The Quality Companion Companion

Harvey Award Voter?

2012-02-27T15:21:00.000-06:00

Hey comics pros! Forgive me being so forward...

If you are a fan of Jim Amash's work in Alter Ego, or if you've happened to enjoy the book, please consider nominating The Quality Companion for this year's Harvey Awards.

Ballots are downloadable now and the category is #21: Best Biographical, Historial, or Journalistic Presentation.

Only comics professionals are allowed to vote in these awards.

DC Nation Plastic Man Preview!

2012-02-23T14:37:00.000-06:00

This clip of an animated short was just released showing Plastic Man, from Cartoon Network's new cartoon hour featuring a variety of DC properties. The style is noticeably kid-centered, which continues from the network's successful Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Plas also appeared on that show, in an episode with the Freedom Fighters (episode 221, 12 Nov. 2010)!

The fun starts Saturday, March 3, 2012 at 10am ET/PT!

DCnU Quality Watch 3: Madam Fatal

2012-01-17T08:35:00.000-06:00

UPDATE #1!
Madam Fatal made a co-starring appearance in this month's The Shade #4.

She's no lady… from The Shade #4 (2012). Art by Darwyn Cooke and J. Bone.

Madam Fatal was still active in 1944, when Stanton became an agent of the anti-hero (and sometime villain), the Shade. The Shade employed Madam Fatal to protect his own descendant, Darnell Caldecott. Stanton posed as Caldecott's assistant, Miss Sharp. Sharp escorted Caldecott to safety, and when his life was endangered by Nazis, revealed herself as Madam Fatal. The Shade arrived soon thereafter to relieve Madam Fatal, and presented Stanton with his payment—the information he'd sought for so long... the whereabouts of his kidnapped daughter. It seemed that she eleven years earlier by Dr. Prowl. (The Shade v.2 #4)

DCnU: Quality Watch 2

2011-12-23T14:58:00.003-06:00

Blackhawks

(1) Col. Andrew Lincoln, (2) Lady Blackhawk, (3) Attila, (4) Kunoichi, (5) the Irishman, (6) Wildman, and (7) Canada.

My profile for the new Blackhawks is up at Cosmic Teams! This series got off to a rocky start before it even hit stands. The initial creative team of Chuck Austen and Ken Lashley did not end up (fully) doing a single issue of the series. Initial reviews of the book were very mixed and I don't think anyone was wowed. Personally, I was disappointed at first that this was an entirely new Blackhawks, with no homage whatsoever to the classic team. But it has a charm all its own if you can read it on those terms. Mike Costa, ultimately wrote it; he had experience with G.I. Joe for IDW, and his Blackhawks reads somewhat in that vein. Message board chatter at DC seems to indicate that some readers have followed writer Mike Costa into this book.

Cover of Blackhawks #5

Nobody expected this series to sell like gangbusters, and the first issue ranked 77th in sales, with 36,013 copies. This was in the bottom five of the "new 52." Issue #2 came in at number 86 with an estimated 28,534 copies.

Also note that this is the first time that the book has been titled in the plural.

Solicitations for January's issue #5 have ramped up speculation, as it looks like the classic Lady Blackhawk might be making a return. This seems more in line with the "give them what they want" philosophy of the new 52.

Read more at Cosmic Teams.

Bozo the Iron Man

This appearance was (just) pre-DCnU, but it was recent, in the final issue of Justice League of America #60 (2011). See him below, being torn up by Cyborg.

Feature Funnies #1 and Police Comics #1 for sale on ebay

2011-12-19T17:27:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across two key Quality Comics on ebay today. The first was

October 1937

Quality Comics' very first issue, Feature Funnies #1. This issue had no super-heroes. They wouldn't start trickling in until Busy Arnold launched his second title, Smash Comics, in 1939. Instead, this issue was filled almost entirely with reprints from the three syndicates with whom he had partnered. The CGC graded price of $1,250 on this book seems in line, but I'm no expert! I recently bought Feature Funnies #2 in a coverless condition. It was not $1000. (In fact I gotta get that scanned—there's no high res version at the DCM...)

The second book on ebay is Police Comics #1 (Aug. 1941) the legendary first appearance of Plastic Man and Phantom Lady (also the Human Bomb and Firebrand).

The asking price here is $1549 but it lacks a hard grade. The seller has many Golden Age books for sale, so one might presume that he is savvy about the condition vs. price. He mentions that it WOULD be Fine if not for some damage. I don't buy these sorts of things often, but is it really the buyer's job to suss out the real grade on a comic being sold by an experienced collector?

Va-va-voom! Phantom Lady shines her headlights
for the first time in Police Comics #1.

Still, this price compares to a 5.0 in the sales on Heritage Auctions (and some higher grades that were achieved through restoration). I get alerts from ebay about Quality comics for sale, and this is the first time I have seen this one. Heritage has sold many of them for under $1000. Those with the highest grades sold for over $30,000

I noticed something else in the descriptions of these books that has always bothered me: "white pages." What a misnomer! For the most part, there was no such thing as white comic book page until the 1980s. Yes, yes, I know I'm being literal here, but isn't comics grading supposed to be very persnickety? Seriously, how is anyone supposed to judge the condition of a Golden Age comic by the description of the paper color, unless it's described as "yellowed"... is that the distinction I'm missing here? What is considered the appropriate terminology?

Paper stock of an issue fresh off the stand in the 1940s would probably have been light gray (off-white?) in tone just as new newsprint is today (I'm painfully aware; I'm an art director for a newsprint publication). Yellowing happens over time. Even the laudable "cream" description is not in my estimation, an original color for these books.

To his credit, the seller of Feature Funnies #1 describes "cream to off white pages." That of Police Comics #1 writes "off-white to white pages." Grr… I don't buy it.

DCnU: Quality Watch

2011-12-15T11:15:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I found two all-new Quality Comics standards in the pages of my Wednesday haul. The stunning spread below featured the unexpected return of the War Wheel (times two!) in the pages of Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #4. The War Wheel has always been a bane to the Blackhawks and first appeared in Quality Comics' Blackhawk #56 (Sept. 1952).

I have a real soft spot for this book, its lead character, and for the Creature Commandos. Ironically, this book's story is linked to others written by the creators of the next series I'm going to mention, The Ray. S.H.A.D.E. played a central role in all of Palmiotti and Gray's post-Infinite Crisis series, including those that dealt with the Freedom Fighters.


The War Wheel returns in spades, flanked by an army of G.I. Robots, in Frankenstein Agent of S.H.A.D.E. #4. Art by Alberto Ponticelli.

And DC unveils the first major reinvention of a Quality property with four-issue limited series, The Ray. I was pretty hesitant about this, and disappointed that they chose not continue Ray Terrill as the character. But this version is in the hands of Palmiotti and Gray, who know their Quality stuff. They wrote the most recent Freedom Fighters series and the two preceding Uncle Sam series.

Lucien Gates is the DCnU's Ray, written by Justin Gray and Jimmy Palmiotti, and drawn by Jamal Igle and Rich Perrotta.

READ AT COSMIC TEAMS:

The Ray IV • The Ray I, II, III • Freedom Fighters

Quality Comics: Further Reading

2011-12-13T15:27:00.000-06:00

Now that you've read the Quality Companion cover-to-cover several times, you might be wondering if there's anything else on this Earth to read. (Incidentally, all of this information will continue to reside, in most up-to-date form, under the Resources tab at the top, too.)

Stop One: Alter Ego

Go to the source. See the TwoMorrows Bibliography, which lists the relevant issues of Alter Ego that feature Jim Amash's original interviews and other Quality-related articles. Most of those issues are available for digital download.

And it couldn't be easier for you to start clicking on the Online Resources.

Stop Two: Defintive Works

Park yer carcass for a weekend with these books in your hands. The following publications are definitive and recommended works.

Andelman, Bob. Will Eisner, A Spirited Life. Milwaukie, Or.: M Press, 2005. This is the authorized biography; it's pretty much the final word on all things Eisner.

Black, Bill, ed. Golden Age Greats Spotlight, vol. 2. AC Comics, 2007. Reprints loads of complete Quality Comics stories.

Chabon, Michael. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay: A Novel. New York: Random House, 2000. Though it is fictional, Chabon's own Golden Age research shines through in this Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

Eisner, Will. The Dreamer: A Story from the Birth of Comic Books. Princteton, Wis.: Kitchen Sink Press, 1986. This story was written as an allegory to Eisner's early days with Iger and Quality.

Jones, Gerard. Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters, and the Birth of the Comic Book. New York: Basic Books, 2004. An exceptionally well-researched account of comics' (especially DC's) early days.

Spiegelman, Art and Chip Kidd. Jack Cole and Plastic Man: Forms Stretched to Their Limits. New York: DC Comics, 2001. This book covers pretty much everything you'd want to know about its subjects... a definitive work.

Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics vol. 1. Reading, PA: Supergraphics, 1970. This volume largely covers the big players, DC and Marvel.

Steranko, James. The Steranko History of Comics vol. 2. Reading, PA: Supergraphics, 1972. This volume contains one of only two known conversations with Quality publisher Busy Arnold, and probably the only published interviews ever conducted and superstar artists Reed Crandall and Lou Fine. Topics: the Marvel Family, Fawcett heroes, Blackhawk, "Flying Heroes," Plastic Man, Quality heroes, and the Spirit.

Stop Three: Deeper Cuts

These items might be more reference type materials, things that have minor but significant Quality-related tidbits, or deal more generally with the Golden Age.

Bails, Jerry and Hames Ware, eds. The Who's Who of American Comic Books vols. 1-4. Detroit, Mich.: 1973–1976. These four self-published volumes laid the groundwork for all current comics indexing. They have been digitized and updated online.

Brennan, T. Casey. "The Untold History of I.W. Comics." The Comics Journal 57. Summer 1980: 118-119.

Disbrow, Jay. The Iger Comics Kingdom, Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. 1985. Also read this in Alter Ego #21!

Feiffer, Jules. The Great Comic Book Heroes. The Dial Press, Inc., 1965. A comprehensive look at the Golden Age.

