company losing touch with modern day audiences. To turn things around the outfit looked to the man with the Midas touch: Marv Wolfman, the highly dignified writer of their best-selling title, The New Teen Titans, at the height of his influence at the company. “Today, DC and Marvel’s sales are pretty much in the same ballpark,” says the illus- Crisis on Infinite Earths was trious writer-editor Marv intended to “write over” DC’s Wolfman, the progenitor of muddled continuity. Crisis on Infinite Earths. “One Flash © DC Comics month DC’s up, the next Marvel, etc. Back in the ’80s that wasn’t the case. Except for George [Pérez] and my New Teen Titans book, Marvel was regularly outselling DC. If the average Marvel book was selling 400,000 copies, DC’s were averaging 50,000. Titans

was selling in the same numbers as a good selling Marvel book. So when I came in with the Crisis idea, it was exactly the right thing to do at the right time. DC needed something special and different and something that would tell every fan that this was no longer your father’s DC Comics.” The confident Wolfman was a man with a plan. He had seen the facts for himself and instinctively knew that the only way to move things forward was to go back to the basics by wiping clean the slate of DC continuity. If successful, the writer understood that the rewards of this gamble would allow for clearer and more concise storytelling within future DC books. Much to the dismay of the loyal diehards, this effort became very much about second chances for the distinguished comics company, an opportunity to bring in new readers, to raise public awareness, and to change their perceived bland reputation. For the chief mastermind of this daunting project, the time had come to make things right at DC. “I wanted to get rid of continuity, not strengthen it,” states Wolfman. “DC was suffering from being held in the grip of some ridiculous continuity and, again, except for Titans, Marvel readers were not giving the company a chance. One thing I felt at the time was we needed to say something huge, to indicate everything you knew or thought you knew was no longer true. Although eleven DC fans understood it, I also felt the multiverse was confusing to the Marvel readers, and we needed to get them to try DC and to realize DC had great characters too. Getting rid of the multiverse would shout to the readers that this was new. Because the DCU [DC Comics Universe] was simplified, it was a great starting off point for Marvel readers to try a DC comic for the first time, and since nothing like Crisis had ever been done before, it would say that DC could take the lead in innovation.” In a project of this magnitude and importance, the practical Wolfman couldn’t afford sentimentality or self-doubt. For the betterment of DC and the integrity of this bold story, he intrinsically learned to let go. Wolfman explains, “As much as I liked the multiverse when it was first introduced, I didn’t think it added anything two decades later.“ For years the DC multiverse served as a favorite story device that allowed for infinite variations of planets and characters, as well as alternate futures to all of the possible 215

scenarios. It began harmlessly in the 1961 classic “Flash of Two Worlds” story (Flash #123), when the Golden Ageera Flash met the Silver Age-era Flash, but by the 1980s DC had used the multiverse contrivance ad nauseam. Left behind were confusion, quirky nuances, and uninvolving stories that ingratiated only the DC loyalists, but turned off everyone else. To create clarity, DC writers and editors needed to work together on this humongous undertaking to succeed in making one cohesive universe with a single and proper continuity. “Unfortunately, DC couldn’t fully get its act together,” notes Wolfman. “First, because something like Crisis had never been done, there were many editors and others who felt it was a bad idea—as if letting sales continue to decline was an option—or would never sell. So many editors simply refused to take part until the sales came in on the few books that really tied in with us, beyond the red skies, and they all got a huge bump. Suddenly everyone wanted to be part of Crisis which is why it’s top heavy with crossovers in its second half.” 216

“Secondly, part of my spiel was that at the end of 1985 when the Crisis ended we’d ‘rebuild’ the universe as a single entity. Then the next month every book would begin with issue #1 and start all over with a brand-new origin issue for everyone. We could leave out any bad ideas, or ideas we realized were bad, and hopefully everything would now be better. Unfortunately, it never got done, and I had to rethink the ending. Editor-in-Chief Dick Giordano said in his autobiography that not doing it was the big mistake he regretted, but he didn’t feel that DC at the time had enough good people to accomplish that. “Obviously today [DC co-publisher] Dan Didio was able to take that idea—we talked about it a lot—and made it work for the New 52 revamp. At the same time that the number one idea was shot down, my original ending, where Earth is reborn new and so nobody in the comics would have ever known there’d ever been a multiverse—since if the universe was reborn at the beginning of time, the splitting of the universes would never have happened—was shot down by the other editors.

“One of them argued that if the heroes didn’t remember there’d been a multiverse, it would invalidate all of DC’s history. I argued that A) the heroes didn’t buy our comics, the readers did and they’d remember it, and B) if heroes remembered the multiverse it would invalidate the basic intention of the Crisis series which was to simplify the DCU, because we’d have multiple continuities to keep track of, the old and the new, and the heroes would be whining about a universe they remembered with characters who no longer existed. Unfortunately, I was overruled, and DC, for the next decade or so, became confused. Who remembered the past? Who didn’t? Etc. The confusion was just what I’d predicted would happen. “Anyway, because I was overruled, I came up with a new ending where the heroes went back to just before the rebeginning of the universe so they’d remember. I always hated the ending as we did it.” As if the editorial politics weren’t enough of a hurdle, the biggest problem with Crisis would be in orchestrating a compelling story worthy of the pomp and circumstance the fans should expect from an event of this magnitude. An innovative story of this significance was an unprecedented challenge. The title needed to feature practically every DC character, and serve as a standalone story and the backbone of a multiple of series finales and specially marked crossovers/tie-ins that together would create one powerful and rewarding experience. No pressure.

The magnitude of this huge project resonated with readers and proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered. The lightly promoted first issue sold in excess of 500,000 copies, and the series and its crossovers proved to be a marketing coup for DC Comics. Wolfman ably did the impossible and successfully crafted an epic story, full of imagination and scope that seemingly gave every character their moment of gravitas. The plot sails smoothly through all the dark drama and terraforming taking place for the new DC Universe about to emerge. Creatively, the writing, plotting, and originality in this epic page-turner stand as a Herculean feat even 30 years later. “The book took me about 4–5 years to think about,” says Wolfman. “I plotted it in four-issue sequences so there is a cliffhanger at the end of each third of the book: the first one is the Monitor, who readers believed would be the hero, was suddenly dead, leaving the heroes on their own. The second was the deaths of Supergirl and Flash, which showed the Anti-Monitor as victorious as he destroyed the final universes. And then the ending. By thinking of it as smaller stories, I got past the huge size of the story. As for giving each character their due, I didn’t worry about that. Most of the characters were ‘wallpaper’—they were there to show how big the DCU was to the new people who’d try it out, but I kept the actual character count down by concentrating on a few at a time. On the other hand, I had to make sure the story was emotionally created and

Pérez’s covers for Crisis on Infinite Earths were just the tip of the iceberg for the scope and breadth of the story inside. All characters © DC Comics

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Controlled

as told by Jerry Ordway

ics

“I had [originally] left DC and went over to Marvel to ink John Byrne’s pencils on Fantastic Four, mainly because DC would not give me a page rate increase. Marvel bumped my rates. Well, once I was at Marvel, I was given top rate by DC and fit in many covers and smaller assignments around the Marvel work. So DC started offering me better assignments, and I lined up a Superman annual [DC Comics Presents Annual #4] to do as well. As that deadline neared, I was asked to extend my Fantastic Four run two extra issues, for a total of eight. And in that same time frame, I got the call from DC to ask me to take over Crisis, as Dick Giordano was just not able to do his day job in DC editorial and keep up with Pérez’s detailed pages. I agreed to take over with issue #6. Well, I then immediately started getting pages for #5, so I bowed out of penciling the Superman annual, but Julie Schwartz would not let me off the hook, and kind of strong-armed me into inking the annual. So yeah, I had one more Fantastic Four to finish, a 38-page annual to ink, and Crisis #5. I think I got a double-page spread for that issue first, and it was intimidating, especially with my schedule at the time. I shared a studio with Al Vey at the time and had him do backgrounds on the DC Comics Presents Annual and the Fantastic Four issue, and then erase pencils and fill in blacks on that issue of Crisis. We ordered in pizza every day and worked like 12–14-hour days to get it all done. After that month, I just had Crisis to do, but that was more than a full-time job in itself. Deadlines on Crisis required me to turn around the pages at the same pace George sent them to me, probably two pages a day in and two pages a day out to DC via FedEx.”

not just a plot contrivance, so the majority of my thinking went there: how was each of the major characters affected by what’s happening?” In a moment of pure serendipity, the celebrated and versatile artist George Pérez—Wolfman’s creative partner on The New Teen Titans—became the penciler of this high profile project. In the world of comics, Pérez is the David Lean of superhero artists, perfectly suited to render such a dense opera with compelling flair, and beautiful visages and vistas. For Wolfman, Pérez was the logical choice, a trusted collaborator who not only understood his mindset, but could deliver, artistically, something momentous. “Actually, although I would have died to get George as my artist, that wasn’t the plan at first,” admits Wolfman. “He was going on to other stuff. But as I told him some of the things I was working out, he then asked to do it. As I say, he was always the best choice so, of course, I wanted him. He was obviously the best.” George Pérez says, “When I heard about [Crisis], it was one of those situations where I thought, ‘You know, that has my fingerprints all over it before I ever touched a page. Unless they have any objections, I would love to do this book because it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me. I get to draw everybody! If the plans go as they are going, I will have the opportunity to draw a lot of characters I otherwise may never get a chance to draw, including characters in genres I would never be working in: westerns, the 218

war comics, everything.’ So I didn’t beg for it, but when I suggested, ‘Do you need an artist on this book?’ they didn’t turn me down, which was very nice.” The plan called for the prominent artist Dick Giordano, then DC’s vice president and executive editor, to ink Pérez’s pencils, but realistically the job proved to be more time consuming than he had envisioned. After Giordano and artist Mike DeCarlo’s spirited efforts on the first four issues, Jerry Ordway was brought in as the inker for the rest of the voyage. It proved to be a brilliant decision. The laborious artwork the saga required could have broken the spirit of any artist. Instead, Pérez floored fans with his crisp lines, passionate storytelling, and his trademark hyper-detail. Ordway fleshed out those pencils with a precision and beautiful flow in his inks no one else in the industry could surpass. The superior skillsets of Pérez and Ordway set the benchmark for art in grand comic book events, and the project remains a feather in the caps of both modern masters. “Well, the biggest challenge on Crisis was all the detail,” says Jerry Ordway. “George can draw very small, and no one in comics can tell as much story per page as George does. The pages often had color effects, which had to be inked on separate sheets of vellum, which is a heavier version of tracing paper. Some pages had blue and also red effects, which required separate overlay sheets per page. Crisis also had a longer story page count, not 22 pages, but 24 or more. The

pressure was pretty great to do a good job, and also to keep “This was actually my plan from the beginning,” confirms that schedule moving. There were lots of comics that tied Wolfman. “My thought was we were trying to lure Marvel into Crisis, and we were not allowed to miss that shipping readers to DC, and I assumed those readers probably knew date; it just wasn’t done back then.” all about Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and a few George Pérez expresses, “Hey, remember, you’re talking others, and those characters specifically might have been part to a man who’s done team books for the majority of his of the reason they didn’t buy DC. Back then Marvel fans career. [I feel] I was made for it. I was doing team books at really despised Superman and company. They weren’t called a time that no one wanted to do them because you didn’t Marvel Zombies for nothing. My job was to show them that get paid extra for doing them. I enjoyed drawing differ- Superman could be just as good as any Marvel character. ent characters, and the challenges of trying to make them “Anyway I decided to not feature the big guns, to show how recognizable as the characters they are, filtered through my vast the DCU was by using less well known heroes up front, own style. It’s always a challenge.” leaving Supes and company for after the readers were already Never lost on Pérez was the mounting pressure that hooked into the story. But at the same time I didn’t want came with a title meant to restart the DC Universe. But he anyone assuming we’d bring them in to save the day, so issue focused on the positives and looked at the series as a true one begins with the wholesale slaughter of the Crime Syndream project. For him, there were no regrets… except one. dicate, which were the evil versions of Superman, Batman, “I started co-plotting on the book halfway through the series,” says Pérez. “For me, whatever they decided to do with the characters, if it was something that was unpopular, the writers were going to get blamed for it. I was getting to draw every character I wanted. Frankly, if it succeeded [or] if it didn’t succeed, I didn’t care all that much because I wanted to draw all those characters. And as it became bigger and bigger, and, of course, once the sales came in, I said, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is really becoming important.’ I always tip my hat and give proper credit to Marv Wolfman, who championed this and who was the writer and the main architect of Crisis on Infinite Earths, because I was drawing characters, some of them I wasn’t even familiar with. … Gosh, it was a dream come true for me. It’s what I came into comics to do. “There was one major, major exception, because he wasn’t an active character at the time, which I regret… Hal Jordan, Green Lantern, never appeared in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Not even in the background. I even snuck Raven in. At that point, Raven was supposedly dead or gone, so she only appears in a blue screen somewhere, but never, ever did I draw Hal Jordan. Somehow, his absence from Crisis is the one thing that I wish could have been different.” Naturally, not every character in DC could be prominently featured in Crisis. Wolfman cast an eclectic group of heroes and new characters to be the featured players of this opus: Superman (Earth-Two), Superboy, Firestorm, the female Dr. Light, Alexander Luthor Jr., Spectre, Pariah, and Harbinger among many others. The mix of players left readers on their toes while serving as the right balance to bridge the old DC universe The Anti-Monitor takes down the Crime Syndicate and their universe. All characters © DC Comics and the new. 219

George Pérez reenacts the now-iconic cover image of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 with cosplayer Chiquitita at the 2013 London Super Comic Convention. Pérez is a big supporter of cosplay and poses frequently with fans. All characters © DC Comics. Photo © Chiquitita-Cosplay.

