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JERRY ORDWAYInterview !

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Volume 1,Number 20February 2007

Celebrating the BestComics of the '70s,'80s, and Today!

EDITORMichael Eury

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERRich J. Fowlks

CIRCULATIONDIRECTORBob Brodsky,Seastone MarketingGroup

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrow and Christopher Irving

COVER ARTISTJerry Ordway

COVER COLORISTGlenn Whitmore

COVER DESIGNERRobert Clark

SPECIAL THANKSMichael AmbroseMichael AushenkerCary BatesSpencer BeckFrank BalasAlex BoneyEd BrubakerMark BurbeySal BuscemaKurt BusiekJohn ByrneGlen CadiganJoe CaseyLeo ChuahJennifer M. ContinoGerry ConwayDenys CowanDC ComicsRay CuthbertSteve DitkoTommy Lee EdwardsSteve EnglehartMike EspositoDave GibbonsDick GiordanoGrand Comic-Book

DatabasePaul HandlerJack C. HarrisAllan HarveyJackie HaumannHeritage ComicsJavier HernandezIlke HincerImages of American

Political HistoryDan JohnsonNick KatradisTed LatnerSteve LeialohaSteve Lipsky

The Ultimate Comics Experience!

Elliot S! MagginRichard MartinesMarvel ComicsBob McLeodKy MichaelsonMichael MikulovskyMike’s Amazing World

of DC ComicsAl MilgromDoug MoenchRafael NavarroEric NewsomDennis O’NeilKevin O’NeillJerry OrdwayMartin PaskoKeith PasquinoDon PerlinJohn PettyKeith RichardJohn Romita, Sr.Benno RothschildGreg RuckaRose Rummel-EuryAlex SeguraTed SekoJim ShooterRich ShurginTom SmithZack SmithRoger SternTom StewartChris SwanRoy ThomasBruce TimmRick VeitchJeff WeigelLen WeinMarv WolfmanEddy ZenoTom Ziuko

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor,5060A Foothills Dr., Lake Oswego, OR 97034. Email: [email protected]. Six-issue subscriptions: $36Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $72 Surface International, $96 Airmail International.Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover art by JerryOrdway. Shazam! (the original Captain Marvel), Billy Batson, and Firestorm TM & © DC Comics.Moon Knight and Captain America TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All charactersare © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorialmatter © 2007 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM of TwoMorrowsPublishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

BACK SEAT DRIVER: Editorial by Michael Eury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

FLASHBACK: Fire, Fire, Burning Bright: Firestorm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3An illuminating look at the creation of DC’s flame-headed Nuclear Man

AL MILGROM FIRESTORM ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10A showcase of classic and never-before-published illos from Firestorm’s original artist

TOP TEN WAYS TO HIDE YOUR SECRET IDENTITY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14Jennifer Contino’s helpful hints at alter ego concealment

PRO2PRO: The Nomad Saga: Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema on Captain America’sIdentity Crisis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16Steve Rogers takes on a new costumed guise—and Richard Nixon, too!

PRO2PRO BONUS: Brubaker and Casey’s Captain America Influences . . . . . . . . . . . 24How today’s hot Cap writers followed the footsteps of Englehart and Buscema

INTERVIEW: Jawing with Jerry Ordway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Get to know the fan favorite from his youth as a Marvelmaniac to his current work

WHAT THE--?!: It’s a Bird! It’s a Plane! It’s… an Editor?!! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Our exposé of Dave Gibbons’ secret identity as the costumed Big E

FLASHBACK: The Three Faces of Moon Knight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Moench and Perlin’s dark knight and his multiple identities—and artists

FLASHBACK: The Human Fly: Pretty Fly for a Real Guy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41The comics celebrity-packed story of “The Wildest Superhero of All—Because He’s Real”

SUPERMAN COLOR ART GALLERY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49Four color pages with rare art by Curt Swan and super-friends

PRO2PRO ROUNDTABLE: An Amazing Discussion About Clark Kent Red and ClarkKent Blue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Pre- and post-Man of Steel writers and artists examine Superman’s alter ego

OFF MY CHEST: Standing Up for Vince Colletta . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Rough Stuff’s Bob McLeod defends “comics’ worst inker”

FLASHBACK: What, When, Why, Where, How, and…Who is the Question? . . . . . . . . . . 69Explore the history of comics’ man with no identity, with O’Neil, Cowan, Rucka, and others

BACKSTAGE PASS: Wonder Woman Day . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Visit a special fundraising event in Portland, Oregon

BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82A letter from Deadman co-creator Arnold Drake, plus reader feedback on issue #18

FREE ALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86A sample of our sister publication, absolutely gratis

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S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1

Unmask comics’ mostunusual alter egos in our

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AN EXPLOSION OF NEW IDEAS!In 1977, DC Comics was undergoing seismic

changes. The year before, Carmine Infantino—one-time editorial director, then publisher, aman who had set the look and direction of DCfor almost ten years—was unceremoniously

shown the door at Lexington Ave. by the higher-upsat Warner Communications. He was replaced withJenette Kahn, a woman several decades Infantino’sjunior, with no direct comic-book experience. To saythat change was in the air would be like sayingSuperman … is kinda strong.

In 1975, DC added 16 new titles; in ’76, 12 wereadded; and in ’77, 12 more were jammed onto theracks. It was a war for shelf space with MarvelComics, and this time DC wasn’t going to blink.

The call went out for new ideas, new characters, andnew titles to join the fray. One of the people to answerwas former Marvel editor-in-chief Gerry Conway:

“I had come over from Marvel to DC, and waslooking to do some work reminiscent of the work Idid at Marvel, stuff I enjoyed doing.”

Conway had several ideas he’d been kickingaround, one that became Steel (no, the other one,with the cool Don Heck art) and another that wentthrough the indignity of being one of the most toutedtitles to never appear (well, almost never, but thenyou’ve got to count that warehouse of unpublishedmaterial, Cancelled Comic Cavalcade), Vixen. And onemore, a series about what it might really be like tobe a teenage super-hero: Firestorm, the Nuclear Man.

Here’s Firestorm’s original editor, Jack C. Harris,on the atmosphere at DC in ’76–77:

“There was a flurry of presentations at the time.I remember two of mine own were a reworking ofKamandi (with Dick Ayers) and a reworking ofCaptain Comet (with Bob Rozakis and Joe Staton).The Captain Comet concept went pretty far downthe line before it was eventually rejected, but theatmosphere was very positive. The Powers That Bewere actively seeking new and expansive ideas.”

Gerry Conway brought his concept of Firestormto the “Powers That Be” and got the green light.

S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 3

Man of Two MindsFirestorm the Nuclear Man, with silhouettes of his two (original)

secret identities, Professor Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond,from a 1977 DC house ad by Al Milgrom. Unless otherwise noted,

all art in this article is courtesy of Al Milgrom.© 2007 DC Comics.

by Tom “The Comics Savant” Stewart

TM

A DC VERSION OF A MARVEL CHARACTERHere’s Gerry:

“The idea behind Firestorm was to answer somebasic questions I had about Peter Parker, playaround with some thoughts about what would areal teenager, who wasn’t a brainaic, do with powers?What would a kid in my high school do given thatkind of power? I saw him as a kind of nice guy, wellmeaning, but not the brightest bulb, and to balancethat out, came up with the idea of combining himwith an older, mentor character, a reverse of theCaptain Marvel concept … this time we have theyoung teenager staying a teenager, but he suddenlygains a Jiminy Cricket in the form of this older,somewhat disproving, smarter father figure. Hebecomes the voice in his head that tells him whatto do, which [the kid] often ignores … as we alloften do.”

So how did “team Firestorm” come together,Gerry Conway creator and scripter, and Al Milgrom,co-creator and artist. Gerry…?

“I wanted to work with Al Milgrom. We had a similarsensibility. Al had a kind of cartoony style to his artwork,in the same way Ross Andru’s Spider-Man was cartoony.He was a great storyteller; drew very dynamic, action-based figures.”

Al Milgrom himself had come over from Marvel toedit at DC just before Gerry. Al…?

“They asked if I’d be interested in working withGerry on this project. I read the proposal, and thoughtit was pretty good!”

Jack C. Harris was on board as editor:“If I recall clearly, Gerry presented the Firestorm

concept amid a flurry of requested submissions fromJenette Kahn and, as part of his contracted scripting,he was to write it as well. I was assigned as the editorwith the creative team in place. I was thrilled, havingworked with both Gerry and Al previously, and havingestablished good working relationships with them.That, and the fact that I loved their work.”

SPIDER-MAN SIDEWAYSGerry, Al, and Jack wanted a return to the fun of theold Marvel. Here’s Gerry:

“Basically, the notion was to have some fun with someof the tropes of the Peter Parker/Spider-Man character.”

And Al:“I always thought that Firestorm was Spider-Man

sideways! It was the jock, Ronnie [Raymond,Firestorm’s physical alter ego] who had the powersand it was the smart guy, Cliff [Carmichael, supporting-cast member] who was the real bully. It was the Spideysetup, but reversed.”

