back issue #16

“ROUGH STUFF”

GALLERY:The Pencil Art of

MIKE ZECK

T H E U L T I M A T E C O M I C S E X P E R I E N C E !

G. I. JOE AND TRANSFORMERS TM & © HASBRO. GUMBY TM & © PREMAVISION, INC.AND PREMA TOY CO. SKELETOR TM & © MATTEL. WONDER WOMAN TM & © DC COMICS.

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Volume 1,Number 16June 2006

Celebrating theBest Comicsof the'70s, '80s,and Today!

EDITORMichael Eury

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERRich J. Fowlks

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and EricNolen-Weathington

COVER ARTISTMike Zeck

COVER COLORISTTom Ziuko

COVER DESIGNERRobert Clark

SPECIAL THANKSArthur AdamsChristian Voltar AlcalaRuben AzconaMike BlanchardJerry BoydMike BurkeySal BuscemaDewey CassellJoyce ChinJohn CoganGerry ConwayCharles CostasEric Delos SantosKim DeMulderMark EvanierTim FinnSimon FurmanJosé Luis García-LópezMike GartlandCourt GebeauGrand Comic-Book

DatabaseJackson GuiceLarry HamaAllan HarveySam HatmakerHeritage ComicsChristopher IrvingTony IsabellaThe Jack Kirby CollectorDan JohnsonBoyd KirklandCharles Kiyasu

Milton KnightPaul KupperbergPhong LePaul LevitzAndy MangelsMichael MantloBob McLeodJoshua MossingStuart NeftEric Nolen-

WeathingtonDenny O’NeilKristen PalmerMichael RomanenkoSteve RudeRose Rummel-EuryJames SchaferRick ShurginLouise SimonsonBen SmithVal StaplesTom StewartRick TaylorGreg TheakstonRoy ThomasHerb TrimpeGeorge TuskaMike VosburgLen WeinAndrew WildmanMitch WilsonMike Zeck

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614. MichaelEury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor, 5060A Foothills Dr., LakeOswego, OR 97034. E-mail: [email protected]. Six-issue subscriptions: $36 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada,$72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to theeditorial office. Cover art by Michael Zeck. G.I. Joe and Transformers TM & © Hasbro. Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc.and Prema Toy Co. Skeletor TM & © Mattel. Wonder Woman TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All characters are© their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © 2006 Michael Euryand TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrows Publishing. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

INTERVIEW: Arthur Adams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2A bouncy dialogue about Adams’ oddball 1980s’ Gumby comics

FLASHBACK: Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8The Robots in Disguise as Marvel Comics superstars

BEYOND CAPES: The Swivel-Arm Battle-Grip Revolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15How G.I. Joe recruited a new generation of comic-book readers

FLASHBACK: Kirby’s Last Stand: Super Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .32Jack Kirby’s Kenner-style Justice League

BEYOND CAPES: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36Paul Levitz, Paul Kupperberg, and George Tuska revisit He-Man’s DC days

BACK IN PRINT: He-Man on DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42Extras include exclusive art cards—with peeks at Alex Ross and Adam Hughes art

ROUGH STUFF: Mike Zeck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44The artist hosts a gallery of his pencil art, including Spider-Man, G.I. Joe, and Punisher

WHAT THE--?!: Looking to Buy a Used Car? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56Remember the Spider-Mobile and Supermobile? We do!

OFF MY CHEST: Milton Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58The Hugo cartoonist wonders why some folks can’t laugh at humor comics

PRO2PRO INTERVIEW: Sal Buscema and Jackson “Butch” Guice . . . . . . . . . .64The Rom and Micronauts artists discuss working in Marvel’s toy box

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Wonder Woman and the Star Riders . . . .74A behind-the-scenes look at the toy line that fizzled, with rare art by José LuisGarcía-López, Mike Vosburg, and Boyd Kirkland

FLASHBACK: Captain Action: The 9-Lives-in-One Super-Hero . . . . . . . . . . . .82Commemorating the 40th anniversary of the original super-hero action figure

BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84Reader feedback on issue #14

T o y S t o r i e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1

You’re never too old toread about toys! It’s our

TOY STORIES ISSUE!The Ultimate Comics Experience!

2 • B A C K I S S U E • T o y S t o r i e s I s s u e

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Comico (Ko-mee-ko) the Comic Company, under the

creative orchestration of Diana Schutz and Bob

Schreck, made fan favorites of such series as Mage,

Grendel, Elementals, Jonny Quest, and The Maze Agency

during the mid- to late 1980s [see BACK ISSUE #2 for a

detailed look at Comico’s history].

Among the company’s most unusual publications were

Gumby’s Summer Fun Special (July 1987), written by

Flaming Carrot creator Bob Burden, and Gumby’s Winter

Fun Special (Dec. 1988), written by Sam & Max:

Freelance Police creator Steve Purcell. Summer Fun

allied the clayboy and his pony pal with space bears, a

werewolf babysitter, pirates, and the monsters of

Halloweentown to thwart an alien invasion, while Winter

Fun took them underground, to the fiery pits of “Heck,” to

rescue the captive “Ray Crabbe”—aka Santa Claus—from

the clutches of the Prince of Darkness.

As the editor of Winter Fun, I had the good fortune of

working with the amazing artist of both Comico Gumbys: Arthur

Adams. Nearly 20 years later, Arthur has heeded his former

editor’s call and dusted off his memories to discuss the pair of

one-shots that truly were . . . fun and special. —Michael Eury

Run, Clayboy, Run!Collector Charles Kiyasu saysof this 1996 Art Adamscommissioned illo, which hecontributed for publication:“After receiving the sketch, Inoticed that he forgot to put inthe teeth detail. I asked himabout it and he told me thatthe T-Rex is geriatric dinosaur.”Art © 2006 Arthur Adams. Gumby TM & ©Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

Gumby TM & © Premavision,Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc.and Prema Toy Co.

