back issue #30

Fly high with SATURDAY MORNING HEROES!

Space Ghost’s GARY OWENS & STEVE RUDE h Super Friends h Super Powers toysCaptain Cosmos h Astro Boy h MARV WOLFMAN on the 1988 Superman cartoon

and a DAVE STEVENS tribute by ADAM HUGHES

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Interviews with JACKSON BOSTWICK& JOHN DAVEY!

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Fly high with SATURDAY MORNING HEROES!1

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Volume 1,Number 30October 2008

Celebratingthe BestComicsof the'70s, '80s,and Today!

EDITORMichael Eury

PUBLISHERJohn Morrow

DESIGNERRich J. Fowlks

COVER ARTISTAlex Ross

COVER DESIGNERMichael Kronenberg

CIRCULATION DIRECTORBob Brodsky, CookiesoupProductions

PROOFREADERSJohn Morrowand Eric Nolen-Weathington

SPECIAL THANKSJim AlexanderAnthony AllanAl BigleyJackson BostwickJerry BoydTony CaputoMatt CauleyNicola CutiJohn DaveyDC ComicsWillie FawcettShane FoleyRamona FradonJason GeyerGrand Comic-Book

DatabaseLawrence GuidryLarry HamaP.C. HamerlinckHanna-Barbera

ProductionsHeritage Comics

AuctionsAdam HughesInternet Movie

DatabaseKenner ToysJason and Jeff LiebigAlan Light

Elliot S! MagginAndy MangelsKelvin MaoEric MayseDarrell McNeilDennis O’NeilGary OwensDaniel PickettRuben ProcopioAlex RossBob RozakisSteve RudeAlex SaviukJames SawyerRichard A. ScottAndy SmithAnthony SnyderKen SteacyThe EarthRoy ThomasMark TomlinsonEric TreadawayJason UllymeyerMark WaidEdward WiresMarv WolfmanAlex Wright

BACK ISSUE™ is published bimonthly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh,NC 27614. Michael Eury, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury,Editor, 118 Edgewood Avenue NE, Concord, NC 28025. E-mail: [email protected]. Six-issuesubscriptions: $40 Standard US, $54 First Class US, $66 Canada, $90 Surface International, $108Airmail International. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Coverart by Alex Ross. Captain Marvel (Shazam!) TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted.All editorial matter © 2008 Michael Eury and TwoMorrows Publishing. BACK ISSUE is a TM ofTwoMorrows Publishing. ISSN 1932-6904. Printed in Canada. FIRST PRINTING.

The Retro Comics Experience!

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

FLASHBACK: Shazam!: DC’s Captain Marvel Revival of the 1970s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3The story of the Big Red Cheese’s return from comics limbo

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Captain Thunder Sequel That Went “Sha-Boom!” . . .11Elliot S! Maggin and Alex Saviuk recall the fizzled follow-up to Superman #276

INTERVIEWS: Jackson Bostwick and John Davey: The World’s Mightiest Mortals . . . . . .17Two all-new interviews with the actors who brought Captain Marvel to life

BACKSTAGE PASS: Those Super Friends of Mine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34A year in the life of a young Hanna-Barberian, Darrell McNeil

FLASHBACK: Super Friends in Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40From comics to TV to comics again, DC Comics’ Justice League “lite”

SPECIAL FEATURE: Adam Hughes Remembers Dave Stevens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48How the late creator of The Rocketeer influenced one of comics’ most popular artists

ART GALLERY: The Art of Dave Stevens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50A visual remembrance of the much-missed artist

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: Super Powers: The Unproduced Fourth Wave . . . . .53The Kenner action figures you might have seen

INTERVIEW: Space Ghost Unmasked: Gary Owens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59The voice behind some of our favorite toon titans speaks to BACK ISSUE

INTERVIEW: Spaced Out!: Steve Rude’s Space Ghost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68“The Dude” looks back at Comico’s stunning 1987 Space Ghost one-shot

BEYOND CAPES: Now Comics and the Original Astro Boy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .73The 1980s reboot of the robotic do-gooder, with Ken Steacy and Tony Caputo

OFF MY CHEST: Marv Wolfman and the Adventures of Superman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77The superstar writer tells how he helped bring the Man of Steel to Saturday mornings

INTERVIEW: Nicola Cuti: Calling Captain Cosmos! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80The co-creator of E-Man reveals what it’s like to be a real, live space hero

GREATEST STORIES NEVER TOLD: The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc. . . . .83Bob Rozakis’ fantasy history continues with a look at the AA heroes’ media adventures

BACK TALK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .88Reader feedback on “Heroes Behaving Badly” issue #28

S a t u r d a y M o r n i n g H e r o e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1

com

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hist

oryIn 1995, actress-turned-

director Betty Thomaswas applauded by TVfans and even somehard-to-please film critics with the release of The BradyBunch Movie. Working off an in-joke-laced screenplaypenned by a round-robin team of four screenwriters,Thomas’ vision of the Brady Bunch—that kid-loadedsitcom family with the polyestered patriarch, wiggedmom, and wacky housekeeper Alice—imagined,What if the very ’70s Bradys lived a very surreal life inthe very modern ’90s? This “fish out of water” (or,in more appropriate BACK ISSUE terms, “trapped ina world [they] never made”) concept worked (inthe first Brady film, at least). The anachronistic movieBradys were so out of step (despite their platformheels) they became cool, their family conformityseeming rebellious when juxtaposed against the “realworld.”

Thirteen years earlier, DC Comics attempted asimilar reimagining. The company, then scoringheadlines for its “relevant” storylines (Green Lanternand Green Arrow tackle racism! Teen Titan Speedybecomes a junkie! The Justice League cleans up pollution!Robin encounters campus unrest!), revived the originalCaptain Marvel, the bestselling comic-book characterof the Golden Age. For readers old enough to rememberCaptain Marvel—the ultimate wish-fulfillment concept,a boy (Billy Batson) who became the “World’sMightiest Mortal” upon his recitation of a magicword (“Shazam!”)—this was a momentous occasion.The average comic-book reader of the day, however,was less impressed. Fawcett Comics’ CaptainMarvel and his support team, Mary Marvel andCaptain Marvel, Jr., had not appeared in new storiessince The Marvel Family #89 (cover-dated Jan.1954, but released in 1953), forced into dormancyafter a long legal battle with DC over CaptainMarvel’s similarities to, and supposed infringementsupon, Superman. The Captain and company wereyour father’s superheroes.

Carmine Infantino, at the time DC’s publisher,sought to combat Marvel’s recent market dominanceby trying new things. One of those “new” thingshappened to be the licensing of “old” characters,including Tarzan, The Shadow, and Captain Marvel.


Captain Marvel Unchained!Dave Cockrum, who in a few short yearswould rocket to fame as the artist of theNew X-Men, drew this ink-and-watercolor(check out our digital edition to see this incolor!) illo of the World’s Mightiest Mortal inhis pre-pro days of 1970. Just over two yearsafter Cockrum completed this drawing,the hero he so wonderfully depicted wouldreturn to print—but would be legally deniedthe right to title his comic the name“engraved” here in stone! Art scan courtesyof Heritage Comics Auctions (www.ha.com).TM & © DC Comics.

by M i c h a e l Eu r y

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4 • B A C K I S S U E • S a t u r d a y M o r n i n g H e r o e s I s s u e

But the Marvel Family proved no Brady Bunch.DC attempted to replicate the jocundity of CaptainMarvel’s glory days, backdropped against a sanitized

“now generation” world of long-haired, bellbottomedbad guys and passersby. After initial reader interest

and strong issue #1 sales fed by speculators, the airslowly leaked out of the Captain Marvel balloon.

Holy Moley! What went wrong?

IDENTITY CRISISDuring the original Captain Marvel’stwo-decade nap, Marvel Comicssnatched up the “Captain Marvel”trademark in the late 1960s,

introducing its Kree warrior Mar-Vell,a.k.a. Captain Marvel. As a result,

DC needed an alternative title for thehero’s new adventures. And that title,proposed by editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz,was the hero’s magic word: Shazam!

“Shazam!” What did that word mean? How did youpronounce it? Readers who tuned into TV reruns knew theword as an exclamation drawled by genial bumpkinGomer Pyle as “Shuh-ZAY-um!” But the comics-buying kidwith 20 cents in his pocket who had never before seen thisbarrel-chested he-man with the lightning-bolt emblemwondered, Was “Shazam” this hero’s name? The additionof cover tag lines “With One Magic Word…” and“The Original Captain Marvel” above and below thelogo added more clutter than explanation.

Yet, in late 1972, Shazam! #1 (cover-dated Feb. 1973)premiered to considerable fanfare. Former legal rivalsSuperman and Captain Marvel had kissed and made up—or, more likely, shook hands—as the Man of Steel drewback a curtain on the cover to reveal young Billy Batsonand his awesome alter ego to the ’70s audience. WhileShazam! #1’s cover has become one of the Bronze Ageof Comics’ iconic images, its art portends the series’ultimate downfall: Billy and the World’s MightiestMortal are rendered in the thick-lined, wholesome styleof C. C. Beck, known to longtime fans as the chief artistof Captain Marvel of the Golden Age; but Supermanepitomizes DC’s house style of the Infantino era, a NickCardy-drawn body with a Murphy Anderson-redrawnhead. This jarring jam of artists subliminally suggestedto the reader that this whole relaunch was an ill fit.

Almost ten years prior, editor Schwartz had beencherry-picked to dig Batman out of a sales chasm,having proven to be DC’s “Fix-It Man” after spear-heading the successful revivals of classic characterssuch as the Flash and Green Lantern. He knew littleabout Batman but surrounded himself with talentappropriate for the job, and soon Batman was asales success and cultural phenomenon.

Schwartz was equally unfamiliar with CaptainMarvel, but in this case, lightning didn’t strike twice.When Schwartz and Infantino were fishing for aShazam! artist (Schwartz “usual suspects” KurtSchaffenberger, Bob Oksner, and Murphy Andersonwere apparently considered), as reported in TheMonster Times #25 (Aug. 1973), C. C. Beck wrote a fewletters to DC stating his interest, then sent in a “RipVan Marvel” drawing which clinched the deal.

In “Preacher’s Son,” Beck’s early 1980s autobio-graphical essay (presented in edited form in theTwoMorrows book Streetwise), the artist told a differentstory from the Monster Times report: “Twenty years afterCaptain Marvel had disappeared I got a call fromSuperman’s publisher. They were reviving Captain Marveland wanted me to submit samples of my work in compe-tition with other artists whom they were considering.This was somewhat silly, it seemed to me. I had not had tosubmit samples of my work since I had first appeared as acallow youth at Fawcett’s door forty years earlier. But I sentCarmine Infantino a drawing of Captain Marvel as Rip VanWinkle with a long white beard, a rusted musket, and alook of wonder on his face. Carmine Infantino loved it.Julie Schwartz loved it. So did E. Nelson Bridwell and SolHarrison. DC sent me two scripts. They were not good.”

Despite his dissatisfaction with the writing, Beckaccepted the Shazam! assignment.