Comics had lost some of the fun over the yearssince Spider-Man’s 1962 debut. Peter Parker hadgotten older and was loaded with some 15 years ofbaggage, trauma, and soap opera. He’d lost some ofthe wonder he’d had when he first appeared. It wastime to bring some of that back. Gerry…?

“I still wanted to have the soap-opera elements [inFirestorm], but I wanted it to be more fun-based, andthat’s reflected in the kind of powers Firestorm had,rearranging molecules to be whatever he wantedthem to be. Sort of like Green Lantern, but as a kid.

“The idea was to try to do a DC version of a Marvelcharacter, but try to have some fun with it.”

Ronnie Raymond was a good guy, an average kidwith a mostly absent father, a nice hook shot tomake up what he lacked in math skills, and a short

fuse when it came to his nemesis, the smartest kidin school, mutton-chop- and smirk-wearing CliffCarmichael. To impress the school beauty DoreenDay, in Firestorm vol. 1 #1 (Mar. 1978), Ronnie

joins a nuclear protest group (that would impressgirls, right?) that has much more than protesting onits agenda. Ronnie ends up unwittingly involved in aplot to blow up the nuclear plant designed byProfessor Martin Stein, a Nobel Prize-winning physicistwhose whole reputation is bound up in the successof the facility.

In trying to stop the explosion, Ronnie andProfessor Stein are fused into one being, a nuclear-power man, Firestorm.

As noted, there was a lot of the early Peter Parkercharacter type in Ronnie. Here’s editor Harris:

“I remember thinking, initially, that [the Firestormconcept] was very derivative, taking great hunks ofideas and concepts from earlier creations. In latereditorial conversations, Gerry often pointed out thateverything was derivative in concept and that theoriginality comes from new presentations, combinations,and rearrangements of these concepts. The morescript-plotting sessions we had, the more I saw that hewas right. I remember creating two of the villainsmyself: Killer Frost and Multiplex.”

4 • B A C K I S S U E • S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e

Happy to Bea Hero

The splash page toFirestorm #1 (Mar.1978), written by

Conway, penciled byMilgrom, and inked

by Klaus Janson(“Klaus did a great

job!” beams Al). JoeRubinstein and an

uncredited Milgrominked additional pagesin the premiere issue.

© 2007 DC Comics.

7. Have a list of ready excuses.“No, that wasn’t me saving the world,

I was out walking my dog!”

“No, that red webbed shirt you saw underneath my dress shirtwasn’t a Spider-Man costume. I had a red crayon in with my laundry

and all my undershirts are that color now.”

“I don’t know how Wonder Woman freed us,I was unconscious like the rest of you!”

“This isn’t a Green Lantern ring, I got it out of a Cracker Jacks box!”

Steve Rogers concurs, “I can’t tell you how many times the right excuse has saved my career!”

9. Act like a wimp.“If you’re a wimp, there’s no way some-one will think you’re a hero, especially

if you let bullies push you around, kicksand in your face, and bug you,” saysPeter Parker. “Just to make sure your

disguise is fooling everyone, letthem knock books out of your hands

or tease you in front of pretty girls, too.”

8. Act like a pimp.Bruce Wayne encourages, “If you’re at a

party with several girls hanging off everybody part, no one will believe you haveenough time, energy, or desire to seek yourkicks by busting heads on a dark ‘night.’”

“Along with having a few gals on each arm,have a few bottles of good scotch or finewine in each hand,” suggests Tony Stark.

“Getting a little sauced will make othersfind it hard to believe you’re an

invincible hero.”

10. Wear a wig.“After all, even if your face is exposed, having a wig on can

make all the difference in the world,” says Linda Lee.“Especially if it’s styled different than your ‘normal’ hairstyle.”

Dinah Lance is quick to agree, “With the right wig youcan fool even a trained detective!”

Just how does a super-hero hide his or her identity from friends, family, foes, and anyother animals, vegetables, or minerals he or she might come in contact with? It’s tough,but we’ve asked a few “professionals” for their advice on…

1 4 • B A C K I S S U E • S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e

by J e n n i f e r M . C o n t i n o

The Top Ten Ways to HideYour Secret Identity

© 2007 DC.

© 2007 Marvel.

© 2007 DC.

© 2007 Marvel.


It’s one thing for a super-hero to change his name, or maybe assume a new identity fora story. It’s another thing for one of the most iconic characters in comics to not onlychange his identity, but his entire philosophy as well.

Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema did just that with Captain America in the 1970s,crafting one of Cap’s most thought-provoking and best-remembered storylines.

“The Nomad Saga” (Captain America #177–186, Sept. 1974–June 1975) came in thewake of another well-regarded Englehart/Buscema collaboration, the recently reprinted“Secret Empire” storyline. In it, Captain America battles an evil conspiracy seeking to take

over the country, leading to one of the most shocking endings in comics—after chasingthe Secret Empire’s leader, Number One, to the Oval Office, Cap unmasks him to

discover an unseen figure who claims “high political office” wasn’t enough forhim, before committing suicide.

Though Number One’s identity was never stated, the allegory was clear toreaders—Captain America had just witnessed a villainous Richard Nixon tak-

ing his own life.Bereft, Cap questioned whether the values he stood for still applied in

this modern America. He became a new hero, the Nomad, literally “theman without a country.”

Others attempted to fill Cap’s shoes, including a young kidhe’d befriended named Roscoe. But when Roscoe was brutally

murdered by the Red Skull, Cap realized that he had toreturn. Understanding that he represented America’s

people and ideals rather than its government, he resumedhis old identity and set out to avenge his friend.

The Nomad identity made a strong impression onreaders, and was later revived by Jack Monroe,another Englehart creation. The new Nomad stuckaround for a while, even enjoying a short-lived soloseries in the early 1990s before he was recentlykilled off in the latest Captain America series.

BACK ISSUE recently sat down with SteveEnglehart and Sal Buscema (whose participation was

limited due to recent health problems) to look back on thisstoryline, and their work together. We also spoke to Joe Caseyand Ed Brubaker, two modern-day Cap writers who have citedEnglehart and Buscema’s influence on their work.

—Zack Smith

The Seminal Cap TeamEven before their landmark Nomad storyline,Steve Englehart and Sal Buscema had pulled

Captain America out of its sales doldrums.Detail from page 1 of issue #161 (May

1973), courtesy of Nick Katradis.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Englehart and Buscema

on Captain America’s

Identity Crisisby Z a c k S m i t h Englehart and Buscema

on Captain America’s

Identity Crisis

ZACK SMITH: What was the genesis of the Nomad storyline?How far in advance had you planned to do it?STEVE ENGLEHART: I was very much sort of in-the-moment atthat time. It came out, of course, during the whole Watergatething. I was writing Captain America during Watergate and it justbecame absurd to me that Captain America would not pay anyattention to Watergate. So I ended up doing “The Secret Empire”and you can see, if you read those issues leading up to it, it startedout as kind of a super-hero thing and there’s vague talk of aconspiracy. But I had just moved out to California and a couple ofissues were kind of plotted with Mike Friedrich. I plotted them, hewrote them, but I was sort of moving the story forward withouthaving much idea what the story was at that point. And then Imoved to California and settled in just as Watergate was reallyheating up. And for people who weren’t around then, it was verymuch like having this epic movie unfolding day by day. Every daythere was forward motion in the storyline, there were newrevelations, there were machinations, there were Senate hearings,and it really was the whole summer. So it seemed impossible tome that Captain America could not pay attention to it.

So once I got settled in California and sort of got back onschedule to do everything myself, I started shaping a story whichreally hadn’t started off in that direction, shaping it toward thewhole thing where the president blows his brains out in theWhite House and Captain America is disillusioned, that Americadoesn’t believe in what he believes at the time. And then it justseemed obvious that he would give up being Captain America.I mean, it was like one thing led to another, and so, to answeryour original question, I probably [worked] no more than amonth ahead when I thought of doing the Nomad concept. Itwas like every story led into every other story, and there was nolong-term plan. I mean, the only long-term plan, as I recall, wasthat Captain America would have to become Captain Americaagain at some point, and I understood that in my own sense ofvalues to mean that no, it wouldn’t just be, “Oh, well, we’ve runthis storyline into the ground.” If I had to go back again, therewould have to be a good way for him to come back, but I didn’tknow what that was. All I knew is I was going to do the Nomadthing and so it was just existential, really, because sort of everystory I’d say, “Okay, here’s where it would go next,” and then I’dget that one done and I’d go, “Well, here’s where it would gonext.” And that’s all I really knew.SMITH: The ending of the “Secret Empire” storyline went intoissue #176, some of your best writing on the series. I’d like totalk a little bit about that particular issue. How did you decideto do one that was just kind of a philosophical CaptainAmerica issue?ENGLEHART: Well, Captain America, to me, was a philosophy ina sense. I mean, that goes back to when I took over the series.As a reader—you know, [I was] just a fan before I went to workfor Marvel—Captain America was clearly the book that had theleast reason for existence, shall we say? I mean, CaptainAmerica was brought back in Tales of Suspense and Jack Kirbygot a chance to do it again, and Stan Lee got a chance to do it,and for a while, there was like an interesting Captain Americastoryline. But once [Cap] got his own book, clearly, Stan had noidea what to do with it. It was just sort of bad super-hero stuffwithout any purpose or anything. But the problem wasn’t justStan. Everybody was having difficulty with a character who wassupposed to be a patriotic example of America when theVietnam War was going on and when people were very muchup in arms about what America was doing, and so forth, and itwas like nobody was able to wrap his mind around doing apatriotic character in a sort of anti-American time.