MICHAEL EURY: May I have your permission to tape record ourconversation?ARTHUR ADAMS: Live it up, man!EURY: Of course, you realize that there’s probably someone elselistening in on our conversation . . . hello, Mr. President!ADAMS: Oh, come on, like he cares what we’re saying. It’s thatCheney guy, he’s the evil one.EURY: A lot of people have said that.ADAMS: I really don’t think these guys are evil—they’re just misguided.EURY: [laughs] Do you think that Gumby and Pokey could be terrorists?ADAMS: Not on purpose, but they might accidentally do somethingwhere high jinks might ensue.EURY: Like what?ADAMS: They might accidentally get some plastique mixed in withtheir bodies, you never know.EURY: That would be pretty cool: Gumby, living bomb.ADAMS: Exactly. He doesn’t know it, but we, the audience, know it.EURY: There’s your third chapter in the Gumby trilogy.ADAMS: Oh, my God, at any moment, Gumby could go off! [laughs]EURY: I understand you had a traumatic childhood experience ofbeing physically abused by a Pokey . . . is this true?ADAMS: [laughs] It’s only marginally true. We don’t quite need to putit into the category of abuse. [laughs] But I did have a neighbor,a slightly older boy . . . let’s see, I would’ve been three or four, and hewas probably four or five, so he was a big kid. I was outside playing withmy Gumby and Pokey, and he got a hold of my Pokey and ran away andwouldn’t give it back, and I was chasing and chasing, but I was too smalland I was crying, and I was calling, “Rusty, Rusty, bring back my Pokey!”

Finally, he was fed up with my whining, and he threw Pokey at me,right at my head! It bounced off my head and went into this big bush,and I couldn’t reach Pokey. It was gone forever.EURY: Were you bruised by the impact of Pokey to the head?ADAMS: Oh, no, it was a rubber toy. I think it was mostly my soul thatwas bruised.EURY: And the kid’s name was Rusty.ADAMS: Rusty, that bastard! [laughs]EURY: Is there anyone named Rusty who’s nice?ADAMS: How could they possibly be? Although I think there’re somenice strippers named Rusty.EURY: [laughs] I’d love to volley with a snappy comeback, but it’s impossibleafter that one! So let’s move on . . .

Let’s go back to 1986. How did Arthur Adams, artist of Longshot,become the artist of Comico’s Gumby’s Summer Fun Special?ADAMS: I’ll bet you’ve heard this story before, and probably others have,as well . . . but why not? It’s such a timeless story.EURY: [laughs] Pull up the kids around the campfire—here we go!

The title splash to Comico’s Gumby’s Winter Fun, courtesyof Eric Delos Santos.Gumby TM & © Premavision, Inc. and Prema Toy Co.

Beginnings:Farrah Foxette pinup in Captain Carrot andHis Amazing Zoo Crew (1983)

Milestones:Longshot / Action Comics Annual and covers/ Gumby’s Summer and Winter Fun Specials/ Uncanny X-Men Annuals / Fantastic Four /Godzilla / Creature from the Black Lagoon /Monkeyman & O’Brien / The Authority /“Jonni Future” in Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales

Work in Progress:Modern Masters vol. 6

ARTHURADAMS



ADAMS: We-l-l-l-l, it was early on inmy career, and I was working onissue #2 of Longshot. In the upperright-hand corners [of the originalart pages], for whatever reason,probably because I thought it wasfunny, I started drawing Gumbydressed as different super-heroes.There was a Superman Gumby, anda Batman Gumby, and a Spider-Man Gumby . . . the way they usedto print those books, a lot of thoseprobably got cut right off the page.So after doing these little drawingsof Gumby—just for fun, not for anyspecial love for Gumby—I wouldshow these pages around to variousfriends, and one of those was DianaSchutz, who at the time worked ata comic-book store called Comics

& Comix in Berkeley. The late, lamented Comics &Comix. At some point she moved back east and gota job at Comico.

One of the first things she did was call me upand say, “Hey, we can get the rights to do Gumby!Why not do some Gumby comics?”

And I said, “Why do some Gumby comics?”EURY: [laughs] How did Diana respond to that?ADAMS: Well, she was pestering me to drawGumby, and I said, “I don’t want to draw Gumby. Itwas fun doing those cute little things, but I reallydon’t need to spend months doing a comic aboutGumby! That’s silly.”

So me, thinking I was so smart, I said to myself, “I’lltry to get Diana to get a writer who I know doesn’t havetime to write this thing, because he’s working on hisown project,” and he’d told me before he was busy,busy, busy, working all the time on this. So I said, “If youcan get Bob Burden, the creator of Flaming Carrot, towrite a Gumby comic, I’ll be happy to draw it,” rubbingmy hands together and going, [diabolical laughter].

She called back about ten minutes later andsaid, “Oh, yeah, Bob would love to write it.”EURY: [laughs] You were stuck!ADAMS: I was stuck. [laughs] Of course, I was thinking,“If you can get Bob to write it, why don’t you get Bobto draw it, too? That’d be great. I’d buy that!”EURY: Oh, so you actually tried to pass off the arton Bob?ADAMS: Well, not really, but a lot of [Summer Fun]was influenced by his drawing style. Come to think ofit, he actually designed a lot of the characters in it.EURY: Burden obviously designed the eye-poppingaliens, the Hysterians.ADAMS: I think them, and the robot kids weredesigned by him—and possibly their parents, I don’tquite remember.EURY: So the robot family was created specificallyfor this comic.ADAMS: I don’t think they ever appeared any-where else.EURY: I have to admit, I’m not exactly well versed inGumby lore . . .ADAMS: Oh, there’s so much of it—who could be?[laughter]EURY: Thank you for rallying to my defense.ADAMS: No one could know the whole Gumby tome.EURY: On Summer Fun, did you do full pencils first,then ink it, or did you do breakdowns or some halfwaymethod? I remember the second Special that you didwhat looked to me to be full pencils, I’m guessing tomake licensor approval corrections easier, if needed.ADAMS: Well, when I’m inking myself, for somepeople they might call it full pencils, but for methey’re loose pencils. It’s just that I’m fussy with myown stuff, and I pretty much need to know what it’sgonna look like when I put inks to paper.EURY: Did the Art Clokey camp insist upon manychanges in Summer Fun? I don’t recall their doing sofor Winter Fun.ADAMS: I don’t remember their asking forchanges. I think they were just mildly amused, ifthey were even aware, that these Gumby comicswere even being done.



In 1982 American toy company Hasbro forgedan agreement with Japanese toy companyTakara to license both their Diaclone and MicroChange toy lines. Diaclone was a series of robotsthat transformed into vehicles, complete withsmall driver figurines, while Micro Change was aspin-off of the Microman line (known asMicronauts in the U.S.), which transformed intoobjects like guns, Walkmans, and microscopes.Hasbro merged both toy lines into their newTransformers concept, with a plan to introduceJapanese toy sensibilities to American children.

Hot off of the recent success of the revivedG.I. Joe toy line, Hasbro decided to approachMarvel Comics about not only creating namesand personalities to their new Transformers line,but also in producing an accompanying comicbook and cartoon. The story has it that bothMarvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter and editorDenny O’Neil created a rough treatment of TheTransformers, and that editor Bob Budiansky wasgiven the assignment of fleshing it out further.