Wonder Woman, and the major JLA characters. What that subconsciously would tell the readers is that the villain, the Anti-Monitor, was stronger than all the JLA heroes combined. So I got to use Supes and company and kill them right at the beginning but still had the real versions available for when I did need them. The only person to have realized what I was doing was Alan Moore, who sent me a wonderful letter after he read the first issue.” In today’s industry, there’s a constant temptation for more “comic book deaths” because killing popular characters is an easy (and lazy) way to drive sales. However, the traumatic downfalls of those beloved DC characters in Crisis were not cheap marketing ploys, but a series of highly charged moments that hit a nerve with anyone with a pulse. Far from gimmicks, every issue was a tidal wave of emotions, carrying a sense of loss and finality. In the unfortunate cases of the Flash and Supergirl, their valiant demises depicted two heroes fighting the good fight with every fiber of their being in their finest and darkest hours. It’s a popular misconception that the maxi-series is solely about the doom and gloom audiences constantly crave, but, unfortunately, there’s collateral damage in any revolution. 220

“I think Crisis was a good story,” states Ordway, “and every death was dramatic in those comics, but for me, to see the end of all the Earth-2 characters, it was sad. I had a Huntress mini-series I was writing and drawing in my spare time, so that went by the wayside when she died. I recall that phone call from DC, ‘Um, you know Huntress is dying in Crisis, right?’ My story had been constructed to take full advantage of her backstory and connection to Batman, so it was not salvageable. The impact of the Crisis storyline was great, and the changes it wrought were necessary though.” “It was important that there be huge deaths,” says Wolfman. “I asked for Supergirl’s demise because I felt in the version that was out then, she took away from Superman as being the sole son of Krypton. I wanted to see that explored in the post-Crisis DC as a way of giving Superman a bit more depth. I always assumed she’d be resurrected—without the flaws— but I kept hoping it wouldn’t be for awhile. Which is exactly what finally happened.” “To know that I was going to be doing a story where they’re actually killing off Supergirl, killing off the Flash, killing off, obviously, a lot of other characters both major and minor,” says George Pérez, “hey, I knew that was going

The final panels of Crisis on Infinite Earths promised change not just in the status quo, but in attitude, with a bit of a wink and a nod to diehard readers who might not desire those changes. But the changes proved to be mostly positive, and the creative outburst that followed in the wake of Crisis was the shot in the arm DC desperately needed. All characters © DC Comics

to carry a lot of weight. Obviously, the ‘Death of Supergirl’ cover became one of the most iconic covers I ever drew. And I think the Flash cover probably would have been more iconic had it come before Supergirl’s death. But, Supergirl’s death was that moment where you realize, ‘Oh, my God, anyone can die.’ Yes, we killed off the Crime Syndicate and other characters. But we just killed off Supergirl, Superman’s cousin, a character who no one realized they missed until that death scene. We all took her for granted until she died. “And, as much as I was proud of that ‘Death of Supergirl’ cover, the fun part of it, for me as an artist, was drawing all those characters in the background. My God, this is the DC Universe. You have all the characters together, characters that otherwise would have no real reason to be together in a story. This is what Crisis was about, the DC Universe being changed, and taking all of DC’s history and filtering it through this one story knowing that in the end it’s

not going to be the same anymore. And that, as I realized what was going on, and the fact that DC was giving us more and more go ahead, the more the sales warranted it, the more they were much more supportive about it, the more we got cooperation from other creators who were at first a little reluctant to be involved in this massive crossover, but of course, the sales started changing their minds.” Despite the dire overtones, Crisis served as a wonderful showcase to all the nobility, magical wonder, and untapped excitement within each DC character. And at the end of this unbelievable journey, readers are placed on a new path, a single universe ripe for exploration, and one that reinvigorated the spirit of adventure at DC Comics. For many, Crisis on Infinite Earths almost singlehandedly restored their faith in the company. It was the redemption of DC. From the ashes of Crisis emerged an exciting renaissance at DC Comics, with a refreshing surge in energy, quality, and diversity as the industry’s top talent produced acclaimed work such as Watchmen and Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. A year later, Wolfman, Ordway, and writer/artist John Byrne spearheaded a revamped Superman character and line; Frank Miller and artist David Mazzucchelli delivered their stylish reimagination of Batman’s beginnings; writer/artist George Pérez’s made over Wonder Woman into 221

the goddess all the world wanted to see—and that’s just for starters. The spotlight was shining brightly on DC Comics for the first time in a long time. Crisis stood tall as an authoritative statement signifying the end of an era for the types of comics that inspired many writers and artists to create comics and become industry professionals. Up to that point, DC heroes hadn’t changed much since the company’s inception in the 1930s. But now creators were able to reconstruct the characters and titles into a relevant line that appeared more united than ever. Everything old suddenly became new again. George Pérez says, “A lot of the older [DC] editors leaving was more of a coincidence, I thought. Maybe they left because the universe started afresh. Some of them were obviously older gentlemen. They were getting into their retirement years. And, of course, some were able to still be creators and a lot of them had control over their own books. I thought, yes, it was the end of an era, because I knew that some of the characters at the time, naïvely, would never be seen again, would never be drawn again. And Marv did originally suggest the possibility of restarting the entire line, a là what they did with the New 52. But the late Dick Giordano, in something that sounds incredibly prescient right now, stated that the amount of editorial staff and the amount of time they would need to do something like that for the entire company’s line of books was prohibitive. They 222

just didn’t have enough manpower; they didn’t have enough time to be able to do that. “There was a lot of contradictory stuff going on, because some books still existed as if nothing happened; some books were restarting totally, so what is the relationship with certain characters to other characters? It was very, very confusing. And regrettably the intent of Crisis, in a way, ended up being a failure. It ended up being a Cracker Jack of a story, a lot of fun, a real epic that defined epic action series for comics, and Crisis is still held as the benchmark for all epic maxi-series. But its intent of cleaning up the DC Universe obviously did not succeed.” Crisis still stands as an influential and rewarding moment in the publishing history of DC Comics, but the readership of 1985 and 1986 had no idea how precious a feat Crisis on the Infinite Earths would turn out to be. This heart-wrenching masterpiece by Wolfman, Pérez, Ordway, and others has maintained its prominence as the zenith of major crossover events. Reading it today, Crisis evokes a powerful nostalgia as a last call to the sweetness and innocence that DC stood for during its first 50 years. It was a far more innocent time when the constant reboots, renumberings, and relaunches of titles weren’t yet de rigueur. Those truly were the days.

ICON Y

JOHN BYRNE

ou could argue that the only comic book artist as popular as George Pérez in the first “What do I love most about half of the ’80s was John Byrne, and that being here at Marvel? It’s the is because what Pérez represented to DC Comics interesting people you get to is exactly what Byrne meant to Marvel Comics’ work with.” fans. Both were young artists who came up and hit their stride at relatively the same time. Amassing chart-topping sales and legions of deeply devoted fans around the globe with similar career trajectories, both became the biggest draws at their respective companies. Logically, the comparisons begin and end there because both contemporaries are unique in their own ways, with different styles, passions, and sensibilities that separate them. But even more than 30 years later, older Marvel die-hards still stand by their man: John Byrne. “I was a fan in the most literal sense of the term. I was fanatical,” proudly states longtime comic book artist Tim Townsend, one of countless comics professionals influenced by Byrne’s work. “By the time I was twelve I had a fairly decent sized comic book collection. But I didn’t want to contaminate my John Byrne books with my ‘regular’ comics, so I procured a metal filing cabinet especially for them. I kept it under lock and key. I also learned how to copy John’s signature so that I could write it across the front of the cabinet in Sharpie. I think it was around this time that I also wrote the one and only fan letter I’ve ever written. I sent it to John, care of Marvel. (I wish I could remember what it said.)” In mid-1970s, British-born Canadian comic artist John Byrne was just a young fledgling freeJohn Byrne in a 1983 “Bullpen Bulletins” piece with an excerpted quote. lancer making his way at struggling Charlton All characters © Marvel Characters, Inc. Comics on titles like Doomsday + 1 and Space: 1999. His early artwork displayed distinctiveness and end- he earned a reputation for himself as he ascended through less reserves of energy which left an indelible impression on titles such as Iron Fist, The Champions, Marvel Team-Up, writer Chris Claremont, who connected Byrne with editors and various fill-in issues. Image Comics co-founder and Savage Dragon creator Erik at Marvel Comics. From there, the ambitious artist seized any and every opportunity at the House of Ideas, where Larsen recalls, “The first time I saw his work was in the back 223

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of E-Man #7. Byrne drew a ‘Rog-2000’ story. I thought it was pretty cool stuff, and he became a guy whose work I looked out for. When he did Doomsday + 1 or Space: 1999, I was there. I followed his work from that point on.” “My first Byrne comic was Charlton Comics’ E-Man #7 featuring ‘Withering Heights,’ the ‘Rog-2000’ backup story. I’ll never forget it,” swears Townsend about his Byrne baptism. “I was at a Little General convenient store with my dad when I was five years old. As he was paying at the register, I looked over and saw a comic rack. It was full of those pre-bagged three-book lots. You know the ones. You never knew what the book in the middle was going to be. I turned on the charm, and my dad bought one for me. As fate would have it, that issue of E-Man was the middle book. I couldn’t even tell you what the surrounding books were. “As we drove home that day I sat in the front seat of the truck, sans seat belt, and just devoured the book. I was really enjoying Joe Staton’s E-Man story and artwork. You have to remember, comics were new to me at this point, so my mind was wide open. As I made it to the ‘Rog-2000’ backup story, however, time just stopped. I can’t stress to you enough how, quite literally, from the first second I laid eyes on John’s art, my mind fixated. “I’m not sure if it’s normal for a five-yearold kid to look past the story and just fixate on artwork, but that’s exactly what I did. Upon arriving home, I immediately ran to my room, grabbed a pencil and paper, and set out to try and copy what I saw. Literally, in one afternoon I discovered comics, John Byrne, and, Original art from a “Rog-2000” story, courtesy of Tim Townsend. through his art, my love for drawing.” Rog-2000 © the respective owner Superstar artist Adam Hughes excitedly remembers his introduction to Byrne’s work: “Marvel Pre- entered a whole different stratosphere, as the winning nature view #11, summer of 1977! One of those grand old black- of this artwork appealed to a wide-ranging readership. &-white Marvel newsstand books of the ’70s, it was the Amongst older comic collectors and children alike, the artist second appearance of Star-Lord, and it was by Claremont, now became an undeniable favorite at the spinner rack. Byrne, and Austin. It came out the same summer as Star “There was something about his work that was a little Wars, and while ostensibly a superhero comic, it was a rip- bent looking,” says Erik Larsen. “Faces looked a bit strange ping sci-fi space opera of a tale. To a ten-year-old looking and he drew these weird rubber band mouths. It looked for anything that even smelled like empire-battling space weird to me, and I found it fascinating. There was an attracopera, it was heaven.” tion to guys whose work stood out. Part of it must have Comics fans became fascinated by John Byrne’s engaging been that he was figuring stuff out. He was experimenting artwork, which quietly evolved away from its Neal Adams and finding his voice, and in that self-discovery there was influences into something more personal and fresh. As an this magic.” engaging visual storyteller, he excelled at all the essentials: “It was more about the art,” expresses Hughes, in terms of narrative breakdown, panel composition, and page layout. the early allure to Byrne’s work. “As a kid, I didn’t really pay But when the artist found his own artistic style, Byrne attention to any storytelling unless it was actually bad. If it 225