Golden Age Men of Mystery #12. AC Comics. 1999. Contains: "I Wouldn't Change a Thing!" An interview with Chuck Cuidera. Reprint of a 1977 redrawing of Paul Gustavson's Human Bomb origin story (Police #1) by C. C. Beck., done in honor of Gustavson's death. Reprints from Quality.

Goulart, Ron. Comic Book Culture: An Illustrated History. Collectors Press, 2000.

Goulart, Ron. The Great Comic Book Artists. St. Martin's Press, New York, 1986. This book includes 2-page profiles of many notable Quality artists such as Jack Cole, Reed Crandall, Will Eisner, Lou Fine, Fred Guardineer, Paul Gustavson, Klaus Nordling and Bob Powell.

Goulart, Ron. "Looking Back on the Golden Age: The Quality Gang: Part 1." Comics Feature 27. Jan.-Feb. 1984: 44-49.

Goulart, Ron. Ron Goulart's Great History of Comic Books. McGraw-Hill/Contemporary, 1986.

Jerry Iger's Golden Features #1-6. Blackthorne Publishing, Inc. 1986-Jan. 1987. Exclusive reprints and unpublished material from Jerry Iger. Issue #2 features Wonder Boy.

Keltner, Howard. Golden Age Comic Books Index: 1935-1955. Gainesville, TX: Howard Keltner, 1998. A staggering self-published tome that indexes almost every Golden Age comic book, including feature titles and page counts.

Rhoades, Shirrel. A Complete History of American Comic Books. Peter Lang Publishing, 2007.

Robbins, Trina. The Great Women Super Heroes. Kitchen Sink Press, Northampton, Mass., 1996. This work touches on USA, Doll Girl, Wildfire, and Phantom Lady.

Sadowski, Greg. Supermen!: The First Wave of Comic Book Heroes 1936-1941. Fantagraphics Books, 2009. Touches on some Quality creators, among others.

Plastic Man and Blackhawk Foldees (1966)

2011-12-09T19:14:00.001-06:00

Get ready to LOL, cuz here come those lovable DC Topps Foldees from 1966! See those for Plastic Man and Blackhawk after the jump...

I've owned the whole set for some time now and just realized that these were in there. If you want to know a little more about it, or see the whole set, visit the page on Cosmic Teams! and see the slideshow.

This card set had 44 total, and collecting them was a lot of fun but challenging. Many of them were folded endlessly and suffer from it. The gems are those cards that have never been folded. Foldees were cards with three perforated panels that could be folded over in various combinations that produced supposedly humorous results. Super-heroes were on one side, and other characters on the other. 2-1/2" x 4-11/16". From packs of Topps bubble gum. Unfolded cards are still perforated, but you can tell by testing them if they have been bent.

#38: Plastic Man

#30: Blackhawk

Mark Evanier discusses Blackhawk and Plastic Man

2011-12-06T09:41:00.000-06:00

The writer on his turn with the Quality legend, and on the Plastic Man cartoon!

Conducted by Mike Kooiman on 17 November 2011

Visit Mark Evanier's web site, POVonline!

An homage to Mark Evanier, drawn by his writing
partner, Sergio Aragonés. The two have produced
The Spirit (for DC) and Groo.

Writer Mark Evanier is probably familiar—if not by name, then by the characters he has written—to many cartoon and comics fans, having written for various publishers, producers and networks since the early 1970s. He was a friend to Jack Kirby and was involved with Kirby’s "New Gods" comics for DC in the early 1970s. Evanier is also a frequent collaborator with Sergio Aragonés and a contributor to the Jack Kirby Collector. As a writer, his work for DC Comics is relatively sporadic, but he made a great impression on me and many other fans with his reinvention of Blackhawk in 1982, with artist Dan Spiegle. Over the course of the series, Evanier often revealed behind-the-scenes details about producing Blackhawk, but my talk with him unearthed some fascinating caveats, and other things that I didn’t expect to learn!

Mike Kooiman: Tell me what you’re up to now…

Mark Evanier: Right now the main thing in my life is that I’m writer/producer/voice director of the Garfield cartoon show, seen on Cartoon Network and hundreds of other channels around the world. I’m writing another "Groo" project with Sergio Aragonés for Dark Horse, and I’m writing another new comic that I can’t talk about yet and I’m writing a screen play… I guess all sorts of different things.

MK: How long has it been since you’ve done any work for DC?

Evanier: I’ve done a few forewords—introductions to reprint collections but I haven’t written any comics for them for about two years. I did The Spirit comic for them for a brief time …

MK: I confess I haven’t read the ones you’re written but they’re on my agenda!

Evanier: In those, the stories were all by Sergio Aragonés, I just did the dialogue. It was the same series that was begun by Darwyn Cooke.

MK: You first worked with Dan Spiegle on Scooby Doo... Mystery Comics at Gold Key?

Scooby-Doo... Mystery Funnies #23 (1974),
by Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle.

Evanier: Yes, that’s right. I started writing for Gold Key in about 1970 and Scooby-Doo was ’72 or thereabouts. I’d only been writing comic books for a year or two then. I was fairly new; I’d just gotten out of high school. I started writing for Gold Key, on the Disney comics for them. Then at one point, the editor there decided I was the guy for Scooby-Doo for some reason. I didn’t really want to do it until I found out that Dan Spiegle was drawing it. I always liked Dan’s work. He was one of the first artists that I was able to recognize on unsigned work. After that, Dan and I became friends and we’d work together off-and-on quite a bit for different publishers. We became kind of a team and did a number of projects together. Blackhawk was one of them.

MK: Is Dan still drawing now?

Evanier: Dan is semi-retired. He’s doing commissions. He’ll do a watercolor version from a scene in one of his past comics… either Blackhawk or Crossfire or Hopalong Cassidy (for which he drew the newspaper strip). He developed quite a repertoire of characters over the years.

MK: So did Spiegle live near to you?

Evanier: Dan lives in Santa Barbara, which is about two-hour drive north of here. We would meet form time to time halfway at a restaurant. We saw each other about twice a year.

MK: Do you have any of his original art from the Blackhawk?

Evanier: I have original art from about three stories.

MK: After Blackhawk you did Crossfire for Eclipse. Was that a creator-owned?

Evanier: Yes, right.

Evanier’s First Quality Property: Plastic Man

MK: My ears pricked up when I read that you had written for the Plastic Man cartoon. How involved were you with that?

The Plastic Man cartoon can be purchased on video!

Evanier: I wrote quite a few episodes of that (the show only lasted for two seasons). I wrote probably seven episodes of it. There are two main things you should know about that show. One was that the comic book was not being published at the time. There was nothing to "follow." The driving force behind that show initially, I think, was there was a gentleman named Norman Maurer. He was a former comic book artist, and Joe Kubert’s partner when they published comics in the ’50s.

Norman had come out to Hollywood to become a producer and manager. He was married to the daughter of Moe Howard of the Three Stooges. He managed the Three Stooges and also worked a lot in animation as a writer. He was working for ABC, and I think he was the one who suggested they adapt Plastic Man for Saturday morning. He thought that the character was such a neat design and he worked out this new format which put Plastic Man in a new context. The studio was called Ruby Spears, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, and I was working for them already. Joe turned to me one day and said "We’re going to do Plastic Man," and I said "Have you ever read the comic books?" He said no and I told him a little about them, then he asked me to write a few episodes.

"There's Penny! There's bad luck Hula!"

The format was very different from anything Jack Cole or anyone else had done with the character but the design was very strong and the show was fairly popular. The main driving force at ABC at that time was that they were very crazed about ‘standards of practice.’ They had a woman in charge of the censors who really wanted the super-hero shows laundered down to no violence. I think part of the appeal of Plastic Man was that you had a character who could do incredible things and create visuals without punching or hitting anybody. He was a very nonviolent super-hero and that was —I’m going to guess—why Norman thought he’d work well for Saturday morning, because they couldn’t do very much. Norman had been involved with the development of the Super Friends show and he was very frustrated by the restrictions.

MK: I was a kid at that time and I watched the Plastic Man show pretty religiously and I remember getting a little tired of Super Friends, so maybe I was keying in a bit on what you’re talking about there.

Evanier: The Super Friends show was limited. They ended up writing around the idea that they’d like to have Batman punch somebody in the nose, but they couldn’t do that. It was very easy to write a Plastic Man story with no violence in it. We did two seasons and they introduced "Baby Plas" in the second season. I remember writing one or two of those. It was a modest success for its time.

MK: When DC revived Plastic Man in 1966, it was the first time he had the blond bimbo girlfriend and the premise then was that this was the son of the original. So I wondered if the cartoon had taken notes from that series?

Evanier: I doubt anyone who was involved with the Ruby Spears version had ever seen that ’60s version. The ’60s version as I recall was a case of DC having interest in the character for television and to give it a little bit of—and this is also the case to a certain extent with my Blackhawk—that somebody was interested in the property (for Blackhawk, a movie, and for Plastic Man, a TV series) and DC didn’t want to say "Well we’re not even publishing the comic," so they rushed out a comic book to try to make the property look more active. It’s very tough to sell someone on the appeal of the character if you yourself aren’t willing to gamble on publishing it. So the Plastic Man of the ’60s, the one that Arnold Drake did, I think was driven by that until it became obvious that the TV show was not going to happen. To a certain extent the Blackhawk revival that I did was driven by some movie interest.

… Back to Blackhawk

MK: Are you referring to the whole Steven Spielberg connection?

Can you imagine: Dan Aykroyd as Blackhawk?

Evanier: I believe what happened was that Steve Spielberg was interested in possibly doing something with Blackhawk and somebody even mentioned that Dan Aykroyd wanted to play the character. But I think that was just a pie in the sky, I don’t think there was ever an offer made—that somebody just inquired "Are the rights were available if we want them?" and DC let that leak or it leaked somehow and all of a sudden some other studios went "Hey, maybe we’ll grab Blackhawk if Spielberg thinks it’s hot." So suddenly DC thought it was advantageous to have a Blackhawk comic back on the schedule. At that point the initial thinking was that they would publish it as a quarterly. DC had a couple writers and artists under contract with them that they really didn’t want to use on the books that they cared about. So they initially suggested another writer and artist whom they just needed to find work for because they had signed contracts—to do Blackhawk and knock it out.