“[Shooter] needed somebody who had a littletime on their hands who could write something,”Budiansky told www.bwtf.com. “I was not theobvious candidate . . . so he came to me, and Icame up with a bunch of names, characters, anda bunch of character biographies and they likedit; they were really happy with it with very fewchanges as I recall to that initial two dozen or soTransformers in that lineup.”

The Transformers #1 hit the stands on Sept.1984with an impressive Bill Sienkiewicz cover featuringan abstract version of the heroic Optimus Prime.

Original art to the cover of Transformers #12, by Herb Trimpe.Courtesy of Ruben Azcona (www.ComicBookArtGallery.com).

Transformers TM & © Hasbro


IN THE 1980S

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE:

by C h r i s t o p h e r I r v i n g

Written by Bill Mantlo and Ralph Macchio, penciled by Frank Springer,inked by Kim DeMulder, and edited by Bob Budiansky, it was the firstchapter in a bimonthly four-issue limited series.

The Transformers were the noble Autobots (who transformedinto cars) led by Optimus Prime, and the Decepticons (whobecame everything from jets to a gun to a Walkman) were led bythe evil Megatron—all “Robots in Disguise.” While on a missionaboard their spaceship the Ark, the Autobots are boarded by theDecepticons. With certain defeat at hand, Optimus Prime sendsthe Ark hurtling toward the third planet of the solar system theyare flying through—Earth, where they crash in the side of a volcano.Awakening in 1984 from a dormancy of over four million years,the Transformers are reactivated by the Ark’s computers, andprogrammed to adapt to what the ship mistakenly thinks thedominant life form on Earth: vehicles.

September 17, 1984 marked the premiere of the syndicatedTransformers cartoon; the initial three episodes recapped thesame essential story as the comic book.

Interestingly enough, the Transformers in the first issue of thecomic book looked exactly like their toy counterparts, but theninexplicably took on the appearance of the cartoon versionswith the second issue.

The first appearance of Megatron from Transformers #1, page 2,in a scan made from a photocopy. Courtesy of Charles Costas.Transformers TM & © Hasbro

Charles Costas pro-vided a closeup ofthis panel frompage 13 of issue#1, featuring thefirst appearance ofthe Decepticons.Notice the degreeof cutting andpasting; most ofthis page was stat-ted and redone,presumably due tolast-minute editing.Transformers TM & © Hasbro


“When I started inking this, the marketing of Transformers in the U.S. hadn’t actually startedor had just barely started,” inker Kim DeMulder reveals. “And the cartoon series had not startedshowing here yet. So originally we had no access to any reference other than the toys themselves.Marvel actually gave me several of the toys as the only reference I had! Just after I had left thebook, all the Transformer artists got those wonderful clear model sheets that the animatorswere using.”

Transformers #3 (Jan. 1984) featured Spider-Man in his symbiotic black costume . . . and inone of the more bizarre Marvel team-ups in recent history. The fourth and supposedly finalissue of The Transformers had the Autobots victorious against the Decepticons, only to beblown away by long-lost Decepticon Shockwave on the final page.

1 0 • B A C K I S S U E • T o y S t o r i e s I s s u e

A double-pagespread from issue #1,

introducing theAutobots, with stats

galore. Scanned froma photocopy and

contributed byCharles Costas.

Transformers TM & © HasbroTr

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G.I. Joe arguably recruited more children into theranks of comic-book readership than any othercomic of the latter 20th century. While Star Warshad ushered the comeback of the action figure(albeit in a smaller 3-inch format) and pioneered amulti-media approach to merchandising, G.I. Joewent one step further and created a model for non-film properties to survive in other mediums.

Hasbro decided to jump on the bandwagon in theearly ’80s by bringing G.I. Joe back to toy shelves. Inthe post-Vietnam world of 1977, Star Wars revivedthe toy soldier in the guise of Luke Skywalker andcompany. G.I. Joe had started as a 12-inch doll in1964 and was shrunk down to the 8-inch Action Joeline by 1978. Not only would he shrink further downto Star Wars size for this new incarnation, but wouldalso be micro-managed into a team of soldiers.Hasbro’s marketing plan for the new G.I. Joe wasrevolutionary, and set the standard for action figures.The G.I. Joe comic book came about, unsurprisingly,as an excuse to have animated commercials.

“[Hasbro] wanted an angle on being able toadvertise it, which is how the Marvel connection camein,” writer Larry Hama reveals. “There were only afew seconds of animation you could have in a toycommercial, and you had to show the toy, so peoplewouldn’t get totally deluded. Somebody at Hasbro(who was actually sort of a genius) named Bob Pruprishrealized that a comic book was protected under the

T o y S t o r i e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1 5

HowRecruited a New Generation

of Comic-Book Readers

Real American Heroes

Herb Trimpe’s cover pencils toMarvel’s G.I. Joe #1 (June 1982),courtesy of Bob McLeod, thecover’s inker.

G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

by C h r i s t o p h e r I r v i n g

TM

THE SWIVEL-ARMBATTLE-GRIP REVOLUTION


first amendment, and there couldn’t be restrictionsbased on how you advertised for a publication.”

Hasbro’s plan for G.I. Joe: By having Marvel pro-duce a comic book based on the toy line, they couldhave fully animated commercials for the comicbook, which would also advertise the toy. Not onlywould Marvel produce the comic book, but wouldalso create the characters’ personalities.

“Their deal with Marvel was, ‘Can you do thecomic, and we’ll produce and pay for animatedcommercials for a year?’” Hama says. “They hadthese ten figures and said, ‘We need to come up

with what they are, and who they are, and havea comic.’

“They showed us the drawings, andthat’s all they had! We looked

at these and said, ‘We’llcome up with the charac-ters and personalities,’and I suggested we dodossiers, like in the mili-tary, and make them lookauthentic with specifica-tions. They thought itwas a cool idea. I endedup on the projectbecause no one elsewanted to do it. I was thelast guy on the row ofeditors that they asked,and nobody wanted totouch it with a ten-footpole.”

While Hasbro haddesigned the initial waveof G.I. Joe figures, theyapparently hadn’t giventhought to an important

narrative part of the G.I. Joe comic book, as Hamaillustrates:

“At the meeting, one of the things that webrought up was, ‘Who are the bad guys?’

“Hasbro said, ‘What do you mean, bad guys?’“We said, ‘What are these guys gonna do, just

march around and go on bivouac? They have tohave somebody to fight.’

