That's The Spirit

    Return with me now to those thrilling days of last year, when I first posted the Mystery of the Radio Spirit. My plaintive plea for help in finding details about the elusive radio program based upon Will Eisner's classic strip was heard and answered by Karl Schadow. 
   Schadow, appropriately, is a brilliant old-time radio history sleuth whose researching instincts mirror my own. His subsequent response to my request was seen in the Mystery of the Radio Spirit -- Solved! post that contained his initial discoveries. 
   Since then, Karl has soldiered on, digging and uncovering even more about the program. His findings were first published in the official magazine of the Metro Washington Old Time Radio Club, RADIO RECALL, late in 2012. At my request, Karl is graciously allowing me to republish his research here. Readers should note that this article was originally intended for old-time radio aficionados and as such, it contains information geared toward that audience. 
   I'd like to thank both editor Jack French of RADIO RECALL and Denis Kitchen for providing me with all the permissions and clearances that make this reprinting possible. And Denis would also like me to remind everyone that:
 
THE SPIRIT trademark is owned by Will Eisner Studios, Inc. and is registered in the U. S. Patent and Trademark Office.  

    So take it away, Karl!  -- Ken Quattro  __________________________________________________________

THAT'S THE SPIRIT
© 2013 Karl Schadow

   For years it has been rumored that The Spirit, one of the classics of the comics, had its own radio program. Interest in this seemingly obscure venture was rejuvenated when R.R. King recently posted on the Old Time Radio Digest, a link to Ken "The Comic Detective" Quattro's blog with Ken's request for any information on this unique incarnation of The Spirit's exploits.

   Unique and obscure it is. A radio program of The Spirit is not to be found in any OTR reference including: RADIO CRIME FIGHTERS by Jim Cox (McFarland, 2002) nor Ron Lackmann's COMIC STRIPS & COMIC BOOKS OF RADIO'S GOLDEN AGE (Bear Manor Media, 2004). Most compelling however, is that THE STERANKO HISTORY OF THE COMICS 2 (Supergraphics, 1972) is most often cited as the initial source which is reiterated in Ken's blog, for any existence of such a program.

   For those of you new to The Spirit, he premiered in the publishing field with no advance publicity in the newspaper trade, on June 2, 1940 as part of a special free Comic Book Section (commonly known as The Spirit Section) insert of Sunday newspapers across North America. This project was the joint effort of Quality Comic Group (QCG) publisher Everett M. " Busy" Amold, the Register Tribune Syndicate (Des Moines, Iowa) and most importantly comic creator-extraordinaire, Will Eisner, brilliant innovator of the three crime-fighting characters of the Section: The Spirit, Lady Luck and Mr. Mystic.

   The Spirit, former Detective Denny Colt thought to be dead, had been revived from a state of suspended animation to fight crime in Central City. Accompanied by his faithful African-American sidekick Ebony White, The Spirit, whose real identity was known only to Central City's Police Commissioner Dolan, operated from a hide-out located beneath Wildwood Cemetery, the supposed final resting place of Denny Colt.

   His escapades in the Sunday Comic Book Section continued into the Fall, 1952. A much anticipated daily strip was added in October 1941, having a prosperous two and one-half year run closing in March, 1944. Over the past few decades, those original stories have been reprinted, predominantly by DC Comics and Kitchen Sink Press In addition to new series of adventures being published. IDW Publishing is soon to release a new compendium of Will Eisner art. The Spirit was produced for TV in a brief 1948 series, with a made-for-TV movie in 1987. A feature film of the character was seen in movie theaters in 2008. More on The Spirit and Will Eisner may be found elsewhere in this issue of Radio Recall, at www.willeisner.com and www.deniskitchen.com.

   The Steranko History had purported a short-lived program of The Spirit in three Mid-Atlantic cities: Baltimore, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., with scripts penned by Enid Hager On his blog, Ken informs us that Miss Hager had been associated with THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD (morning and Sunday newspaper). Thus, my current research commenced with the perusal of the broadcasting, newspaper, advertising and amusement trade periodicals. In addition to the vast pages of THE RECORD and its competitors. Although THE RECORD had been promoting frequently the new Comic Book Section in its daily pages, there was no indication that a sister radio program was soon to hit the airwaves.

   The November 1, 1940 issue of BROADCASTING reported a swap between THE RECORD and Philadelphia's station WFIL of the three crimefighters comprising the Comic Book Section in THE SUNDAY RECORD. Each was to be featured on a rotating basis in a weekly 15-minute drama adapted from this Section. Readers of THE RECORD on Saturday, October 26, 1940 were pleasantly surprised that Mr. Mystic (a magician with supernatural powers) was going to be aired at 7:00 that evening on WFIL, with The Spirit slated for next week. On the radio page of THE RECORD the next day (October 27th), The Spirit was affirmed for the upcoming broadcast.