Sky-Wolf and his band were created
by Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum
to satisfy their love of Blackhawk.
From Marvel Fanfare #16 (1984).

Then Len Wein was assigned to edit the book and he said "We can’t do this to Blackhawk." So Len convinced DC that they should make the book a monthly instead, and they should put a real writer and artist on it… somebody who might have a chance of succeeding with the property. He felt the other people that had been mentioned would ruin it. So they went along with Len on this and briefly Marv Wolfman and Dave Cockrum wanted to do it. The people at DC weren’t that thrilled with that idea because they felt that Marv and Dave would be more commercial on another kind of comic. Both of them were huge Blackhawk fans and both had dabbled in something similar.

There’s a two-shot book they did for Marvel where they basically did the Marvel version of Blackhawk, called Sky-Wolf. They had done that already and were jonesing to do the real Blackhawk. It was published much later [in Marvel Fanfare #16-17 (1984)]. It went on the shelf at Marvel. They decided not to pursue it and then years later Marvel printed it in an anthology comic. For a couple of weeks they talked about Marv and Dave doing it, and that was discouraged. Now it became a question of "Who would do it?" [NOTE: Check out some awesome Blackhawk related art, and more insights from the artist, on Dan Thompson's Unofficial Blackhawk site!]

Len was a friend of mine and living in New York at the time. He called to pick my brain and said "Who should we have do Blackhawk?" I said Dan Spiegle, because Dan drew airplanes so well and was the kind of guy for that comic and Len said "My God, you’re right, that’s a great idea!" and he went to Dan and asked him if he wanted to draw it. Dan had never heard of Blackhawk; he didn’t know what it was. But Len said it had airplanes in it and Dan said, "OK I can do that." Then Dan asked if there was any chance that I could write it. So Len called me back and told me that Dan had asked for me, and I said "yeah!" I love working with Dan and I’ve always wanted to write a war comic. So I thought this might be my only chance ever. Also, I liked Blackhawk and cling to some of the earlier versions of it. Len left the editing after an issue or two and Marv Wolfman took over and then Marv left after the same, and Ernie Colón took it over. Ernie left after a few issues and I took it over.

MK: It seems like every one of those men got on to other projects that were hot…

Evanier: Well, Dan and I have a kind of unique working relationship. Even when Len was editing the book, I would write it and send the script to Dan, and Dan would do the artwork and send it to me, and I would make lettering corrections and send it to DC. So I was kind of doing half the editorial work anyway. We’ve worked that way on lots of other comics. So each editor sort of said "I’m not doing anything on Blackhawk anyway, let’s give it to somebody else." When Ernie gave it up DC asked who should edit it now and Len or Marv said, "Evanier’s already really the editor, lets just give him the title." I became the editor of it for the rest of its run.

MK: You mentioned in one of the letter columns about DC also doing this revival in order to maintain its licensing rights? Is there some truth to that?

Evanier: Yeah, if you have a property, you have to use it. Use it or lose it. So they were bringing it back to remind everybody they owned it and to secure their title to it, and maybe have some merchandising. DC had a comic at the same time called DC Comics Presents, which teamed Superman with various characters. Frequently the choice was dictated by DC’s lawyers who said "Hey we haven’t done any thing with this character, lets stick him in a book." I did a Superman/Kamandi team-up for that reason [DC Comics Presents #64 (1983)]. The editor was Julius Schwartz, and Julie called me one day and he as aid "they told me I’ve got to do a Superman/Kamandi story. I’m not familiar with Kamandi. You worked on it right?" And I said yes, and he had me do the story. That was to save him having to read all the old Kamandis.

MK: So you were a Blackhawk fan before you began writing it? Did you already have a considerable library?

Evanier: I have tons of comic books. I had a near complete run of the DC Blackhawk and probably about a third of Quality’s Modern and Blackhawk issues. So I had a lot of them.

MK: Did you ever see any Quality Comics stuff in the DC archives?

Evanier: I think DC’s archive of the Quality stuff is not very complete. Also, it was in New York and I’m in Los Angeles, so I didn’t access their library at all. The Quality comics were good for inspiration: What’s great about these characters and how can I replicate it? But I didn’t find them very usable for much more than that. The Quality books were kind of inconsistent and sometimes very shallow. I liked the design, and some of the testosterone in the comic. They way they functioned was exciting but I didn’t like any of the stories in the Quality books. I don’t know any Blackhawk fans that really loved them. I think it’s one of those comics like Wonder Woman that people like in spite of what’s done with them. They like the premise, they like the look and idea of the comic more than they like the execution on it.

MK: I can second that. I’m a pretty big Wonder Woman fan, so I know what you’re talking about.

Evanier: I’m of the opinion that there’ve been about eight good Wonder Woman comics ever done. I love Wonder Woman but I can’t really point to any specific comic books that I liked that much.

An insensitive editorial prompted Evanier
to promote Chop-Chop to full Blackhawk
status. From Blackhawk #265.

MK: You also devoted a few column inches to the whole Chop-Chop controversy when you were writing Blackhawk. Do you think you would have pursued the evolution of that character so much if that infamous editorial hadn’t appeared? [NOTE: After the launch of Evanier’s Blackhawk, an editorial (published in the Richmond, Va., Times Dispatch, Feb. 6, 1983) decrying his decision not to use the original, racially offensive version of Chop-Chop.]

Evanier: I think I would have anyway. I gave that editorial probably more attention than it deserved. I had a problem that when I was on Blackhawk, DC was kind of ignoring the book. They had not intended for it to sell. They told me flat out when it started "This thing is never gonna sell for us. It’s going to be our lowest seller. There’s no market for this. We’re only really publishing it to keep the characters alive in the world, so don’t expect any royalties," and such. And then the book sold better than anybody expected. It wasn’t a huge seller but it wasn’t at the bottom and they liked the book a lot. There was a nice response; a lot of people liked it, so but they still didn’t publicize it. If you look in some of the issues of other DC books of that period they ran a major subscription push for all the DC books, a big double page ad that listed all the DC comics and Blackhawk was not on the list.

MK: It’s funny that you mention that because I noticed one of those towards the end of the run.

Evanier: Yes, I had a number of fights with DC’s promotions people. The big story was that each month they at each month, as an editor, I would have to tell them about upcoming issues, so when they did the solicitations/press releases, they would be able to say things about the story, the art, and cover. I would send in the Blackhawk listings dutifully and the guy there would lose them and print "No information available at press time." So I titled the last issue of Blackhawk "No Information Available at Press Time," just to be ornery—so that the listing would be right at least once!

Evanier's in-joke—the title of this story—digs at DC's inept marketing machine.

I had another incident where a major comic book store owner came to me to do an appearance at his store. I told him I would do it if he would up his order of Blackhawk for that month. Because I would occasionally go into stores for signings and I’d literally walk in and they’d say, "Oh, we’re all sold out of your new issues." I’d get to the stores and there’d be none of my product there to sign. So this time, asked them to order an extra 300 copies of Blackhawk that month. They said fine, but then the bookstore called me back and said "DC talked us out of it. They said ‘Oh you’ll get stuck with those. Order an extra 300 of Teen Titans instead.’" It was really tough doing a comic that the company was so obviously not behind.

So I was chiding them a lot and making noise, to call attention to the fact that the book was not getting the attention that it deserved. Because I knew that it wasn’t going to sell very well, but I didn’t want people saying "Well that proves Dan Spiegle is not a commercial artist." It didn’t matter to me because I had other comics that were selling quite well, and also comics were my sideline; I was also writing television at that time. I thought it might be injurious to Dan’s career if someone started blaming him for the low sales on Blackhawk and didn’t take in to account the tremendous a) uncommercial nature of the property in the marketplace at the time, and b) the fact that the company had been so totally not behind it. So I got into a little trouble with DC over doing that.

MK: Things change over time, but I can’t imagine not even doing the bare minimum to push a book…

Evanier: It was a question of them wanting to devote their energies to something else. They were not wrong in the sense that the book wasn’t that commercial in the market. DC didn’t make much money off of it. In particular one of the problems was regarding the foreign rights. DC had a major profit point in selling reprint rights in Germany. They made a lot of money when the German publisher would reprint DC Comics and the German publisher for some inexplicable reason—the comic was all about killing Germans [laughs]!—so they didn’t take the rights to Blackhawk and that automatically put us at a financial disadvantage.

MK: I know you were already a Blackhawk fan and you’d wanted to do a war book. Did you already have a good base knowledge of wartime history? Did you need to do a lot of extra research?

Evanier: I did a lot of extra research. I knew enough to write a comic book but I did extra research because I wanted to do something that people wouldn’t write and yell about. There was a fellow on staff at DC at the time, E. Nelson Bridwell, who was a proofreader and a very smart writer and he and I got into arguments over World War II history. Nelson would read all the comics before they went to press and he would sometimes make changes to what I was doing because it was factually wrong, and we would debate it. He had a book that he cited and I had mine. We were friends and he would call me up and say, "That’s wrong. Germany didn’t invade there. They went that way." And I said "No, no," and I’d read my book and he’d read his book. There are some points of contention and some books that get things wrong. I think I did half the research because I didn’t want Nelson calling me to complain.


The deadly Domino was Evanier's stand-in for Lady Blackhawk.

MK: Did you ever have any desire to introduce your own Lady Blackhawk, or reintroduce Zinda Blake?

Evanier: I didn’t introduce Lady Blackhawk initially because I thought that I had enough characters to deal with, and if we went two or three years maybe I could bring her in then. But then I also didn’t want the comic to be so male because it got a little butch there at times, so I wanted to have a female in it. So I created this character called Domino because I could leave her out or kill her off or do anything I wanted with her. Whereas with Lady Blackhawk, I would have to treat her like an ongoing property and part of the franchise. So I just decided to cut back on the number of characters by leaving Lady Blackhawk out "for now." Had we gone longer, I probably would have brought her in.