And so when I got handed the book, I was able to wrap mymind around that. I could see [Cap] pretty clearly as a guy whoexemplified the best that America had to offer, not what it wasoffering. And so right from the start, I was just doing this sort ofphilosophical take on this guy. I was doing the best super-hero

S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1 7

Beginnings:Inker on 10-page Gunhawk story

Milestones:The Avengers / Sub-Mariner / Captain AmericaThe Incredible Hulk / Marvel Team-UpThe Defenders / Rom / Iron Man / The AmazingSpider-Man / Peter Parker: The SpectacularSpider-Man / Fantastic Four / Artist for The OfficialHandbook of the Marvel Universe covers

Work in Progress:Inker for Spider-Girl

Cyberspace:Spider-Girl message board atcomicsboards.com

SALBUSCEMA

Beginnings:Art assistant to Neal Adams in Vampirellavol. 1 #10 (1971)

Milestones:The Avengers / The Defenders / Captain AmericaThe Incredible Hulk / Dr. Strange / Batman inDetective Comics / The Point Man (novel) / CoyoteScorpio Rose / The Djinn / Justice League ofAmerica / animation including Street Fighter andG. I. Joe / Green Lantern / The Night Man /Batman: Dark Detective

Work in Progress:The Long Man™ (novel,sequel to The Point Man™)

Cyberspace:www.steveenglehart.com

STEVEENGLEHART

Photo courtesy of steveenglehart.com.

Photo courtesy of Heroes Aren’t Hard to Find.


Two of today’s most acclaimed comic-book writers areEd Brubaker and Joe Casey. Casey has written Cap inhis Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes minis, andBrubaker has scripted one of the most acclaimed runson Captain America in years. Both writers have citedEnglehart and Buscema’s work in the 1970s as a majorinfluence on their work.

Casey has often spoken of Englehart’s influence onhis own work, including an essay at his website,www.godlandonline.com.

“The way Englehart wrote long-form comic booksin the early ’70s set the template for just about everysuper-hero writer that came after,” Casey says. “Hisability to craft long arcs that would start small andthen build to a huge, dramatic crescendo and thenscale back to start the whole process over againshowed the rest of us how to maintain interest andenergy on a series over a period of years.

“My early Marvel work—Cable in particular—wasincredibly influenced by the way Englehart structuredhis series work. No Marvel writer outside of Stan Leeand Roy Thomas has ever had such a firm grasp of somany Marvel characters.”

For Brubaker, Englehart and Buscema’s run holds aspecial nostalgia. “The first comic I ever bought withmy own money was issue #156 of Captain Americaand the Falcon, with the two Caps fighting on thecover, and those great giant Sal Buscema fists that areas big as their heads,” Brubaker says.

“That comic blew me away. I was five or six yearsold then, and living on the Navy Base at Gitmo, andI think that single issue of Cap cemented him as afavorite through most of my childhood. I’ve readevery issue of the Englehart run several times,including recently.”

Both writers cite the Nomad storyline as a highpoint for the character of Captain America.

“As a kid, reading it the first time, I was reallyjust shocked,” Brubaker says. “How could they dothat to Cap?”

Brubaker says that he felt that Steve Englehart’swriting helped readers see Captain America notjust as a cliché, but as a person. “I think it was thegenesis of the whole thing about Cap not serving thegovernment, but the ideals of America, too, which hasbeen carried over for decades now,” Brubaker says.

Casey agrees. “This was a radical change thatactually related to the core concept of the characterin a profound way,” Casey says. “The fact that Caploved his country and the ideals it stood for to such adegree that he gave up the mantle for awhile wascompletely defining. In fact, that whole storylineprobably defined the character for the following 20years, if not to this day.

“I think Englehart was the first writer who had areal vision for Captain America. I realize the possibleblasphemy I might be committing there, consideringthe previous main writers on Cap were Joe Simon, JackKirby, and Stan Lee, but Englehart was the first writerto consider what the character really means—andwhat he symbolizes––to the culture at that moment.

“And, considering it was the early ’70s … betweenVietnam and Watergate, a character who wore theAmerican flag was making a statement whether it wasintentional or not. Englehart was the first—and probablythe only—writer to address that statement and explorewhat it really meant in the context of adventure fiction.And he did it without sacrificing the four-color excitementthat super-hero comic books are supposed to deliver.That’s a tough balancing act. Not many writers can dothat, even today.”

Both writers also have fond memories of Buscema’sart. “Mostly because of his work on Cap, Sal is actuallymy favorite Buscema,” Brubaker says. “I think almostall the work he did on Cap was great, even when hecame back with the Grand Master storyline later andthey killed Sharon Carter.”

Casey also expresses admiration for Buscema’s work.“I think Sal Buscema is one of the great underratedMarvel artists,” Casey says. His work is pure storytelling.Hell, it’s just pure comics. Mr. Buscema has drawnsome of my favorite childhood comic books, and partof why they’re my favorites is because of his clarity ofstorytelling. He wasn’t flashy, but his art still managedto convey power at the appropriate moments. And Iused to love the shots where the bottom panel borderwas the floor of a room.”

Brubaker recently killed off the modern-day Nomad,Jack Monroe, in a poignant-but-disturbing story in issue#7 of the new Captain America series. “I felt okay killingJack Monroe because he’d been out of circulation for along time, and because I never really liked him beingNomad that much,” Brubaker says. “I liked him as acharacter, but to me, Nomad is Steve when he’s adrift.”

Casey liked Brubaker’s story, but says that he sawhow the Nomad identity could return. “I think it madegood story sense to get rid of Nomad in the manner itwas done,” Casey says, “although I do think there’s anew disillusionment that a lot of folks have with thecountry, the current administration, and their handlingof the war in Iraq. So maybe the Nomad characterwould have some renewed relevance in today’s super-hero landscape.”

Brubaker admits that he didn’t know whetherthe Nomad identity would or even should make acomeback, but doesn’t rule anything out: “Whoknows, with Civil War happening, maybe we’ll seethe return of Nomad … or maybe not.”

BRUBAKER AND CASEY’S

© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

by Z a c k S m i t h INFLUENCES

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MICHAEL MIKULOVSKY: You were born and raised inMilwaukee, Wisconsin. Is it true that as a kid you hada dog named Lobo, named after Marvel’s Red Wolf’swolf Lobo?JERRY ORDWAY: Yeah, that is true. Lobo was aGerman shorthair/black lab mix that we got as apuppy, and since the name meant wolf in Spanish, mybrother Joel and I went with it.MIKULOVSKY: Where did you get your comics backthen, in that time before comic-book stores?ORDWAY: Back in those dark ages, I used to ridemy bike all over Milwaukee, starting with the greatnewsstand downtown and then to any drugstore thathad a spinner rack, in search of titles that didn’t hit themain outlets. In the winter, when it was too cold inWisconsin for bike riding, my Aunt Mary would driveme all over the place searching. I remember in around1971 or so, I searched in vain locally for Forever Peoplewith Sonny Sumo on the cover, and on a summer tripfound it at a little drugstore in northern Wisconsin, 50miles from home. Man, was I happy for that trip!MIKULOVSKY: Many fans think of you as a DC guy,but weren’t you a Marvelmaniac growing up?ORDWAY: I spent most of my career working on DCheroes, but I got hooked on Marvel from the cartoonshow in 1966. Then I found the comics at a spinnerrack at the Milwaukee train station as the familyembarked on a trip to Colorado for my oldest brotherMike’s college graduation. My brother Joel and I spentthe dollar Mom gave us on Thor, Tales of Suspense,Daredevil, Spider-Man, Tales to Astonish, Fantastic Four,Avengers, and Strange Tales. The greatest thing wasthat upon arriving in Colorado, we were able to getthe next issues a few days later. And then it was anincredibly long month to wait for more!MIKULOVSKY: Why did you prefer Marvel’s comicsover DC’s?ORDWAY: As a kid will do, I felt Marvel belonged tomy generation, while DCs, which I had read a fewyears earlier, were “kid’s stuff.” I was nine years old,but DC to me was something I graduated from toget to Marvel. I also used to have to look up wordsin the dictionary to understand Spider-Man, forexample. I did relax my buying habits later on topick up the Captain Action comics from DC, as wellas the occasional THUNDER Agents.