“‘We don’t have anybody for them to fight.’“We said, ‘We’ll have somebody for them to fight

in the comic, and you can run with it if you want.’“I think it was Archie Goodwin who said, ‘We’ll

have some sort of semi-fascistic, para-militaryorganization, and we’ll call them COBRA or some-

thing.’ We just threw it all together.”Interestingly enough, the G.I. Joe comic book was

offered to two pencilers who turned it down: Marvellegends Joe Sinnott and artist Don Perlin. The thirdtime is the charm, as Marvel found out, when stafferHerb Trimpe accepted the assignment to draw thenew G.I. Joe comic book. In retrospect, Trimpe, amilitary and history buff, seems a natural choice.

“The first job I had ever done for Marvel wasdrawing Phantom Eagle [in Marvel Super-Heroes #16,Sept. 1968], with [writer] Gary Friedrich,” Trimperecalls. “That concentrated on airplanes . . . one of mychief interests. I think the G.I. Joe thing came aboutthe same way. I wouldn’t say that I had a reputationfor being interested in military things, but I think it wasa known fact at that point. Larry was an expert in thefield, and really knew his stuff. Considering peoplethat were working for Marvel at the time, and theresources that they had, I was probably the mostlikely candidate to draw G.I. Joe.”

GO, JOE!G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero (hereupon G.I. Joe)#1 hit the stands with a June 1982 cover date, aprinting on high-grade Baxter paper, two stories,and a whopping $1.50 price tag (when comics onlycost 65 cents). The Joes’ first adventure,“Operation: Lady Doomsday,” was by Hama,Trimpe, and inker Bob McLeod. The issue openswith the abduction of scientist Dr. Adele Burkhartby COBRA agent Baroness and her troopers. Afteran assessment by General Flagg, we’re introducedto Codename: G.I. Joe, a crack military team whooperate in the subterranean base “the Pit,” locatedunder the cover of the Fort Wadsworth motor pool.Led by General Hawk, the team includes the RangerStalker, Emma Peel-ish Scarlett, the mute andblack-clad commando Snake-Eyes, laser soldierFlash, communications officer Breaker, infantrymanGrunt, bazooka soldier Zap, mortar soldier Short-Fuse,tank driver Steeler, machine-gunner Rock ’N’ Roll,and LASER soldier Grand Slam.

As fate would have it, since around 1979 Hamahad actually been developing a concept for Marvelcalled Fury Force—one which would be transformedinto the new G.I. Joe. Fury Force was, according toHama, “an elite counter-terrorist unit, like Delta, and itwas led by Nick Fury’s son . . . Fury Force [also] had anunderground secret base under a motor pool. Thebasic concept was very similar.”

Eerily similar, actually: Early versions of Hawk,Stalker, and Scarlett are pretty dead-on to their futureversions. The prototype for Snake-Eyes, dubbedSpook, wore a hooded cloak with a pair of eyespeering out from the shadows beneath. With less thana year’s difference between Hama’s development of

Action Figure

Not a doll, but a 12-inch action fig-

ure—1964’s moveable fighting man,

G.I. Joe, from Hasbro.

G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

Cover © Marvel Characters, Inc.G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

Fury Force and the start of G.I. Joe, one can see whereHama transferred one concept to the other.

Back in the first issue, the Joes infiltrate a Caribbeanisland inhabited by COBRA to save Dr. Burkhart. TheCOBRA forces are led by the blue-clad, hooded CobraCommander, and his right-hand woman, theBaroness. At this point, the Commander and Baronesswere the only two distinctive COBRA agents, leadingan army of fanatic storm troopers.

The backup story, “Hot Potato,” by Hama, pencilerDon Perlin, and inker Jack Abel, follows Rock ’N’ Roll,Scarlett, and Snake-Eyes on a mission in the MiddleEast against the jihad of generic Arabian villain ColonelSharif. The story would later be adapted into a View-Master reel in another example of cross-marketing.

“Lady Doomsday” does an admirable job ofintroducing all of the team members, with thecharacters often referring to one another by codename, lettered in bold, sparing the headache ofexcessive captions. Hama also balanced the “screentime” for each of the characters judiciously, as theysplit in smaller groups to take a portion of the island.Given that the comic was essentially a toy commercialprinted in four colors, “Lady Doomsday” is a solidstory that combines military fare with classic Marvelstyle super-spy technology.

Hama would be presented by Hasbro with only the

image and specialty of each character. It was then upto him to give them a code name, and to also supplybackground material in the form of a small “militarydossier” file card that came with each action figure.Basically, Hama had devised everything from a char-acter’s birthplace to military specialties. Early dossierseven had psychological evaluations.

“At first, [Hasbro] didn’t think that writing thedossiers was anything special,” Hama observes. “In fact,in the second year, they decided to can me on themand get somebody in-house to write them. In twoweeks, they called me back. It wasn’t as easy as theythought. You had to boil stuff down into two para-graphs, and it was hard to get it succinct and still have


Fury Force

Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe prototype team. The scan of this

ultra-rare image is courtesy of teacher and writer Tim

Finn, who is penning a comprehensive book on the

1980s/1990s’ Joe. An additional thank you goes to

Ben Smith at GothamCityArt.com, the official source for

Larry Hama’s original artwork and archives.

Art © 2006 Larry Hama. G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.

Cover © Marvel Characters, Inc.G.I. Joe TM & © Hasbro.


Bring on the Bad Guys!Kirby’s pencils to the first issue of the first Super Powers miniseries,

courtesy of The Jack Kirby Collector.

© 2006 DC Comics.

by Tom “The ComicsSavant” Stewart

THE KING’S LAST STAND:

In 1984, DC and Kenner Toys entered into anagreement to produce a line of toys based on DC’scharacters. The Justice League of America (or theSuper Friends, depending on how and where youlook at it) was coming to toy shelves everywhereto stand alongside Kenner’s cash cow Star Warsline. Kenner tapped into DC’s history, bringing toplastic life heroes and villains that had never feltthe joy of gathering dust on a collector’s shelf, ofthe pain of being lost in the dirt pile in the back-yard. Only one problem.

Some of the best villains, the most savage,wickedest bad guys ever to infest a comics uni-verse, were over at Marvel. The Joker may be adangerous homicidal manic, but he looks like hecould be handing out balloons at a birthday party.Even a Lex Luthor with his robot super-suit (youknow, the one that didn’t allow him to turn hishead) really wasn’t, well, evil-looking enough.Kenner wanted more. They might not haveknown it, but they wanted Jack Kirby.