Before launching his own version of Blackhawk, Howard Chaykin drew covers for Evanier and Spiegle's run.

MK: When Howard Chaykin redid Blackhawk for the post-Crisis universe, he shook everything up. He made a brand new Lady Blackhawk and I was wondering if you had any impressions about what he did.

Evanier: I like Howard’s work tremendously but I have not read a single Blackhawk comic since I left it.

MARK EVANIER: A SELECTED DC COMICOGRAPHY

Blackhawk #251-273 (1982-84)
DC Comics Presents #64, 69 (1983-84)
Fanboy #1-6 (1999)
Mister Miracle Special #1 (1987)
New Gods #1, 5-28 (1989-91)
Secret Origins #12 (Challengers of the Unknown, 1987)
Sergio Aragonés Destroys DC #1 (1996)
The Spirit #14-25 (2008-09)
Superman & Bugs Bunny #1-4 (2000)
Superman Adventures #14, 15, 42, 53 (1997-2001)
Welcome Back, Kotter #4 (1977)

Visit Mark Evanier's web site, POVonline!

Dick Giordano's Cover Art

2011-12-06T09:32:00.000-06:00

The cover of this book was illustrated by the late, great Dick Giordano. It was actually commissioned by Roy Thomas a few years ago when Roy and Jim Amash had originally begun planning the book together. Due to his schedule, Roy had to back out of the project, but since the cover was already in house and everyone liked it, it remained as the cover.

Regrettably, I never drew the connection between this art and the issue from which it drew inspiration: All-Star Comics #4. Roy pointed this out to me after the Companion's publication. At some point there was also talk of redrawing Uncle Sam's hand to come in front of the building, which would have been less true to the original cover's art.

Here Dick drew mostly the Freedom Fighters characters, with a Blackhawk planein the sky and Plastic Man for good measure. Dick himself was a part of the FreedomFighters' creation. He inked their first appearance in Justice League of America #107 (1973). The cover of that issue was drawn by Nick Cardy. Cardy also drew quite a significant amount for Quality in the 1940s. His most iconic creation was Quicksilver (now called Max Mercury). Read the interview by Jim Amash in Alter Ego #65 (Feb. 2007). I was lucky enough to find the owner of the original art for that cover, which is reprinted in the book too!

UPDATE: I added another contender—Hendrickson's daughter Elsa—to the list of Lady Blackhawks.

Try a new wallpaper?

Paul Gustavson Stamps from Finland

2011-12-05T07:58:00.001-06:00

Paul Gustavson was a prolific contributor to the Quality Comics legacy. His artwork is often dismissed or overlooked in favor of the "greats" like Fine, Cole and Crandall. But I love his work. The artist was honored by his homeland, Åland, Finland, in 2011 with a series of stamps that feature three of his super-hero creations!

Gustavson created the first two when he worked for the Harry "A" Chesler Shop. At that time, Chesler was enmeshed with Ultem (the publisher that would become Centaur), and the Arrow first appeared in Funny Pages v.2 #10 (Sept. 1939). By the time he created the Fantom of the Fair (who was later renamed Fantoman), Ultem had become Centaur and the hero debuted in its Amazing Mystery Funnies v.2 #7 (July 1939). And of course, there's the Spider, his second archer who debuted in Quality Comics' Crack Comics #1 (May 1940).

This page of original art from “The Jester,” (Smash Comics #27, Oct. 1941) contains all the hallmarks of Gustavson's early Quality work. His art is easily recognizable by the facial features, and heroes were often drawn in similar poses. The page belongs to Murphy Anderson, to whom it was given by Busy Arnold in 1941.

Paul also created the Angel for Timely (now Marvel). Perhaps they didn't secure the rights for a stamp for that character. The Angel appeared in Marvel Comics #1 (Oct. 1939).

If you'd like to buy copies of these stamps, visit www.posten.ax. You'll want to switch to English by clicking the British flag in the upper right. Then you can navigate if you like to Stamps > Stamp Issues to buy the stamps themselves.

Gustavson passed away in 1977 so details about his life and career had remained largely a mystery until last year, when his son, Terry P. Gustafson surfaced online. (Note: Paul's given name was spelled with an "f" but his work was always signed spelled with a "v.") Naturally I jumped at the chance to learn what I could about this underrated talent, and Terry was kind enough to answer some questions for the book. Many of those same details appear in the promotional literature that accompanies the stamps. This is free to download as well (and by navigating to the Magazines section).

If you'd like to start reading some of his work, here's a list of his most prominent runs at Quality. You can find the comics at the Digital Comics Museum. If you use this site, please consider donating to them!

Selected Comicography:

Smash Comics #4–12 (Flash Fulton, Nov. 1939–July 1940)
Crack Comics #1–27 (Alias the Spider, May 1940–Jan. 1943)
Feature Comics #32–135 (Rusty Ryan, May 1940–June 1949)
Smash Comics #14–21 (Magno, Sept. 1940–April 1941)
Smash Comics #22–46 (The Jester, May 1941–Sept. 1943)
Police Comics #1–22, 37–58 (Human Bomb, Aug. 1941–Sept. 1943, Dec. 1944–Sept. 1946)
National Comics #21–26 (Quicksilver, March 1942–Nov. 1942)
Hit Comics #26–29 (Bill the Magnificent, Feb. 1943–Sept. 1943)
Smash Comics #39–67 (Midnight, Jan. 1943–Oct. 1946)
Modern Comics #47–98 (Will Bragg, March 1946–June 1950)
Police Comics #59–88 (Honeybun, Oct. 1946–March 1949), then in National Comics #71–75 (April 1949–Dec. 1949)
The Spirit #11–14 (Jonesy, Spring 1948–Winter 1948)
Kid Eternity #9–14 (Spring 1948–March 1949)
Blackhawk #37–95 (Chop Chop, Feb. 1951–Dec. 1955)

Blackhawk: The 1970s

2011-12-03T14:31:00.001-06:00

George Evans redesigned the Blackhawk uniform for a new decade, primarily adding the color red, and the zip-front jacket (frequently worn unzipped—sexy '70s style; from Blackhawk #244 (1976). Art by George Evans.

The 1976 regeneration of Blackhawk was written by Steve Skeates for most of its run, and was edited by Gerry Conway, with assists and story editing by Jack C. Harris. George Evans was the sole artist on the first tale, then he became the finisher over Ric Estrada's art.

DC chose to keep this team's true origins (and continuity) a bit mysterious. No doubt the property posed a similar problem to any of DC's other long-running features: how do you explain the true age of these characters if they were active in the 1940s? In 1976, DC's answer was that the Blackhawk team began in the 1950s (1957 if one mirrors the start of their DC career). The 1970s Blackhawks could not have been from Earth-X (which was overtaken by Hitler), and the 1980s revival was later defined as the Earth-One team.

The Earth-One Justice League appeared in the 1960s Blackhawk, which would place them on Earth-One as well. That was probably the logic at the time, but later Mark Evanier's Blackhawk was explicitly defined as the Earth-One team. Another anomaly was Roy Thomas' use of the characters in All-Star Squadron, where they were on Earth-Two during World War II.
You didn't realize Blackhawk continuity was such a mess, did you? But if one isolates Blackhawk's DC adventures from 1957-1977, they fit easily into Silver Age Earth-One continuity. There are reasons for this in the narrative below.

In the letters column of Blackhawk #244, Jack C. Harris penned a classified memo of sorts which "speculated" about the Blackhawks' origins:

"It is believed that in their youth, the Blackhawks fought the forces of Hitler throughout the world. Others speculate that the group first banded together in the fifties to battle a growing number of costumed villains and foes.

"There was even talk of them saving the entire planet from invasion from another world! (ref??) Much of this is believed to have been the ravings of the victims of mass hysteria, but some historians are not so sure.

"During the changing sixties there was a story that this mighty team had donned costumes and become super-heroes in the 'camp' craze of the troubled times. This remains unconfirmed and is thought today to be mere fiction.

"In 1968 the team known as the Blackhawks faded from the public eye. Inquiries into the disappearance led only to dead ends and blank walls.

"A joint statement issued by the Justice League of America and the U.S. Government read, simply 'No Comment.' The Blackhawks were gone. The questions were unanswered.

Then, in early September of this year, reports began to trickle in on a new group calling themselves the Blackhawks. Extensive investigations into this team's activities have determined that it is not a new team, but the original seven, who have seemingly survived whatever mission they departed on those seven years ago.

"It is also clear that these seven have retained the same positions in rank and duties as when they last appeared in public."

It went on to list them, adding, "No longer subsidized by the U.S. Government or by the private fortunes of its members, the Blackhawks are now supported by mercenary feeds collected for their deeds."

Blackhawk, alias Bart Hawk aka Mr. Cunningham, the silent head of Cunningham Aircraft, one of the largest aircraft corporations in the world. He commands a working knowledge of many branches of science with specialties in aviation and aerodynamics.
Stanislaus: Known to be a citizen of Poland, Stanislaus is the financial wizard of Cunningham Aircraft, the suspected front of the Blackhawk operation.
Hendrickson: Of Dutch descent, it is believed that Hendrickson spent much of his childhood in Germany. [NOTE: This marries his Quality-era Holland vs. Germany citizencship.] He is the oldest of the group and speculation leads to the belief that his current duty is sentinel of the secret base of the team, Blackhawk Island, location: unknown!
Chuck: An American citizen, Chuck is the communications expert and scientist of the team, applying almost the sum total of his knowledge to operations for Cunningham and the Blackhawk project.
Chopper (formerly Chop-Chop). Former citizen of mainland China. Chopper is master of Martial arts, but shows more aptitude in being the most skilled flier of the team, save for Blackhawk himself.
Andre: A mechanics expert, Andre is one of the three Blackhawks who operate outside the United States. It is known that his base is in France, the nation of his birth, but at this time there is no information as to the European mission.
Olaf is also a European operative, with a cover job as a ski instructor at a Cunningham -owned resort. Of Swedish background, the massive man is the youngest of the Blackhawk team. (Blackhawk #244)

Lasting only seven issues, the 1976 revival managed to reintroduce classic Blackhawk foes and plot devices and invent some new ones. Skeates set up a whole lot of characterization and potential for the Blackhawks but had to leave many plot threads unresolved. The series opened with the squad rushing into battle against the forces of Anton Vibrax.