was good, the storytelling was transparent; if it was bad, then I noticed. It was never bad with Byrne. But it was his flair for figure drawing and big fantasy that wowed me, I think. And he drew really pretty ladies, which I’ve always liked.” Battlepug creator Mike Norton recalls, “I was dazzled by what seemed like an effortless and smooth storytelling style, and how his characters were both cartoons but extremely detailed. It was the best of both worlds to me. “It was his blending of the exaggeration of cartoons with the naturalistic rendering he put into backgrounds and stuff,” adds the Eisner Award-winning comic book creator. “That guy is a master of drawing environments. Everything feels authentic and right and no detail is spared. His storytelling was clear and fun and, most importantly, made me want to draw comics.” Townsend notes, “There was always an aesthetic to the way John interpreted the human form—faces, eyes, hair, hands, and gestures—that appealed to me greatly. It just made sense to me. He didn’t rely on tons of noodling to covey mood, power, and emotion. He had the dynamics of Kirby with the subtle, flowing elegance of Buscema. His storytelling was unparalleled. I remember crying while reading the ‘Dark Phoenix Saga’ in Uncanny X-Men. No comic has ever made me do that, before or since. There was a solid consistency without being formulaic. He made it look easy. Perhaps this is one of the things that drew me to his work at such a young age. His work made me believe that I could do it. I was too stupid to realize I couldn’t, so I kept going until I made a career of it.” When the prolific artist became the penciler of X-Men in 1977, the book catapulted to the top of everyone’s radar. Building upon a strong foundation set by artist Dave Cockrum with writers Chris Claremont and Len Wein, Byrne (together with Claremont and the ever so talented inker Terry Austin) was able to take the title monthly and build a momentum that attracted readers with its highly involving stories. The creative synergy of the trio changed the nature of superhero storytelling and cemented the inviting X-Men brand that everyone identifies with today. Amazingly, the artist’s penciling and co-plotting tenure lasted less than four years (Uncanny X-Men #108–143), but in comics 226

fandom, this work became the stuff of legends. Those who were lucky enough to be a part of this euphoric reading experience as the monthlies premiered never forgot it. Erik Larsen confirms, “X-Men was, without a doubt, the high point. Claremont and Byrne were Lennon and McCartney to a lot of comic fans—and [for me] the two together were better than either were on their own. I was caught up in the story and faithfully followed it. When Proteus segued into ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga’, we were all on the edge of our seats. What an exciting time for comics. Missing an issue in there was like a death in the family—you were devastated.” “I was a die-hard,” declares Adam Hughes. “When Byrne took over the All-New, All-Different X-Men, which I was already reading, I was in heaven. And then he was also drawing his first run on the Fantastic Four, written by Marv Wolfman and inked by Joe Sinnott. Add to that The Avengers, and he was drawing pretty much all my favorite Marvel characters. I wanted to grow up and be the next John Byrne. “The one Byrne comic that stands out above all the rest, for me, personally, X-Men #138, the end of ‘The Dark

Original art from Uncanny X-Men #131, and the end of “The Dark Phoenix Saga,” Uncanny X-Men #138. X-Men © Marvel Characters, Inc.

Phoenix Saga’. Jean Grey’s death was extremely powerful to me as a young boy. When I was a kid, dead comic book characters stayed dead. Gwen Stacy. Adam Warlock. When they killed Jean Grey, it was so personal—they were ending the story of a character that had been around for a long time and had evolved quite unexpectedly. When it felt like there was never going to be another Jean Grey story, it was a big deal. That Byrne issue landed like a sledgehammer.” Tim Townsend chimes, “At the risk of being obvious, I’d have to say [my favorite] would be ‘The Days of Future Past’ Uncanny X-Men issues. Those books were groundbreaking… and on the tail of ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga’, which, in and of itself, was groundbreaking. I give those books every bit the credit that I do Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns series. “In terms of fond memories, I’d have to say Uncanny X-Men #138. I have very vivid memories of buying that book from a local 7-11. I was going through a lot of family turmoil at the time, and I remember coming home and just getting lost in it. It was a great recap of the history of the new X-Men [team] with page after page of amazing art. I got lost in that book for the rest of the day, and many days thereafter. It was just the escapism my young mind needed. Fast forward to 1994 and my debut as the new inker on Uncanny X-Men #318: Wouldn’t you know it? The cover, by Joe Madureira, was a homage to John’s cover of #138. That was a great feeling and a good omen.”

Ready to spread his wings, Byrne left Uncanny X-Men to become writer and artist (pencils and inks) of Fantastic Four. With more creative control than ever before, the comic book storyteller found his own distinct voice and amassed a monumental five-year run (FF ##232–293) that became an essential experience of the 1980s. Perhaps because the team was a childhood favorite of his, the passion that the writer/ artist has for the team is apparent as every page glistens with soul and inventiveness. Amongst Fantastic Four aficionados, Byrne’s work is so universally adored that it stands second only to the groundbreaking work of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the creators of the mythical foursome. For Chicago-based artist Mike Norton, when it comes to his favorite John Byrne work, the Fantastic Four is what it’s all about. “I’m going to head back to those Fantastic Fours. In particular, the Secret Wars crossover issue in which Ben Grimm was stuck on the Beyonder’s planet [Fantastic Four #274]. I still have memory of telling my friend about it in fifth grade and was so excited about it that I tripped and fell. It was embarrassing, but I remember it! “I liked a lot of John’s inkers for various reasons. Out of those, I’d say I really liked Karl Kesel on him during a lot of his DC stuff. I feel it was very faithful and made sense of a lot of the debris and squiggles that he tends to draw. But I really like Byrne inking himself on those old Fantastic Four comics. It was so organic, yet technical. I even enjoyed it when he’d take a photocopy of a city and use it as a background.” 227

In the 1980s, John Byrne could do no wrong. His robust fanbase faithfully followed him to Alpha Flight, Incredible Hulk, countless Marvel covers, and more. And although there were broken hearts aplenty when Byrne quit the House of Ideas to join forces with DC Comics in 1986… that love did not dissipate. Many hardcore Marvel readers, old and young alike, entered those uncharted DC waters together to catch Byrne make waves on Superman. We’d follow him through it all. “Well, I didn’t have a homemade John Byrne T-shirt or anything,” says Norton. “I was a big enough fan that if it had his name on it, I bought it. He alone made this Marvel kid go to DC when he started writing and drawing Superman. I also sought out Doomsday + 1 when I was in grade school. Who does that?” Hughes fondly states, “My favorite memory buying a Byrne book isn’t even a buying memory; it’s when my mom got me subscriptions to all my favorite Marvel comics as a birthday present. It was tough getting all the books because the town’s general store didn’t always get every issue. Having X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four delivered every month like clockwork was heaven.” The name John Byrne evokes so many fond memories and unforgettable images. His influence is his most important contribution because it lives on in his numerous readers and a generation of comic book artists who still work in the comics industry. “Absolutely,” says Hughes about the artistic hero of his youth. “Byrne’s work kept me going through the transition years from adolescent to teen, when many lose interest in things like comics and toys. My own artwork resembled a poor man’s John Byrne well into my 20s.” Mike Norton proclaims, “I’d say it’s probably one of the biggest influences on my work, if not the biggest. I’m still a huge fan of his art. In seventh grade, I traced a complete issue of Alpha Flight and changed all the costumes and character faces into my own characters—changed all the dialogue too. I’d say that was a pretty sincere form of fandom. I still make the joke today that all my comics are traced from old issues of Alpha Flight. (They aren’t, John! I promise!)” Tim Townsend recounts, “My early studies through my teens were highly derivative of John’s work. Actually, that’s not true. They were outright swipes. I’d spent so much time being fixated on his art that I literally learned how to draw, at least to the point I was at, by copying John. It wasn’t until I got to college that I was able to pull back, start from the beginning, and learn how to draw the right way, from life. What I mean by ‘the right way’ is that I learned the basics and how to develop my own shorthand as opposed to learning from someone else’s shorthand. But my roots will always lay with John. “I’d like to close by thanking John, personally, for all he’s given us, given me, over the years. Your work made an otherwise not-so-great childhood bearable. It gave me inspiration and direction. I dare say that, without the profound influence your work had on me from day one, I wouldn’t have the career I have now. I consider myself extremely fortunate in that I’m able to live my dream. I owe so much of that to you.” 228

Eastman and Laird’s

Teenage Mutant Ninja

TURTLES T

oday everyone knows the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Donatello, Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. They have appeared in movies, cartoons, toys, and all other areas of merchandising and media. But before these fun-loving crime fighters conquered the world of popular culture, they were merely characters in a self-published black-andwhite comic book by two unknown artists from New England. Thanks to their efforts and persistence, the Turtles would go on to become a lucrative billion-dollar industry, and the duo’s dream of success the stuff of legend. For a young boy named Kevin Eastman, there were times growing up in Maine when he felt like he lived in the furthest place from the sun. Fortunately, he found Peter Laird (left) and Kevin Eastman (right) meet their hero Jack Kirby (center), with DC editor Julie Schwartz and a hidden Denis Kitchen in the background. his place in this world the day he came Photo © and courtesy of Kevin Eastman across a comic book by Jack Kirby. That awe-inspiring moment was his first step in a new direction, the best parts away and watered it down. I was sad that [those one that changed his outlook and took him to places that comics] didn’t continue longer, but I was also thrilled when he went back to Marvel to do Captain America.” he’d never imagined. Much to the chagrin of his parents, Kevin was determined “My favorite book at that time was Kamandi,” says Kevin Eastman, “which is also another one of my all-time favorite to become a comic book artist, and Jack Kirby, his greatseries. I remember flipping through Jack Kirby’s Kamandi est artistic inspiration, became his role model for the class of stories and thinking, ‘Man, this is what I want to do when creator he aspired to be. “That was all around the time that I grow up—draw comics.’ It had to do in part with the fact I was reading Kamandi, and it’s all I wanted to do the more that the first film I ever saw in the theater was Planet of the I got into Kirby. Especially around this period of his work, Apes, and the other part being that I grew up in a very small when he wrote and drew all his stories—and he was doing town in Maine—I used to think I was the last boy on Earth four or five titles a month! He was inhuman! I’m like, ‘Holy crap, he’s the boss, the whole package. He can do whatever at times! “But I totally connected with it, and it just made me want he wants to write and draw in comics, and that’s what I want to draw. It made me want to be like Jack Kirby, and I fol- to do,’ and that always stuck with me. Those were the total lowed his work [from then on], and went back and got as ‘creators’ I would tend to follow from that point on.” Although Eastman had the drive, getting a career going in much of the stuff he did before my time as I could. Mister Miracle, The Demon, Sandman, Forever People, New Gods, comics seemed to be an impossible undertaking in remote and The Losers were a bunch of my other favorites from that Maine. Undeterred, the youngster kept himself occupied period—especially if they were inked by Mike Royer, because searching for opportunities and honing his artistic skills I felt he brought out the true Kirby style. I wasn’t a fan of through life drawing, painting, character creation, and even what Vince Colletta did to his work. I thought he took all completing short stories for his own amusement. 229