Instead of reuniting Beck with Golden Age CaptainMarvel writer Otto Binder, or pairing him withSchwartz’s own assistant editor (and Captain Marvelfan) E. Nelson Bridwell, the editor signed his go-to“relevant” writer, Denny O’Neil—the scribe whohelped return Batman to his “creature of the night”roots and contemporized Green Lantern and GreenArrow—to launch Shazam!

What If...…Marvel, not DC,had picked up the

rights to publish theoriginal Captain

Marvel? Here’s ourlook at what might

have been, imaginedby Michael Eury

with a little graphicswizardry by BI

designer Rich Fowlks.(Yes, that’s sweet little

Mary Batson inCap’s arms—and

that seventh “Sin” isapparently lurking

off-camera!)Marvel art and Captain Marvel TM& © 2008 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Shazam! characters TM & ©2008 DC Comics.

C. C. Before DCAlmost two years before DC’s Shazam!

(re)launch, Golden Age Captain Marvel artistC. C. Beck was commissioned by BruceHamilton to produce this (and another)

illo of the World’s Mightiest Mortal for the1972 Phoenix Con program booklet.

Note that Beck added long sideburns inan attempt to bring Cap up to date.

Courtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.TM & © DC Comics.

TIME DISPLACEMENTShazam! #1 begins with a BOOM!—literally—as the “Big Red Cheese” soars skyward on itssplash page framed by a crackling lightningbolt. A six-page origin recap brings new andforgetful readers up to date, showing howyoung Batson was bestowed the abilities of “sixmighty heroes” (actually, gods)—the wisdomof Solomon, the strength of Hercules, thestamina of Atlas, the power of Zeus, the courageof Achilles, and the speed of Mercury—bymouthing the moniker of the benefactor wizardwhose name just happens to be an acronym forthat roster of champions. A ten-page tale byO’Neil and Beck follows, titled “The World’sWickedest Plan,” which explains that CaptainMarvel—along with Mary, Junior, arch-enemyDr. Thaddeus Bodog Sivana and his sinister sonand daughter, and a variety of supporting-castmembers—had spent the last twenty yearsfrozen in “suspendium.” Suspendium wasscripted as a compound invented by Sivana, butit was in fact writer O’Neil’s invention, a cleverjumpstart to the Marvels’ long-cold “engine.”

Beck’s art inissue #1 was unlikeanything that mostDC (or Marvel, ifthey were straying)readers had everseen: big, open,u n c o m p l i c a t e d ,and airy, almost likea coloring book.His art lacked thedetail Golden Agereaders expected;according to P.C.Hamerlinck in FCA(Fawcett Collectorsof America) #134(Jan. 2008), thiswas the result of

Beck working without his former assistants(who often completed more detailed back-grounds), his drawing within the smallerdimensions of the artboard of the 1970s, and

the artist’s negative attitude toward stories hedeemed “infantile.” When compared to DC’sother visual fare du jour—the photorealistic artof Neal Adams, the bombastic work of JackKirby, and the highly stylized renderings ofmasters Joe Kubert and Nick Cardy and new-comers Michael Kaluta and Bernie Wrightson—Beck’s vanilla illustrations fulfilled the “ill fit”promise of the jam-artist cover. But variety wasthe hallmark of the Infantino regime, and Beck’scorny, cutesy Captain Marvel offered readers analternative to the meatier material found inother DC magazines. Schwartz’s three-story-per-issue formula (the third being aGolden Age reprint) further annointed Shazam!as the entry-level title in the 1973 DC Universe.

“Gosh, the world sure has changed since Iwas in suspended animation!” laments BillyBatson, hanging out in the park amid hippies,in the opening of the O’Neil/Beck lead tale inShazam! #2 (Apr. 1973). O’Neil is denied thechance to explore those changes, however,and this script quickly becomes yet anothershowcase for talking tigers, worms, and alligators,the stuff of which Captain Marvel’s Golden Agewas made. In “A Switch in Time,” the lead talein issue #3 (June 1973), Billy, whining thathe’ll always be “behind my time—a freak,”convinces the wizard Shazam to advance hisage twenty years to where he should be—with the unexpected side effect of his trans-forming into a teenage Captain Marvel!

Then the references to the MarvelFamily’s two decades in limbo wafted away.The Shazam! machine kept chugging along,


Schwartzam!DC’s Captain Marvelrevival team in1970s photos:editor JuliusSchwartz, writerDenny O’Neil, andartist C. C. Beck.Photos © 1972, 1973 DC Comics.

And Then There Were ThreeDrawn at the dimensions of

12" x 16", Beck’s preliminary forthe cover of Shazam! #3 (June 1973),

and its finished version. Prelimcourtesy of Heritage Comics Auctions.

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Action Comics #576 (Feb. 1986), one of the lastSuperman issues produced by outgoing editor JuliusSchwartz, featured (under its Eduardo Barreto cover)two tales: “Earth’s Sister Planet” by comics veteransWilliam Woolfolk and Kurt Schaffenberger, and “TheMonumental Menace of Metropolis,” one of the earliestscripts penned by Mark Waid.

Originally, however, Julie Schwartz had commissionedfor that issue a sequel to one of the most fondlyremembered Superman stories of the 1970s, “MakeWay For Captain Thunder!”

I stumbled across this buried treasure when artistAlex Saviuk contacted Roy Thomas in November 2007about the possibility of Roy covering in Alter Ego anunpublished mid-’80s Superman tale featuring aCaptain Marvel-like hero called Colonel Lightning.Knowing the 1980s to be BACK ISSUE’s stompinggrounds, Roy kindly referred Mr. Saviuk to me.Once Alex informed me that he could provide scans ofthe 12 unpublished penciled pages he had producedfrom a script by one of my favorites, Elliot S! Maggin,I was convinced that the Superman/Colonel Lightningadventure was tailor made for “Greatest Stories NeverTold,” and that it would make a nice coda to theShazam! article in this very issue.

But imagine my surprise when, in late March 2008,I received from Alex Saviuk scans of those pages—anddiscovered that this “Colonel Lightning” was, in fact,a previously seen hero I knew as Captain Thunder, theotherworldly Captain Marvel analogue from Superman#276 (June 1974)! Holy Moley! I mean, Creepies!(as Captain Thunder and his alter ego, Willie Fawcett,would say). Whatever happened to Captain Thunder?

“HERE COMES COLONEL LIGHTNING!”Before we examine the reasons for that name changeand for this story being shelved, allow me to walk youthrough those 12 pages of pencils I had the goodfortune to review. These pages are unlettered, butinclude Alex’s printing of Elliot’s captions and dialogueas space indicators for the letterer.

The tale opens with a bald, bespectacled evil scientistnamed Dr. Art Lanta (the counterpart to Dr. Sivana,whose name—say it aloud—is a homonym for a famousSouthern city). Lanta is aiming a high-tech cannonskyward, drawing bead on a rapidly approaching“colorful streak” rocketing toward him: ColonelLightning, the spitting image of Superman #276’sCaptain Thunder. The hero dodges the cannon’s blastand squares off against his foe, but is zapped from behind

S a t u r d a y M o r n i n g H e r o e s I s s u e • B A C K I S S U E • 1 1

Thunder StruckColonel Lightningclobbers Dr. ArtLanta. Pencils byAlex Saviuk, whokindly contributedthe pencil art usedin this article.TM & © DC Comics.


by a remote-control sneak attack that bathes both the hero and villainin eerie radiation. A splash-panel caption explains that this is indeedthe crusader once known as Captain Thunder, although the story’s titlesuggests he’s been promoted: “Here Comes Colonel Lightning!”

The Colonel shrugs off the effects of the blast, although Dr. Lanta’sominous cackling alerts the reader that Colonel Lightning is in for anunexpected aftereffect. Colonel Lightning deposits Dr. Lanta at thelocal prison, and soon covertly rubs his belt buckle. In a flash of“magical energy” (SHA-BOOM!), he transforms into flattopped radiobroadcaster Willie Watson (in the original tale, Willie Fawcett), now ayoung man and no longer the eight-year-old we met in his originalouting. As Willie saunters down the street … he inexplicably disappears!

The story cuts to Earth-One’s Metropolis, where “three goodfriends”—Clark Kent, Perry White, and Jimmy Olsen—are having a dinnerout together. Clark’s telescopic vision spies an imperiled electrical lineman,and as Perry and Jimmy bicker over their shares of the tip, Kent politelyexcuses himself to locate his “missing wallet.” He switches to Supermanin the restaurant’s men’s room and speeds to the scene of the action,where a downed electrical wire is about to shock a youthful passerby. TheMan of Steel saves the kid, repairs the severed wires, and zips back to therestaurant, where, as Clark, he discovers White and Olsen still arguing.

As the trio exit, wandering Willie Watson spots the familiar faceof Clark Kent and realizes where in the DC Universe he’s landed.He approaches Clark and the two engage in conversation, with Perryand Jimmy saying goodbye. Kent is puzzled to see how much olderWillie is, the lad having matured considerably beyond the age he was“a year or so ago” in the heroes’ Superman #276 adventure.

Willie recounts Colonel Lightning’s origin, which shows minorchanges from the first time Maggin told it in 1974: After following ahorned owl into the woods near an orphans’ camp, little Willie meetsthe Native American Tonca, the “last shaman of the Ogala Tribe.”Tonca bestows upon Willie “five spiritual powers” which will appearwhenever the lad rubs the buckle of a special belt and recites theshaman’s name: Thunder (power), Owl (wisdom), Northwind(flight), Colt (energy), and Antelope (speed). [In Superman #276,the shaman’s name was Merokee, “last of the great medicine men ofthe Mohegan tribe.” Willie was given seven “spritual powers” and adifferent magic word, “Thunder,” standing for Tornado (power),Hare (speed), Uncas (bravery; an editor’s note defined “Uncas” as“an outstanding warrior chief of the Mohegan tribe”), Nature(wisdom), Diamond (toughness), Eagle (flight), and Ram (tenacity).]

We discover that Willie Watson, now 22, is weary of his body-exchanging alter ego, “who’s never really grown up! The guy still says‘Creepies!’ when he’s excited.” Willie can no longer stomach the dangerColonel Lightning attracts, pointing to a copy of Newstime magazine withSuperman’s foe Brainiac on its “Villains” cover to illustrate the type of“funky stuff” always awaiting him on his own world. The next panelshows the magazine not in Willie Watson’s hands but in Dr. Art Lanta’s,suggesting that the ray blast from the earlier scene has somehow linked

Saviuk in Action(left) The title page of the Colonel Lightning story, and

(right) a glorious glimpse of Alex’s mighty Man of Steel.TM & © DC Comics.

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by P. C . H a m e r l i n c k

The Shazam! live-action television series, aired on CBS from1974–1977, still resonates within the hearts and minds of its youngimpressionistic viewers from decades ago whom—like Billy Batson’stransformation into Captain Marvel—have since transformed into(hopefully) wisdom-filled, justice-seeking adults themselves.

Like so many other TV comic-book adaptations, Shazam! fell victimto network policies and artistic liberties that were often an eternity awayfrom its source material. Yet, the live-action Saturday morning show—produced by Filmation, a studio more commonly known for itsmemorable animated cartoons—still became a ratings success,with numbers out-performing many primetime scheduled programs.