...

Read the full profile at Cosmic Teams!

Quality Companion Delivery Update

2011-12-02T15:27:00.001-06:00

UPDATE! Guess what I got in my hot little hands yesterday???

The book has shipped from the printer! This means it will be finding its way to distributors and retailers very soon.

For Wednesday comic book shoppers, that means you might see it in two weeks, on December 14!

Regardless, anyone who wants it should have it before Christmas.

The Spirit: First Appearance on ebay

2011-11-30T07:56:00.001-06:00

The origin splash page, from 2 June 1940.
Art and story by Will Eisner.
This scan from the Spirit Archives.

I just know you've got $4,500 lying around that you're not telling me about. Buy it now!

The first edition of The Spirit Section has been available on ebay for a number of weeks now, won't you give it a home?

Indeed this hard copy is probably very rare. I couldn't even find another one of these at Heritage Auctions. Jim Halperin at Heritage was a great help to me when I was researching the book. In writing the Companion, my access to The Spirit Section was limited. Unlike the other Quality books, which are well represented at the Digital Comics Museum, the Spirit selection is very spotty. Sure, you can find lots of reprints of the Spirit, but this made chronicling Lady Luck and especially Mr. Mystic more difficult than other heroes. I feel I accomplished the task, though, cobbling up enough of the originals, plus reprints from editions by Kitchen Sink Press and others. Because The Spirit Section was inserted into newspapers, it was probably thrown out with the newspapers a lot. That said, there are always editions available on ebay for under $40.

In the first reprint from Police Comics #11
(Sept. 1942), editors added the mask to the splash
panel, but nowhere else.

Where's his mask? In interviews, I believe Eisner spun this matter a little bit. A masked hero was outside the bounds of what he'd originally envisioned when the Register and Tribune Syndicate and Busy Arnold asked him to create a new super-hero. Eisner was hoping to (and eventually did) tell stories for grown ups with this new newspaper section, so his super-hero was created as a detective and Eisner conceded that the hero would wear a mask—at least that's the story he told about the character's conception.

If he'd promised a mask to Arnold before this first edition hit newsstands, then he must have conveniently "forgotten" to draw it in. The mask didn't appear until the second installment. Super-heroes were hot hot hot and the people backing this new strip must surely balked when they saw their new lead character in a plain old suit and hat.

UPDATE #1: My Mark Evanier interview on Blackhawk is in the can. I'm just waiting on Mark to review and maybe provide some cool original art, and will post as soon as it's ready!

UPDATE #2: I think the book will be in stores in two weeks! On Dec. 14, that is if stores ordered copies, or you pre-ordered it yourself.

The Quality Implosion

2011-11-22T08:09:00.000-06:00

A Graphic Look at Trends in Publishing

While researching the Companion, I found it necessary to make certain charts to help me identify trends in the publishing history. I did this for many different sets of data, like the anthology issues, the individual features, and in this instance the series themselves. This also helped me read all the comics in a chronological fashion: month-by-month instead of title-by-title.

Click to view in a new window.

This kind of graphic representation brings to light certain "sea changes" that occurred and allowed me to connect real world events with the actual print runs of the comics. I had intended for this chart to occupy a two-page spread in the book, but that was not to be!

Two major things come into view at a glance...

First, you can see the tapering off of the original anthology series, and with them, the super-heroes. Though it should still be noted that Quality kept publishing about as many super-heroes as DC did, with a few in the lead (Blackhawk, Plastic Man, Spirit and Doll Man), and other also-rans (Quicksilver, Human Bomb).

The other "dinosaur die-off" visible here is the "Quality Implosion": when the company over-invested in romance comics, and then when Busy Arnold split from the Register and Tribune, almost all of the new titles were canceled after only about one year. What's this? I have exclusive—and extensive—details about their split in the book! Of course one might consider the company's end as a sort of "implosion," too, but that was prompted mostly by changes in distribution (the same problem as Timely/Marvel's).

I've got lots more where this came from. I even have a database of Golden Age heroes that allows me to track debut issues and dates. I have added in pulp, radio and comic strip heroes, too, to give it that extra dimension. I think I'll make a graphic of that too!

Another one that I intend to post is my comparison of super-hero debuts across the major publishing companies.

COMING SOON! I interviewed Mark Evanier all about his experience in writing Blackhawk from 1982-84. In the process, I learned more about the Plastic Man cartoon!

Toonopedia: Quality Stuff

2011-11-15T08:05:00.001-06:00

Although the news isn't breaking, I just learned that Donald Markstein, the webmaster behind Toonopedia has been struggling this year with serious health problems. The site was down for a while, but is back up! I had hoped to talk to Don about his site while writing my book but now I understand why he might not have responded to my inquiries.

During my research for the Companion, I frequently found gems of information on Don's site that were unique. His long history and fandom of comics availed him of certain knowledge that is preserved by this site. Although he does not attribute any of the facts in his entries to sources or conversations, I trust his information. Nobody with a passing knowledge of comics could write the things found at Toonopedia.

To honor him, I've copied his Quality Comics related pages for you. This list also inspires me to do some new posts about Quality's humor and adventure strips. (The book's character profiles cover super-heroes only. It would take another whole book to do the rest!) Visit Toonopedia:

Quality Comics

Mity Mite escaped even my notice!
It appears that after his first appearance in
All Humor Comics #1 (Spring 1946),
Mighty Mite was renamed "Atomictot," and he
appeared through issue #13, after which
the page count was reduced. Art by Ernie Hart.

Humor & Adventure Strips

Atomictot aka Mity Mite
The Barker
The Bungle Family (via McNaught Syndicate)
Burp the Twerp
Candy
Dixie Dugan (via McNaught Syndicate)
Flatfoot Burns
Jane Arden (via Register and Tribune Syndicate)
Joe Palooka (via McNaught Syndicate)
Ken Shannon
Lala Palooza (originally via Frank J. Markey Syndicate)
Marmaduke Mouse
Mickey Finn (via McNaught Syndicate)
Pen Miller
Swing Sisson
Torchy
Treasury Agent Trask (T-Man)

Super-Heroes

Lady Blackhawks

2011-11-12T09:10:00.001-06:00

Today many DC fans know Zinda Blake, the Lady Blackhawk thrust forward in time to become the brassiest member of the Birds of Prey. But before her debut in Blackhawk #133 (Feb. 1959), there had been several aspirants during the Quality era...

The first “lady Blackhawk,” Sugar, from Military #20 (July 1943). Art by Reed Crandall.

The second lady pretender, Eve Rice, from Military #34 (Nov. 1944); art by Al Bryant.

The third lady who would be Blackhawk (or She-Hawke), Sheila Hawke, from Blackhawk #40 (May 1951); art by Reed Crandall.

Fear was a frequent guest star. She never aspired to be a Blackhawk, and was never an adversary. This panel from her first appearance in Modern Comics #49 (May 1946); artist uncertain.

Two panels from the official Lady Blackhawk's debut, in Blackhawk #133 (1959, DC).

Hendrickson's daughter, Elsa, was likely slated to become a Lady Blackhawk in 1977. In the letters column of issue #249, "As for your requests for Elsa taking her place as a Blackhawk like her famous father, well, we'll have to tell you to keep with us. It seems your thoughts are very close to our own."

The lady is a Blackhawk—for real this time. Natalie Reed, from Blackhawk v.2 #3 (1988). Art by Howard Chaykin.

Don't foget Blackie the hawk, who first appeared in Blackhawk #75 (Apr. 1954); art by Dick Dillin & Chuck Cuidera. He only appeared once in Quality Comics.

» See more Blackhawk Gallery Items at Cosmic Teams!

The Blackhawks of Earth-One

2011-11-10T09:49:00.001-06:00

The Evanier/Spiegle Run, Blackhawk #251-273 (1982-84)

I was completely unprepared for just how good this series would be. I've always been a fan of Howard Chaykin's late 1980s revival, but this one went under the radar. Evanier and Spiegle were in top form throughout this series. If DC is listening, this run is a prime candidate for collection.

From Blackhawk #251 (1982). Art by Dan Spiegle.

The 1982 reboot by longtime collaborators Mark Evanier and Dan Spiegle re-envisioned the Blackhawks in a more streamlined fashion, taking all the most prominent aspects of the original wartime adventures and adding a more human dimension to the pilots themselves. The series lasted for 23 issues and appeared to be relatively successful despite its lack of promotion. On his blog, Evanier claimed that,

"Our run on Blackhawk caused some tumult in the DC halls because most everyone had predicted a quick flop of a book that was only being revived for licensing reasons. It didn't sell well but it sold above all projections and garnered a lot of in-house fans. (The biggest problem was that DC couldn't sell reprint rights to their biggest overseas customer. For some reason, Germany didn't want a comic book that was all about killing Germans.)"

Evanier and Spiegle had some history of working together prior to this. Though both were passionate about war comics, they had produced Scooby Doo... Mystery Comics before DC had it, at Gold Key. After Blackhawk, they moved on to Crossfire for Eclipse. Spiegle graduated from Los Angeles's Chouinard Art Institute and quickly found gig drawing the "Hopalong Cassidy" newspaper strip, then Maverick for Western in the 1950s. When Western became Gold Key, the publisher shifted to funny animal and Dan was put on Scooby. Evanier's career included a lot of TV writing, such as "Welcome Back, Kotter" and countless cartoons, even "Plastic Man."

Evanier frequently wrote in the letters columns about the decisions affecting the series, and the frequent changes in editors (Len Wein lasted one issue, then Marv Wolfman and Ernie Colon for a handful each, finally Evanier himself).