   Whether or not the story of Mr. Mystic and his entanglement with Shanghai dope peddlers garnered the initial stanza awaits further study as there was no follow up to confirm which story was actually presented. A preview in THE RECORD the following Saturday (November 2nd) indicated that The Spirit was to be featured that evening but the publicity tacked a plot summary.

   With this night's episode, The Spirit had joined his fellow characters, from the well·known Blondie and Dick Tracy, to the even more obscure Lew Loyal as comics who had their founding in the newspaper strips, and who had made the transition to the medium of radio. To date, episodes featuring Lady Luck, that dashing debutante sleuth of the Section have not been identified.

   With each succeeding week, a brief story synopsis was published in THE RECORD, usually printed on a page other than that carrying the radio logs. Moreover, in Friday's issues of THE RECORD, the Comic Book Section and its radio companion were promoted with bold, one-line statements at the top of individual comics which probably did not appease the syndicates distributing Alley Oop, L'il Abner or The Phantom. Subsequently in early 1941 these one-liners were reduced to a single comic which varied from week·to-week and featured just The Spirit on WFIL. Though The Spirit was listed in the radio logs of THE PHILADELPHIA EVENING PUBLIC LEDGER,other sheets merely indicated the program as 'Dramatization' or refused to print any WFIL programs at the designated time.

   This conundrum illustrates a classic point for all OTR researchers in that all available newspapers in a given market should be consulted when seeking information on programs, especially those locally produced. Amusingly, issues of MOVIE-RADIO GUIDE which included WFIL programs (Edition 2, MidAtlantic versions) listed the program as 'Dramatization' for several months before finally giving the program its official title.


 
  from THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD (Nov. 30, 1940)  
   With the episode of November 30th, readers of THE RECORD were encouraged to listen so that they could learn how to receive a mask similar to what The Spirit wore in the comics ... and get it FREE! The offer was also plugged on a different page than that of the weekly plot summary thus culminating in publicity for The Spirit on three individual pages of the issue. A Spirit mask is mentioned in THE STERANKO HISTORY and also in Hake's and Tomart's toy/premium guides. However, no direct tie-in with a radio program is stated. It is unknown if other premiums were offered during The Spirit's stint on WFIL.

   Ironically, the radio program was not promoted anywhere in the 16-page, Comic Book Section, an interesting absence of cross-promotion as the basic premise of the radio program was to entice listener's to purchase THE SUNDAY RECORD.

   During the first season which ended in May, 1941, The Spirit encountered a potpourri of criminals from gangsters to dictators and even a few femme fatales, all while having to rescue on occasion the romantic interest of the strip, Ellen Dolan, daughter of the police commissioner.

   There is no current explanation as to the reason behind the hiatus as the Comic Book Section continued throughout the summer in THE SUNDAY RECORD. The Spirit returned for a second season Saturday, September 6, 1941 at 7 pm on WFIL. THE RECORD continued to promote the program both on the radio page and elsewhere with a short synopsis. The scripts were again adapted by Enid Hager from stories of the Sunday comics. In September, 1941, THE BILLBOARD reported that each episode could now be heard twice each Saturday on a regular basis, now that a rebroadcast was slated for Philadelphia station WHAT.

   THE RECORD indicated on September 27th that a transcription of The Spirit was to be aired that evening at 9 pm on WHAT. According to this source, this is the only occasion in which a repeat performance was scheduled either in the radio logs or other publicity. Had THE RECORD encountered technical, contractual or copyright difficulties in procuring and airing a transcription each week? Nevertheless, this situation presents a fascinating scenario that a recording of The Spirit was made and that one may still exist.

   As of February 14, 1942, The Spirit was being promoted at a new time of 6:30 pm as the result of a new program, This is War, directed by Norman Corwin to be broadcast on all network stations across the country at 7 pm.

   Continuing the promotion in March, THE RECORD was still alerting new readers of The Spirit's 6:30 pm airtime.


 
  from THE PHILADELPHIA RECORD (March 7, 1942)
   Also in March, accompanying the short plot summaries were such episode titles as: "Mr. Hush Runs an Election" (March 7th), "The Men Who Time Forgot" (March 21st) in which The Spirit clashed with Seventeenth Century Spanish explorers, to "Dr Jekyll & Mr. Ebony" or "Dr. Ebony & Mr. White" (March 28th), where Ebony exhibits some bizarre behavior after ingesting a noxious, blue liquid found in The Spirit's lab. In one of his last radio adventures (May 9th), The Spirit foiled Nazi spies in their attempt to sabotage a coastal artillery base.