Along with cast members Michael Gray (Billy Batson) and LesTremayne (Mentor), there were two actors who portrayed CaptainMarvel during the series’ three-year run. The first was JacksonBostwick, who passionately approached the role with conscientiouscare, and thus convincingly captured the mythical essence of thehero. With his stark, almost ethereal appearance and uncannyresemblance to the comic-book Marvel, it was clear Filmation hadmade the “world’s mightiest” casting choice. Jackson’s forthcomingautobiography, Myth, Magic, and a Mortal, is a vividly visual,personally revealing memoir with a closeup and panoramic camera-view of the beloved Shazam! series. (Check in for updates at

jacksonbostwick.com.) Jackson, along with his wife Elizabeth anddaughter Erin, live in Tennessee where he continues to act, write,produce, and direct films.

Bostwick’s disturbingly abrupt departure early into the show’ssecond season left the Captain’s boots unfilled for only a couple ofhours, and after the lightning struck again and the smoke dissipated,there stood affable but apprehensive John Davey. After the professionalboxer-turned-actor’s initial reluctance towards donning the red tights(smoothed over by the exuberant prodding of Davey’s enthusiasticeight-year-old Shazam-fan son), he finally accepted his fate andeventually developed a defensive pride over his involvement with theshow. Retired from acting, Davey and his wife Linda now enjoy small-town bliss in northern California. In his spare time he wrote a novelset in the world of boxing entitled The Fighter Still Remains. He claimsit is in no way autobiographical, and while hating the cliché “comingof age,” he surrenders that it’s still a good descriptor for hisredemption-filled piece of prose that’s in search of a publisher.

I’ve interviewed both actors previously on separate occasions—both now out of print. The following fresh new pair of interviewswere conducted in April 2008. My thanks to Jackson and John fortheir cooperation.

– P.C. Hamerlinck

interview1 8 • B A C K I S S U E • S a t u r d a y M o r n i n g H e r o e s I s s u e

P.C. HAMERLINCK: Jackson, you were born inPennsylvania, but grew up in Montgomery, Alabama.Your father was a neurosurgeon. What were your child-hood years like?JACKSON BOSTWICK: I was blessed with a wonderfulfamily life to grow up in down in the Deep South;there were my two younger sisters, Joan and June,our two dogs, a cat, and my mom and dad. I loved(and still do) the outdoors, where I often enjoyedhunting (both bow and gun) and fishing. I leanedtoward the sciences in school and played trumpet inthe school band and orchestra, and also played in asmall dance band for local gigs. I was active in golf,water skiing, swimming, basketball (on a third-placeteam in the city—still have the medal), shot archery,and rode my bicycle everywhere. On the career aptitudetests they gave us in school it was determined that Iwould be good as either a CPA or a Forest Ranger.Oh, yeah, there was tax money well spent! [laughter]HAMERLINCK: You’re a graduate of the University ofAlabama—a pre-med student who majored in Biologyand minored in Physics and Chemistry—but the actingbug had bit you in 1968, while you were still in the Army.Were your parents supportive that their pre-med son’sthoughts had turned to acting?BOSTWICK: The thought of acting never crossed mymind until I was on The Dating Game (great in theaudition, pathetic on the show) and a scout fromParamount asked me if I was interested in getting intothe movies. I told him that I had never done anythingin that line of work in my life. He suggested I shouldget some training and then look him up. I was still inthe Army (Ft. Irwin) at the time and without myknowledge my secretaries had sent my name intoThe Dating Game and I was invited down to auditionfor the show. A short time later, after I had finished mytour of duty, I asked my dad what he thought about mygiving acting a shot. He said as long as I was continuingmy schooling, I could give it a try. (He later told methat of all the fields I could have pursued, acting wasthe one area he couldn’t help me with.) So, not knowingthe ridiculously incredible odds for someone whohad never done any formal acting before in his life—much less, even remotely considered doing any—I casually bop on over to USC and take a stab at gettinginto their “acting school” (as I, then, naively referredto their program). Now it will naturally follow thatafter being accepted as one of the 11 original membersof the Master’s Company that I regard it as not beingsuch a big deal. I mean … hey! Anybody can do it.Right! Just walk in off the street, thick southern drawland all ... just tootle in on a lark, apply for a slot ina subject that you are thoroughly unacquainted with

Say “Cheese”Jackson Bostwick as Captain Marvel, the star of CBS-TV’s Shazam!A promo headshot from 1974, revealing the actor’s uncanny resemblanceto his comic-book counterpart. Unless otherwise noted, all Shazam!photos are courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck.Shazam! TM & © DC Comics.

(I didn’t even know who Lawrence Olivier was), and thenget unconsciously welcomed into one of the premierprograms in the country in that field. Hah! Now,talk about “being at the right place…” or, “when it’smeant to be …” or—even more aptly in my case—just “your plain, good ol’ dumb luck…”HAMERLINCK: A year before Shazam!, you received yourMFA at USC. Did you already have an agent at this time?BOSTWICK: I had gotten an agent—Dale Garrick—before I had even entered school, and had alreadydone a national commercial for Mutual of Omaha onWild Kingdom by the time I had stepped into my firstclass at USC.HAMERLINCK: How did going to Filmation’s “cattle call”for the role of Captain Marvel come about?BOSTWICK: I had just signed with the Jack Wormsercommercial talent agency, so when I got the call[for Captain Marvel] I naturally think it’s for a CaptainCrunch-type cereal (not serial) and so I show up inmy usual commercial “cattle call” garb—jeans,white T-shirt, and cowboy boots. When I arrive atFilmation Studios, where the audition is being held,there is nobody in the lobby. (Not normal for acommercial audition where there isn’t a parking spacefor ten blocks and the casting room is packed like a“free beer and pizza night” at the local bowling alley.)No, this was more like a deserted town in a SergioLeone Western—complete with a tumbleweedblowing by. As I sit down, the producer, Bob Chenault,comes out and I soon am made to realize “this definitelyain’t no breakfast cereal.”HAMERLINCK: Did Filmation cast you before castingMichael Gray as Billy Batson? How did your first meet-ing go with Filmation, and when did you first meet co-stars Michael Gray and Les Tremayne?BOSTWICK: It could be somewhat contentious as towho was on first, but I do know what was on secondand that was they had been searching for a CaptainMarvel for four months before I had arrived—actors thatwere athletes, then athletes that were actors, then backto actors that were athletes. When I first meet Michaeland Les, I still haven't been told that I have gottenthe part. The meeting is supposedly just to let the CBSexecutives have a look-see. When I come into the room,I am the last to arrive. A quick look around and I guessthat Michael is up for the part of Billy Batson, but Iwrongly surmise that Les is probably to be consideredfor the old wizard, Shazam. It turns out he’s to be theMr. Mentor character who has been concocted by thewriting gang at Filmation for the sole purpose ofsatisfying the Saturday morning censors’ worries abouta young boy (Billy) traveling the highways and bywayson his own. Everybody is cordial and a good time is hadby all. However, it had slipped by my attention thatthere had been a “sky in the morning…”HAMERLINCK: Did you have to read for the part ofCaptain Marvel, or were they only searching for a par-ticular look at the time?BOSTWICK: As I recollect, Bob Chenault and I just hada little chit chat at our first, and only, interview andthat I showed him some photos of myself, including acouple of flying side kicks in karate, to which hecommented, “Heck, you don’t even need any wires tofly”—or something to that effect—and that aboutsummed up the whole affair. I figure that after I toldhim that I had an MFA from USC that he probablyfelt that I could handle any Captain Marvel dialogue.He later told me that once he saw the smile and heardthe voice that he pretty much had made up his mind.

HAMERLINCK: Do you think Filmation had set out to(as close as they could) match the Captain Marvel lookfrom the comic book—and if so, do you thinkthat it had anything to do with them select-ing you for the part? You’ve told me previ-ously that Mark Harmon had been one ofthe final few considered for the part, butof course he doesn’t look at all likeCaptain Marvel.BOSTWICK: Only The Shadowcould know what lurked in thehearts and minds of the twoexecutive producers at FilmationStudios. However, I do know thatthe show’s original producer,Bob Chenault, wanted only tocreate the best [show] he could,allowing for the budgetand equipment he was affordedto work with at the time.(Bob departed abruptlybefore the start of the secondseason, and in my opinionthe show suffered anirreplaceable loss with hisuntimely withdrawal.)

Ironically, Filmationwas chiefly billed as ananimation studio beforethey did Shazam!, and yet,I feel, the weakest part of theshow was the cheesy cartoon workthat they contributed renderingthe Elders as stilted, “still life”psychedelic drawings with the only part oftheir entire anatomy ever allowed any kindof “animation” being an ever so slight lipmovement as they spoke some philosophical“wisdom” to Billy. And then, of course,there was the unimaginative cannedmusic they imported in from Belgium—or some outfit in that neighborhood—that would have fit more appropriatelyin one of those floor-hopping inven-tions patented by Otis.

Now, as for selecting me for therole of the Big Red Cheese ... as far asI am aware, that action was theexclusive doings of Bob Chenault.Mark Harmon had just graduatedfrom UCLA as their star quarter-back, so he was pretty much inthe “athletes-who-were actors”phase of the search. He was inthe final four when I arrived.Now I feel quite certain thatsome of Mark’s loyal fan basecould very easily see him playingthe part of the good Captainor Superman, et al.,but in my opinion,

Myth and MagicBostwick’s heroic portrayal of Captain Marvel

captured the mythical essence of the hero.TM & © DC Comics.



P.C. HAMERLINCK: John, where were you born and raised?JOHN DAVEY: I was born in Winnemucca, a small town innortheastern Nevada. My dad was involved in ranchingand mining and his work soon took us to northernCalifornia. When I was four years old, we movedonto a cattle ranch near the Oregon/Nevada border,and when I was ten we moved back to Winnemucca.After graduating from high school, I went into the Marinesfor four years before becoming a professional boxer.HAMERLINCK: Tell me about your boxing career. Whendid your interest in the sport begin?DAVEY: I got hooked with boxing when I was very young.My dad bought me and my brother a pair of boxinggloves and I really took to it. I weighed 118 lbs. for myfirst fight, and kept at it until becoming a heavyweight.My dad was a big boxing fan and, on the ranch wherewe lived, we couldn’t get good enough radio reception tolisten to the big fights—so we’d all hop in Dad’s car anddrive to a higher elevation just to hear the boxingmatches. The names of all the top fighters becameembedded into my young brain, and I was convinced thatboxing was the key to gaining acceptance in the world.