Even though this revival of Blackhawk did not begin with issue #1, it was created as a "clean slate," and was not intended to be in continuity with previous Blackhawk eras. They considered this version to be the Earth-One version of Blackhawk, a relatively blank slate though heavily based on the Quality Comics adventures. Evanier said in the letters column of issue #257, "The Blackhawks adventures in this comic are the first-ever exploits of the Blackhawks of Earth-1 and all previous Blackhawk stories took place on Earth-2 or Earth-X (which took place on which, I don't even want to begin to think about). The reason Marv [Wolfman] and I opted for Earth-1 is that, we felt if we chose any other, it would be difficult to do the book and still make it comprehensible to those who don't have the first 259 issues. I don't even have the first 249 issues, though I have a lot of them." He acknowledged that there was still a continuity problem with the (Earth-1) Justice League's appearance in Blackhawk #228 (Jan. 1967). He concluded by saying, "I think you'll find yourself enjoying a number of issues that couldn't have been done if we had to adhere to the constraints of the 'Mythos' of Earth-2 or Earth-X."

Evanier and Spiegle's Blackhawk: tough,
handsome—and sensitive. From Blackhawk #269 (1984).

The freedom allowed for a great sense of continuity to the series, made possible mostly through the establishment of a core group of adversaries and some very distinct personality traits for the Blackhawks themselves. The squad’s primary adversary was Adolf Hitler himself. Many adventures took place in Germany and the Führer appeared in nearly every issue. Hitler also employed an American man, a profiteer and genius inventor named Hugo Merson. Merson was cast as the inventor of the War Wheel and all of the other strange devices that ravaged the continent. And it wouldn’t be Blackhawk without the femme fatale. In Evanier’s run, Blackhawk’s recurring nemesis was the beautiful Domino, a humble young woman fashioned into an assassin. Naturally, the two found themselves irresistibly attracted to one another.

The series opened in 1940, before the United States’ entrance into World War II. To set the tone, Evanier’s first pages introduced Hitler himself, and briefly described his rise to power. It read rather like a serial, with many plot threads continuing over many months, but not to the detriment of the individual installments.

The beautiful and deadly Domino,
from Blackhawk #261 (1983).
Art by Dan Spiegle.

The team's origins were familiar. In the first issue, Blackhawk related his origins. Bart Hawk (this, a name borrowed from earlier DC appearances and first mentioned in Blackhawk #260) begun as a flier the Polish Reserve, and fought the German invasion in 1939, during which he lost friends and family. After painting his plane black, he took out 20 German planes but when he landed, hoping to bring good news to his family, he found his home destroyed. His brother, Jack, died before him. Because of his plane, the Polish people dubbed Bart "Blackhawk." He quickly learned that Captain Ernst Von Tepp (first name in #257) was the commander behind the raid and and began gathering intelligence to find Von Tepp. He also met the second member of the squadron, Stanislaus of Warsaw, whose family was similarly killed. Blackhawk and Stan made successful missions using decoy gliders, and after their successes, they added other members. (Blackhawk #251)

In #253, Mark Evanier described the members in more detail, saying he was attempting to cross-pollinate the older versions, mixing some of the crazy original Nazi machines and forgotten lands with modern characterization. Evanier himself had begun reading comics in 1962 and fell in love with DC's Blackhawk, but always felt their adventures were anachronistic. When he delved further back, into their earlier Quality appearances, he discovered he preferred those. Evanier and Spiegle's Blackhawks reported directly to Winston Churchill in London, and were volunteers. The location of their base, Blackhawk Island, was top secret. As in their earliest Quality Comics adventures, their planes in this series were the Grumman XF5F-1 Skyrockets.

» Read the full profile at Cosmic Teams!

Interview with Will Eisner about Blackhawk

2011-11-06T16:04:00.002-06:00

Blackhawk #260 (1983). Cover art
by Howard Chaykin.

In reviewing this revival of Blackhawk for a new series of profiles, I unearthed the following interview, which adds to the mythos surrounding the creation of “Blackhawk,” which artist Chuck Cuidera consistently maintained was his creation, and specifically not the creation of Will Eisner. This 1983 interview with Eisner precedes all of the documented accounts made by Cuidera on the issue. The first of these wasn’t until 1999, the year that Cuidera publicly claimed sole creation of “Blackhawk.” There is anecdotal evidence told to Jim Amash by industry professionals that Cuidera made those same claims as far back as the 1950s/60s. In characterizing Cuidera below, Eisner was probably dancing around his true opinions. Cuidera, on the other hand, rarely minced words on the subject, and held some disdain towards Eisner (again, both witnessed and transcribed by Amash). Naturally, this issue is covered more in the Quality Companion! Read Jim Amash's interviews with Cuidera and Eisner in Alter Ego #34 and #48, respectively.

By Cat Yronwode, originally published in the letters column of Blackhawk #260 (July 1983)

Ask the average comic book fan of today who created the Blackhawks and you will get a vague answer. "The Blackhawks? Uh ... didn’t Reed Crandall do them originally... or was it Chuck Cuidera? …no, Reed Crandall ... it was Crandall... I think."

Reed Crandall did draw a number of Blackhawk adventures, and he is certainly the artist associated with their glory days. Chuck Cuidera was the feature's first illustrator, and it was he who gave most of the characters their distinctive looks. Dick Dillin drew a lot of Blackhawk stories. Even Gene Colan put in his stint on the series, long ago. But the man who created Blackhawk and his multi-national crew of adventures was, believe it or not, Will Eisner, known not for this accomplishment, but for his magnum opus, The Spirit, a costumed detective series which is still kept in print 30 years after Eisner ceased work on it.

Blackhawk was, to hear Eisner tell the story, created in reaction to two compelling stimuli. The first is prosaic beyond belief: "I needed a feature to fill one of the two magazines that I was doing in partnership with Busy Arnold of Quality Comics, over and above the weekly Spirit section I produced for the newspapers. The magazine was Military Comics, and it was designed to showcase tales of bravery on land, on sea and in the air.

This brings into focus the second stimulus which produced “Blackhawk”—the certainty of impending war. The first issue of Military is cover-dated August 1941. Remembering that then, as now, comics are put on sale about two months before their cover-date, and that they go into production about three or four months before they are printed, this means that Will Eisner probably scripted and roughly laid out the first Blackhawk story in March, 1941, nine months before America entered the second World War. And yet there they were, that many-nationed band, fighting the Nazis. Was Eisner prescient… or did he just have a good grasp of current events?

“Most of my thinking, that is, my plot development, from 1940 on, originated in the newspapers. If you read through all the Spirit stories I did over the years, for example, you will see this. I was very, very attentive to news articles, to what was happening in the world. I've always believed that the best fictional material comes from life itself. Current life—it's always a good plot. In the case of Blackhawk, the war was on already in Europe. Germany seemed invincible at the time. This was adventure. The Blackhawks represented to me, a super-guerilla group. I liked the idea of a group having an island of its own, outcasts from every nation. I had a fascination with the Foreign Legion then. Today, that idea doesn't mean as much. But for me, at the time, it had the same strange fascination that the Wild West has for Europeans. Everybody had a gun and was his own law. And men would band together and form gangs. It was the gang idea, guys belonging to a kind of private society."

He chuckles. “I read a lot of pulp adventures when I was younger," he admits.

Eisner not only came up with the concept of the Blackhawks, he designed their costumes, named the characters and selected the type of airplane they flew. In all of this, however, he openly acknowledges the help of his fellow artists in the shop, particularly Bob Powell and Chuck Cuidera. For instance, in the matter of names, Powell had a big influence. Of Polish extraction, his real name was Stanislaus Pulowski. [NOTE: It was actually “Stanley Pawlowski,” verified by his son in Alter Ego #66.] As Eisner explains, "We were trying to put together a whole group of guys from different countries. That followed a traditional, time-honored pattern, which came from the pulps. If you go back to the stories of the French Foreign Legion, you'll see that they always had guys whose names represented their countries. They generally were popular names. So I turned to Bob and said, 'Hey, you're Polish. What's a good Polish name?’ And of course he said, 'Stanislaus'!"

As for the origin of Andre, Eisner offers the suggestion that the name was chosen "because it was a good French name. I knew that because I knew that Andre LeBlanc (a fellow artist, then working for Fiction House Comics [NOTE: And later for Quality, too—MK]) had a French background.”
Chop-Chop seems to have been Chuck Cuidera's contribution. [He debuted in Military #3] "I decided to have a Chinese cook," says Eisner, "and Chuck said, 'How about calling him Chop-Chop?' In fact, the entire idea might have been his. Chuck was a feisty kind of guy. He would suddenly stand up and walk over as though he was going to quit or make a big proposition. He would have thought something out, and he would propose it with a great deal of seriousness. I'd say, 'What exactly do you have in mind, Chuck?’ and he would say very earnestly, ‘Well, I think we ought to have THAT in the next story!' So I would respond with great seriousness and say, 'Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Let's do that.' He had good ideas, but he really had to work himself up before he would present them. I know I designed all the characters, but Chop-Chop may have been Chuck's idea in large part."

The matter of the planes the Blackhawks flew is another area in which Eisner acknowledges Bob Powell's contribution. ''There was a kind of friendliness, a kind of workshop or team atmosphere in the studio back then," Eisner explains. "I think everyone there wanted to identify himself or his work somehow. Remember, no one was getting much individual attention at the time. Not every feature carried a credit line. Nobody was getting much personal exposure. So anyway, this feature was created in the shop. At that time I generally talked out the idea for a new feature with the guys in the shop. I would talk it out much the way a baseball manager or coach would... 'Okay, here's the strategy, here's what we're going to do, here's the feature, here's the kind of character." And out of this process, we developed the ideas. Now Bob Powell was hung up on planes. He ultimately joined the Air Force, as a matter of fact (in World War II). So we came up with the idea of using a certain model Grumman airplane, which had a very strange configuration. It had tailfins coming out from under a wing. It also apparently had the capacity to make a rapid takeoff from the deck of an aircraft carrier. It was a Navy plane, as I remember, not an Army Air Force plane. Actually, in real life, it turned out not to be as good a plane as everybody thought it would be, but it sure looked sexy!"