With One Magic Word…Jerry Ordway’s rendition of Captain Marveland his secret identity Billy Batson, from anearly 1990s Capital Cities Distribution Catalog.Courtesy of Heritage Comics.© 2007 DC Comics.

by M i c h a e lM i k u l o v s k y

conducted v ia emai l on

August 21, 2006


MIKULOVSKY: Tell me about how you developedyour drawing, inking, and writing abilities? Whomost influenced your artistic style?ORDWAY: I did what most kids did—I copied panelsout of my comics. I drew my own versions of variouscovers and colored them up, until by the time I wasten I decided I should create my own characters andstories, to avoid the embarrassing question every adulthit me with upon seeing my drawings: “Did you copythat or draw it freehand?” When I took that next step,I, of course, looked at my favorite Marvel artists, suchas John Romita, John Buscema, and Gene Colan, artistsof my top three comics: Spider-Man, The Avengers, andDaredevil. I also took great inspiration from their inkersas well. Tom Palmer and Joe Sinnott just amazed me,and I liked it when they inked my faves.MIKULOVSKY: Many pros and fans alike compareyour art to the late, great Wally Wood. How do youfeel about this?ORDWAY: I believe I first saw Wood’s work in backissues of Marvels that I bought for a dime apiece ata local locksmith shop down the block from home.He had several grocery sacks full of comics that yourummaged through to find anything “good.” I scoredan Avengers #3, Spider-Man #s 3, 5, 7 and 11, amongother titles. I found a few Wood-inked Avengers, too, butreally got enamored of his work when he drew thecomic of my favorite action figure, Captain Action. Youcan’t imagine how influential that double-lighting Wallydid on faces was to me! Man, did I copy that stuff!MIKULOVSKY: What’s the story behind the Messenger,your creation during your fan days?ORDWAY: The Messenger started out as my version ofCaptain America, colored by the “relevant” comicsthat Denny O’Neil and Neal Adams were doing inGreen Lantern. His origin was tied to the Vietnam War,and he wore a stars and stripes costume originally.That was probably started in 1971 or ’72, and I createdseveral small home-made comics of his character, alongwith many others in the “Ordway Comics Group,” asI called my books.MIKULOVSKY: I know in the early ’80s you worked withMike Machlan, Al Vey, and Pat Broderick out of a studioin West Allis, Wisconsin. How did you hook up with them?ORDWAY: With Machlan, I first met him via a fanzineI did in 1974 and 1975 called Okay Comix (instead ofComics, which I figured had to be in use by someonealready) and we got to be great friends with manyshared interests. He was really more of a mentor, as Iwas 17 and he was 24 at the time. We would drawpinup shots of Marvel or DC characters and practiceinking each other’s stuff.

Later on, when Pat Broderick moved to Milwaukeein 1983, Mike and I were the art team on All-StarSquadron, and Pat instigated the studio idea, havingworked at the famed Continuity Studios in the ’70s. InJanuary of 1984, we started looking at office buildingsconvenient to us all. We found a space, and thendecided we needed another guy to share the rent, so

Beginnings:Mystery in Space #117 (Mar. 1981), inks overCarmine Infantino-penciled short story

Milestones:All-Star Squadron / Infinity, Inc. / Crisis on InfiniteEarths / Adventures of Superman / Fantastic Four /Batman movie adaptation / Wildstar / Power ofShazam! / The Avengers / Tom Strong / Top Ten:Beyond the Farthest Precinct / Infinite Crisis

Work in Progress:Red Menace (from Wildstorm)

Cyberspace:www.jerryordway.com

JERRYORDWAY

Photo by Peggy Ordway.

Running from Ultra Boy, Who WantsHis Shirt BackOrdway’s 2004 rendition of DaveCockrum’s X-Men creation Thunderbird,courtesy of Heritage Comics.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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oddities3 2 • B A C K I S S U E • S e c r e t I d e n t i t i e s I s s u e

“I have been grooming and training an editor,”exclaimed 2000AD’s Tharg on the editorial pageof Britain’s newest weekly comic. “His mindcapacity is 50 times that of a normal human;his physical strength is limitless. He has all theamazing powers of mind and body that heneeds to edit a comic of many worlds. Earthlets,I present Big E and his comic—Tornado!”

Launched in March 1979, Tornado was intend-ed to compliment the solid hit that was 2000AD.The previous year, 2000AD’s sister comic, Starlord,had failed to fly off newsstands, and so Tornadolargely ditched the sci-fi content in favor of moretraditional fare. Like all British comics, Tornadowas an anthology. Its roster featured, amongstothers, a detective, a psychic, and a samurai. Thecharacter chosen to front the new comic was asuper-hero. Whereas Tharg was an unknownman in a mask, Big E’s face was on full display inphotographs throughout Tornado’s run. It’s aface we’ve come to know and love during theintervening years, for Big E was played by noneother than comics artist Dave Gibbons.

“Originally,” explains Gibbons, “Judge Dreddwriter John Wagner was approached, but wanted,I’m told, too much money. I agreed to do it forthe equivalent of a page rate. It struck me as a bitof fun and I suspect I am a frustrated actor atheart. Or maybe I’m really just a showoff!

“I went with then-assistant editor of 2000AD,Nick Landau, to Berman and Mather, a theatricalcostumier, and picked out some suitable items.As I recall, the arms and legs were black; thegloves, breastplate, and boots silver; the underoosyellow; and the cape blue. I designed and drewthe chest symbol on sticky-backed paper. It wasblue with yellow stars.

“All the photos [used in the comic] weredone on one day, around the then offices of[publisher] Fleetway, at King’s Tower onLondon’s South Bank. We roamed the corridors,parking lots, and roof, basically just being bigkids. They ran a car up on a ramp, so it lookedlike I was lifting it, had people fire toy guns at me,and gave me the chance to punch out membersof the editorial staff.”

by Allan Harvey

Yes, Dave Gibbons Gave Us Permission to Print ThisAnd you thought the “Big E” was BACK ISSUE editor Michael Eury…!All photos in this article courtesy of Allan Harvey. © 2007 respective holder.

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Once upon a time, secret identities were very importantto super-heroes. In this day and age of comic-bookcharacters unmasking more and more, I know that’shard to believe, but it’s true. In fact, one character inthe Marvel stable thought secret identities were soimportant, he assumed a couple of extra ones tohelp him wage his war on crime. Readers of BACKISSUE, allow me to present to you Moon Knight.Granted, it may take a while to get a handle onwho this character is, but don’t sweat it toomuch. After all, knowing who Moon Knightreally is is sometimes pretty difficult, even forthe man behind the silvery mask.

When the character was first introducedin the pages of Werewolf by Night (issues#32 and 33, Aug. and Sept. 1975), hiscreators, Doug Moench and Don Perlin,were simply hoping for a new kind of adversaryto go up against the Werewolf, Jack Russell. Inthe end they created a costumed adventurerwhose full potential was just hinted at in hisfirst appearance and who would eventuallytake juggling multiple identities to a whole newlevel. But more on that in just a little while….

DEADLINE-INSPIREDLet’s start back when Marvel’s newest mystery manwas just a hired gun stalking deadly game in theMarvel Universe. Like other memorable comic-bookcreations before him, Moon Knight came about due tothe greatest inspiration a writer or artist can havelooming over their heads: a deadline. “I needed towrite the next issue of Werewolf by Night because Don[Perlin] was waiting for the plot,” recalls Moench. “Ineeded to come up with a new villain for Jack Russell.This was back when comics were more seat-of-your-pants and spontaneous. Never sell that short. Some ofthe best stuff I’ve done came under extreme pressure,and by the very nature of that there was no interferenceallowed because the publishers need the books. Youwere totally set free, and as long as [your work] wasthere by the deadline, it was okay.”


Meet Moon Knight……rendered by the artist who co-created him,

Don Perlin, in this commissionedillustration courtesy of Mr. Perlin.

© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

by D a n J o h n s o n

The Three Faces of

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While preparing the next issue of Werewolf byNight, Moench also saw the need to inject somethingdifferent into the book that would help catch theattention of readers. “[In Werewolf by Night], therewas a group of villains called the Committee and theywere real boring,” says Moench. “Don and I did notcreate them, that was the previous writers and artists.I thought that a villain for the Werewolf should be, ina strange way, a hero. Someone fighting a werewolfis someone who is not necessarily a bad guy. But theWerewolf is the star of the book, and he is kind of agood guy, so the villain we needed would have to bea combination of a hero and a villain. We thoughtMoon Knight would be a villain for the Werewolf formaybe one story. The Committee [members] were allnon-visual, guys in suits, as I recall. I thought theywould hire someone to track down the Werewolf andcapture him, and then the person they hired couldbe a cool-looking visual. We didn’t know that itwould be popular, or that it would have legs andbecome something more popular than the sum of itsparts, but it did.”

Don Perlin, the man who gave Moon Knight hislook, recalls that the creation of Moon Knight wasmore than a means to meet that month’s deadline, hewas also a way to help offset waning sales on the book.“The horror genre was going down the tubes,” saysPerlin. “The editors said we need to get someone witha costume on this thing.”

The first step in bringing Moon Knight to life wasrunning the idea past Werewolf by Night’s editor LenWein to see what his thoughts were. “I had a list often or 12 names,” says Moench. “And when I calledLen, I described the mercenary based on the moonand said that he gets hired to go after the Werewolfand he uses silver weapons because that is the onlything that will hurt a werewolf. Len said, ‘Okay. Sowhat are you going to call him?’ I read Len my list(which included the name ‘Blood Moon’), and whenI came to ‘Moon Knight,’ he said, ‘That’s the one!’ Imade up the name, but it was Len who liked it morethan any of the other ones.”