When Dad gave us that pair of boxing gloves, I carriedthem around with me wherever I went, and looked foranyone who’d put them on with me. There wasn’t muchboxing where I grew up, so in 1957, when I left forCalifornia and entered the Marines, I only had a total ofeight fights under my belt. Since our base didn’t have aboxing team, I convinced the brass there to start one.I only had another four fights as a Marine, so when I gotout of the service in 1961, I had only boxed a total of 12amateur fights. Yet, even with my deplorable credentials,I still had it in my head that I was going to become aprofessional boxer. So, come hell or high water, I launchedmyself into a career I really didn’t have any business beingin. After about 15 fights I was gradually getting the hangof it, but by then I was so badly beat up and, withoutrealizing it, was already on the tail end of my boxing career.HAMERLINCK: You were still in California at thetime, right?DAVEY: Yes—it was boxing that kept me in LosAngeles. When I first got there after being discharged,I went straight to the Main Street Gym, the placewhere I use to spar with amateurs and pros while inthe service. At the gym, I inquired about how I could getinvolved in a Golden Gloves tournament or somethingbecause I knew I needed more experience in the ring.Then someone walked in and gave me the spiel:“Why does a big, white kid like you wanna be in someGolden Gloves tournament when you could be makin’some real money out there?” So I ended up boxing,mostly in L.A., for about 41⁄2 years. I had 26 pro fights… but let’s not talk about my record! I met a lot of

Big Red Cheese Re-BootedJohn Davey, the second actor to wear the Captain’s boots onCBS-TV’s Shazam! Photo courtesy of Andy Mangels.Shazam! TM & © DC Comics.

interesting people along the way. I sparred with Joe Frazier inthe early ‘60s, and I once met a young Cassius Clay, whom I didn’tspar with but I did loan the future Mr. Ali one of my T-shirts.HAMERLINCK: How did you get involved in acting?DAVEY: I started out being a lowly extra, and kind of worked myway up—or down, depending on your point of view. One day mymanager and I were at a wedding reception at a little restaurantacross from Universal Studios. There were some movie peoplethere and my manager knew one of them. I had just come backfrom a fight in Idaho and my face was all cut up and bruised.My manager introduced me to this casting director who asked me,“Why the hell do you want to get yourself all busted up forwith boxing? Why don’t you get into the film business instead?”Well, I had no interest—or talent—for it, so I just drifted off andstarted talking to other people at the reception. Then my managercame running over to me: “Are you out of your mind?” he asked.“This guy just handed you something that people would kill for!”

A few days later I called the casting director and got signed up.I worked as an extra for a couple of years, and then I worked for awhile as a stuntman after I met and trained with other stuntmen.Eventually, I got involved in theater groups, which of coursepointed my direction more into acting than stunt work. My bodywas taking a beating as the stunts were getting to be too much likeboxing all over again, so I switched over to acting. That’s whenI got real hungry and learned to paint houses on the side.HAMERLINCK: You told me before that you had once considered act-ing a “sissy pursuit.”DAVEY: I did, but I do have great respect for good, talented actors.It’s not easy; you need tremendous discipline, concentration,and a special chemistry that comes through on the screen—which apparently I didn’t have. I was one of those guys who couldsort of get by doing little parts here and there. I was a hitchhikeron life’s highway, and acting was a way to get a ride tosomewhere else … so I rode along with it since the opportunitieswere there in front of me. I appeared in films (The Long Goodbye,3 Women—both directed by Robert Altman; The Late Show,A Fine Mess—with Chevy Chase); episodic TV shows (Night Gallery,The F.B.I., The Odd Couple, Ironside, Room 222, The Rookies,S.W.A.T., Baa Baa Black Sheep, Cannon, MacGyver, The TwilightZone, ChiPs, Remington Steele, Barnaby Jones, The Rockford Files);and between 40–50 TV commercials.HAMERLINCK: Out of all the actors you got to work with, whichone was your favorite?DAVEY: Without a doubt, one of my favorites was James Garner,who I worked with seven or eight times. He was just a great guy,and a very underrated actor.HAMERLINCK: Describe the day you got the call to play CaptainMarvel on Shazam!DAVEY: My eight-year old son, Tom, and I were hanging around myapartment that day when my agent called me up. He asked me if Ihad ever heard of a Saturday morning kids’ show on TV calledShazam! After I told him I hadn’t, he proceeded to tell me that MerylO’Laughlin, casting director for Filmation Studios, wanted meimmediately on the Shazam! set to play Captain Marvel, replacingJackson Bostwick on the show. What first came into my mind was akid show formatted like Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. While I knew ofthe character, and had read my share of Captain Marvel comics as akid, I still thought this show must be something like, “Okay, kids,today we’re going to take a trip to the zoo!” So I thought, “Ah, jeez,I can’t do something like that!”—and not because I was too busy


Raging Bull(top) A 1965 press photo of pro boxer John Davey.

(bottom) An Apr. 1965 Boise, Idaho, newspaperclipping announcing an upcoming Davey fight

with Boise bad boy George Logan.

Hollyw

oodbehind-the-scenes

What is ItAbout the “Scarlet”

Speedster YouDon’t

Understand??Alex Toth-designed

models of the Flash,who (along with the

Atom) might’ve beencolored orange on

TV’s Challenge ofthe Super Friends were

it not for DarrellMcNeil! All photos

and art are courtesyof “Big D’s Tonsorial

Taj Mahal.”TM & © 2008 DC Comics

and Hanna-Barbera Productions.

Hear ye, hear ye, y’all! ’Tis I, your friend and yours, the “BigD,” making my annual return to Euryland, with a ridethat’ll be “even better than six ‘B’ coupons”!

This year I have been axed to ruminate upon oneof the funner (is that a word? Well, now it is!) timeperiods of my 32-year (and counting) animation career …the time I toiled on my all-time super-favoritesuperheroes: Batman and Robin, Wonder Woman,and, of course, the big red S, the Superman hisself,collectively known as the Super Friends!

(And yeah, that includes Aquaman, too, but since Ican’t swim…)

First, some backstory: As them what knows mealready knows, I was, growing up, the king Hanna-Barbera super-adventure geek as a “little D.” It was SpaceGhost, Frankenstein Jr., the Impossibles, Young Samson,the Herculoids, and all the rest that both entertained meas a kid and inspired me to want do ’em when I grew up.The thing is, though, looking back on it as I did when the

good folk at Boomerang reran the first two seasons forthe first time in their original formats since the ’70s, it wasthe Super Friends that really grabbed me. Why? ’Cuz it wasthe biggest, the coolest, the grooviest superheroes of allon one show at the same time. (Sorry, Marvel fans!) JusticeLeague of America was at the time my favorite comic(particularly the Mike Sekowsky/Sid Greene art run).I even dug the title: Super Friends. Now, as a kid, I didn’tknow why they called the team that rather than the“Justice League of America” (though I thought then:“Maybe the name’s too long?”). I loved the name somuch I gave it to a team of superpowered teenagers Icreated and modeled after me and my Westchester HighSchool friends. (I later got a gentle lesson from futureH-B colleague Bob Singer as to what a “copyright” was.)

That 1973 original hour-length Super Friends serieswas an interesting deal for a number of reasons. It wasone of only three Saturday-morning series that consistedof actual hour-length stories. (The other two premiered


by D a r re l l“ B i g D ” M c N e i l

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the year before: ABC’s Saturday Superstar Movie and CBS’New Scooby Doo Movies.) I’ve already dealt with theshow’s genesis in previous pieces I’ve scribed in pastissues. Just getting a regular series with super-folk in thatpost-violent kids’ show era was enough of a trick!Violent action and really mean villains were no-nos,while pro-social messages and energy crises were go-gos.Did that stop me from digging the show? Sh-yelll, no!

Because it wasn’t just the stories or animation,limited as it was (and being produced in Australia,Canada, and Mexico, not as good as what H-B’sAmerican animators did), that drew (pun intended) mein. It was the auditory combination of H-B’s (particularlyJoe Barbera’s) voice casting—joining H-B veteran voiceactors John Stephenson (Col. Wilcox), Sherry Alberoni(Wendy), and Frank Welker (Marvin and Wonder Dog)with actors who played the characters in their previousFilmation incarnations: Olan Soule (Batman), CaseyKasem (Robin), and Ted Knight (the narrator), plus new-to-H-B vocalists Shannon Farnon (Wonder Woman),Norman Alden (Aquaman), and Danny Dark (Superman),with H-B’s master maestro Hoyt Curtin’s background score(featuring my all-time fave H-B theme)—that created ashow that sounded so stirring that geeky kid I, in thosepre-VCR daze, made sound cassettes of the shows tolisten to. (And 35 years later, I still do sometimes!)

Now, as a kid who was addicted to “my SupermanRadio Shows” as well as Filmation’s ’67 Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure, it took a little getting usedto hearing Danny Dark and Norman Alden portrayingSupes and Aqua rather than the long-running BudCollyer and first Aqua Marvin Miller (something I toldDanny and Norman later, but again, I’m getting aheadof myself). Still, the previously cited combo, along withthe too-fine visual blandishment of my soon-to-bementor and bestest friend Alex Toth, made a 16-episodeseries package I’d watch over and over again.

And again…And again.And—ya seeing a pattern here, folks?Yep, as a TV-watchin’ kid, I didn’t know the whys and

wherefores of this stuff, ratings and renewals and all that.All I saw was a number of cartoons (and live shows, too)having new episodes of shows I wasn’t as crazy aboutappear like topsy, while for the next three years (’73–’76),ABC reran the same 16 hours of Super Friends. It turns

out that I wasn’t the only one frustrated … the guys atHanna-Barbera were as well. So much so that, during onevisit/pseudo “job hunt” I made there in ’75, then-designsupervisor Bob Singer proclaimed (to his eternalregret, heh, heh) that the ’73 Super Friends series was“the last superhero show H-B would ever do.”

Yee … epp.The All-New Super Friends Hour, under the supervision

of H-B’s ABC network liaison/producer that season,Art Scott, began production in September of 1976. At thesame time yours truly, having graduated from theaforementioned Westchester High in ’75 and almostgoing to the School of Visual Arts and the inauguralclasses of both the Joe Kubert and John Buscema schools,was taking classes at both Cal State Long Beach and UCLA.

At the former I was taking a course in the historyof Saturday-morning animation taught by the afore-mentioned Art Scott who, because it took him an hourand a half to drive to Long Beach from H-B in Hollywood,would have me run films from old H-B cartoons to theclass until he got there (I dug that!). Mr. Scott told us at thetime that Hanna-Barbera was starting a training programunder the instruction of Harry Love. Art had felt that I’d bea natural for the program and the studio; unfortunately, hehad no particular pull over that program—Joe Barbera andBill Hanna had given Harry total reign over the deal.And it was for current employees to move up in rank andtraining, as it were: cel ink and painters who wanted tomove up to becoming background painters, inbetweenerswho wanted to work up to assistants or animators, layoutartists working up to storyboards, and so on. Not being acurrent employee—nuh-uh, as Harry informed inquisitivemoi, saying when I called (after gruffly wondering how Igot his special contact number … thank you, Mr. Scott!),“Nobody will be admitted until next April!” (Remember,this was the September prior to that!) I couldn’t waitsix months! But it looked like I was going to have to.

So … end of story?Nah……’cuz the other class I was taking at UCLA was one

’bout children’s programming in general. That classwas being taught by future ABC Saturday morningStandards and Practices ace Bonny Dare. She hadinvited a pair of special guests to her inaugural session:Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

By this time I was making my own animation celsetups of various concepts of mine, plus Mr. Scott had

The Hall of Justice“The fact that thecurrent and animatedversions of theJustice League payhomage to this HQnever fails to bring asmile to my face,”beams Big D.TM & © 2008 DC Comicsand Hanna-Barbera Productions.