Or at least, the Kirby villains and heroes of theNew Gods: Orion, Mister Miracle, Mantis,Lightray, the Para-Demons, Kalibak, and of course,the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid. Jack Kirby hadspent his life in conjunction with Joe Simon andStan Lee coming up with some of the most impor-tant and culturally pervasive characters in thenewly recognized (okay, barely recognized) fieldof pop art. It was this record that caused DC to askhim to make the jump from Marvel back in the’70s, and it was this power and imagination thatattracted DC heads Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitzto renew ties with Kirby. Jack had left DC in 1975and returned to Marvel after plans with the former[DC Publisher Carmine] Infantino regime ground

JACK KIRBY’S FINAL SERIES

to an unsatisfying end [see BI #14’s Kamandi arti-cle]. Jack wanted out of comics, his heart nolonger in it, but his need for work and hisDepression Era take-any-job-to-feed-your-familyethic wouldn’t let him walk away. He escaped intoanimation, first with Hanna-Barbera, then doingconcept drawings for Ruby-Spears. He had thefirst health-care plan of his life. He was out ofMarvel, out of DC. He started doing independentcomics, Captain Victory and Silver Star for PacificComics, concepts and characters that he’d bekicking around, sometimes for years. He wasessentially working two fulltime jobs, doing thehuge detailed presentation and character draw-ings at Ruby-Spears during the day and workinglate into the night, with the sound of Spanishtelevision in the background, on his owncomics. Why would he want to go back todoing Marvel’s or even DC’s version of comics?To super-heroes? Jack had moved on and hedidn’t like to go backwards.

Kirby’s PowersIn 1984, Captain Victory and Silver Star came toan end along with their publisher, PacificComics. Jack had been there as usual, on thecutting edge of the new independent comicsmovement, trying out more ideas in one 20-page comic than most creators can fit into anentire 50-issue run. Now DC was calling. Theyhad just started a new royalty agreement, thefirst in the business, and had grandfatheredJack’s New Gods into the agreement. Kahnand Levitz respected Jack and his creations,appreciated the value that Kirby’s ideascould have in DC’s future, and wanted tomaintain a good relationship with him. Atthis time, Jack was involved in a bitter battlewith Marvel over the ownership of thousands ofpages of his old artwork. He saw that artwork ashis legacy to his family, and nobody messedwith his family. The fight was taking physicaland mental tolls on the nearly 70-year-old Kirby,a distraction from his drawing and earning aliving. Jenette Kahn and Paul Levitz had signed apetition calling for the artwork to be returned toJack. A big comics company being nice to himmust have come as a very welcome relief. Theywanted ideas for Super Powers? Jack gladly didnew concept drawings for the toy line, earningsome extra money and qualifying some of his

New Gods characters for royalties. He mighthave felt a bit beholden to DC when it was proposedhe do the Super Powers miniseries as a tie-in. Hewas busy with the DC proposed “ending” tothe New Gods saga, and the follow-up, theaborted, barely published Hunger Dogs graphicnovel. Jack plotted the first four issues of SuperPowers (with Joey Cavalieri scripting), thenwrote and drew the final issue, with GregTheakston inking. It was Greg’s first time inkinga full Kirby issue, getting the job after impressingEditorial Director Dick Giordano with his inkingon the cover to #4.


Greg Theakston

lightbox-inked

Kirby’s second Super

Powers miniseries,

preserving the King’s

pencils. This is page 14

of issue #2, courtesy

of Heritage Comics.

© 2006 DC Comics.

Why am I devoting a “Back in Print” column,which normally covers reprints of comic books,to DVD collections? Because BCI Eclipse’s collectionof Filmation’s He-Man and the Masters of theUniverse cartoons—which, as of this writing,contains two 6-disk sets collecting the first season’s65 episodes, a 2-disk The Best of He-Man andthe Masters of the Universe set featuring the topten fan-selected episodes, and the rarely seenHe-Man and She-Ra: A Christmas Special—sizzlewith extras specially designed to attract the eyeof the comic-book fan.

Comic-art collectors take note: Each of BCIEclipse’s He-Man DVDs features two exclusive,4" x 6" full-color art cards featuring He-Mancharacters rendered by some of comics’ mostpopular artists. In addition to Adam Hughes andAlex Ross, whose He-Man roughs are shown here,Bruce Timm, Bill Sienkiewicz, Earl Norem, GilbertHernandez, Phil Jimenez, and David Mack providecard art, with Frank Cho and Emiliano Santaluciaon tap for Season Two, Volume One, scheduled forrelease on June 6, 2006.

by M i c h a e l E u r y


©20

05En

tert

ainm

ent

Righ

tsPL

C.

(above) Adam Hughes’ rough for his art card fromThe Best of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Art © 2005 Adam Hughes. He-Man TM & © Mattel.

on DVD

MAST

EROFKUNG

FU#8

6(197

9)an

d10

1(198

1)

Issue #101 was my final issue before moving on

to take over the Captain America penciling chores.

I didn’t figure I had a whole lot more to bring to

the martial-arts table, so after three years of jump

kicks and elbow punches, I was ready to jump

into the super-hero ring to experience a new type

of storyline and a different style of action.

©20

06M

arve

lCha

ract

ers,

Inc.

Art and captions by Mike Zeck

I’ve always done fairly finished preliminary sketches

before moving on to final pencils, and I still work

the same way today. This is an early example

(1979) of a cover prelim. I was a Bruce Lee fan

and a fan of kung-fu cinema in general at that

time, and that influenced my handling of the

character and the series. I tried to inject a little

Bruce Lee into Shang-Chi whenever possible.

©20

06M

arve

lCha

ract

ers,

Inc.

©20

06M

arve

lCha

ract

ers,

Inc.

Master of Kung Fu was my first series work at Marvel, and

looking back, I still see an artist learning his craft. On the

plus side, Doug Moench’s plots were highly detailed and

descriptive, even to the point of describing mood and

character emotion in most instances. The thick plots

were daunting at first, but in retrospect a very good

writer for a developing talent to be teamed with.


©20

06M

arve

lCha

ract

ers,

Inc.

MARVEL

SUPER

HER

OES

SECRET

WARS(1984)

This was the first art produced for Secret Wars, and I rendered it twice-up knowing that it was also going to be

used as an advertising poster. Shortly after, it was decided that a couple of the mutants wouldn’t be part of the

series, and they were dropped from the art [see inset for published version]. The rest of the cast made it to the

poster, but the top tier of characters were deleted for cover art purposes in order to make room for the logo.


Benz, Rovers, Chevrolets, come send me your rears.Ha-ha, your rear fenders, that is!

Welcome, one and all, to Alabaster Al’s Used CarCatalogue—your one-stop shop for all your second-hand car needs. Every one a winner, and all havebeen previously enjoyed.