Gobbledygook #1 collected early individual work from Eastman and Laird, as well as their first collaborations. Gobbledygook © Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird

Eastman recalls, “Where I was at when I met Peter Laird, I was 19 or 20 years old, working odd jobs, and looking for places I could actually sell my work, but they were few and far between. Timeline-wise, after I discovered Jack Kirby and I drew comics all the time, I then found Heavy Metal magazine—bought the first issue off the newsstand—and discovered guys like Richard Corben and Vaughn Bodé, and was eager to find more.” Without a first-rate local comics shop or an Internet forum to mingle with other fans, there weren’t many options to discover the vastness of the funny books business back then. At the behest of a friend, Eastman made the trek to a store named The Million Year Picnic in Boston, and there he discovered a wealth of underground titles. At the shop, the young creator experienced a second awakening through books such as Slow Death and Star*Reach, along with small publishers like Kitchen Sink, Rip Off Press, and Last Gasp. Most importantly, he learned that comics could be made without rules or some soulless conglomerate calling the shots. “That was pretty much it for me,” confirms Eastman. “That was the direction I wanted to go in, and from then on, all my early submissions were to publishers like these. They rejected my work, but Denis Kitchen directed me towards mini-comics publishers—you know, photocopied, stapled together, and you usually pass them around to your 230

friends or other mini-comics publishers/artists in the minicomics community. “That was where I met the guy I call my first publisher, Clay Geerdes, because he would pay me a little here and there to do drawings and stories for him. He did a regular title called Comix Wave and he would send me little jobs, ‘Do an illustration for this news clipping,’ or, ‘This is a theme for a title I’m doing, do you have any drawing ideas for it?’ and he would pay between three and five dollars for each one I finished. That was the first time I got paid for my comics.” As fate would have it, his fortune turned when Kevin met a fellow kindred spirit, artist, and comics fan who would become his friend and collaborator. Their solidarity would also be the final phase of their comics education. Eastman says, “I had moved to Amherst, Massachusetts, in the early ’80s, and I was riding a bus home from the supermarket bagging groceries, and there was this comic fanzine I found on the floor called Scat. It had some comic book stories in it put together by some local artists, and that was just in the next town from where I lived in Amherst, called Northampton. So I went over to try to sell my work, and I brought my little portfolio of cartoons. The guys running Scat were getting over doing these comic books. They were starting to make money doing advertising, and they said, ‘Oh, we don’t do this anymore, but you should meet this guy, Peter Laird—you draw the same kind of weird shit he does! “So they gave me his address, and I wrote him a letter, and I said, ‘Hey, I’m new to the area. I don’t know that many comic book people. Can we hang out sometime?’ And he wrote back and said, ‘Sure, come by.’ It’s funny, the first time he invited me over to his little studio apartment, I walked in the door and he had a half-finished original Jack Kirby page from The Losers, and I literally almost passed out. I had never seen a Jack Kirby original before. We immediately bonded over Kirby. That’s where that all started.” The two became fast friends. Artistically, they pushed one another and bounced ideas between themselves with such honesty and frequency that it quickly became apparent they needed to work together. “We clicked from the get-go,” says Eastman, “and even though there was an age difference of maybe eight years, nine years, it was never an issue. We were just big, massive geeks at heart, and we loved writing and drawing comics. Peter was much more accomplished as an artist, and far more well read. He wrote and drew his own stuff—fantastic robots, fantasy illustrations, and Star Wars drawings. I wrote and drew my own Kirby-meets-crazy-underground-comic stuff, but we really hit if off on a number of levels.” Soon, the two New Englanders got their first small project off the ground: Fugitoid, a concept of a human trapped inside a robot body. This collaboration sprung from Laird’s

imagination and love for rendering robots, and both men worked together completing the rest of the story. Eastman explains, “We did roughly four chapters, and designed them to be published with another idea Pete had called ‘poster comics.’ You’d basically have five-page stories printed on a 17" x 22" sheet of paper. You’d then fold it in half, and then in half again, so four 8 ½" x 11" pages would be the cover and three pages, and the last page would be a full-page splash, that you would open up into a poster—thus, a poster comic. So that was our first project together; these were all intended to be very small press, photocopied comics. “We also put together two collections of older work that we had done called Gobbledygook. It included my old stories and some of Pete’s, as well as the first collaborations we did after we first met. He penciled a one-page story called, ‘Don’t Sleep on Main Street,’ and I inked it, and I did a two-page pencil story called, ‘I’m Only a Loser,’ that he inked. These were photocopied and stapled together, 18 pages each, and were offered for sale in the back of the first printing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.” Soon, Peter Laird took the proactive route and made Eastman an offer he couldn’t refuse—one that took their artistic collaboration to the next level by proposing they form an art studio. Eastman remembers, “In the middle of the Fugitoid work, I had finished cooking lobsters at Johnny’s Oarweed Restaurant in Maine for the summer, and Pete had just moved to New Hampshire with his girlfriend, his future wife, and they had a roommate at a house that they were renting in Dover, New Hampshire, about 20 minutes from where I was living in Maine. During one of our hangout sessions near the end of the summer, he said, ‘Well, when you finish cooking for the summer, what are you going to do?’ I said, ‘I usually travel around and do odd jobs, night classes, whatever.’ And he offered, ‘Why don’t you come down and we’ll start a little studio? We’ve got an extra room you can rent.’ That was September of 1983, and I jumped on it, moved down to Dover, and we formed Mirage Studios—because it was a mirage. “Seriously, it was just our living room, a couple of lap boards, and a 12" TV. That was where we decided we’d team up, brainstorm, send out ideas, and try to get work together. We’d already been working on the Fugitoid stories, ‘Let’s work on some specific illustrations and samples so that we can try to get jobs anywhere that would have us.’” It was at Mirage Studios where an amusing little discovery became the dawn of an empire. Eastman says, “A few months later was when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created. As the story goes, late one night in November, I was joking around with Pete and I did the sketch of a turtle standing

upright with a mask on, ‘nunchucks’ strapped to his arms, chucked it on his desk, and I said, ‘Yo, this is going to be the next big thing, a Ninja Turtle!’ At that point, we got carried away, the studio one-upmanship. He had to top my sketch, so he changed some things and improved on some things, and then I, of course, had to top his sketch, so I said, ‘Well, if one, why not a whole group of them?’ So I did this pencil drawing that had four turtles, each with different weapons, with a comic ‘Ninja Turtle’ logo on the top. He laughed his butt off, and when he inked it, Pete added in ‘Teenage Mutant’ to the logo, and we just fell about the place. “We thought it was the funniest thing we had ever seen, so the next day, as I love to say, we really didn’t have any distracting paying work going on, and agreed, ‘You know what? Why don’t we just do it ourselves? Come up with our own story that tells how these characters came to be, and let’s see if we can scrape together enough money to do either a mini-comic or a small press book! Let’s self-publish it like guys like Dave Sim or Wendy and Richard Pini, are doing.’ I was a huge fan of Dave Sim and his creation Cerebus; he was then and still is now a big inspiration. “In fact, as we got further along in the development of the Turtles, I was like, ‘Look. We’ve already got the animal

The drawings that started it all: Eastman’s first drawing of a ninja turtle (right), and the first full-blown drawing of the team. TMNT © Viacom International, Inc.

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inspiration from Dave’s aardvark running around like Conan the Barbarian, and drawn like a Barry WindsorSmith issue, why don’t we do that? Take all our favorite comic-isms, Daredevil, New Mutants, etc., parody them, and wrap it up in a Frank Miller Ronin-like package!’ Frank Miller is easily my third biggest influence after Kirby and Corben, and Ronin was such an epic undertaking for a writer/artist. I flipped out over it.”

Their devil-may-care attitude carried over into their storytelling, giving their artwork a sense of self-assurance as if crafted by seasoned professionals. The process proved to be a truly harmonious experience for Eastman and Laird, thanks to their natural rapport. Eastman explains, “I think the longest story I’d ever done at that point in my life was an eight-page story, and Pete would probably confess to about the same. This was a 40-page comic, the largest story we ever did. If there was a sense of confidence, I think that is because Pete and I collaborated very well. We made very specific choices with the work, more or less. Pete was a much better artist than I, technically and otherwise, but Pete liked my sense of layouts, which are Frank Miller layouts, and how I paced a story. Otherwise, it all seemed very natural, organic, ying and yang-ish, if you will, we made sure that there was roughly half of each of us on each finished page—that we penciled the whole thing together, then inked and toned all the pages together by passing them back and forth.” But Eastman and Laird had no real business plan when building their first Turtles issue. Thanks to a bit of dumb luck, the team ended up with a format for their project that only added to its charm. Eastman says, “I think the genA 1983 pin-up of the Turtles drawn before the release of the first issue. eral plan was to sell them a copy at a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc. time through the mail. I feel like, in As originally conceived, Turtles might have been a my life, I’ve had way too much good luck, really. The whole parody, but it quickly evolved as a fitting tribute to the thing came together at exactly the right time. spirit of the comics and artistic heroes who Eastman and “When Peter and I started drawing the book, we then Laird worshiped. Lovingly rendered, the highly energized thought, ‘Well, how are we going to print this?’ So we title’s charm was undeniable. “For sure,” admits Eastman, started to put a plan together in early ’84. I got a $500 “but mainly in style of layout, panel borders, and cover income tax return, and I think Pete had $200 in his bank design—and we pulled everything else in it from every- account, so we pooled that together, and found a local where else. I honestly know, all of my best layouts, Frank printer in Dover, New Hampshire, who printed a local Miller had already done them in Daredevil. I wanted TV guide thing called TV Facts, I believe—basically a the book to be drawn with the rough panel borders like newsprint publication, supported by local advertising, Miller was doing in Ronin. I wanted the cover to be a with a few articles and TV programing parody of Ronin. Then Pete and I pretty much rolled in all “Actually, [laughs] that’s why the early issues were overour favorite Stan Lee-isms, Chris Claremont-isms, more sized, because we brought him a copy of TV Facts and said, Frank Miller-isms, and Richard Corben-isms—again, ‘Can you print a comic like this, and how much?’ and he pulling our favorite comic bits from everywhere into the gave us a great price because it was same size that his printfirst and—we thought—only issue there would ever be. ing press was set up to [run]. So we struck a deal, but, all We basically assumed that not one single person would along Pete and I were thinking he’d make it comic size autoever buy a copy of this book, so we just did whatever we matically for us, so we went about finishing the art.” wanted to do. [laughs] We said, ‘If we’re writing and drawSeemingly following the presentation of independent ing this book only for ourselves, let’s draw it only for our- pioneers such as Elfquest, Nexus, and Love and Rockets, selves.’ So we did.” the oversized format of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was 232

The cover of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, and the check from Eastman’s Uncle Quentin that paid for the first printing. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc.