The Hanna-Barbera “CornerCrew”(left) From 1977:Darrell McNeil,Sandra “FarrahFawcett Minors”(as dubbed by DougWildey) Young, andArt Roman, son ofFilm Roman founderPhil Roman.Photo © 2008 Gold MedalProductions.

®

comics

history

SUPER POP QUIZ: Name a Bronze Age comic book whichfits the following categories:

1) features a core team of well-known, long-runningcharacters in a recognizable headquarters2) features dozens of guest heroes, many of whomaid the main team3) features extensive continuity with the main DCsuperhero line, including footnotes and longletters-column explanations about obscure DChistory-opedic knowledge of comics history

If you chose All-Star Squadron by Roy Thomas,you’re not completely wrong. But you’d be missingthe more obvious, albeit more forgotten, choice.

The correct answer is Super Friends. Yes, SuperFriends, the “DC TV Comic” that debuted in November1976 (cover date) and continued under the writershipof super-fan-turned-pro E. Nelson Bridwell for 47 issuesuntil its cancellation in August 1981.

Though it was supposedly aimed at younger readers,throughout its four-year run, Super Friends took its fanson a virtual tour of DC’s Earth-One, touching not onlyon major elements of mainstream DC continuity, butalso venturing into pre-Vertigo realms and showcasinga multiculturalism unseen in comics to date.Today’s comic fans may see Super Friends as a camp-fest,but to do so dismisses a book that was perhapsthe perfect synthesis for its era, literally uniting thetelevision viewers with the comic readers.

HERE COME TV’S SUPER FRIENDS!Inspired by the success of Filmation’s Superman,Aquaman, and Batman animated series of the late1960s, and emboldened by Batman and Robin’s guest

Famous First EditionLimited Collectors’ Edition #C-41, published in1975, was the first DC title to bear the Super

Friends logo—although there was very little actualSF material in the tabloid-sized comic itself!

TM & © DC Comics.


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

appearances in a pair of CBS New Scooby-Doo Movies, as well as Supermanand Wonder Woman guest shots in ABC’s The Brady Kids, Hanna-Barbera wascommissioned by ABC to create a kid-friendly version of DC’s Justice Leagueof America. The result was Super Friends, starring Superman, Batman andRobin, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and a trio of teen sidekicks: Wendy,Marvin, and Wonder Dog. The program debuted on September 8, 1973.

Although the series was a hit and viewership likely dwarfed the entiresales output of DC Comics’ line, the company was a bit slow to embrace theanimated show. With DC’s Justice League of America #110 (Mar.–Apr. 1974),the cover tagline did change from “The World’s Greatest Super-Heroes!”to “Here Come TV’s Super Friends!,” but the move was reversed after onlyseven issues. “Many people thought a Super Friends comic would be anatural,” Bridwell would later write in a text page in Super Friends #9,“but at the time, we felt the TV series was really a version of the JusticeLeague of America.”

A one-shot treasury edition of Super Friends was produced by DC in late1975. A framing story by E. Nelson Bridwell featured art by Alex Toth (whohad designed the animated series), and it showed the introduction ofWendy, Marvin, and Wonder Dog to the Super Friends … known morespecifically as the Justice League here. Following a Justice League reprint,Toth provided a hand-lettered look at how animation was produced in 1975,and his own densely written bio. In all, the actual Super Friends content forthe 66-page book, counting the two covers, ran a whopping nine pages.

Roll CallThe kids go zonkers when meeting the entire JLA, from theSuper Friends tabloid.TM & © DC Comics.

Edward Nelson Bridwell was born in 1931 in Sapulpa, Oklahoma.As a child, he was interested not only in ancient mythology andfolklore, but the modern mythology of comic books (in particularSuperman, Captain Marvel, and anything by Walt Kelly). Somesources cite that he wrote text pages for the AmericanComics Group in the late 1940s, and DickGiordano once noted that Bridwell often wroteletters of comment to EC Comics. Bridwellhimself said in an interview in Amazing Worldof DC Comics #17 that he started at DC “onJanuary 13, 1964, as Mort Weisinger’s assis-tant. My first scripting assignments were sci-ence-fiction stories for Jack Schiff. My firstwriting for Mort was restricted to a few extrapanels on a Krypto or Superman story.”

Bridwell would soon become an editor onthe Superman family titles, alongside Weisinger,who, by many accounts, delighted in torturing theyoung fan-turned-pro. Bridwell also began writing more in theDC Universe, though on such non-headline series as The InferiorFive and Secret Six. He later wrote for Action Comics, AdventureComics, Superman, World’s Finest Comics, and Legion of Super-Heroes, as well as one of his childhood favorites, Shazam!

He also freelanced for MAD magazine, often working with JoeOrlando (his Lone Ranger parody instituted the now-famous catch-phrase, “What you mean we, white man?”), and scripted somestories for Jim Warren’s black-and-white anthologies Creepy and Eerie.

His near-encyclopedic knowledge of DC continuity andtrivia made Bridwell the go-to guy when DC began doing variousreprint projects in the 1970s. In Amazing World of DC Comics#13, Bob Rozakis wrote, “If ever there was a complete fact file

on comics and it could be transformed into a humanbeing, it would undoubtedly come out being

Nelson Bridwell. DC’s master of trivia and acehistorian remembers more about comics than

most of us will ever know.” He worked on thehardcover books Superman: From the 30’s tothe 70’s, Batman: From the 30’s to the 70’s,Shazam!: From the 40’s to the 70’s, and TheGreat Superman Comic Book Collection, as well

as various treasury collections and digests.His 80-Page Giants and 100-Page Super

Spectaculars were not only filled with Golden Agereprints that thematically linked to the modern

stories and appearances, but he also wrote text pagesand reference material telling newer readers the origins ofsome of the “forgotten heroes.”

Bridwell passed away on January 23, 1987 of lung cancer(ironically, he didn’t smoke), and was eulogized in various DCComics titles by both Denny O’Neil and Dick Giordano.Posthumously, he was inducted into the Oklahoma CartoonistsHall of Fame in October 2005. In Amazing World of DC Comics#17, an unnamed DC staffer was quoted as saying, “If Nelsondidn’t exist, we would have to invent him.”

THE SECRET ORIGIN OF E. NELSON BRIDWELL


Dave Stevens was a pretty private guy.While he was (and remains for all time) one of my great art heroes, one of the

best artists to grace the medium, I’m sad to say I never got to know Dave on any-thing more substantial than a social level. He had closer friends than I, surely,any of whom would probably be more suited to wax rhapsodic about Dave’smany fine qualities.

So … why me? Why Adam Hughes? Where’s, say, Bill Stout or MarkEvanier, gentlemen geniuses who knew the creator of The Rocketeer farmore intimately than this bourgeois white boy from New Jersey?

I think it’s because of the old screenwriter’s axiom: show, don’t tell.Almost any peer or compatriot of Dave’s could develop a chroniccase of logorrhea going on, ad infinitum, about Dave’s humor,his generosity, and his overall sense of decency (in a sometimesprecarious industry filled with what Dave would call “oily characters”).All the qualities that, I think, Dave would cringe over if youbrought them up if he was within earshot. You think Cliff Secordtraveled fast? Dave would’ve probably broken land-speed recordsexiting, stage right, any such discussion about himself.

As I stated earlier, Dave Stevens = private guy.In the aforementioned sense of “show, don’t tell,” I think I

was invited to share my Dave-isms because the thing that madeDave a household name (but only in the coolest of houses) washis art, his beautiful, magnificent art. And why talk about artwhen you can show art? If you want a testimony to Dave’s colossalstature as in illustrator, I won’t tell it to you, I’ll show you.

Go look at my work. All of it.If you find yourself liking, in any way large or small, my modest

scratchings and smears, then raise your glass and thank the starsabove that Dave got to share his art with me, with all of us.

Rereading this, I grow concerned that it might come across asslightly egocentric. It’s not meant to be, I assure you. It’s just that I can’tsummon the proper words to express how much Dave’s art has influencedme in my life, in my career. All I can do is point at a body of work, my bodyof work, and say, “That is how fantastic Dave Stevens’ art is. That would notexist were it not for the craft of Dave Stevens. He helped make all thathappen.” Not only did Dave Stevens create art, he helped create artists.

In 1986, I worked in a small comics shop in Burlington, New Jersey.It was a small shop, a really small shop. I mean, it was a Bizarro-TARDIS;it was smaller on the inside than the outside. I had to close the joint to go tothe bathroom, which was in a police station next door. Only one employeecould be in there at a time. (The comics shop, not the cops’ toilet.)

We had Marvel Comics and DC Comics, just like the newsstands.We even carried some of those wacky new premium-format comics, or booksthat couldn’t be sold at newsstands. I sold the original run of The Dark KnightReturns. I sold Watchmen.

We also carried, God knows how, a nice selection of thenew wave of independent comics, from companies like First,Comico, Eclipse, and Pacific Comics. It was a pretty eclectic shop,for one the size of a refrigerator. And with all that great inventory, it was quitean eyeful to take in. Every square inch of wall was covered in comics; it was likeworking in the cover to Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Sometimes my eyes wouldache, there was so much to see.


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by A d a m H u g h e s

And amidst that optic cacophony, Dave Stevens’ Rocketeer stood up and announced itself. WITH AUTHORITY. I had never seenanything like it, before or since. The artwork was lush, sensual, and dynamic. The story was fabulous, the characters fully formed andinstantly approachable. A more perfect first impression, you’ll probably never have. Like so many others, I was smitten instantly.

What followed was a fabulous few years of searching for Dave’s work anywhere I could lay my grubby meat hookson it. There’s no joy quite like the joy of discovery, especially when spelunking in long, white cardboard boxes

steeped in magic and must. Finding one of Dave’s Eclipse Comics covers was akin to Howard Carter’s discoveryof Tutankhamun’s Tomb (for me, anyways). Imagine how I felt when I discovered that Bettie Page was a real,

live girl! She had lived, breathed, and made young Dave Stevens’ world quite a fabulous place. T’ain’t nothin’like a good woman, McGee.

I studied Dave’s work relentlessly. I gleaned. I learned from it what I could. Which wasn’tmuch. I didn’t posses the skills necessary to deconstruct what Dave was doing. It wasn’t until I

actually met Dave that doors started unlocking and opening.Chicago, summer of ’88: my first convention as a pro. Dave was the guest of honor,

as the first issue of the new Rocketeer Adventure Magazine was being celebrated. Davehad better things to do, bigger fish to fry. I was a guppy, a tadpole. But two things

happened that really altered the way I do things, even to this day, and bothinvolved Dave.

I made an ass of myself the night I first met Dave, I was so apprehensive.To say that I was quite the sweaty fool is putting it lightly. The next day, I went

up to him and apologized for my nervousness, and Dave did Life-AlteringThing #1: he laughed it off, patted me on the back, and said, “No worries,

man; I did the same thing the first time I met Steranko.”With one quick, offhand sentiment, Dave made me realize the vast

cosmic order of it all, and my small place in it. I was part of a chain,a link like Dave Stevens, and Jim Steranko. Suddenly, I was “on themap of the universe, part of the mind of God,” as Garrison Keilloronce wrote, all because of a few kind words from a friendlystranger. That was the first time I felt part of the greater whole,not just an outsider looking in, pretending and pantomiming.Thanks, Dave.