You are invited to bid on a wide range of vehicles.First up is our star item. At first glance, it may look

like a heap of debris, and, I’ll be the first to admit,this car isn’t in the . . . ahem . . . mint-est of conditions.However, a closer examination will reveal the finecurved forms of a classic dune buggy. Blue-and-redbody with web-style detailing and a chrome roll bar.I’ll even throw in the optional signal lamp and web-shooters. Come now, ladies and gentlemen, haven’tyou always wanted to drive a car that can climbwalls? Well, now you can—with just a little mechan-ical work and a re-spray.

Still not convinced? Well, here at Alabaster Al’swe pride ourselves on a full and frank disclosure ofour vehicles’ histories.

Designed by Spider-Man himself, and built with helpfrom Johnny Storm, aka the Human Torch, the Spider-Mobile was originally the brainchild of advertising

agency Carter & Lombardo. They wanted Spidey to builda car to endorse Corona Motors’ new non-pollutingengine. Unfortunately, having built it, Spider-Mansuddenly remembered he couldn’t drive! However,following a few lessons from Johnny Storm, he took to theroad, quickly becoming a menace to all road users in NewYork. Sadly, Spidey ended up accidentally dunking theSpider-Mobile in the depths of the Hudson River (TheAmazing Spider-Man #126–141, Nov. 1973–Feb. 1975).

Chief mechanic Gerry Conway can elaboratefurther: “I didn’t create the Spider-Mobile idea, andthought it was pretty foolish. Marvel was approachedby a toy company which told us they could market avehicle for Spider-Man if one existed in the comics.Stan [Lee] approved the idea. Roy [Thomas] mayhave objected, but not too strenuously, and I was leftto point out that giving a vehicle to a guy whoswings by web from building to building was a littlelike tying an anvil to a butterfly.

“Roy told me to do whatever I liked with the car; Icould introduce it and get rid of it immediately if Iliked. So that’s what I did. I played the story for laughsbecause, frankly, the idea seemed so silly I couldn’timagine a way to do it seriously.

by A l l a n H a r v e y

What Were TheyDune?!

The Wall-Crawler gets

wheels in Amazing Spider-

Man #130 (Mar. 1974).

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.

© 2006 Marvel Characters, Inc.


Lookingto Buy aUsed Car?


I am a comic-book artist who has always favored humorcomics. Rebellion has always been an important part ofmy artistic sensibilities, and I feel that the best humorcomics, in their twisted, clownish way, boldly get to life’struths, and freely put the lie to the false values traditionallysold by society . . . and “serious” comics.

I began my career in 1979 writing scripts for HarveyComics, then illustrating for Marvel’s Crazy magazine.Hugo, the star of my first independent comic book in

1982, was around a long time before that. I begandeveloping the character before I was a teenager in theearly 1970s; he grew out of my lifetime love of themedieval “mystique.” As a youngster I was quite driven;I knew I wanted to tell stories with medieval animals. Thenarrative and graphic possibilities were heady to me,and I filled sketchbooks with experiments with a numberof kings, knights, princesses, and scullery maids beforearriving at the cast of characters in its present state. Thegu

est

editor

ialb

ym

ilton

knig

ht

Hugo: The Gathering, a line-up done for a prospective publisher and illustrated by Milton Knight (then 18)

in 1981, more than a year before Hugo’s Fantagraphics debut. Pictured at opposite ends: Aloysius and

Buttox (the Anarchist Brothers); between the fiends: King Adolph the Eleventeenth, Leonard the Stable Boy,

Hugo; Princess Trish, Nan Marley (the Lady-in-Waiting).

© 2006 Milton Knight.

cast development proved to be very organic, with each characterbeing originated to fill a need and then growing . . . like a humanbeing. King Adolph, for instance, began life as a typical corpulentcartoon king; becoming more frank about allowing my life toinfluence my art, Adolph changed into a frank caricature of myalcoholic father. As the character developed, he has become morecomplex and human. He started life as a plainly functional caricatureof authority and has blossomed into being his own presence, ascommunicative of my own thoughts as Hugo himself.

My chosen inspirations were numerous and some seeminglyunrelated, but most obvious and lasting were the influence ofTerrytoons (with their lively, springy animation, their lusty antiquariansensibilities, and, sometimes, their sexuality) and the 1940s“funny animal” comic books (then called “animation” comics)drawn by some people who played a part in the making of thosefilms. Chief among them, in comics like Giggle and Cookie, was anex-animation director named Dan Gordon, whose linework tendedto be somewhat heavy, as harsh and sarcastic as his characters.Gordon’s comic work, although sometimes rushed and sometimesracist in the fashion of the day, inspired me with its comic honesty,and stood in the greatest contrast to the “accepted masters” of thegenre (Barks, etc.) whose work was, to me, the palest shade ofwhitebread. Gordon and his New York peers seemed rebels tome, and I wanted to be one, too.

My epic dreams came true at Fantagraphics, and while theirprinting of the book was mostly satisfactory, and the distribution better than average, it was alwaysclear that the most influential members of the staff had a problem regarding funny animal books.“Why talking animals?” was a constant question, and I had no answer beyond their charm, elasticity,history (they were being used by storytellers centuries before comic books), and “camp” value. Thiswas the first time I had experienced anyone having nervousness abouta cartoon simply because it featured talking animals, and it soonbecame obvious that the publishers’ agenda was directedtoward the more “realistic” (or, more accurately, less “fantastic”),confessional sensibility that they are now known for. It is hardfor me to say where the Hugo series would have gone if I hadcontinued at Fantagraphics, because the poverty I was experiencingand Fantagraphics’ laxness in promoting the book to make itmore profitable made doing it a painful experience.

Looking back on the four initial Hugo books, I am pleasedwith their achievement, but certainly see them as achievementsof an immature sort. At the time, I was impatient to convey thestories and gags; attention to rendering the art consequentiallyreceived short shrift. Many challenges I gave myself both in art andstory were “solved” in too facile a manner. I was looking too much at comic books,and learning too many shortcuts from them. In addition, many of the visual interpre-tations of Trish seem especially gauche to me. But I was a horny kid. And, to thepresent day, that’s who comics tend to be for.

Also typical of a kid at this time was my lack of self-doubt. It was 1986,during the “boom” period for small black-and-white comics publishers, andI knew it was probable that I could improve my former working conditionselsewhere. I did, at least monetarily, with Blackthorne Publishing, an outrageous,

Beginnings:Richie Rich Dollars & Cents “He Loves MeNot” script (1978)

Milestones:Illustrator-cartoonist for The Village Voice,Family Weekly, Nickelodeon Magazine,The Electric Company Magazine, NationalLampoon, Heavy Metal, and others / Hugo /

Midnite the Rebel Skunk / Mighty Mouse /Slug ’n’ Ginger / animation design for Cool World,

The Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, andThe Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat

Works in Progress:Graphic Classics /serigraphs prints forIdavid Graficks

Cyberspace:www.miltonknight.net

MILTON

KNIGHT


© 2006 Milton Knight.