Modern fans of Moon Knight may not even beaware of how and why this character’s appearance wasfirst designed, or the great debt it owed to Marvel’shairiest hero ever. “Everything flowed from [theWerewolf] very obviously,” recalls Moench. “TheWerewolf only works at night, so whoever opposeshim should also be attuned to the night. The Werewolfchanges only when there is a full moon, and that’swhere the moon [motif] came from, and the knightpart was a play on words; nighttime and a knight whois hired to go on some crusade. He was a nighttimecharacter and he was attuned to the moon. Silver hurtsa werewolf, therefore he had these silver crescent-moon-shaped throwing darts. His costume was basedon the moon, which, as it goes through its waxing andwaning, was black and white.”

With no color at all, only solid white with black forshadows, Moon Knight bucked the conventional wisdomof most comic-book characters. “Other charactershave all [kinds] of colors in their suits,” remembersPerlin. “[We figured] a black-and-white suit on a coloredpage would stand out. But then the colorists startedadding blue tints [to his costume]!” Still, the costumedesigned by Perlin endured and did indeed get thedesire effect on the printed page. “I put the cowl onMoon Knight to give him that sinister look,” recallsPerlin. “[In his first solo adventure,] I got away with

something that I liked. In a couple of panels, MoonKnight is standing in a doorway and it is black behindhim, so all you see are the white parts of his costume.That was spooky-looking.”

In his first outing against the Werewolf, MoonKnight was played more as a mercenary and hisalter ego is named Marc Spector. Even though hetook the money from the Committee to hunt downJack Russell and bring him in, Moon Knightredeemed himself and decided in the end to do theright thing, helping the Werewolf escape and takedown the Committee. Very little is revealed aboutMoon Knight in this first outing—indeed, the readerswere never even given a good look at his face. But oneelement that would be important to the character’sfuture adventures was present right from the get-go:Frenchie, Moon Knight’s assistant and helicopterpilot. “Frenchie was in from the beginning,” saysMoench. “He was actually one of the few supportingcharacters attached to the mercenary identity fromthe start.”


Hero and Villainin One ManWell, that could besaid of both theWerewolf by Nightand Moon Knight,duking it out in thisPerlin commissionkindly contributedby the artist.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

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In a decade when the comic-book industry evolved thepractice of building titles around popular licensed properties,such as blockbuster movies and famous rock groups, itseems unlikely that a major publisher would launch aseries based on a quasi-famous figure most people hadnever heard of.

And yet, in the 1970s, that’s exactly what MarvelComics did.

Based on a real-life motorcycle daredevil with a secretidentity, The Human Fly, lasting only 19 issues(1977–1979), appeared to have a disposable quality. If theletters columns were any indication, its artists were notmerely underrated, but unappreciated, even despised.

Yet, upon closer inspection, Human Fly may have beenone of the tightest titles to emerge from the Bronze Age; anunlikely showcase for some remarkable talent, combining thesingular vision of the series’ only writer—a young BillMantlo—with a finite stable of seasoned veteran artists thatincluded Lee Elias, Mike Esposito, Don Perlin, CarmineInfantino, Frank Springer, and the inimitable Frank Robbins.

THE FLY: NEITHER FISH NOR FOWLThe book’s hero was an anomaly on several levels.Tagged “The Wildest Superhero of All—Because He’sReal,” the Human Fly was a licensed character that didnot begin life as a Lee/Kirby creation or in a George Lucasfilm, but was based on a “celebrity” whose popularityappeared somewhat dubious.

The Fly was not part of the Marvel Universe proper, and hisbackstory underscored this. Fly the comic-book character wasnot some victim of a freak occurrence with augmented talents,or a mutant cursed with super-human eugenics. He was a meremortal, a stuntman. Not even a Batman-type, merging bodyand intellect into the ultimate crime-fighting machine. No, theFly didn’t even dedicate himself to fighting crime, engagingin super-heroics only as a last resort when the situation arose.

Fly’s premise revolved around its eponymous stuntman,regally garbed in a Canadian red-and-white jumpsuit, rocket-design belt, and glorified “ballet slippers.” He brandished astaff, and sometimes a collared cape. Visually an echo of theInvaders’ Union Jack (as if the printers screwed up the colors),the Fly wore a full mask with a cross design that concealedeverything but a pair of piercing blue eyes. According to theorigin prefacing each issue, his alter ego was the lone survivorof 1971 car crash on a North Carolina highway that claimedhis wife and kids. “Hardly a bone in his body would remainunbroken,” went the blurb. “His doctors were sure thathe would never move again. But he triumphed over hisdisability and went on to become the wildest hero of all …because he’s REAL!” Every issue transported the reader toanother locale, where fans cheered as the Fly—secret identityunknown (even to us readers)—attempted a harrowing stunt,aided by his dedicated crew, for some children’s charity.


by M i c h a e l A u s h e n k e r

Kids, Don’t Try This At Home!Frank Robbins’ pencils for an unused Human Fly cover (possibly

intended for issue #5). From the collection of Ted Latner.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Has a History as Mysteriousas the Real-Life Stuntman

Who Inspired It

Somehow, said stunt would go horribly awry due to somecriminal’s scheme. Ultimately, the Fly had no choice but toprotect innocent bystanders in his realm from said criminal.The book’s leitmotif: the Fly as reluctant super-hero.

LICENSED TO FLYMarvel Comics, by the 1970s, had become a progressive,savvy company, rapidly expanding the definition of thesuper-hero comic that Marvel itself had reinvented in the1960s. Suddenly, supernatural super-heroes (Ghost Rider,Son of Satan) and monster anti-heroes (Werewolf by Night,Morbius the Living Vampire) crowded store racks.

Part of this expansion involved adapting other properties:Planet of the Apes, Logan’s Run, 2001: A Space Odyssey, andStar Wars were among the hit films to get their own series, asdid TV shows Man from Atlantis, Battlestar Galactica, and StarTrek. Marvel published a KISS magazine—a natural fit sincethe metal group’s leader Gene Simmons cited Marvel Comicsas inspiration for his band’s outlandish personas. Micronauts,Shogun Warriors, and later Rom: Spaceknight and G. I. Joeoutlived the popularity of the toys that spawned them.

Seemingly, the book capitalized indirectly on theheadline-making antics of the substantially more famousEvel Knievel. Anticipating the late-’90s extreme sports crazeby a good two decades, the Fly, over the course of theseries, pulled off incredible feats on motorcycles, dirigibles,jet packs, rocket-powered skateboards, skates, and skis.

“The name used to kick around for years,” John Romita,Sr., then Marvel’s art director, tells BACK ISSUE. “There wasalways a variation on the Fly.” Umpteenth appeared to bethe charm. What should have been a creatively D.O.A. titletransformed into a high-octane rumbler, largely due toprinciple pencilers Elias and Robbins.

HUMAN FLY’S PIT CREWWith its outsider licensed character, Human Fly (HF) yielded fewsuper-hero crossovers: Spider-Man (HF #1, Sept. 1977), GhostRider (#2), and Daredevil (#9). But Fly was far more successfulat attracting robust industry talent into its small rotation ofdraftsmen. In the early 1970s, many revered pencilers washedup on Marvel’s shore to pick up freelance work, and Flybecame a haven for these aging artists. Silver Age favoriteCarmine Infantino (The Flash) penciled the Ghost Rider issue,including its cover with Al Milgrom. Main HF artist Elias hadyears before drawn the comic-book version of Milton Caniff’sclassic strip Terry and the Pirates. Robbins, best known for hisCaniff-esque Johnny Hazard syndicated strip, came to Fly freshoff of an amazing run on The Invaders. Elias drew and inkedHF #1, while Robbins began his intermittent run with #5.

The Human Fly’s inking department was no less impressive,with seasoned assists from Mike Esposito, co-creator of DC’sMetal Men. Another Silver Age artist, Frank Springer, inkedHF #13. Canarsie, Brooklyn, native Don Perlin came toMarvel with decades of experience and drew the cultfavorite Werewolf by Night before inking Fly. Inkers RicardoVillamonte and Rod Santiago each tackled some stories;even a young Steve Leialoha inked an issue. Action-packedcovers boasted art by Bob McLeod, Dave Cockrum and JoeSinnott, Sal Buscema, Bob Layton, and the popular duo ofJohn Byrne and Terry Austin.


Evel Kn-who-vel?(right and below)

These photos, circathe mid-1970s,

support thepossibility that, unlike

Bigfoot, the HumanFly may indeedhave been real.

Visit Dizzy World(left) Robbins’ cover to Human Fly #6(Feb. 1978) packs amusement-park peril andplatform heels! Courtesy of Leo Chuah.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Superman ColorArt Gallery

Superman ColorArt Gallery


Curt Swan penciled, inked, andcolored this 1979 Daily Planet castdrawing as a gift for friends;courtesy of Richard Martines.Also, covers from Turkish editionsof Superman comics; contributedby Ilke Hincer.© 2007 DC Comics.