purely accidental. Kevin comments, ‘We said, ‘Look, we’ve got $700. How many black-and-white comic books can we get printed with a color cover?’ He gave us a series of price quotes… and we felt the one we could try and make work was 40 pages and a two-color cover, it came up to roughly $2500 for 3000 copies. “So Pete and I then put together a business proposal to borrow some money, and we rounded it up to $3000 so we could do a little advertising, and some press releases and such. We knew an ad in the Comics Buyer’s Guide cost around $145, we knew what the printing would cost, and if we sold every copy at $1.50, we could pay the money we borrowed off, and still have a little for ourselves. “We went to my Uncle Quentin first, who is an awesome guy. He used to sell art supplies for Chartpak, and always hooked me up. So we put together all our numbers, scheduled a meeting with him, and we said, ‘Listen, we need to borrow $1,300, and this is how we’ll pay you back.’ And he wrote us a check. As I said, he is an awesome guy. “With that, we were able to print our 3,000 copies, put one ad in the CBG, and Peter had this great plan to send

out press releases to all the local newspapers and maybe get a little press out of this. It worked, because not only did we get local press, the [Associated Press] picked it up, and it got coverage all over the country. We built the release around a comic con that was coming up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on May 5, 1984, which our friend Ralph DeBerdinardo ran. “We finished the art, got the books printed, and picked them up, and drove them over to our house. We still joke about the fact that we started making furniture out of the boxes of books because we figured we’d be holding onto these 3,000 copies for a long time— we made bookshelves, a coffee table and stuff like that. The convention premiere happened, and we sold a hundred or so copies, mostly to family and friends we invited to the show, and were thrilled. “Then, from the ad that we put in the CBG, we started getting calls from some of the distributors, saying, ‘Hi, I’m a distributor. We’d like to buy your comic book and distribute it.’ And Peter and I were, like, ‘Okay, we’ll call you back.’ We’d hang up and go, ‘What the hell do we do now? We don’t know how the system works…’ but figured, ‘Well, they wanted to distribute it, and they’d probably want a discount,’ so we called them back and said, ‘We’ll sell you as many copies as you want, and we’ll give you ten percent off cover price!’ “When they got done laughing, they said, ‘Well, let us explain to you how the direct market works…. You usually do a solicitation for your book through us to comic shops, and based on the number of books they order, we buy them from you at 60% off cover price, but non-returnable. We were like, ‘60% off? From a $1.50 book? Oh my God, we’re barely going to cover the cost of printing them.’ But we agreed, and this is how we accidentally got into selfpublishing, and we ended up selling out of the first 3,000 copies in a couple weeks. Although we had enough money to pay Quentin back, we were still getting orders, so we got the okay to print 6,000 more, and sold those out in a few weeks—and then paid him back, plus a little extra. “And then I went back to cooking lobsters for the summer! [laughs]” If issue #1 was the only Turtles issue ever released, Eastman and Laird might have been satisfied. As we all know, their self-publishing venture turned out better than any scenario they could have dreamt. Not only were they over the moon with their triumph but so too were their investor, who had been paid back; the enthusiastic audience who enjoyed the book; the shop owners who sold out of the book; and the distributors who carried it. But amusingly, for a brief moment in time, making more Turtles stories was the last thing on the duo’s minds. 233

necticut from Maine a couple times. We hammered out the idea, and we started working on the pages through the mail. I made a couple trips down to Connecticut so we could finish the art together. In January of 1985, we got the orders in from the distributors from our solicitation, and they wanted to buy 15,000 copies! I remember Pete calling me, and he was over the moon, and he goes, ‘Look, they ordered 15,000 copies, and after we pay the printer, if we did six issues a year, we’d make roughly $2,000 each in profit! We could make enough money to pay our rent and actually do comic books for a living!’ “I pretty much hung up the phone, quit my new cooking job, and moved to Connecticut! [laughs] I’ll speak for both of us, as I always tell the fans, that’s when the dream came true… because, in January of 1985, I got to start making a living drawing comic books, and that was, and still is the greatest job on the planet.” At a mere 21 years old, Kevin Eastman was living the dream as a working comic book professional and on his way to becoming a successful co-publisher alongside his friend/co-artist/co-publisher Peter Laird. The modest days of working (and surviving) at a deli and restaurant kitchens in order to pay for his rent, meals, and art supplies were now over. When they went back to the drawing board for issue #2, Eastman and Laird let momentum take its course. Plotting sessions freely produced an endless barrage of ideas and potential storylines for their Meet the Turtles—the opening page of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1. characters. “I remember it was almost like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc. having too many ideas. We were like kids in “It was one of those things that we were happy we sold a candy store because when we plotted out issue two, thinkthose, which was really cool, and then I went back to work ing it too would be a self-contained issue, we narrowed it for the summer, as I needed to make enough money to get down to one complete story that would work, but left the through the following winter,” explains Eastman. “So Labor door open for lots more,” says Eastman. Day rolls around, the summer job was done, I had moved “When we solicited for issue three, and the orders came back up to Portland, Maine, and Pete moved to Connecti- in higher, we started to pull together all of the notes from cut. His wife Jeannine had gotten a teaching job there, so our discussions, and roughly laid out what the next few off they went. On [a phone] call he tells me, ‘You know, issues would be, maybe four or five issues, and started on we keep getting these distributors calling, and they want book three which had an epilogue that would lead into a to know when we’re going to do a second issue…. Do you continuing story. Guess we were getting a little cocky. For want to do a second issue?’ and I said, ‘Hell, yeah! Let’s do issue three we were like, ‘Well, let’s continue part of some of another one! What should we do for issue two?’ the ideas and themes that we created for issue two, but, you “That’s when we started brainstorming for issue two— know what, I’ve never seen a car chase in comics. How about and solicited for its release. I took the bus down to Con- we come up with something like that we can build a story 234

around? So, let’s design a story where April has a van, and The plot thickened with the arrival of licensing agent Mark she’d need one to go pick up the Turtles who were in trouble,’ Freedman in 1986, who saw potential in the characters and and we worked out an eleven-page car chase! [laughs] pitched the heroes as a toy line to various toy manufacturers “From the epilogue, where we find out what happened to before making a deal with Playmates. The then-minor comSplinter, who was missing, and there were smashed Mous- pany not only made the toys but produced the popular carers everywhere, his part of the story led to a bigger idea toon series as well. By 1990, the sky was the limit, between where we’d dive into one of our other biggest influences, the arrival of blockbuster live-action movie, the 150 million an homage to Star Wars, so we did it. dollars generated from the toys, We took the Turtles to outer space at and loads of lucrative side deals. the end of issue four, issue five, and The Turtles were omnipresent and six. They were in the middle of this big were here to stay. galactic adventure—and we even got to Even with all the movies, carroll the Fugitoid into the TMNT cast toons, toys, and other Turtles of characters! We got to do all those goodies that have been released George Lucas riffs, and Pete got to draw over the years, the backbone of robots, and we, again, wrote the comic book solely for ourselves, but by now the fans were on board and the numbers of copies we sold continued to grow.” Turtles made huge strides in overturning the misconception that indie titles weren’t accessible to a general audience. It is also proved to be a fresh and fun change of pace to what was coming off the assembly line at the Big Two. Eastman says, “If it was indie, [people] thought that it was more adult, and [TNMT] was edgy in some parts—some of the violence might have been a little heavyhanded. But then again, it was nothing we weren’t really seeing in Comics Code-approved comics at that time. It was like a lot of the action scenes in Daredevil, like Bullseye killing Elektra. There was a lot more non-Comics Code[-approved] stuff coming out around that time—Pacific Comics and Capitol Comics publications. We wrote all the early stories for the audience of two, which is Peter and myself; we were the writers, and we were the editors. We didn’t know what the hell we were doing beyond doing what we felt was right, what we wanted to see in the book. I think in one of the panels in book two, one of the Turtles asks April if she’s got any beer! Even after we put that in, we said, ‘You know, would the Turtles really drink beer?’ and I don’t think that type of thing ever appeared again. We just decided we really don’t need to go there—except for a guest appearance in “Munden’s Bar” in the back of the Grimjack series.” It wasn’t long before grander business opportunities presented themselves, starting with a The Turtles ask for beer in TMNT #2. Alcohol doesn’t come up again in the handful of small licensing deals such as the 1985 series. And a 1988 Rafael figure from the popular Playmates toy line. Turtles role-playing game from Palladium Books. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc. 235

the franchise can be traced back to the original comics created by Eastman and Laird. Eastman says, “The foundation is all there, for sure. Although we expanded on the personalities a lot more in the shows, and even in the Tales of the TMNT and the Archie series, which was in part based on the animated series. I feel like it’s all basically inspired and based on those 15 original books. Even when you consider

the small number of original issues we did together, Pete and I still worked together tirelessly and endlessly on all other things Ninja Turtles. We had say and approval over everything—nearly 300 animated shows; all aspects of the toy line, including designing many of the toys; three liveaction movies; and we worked with all the artists and writers for the Tales of the TMNT Mirage books, as well as the in-house art that the Mirage artists were packaging, and all of the original Archie comics.” In a relatively short time, the Turtles became a pop culture sensation, and no one could have predicted the sheer volume of business ventures, responsibilities, and meetings that came alongside their enormous popularity. The price of Eastman and Laird’s success was that it became increasingly difficult to allocate time to do the thing they wanted to do the most: write and draw comics together. Eastman explains, “We managed everything as best we could, and hired a lot of people to help us do it right. These were our creations, and we wanted full control. The entire global universe of everything that had a Turtle on it, we saw it, we worked on it, we approved it, and a lot of times, we had guys in our studio designing it or doing the finished art for it. What I think is the most crazy about all this, was we got into the business to draw comic books, and from 1984 to 1987, ’88, Pete and I were probably drawing 90% of the time, and 10% of the time handling the business. As little as one year later, it was the complete opposite. We were doing business, managing our creations, 90% of the time, and doing the physical drawing 10% of the time.” “Although it might have been frustrating to a certain extent at the time, looking back, it is exactly what needed to be done. We knew we were lucky to be in control of our creations. We were well aware of how important this was and how lucky we were to be in this situation. Indie guys like Dave Sim—who was very vocal about owning your characters to up and coming creators—we understood what it meant to be Wendy and Richard Pini and what they Archie decided to launch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures as a three-issue miniseries, so Eastman and Laird’s cover to issue #6 became the cover of issue #3 of the ongoing series. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles © Viacom International, Inc.

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were doing with their own characters, having control. There were lots of creator-owned characters coming out in this publishing time period, but we were one of the first big ones in the middle of Hollywood, having complete say, and getting paid fairly for it. “What made everyone more aware of this sort of thing at this time is there were legal battles brewing around Jack Kirby trying to get his artwork back from Marvel, as well as looking to get more recognition, credit, and profits for the characters that he created for or with Stan Lee. The Comics Journal did an amazing amount of coverage on it, and a lot of up and coming artists who owned all or part of their creations joined the fight. At the same time—I’m not slamming Stan, and I’m not reducing the importance of how Jack should have been treated, even retroactively treated—but it unfortunately was the nature of the business for 50 years before. To us new guys, the structures seemed incredibly unfair to the artists and writers that built our industry. Thank God it changed—for the most part anyway. “Jack Kirby taught me the greatest lesson of all: the love of what you do is first and foremost. Love the fans, as they give you this awesome job. If you don’t have fans that enjoy what you do, then what are you worth, really?” The success of the Turtles was a wake-up call to comic book creators. One that made everyone take note that you didn’t need Marvel or DC to make it, all you needed was your imagination and determination. But Eastman and Laird never take their humble beginnings for granted. “We were naïve in many ways, innocent in many more, but what we felt was pure. Pete and I, solely for the love of the art, the medium, the comics, telling stories was a dream come true. We had the greatest job ever in our opinion. We could look to our parents and say, ‘Wow, we’re actually paying our rent by drawing comic books!’ which stunned them in many ways. I know they figured we’d be living in their basements for the rest of our lives.” Thanks to the TMNT’s current global rights holder Viacom (since 2009), there will continue to be new Turtles movies, TV shows, and 237

merchandise for the foreseeable future. “Beyond and then some,” says Eastman. “When I do shows now, and panels, I always talk about the fact that I’m still talking about the Ninja Turtles 30 years later—and I tell them that it’s all their fault! [laughs] Half the people that come to the shows are original fans—either of the comics or the TV series— now enjoying it with their kids, and the other half are all the new fans since the relaunch. The short history of how we got from there to here, or at least what has happened with the TMNT over the last ten years or so, is more or less a continuing journey of decisions made regarding ownership and control over your own creations. “Peter and I worked together on the Turtles for better than 15 years or so pretty solidly. I sold more than half of my interest to him in ’97, ’98, and then I sold him the remainder of my ownership interest four or five years later, which gave him full control. I was comfortable with the decisions I made at that time, as I wanted to do other things, and Pete did some pretty amazing TMNT shows and toys furthering the legacy, and the 2007 animated film was awesome. “I think seven or eight years ago, maybe a little longer, he reached a bit of burnout, and decided to sell everything to Viacom, and take life a bit easier. A lot of people don’t know how much work goes into running the business end of a property like the TMNT. “Once Viacom started putting together a relaunch through Nickelodeon and Paramount, and new toys with Playmates, they licensed the comic publishing rights to IDW, and that is where I started to come back into the