Life-Altering Thing #2. The next day, Dave wanders Artists’ Alley,and finds me and my sad pile of photocopies, grim testamentsto my even grimmer defenestrations in the field of comic-book art.Dave could’ve just glanced over them, and moved on. He wasguest of honor, remember.

No, Dave spent the better part of 90 minutes going overmy artwork, offering advice and critiques on every page.Everything that fell out of his mouth, I took to heart. Daveextolled to me the virtues of inking with a brush (I was inkingall my stuff with a technical pen). I fought, I resisted, I caved.I have spent every year since dedicating myself to what Davewas saying was the best way. I could never thank him enough.

Also, with those two examples, Dave also taught me howto handle fans, especially earnest ones with artistic aspirations.Anyone who’s had a pleasant experience with me, thank DaveStevens. Anyone who hasn’t, I apologize for not being made ofthe same quality stuff as Dave. He was one-of-a-kind, after all.

So now, Dave is gone. He’s left us, but he can still speak tofuture generations of crafts persons through the all-too-slimportfolio of magnificent art he’s bequeathed us. I feel sorry forall those who’ll never get to meet him as I did. I feel sorry forhis close friends and family, who didn’t lose an artist or ahero, but a brother and a son.

And I feel a little sorry for myself. I never really got toknow Dave Stevens as anything more than a brilliant artist, a rolemodel, and a first-class act.

Dave Stevens was a pretty private guy.

“My life has been a poor attempt/to imitate the man/

I am the living legacy/To the leader of the band”

– Dan Fogelberg

ADAM HUGHES is among comics’ brightest stars, his poster-worthycovers gracing issues of Wonder Woman, Tomb Raider, and Catwoman.

Visit his site at www.justsayah.com.© 2008 Dave Stevens estate.


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Who is this mysterious being from another galaxy? Who is heand what does he want? Who is Gary Owens?

Gary is THE fabulous voice, the announcer, the goldensmog (sorry, Fat Freddie Flintstone). Gary is the voice that has

streamed through the ether of all oftelevision and radio for the last

forty-plus years. He is a presencewithout having to be that

presence. Everyone knows hisvoice, even if they don’t realize it.

What does Gary want?Simply to entertain the masses and

make them smile. For that is GaryOwens’ simple mission in life, to enjoy

life and pass that enjoyment on to others.Why is Gary Owens a subject in

BACK ISSUE’s “Saturday Morning Heroes”?Because he has narrated or starred in roughly

3000 cartoons. Perhaps you know him better asRoger Ramjet, Powdered Toast Man, the Blue

Falcon, or Tad Ghostal, a.k.a. Space Ghost!– Richard A. Scott

RICHARD A. SCOTT: You’ve been the voice of many“Saturday Morning Heroes.”GARY OWENS: Thank you for doing this feature onSpace Ghost and my cartoon heroes. Powdered Toast

Man—you know who John Kricfalusi patterned that after?It was Kirk Douglas’ face.

SCOTT: I have a nice Kirk Douglas sketch by John K. I met himin San Diego one year and he was doing Ren and Stimpys for

everybody. And I guess he got sick of doing Ren and Stimpys, andI was going to ask him to do a Kirk Douglas, and he started

drawing. [chuckles] I was just blown away by that.OWENS: I was with John a couple of months ago and we did a

Comcast commercial together on television. It’s on TV right now,I think. And the reason he hired me, he always loved Roger Ramjet,

which was the first cartoon that I did as a voiceover guy back in1965. Ramjet, I think, we did 156 episodes of that. That was Tom

Selleck’s favorite cartoon, by the way, when he was going to school.SCOTT: Roger Ramjet was slightly before my time, although I did end

up seeing them in syndication after the fact.OWENS: They were very funny. Two guys named Gene Moss and Jim

Thurman were the writers for it and it was very, very much fun to do.


Spaaaaace Ghoooost!From the collection of Jim Alexander, Space Ghost—the hero to whom voice was given by Gary Owens—in a 1983 sketch by Steve Rude.© 2008 Hanna-Barbera Productions.

by R i c h a r d A . S c o t tconducted February 18, 2008

and transcribed by Brian K. Morris

We would record, many times, right across the hall from FrankSinatra and Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. And as a matter offact, on a couple of episodes—and I can’t tell you which onesthey were because I don’t remember—but we had Frank come inand Dean and Sammy doing just voices, unlabelled, on the thing.I think that Frank played a fireman, and Dean Martin played a singerin a nightclub—which of course, he did very well—where Sammy didthe voice of a farmer. [laughs] It was in “The Treasure of the SierraMattress” on the Roger Ramjet, I believe. But when you do over 150episodes, let alone doing other things, you don’t always recall.SCOTT: Oh, right.OWENS: But I’ve been doing this since I was a writer, first for Jay Ward.I came to Hollywood in 1961, my wife and I and were just startingout in the business, and our kids were babies at that point. Our oldestson, Scott, and our younger son, Chris, they’re both top TVproducers now in Hollywood.

But it was always fun doing cartoons. Well, I still do. Buzz Lightyear,I’m the announcer on that. And there’s a new cartoon that was justgiven to me day before yesterday and I can’t tell you the title forit yet because we don’t have a title of it. It’s me as a little boy.Same voice as I am today.SCOTT: You’re one of those people like, say, Sterling Holloway. You know,one voice tends to cover a gamut of various characters.OWENS: Now, that’s true. Primarily, you know, I’ve done maybe3000 different cartoon episodes. But as you draw a different character,you raise or lower your voice in one way or another. Usually, I’m thenarrator or I’m the superhero, whatever, although I do other voices.But I don’t primarily pretend to [do different types of voices]—not when you’ve got great talents like Frank Welker and Don Messickand Daws Butler.

Did you know I owned a company in Hollywood with Mel Blancfor twenty years?SCOTT: No, I didn’t.OWENS: We had Mel Blanc Audio Media, and it was great fun. And soI would record with Mel at least three times a week, and we would haveevery great voice person in the country there, and it was always fun.

Rod Serling used to drop overand we’d have lunch quite often.We had a big cardboardacoustic tile there and whenMel died, we decided to justhave all that memorabilia withNoel, his son, who was the vicepresident of the company. And sowe worked with just abouteverybody over that twenty-yearperiod. And then beyond thatperiod, I’d worked at Hanna-Barbera for years and years.

And also Walt DisneyStudios, and just about everycompany doing cartoons ofsome kind. But my first job wasa writer at Jay Ward Productionswhen Allan Burns was there andChris Hayward, George Atkins,all those great comedy writerswho are now top producers inHollywood. Allan Burns and JimBrooks—Jim Brooks was notwith Jay Ward, but Allan Burnswas, and they later createdThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,Lou Grant, Rhoda.SCOTT: I was asked by my edi-tor to ask you about Ted Knight,since he narrated a lot of super-hero cartoons…OWENS: Oh, sure! Well, we used

to do cartoons together. When I was doing Space Ghost, he wasdoing Aquaman, I think. Ted was a very, very good friend of mine.And the comedian Johnny Dark, who’s a regular on the DavidLetterman show playing Mark Twain and Abraham Lincoln, we usedto go out and have lunch together frequently, the three of us.

Ted was great. We used to have a luncheon thing… You’re tooyoung to remember this, but Four-Star Television was a major TVproduction company back in the late ’50s, early ’60s, and CollierYoung was the president, along with David Niven, Dick Powell,and Gig Young, and they did a lot of the shows. Collier also ownedIronside with Raymond Burr.SCOTT: I used to watch that.OWENS: Yeah, a very, very good show. Once a year,for 17 years, about thirty of us would get togetherfor lunch. Not frequently, but once a year, and reg-ulars in that group included Joseph Cotten, a greatactor all the way from Citizen Kane on up; andDavid Wayne; Arnie Sultan, theproducer of Get Smart; TedKnight; Ed Asner; Bill Dana;Burt Prelotsky, the greatPulitzer Prize-winning writerfor the L.A. Times and theNew York Times; andAllan Burns and ChrisHayward, who createdThe Munsters, by theway. And of course, lateron, Chris was one of thecreators of Barney Miller. AndAllan, of course, with all of the MTM produc-tion things. But we did nothing but laugh and jokefor five hours at a time, from noon until five in theafternoon at a well-known restaurant called Scandiaon Sunset Boulevard. And they put us in thewine cellar because we all made too

Beginnings:Delivering radio news as a teenager in Mitchell, South Dakota

Trademark:Hand cupped over ear while talking into microphone

Milestones:Prolific radio announcer, DJ, narrator, broadcaster, and animated voice specialist, with over3000 cartoon shows and 12,000 radio shows to his creditAmong his many credits: Roger Ramjet / Space Ghost (all incarnations) / Rowan & Martin’s

Laugh-In / Sesame Street / Dynomutt’s Blue Falcon / narrator of Legendsof the SuperHeroes TV special / Ren & Stimpy’s Powdered Toast Man /Additional honors: honorary sheriff of Encino, California /Radio Hall of Fame induction, 1994 / star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame /For a full list of credits, visit tv.yahoo.com/contributor/793995/credits orwww.imdb.com/name/nm0654365/

Works in Progress:The Music of Your Life syndicated radio music program, which justwrapped up its run in February 2008 / Keep your ears open for moreof Gary Owens’ voice work soon!

GARY OWENS


interview

Costumed crimefighters’ stocks soared in the 1960s, andby 1966 the imagination put forth by theSchwartz/Infantino “New Look” Batman and theMarvel superheroes spilled countrywide, fromBroadway’s Superman musical to Hollywood TV showslike Batman and The Green Hornet … and theSaturday morning (Hanna-Barbera, to be specific)spaced-out offering, Space Ghost.

Guardians of the galaxy on TV and film weren’t new,but SG was very different. He wore a dark executioner’smask, just barely outlined with a lighter blue or whiteaura. He fought with large power bands that werewrapped around his forearms, and his mostly white(think ghostly) outfit came with a flowing cape thatlooked almost shapeless or ragged (think torn drapes ina haunted house) when he flew into action. Space Ghostwas a big hit and his success paved the way for otherH-B superheroes to come.

The magic of the character was caught again byComico the Comic Company in a one-shot in Decemberof 1987. It was a beautifully realized comic book inall aspects—the coloring made each panel look likean animation cel, the writing exquisitely captured theshow’s flavor, and its wonderful artwork by Steve “theDude” Rude was everything a fan of the show (whichI can wistfully claim to be) could ask for. Editor DianaSchutz did a great job rounding up the talentsinvolved. Mark Evanier handled the writing and KenSteacy did the coloring, and penciling the project(with inks by Willie Blyberg) was the realization of achildhood dream for Rude.