In 1991, Curt Swan was askedto pencil, ink, letter, and colorthis Superman page, combiningthe best aspects of theSuperman myth from all eras,including when the Bottle Cityof Kandor was enlarged on theplanet Rokyn under JuliusSchwartz’s editorship.© 2007 DC Comics.

As a young reader, I always liked Superman betterthan Clark Kent. Didn’t we all? My favorite storiesmight begin with an unfolding headline event teletypedinto the Daily Planet newsroom. Clark might be workingat his desk or chewing the fat with Perry, Lois, andJimmy. He would have to find an excuse to change toSuperman so he could fly to wherever the threat wasand deal with it. If he never appeared out of costume forthe tale’s remainder, it was fine with me. Yet despite achild’s opinion that Clark was not needed, except perhapsas a brief story springboard, he did not go away. That’sbecause the editors and writers, starting with Superman’sco-creator Jerry Siegel, were smart enough to know thatwithout Clark Kent, Superman wouldn’t last.

Denny O’Neil, interviewed in January 2006 for thebook The Krypton Companion (by BACK ISSUE’s MichaelEury and published by TwoMorrows), in essence said thateven those long-ago, goofy tales in which Lois or Lanaschemed to prove that Clark was Superman/Superboywere necessary. They helped ground a near-invinciblespace alien with godlike powers in the everyday world soreaders could relate to him. In current continuity Supermanremains grounded by having Ma and Pa Kent alive and byClark/Superman being married to Lois.

The careers of the writers participating in the ClarkKent Roundtable span these wide gulfs in the reporter’shistory and events in between. Their comments, received byemail between July and October 2006, serve as remindershow each of them has added dimension to the fictionalcharacter. For contrast and clarity they are divided intopre- and post-Crisis teams—or the “Clark Kent Red” and the“Clark Kent Blue” teams, in a nod to the classic ImaginaryStory. However, all Roundtable participants maintain asharp interest in Clark as he appears today, and many ofthem still participate in his adventures in some form.

—Eddy Zeno

(Acknowledgment: Thanks to Michael Eury for helping with thefollowing questions.)

An AmazingDiscussion AboutCLARK KENT RED

andCLARK KENT BLUE

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by E d d y Z e n o

RED TEAM ROUNDTABLEEDDY ZENO: From your perspective, which was the“real” and which was the “manufactured” personality,Clark or Superman? Is he primarily a simple NorthAmerican type of guy or a stranger from another planet?MARTIN PASKO: Wow. This question reminds me ofall the subplots and story premises I pitched thatexplored Superman’s identity issues. They kept beingrejected by the editors I had to satisfy because theydidn’t “get” them, and they didn’t conform to theirpurely escapist sensibility and their preference forgimmickry. I’m used to people not understandingwhy I find this a more complex and nuanced questionthan your phrasing of it implies. That’s because I’mprobably unique among Superman writers in that Ihave firsthand experience with the sort of identityissues Kal-El would have—the kind that abandonment,early adoption, and displacement create.

For me, the “truthful” way to write it is that theKryptonian began his conscious life thinking of himselfas Clark Kent, believing himself human until his powersbegan to manifest themselves. But from that point on,everything changed.

That’s why I think that what you’re asking aboutdiffers depending on which version of the continuityyou’re talking about. In the continuities in which thereis no Superboy, the timeline of Clark’s self-discoveryis different. The creative choice writers must make isgreatly affected by where the information aboutSuperman’s past comes from, at what point in his lifehe gets it, and how many years he’s been thinking ofhimself as a costumed vigilante (a longer period ifhe’s been Superboy).

What I had to work with was essentially a JulieSchwartz-modified version of the Weisinger continuityof the ’60s, in which Clark learned of his Kal-El identitywhen he was in grade school, rather than as a youngadult. So it always seemed to me, because of the wayI learned of my own identity, and had to revise myself-image as new information became available tome, that once “Clark Kent” became aware of “Kal-El,”Kal-El became the “real” person, and both Clark andSuperman became constructs. But, because he was,in effect, cut off from his “real” self because he hadno memory of having lived as Kal-El, that real self feltless real to him—paradoxically—than either of the“manufactured” identities.

I base this con-clusion on the waymy own historyparallels thecharacter’s: I was

born in FrenchCanada, of which Ihave no firsthand

memory (so, forme, Canada =Krypton). Inmy birthplace,

I was given the name Gaston Claude Rochefort (= Kal-El).I was adopted by an American couple who were a good10–15 years older than most of my contemporaries’parents (= the Kents) and brought to the US (=Smallville) at a very early age.

My adoptive parents were completely honest withme about the fact of my adoption, and from as earlyas I can remember, I knew I was different from otherkids in that respect. So, Gaston-Claude feels unreal tome because, to my conscious mind and memory,Martin Pasko has always been my identity. Yet I knowit’s a construct because I wasn’t born with it.

That condition leaves one with a sense of beingtwo people at once, and no one at all—and I wasluckier than Supes; I didn’t have yet a third identity toworry about!

But that sense of being a man without a realidentity—as well as a man without a homeworld, ifyou will—leads to a kind of alienation from others thatis fairly unique. I would think that Kal-El’s awarenessthat he is considered human but isn’t really of humansis in the forefront of his consciousness most of thetime. It’s this tragic dimension of the character that Ialways thought had great story potential, but nobodyhas ever really explored it, to my knowledge.CARY BATES: To me it was never an “either-or”question, because he could never simply be justregular-guy-Clark-Kent any more than he could“just” be Kal-El-the-Kryptonian. From the momenthis rocketship reached Earth and the Kents startedraising him, the way I saw it, both aspects of thecharacter were forever entwined.LEN WEIN: The Clark Kent persona was definitely thereal personality. He was raised as Clark from infancyand only became Superman (or –boy, if you’re soinclined) years later. I’ve long said that what makesClark Kent Superman isn’t his ability to change thecourse of mighty rivers or bend steel in his bare hands,it’s the fact that he was raised by the two most decentpeople in the world, people who helped form hismoral center. All the rest of it emanates from there.DENNIS O’NEIL: To me, the guy in the cape was alwaysthe real one. And though he might try to fit in by beinga wholesome, Midwestern kid, that’s not who he was.ELLIOT S! MAGGIN: It is and has always been veryclear to me that the character we are dealing with isSuperman, not somebody named Clark who pretendsto be Superman, and not Kal-El with some sort of alienconsciousness who puts on Superman like a suit ofclothes or a toga or something. The hero of the storyis the character’s best self, given all that character’saspects. A primary element of traditional mythology aswell as contemporary mythology has always been thedisguise, but the disguise is the fantasy, not thereverse—whether the hero is aware of that or not. Thelittle kid growing up as his step-brother’s squire in theduke’s home was really King Arthur. The beggar whocrashed the party thrown by Penelope’s suitors wasreally Odysseus. The swan that seduced Leda was reallyZeus. And the strange visitor from another planet withpowers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men—as well as the mild-mannered reporter for a greatMetropolitan newspaper—is really Superman.ZENO: How come Clark could fool Lois?O’NEIL: She’s dim? Maybe she wanted to befooled? I never answered this for myself, nor did Ireally try to. Clark’s fooling Lois—and everyoneelse—by changing clothes and putting on glasseswas a convention I accepted.


CLARK KENT REDTEAM ROLL CALL

CARY BATESSuperman writer,

1960s–1980s

ELLIOT S! MAGGINSuperman writer,

1970s–1980s

DENNIS O’NEILSuperman writer

and Superman Familyeditor, 1970s

MARTIN PASKOSuperman writer,

1970s–1980s; SupermanReturns adaptation, 2006

LEN WEINSuperman writer, 1970s ©

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Editor’s note: Bob McLeod(www.bobmcleod.com),comics artist and inker andeditor of our companionmagazine Rough Stuff,has had his fill of Colletta-bashing and has a fewthings he’d like to get offhis chest….

Vince (Vinnie) Collettahas become renownedamong most comic-book fans and prosalike as the worst inkerin comic-book history.You can ask anybody,

and several polls have, and poor Vinnie alwayscomes up as winner of that dubious honor. It’s a bitsurprising, really, because there are really several badinkers who could surely compete in that category.Inkers who really can’t or couldn’t draw well, and areor were helpless if the pencils got iffy. Inkers who justdon’t or didn’t have a very attractive style. Inkers whohacked out pages as quickly as possible. But it’s alwaysVinnie who tops the list. Was he really all that bad?

As someone who knows a thing or three about thefine art of comic-book inking, I’d like to make the casethat it’s high time we gave Vince Colletta a little respect.Many people are probably most familiar with Colletta’sname from his inking on Thor over Jack Kirby. People I’vetalked to seem to either like his inking on Thor or hate it.There are few who are ambivalent. I think it’s becauseColletta had a strong style and wasn’t shy about imposingit on Kirby’s open pencils. There are some who do likeColletta’s inking. More than one person has even gone sofar as to say Colletta was Kirby’s best inker on Thor. Oneart collector, Ray Cuthbert, summed up why he believesColletta’s inking worked well on Kirby this way: “Wood,Sinnott, and Colletta all did something with Kirby that Ibelieve is crucial in a pairing of talents: They melded theirstyles with Jack’s instead of being—dare I say say it?—tracers. Colletta also added a great deal from his yearsworking on romance comics that made his work on Thorand the Fourth World books look fabulous, but which lefthis inking on Fantastic Four look out of place—excepton the girls. His ability to soften Jack’s hard edges wasappealing to me, even if it was less pure Kirby.”