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property as mostly a consultant. Although I have never been that far away from the TMNT, publishing [Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles] Artobiography through Heavy Metal, and, of course, the convention signings, I had also been doing a bunch of consulting and development on the new TMNT film for about three years before Michael Bay and Jonathan Liebesman took the helm, and did even more consulting once they did. “But for me, coming back into the comics end was really taking it back to the very roots of where it all started with Pete. My old friend, Ted Adams, one of the original founders of IDW, reached out and said, ‘Hey, we’re doing the new TMNT series. Would you be interested in doing some covers?’ I said, ‘Yeah, of course, I’d love to do the covers. What are you guys thinking about for the story?’ Ted said, ‘Why don’t you pop down to San Diego to meet series writer Tom Waltz and series editor Bobby Curnow, and see what they have in mind.’ So I popped down—I was living in L.A. at the time—met with the guys, and after Tom rolled out his concept, I was blown away! He was basically picking his favorite parts of the original black-and-white series, the movies, and the animated shows, and threading them all together into a new Turtles universe, a new foundation to tell TMNT stories from, using his favorite parts of all the original stuff with his own spin. “So we met a few more times, I gave him my two cents on some things, brainstormed on a few others, just kicking some loose ideas back and forth, and Nickelodeon, who has final say on what the series would be, gave us all a lot of rope to move, and had some great ideas as well. The more time I spent on the new series and where it was going, the more I got involved, and the more they wanted me to come play with them. Tom does all the heavy lifting mind you, but I love that they let me come in and work on some of the overall stories, as well as do some of my own. I think the last Turtle book I did full-on [Body Count] was in 1996 with Simon Bisley; I wrote it and did layouts. And now for IDW I get to do a cover for each issue, pitch in on the stories, I’ve done an annual, a fill-in issue, and just completed a new 48-page annual—and I’m having nearly as much fun as when Pete and I worked on the early issues! “Going back to work on the Turtles for IDW, it just blew my mind how much I missed them, how much I loved drawing them, and how much more I had to say about them. It really got me excited about drawing comic books again, and helped me change a lot of the things that were going on in my life so that I could make more time to draw and spend less time doing other business stuff that wasn’t really going anywhere anyway. I finally got to go back and do what I originally wanted to do my whole life, draw comic books…. I’m beyond thrilled that the fans have turned out, supported it, and have once again given me the best job on the planet.”

ALAN MOORE—Innovator

efore Watchmen in 1986, the general consensus was that comic books were a medium that best served children and the unintellectual. They may have never said it, but even major companies like Marvel Comics and DC Comics expected their young readers to outgrow reading their superhero lines of books after a four- or fiveyear span. Comics were supposed to be just a juvenile phase that would eventually be outgrown. It was the bastard medium of literature looked down upon by parents, “well-adjusted” adults, educators, and literary critics. No one has done more to change the way comics are perceived than writer Alan Moore. He turned the comics industry on its head. He converted a generation of non-believers into believers. Born and raised in Northampton, England, Alan Moore was a curious admirer of the comics art form since childhood. He devoured and studied it all: “Marvelman” and “V for Vendetta” as they first appeared in the UK. comics from the UK and United States, superheroes Marvelman © Marvel Characters, Inc. Swamp Thing, V for Vendetta © DC Comics. and the undergrounds, humor and science-fiction strips, etc. Although he was a competent cartoonist and Avoiding all clichés, “Marvelman” was a fresh and progreshad written short stories for 2000 AD and Marvel UK, he sive approach to superheroes, one that changed the genre made his mark writing “Marvelman,” “The BoJeffries Saga,” forever by inspiring countless grim and ultrarealistic imitaand “V for Vendetta” in the pages of the groundbreaking tions. “V for Vendetta” was a powerful vision of a future Warrior magazine in 1982. At Warrior, Moore was free of where one man, the mysterious masked terrorist named V, constraints, able to write comics the way he saw fit, with defiantly took on the powers that be of the fascist governa no-nonsense approach that pushed the characters and ment ruling the United Kingdom. Word of mouth built his writing into places the medium had never seen before. Moore a subsequent acclaimed career and a devoted following of readers in England and the United States that would only continue to grow over the years. Having seen his work in the pages of Warrior, DC Comics editor Len Wein, the co-creator of Swamp Thing, recruited Moore in 1983 to write Swamp Thing. With the title on the brink of cancelation, Wein could afford to take a gamble on this talented English outsider. Right away Moore turned the title inside out with a level of sophisticated horror that was both cutting edge and compelling. In the story titled “The Anatomy Lesson,” his second issue, he literally dissected his titular character and exposed everything readers previously knew about the character as moot. At the heart of Moore’s Swamp Thing, the horror comes not from the vegetative supernatural being but from the toxic world that surrounds him. For at the roots of this Swamp Thing is a love story for the ages between the monster and his best gal Abby Holland, lovers who go to hell and back to be together. With his artistic collaborators Stephen Bissette, John Totleben, and Rick Veitch, Moore made the book 239

a creative juggernaut that showcased frights and scope in every single issue of this now essential run of comics. In 1986 DC Comics began publishing Watchmen by Moore and artist Dave Gibbons. Considered by many critics and fans as the most important work of the genre, it stands as the benchmark for superhero tales. Watchmen is a poignant and intricate novella wherein a group of superheroes fight their personal demons and lies, both from their past and present, as a larger plot emerges that could lead to the death of millions. With its tight structure and heightened sense of reality, the story was a triumph of writing, art, and design in comics. The ambitious series won a prestigious Hugo Award in 1988 and has remained in print ever since as a perennial bestseller. Between Watchmen and “Marvelman,” Moore had dramatically taken the superhero genre to places far beyond their original purpose of juvenile entertainment.

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Frustrated with DC’s management and policies, Moore set his sights on more ambitious and dramatically diverse sequential work in stories like From Hell, an epic and meticulously researched Jack the Ripper thriller; Lost Girls, a pornographic graphic novel about the erotic adventures of three classic literary females; and Big Numbers, the unfinished, personal, and experimental drama set in Moore’s hometown of Northampton. At Image Comics, Moore even briefly returned to writing superhero fare with 1963 and Supreme, both series loving tributes to the Silver Age of comics, much lighter in tone than his previous genre work. 1996 saw the debut of Voice of the Fire, his first prose novel. In 1999, Moore wrote an entire line of comics for his America’s Best Comics imprint (originally published via WildStorm Comics and DC Comics); one of those titles was the highly successful League of Extraordinary Gentlemen series (with artist Kevin O’Neill), a title that continues to be published under its current publisher Top Shelf. In my very first interview with Moore in 1999, I asked him if there was still room for innovation in the comics field. The optimistic author replied, “There’s always room for innovations. It just depends whether there are that many people who care to make them. People like Jack Kirby are remarkable because they don’t come along very often. There were more people like Jack Kirby in the early days of comics. Individual creators like a Will Eisner and a Harvey Kurtzman who could have an incredible impact on the way comics were put together and conceived of. These were sort of giants. There have been some other people who have made bold experimental moves. I don’t see a lot of that around anymore. There are people making an effort certainly. It’s been a long time since there was any one individual creator who really tried to push the boundaries of the medium or to impose a unique individual style upon things in the way that Kirby did. Yes, the possibilities for comics are endless but it depends upon coming up with men and women who are just capable of realizing those possibilities, which is something that is totally unpredictable.” Often imitated, there’s only one writing pioneer in comics as thoughtful and as passionate who has taken the medium into unprecedented higher ground. When Hollywood began to adapt comics into big budget productions, his stories were the ones most desired. He’s the man responsible for opening the floodgates and setting the bar for the wave of British comics writers who followed him, such as Neil Gaiman and Garth Ennis. His classic body of work forever stands as proof that comics can be great when you challenge yourself to write and think to the peak of your abilities. His name is Alan Moore. And we’re better off for knowing him.

“A

Cl assy CLASSIC

ll good things must (come to an) end.” There comes a time in each of our lives when we must bid a bittersweet farewell to our childhood friends, family, and the places so close to our hearts. Whether that comes upon graduation or when your folks move away from the only neighborhood you’ve ever known, life teaches us that all things must pass no matter how much we may want them to remain the same. For Superboy, a teen Clark Kent, that day of melancholy arrived in Legion of Super-Heroes #259 (1980). It was in this wistful issue that the Legion of Super-Heroes, a teenage group of heroes from the 30th Century, sadly parted ways with fellow club member Superboy. Their classic exploits harked all the way back to Adventure Comics #247 (1958), and continued for more than 20 years in a time far, far away. In many ways this future represented a “Neverland” for Superboy, a place where he was free to be himself and use his powers without reservations, all while having a blast and fighting the good fight with friends like

OOD NIGHT, WEET PRINCE

Brainiac 5, Saturn Girl, Lightning Lad, and all of the other colorful boys and girls from his merry band of Legionnaries—the Lost Boys to his Peter Pan. Behind the scenes at DC Comics, the feeling was that the time had arrived for the Legion of Super-Heroes team to stand apart from Superboy’s celebrity, the title’s most recognizable and bankable star. As the writer of this fondly remembered story, Gerry Conway says, “The same sort of thing happened with the JLA [Justice League of America], and with Batman, and Teen Titans. There’s a problem when you have a group book that features a character who is prominent in his own series, or has a prominent existence outside of the group. It becomes difficult to do group stories, because one of the characters has a very functional life that doesn’t affiliate with the group. “In the case of the Teen Titans, Robin/Nightwing has a very strong identity outside of the Teen Titans. But, in the case of Teen Titans, he was crucial to the storylines, so we had to in effect write him out of Batman in order to make his role in Teen

i 241

Titans more credible. Similarly, you had the situation with Superboy in Superboy and the Legion [of Super-Heroes] where Superboy exists outside of the Legion universe, and outside of the Legion group, and is an integral part of that larger universe. So the question then becomes, how can you have any real suspense, how can you have any real consequence, to stories that occur inside the group with Superboy if he’s going to have his own life going on outside? It was, ‘Well, maybe we need to have him moved out of the book.’” Although the tale’s emotional resonance with readers is not lost upon longtime beloved artist Joe Staton—who beautifully rendered this story with inker Dave Hunt—the work was done during a somewhat rocky period in the early days of his career. Staton says, “Although I enjoyed working on the Legion when I started on it, when Paul Levitz was writing it, toward the end I think I was really burned out on the Legion. They were a set of characters that I never really figured out what world they were living in, so I never really got a good handle of the Legion. I was feeling pretty well beaten down by it toward the end, so I’m sure whatever came up in the books at the time, it was strictly between Gerry Conway and Jack Harris.” Gerry Conway’s goal was to make this comic something special, to give readers “a feeling of finality so that it had some emotional consequence.” The writer adds, “There’s a logical inconsistency in the Superboy/Legion relationship that nobody had ever been willing to deal with. He spends enough time with the Legion so that he’s involved in a lot of their adventures. That means that he’s growing older than he actually is, chronologically, in his own life. So, for example, he flies off to the 31st century or whatever it was, and he spends two months with the Legion on a major mission, and he comes back to Smallville the same day that he left, 242

but he’s now two months older. Eventually, he’s going to be, like, in his 20s and still in high school. [laughter] Sooner or later, he has to leave. He has to make a choice. There’s no logical way that he can keep this up.” The story is set in motion when Superboy finds himself face-to-face with the gravestone of the Kents, his adoptive parents. This confrontation with the inevitable brings out a wide range of emotions within the young lad from guilt to sorrow. Perhaps out of naiveté, the thought of the Kents passing had never entered the mind of Clark Kent during the blissful times he spent far out in the 30th century. So, for the sake of their time-traveling friend, the entire Legion team reasons that it is in Superboy’s best interest to stay permanently in the 20th century, by the side of his beloved (and much alive) parents, and Saturn Girl implants this heartfelt decision as a telepathic hypnotic suggestion upon an unsuspecting boy of steel. The time had finally arrived for Superboy to grow up. In closing, Gerry Conway says, “I always wanted my stories to have some kind of emotional consequence for the characters, so it’s always good when people get that.” This issue’s lasting appeal amongst fans has made it an experience that no reader could ever forget. And its somberness proved to be a satisfying last good-bye amongst true friends told in grand fashion by the creative team of Conway, Staton, and Hunt. Yes, all things may pass when we move on to wherever life takes us, but cherished stories and memories, especially the sweetest ones… those are the ones we take with us wherever we go.