– Jerry Boyd

JERRY BOYD: Steve, you were a kid when Space Ghostbegan on CBS-TV in the fall of 1966. Why did he becomeyour favorite character in the Hanna-Barbera World ofSuper Adventure pantheon?STEVE RUDE: Trying to explain “cool” is sometimesa useless exercise, but it was the animation, workingalong with the character voices, great sound effects,and music, that formed my total impression.They had a little over six minutes to wrap up anepisode, and every second had to count. Especiallysince that’s how animation was done, in terms offrame-by-frame action.BOYD: The H-B staffers seemed to really grasp whatmade the Marvel and DC superheroes so cool in themid-’60s. Did you ever try to sketch the various char-acters, their outfits, and mechanical devices as youwatched the cartoons on TV?RUDE: Actually, I did try and draw when the TV wason, or maybe after the show was over and then tryand draw what I remembered. It was a challenge thatI tried many times, certainly 15 years later, and still dotoday. But regarding the staffers, I don’t know whatmakes a certain generation “get” anything. I just knowthat if they didn’t, the show would have no lastingappeal beyond [our] childhood. When I would ask anyof these men, many of whom were still active when Ivisited the H-B Studios in the ’80s, [about this,] theywould simply say, “Hey, it was just a job, kid.”

Co-meeee-ko!The as-seen-on-TV cover to Comico’s

Space Ghost one-shot.© 2008 Hanna-Barbera Productions.


by J e r r y B o y dconducted via e-mail

on December 3 and 12, 2007

Beginnings:Nexus (1981)

Milestones:Nexus / Jonny Quest / Space Ghost / World’s Finest /Superman vs. the Incredible Hulk / X-Men: Children of theAtom / Legends of the DC Universe (Superman’s Pal,Jimmy Olsen) / Spider-Man: Lifeline / The Moth /Nexus the Animated Promo / the book Steve Rude: Artist inMotion (Flesk Publications) / multiple Eisner, Kirby, and

other industry awards

Works in Progress:The Moth / Nexus /Amazing Dude Tales

Cyberspace:www.steverude.comwww.rudedudeproductions.com


No “Coast toCoast” HereSpace Ghost’sbaddies were reallybad in the Comicoone-shot, as theywere on the originalTV series. Scan ofpage 12 courtesyof Jerry Boyd.© 2008 Hanna-BarberaProductions.

BOYD: Gold Key put out a short-lived TV superheroestitle in the late ’60s featuring the H-B heroes. There wasa Space Ghost one-shot, as well. Did you buy any ofthese? Any lasting impressions?RUDE: Well, I remember at the time being reallydisappointed. Everything was off-model: the ship, themain characters, the villains, everything. The stories werenot what the TV show was. Space Ghost himself wasdrawn very “round” and soft. The edge had been takenoff him. I was very excited when I bought it, however.Comics were then such a new and exciting thing for me.BOYD: What events led up to the Comico Space Ghostone-shot in 1987? Were the company’s editors alwaysinterested in you doing the art, or did Alex Toth’s nameever come up?RUDE: The Comico people and I were always close,and when they got the licensing permission, they called.I really doubt if Alex’s name ever came up. Even backthen he was known as the curmudgeon that mightstart something but never finish it.BOYD: Did you ever talk to Alex Toth about SpaceGhost? If so, did he ever give you any advice about thedesigns or animation in general?RUDE: The first time I ever called Alex was around ’83or so. I hadn’t heard anything about his reputation—I was just glad to finally have a name for the guy whodesigned Space Ghost. So I called him up, told him hewas a genius, and went into how Space Ghost hadaffected me. He was very gracious and flattered.

As we talked, he replied that he didn’t really likeSpace Ghost—too many compromises—but remembereda show I’d never heard of—Space Angel—muchmore fondly. In hindsight, it was easy to understand,

since Space Angel didn’t have as many meddlinghands to dilute his vision.BOYD: Mark Evanier’s Space Ghost story, “TheSinister Spectre,” got a lot in! Anything you would’veadded or taken out?RUDE: By the time the story was finally worked out,it was complete. But I remember it took Mark severalturns at the script to satisfy me. Typical me.BOYD: Every panel looked like an animation cel. It wastruly a beautiful comic. Ken Steacy did the coloring. Wereyou pleased with his work or did you wish you’d done thecoloring yourself?RUDE: It is breathtaking to see how Ken had renderedthe coloring, which he painted directly on the originalart. No overlays or blue lines or any of that. He’s gota technical ability to render and understand colorthat was simply exceptional. When the originalscame back, they were a sight to behold. We all owea lot to Ken.BOYD: You couldn’t help reading this terrific comic andhoping for additional one-shots with Birdman, theHerculoids, Mighty Mightor, etc. Did Comico everapproach you and Mark about projects in that vein?RUDE: No, I believe that Space Ghost was the onlybook that was ever really discussed.BOYD: In BACK ISSUE #2, Michael Eury wrote aboutthe aborted Space Ghost sequel, guest-starring theHerculoids. Any plans on the backburner concerning get-ting that book done one day?RUDE: Space Ghost #2 remains an aborted project.With me up and starting Rude Dude Productions,I’ll just be focusing on Nexus, The Moth, and AmazingDude Tales.

STEVERUDE

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Though now it can be told in hindsight, Astro Boy is gen-erally considered the basis of all Japanese anime. At the timeof its creation (1951), Astro Boy originated as an earlypost-war manga called Tetsuwan Atumo (or MightyAtom) by creator Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989), whoalso created the popular Kimba, the White Lion. Tezukais now considered the “God of Manga” by many fans.

The character of Astro Boy was a robot creation ofDoctor Tenma (a.k.a. Dr. Boynton), designed to be areplacement for Tenma’s late son, Tobio. Astro Boywas later abandoned at a robot circus and adopted byProfessor Ochanomizu. A robot family was soon createdfor Astro Boy, and the heroic Astro Boy was enlisted toresolve conflicts on Earth and in space using his super-strength and jet-powered ability to fly.

An animated version of Astro Boy was produced byMushi Productions and premiered on Japan’s Fuji TVon January 1, 1963, lasting four seasons and 193episodes. Three of those episodes were compiledinto a 1964 feature film called Hero of Space.

One hundred and four of those episodes aired inAmerica premiering in syndication on September 7,1963. Those and the remaining 89 episodes havesince aired on American television or have appearedon VHS or DVD. These American airings predated allother Japanese animated shows including Speed Racer,Kimba, and Gigantor, the latter being another Japaneseanime series of the same vintage as Astro Boy, and alsoin black-and-white.

ASTRO BOY SPUTTERS THROUGHSILVER AGE COMICSIn the 1950s and ’60s, Dell Comics and later Gold KeyComics seemingly snapped up the licenses to virtuallyevery animated property, which were originallyproduced as theatrical shorts, and turned them intocomic-book series. Disney, Warner Bros., Walter Lantz,and MGM had very successful Dell and Gold Key runs(with both lines produced by Western Publishing).


Rock ’Em Sock ’Em RobotsThat likable Astro Boy wallops a mechanicalman in this commissioned illustration by KenSteacy (www.kenspublishing.com), who kindlycontributed it to BACK ISSUE.© Tezuka Productions.

by M a r k A r n o l d

When animation switched from movie theaters totelevision, properties from Hanna-Barbera, Jay Ward,and various other series made for television had successat Western Publishing.

Amazingly, the entire US output of Astro Boy comicbooks from its inception to the 1980s’ NOW Comicsseries was a grand total of two, and one of those wasa giveaway.

It is unknown whether the Gold Key issue of AstroBoy was a success, as Gold Key produced quite anumber of one-shots over the years, particularly aspart of the Four Color series.

What is known is that this single “try-out” issuewas released with an August 1965 cover date and isnow listed as “scarce” in the Overstreet Comic BookPrice Guide. This may be due to it not being a tremen-dous seller and the remainder copies being destroyedat the time, or perhaps due to the fact that Astro Boynever really achieved the same popularity as othercontemporary television cartoons of that vintage.

I am a child of the 1970s. Astro Boy was never tobe seen on my television, almost entirely due to theoriginal series being in black-and-white. Times hadchanged, and except for old I Love Lucy reruns, orThree Stooges shorts, black-and-white television showswere rarely seen or wiped from the tube.

Other Japanese anime such as Speed Racer andKimba, the White Lion were shown frequently, and itwas most assuredly due to the fact that these serieswere produced in color over than whether they werebetter or worse than Astro Boy.

As the Astro Boy comic book appeared almostprecisely when the majority of network televisionswitched from black-and-white to color, this probably didhave an impact of sorts on the sales of the comic book.

Gold Key made only one more attempt with AstroBoy before abandoning the license: March of Comics#285 (circa late 1965, early 1966). Both this and theone-shot are now highly sought after. In fact, #285 isthe highest-valued March of Comics issue, eclipsed onlyby the earliest three or four issues and those featuringDonald Duck by Carl Barks. Issue #285 is worth onaverage ten times as much as other March of Comicsissues produced the same year.

Gold Key let the Astro Boy license go at this point, anda telling statement of its lack of fondness for the Japaneseproduct shows no comic books attempted of theaforementioned Speed Racer, Kimba, or even Gigantor.

ASTRO BOY’S TIME IS NOWFast-forward twenty years. A young entrepreneurialcomic-book publisher by the name of Tony Caputostarted a company called NOW Comics, designed tobe a major player amongst the likes of Marvel andDC. By this time in 1987, the comic-book industryhad changed dramatically. Publishers Gold Key,Harvey (Casper the Friendly Ghost and his pals),Charlton (which followed Gold Key/Western ascomics’ number-one source for cartoon-inspiredcomics), and Fawcett (Dennis the Menace) were gone,or just a shadow of what they once were and virtuallygone. Marvel and DC were still the major players.Dark Horse had not quite yet risen to prominenceand others such as Pacific, Eclipse, and many otherindependents came and went faster than you can saytheir company names.

Caputo has this to say when asked about theorigins of NOW Comics: “That’s a long story in adifferent time, when NOW Comics sold 1,100,000copies in comic shops and newsstands every month.Nowadays, it’s different. Truthfully, I started NOWComics when I was 23 years old because I wanted tobe more creative, potentially get rich, and moreimportantly, change the country’s concept of ‘thedummy’s literature.’ Comics were up and coming inthe 1980s, but most of the real world didn’t know theywere still published. That’s why I wanted to do moremainstream intellectual properties and not limit myaudience to superhero readers and collectors, whichMarvel and DC owned and still own.”

Though NOW Comics published much more thanwhat would eventually be called The Original AstroBoy, it was one of a few series that helped get NOW onthe map (the others being titles such as Ralph SnartAdventures, Syphons, and Speed Racer), and this wasstrong enough to get a listing of “NOW Comics”placed on later versions of the old familiar circularcomic-book spinrack placard that traditionally stated“Hey Kids—Comics!”

Caputo got involved with The Original Astro Boyseries in the following way: “I called the name of thecompany that was listed as owner on the originalAstro Boy cartoons—Suzuki & Associates out of Japan.Lots of late night calls, as they were on the otherside of the world in the pre-digital age of 1985.

Rare RobotSighting

The scarce Astro Boy#1 (Aug. 1965),

published by GoldKey Comics.

© Tezuka Productions.