I recently inked my first Kirby piece (Thor #156;you can see my version here: www.bobmcleod-


Is This the Work of a Hack??Colletta’s solid inking over Kirby, softened with lots of somewhatrough feathering. Cover art to Thor #148 (Jan. 1968). All art scansand captions in this article are courtesy of Bob McLeod.© 2007 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Rough Stuff © 2007 TwoMorrows.

by B o b M c L e o d

If, as Joseph Campbell tells us, “the hero” has a thousand faces,then what are we to make of a hero who has no face at all? Is heso cohesive and fully formed that his identity is never in questionexcept to outside, unenlightened observers? Or is he so humanthat, as Plato explained, his identity is in a constant state ofbecoming? Originally created by Steve Ditko in 1967, theQuestion has been a mix of both in his 40-year history. Steeped inAristotelian philosophy and Randian objectivism, the Question isone of the most complex “action heroes” ever created for comicbooks. He’s the thinking man’s super-hero, except that he’s noteven that. He has no superhuman powers, save a burning,insatiable curiosity and desire to find the truth. Yet every time hecomes close to understanding who he is, the Question becomessomething else. This enigmatic flux may not be what Ditkointended for the character, but it is what has made the Questionso continuously compelling and provocative for four decades now.

The concept of the dual—or secret—identity is certainly notunfamiliar in the world of comic books. But the idea of no identityat all is relatively unique. One of the most memorable uses of thistrope comes from Homer’s The Odyssey. When Odysseus and hismen are captured by the Cyclops, Odysseus’ captor asks him whohe is. Ever the trickster, Odysseus replies, “My name is Nobody.That is what I am called by my mother and father and by all myfriends.” The trick works, and Odysseus eventually escapesbecause the Cyclops is not able to identify the hero as he flees.

When Steve Ditko created the Question, he merged oldnarrative tricks with new formulae to create something genuinelyunique to the comics medium. As editor Mike Gold explained ina letter column 20 years later, “The unique aspect about theQuestion is that he is a man with a secret identity but withoutan alter ego” (The Question #1, Feb. 1987). The Question wasprobably not supposed to be as complex as he eventuallybecame. In a more restrictive editorial environment, a characterlike the Question might not have been created at all.

DITKO DAYSIn 1966, Dick Giordano was the editor of Charlton Comics’ line.Given a large degree of creative freedom, Giordano decided tolaunch a new line of heroes in the tradition of DC’s and Marvel’ssuper-hero lines. But the “super” part of “super-hero” had alwaysgiven him pause: “I intended to build the hero line aroundCaptain Atom (the only original super-hero to survive) but I nevercould snuggle up to super-heroes…. I decided that, Captain Atomaside, the other heroes would not be super-powered, but wouldderive their abilities through specialized training or offbeattechnology. I coined (I think) the phrase ‘Action Heroes’ and usedit on all my house ads and letter pages and in panel discussions at


Face OffThe enigmatic Question in a Denys Cowan

convention sketch contributed by Keith Richard.© 2007 DC Comics.

by A l e x B o n e y


conventions. Never super-heroes; always ActionHeroes” (L.A.W. #2, Oct. 2000, letter column). OtherAction Heroes in Charlton’s stable included Judomaster,Peacemaker, Nightshade, and Blue Beetle, the latteroriginally a Golden Age hero who recently had beenrevamped by Steve Ditko.

Blue Beetle graduated to his own title whenCharlton’s Action Hero line was launched, but a newhero was needed as a backup feature in the book. WhenGiordano asked Ditko to create that feature, he took ahands-off approach: “The Question was a Steve Ditkoproduction from start to finish…. My major contributionto the Question was telling Steve that I wanted a hero instreet clothes to bring him down to a more human level,and give him contrast with super-heroes” (The QuestionAnnual #2, letter column). In the Question features,Ditko introduced clever gimmicks that seemed to fit inwell with the Action Hero line. In a familiar three-to-four-

panel sequence in each story, the Question removes aballed-up plastic mask from his belt buckle, applies thefeatureless mask to his face, and releases a gas that bothaffixes the mask to his face and changes the colors of hisclothes. A wise elderly friend named Professor Rodor haddeveloped the disguise. The Question even occasionallyuses trick blank business cards that burst into smoke andreveal a question mark. On the surface, the Questiondidn’t seem to be especially new.

The most direct predecessor of the Question is theSpirit, a Will Eisner creation who appeared in newspapercomic pages for over a decade beginning in 1940. Likethe Question, the Spirit wore a blue suit and fedora.He also sported a mask, but the mask was almostunnoticeable. Denny Colt was supposed to represent anordinary man who encountered a series of extraordinarysituations and managed to wrestle his way out of themusing wit and clever problem-solving. But whereas DennyColt was playful, aloof, and displayed a wry sense ofhumor, Vic Sage was driven, focused, and acerbic.

In the Ditko stories, Vic Sage is a hard-edgedreporter for W.W.B. (World-Wide Broadcasting), atelevision network in the fictional Crown City. Themanagement at W.W.B. generally despises Sage, largelybecause he confronts hypocrisy and injustice in a direct,aggressive way and doesn’t care who is implicated in hisstories. Sage is portrayed as arrogant and self-righteous,but it’s often difficult to argue with his positions. From

Behind the MaskSteve Ditko lets the reader in on the Question’s trade secrets in Blue

Beetle #1 (June 1967, the character’s debut) and Mysterious Suspense #1(Oct. 1968). Special thanks to Mike Ambrose of Charlton Spotlight

(www.charltonspotlight.com) for the scans.© 2007 DC Comics.

Charlton’sChampions

(right) Ditko’s BlueBeetle and Question,

from Gosh Wow #2(1968). Courtesy of

Mike Ambrose viaMike Burbey.

© 2007 DC Comics.

phot

oto

ur

(above left) Eventorganizer AndyMangels (he’s awonder!) and someof the WonderWoman Day silentauction artwork.(left) BI editorMichael Eury(on the left, in caseyou’re confused)and friend.

If Wonder Woman were real (she’s not—don’t arguewith me), she would gladly lend her name to afundraiser for women’s and children’s shelters. Theideals she embodies are very real, however, andthrough her “sidekick”—bestselling entertainmentjournalist and BACK ISSUE contributor Andy Mangels—Wonder Woman came to life on Sunday, October 29,2006, at the “Wonder Woman Day” charity auction atExcalibur Books and Comics in Portland, Oregon.

Joining Andy at the event were artists Terry Dodson,Matthew Clark, and Anne Timmons, signing WW comicsand special-edition prints. Over 100 artists contributedWonder Woman artwork (most of it produced exclusivelyfor this event) for a silent auction; a short list of partic-ipating talent includes Mike Allred, Norm Breyfogle,Darwyn Cooke, Denys Cowan, José Luis García López,Dick Giordano, Paul Gulacy, Fred Hembeck, AdamHughes, Joseph M. Linsner, Bob McLeod, Jim Mooney,Bill Morrison, Don Perlin, John Romita, Sr., Alex Ross,Steve Rude, Ryan Sook, and Joe Staton.

The total raised during the silent auction was$15,405.33, with 100% of all monies going to twoPortland shelters, Raphael House and Bradley-AngelHouse. While most pieces were auctioned for between$50 and $250, 15 went for higher, the top bids being$4,000 for an Alex Ross WW, $777 for an AdamHughes, and $500 for a Terry Dodson. Kudos to AndyMangels and Excalibur for their hard work, and to allartists for their generosity.

The artwork is on display at Andy’s WW site,www.wonderwomanmuseum.com, but here’s a quicklook at some of the fun of Wonder Woman Day….

Wonder Woman TM & © 2007 DC Comics.

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


(above) An absolutely awesome version of WonderWoman by Paul Gulacy (whose pencil art was recent-

ly featured in Rough Stuff #2, still available fromTwoMorrows). (right) You knew he drew a cuteMary Jane Watson, but Jazzy John Romita, Sr.’s

version of the Amazon Princess is pretty snazzy, too!Wonder Woman TM & © 2007 DC Comics.

Edited by ROY THOMAS (former Marvel Comicseditor-in-chief and top writer), ALTER EGO, thegreatest ’zine of the 1960s, is back, all-new, andfocused on Golden & Silver Age comics and creatorswith articles, interviews, unseen art, P.C. Hamerlinck’sFCA (FAWCETT COLLECTORS OF AMERICA, featuringthe archives of C.C. BECK and recollections by Fawcettartist MARCUS SWAYZE), Michael T. Gilbert’s MR.MONSTER, and more! Issue #64 features a previously-unpublished cover painting by DON NEWTON,ROY THOMAS’ special issue-by-issue analysis andappreciation of OTTO BINDER and C.C. BECK’s1943-45 “Monster Society of Evil!” serial, filmmodel-maker ROGER DICKEN’s theory thatCaptain Marvel was modeled after German heavy-weight boxer MAX SCHMELING, plus a specialdouble-size FCA section with MARC SWAYZE,EMILIO SQUEGLIO, C.C. BECK, MAC RABOY,et al.! Also, JIM AMASH interviews MARTINFILCHOCK (Golden Age artist for Centaurcomics), MR. MONSTER presents “Twice-ToldTales,” and MORE! Now monthly!