The End

EPILOGUE: STREET CRED

ers

t all began with Action Comics #1. “I remember reading the first ‘Superman.’ It’s overwhelming,” recalls longtime Harvey editor Sid Jacobson about the childlike wonder he felt when he met the Man of Steel in 1938. “I’ve spoken over the years to some of my old friends from that time, and they remember it vividly. It was an earlier coming of the Beatles and Elvis Presley. That’s the best way I can describe it. “I was ten years old at the time that came out, and there were things [like] Ace Comics and Tip Top Comics, which were really reprints of newspaper comics. But the first real comic book that you jumped at was Superman, and then all those superheroes that came quickly after that. The field was flooded with them. They said, ‘Oh my God, this thing works!’” In the Golden Age, comic books was an ambitious new medium geared for kids created by eager artists and entrepreneurs. Their larger-than-life characters and vibrant colors spoke to the imaginations of children across the country during the late 1930s and ’40s. Overnight, the funny book field became a lucrative business, and it wasn’t long before there was a proliferation of comic titles, film serials, and licensed goods. Regrettably, the industry went into complete turmoil when a Senate subcommittee launched a witch-hunt to investigate the sensationalized claim of a link between comic books and juvenile delinquency in 1954. Between the widely seen hearings and ruthless bad press, the business of comics was in shambles and bastardized in the court of public opinion. Due to public outcry, most of the remaining publishers created (and funded) a selfcensoring body called the Comics Code Authority to oversee the wholesomeness of their fragile publications. Soon after, the Silver Age began with the reinvention of the Flash (in 1956’s Showcase #4) and other now child-proof characters in a kid-friendly environment where all titles needed to tread lightly. Then in the 1960s, the entire game changed with the emergence of the Marvel Age of Comics, led by the bold art and contemporary characterizations of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko (with writer and editor Stan Lee, of course). Marvel’s publications resonated with readers of all ages looking for titles with a bit more bite. The 1970s proved to be a decade of generational transition for comics. It was a period where longtime Golden Age and Silver Age staffers were now exiting to make way for a new generation, who unlike most of their predecessors were actual fans of the medium. But the ’70s was also a dark period—sales were in a severe freefall. Despair cast a shadow over the industry. Many insiders feared the end was imminent as comics limped into the ’80s. In similar fashion to the 1970s invasion of Filipino artists, DC Comics discovered a new untapped pool of talent in England in the early ’80s. The recruitment of UK comic creators Brian Bolland and Dave Gibbons led DC to headhunting other British illustrators and one of the most original writer the comics medium had ever seen. The distinguished author Alan Moore remembers, “I think that I was the first writer that they asked over there. And, yes, I was becoming aware of friction and restrictions in some of the British titles that I was working in, and it had to be said that the Americans were offering a lot more money and, as important to me, a lot more opportunity in terms of being able to tell narratives that were in 24-page installments rather than four-, six-, eight-page installments. This opened up storytelling possibilities. “Now, I was at that time, along with a lot of my close friends in British comics—a lot of the people who were around Warrior, particularly Steve Moore and Steve Parkhouse, along with John Wagner and Pat Mills and a lot of the people at 2000 AD—there was probably a more radical agenda in the way that we were thinking about comics than in the way that the American writers, who were largely perpetuating the characters that they’d grown up with, were. I could see certain possibilities, particularly on Swamp 243

Thing, as a good example. That was the first thing that I was came out of that. I hadn’t grown up on comics, but when I offered. So that led to me thinking, ‘All right, well, I’ll have was a story analyst, a reader, because comic books had this opportunities here to modify the existing concept to make renaissance and I was the young guy, they started handing it something that makes more sense and is perhaps more to me, literally, boxes of comic books. So I would read them, my liking, and will allow the possibility of different sorts of and I’m sure that had a big impact on RoboCop.” stories that have not been seen in that title before.’ After the critical and financial impact of Watchmen and “I don’t think that anybody was really caught prepared Dark Knight Returns, every comic book company tried their for what was going to happen, including myself. I didn’t darndest to repeat these successes by making darker titles of know that my work would be met with the attention that it their own. But the heads of the industry failed to grasp that was subsequently met with. I just wanted to push it all as far what made these two books successful was their originality, as I could, and that seemed to be popunot their somberness. A new wave of lar and successful, and it was generating creators tried to emulate Moore’s stomore readers with every issue. I think rytelling, but failed to incorporate the that the people at DC at the time may gravitas and heart that lay at the center have been perhaps slightly apprehensive of his work. Practically overnight, about where all this was going to end up, comics went from being a medium for but they certainly weren’t complaining. kids to something far more cynical. The And they were, if not encouraging me, industry had found a sudden “street they were being supportive in my wilder cred” and critical acceptance, but at the flights of fancy, probably because, like I cost of its innocence and charm. say, these flights of fancy were bringing Soon after their great triumphs at in money, bringing in readers. But, that DC Comics, Moore and Miller, indesaid, there was a great deal of opportupendently arrived at the same conclunity back then, and after my relatively sion: they had accomplished everything brief five-year passage through mainthey’d wanted to in the superhero genre. stream American comics, I think that Unlike their successors, they understood after my work, [comics] became much that superheroes were not designed to more formulated.” maintain a sense of heightened realMoore, along with American comics ism. “I think there’s an attempt to bring writer/artist Frank Miller, added a superficial reality to superheroes that’s compelling new school approach to an ultimately pretty stupid,” commented old school subject: superheroes. Both Frank Miller (within the 2005’s Legend authors brought a sense of perspecof the Dark Knight: The History of the tive, invention, and class never before Batman documentary). seen in mainstream titles. They conAs comics became increasingly more sistently produced fiction that showed corporatized and calculated in the us the unlimited possibilities of the art late 1980s, the terrain became much form and which still resonate and linger rougher for artists looking to spread throughout current popular culture. their wings and try out new ideas. It’s The two writers reinvented the superdifficult to create compelling stories hero genre by taking it and DC Comics when editors and businessmen have into uncharted waters. the final say in deciding how far and The style and confidence of Watch- Batman, Watchmen © DC Comics free your imagination can roam. It can men and The Dark Knight Returns proved to be an imme- leave inventive creators feeling powerless. diate force in the public arena outside of comics, visible A significant number of comic readers don’t fully comprein films from 1987’s RoboCop to 2015’s Tomorrowland. In hend that creators are the lifeblood of this industry. Without my interview with RoboCop co-creator Ed Neumeier, he their ingenuity and passion, the fantastic-looking heroes and was quick to point out the impact those essential comics villains we love are just empty shells. Without their refreshhad upon the conception of his iconic character. Neumeier ing stories and daring artwork, there would be no reason states, “RoboCop came out of a period [where] there was a to cheer. We live in an age where the top titles are bleedrenaissance of comics in the [mid-]’80s with Dark Knight… ing readership and sales, where each “event” means less and and Watchmen had just started. There was this ‘adult comic less to the fans and retailers, and where the price point of a books for adults’ idea happening, and RoboCop certainly monthly book is becoming less and less economically viable. 244

Too many fans have tunnel vision when it comes to the If you love comic books, all you need do is explore what plight of the comic creator, including a few professionals the medium has to offer. Because the more you see, the who tend to forget they sit on the shoulders of giants. They more likely you are to find the type of stories you crave. have a blind devotion to characters, nostalgia, and compa- There are still plenty of ambitious writers and artists, women nies that’s counterproductive, because it disourages artistic and men, who will do whatever it takes to tell their stories. growth. I know you’re tired of hearing this old song, but we Artists and writers that share the same zest and passion as can’t forget the men and women who sculpted this medium the good people we’ve covered in this book, with tales that and its heroic icons. It shouldn’t have taken more than move forward instead of in circles. Like real love, you have twenty years after the passing of Jack Kirby for him (and to keep searching to find your next big thing. his descendants) to get the credit and rewards that comic Everything and everyone has a limited shelf life, but the book’s greatest artist so justly deserved in life. wonderful people, experiences, and comic books covered “Fans are truly a fickle bunch,” says publisher Dave Elliot. in this tome will endure forever. These creators’ invaluable “They love you when you’re working on their favorite char- efforts will shine on within their work and us, their readacters, but hate you when you say you won’t do a company’s ers and admirers. Their ingenuity made us believe in the titles anymore. We all owe so much to Jack Kirby, but it wonder of comics. As children, we came to this medium feels like 90% of fandom would vilify his family for daring with a pocketful of coins and a thirst for adventure, and to try getting something for his work if it remotely risked what we got back was a world full of inspiration. Thanks to them getting their fix of the current titles, even though they comic books I still believe in the unbelievable experience, all pale in comparison to Kirby’s work.” don’t you? Lost in the current commercialism of comics books are children. No matter the mass appeal of the modern day superhero movie, it seems that every year fewer kids are intrigued by the actual comics, the source of this fabulous fascination. There exists an obvious disconnect between the major publishers and today’s generation. You can’t fault the audience if they aren’t impressed with the barrage of slow-moving storylines, artificial events (clunky reboots, gimmicks, renumbering, variant covers, and the like), and the confusing continuities of characters that are constantly being tweaked. The thrill and the sense of adventure seems all but gone. So many publishers, editors, and creators seem to have forgotten that superheroes rely on imagination and a childlike sense of wonder. There’s just no room for cynicism and pretentiousness. “I think the business is in such a state of morosity,” says Nexus artist/co-creator Steve Rude, “that I feel I would be best put into the ranks of, say, working on a DC comic book to offset the moroseness of what comic books have steadily turned into… these serious stories that have no sense of fun and fantasy anymore. And I absolutely despise that about the business these days, because they’ve taken something that was just so joyful and fun and exciting and dramatic, and just tipped it over the edge into this abyss of darkness. And that’s not at all what I’m about.” Today there are more comics being produced than at any other point in our lifetimes, and it can be difficult for audiences and bookmakers alike to process it all. With so much competition not just within the industry, but with other mediums such as the Internet and video games, each new project brings more pressure and financial expectation. And yet, no matter how bad things Just a few of the fabulous titles being published today. might seem, there is hope. All characters © their respective owners. 245

COMICS MAGAZINES FROM TWOMORROWS ™

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The Last

Dance Art by Marc McKenzie

Let’s hit the dance floor! (Ahem, letters.) Dear Fever! I was first introduced to comic books with all-ages titles such as Bugs Bunny, Popeye, and the various Richie Rich titles of the late ’70s. I was introduced to the world of superheroes when my uncle passed along a beer box full of flea marketpurchased comics with half-ripped covers. Also published in the late ’70s, these were random issues of Uncanny X-Men, Hulk, Superman, Master of Kung Fu, Thor, Green Lantern, Flash, Captain America, and others. And then I took notice of the spinner rack at a local mom and pop corner store in my neighborhood called Sam’s. Comics were becoming my new infatuation, so it was an easy switch to begin purchasing them on my own, most of which I still have today, starting with Justice League of America #210, Marvel Team-Up #125, and Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew #11. Then, in November 1983 at the age of ten, I bought New Teen Titans #28. You know the issue—that action-packed cover introducing Terra as she takes on (and gives a good beat down to) the rest of the team. All that lovely George Pérez rubble! My first true “Comic Book Fever” began. Coming out of the experimental decade of the ’70s, when readers of the Silver Age of comics were now the caretakers of the characters they’d read about for years, the ’80s seemed to explode with ideas, formats, and creativity. And what a time to start reading comics books! Gil Kane’s Superman. Amethyst. Batman and the Outsiders. Captain America versus the Red Skull. Sword of the Atom. Don Newton’s Batman. Marvel’s four-issue limited series titles. Atari Force. Assistant Editor’s Month. Phoenix: The Untold Story. Secret Wars! Certainly comics were becoming more of an insular business, but the comics sophistication we would see post-1986 owes much to the late ’70s and early ’80s, and it all helped to feed my Fever to become a voracious reader of different titles and publishers. It’s because of this formative time that I can continue to enjoy comic book reading to this day. Where some readers shy away from or deny change, this era of superhero comics was all about trying new things, without sacrificing craft, to get readers to buy, buy, buy! All without gimmick covers too! New generations of characters such as Infinity Inc. Taking chances on creators such as Alan Moore on Swamp Thing, Len Wein and Dave Gibbons revamping Green Lantern, or Bill Sienkiewicz on New Mutants (“Don’t call ’em X-Babies anymore!”). Allowing characters to grow and evolve, with varying degrees of depth, from Spider-Man getting a new all-black costume to Dick Grayson giving up being Robin. Experimenting with comic book formats to appeal to the growing direct market with graphic novels (Dazzler the Movie, Sword of the Swashbucklers, Hunger Dogs), mature themed finite series (Camelot 3000, Frank Miller’s Ronin), and the much loved Baxter paper comic format that spun off some of my favorite series: New Teen Titans vol. 2, Legion of Super-Heroes, and The Outsiders (not to mention Omega Men, Vigilante, Thriller, Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Elektra Saga reprints, and others). Because I wasn’t beholden to years of Silver Age stories and continuity, the early ’80s primed my young comic book reading habits, setting the stage for the benchmarks to come: “The Judas Contract.” West Coast Avengers. “The Monkey King Saga.” Transformers. “Lifedeath.” Who's Who. And then the biggest of them all: Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. The comic book landscape experienced the greatest seismic shift, and I was primed with just enough love of the medium to survive and thrive through it all. My “Comic Book Fever” would never ever go away.