Attempting to spin off a successful comic-bookseries from any line of toys is never child’s play. Still,Marvel Comics managed to do quite well with twotitles, Rom: Spaceknight (which ran 75 issues from1979–1986, with four Annuals) and The Micronauts(which originally enjoyed a 59-issue run from1979–1984, with various continuations in later years).

Recently BACK ISSUE sat down with two of the menwho helped make these books wildly popular with comicsfans: Sal Buscema, the artist who lent a hand in givingRom a proper launch, and Jackson “Butch” Guice, theartist who came on board in time to help bring theoriginal adventures of the Micronauts to a conclusion.

—Dan Johnson

DAN JOHNSON: Tell our readers how you each cameto work on your respective books.JACKSON GUICE: Actually, Micronauts is my firstcredited work in the industry. Ironically enough, a yearprior to that, I had ghosted a chapter on Rom Annual#1 for Pat Broderick. Both were breaking points for megetting into comics. I had been doing a little bit offanzine work, and at the time I was designing patchesand emblems for a small company in North Carolina.[One day] I came home from work and there was aphone call from Al Milgrom. I guess Bill Mantlo, whohad written the Rom Annual, had seen some of my

’s SalBuscemaand

Marvel’s Toy Story:

And you thought The Graduate’s Dustin

Hoffman knew how to bust up a wedding . . .

Page 19 of Rom #15, penciled and inked

by Sal Buscema. From the collection

of Michael Romanenko.

Rom TM & © Parker Brothers.

’ JacksonGuice

Interviewby D a n J o h n s o n

conducted December 13, 2005


fanzine work as well, asked Al to track me down. WhenI spoke with Al, he told me there was an opening onMicronauts and they were going to try out severaldifferent artists over the course of the next three or fourissues and he asked if I would be interested in doingone. I jumped at the chance and immediately went outroller skating that night, fell and broke the elbow onmy drawing arm. Thankfully when they put the caston, they had the arm bent, so it was more a case ofdrawing from the shoulder. It was quite a baptism offire to start off my career.SAL BUSCEMA: It just shows you what us comic-bookguys are capable of.JOHNSON: How about you, Sal? Tell us how youstarted on Rom.BUSCEMA: The reason I started doing Rom fromissue number one was because no one else wantedto do it. Several other people were asked to illus-trate the book and they didn’t want to becausethey didn’t think it was going to fly. As a matter offact, the Rom action figure was given the nickname“the Toaster.” Everybody thought he looked like ahuman toaster. I took on the book and it turnedout to be reasonably successful, but the toybombed completely. The toy was gone after oneyear, but I we did the book for five years.

JOHNSON: Rom and Micronauts bothmanaged to outlive the toy lines that spawnedthem. Indeed, there are comics fans today whoaren’t even aware of the toys. I read that BillMantlo, who wrote both books, had seen thepromotional video that had been presented toMarvel about Rom. This was the same videothat had been used to promote the toy line atvarious toy fairs. I was wondering, did yougentlemen ever get any feedback from the toycompanies about your work on the comics?BUSCEMA: I didn’t get any feedback. Theonly thing I got from Parker Brothers was aRom action figure. My children were veryyoung at the time and they were thrilledwith it. I thought it was kind of silly myselfbecause it really didn’t do anything. That was about theextent of my involvement with the parent company.JOHNSON: As I recall, Rom was Parker Brothers’ onlyattempt to put out an action figure.BUSCEMA: Probably. They should have stuck toboard games. I did admire them for going toMarvel and saying, “Hey, we would like to do acomic based on this character. What can you do forus?” Marvel came up with a very interesting conceptand it was a fun book to do.


Beginnings:Inker on 10-page Gunhawk story

Milestones:The Avengers / Sub-Mariner / CaptainAmerica / The Incredible Hulk /The Defenders / Rom / Iron Man /The Amazing Spider-Man / Peter Parker:The Spectacular Spider-Man / Fantastic Four

Works in Progress:Inker for Spider-Girl / Artist for TheOfficial Handbook of the Marvel Universecovers

Cyberspace:Spider-Girl message boardat comicsboards.com

SALBUSCEMA

Beginnings:Penciler on Micronauts #48

Milestones:Micronauts / New Mutants / X-Factor /

Flash / Doctor Strange / Badger/ Action

Comics / Eternal Warrior / X-OManowar / Resurrection Man / Birds of

Prey / Ruse / JLA Classified

Works in Progress:Artist for various Humanoid Publishing

projects (European Market) /Aquaman: Sword of Atlantis

Cyberspace:theartistschoice.com/guice.htm

JACKSON“BUTCH”GUICE

Micronauts figures

weren’t the only

things available in toy

stores in 1979—

Whitman bundled

three issues of

Marvel’s Micronauts

for toy-market sales.

Micronauts TM & © MegoCorporation.

JOHNSON: How about you, Butch? By the time youcame onto Micronauts, the toy line may havealready been history.GUICE: Yeah, the toys had probably already bombed bythe time I started on the book. I can’t recall ever havingheard anything from the toy company itself, and by thattime there wasn’t really any thought process towardsconnecting the comic to the toys. When I started onMicronauts, Bill was essentially wrapping up his run on it.We spent the next ten or eleven issues wrapping up hisstories and then the title was cancelled. We were one ofthe first three Marvel direct sales books and after it wascancelled, it was relaunched a year later with Peter Gilliswriting it and Kelley Jones, who had inked my pencils onthe book, was penciling it then. I know that Bill waspulling his whole storyline together, and he wanted theheroes to have a final showdown with Baron Karza, themain villain, and sort of pull the cast back together.