(100-page magazine) SINGLE ISSUES: $9 US

SUBSCRIPTIONS: Twelve issues in theUS: $72 Standard, $108 First Class

(Canada: $132, Elsewhere: $144 Surface, $192 Airmail).NOTE: FOR A SIX-ISSUE SUBSCRIPTION, CUT THE PRICE IN HALF!

TwoMorrows. Bringing New Life To Comics Fandom.TwoMorrows • 10407 Bedfordtown Drive • Raleigh, NC 27614 USA • 919-449-0344 • FAX: 919-449-0327 • E-mail: [email protected] • www.twomorrows.com

ALTER EGO #6050th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION

OF SHOWCASE #4

ALTER EGO #63FULL-ISSUE TRIBUTE TO COMICS

LEGEND ALEX TOTH

ALTER EGO #65NICK CARDY CAREER-SPANNING

INTERVIEW & ARTWORK

ALTER EGO #61HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN

COMICS GROUP (ACG)

We hope you enjoy this FREEALTER EGO #64 PREVIEW!

The Monster Society Of EvilAn Issue-By-Issue Appreciation Of The 1943-45 Serial

In Captain Marvel Adventures #22-46by Roy Thomas

Alter Ego #64 Preview 87

s a kid in the latter 1940sand early 1950s, I lovedSaturday afternoonmovie serials—a minor

sub-genre of the film industry thatwas just winding down in localtheatres all across the country. Iwas an adult before I even knewthere’d ever been a CaptainMarvel serial—but I was bowledover that memorable day in 1948when I saw the theatrical trailer(yes!) for the first Supermanserial, starring (my later acquain-tance) Kirk Alyn, at a moviehouse. I managed, despite theusual childhood illnesses, not tomiss more than a chapter or so ofit, or of Atom Man vs.Superman, or Batman andRobin, Congo Bill, orBlackhawk, or even what wasactually a re-release of The SecretCode, starring that World War IImystery man, The BlackCommando.

But, love the two Supermanserials in particular though I stilldo, there’s another specimen of thespecies “serial” that rivals them fora place in my heart—and even inmy head. And I first saw it not atthe Palace Theatre in Jackson,Missouri—but in the pages of acomic book.

Its name: “The Monster Societyof Evil!”

Since I’d only turned four inNovember 1944, I couldn’t yetread when I perused a brand newcopy of Captain MarvelAdventures #45 (April ’45)—which may well have been myinitial encounter with the World’sMightiest Mortal. I instantly fellhead over sneakers in love withthe red-clad hero with thelightning bolt on his chest, and Ican still remember how excited Iwas looking at all the colorfullyinventive sea monsters he battledin that issue. Cartoony as they

were, they couldn’t have seemedany more real to me at that time ifthey’d been projected on the bigscreen with all of today’s CGImagic, augmented by SensurroundSound. And all those creatureswere commanded by this weirdlittle worm riding on a sea horse!

Whether or not I saw, a fewweeks later, the following issue,in which Mr. Mind was finallycaptured and met his just end,I don’t recall. But I never forgotthat penultimate chapter of acomic book serial of whose begin-nings I had no inkling for the nextfifteen years.

In 1960, Dick Lupoff laudedthe “Monster Society” serial in hisseminal article “The Big RedCheese” in the first issue of hisand wife Pat’s science-fictionfanzine Xero. And I was thrilledwhen, over the near year or three,I finally got to read all 25whimsical yet exciting chaptersduring one of my visits to fellowcomics fan Biljo White and thecement-block White House ofComics behind his home inColumbia, Missouri. Bill had avirtually complete collection ofCaptain Marvel, Whiz Comics,and The Marvel Family, amongmany other wonders.

For the past decade, I’vechampioned to DC Comics thenotion of abandoning for once itschronological approach to reprintsin its Archives series, and ofprinting all 232 pages of the serialin a single hardcover volume. Sucha book could almost be consideredthe first graphic novel—composedof material originally publishedmore than sixty years ago!

There’s even precedent for sucha collection. In 1989, theAmerican Nostalgia Library, animprint of Hawk Books Limitedof London, England, published a

AA

Five (Or Is It Six?) For FawcettThis great composite drawing of Captain Marvel, Billy Batson, and Mr. Mindwas printed by the American Nostalgia Library as the full-color cover of a

flyer advertising its fabulous 1989 reprint volume The Monster Society of Evil(see main text). The original comic book serial was primarily the work of (left

to right at top) writer Otto O. (“Eando”) Binder… artist C.C. Beck (with hiscomics studio)…and editor Wendell Crowley. Binder gave RT his early-’40s

photo—P.C. Hamerlinck provided the late 1940s/early 1950s shot of Beck—andthe photo of Crowley at the 1968 Jack Binder comic shop reunion dinner(covered in A/E #57) is courtesy of Marc Swayze. [Art ©2007 DC Comics.]

3000-copy edition of a gorgeous 14" x 10H" hardcover titled TheMonster Society of Evil that collected the entire serial, plus a bit ofintroductory material. I’ve always assumed ANL/HBL had permissionto reprint that material, since the book contains a copyright notice forDC Comics. Unless stated otherwise, all art accompanying this articleis taken from that volume. (The first and last chapters of the serial, inci-dentally, were reprinted in black-&-white, from retouched art, in the1977 Crown volume Shazam! from the 40’s to the 70’s.)

ANL/HBL’s Monster Society is a wonderful book, which repro-duces each page from copies of the printed comics. No Theakstonizingor retouching for these folks! It’s all there just as it appeared in theoriginal 1943-45 magazines, complete with sometimes off-register col-oring, but reproduced considerably larger than in the old comics, sothat the color dots are often clearly visible, as if Andy Warhol or RoyLichtenstein had turned the serial into one of their Pop Art produc-tions. And, in one odd touch that somehow works, the pages’ marginsand “gutters” between panels—areas that were left white on the comic-s’ pulp paper—are rendered in solid black. The end effect is to under-score the feeling established on the splash page of Chapter I, that one is

sitting in the darkness of a neighborhood movie house in the mid-1940s, watching this tale of tales unfold up there on the silver screen.

But that’s only fitting, since no doubt the ultimate inspiration forthe comic book serial was the rousing success of the 1941 chapter-playThe Adventures of Captain Marvel, in which stuntman Tom Tylermade an excellent World’s Mightiest Marvel—even if Republic Picturestook, as per usual, a few more liberties with a licensed property thanmade any sense.

So let’s turn down the house lights, grab a soda pop in one hand anda box of popcorn in the other, and enjoy a chapter-by-chapter lookat—

“The Monster Society of Evil”

Captain Marvel Adventures #22 (March 1943)Chapter I

“The Pearl Of Peril” (12 Pages)The “famous Indian princess” Dareena Rajabuti comes to the USA

to donate jewels to the Allied war cause. Over his special radio hookup,Mister Mind (the “Mister” is always spelled out in the first threechapters) directs Captain Nazi to steal the jewels to “further the battlefor your Axis”—i.e., Nazi Germany, Mussolini’s Italy, and imperialJapan. Mind says he’s helping the Axis “because it is evil! And thusyou are a part of my great Society of Evil of the Universe.”

The princess has actually brought only one magic black pearl thesize of a croquet ball, which “can pick up scenes and voices fromanywhere,” thus making it “valuable for espionage service!!” WhenCaptain Nazi tries to grab the pearl, Billy Batson, who is interviewingthe princess, shouts “Shazam!,” changes to Captain Marvel, andknocks him and his two armed thugs around. Though no match for thehero physically, Nazi flies off with both pearl and princess. (Cap

“Mister Mind Calling Captain Nazi!”The first the reader encounters Mr. Mind is as a disembodied voice from

outer space—but he’s already involved with Captain Nazi, though their exactrelationship is unclear. Mind gives Nazi orders on the next page—but Nazi’s

main loyalty seems to be primarily to “Our Fuehrer.” From Chapter I.[©2007 DC Comics.]

Let The Show Begin!The splash page of Chapter I, complete with cast listing. The blurb says

there’ll be “a new chapter every third Friday,” because at this time CaptainMarvel Adventures was so popular that it was published once every threeweeks, rather than monthly—though each issue had a different monthlydate and somehow it all worked out. (Incidentally, this odd scheduling

somehow led to there being two issues labeled “Jan. 1943”—but no“May 1943”—and no “Dec. 1944”!)

The construction of the group name “The Monster Society of Evil” leads YeEditor to believe it was inspired by DC’s “Justice Society of America,” butwriter Otto Binder always denied any conscious borrowing. Anybody outthere have any ideas of where else he might’ve gotten inspiration for it?

[©2007 DC Comics.]

88 An Issue-By-Issue Appreciation Of The 1943-45 Serial Alter Ego #64 Preview

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