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While he may be best known for writing many of comics’most popular titles (from Amazing Spider-Man to Tombof Dracula to New Teen Titans to Crisis on InfiniteEarths) and for creating a score of enduring characters(Cyborg and Blade, to name merely two), Marv Wolfmanhas also written for virtually every medium imaginable,including non-fiction books (such as Homeland, TheIllustrated History of the State of Israel) and animat-ed cartoons. For the latter, his short-lived Superman ani-mated series of 1988 remains fondly recalled by fans (and acurious absence from Warner Bros.’ DVD listings!), andMarv has some recollections about that series he’d like to getoff his chest…

Work comes from the strangest places. An animationwriter, story-editor, director friend of mine, Gordon Kent,called one day to ask if I’d be interested in writing anepisode of Garbage Pail Kids, a cartoon show thatwas going to be produced by Southern Star, where heworked. He knew I was writing the [Adventures of]Superman comic and thought it would be great tohave me write a Garbage Pail Kids [Superman] parodyversion as well. I said sure, wrote the episode, had agreat time doing it, then moved on to my next project.

After the shows were animated but before theyaired, church groups managed to get the show killedbased on the idea that the Garbage Pail Kids gumcards were “disgusting,” so the show must somehowbe bad for kids, too, despite the fact that nobody hadseen any of the episodes. In truth, the shows were cuteparodies and quite funny. But I digress....

About a year later, I got a call from CBS Children’s TVasking if I’d be interested in being story-editor of thebrand-new Superman animated series they were planning.I, of course, assumed I was being asked because A) I waswriting the Superman comic and therefore knew thecharacter, and B) I was also writing animation, so itwould make sense to hire me. In point of fact, I waswrong. I was hired because although the Garbage PailKids show never came out, the people at CBS Children’shad seen my episode and liked it and thought since Iwrote a funny parody of Superman, I’d be great to dothe actual Superman series. I guess they thought becauseI could make fun of Superman I could write it, too.

Weirder things have happened.I wrote the pilot script and actually based it on my

Garbage Pail Kids story, only done straight. Both stories hadLuthor creating giant robots which Superman had to stop.The GPK was, of course, funny and silly and the “real”show was “serious,” but they came from the same place.

CBS liked the pilot and the show wasthen assigned to the animation companyRuby-Spears to do. Although I had neverworked with Joe Ruby or Ken Spears, thefounders of Ruby-Spears (R&S), I camewith the show.

A funny story. As I mentioned, CBSdidn’t hire me because I wrote the Supermancomic. So one day I’m invited to a meetingwhere they spend a lot of time introducingme to DC president Jenette Kahn, who Ihad been working with for almost a decade.

Come On andDo the LocomotiveWith MeGil Kane storyboardsfrom the action-packed titlesequence ofRuby-Spears’Adventures ofSuperman. (below) Ascreen capture ofLois Lane and Supie.TM & © DC Comics.


by M a r v W o l f m a n

®


Regular BACK ISSUE readers may best know Nicola Cutias E-Man’s co-creator (with artist Joe Staton), but are youaware that Nick is also a real, live Saturday morninghero? Yes, Nick Cuti, comic-book writer, editor, and artistand animation designer, is actually Captain Cosmos, theLast STARveyer! In the tradition of 1950s sci-fi TV faresuch as Captain Video and Tom Corbett, Space Cadet,Cuti’s Captain Cosmos is a space-spanning children’svideo series that has won two Kid’s First! Awards.

I’ve had the pleasure of viewing two Captain Cosmosepisodes, and while those ’50s space operas from Nick’schildhood were indeed their inspiration, I was reminded of’70s Saturday morning fare like Ark II and Jason of StarCommand, programs where imagination and ingenuity out-weighed any limitations of production budget. But thereinlies the appeal of Captain Cosmos—its ability to transcendtime and turn any viewer into a wide-eyed, eager child.

Via the space-age innovation of “e-mail,” BACKISSUE was able to traverse the cosmos to speak with thegood Captain himself in early June 2008.

– Michael Eury

MICHAEL EURY: What’s the basic premise ofCaptain Cosmos?NICK CUTI: Captain Nick Cosmos (aka NicolaCosmosini) belonged to an organization knownas STARveyers, a division of the United Worlds.The STARveyers proved to be such a dangerousorganization that, after losing more than 75% of itsmembers, it was disbanded. Nick and his partner,Lillian, were retired. They married, bought a jelly farmon the planet Silver Valley, and settled down to raise“jellies,” which are large, shapeless creatures that canbe milked for their “jelly,” a substance which can be usedfor food or material. But Nick missed the adventureof the old days. He bought an old starfreighter,The Bedevere, and with his alien step-daughter, Zen-Ya,

Command Crew of the UWSF Bedevere(front) Captain Nick Cosmos, Nicola Cuti.

(back row, left to right) Cadet Starling, AmandaPleak-Emory, and First Mate Zen-Ya, Danielle MarieMays. The set is located in Nick’s dining room!

© 2005 Nicola Cuti.


Anthony (“Tony”) Allan is a noted author with books onthe multi-media adventures of the All-American Comicscharacters. He has written liner notes for collections ofradio recordings as well as DVD collections of the TVseries. He is currently working on “I Saw It on the Radio,”a timeline history detailing which elements of the comicbooks actually came from the radio programs and othermedia, to be published later this year by TwoMorrows.

In this installment, Tony and Bob Rozakis talk aboutthe movie and television adventures of Green Lantern,the Flash, and the rest of the AA Universe in the 1970sand beyond.

BOB ROZAKIS: These days, when there seems to be anew comic book-based movie or three coming outevery summer, they are almost taken for granted. Butthat certainly wasn’t the case back in the ’70s when thefirst Green Lantern movie was released.ANTHONY ALLAN: That’s true. An entire generationof fans had never seen their favorite characters onthe big screen. They’d had Green Lantern on TV inthe ’50s and in reruns in the ’60s and the Flash TVseries defined “camp” in the ’60s. Keep in mind, too,that both series were done on a limited budget,so special effects were kept to a minimum.ROZAKIS: And there were no computer-generated effectsthen, either.ALLAN: Right, so all of the superheroic effects wereconfined to the cartoons. GL, in particular, was astaple of Saturday morning fare for more than adecade: The New Adventures of Green Lantern,the Green Lantern/Hawkman Adventure Hour, The Flash-Green Lantern Hour.

A Picture Worth a Million TicketsThe movie poster that set the stage for thereturn of the Emerald Warrior to the silver screen.Note that this was an early version, releasedwhen Marlon Brando was still expected to bethe voice of the lantern. He was later replacedby the voice of the late Bud Collyer. From thecollection of Alex Wright. (All images in thisarticle are © DC Comics.)

What if… instead of selling his share of All-AmericanPublications to Harry Donenfeld and Jack Liebowitz in1945, Max Charles “Charlie” Gaines had purchasedNational Periodical Publications (DC Comics) fromthem? That’s the premise of this fantasy series beingdivided between the pages of BACK ISSUE and itsTwoMorrows big-sister mag Alter Ego and set on“Earth-22,” where things in the comics business happened

rather differently than the way they did in the worldwe know.

Just imagine: a comic-book industry in which theGolden Age Green Lantern and Flash, rather thanSuperman and Batman, are the premier heroes of comics,media, and merchandising. The author, Bob Rozakis,a longtime writer, editor, and production manager for DCComics, has imagined just that in…

The Secret History of All-American Comics, Inc.The Story of M. C. Gaines’ Publishing Empire

Book Two – Chapter Three: Multi-Media!by B o b R o z a k i s


ROZAKIS: And then Super Friends in the early ’70s.ALLAN: Exactly. It was easy to show GL’s ring doingpretty much anything in the cartoons. Where in the’50s program, there would just be burst of energyto knock a gun out of a crook’s hand, the cartoonswould show him creating a ram’s head or a gianthand or whatever other thing the writers couldcome up with.

Same kind of thing with the Flash. His super-speed was a lot of off-screen “whooshing” effects.He’d be standing in a spot, facing one villain oranother who was holding a weapon. Then he’ddisappear for a moment—with the off-screen“whoosh”—and then he’d be back in the same spotbut with the weapon in his hand. But showing himmoving at super-speed and actually disarming thevillains was a snap in the cartoons.ROZAKIS: Actually, my favorite part of those cartoons waswhen they would bring another character from the comics,like the Atom or Wildcat. By the time Super Friends came on, I was nearingcollege graduation and was not watching Saturday morning cartoons anymore. I do recall seeing one or two with Wendy and Marvin and Wonderdogand thinking that this was nothing like the comic books.ALLAN: You weren’t alone in that, but the show drew a largeaudience, which, I’m sure, is why AA started publishing a comic-bookversion. Still, it was the decision to do a live-action Green Lanternmovie that was the first attempt to attract an adult audience to whatwas long considered “kids’ stuff.”ROZAKIS: And to break away from the campy approach of the FlashTV show.

ALLAN: Ilya and AlexanderSalkind saw the potentialand started negotiationswith Bill Gaines sometimein 1974. Their plan was tospend a lot of money andturn GL into a franchise.Their representative, PierreSpengler, must havespent a lot of time in theAA offices.ROZAKIS: You know, it’sfunny. When I first started atAA, I was sitting in a cubiclenear Lyle Stuart’s office. Lylewas the AA business manag-er. I used to see Spenglercoming and going all thetime, but I didn’t know tillmuch later what he wasthere for.ALLAN: Everything aboutthe film was planned tobe top-notch. RichardDonner, who had madea name for himselfdirecting The Omen,was signed. With GeneHackman cast as VandalSavage and Ned Beatty as

Doiby Dickles, they had a pair of big-name box-office stars. And theidea of casting relative unknowns—Christopher Reeve and MargotKidder—as GL and Cathy Crain worked to their advantage as well.

Possibly the only thing that didn’t work out as well as they’dintended was the script by Mario Puzo. Going back to the GoldenAge origin and ignoring all the Kid Lantern stories made someamount of sense. The TV series and even the cartoons made no mentionof Alan Scott ever having the power ring as a teenager, so much ofthe audience knew nothing about it anyway.

However, Puzo’s script called for the power ring to have anintelligence of its own and that it would constantly be talking to Alanand that was just a bit too far out in left field.ROZAKIS: I’ve heard it speculated that when Puzo was given theresearch material for his script, they only gave him a few stories, one ofwhich was the origin from 1940. He’d never read any of the comic booksbefore, so he assumed that the lantern, which explained itself to AlanScott in that story, always talked. And if the lantern talked, why not thering?ALLAN: Did you know, by the way, that Marlon Brando had originallybeen chosen to be the voice of the ring? When the speaking part wascut back to just the short piece of the origin, they decided they coulduse someone who cost a lot less.ROZAKIS: That, of course, was actually something we fanboys loved—using Bud Collyer’s voice.ALLAN: Yes, despite the fact that the man had been dead for sixyears. They were able to edit together parts of what he’d done for theGreen Lantern cartoons in ’66 to voice the lantern. It was fitting, afterall, since Collyer had played GL on the radio show through the ’40s.


Now Showing on a TV Screen Near YouThe DVD release of Challenge of the Super Friends broughtthe classic cartoons of the early ’70s to a new generationof viewers. In addition to team mainstays Hawkman, Kid Flash,Flash, Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman, Wildcat andthe Atom also appeared. From the collection of Alex Wright.

Master of Mediaand His MissusComics in Media expertAnthony Allan, shown herewith his lovely wife Rebecca.Photo by Samantha Rozakis.

back issue #30

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