Eisner was what his fellow cartoonists called "an idea man." He would create a new feature, design costumes and props, write and layout the first few episodes, and then turn the story-line over to a team of writers and artists who would continue to produce it under his editorial direction, “Blackhawk” was no exception to this rule." I drew the first cover, as I remember, and wrote the story. Chuck Cuidera drew it, with great attention and singleness of mind, and used tons of white paint," says Eisner, laughing. "Just caked over with white paint… but he was good. Anyway, I don't think I wrote —fully scripted—more than the first ten stories. After that I edited it, supervised, made changes, revised it as needed. The next writer was a fellow who did a lot of work for us, a man named Dick French, who was (artist) Tex Blaisdell's, brother-in-law. He did a lot of “Blackhawk” stories, and other things as well. He also wrote the “Blackhawk” songs. He was musically inclined. I think he could also write music."

"We then bought freelance stories from all kinds of people. There was one fellow whose name I forget. His head was shaved clean. I always thought he was Russian. He had what sounded like a Russian accent, a bullet head, totally shaved, and he graduated from N.Y.U. l don't remember his name, but I could draw you a picture of him. He looked like Khruschev, sort of a jolly Khruschev. Then one day I discovered that he wasn't a Russian at all and the reason he had this strange accent was the fact that he was not only deaf, he was also mute, and he had just simply taught himself how to speak. He'd come up and deliver his stuff. I remember his scripts, were very, very good. Good strong writing."

Because Eisner has always, to this very day, written his scripts directly on the art boards, he sometimes found it difficult to deal with writers who turned in their assignments in conventional form. The “Russian" and Dick French were some of the first writers Eisner dealt with who did not supply their stories in the form of rough layouts. “Around this time, I was getting used to dealing with typewritten scripts. I still hate typewritten scripts—I find them hard to work with. But the boys in the shop were getting used to them. They didn’t mind them. Now in those days, in my shop at least, no script was written in concrete. Anybody, who wanted to change a script had a right to do it. If the penciler or inker (they were usually the same guy) came up with something better, they would just change the dialogue. That's how we did it in my shop; everybody had a hand in it."

Letterer Sam Rosen completed the original creative team on “Blackhawk.” In time he was replaced by Martin DeMuth, whose distinctive banner-shaped captions contributed to the look of the entire Quality Comics line. Reed Crandall then took on the art chores, although by this time Eisner had been drafted. "As I remember, by the time Reed Crandall got there, I was in the Army. The whole shop in Tudor City (a part of Manhattan) had to be closed down and moved to Stamford, Connecticut. Busy Arnold then monitored both my books (including The Spirit) and his books, as well as the books we did together. Reed Crandall had come over from Jerry Iger's shop (which produced work for Fiction House Comics). You see, Iger and I made an agreement that for two years after we broke up our partnership (in late 1939), we would not raid each other's shops for talent. I couldn't deal with Reed because he was not one of the guys who was on waivers, but eventually Busy Arnold got him to come over.

“Dave Berg also worked on Blackhawk; l think he did back-up stories, helped with inks, things like that."

Eisner was in the Army throughout World War II, and when he returned, he severed his relationship with Quality Comics, preferring to concentrate on the weekly Spirit newspaper section. Although Quality did publish a comic book containing reprints of Spirit sections, Eisner never again wrote or drew a feature for Busy Arnold's company.

By the time Quality Comics was sold to NationaI Periodical Publications (now known as DC Comics), Eisner was virtually out of the comic book business, though he did produce a regular monthly comic for the Army. He thus missed Dick Dillin's tenure on the feature, its cancellation, revival, and second cancellation, and current revival.

When asked his opinion about the group's "super-heroic” phase, he just laughs. ''What did they do—turn black and fly around like hawks?" The idea is patently ridiculous to him. As for the latest incarnation of the series, set in the glory days of World War II, Eisner offers an unconventional opinion. "They should stay back there. They, don't beIong in the modern world." He chuckles. "But I still wish them all the best."

© 1983 DC Comics

The Spirit Quality Index

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View/download the "Spirit Quality Checklist"

The Spirit #18 (1949).
Scan courtesy of the GCD.

You too can read The Spirit—for free!

Cat Yronwode's Spirit Checklist was an invaluable help when I was writing the Companion's Spirit profile, though I'll admit, the book's profile on the popular character is very cursory. I elected to focus on Quality's other heroes (the book contains over 40 profiles!). I resisted going into detail on the Spirit primarily because he has already garnered so many (worthy) column inches.

The Spirit shared the spotlight with
Plas several times in 1943.

That said, I was left in the Spirit's thrall. And you can read it too—for free! Well, lots of it anyway. The original Spirit Sunday reprints are spotty at the public domain collection, Digital Comics Museum. Of course, DC's Archive series will cost you a pretty penny (though they're worth it). The cheapest way to begin reading The Spirit is to download the Quality reprints of Police Comics and The Spirit. In these titles, the character's Sunday adventures are well-represented through 1946, but they were not reprinted in perfect chronological order.

Warren's The Spirit #8 (1975) featured
all-femme fatale stories.

Using Yronwode's original research, I assembled the "Spirit Quality Checklist" as a starter's guide to the character at that publisher. If you care to read them in order, this list will help you to do that. My version takes info from the original Checklist at Wildwood Cemetery (a site which has fallen into disrepair). The "Spirit Checklist" was updated and made into a handy PDF by Wes Tumulka. If you find yourself going ape for the character, there's the Eisner Companion, too.

Sadly, it was after 1946 when The Spirit's most lauded tales were written, and when Eisner and his assistants (don't be fooled, there were many) more finely honed the look of it. This post-war era is well-covered by Warren's reprints from the 1970s, a goldmine. Decent copies of those will run you $10 and up, but I was lucky and scored a huge run of them for a song on ebay. These had all been "stripped" (the cover titles clipped off). Warren's Spirit magazines were edited by Will Eisner, and even featured a couple of new stories and fun tidbits by him. These issues sometimes reprinted stories in thematic groups, like the "femme fatale" issue.

The Spirit Section's swan song was also reprinted in a book, The Outer Space Spirit: 1952.

Some issues of Quality's The Spirit contained filler material including "Jonesy" and "Flatfoot Burns."

STEPS:

To read digital comics, I use Comic Book Lover (Mac only). Also, Comical (Windows & Mac). What do y'all prefer?
View/download the "Spirit Quality Checklist"
Register and download specific issues of Police Comics and The Spirit. (And if you're nice, give a contribution to the site!)

RESOURCES:

Spirit Checklist by Wes Tumulka (PDF)

QC Bibliography: Online Resources

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If you'd like to whet your Quality appetite some more with some great web reading about the publisher, here is the portion of the Quality Companion's Bibliography that calls out meaty online resources.

Some of these sites are maintained by webmasters who spoke to me and added some great depth to the book. There's some great academic level resources here:

Black, David R. "A Freedom Fighting First." Fanzing. Michael Hutchison, ed.

Black, David R. "Fanzing Secret Files: The Freedom Fighters." Fanzing. Michael Hutchison, ed.

Cole's Comics. Paul Tumey. Fantastic blog all about this creator.

"Cartoonist Henry Martin donates art, books." Princeton University.

Denis Kitchen and Kitchen Sink Press. One of Will Eisner's most prolific publishers.

Digital Comics Museum. Downloadable public domain comics.

Digital-Priest.com: Christopher James Priest. Editor/writer behind DC's 1990s relaunches.

Electro-Comics Golden Age Comics Downloads. Good quality comic downloads, for a charge.

Femforce-Femfans. "An Interview with Bill Black."

Galactic Central. Phil Stephensen-Payne. An index of mens adventure magazines.

The Golden Age Directory. A database of Golden Age heroes.

Golden Age Comics. Downloadable public domain comics.

Google Books: Catalog of Copyright Entries.

Grand Comics Database. The mother of all comics databases.

Ingram Tony. "Who in the World Were IW Comics?" BrokenFrontier.com.

An International Catalogue of Super-heroes. Biographies of varying lengths for many Golden Age characters.

Lambiek Comiclopedia. The authority on the careers of many comic book creators.

*Love, Edward. "Copyrights and Comics of 1940s." Golden-Age Comic book Super-heroes & Villains Encyclopedia.

*Markstein, Donald D. Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Markstein's site reveals information not found in any other sources, though he does not cite his sources.

Mazzenga, Maria and Jordan Patty. "An Interview with Frank M. Borth." The Washington Research Library Consortium. One of the artists on "Phantom Lady."

Mechanic, Michael. "Mad Man: Meet Al Jaffee, Cartoonist Icon of America's Longest-Lived Humor Magazine." MotherJones.com.

Mougin, Lou. "Blackhawk Index." DarkMark's Comics Indexing Domain!

—. "Freedom Fighters Index." DarkMark's Comics Indexing Domain!

Norwitz, Michael. "An Earth-X Timeline." Mikel Midnight's Golden Age Directory.

Norwitz, Michael. "Freedom Fighters Villains List." Mikel Midnight's Golden Age Directory.

O'Day, Stephen. Seduction of the Innocent.org. Great site all about the early '50s attacks on comics.

Penton, Ted "Arming Soldiers with Ballots." Patriot.net.

Perez, Roger. "Alan Light 'Flashback' & Don Maris 'Remember When' Golden Age Reprints Cover Gallery & Checklist." STL Comics.

Quattro, Ken. "DC vs Victor Fox: The Testimony of Will Eisner." The Comics Detective.

Rozakis, Bob. "Canceled Comics Cavalcade," parts 1-9. ComicsBulletin.com.

Simonson, Mark. "Interview: Phil Martin." Typographica.org.

Stiles, Steve. "A Look at E.C. Great, Reed Crandall." Stevestiles.com.