JOHNSON: Speaking of Bill Mantlo, you each had thechance to work with him while on these books. Whatcan you tell us about him?BUSCEMA: Bill and I worked together fine. I thoughtBill was a very talented writer. We did have a bit of afalling out at the end of my run on Rom. That wassimply because of a misunderstanding between us. Ithink Bill wanted to exercise more control over theillustration part of the book, and if I prided myself onanything, it was that I was a good storyteller. I didn’tconsider myself the greatest draftsman in the indus-try by any stretch of the imagination, and I felt I wascompetent, but my greatest strength was story-telling and we were butting heads too much. Billwas asking me to do things that I knew, in myexperience, would not work. We were on the bookfor a long time, and I worked with Bill on other books,and I thought we had a very successful and amiablerelationship. It was just at that particular time, forsome unknown reason, that happened. I was gettingtired of doing the book anyway, and I wanted togo on to other things, so it worked out well.GUICE: My own experience [with Bill], just gettinginto the industry, it was the first time I hadworked with a writer for any period of time. Ihad a great time working with Bill. In fact, afterMicronauts was cancelled, we went on to doSwords of the Swashbucklers for Epic. Gradually,I left that title and then I don’t think Bill and Iever had the chance to work together again.At one time, while I was at DC, he contactedme and he was briefly talking about wantingto get back into comics. That was after he had

left the industry for a little while.BUSCEMA: He studied law, didn’t he?GUICE: Yeah, he went to law school and he became anattorney. He just called me up out of the blue one dayand said that he missed comics and he was thinkingabout getting back into the business. We talked aboutsome possible projects and it never really came together.We didn’t get our heads together fast enough and Ibelieve it was just a couple of months later that he hadhis accident. [Editor’s note: See Tony Isabella’s sidebar.]BUSCEMA: Was it really?GUICE: It was fairly close, right prior to his accident. Asfar as working with Bill, I do remember giving him ahard time about [some of the plots I was] getting, viathe Marvel method of plotting which was still popularat the time. As a new artist, I was somewhat takenaback the first time I got a plot that said, “Pages 5through 15, the Micronauts fight.”


A killer Butch Guice

splash page (inked by

Danny Bulanadi) from

his first Micronauts

issue, #50. Courtesy of

Mike Blanchard.

Micronauts TM & © MegoCorporation.


“Five Young Women, unbelievably strong and mesmerizingly beautiful, must defend the universe! Solara,child of the blazing sun! Starlily, gentle champion whose touch makes deserts blossom! Wonder Woman,Amazon Princess! Dolphin, denizen of the deep blue seas! Ice, ruler of frost and snow! Together they are. . . Wonder Woman and the Star Riders.”

So pronounced a catalog headline in 1993, when an exciting new line of toys was announced byMattel. With DC Comics also creating mini-comics, and Warner prepping an animated special, WonderWoman and the Star Riders appeared to be destined for success. But along the path to saving the universe,the Star Riders stumbled and fell, and Wonder Woman was forced to face the truth as the project wascancelled on every level. But history would not disappear, and like the shadows of DC’s multiple Earths,neither would this Greatest Story Never Told.

by A n d y M a n g e l s

THE TOYSThe origins of the Star Riders project (hereafterreferred to as WWSR) are unclear even to someparticipants, but accounts seem to indicatethat DC President Jenette Kahn approachedMattel about doing a girls’ line of dolls basedon the DC heroines. A set of presentation artwas completed, through DC editor JoeOrlando’s “Special Projects” division. ColoristRick Taylor recalls, “Jim McCaan or Janice Walkercalled me to color some super-heroine drawingsthat one of Joe’s students had done. I rememberbeing asked to color drawings of Dr. Light, Arisia(the Green Lantern), the Bumblebee, and a fewothers, overnight.”

The eventual group of characters wouldinclude Wonder Woman as its only familiar faceand costume. Ice and Dolphin were substantiallyaltered in appearance, and JLA member Fire’sname was changed to Solara so as not to teachlittle girls to “play with Fire.” Taylor notes that fifthteammate Starlily (sometimes StarLily and StarLily), an African-American character, “was inventedto add diversity, as none of the DC African-American heroines resonated with the folks atMattel.” Although Wonder Woman had her owncat villainess in Cheetah, a new cat-based villainesswas created in Purrsia.

“Once the heroine lineup had been ‘cut’ toWonder Woman, Dolphin, Starlily, Solara, Ice, andPurrsia, José Luis García-López did full pencils ofeach character,” Taylor says. “I was asked to ink,color, and make them presentation quality. Ibought silver and gold markers and glitter, theninked the drawings, colored them and ‘finished’them with glitter and metallic markers.”

García-López says, “I just adapted the dolls’photos I got from licensing to a drawing style suitedfor young girls. My bet is that the dolls weredesigned at Mattel, because if they came from


(left and below)

José Luis García-

López’s roughs for

presentation art.

© 2006 DC Comics.


Captain Action was the world’s coolest action figure, a comicslover’s dream of a figure that could change into Superman, Batman,Spider-Man, Captain America, Aquaman, the Phantom, the LoneRanger (and Tonto, but you’d need two Caps to have the set!), FlashGordon, Buck Rogers, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and the GreenHornet (whew!). Cap was Ideal Toys’ answer to G.I. Joe, and in fact,had the same guy behind him, an idea man named Stan Weston. Itwas Stan who first came to Hasbro’s Creative Director Don Levinein 1963 with the idea of an articulated soldier. Don and his Hasbroteam took the concept and ran with it, making a huge splash in thetoy pool with G.I. Joe. Merrill Hassenfeld offered Stan a choice: hecould take a lump sum of $75,000 up front, or a 1% royalty on theJoe line. At this time, the life of the average toy line was only a fewyears, then it was off to the warehouses, basements, and attics offorgotten amusements. Weston thought $75,000 was an odd figure.$100,000? Done deal. Turns out, Stan missed out on millions.

Stan Weston took his settlement and started his own licensingcompany, representing DC Comics (then known as NationalPeriodical Publications—sounded more “classy” without“comics” in the title), Marvel Comics, and King Features.

Weston’s company Leisure Concepts took the idea of a new12-inch articulated action figure (not a doll, thank you) to IdealToys, which was looking for an answer to G.I. Joe. Stan proposed“Captain Magic,” a many-in-one hero that could adopt the guiseof several characters (which, it just so happened to turn out, wererepresented by Leisure Concepts!). The name was changed toCaptain Action (to point out the potential action inherent in thetoy). The figure hit the market in 1966, part of a wave trying toget some of that “Joe” magic.

The figure itself had a rather sad and worried expression (lookinga little like George H. W. Bush) and more detailed musculaturethan Joe. The original wave included Cap in his blue-and-blackuniform, with a lightning sword and ray gun, and Superman,Batman, Lone Ranger (red shirt and black pants), Phantom, FlashGordon, Captain America, Sgt. Fury, Steve Canyon, and Aquamancostumes (with assorted accessories), each sold separately. Thenext wave in 1967 added Buck Rogers, Green Hornet, and Tonto,with a blue-suited Lone Ranger variation (collect them all!).

The Original Super-Hero Action FigureThis Kurt Schaffenberger-drawn ad appeared in many DC titles in 1966.

© 1966 Ideal Toys. All characters TM & © the respective copyright holders.

The 9-Lives-In-One Super-Hero!by Tom “The Comics

Savant” Stewart

back issue #16

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