There is much talk and analysis about comics post-1986, but the raw quality of the decade prior is worthy of attention, and I’m glad to see its continuous coverage. It’s what made me a comic book reader and enthusiast, and it’s an era of comics that will always be my favorite. Peter Rios Reading, Penn. Dynamite! Comic Book Fever is the way we are feeling, brother! It really is that everlasting bliss that brings us up when we’re down. [BTW, Peter is one of the co-founders of the long-running Comic Geek Speak podcast. Be sure to listen to their groovy wisdom on that funkadelic thing called the Internet.] Hey, CBF! Comic books, Super Friends, the Adam West Batman show—it all hit me right around the same time. At three years old (in 1973), I already had the Fever. I’m pretty sure my first comic was a Gold Key Sylvester & Tweety (it fell apart long ago), but soon came a bunch of DC’s 100-pagers filled out with old stories from their deep archives. It didn’t matter to me; it was all new and exciting as far as I was concerned. Fast forward a couple of years to my new babysitter’s house—or more specifically, to the bedroom closet of her youngest son where he kept his (and his older brother’s) comic book collection. And it was no small pile like mine at home. There were the familiar superheroes in the stack, including a bunch of oversized treasury editions, but there were also humor comics (mostly Archies and Harveys), there were war comics, there were westerns… and I “inherited” half the stack when the sons were deemed “too old for comics.” The Fever was rising. Fast forward to 1977, where I was in bed for a week with (I think) bronchitis. My mother had taken pity on me and bought me a new book to help pass the time. The title was The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1937–1945 by Richard O’Brien, and inside was my introduction to the early history of the medium I loved. Now, I was already familiar with Earth-2 and the fact that its inhabitants were older incarnations of the modern day heroes, and I knew Captain America, Namor, and the Human Torch were old characters too, but I didn’t know much beyond that. O’Brien’s book changed all that, and lit a fuse that had been primed by the many reprint stories—in particular the Famous First Edition: Flash Comics #1 treasury edition—I’d read and enjoyed to that point. See, I knew there were other comic book publishers besides DC and Marvel—I owned comics from a number of them. And now, thanks to O’Brien’s book, I knew about many more, plus Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Jack Cole…. The Fever was now burning bright. But as I grew older, other things grabbed my attention—science-fiction novels, Dungeons & Dragons, girls (though grabbing their attention was a different matter), music… especially music. Once I started playing guitar, I had little money left over for comics. I still would pick a comic or two up now and then, and sometimes something of particular interest—like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s Silver Surfer graphic novel—would come along, but the Fever had become more like a smoldering ember waiting to be rekindled. And, of course, it was rekindled eventually, and today it burns as bright as it ever did.

Looking back, I wonder if I would be doing what I do today if I hadn’t developed a love for all types of comics at an early age, or hadn’t read all those reprint stories, or hadn’t learned as much as I did about comic book history as an eight-year-old. Would I have entered that comic shop (where I ended up working two years later) as a freshman in college if the Dr. Fate (by DeMatteis and McManus) poster in the window hadn’t been so alluring thanks to my knowledge and love of the character? Would I have kept coming back if I hadn’t been open to humor comics and not picked up The Tick #1? I don’t know, but I suspect the answer is that I would have arrived where I am sooner or later. Because I have a Fever. A Comic Book Fever. Eric Nolen-Weathington Mebane, N.C. I’ve got the same Fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell, Eric! (I couldn’t resist.) Seriously, the path chosen is the path we were meant to take. You also know as well as I do that there’s no getting off this comic book love train once you’re on it. [Note: Eric is the Modern Masters Mastermind (say that three times fast), and if you have never checked out his fine series, what are you waiting for?] Fever — This is my first letter to a comic book, or a book about comic books, so please forgive me if I ramble. Reading through your historical perspective brought memories flooding back into the forefront of my mind. I started reading comics in the early ’70s. My mother would purchase them for us in bulk to keep us occupied on long car rides. At first they were an interesting distraction, but I soon became captivated by the illustrations and storytelling. There in my hand was a complete television show that I could watch over and over again as I read, reread, and reread them. Sometimes just rereading a few pages, like rewinding a VHS tape before VHS was a technology. When people remark to me today how they like the look of the big blockbuster movies, all I can think is, “I’ve been watching these for years, only all in my head.” The Savage Sword of Conan, The Avengers, Captain America, “Moon Knight” (when he was a back-up story in The Hulk magazine!). Ah, those were exciting times, my friend! I started collecting comics, in my best recollection, with Jack Kirby’s infamous Captain America “Madbomb” issue. I had already amassed quite a pile from various trips, but this was the issue that sat on top—probably because of alphabetical order. In those days I just stacked piles in my bedroom. I didn’t know anything about boards and bags and boxes, just piles! I remember the vivid way Cap leapt off of the front cover with the Falcon right behind him and a crazed riot going on all around them. The story to the best of my recollection was about a doctor that created bombs for Hydra that made people insane. Real sci-fi, action-on-the-ground stuff. Exciting for a ten-year-old. As I read and reread my comics I then began to draw them. Copying as best I could little frames I found interesting. My cousins and I would get together and draw for what seemed like hours. Recreating fight scenes and imagining what it would be like to draw comics for real. As I aged I started to really delve into the “art” of comics. As with many a boy my age, John Buscema’s How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way became a well-worn bible carried to school and everywhere else. I started following artists and writers, along with the characters. Once, my mother took me to a comic shop on Long Island to meet Stan “the Man” Lee, George Tuska, Bob Layton, and a few others. They were meeting and greeting fans. Stan gave a short talk and I got their autographs. It was a dream come true. I saw their original art and I actually had them sign drawings that I had done of my favorite characters. To me, it was as good as going into the dugout to hang out with the Yankees. John Buscema, Neal Adams, John Byrne, Stan, Jack, and all the other artists and writers that worked in the industry throughout the ’70s and ’80s were my heroes. They taught me to read and to love drawing and storytelling. I was never very good in school, I tend to be easily distracted, but I devoted serious time and study to the adventures of all my favorite heroes. I was a Marvel fan early on, but came around to DC after a while. I think I appreciated the more realistic tone of Marvel. That, and the fact that all of this

was taking place in New York City! I lived in Queens and out on the island, so NYC was home. I could imagine Spidey swinging by while I walked down Broadway or the Avengers having a meeting in Avenger’s Mansion, which I always thought would be the Frick Museum on the Upper East Side. I still walk by there and imagine that it could have happened. Reading about the artists (and I include writers and editors in this category) and the companies brings me back to a time when you could still discover things over time. Books came out monthly and information was scarce in comparison to the Internet age we live in today. I don’t long for the “old days” as some readers do, but I will say I miss the way I felt about going into the corner store and finding the latest issues of my high-riding heroes. Specifically, and this dates me, was “The Dark Phoenix Saga.” I know, I know, it’s not Watchmen or The Dark Knight Returns, but what Claremont and Byrne did over those issues, culminating in issue 137 with the death of Jean Grey was pure entertainment. Perfect pacing, great subplotting, and an awesome arc for any character or group of characters. I was on a subscription by then and had moved to Ohio. I read issue 137 sitting in the middle of my front lawn. I didn’t peek ahead. I couldn’t go to the Internet to see what would happen. I just did it. And I cried. Wow. How cool was that? Comics have always been a part of my life. I bought more some years and less others, but they have been there. Graphic novels, collections, and still the pamphlets—I read them like my grandmother used to watch her “stories” on TV. Miss an episode and you can catch up, but you may miss some of the drama. And my real heroes, the writers and the artists, well, they’re still around, and if they’re not what they meant to me still lives. Over the years comics have changed. Today, I think they’re overpriced. No, I don’t think they should be a quarter, I do understand economics and inflation, but 35% rate hikes aren’t done in any business. They’ve lost me on that one. And, to be frank, a lot of the stories have lost their magic: A few too many anti-heroes and a few too many gimmicks. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good Brian Michael Bendis story. Other fans don’t care for all the talking, but I grew up with Claremont. He would take all the chatter from a dozen BMB issues and cram them into one issue of X-Men. You had to feel for Byrne, Austin, and poor Tom Orzechowski, the letterer! Remember, back in those days letterers did everything by hand, not just typing into a computer. He had to see some of those scripts and weep openly. But, to quote Peter David, I digress. The movies are here and I still have some of my old books. I have sketchbooks from the greats, and you can always find something to read online. I still stop by Chicago Comics once a month to walk the aisles and see the toys and the covers. The Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age, whichever I actually fell into (Silver, I think) I loved it. And I thank all the artists that made my dreams come true with those little monthly installments of drama, comedy, adventure, and, yes, even romance! Thanks to you all. Excelsior! Michael Franzese Queens, N.Y. (I promised myself I wouldn’t cry.) Yes, the love we have for this medium is a feeling that won’t leave. Thank you for the sweet letter, my brother. Next: Be sure to check out TwoMorrows.com for information about special contests and the Comic Book Fever podcast, an audio mini-series to accompany the book and celebrate the good times. I hate good-byes. I want to thank you all for reading this big book. Please don’t feel like a stranger should our paths ever cross at the spinner rack. And may this good-bye never be the end, my dear super-friends. Ciao! Get the Fever on Twitter at @ComicBKFever or join the fun at www.facebook. com/ComicBookFever

Remember the days when every comic book captured your imagination, and took you to new and exciting places? When you didn’t apologize for loving the comic books and creators that gave you bliss? Comic Book Fever captures that era, when comics offered all different genres to any kid with a pocketful of coins, at local establishments from 7-Elevens to your local drug store. Inside this full-color hardcover are new articles, interviews, and images about the people, places, characters, titles, moments, and good times that inspired and thrilled us in the wild transitional period of comics from 1976 to 1986: Neal Adams, John Romita, George Pérez, Marv Wolfman, Alan Moore, Denny O’Neil, ISBN-13: 978-1-60549-063-2 ISBN-10: 1-60549-063-6 53995

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Jim Starlin, José Luis García-López, the Hernandez Brothers, the Buscema Brothers, Stan Lee, Jack Davis, Jack Kirby, Kevin Eastman, Chris Claremont, Gerry Conway, Frank Miller—and that’s just for starters. It covers the phenoms that delighted Baby Boomers, Generation X, and beyond: Uncanny X-Men, New Teen Titans, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Love and Rockets, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman Vs. Spider-Man, Archie Comics, Harvey Comics, Kiss, Star Wars, Rom, Hostess Cake ads, Grit(!), and other milestones! So take a trip back in time to re-experience those epic stories, and feel the heat of Comic Book Fever once again! With cover art and introduction by Alex Ross! TwoMorrows Publishing Raleigh, North Carolina $39.95 in the US ISBN 978-1-60549-063-2