Stratton, Jerry. "The Annotated Will Eisner Dreamer." Negative Space.

Strentz, Herb. "John Cowles." Drake University, Cowles Library.

"Uncle Sam & the Freedom Fighters Sketchbook." Newsarama.

Offenberger, Rik. "Bill Black, Mark Heike and John Gotschall talk about FemForce." First Comics News.

United States Copyright Office

United States Copyright Office Public Catalog.

United States Patent and Trademark Office.

The University of Pennsylvania. "The Online Books Pages." Includes scans of the Catalog of Copyright Entries.

Unofficial Blackhawk Comics Web Site. Dan Thompson.

Who's Whose in DC Comics. This project attempts to list all the original creators for DC, Quality and Fawcett characters, and is fairly accurate.

Wildwood Cemetery: The Spirit Database. This site has lapsed into disrepair but determined individuals can dig up its information.

Will Eisner: Official Web site. 2011. Will Eisner Studios, Inc. < http://www.willeisner.com>;.

Womenofward.net.

Libraries

A few brick-and-mortar libraries (aside from the Library of Congress) contain considerable comic book collections that include a good number of Quality Comics.

The Michigan State University Libraries, Special Collections Division. In East Lansing, Michicgan, this has an extensive microfilm collection, among other things.

Ohio State University: Cartoon Research Library. 27 West 17th Ave. Mall Columbus, OH 43210-1393. Ohio State has a large collection of Will Eisner materials. This link takes you to a guide to their extensive Will Eisner Collection.

University of Tulsa, Department of Special Collections, McFarlin Library. This library has comic books on microfiche, including some Quality Comics.

About The Quality Companion

2011-10-12T18:34:00.003-05:00

A page from the Cosmic Teams! Justice Society section.

For me, the Quality Companion began online as an extension of my site, Cosmic Teams!
After years after years of Justice League and Legion craziness, my obsession with the DC Comics super-teams led me to a deeper appreciation of the Justice Society, and then into the entire Golden Age of comics. For a DC fan, this extends into the other properties now owned by the company: Fawcett Comics and Quality Comics.

I began covering those heroes cursorily, including skeleton data, and gradually came to realize that the characters of Quality Comics would make a great new "module" on my site. The more I dug, the more obscure heroes I found. I quickly realized that such a project would be gargantuan (perhaps even larger than the site itself, which took over 10 years to grow to its current state).

So I emailed Roy Thomas. As editor of Alter Ego, he was the face (to me) of TwoMorrows. Roy told me that yes indeed, they had contemplated doing a book about Quality, but they needed some key elements to bring it together. I volunteered.

Then... silence. (I later learned represented the time for which it took for TwoMorrows to secure the go-ahead from DC. It seems that publishing a book is more delicate than a fanzine).

About a year later—precisely one week after I'd moved from self-employment back into a full-time job—the message came to my inbox: Publisher John Morrow asked was still game to do that book? Heck yeah!

What followed was an unquantifiable journey that consumed every ounce of my free time for an entire year. I read every single available Quality super-hero story (available from the DCM), I researched at the library, and I wrote. And I wrote. Several delayed deadlines later, the tasks continued to mount. Along the way, the book's original designer was forced to back out, and being a publications designer myself, I was eager to do my own book. While that might not have been the right decision for my sanity, it's resulted in a product for which I'm fully accountable.

Jim Amash, my co-author, provided invaluable assistance as editor and consultant. Simply put, he is the deserved co-author of the book because his material (originally published by Alter Ego) provides the entire backbone of my narrative. I was allowed free reign with his material (and the artwork published with it). Jim's work, in the form of interviews, is cited throughout the book but I needed to reconfigure it into a series of stories. Basically, I took all of his text out of Alter Ego and broke it into usable bits, copy/pasted it into chronological and thematic skeletons, and then wrote and researched around it.

The Quality Companion leaves out scads of details that can be found in Jim's original interviews. I hope that fans will seek them out, as they are colorful accounts of the Golden Age of comics. A list is provided in the Bibliography of the book, and reprinted here.

I'll be posting other things that didn't make the cut here. I've created lots of databases, charts and spreadsheets for which we had no room. The Quality Companion is the tip of the iceberg. The Quality Companion Companion will keep the story alive.

The Quality Companion: Writing and design is complete!

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Pre-order now! Final book out in November!
Cover illustrated by the late, great Dick Giordano.

Hi, fans,

I finished the book this week and shipped it off to the publisher, TwoMorrows!

This is exciting, the culmination of a whole year's writing and research and digging for images. I'm really proud of the final product.

There were a few tweaks since the original solicitation. Best of all, the book now features 64 pages of color—10 original Quality Comics stories. They run the gamut of characters and creators, and it looks fantastic.

In addition to Jim Amash's awesome Golden Age interviews, I was able to personally talk to James Robinson, Len Wein, Roy Thomas and John Arcudi about their use of Quality Comics characters at DC.

There's lots of original art, provided courtesy of the owners, most of whom I found at Comic Art Fans.

The largest part of the book is the "Who's Who" style character profiles. Sadly, the two entries that required the most cuts were Blackhawk and the Spirit. I was able to cover Blackhawk's Quality years pretty comprehensively, but had to skim over the DC publications. The profile is still eight pages! Not to worry, though, this blog is meant to bring all that information to you eventually!

For the Spirit, it was simply indefensible to repeat the research that's already been done on this character. This profile in our book is even more brief than Blackhawk (3 pages still!).

Curious? Take a look at the Table of Contents!

QC Bibliography: TwoMorrows

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These were the primary sources of Quality Comics information published by TwoMorrows:

Alter Ego #12 (Jan. 2002). Interviews with and about editor Gill Fox

Amash, Jim. “Gill Fox: Quality Control.” 5-39.
Thomas, Roy. “A Matter of Quality.” 2-4.

Alter Ego #17 (Sept. 2002). Lou Fine issue…

Amash, Jim. “A Fine Influence…” 9-14.
—. “…And A Fine Family!” 15-33.
—. “Murphy Anderson on Lou Fine and Fiction House.” 34-44.
Beaulieu, Dennis. “Lou Fine—A Comic Book Artist of Quality.” 3-6.
Toth, Alex. “Toth on Fine.” 45-46.

Alter Ego #21 (Feb. 2003). Iger Studio issue...

Disbrow, Jay Edward. “The Iger Comics Kingdom” 3-48.
Thomas, Roy. “A Footnote on the Eisner and Iger Shops.” 49-51.
—. “Writer/Editorial: The Iger Counter.” 3.

Alter Ego #23 (April 2003).

Amash, Jim. “ ‘Fuje’ for Thought!” 3-20. Interview with Bob Fujitani.

Alter Ego #25. Jack Cole issue…

Amash, Jim. “Jack Cole—Artist and Enigma.” 4-10.
—. “Other super-heroes WEren’t Like That!” 16-26. Interview with Dick Cole.
—. “He Was a Very, Very Interesting Talent!” 33-35.Interview with Bill Seay.
Thomas, Roy. “He Could Do Anything!” 27-28. Interview with Creig Flessel.
—. “He Stretches, Shrinks, and Bends!!” 2-3.
Toth, Alex. “A Lonnnnnng Stretch of Tall Talent.” 11-15.

Alter Ego #34, March 2004. Quality Comics issue…
Side One…

Amash, Jim. “Men of Quality.” 3-15. Interview with Dick Arnold.
—. “I Created Blackhawk!” 16-28. Interview with Chuck Cuidera.
Nolan, Michelle. “Better Read Than Dead.” 29-35. Blackhawk’s transition to DC Comics.
Toth, Alex. “Another Fine Talent Lost.” 36-38. About artist Reed Crandall.

Side Two…

Amash, Jim. “When Anything Happened, I Was Working on a Comic!” 3-15. Interview with Alex Kotzky.
—. “The Last Quality Editor.” 21-37. Interview with Al Grenet.

Alter Ego #47, April 2005.

Becattini, Alberto. “Baker of Cheesecake.” 3-35. About Matt Baker, who worked on Phantom Lady after she was moved to Fox Comics.

Alter Ego #48, May 2005. Will Eisner/Quality issue…

Amash, Jim. “I Always Felt Storytelling was as Important as the Artwork.” 7-26. Interview with Will Eisner.
—. “I Always Liked Working.” 47-56. Interview with Vern Henkel.
—. “I Was Doomed to be an Artist.” 40-46. Interview with Chuck Mazoujian.
—. “Will Eisner… Still Cares!” 27-30.
“Comic Crypt: The Wonder of it All!” 57-67. Reprint of Eisner’s 1939 Wonder Man story.
Mercer, Marilyn. “The Only Real Middle-Class Crimefighter.” 4-7.
Saviuk, Alex. “The Last Spirit Story?” 36-39.
“The Spirit of Will Eisner.” 31-35.

Alter Ego #59, June 2006.

Amash, Jim. “It Only Took 40 Years … to Be the Steve Roper Artist!” 48-59. Interview with artist Fran Matera.

Alter Ego #60, July 2006.

Amash, Jim. “We Were a Very Happy Group” 43-60. Interview with Tony DiPreta.

Alter Ego #64, Jan. 2007.

Amash, Jim. “They Treated Me Like I Had Talent!” 22-40. Interview with Martin Filchock.

Alter Ego #65, Feb. 2007.

Amash, Jim. “When You Do a Lot of super-heroes, All You’re Drawing is Men in Long Underwear” 3-33. Interview with Nick Cardy.

Alter Ego #66, March 2007.

Lane, Ed. “The Peerless Power of Bob Powell” 3-37. All about Bob Powell.

Alter Ego #67 April 2007.

Thomas, Roy. “The Powell/Eisner/Arnold Connection” 37-44. With vintage letters from Bob Powell, Will Eisner, & Busy Arnold.

Alter Ego #99, Jan. 2011

Amash, Jim. “I Was Contemptuous, Basically, of the Comics’” 37-52. An interview with Bill Bossert.
Cassell, R. Dewey. “An Artist for All Seasons” 3-36. On George Tuska.