   "Army Operas No. 2: Pvt. O'Toole" THE SPIRIT (May 10, 1942) [as reprinted in THE SPIRIT ARCHIVES #4]   [Quattro here: A likely reason why The Spirit radio program ended circa May, 1942 is that Eisner was inducted into the Army early that month. The contract he had with the show's producers may have been contingent upon his scripting of the strip, which he relinquished while in the service.]

   During The Spirit's tenure on radio, the program received favorable reviews from Philadelphia critics, as both Maurie Orodenker [THE BILLBOARD, December 14, 1940] and Si Shaltz [(VARIETY, February 4, 1942] praised the program's writing, acting and overall production. Orodenker commented that each episode was complete. Does this imply that that the entire story of the Sunday comics was told in contrast to the cliff-hanger style Shaltz reported the following season? Or, did both series' stories leave listeners pondering The Spirit's fate and that Orodenker was informing his audience that The Spirit was not a serial with a continuing plot from week·to·week?

   The advantage of the cliff-hanger of course, was to entice listeners to purchase THE SUNDAY RECORD with accompanying Comic Book Section so that one could obtain the solution to the mystery. As no scripts or audio have been located of The Spirit, this and many other questions regarding the program remain unsolved. In his review, Orodenker mentions the names of the two prominent cast members, Sam Serata as The Spirit (likely a misspelling of long-time Philadelphia entertainment personality and executive, Sam Serota) with Salvatore Benigno as Ebony.

   It is unknown if these individuals were credited at the end of the broadcast, or if their voices were recognized by Orodenker who gave them the proper acknowledgement. Serota would have been a choice candidate for the lead, as he had previously amassed a great following impersonating the comics as 'Brother Bill' on WIP, a rival of WFIL in Philadelphia. It is unknown if Serota continued as The Spirit in the second season and who assumed the role of Ebony when Benigno was inducted into the Army in March, 1941.

   THE RECORD noted that Private Salvatore Benigno was to make an appearance in the episode of December 21, 1941 portraying Private Chuck Magoo, a former gangster encouraged by The Spirit to join the Army. This was one of the rare instances in which individual cast members of the program were identified in THE RECORD. The other two names cited in THE BILLBOARD review, were author/producer Enid Hager and WFIL organist Mil Spooner who provided the music. One name not mentioned in the review, but who was included in those of other WFIL programs was sound effects expert Jeff Witt. If not directly involved in each episode, he supervised those performing The Spirit's physical battles, especially the ferocious punches.

   Noteworthy is that The Spirit program also received high praise from Will Eisner, though he only had scripts sent to him by Enid Hager which to critique. In a November 29, 1941 letter (transcribed copy available on Ken's blog) to Miss Hager thanking her for the scripts, Eisner states that, " ... the dialog is great and the continuity positively absorbing ... ".

   Was this the first time that Eisner had intimate knowledge of the program (he was unable to receive the program on his set in New York City)? Had The Spirit's creator not been consulted over a year earlier when a radio program had been initially proposed?

   Other interesting admonishments are illuminated in the letter. There was no mention of Eisner in the scripts as he had informed the program's author of this situation. He firmly suggested as a favor to himself that she include the by-line "Will Eisner" following The Spirit in the show's opening. Moreover, was Eisner alluding to any possible copyright infringement?

   On the front page of each of the weekly Sunday Comic Book Sections was found in tiny print, copyright credited to Everett M. Arnold. It would be years later before Eisner actually acquired the full rights from the Quality Comics publisher. Furthermore, to what extent Arnold was involved in the radio program awaits additional documentation.

   In his letter, Eisner was optimistic that, " ... we can spread this idea far and wide ...". Perhaps this is when the program was developed in other markets yet to be discovered. Finally, it is unknown if Eisner was provided with any recordings. And, what of the fate of those scripts he received? There are none in his collection at The Ohio State University Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum.

   Why The Spirit did not return for a third season in Philadelphia remains a mystery. In March, 1943, Enid Hager departed THE RECORD for a position with Philadelphia's WPEN. Later that year she deservedly achieved the position of manager of the newly-formed radio department of Qualiy Comics. According to Mike Kooiman, who with Jim Amash, completed a comprehensive history of QCG entitled QUALITY COMPANION [TwoMorrows, 2011], virtually nothing is known regarding the endeavors of this ancillary Quality component.

   Although The Spirit was technically not a QCG product, there may have been attempts by Enid Hager and colleagues to promote the radio program in the mid 1940s. In the Program Producer section of the 1944 RADIO ANNUAL, Quality elevates their entity to the Radio & Motion Picture Department, still headed by Enid Hager. Unfortunately, the seemingly lofty aspirations of QCG may have not come to fruition as no further projects have been identified. However, the popular Blackhawk, a major QCG title did make a brief run on radio in the early 195Os. This author encourages his fellow researchers in both fields to continue to investigate the obscure radio tenures of such pertinent comics.

   So how did The Spirit find its way to THE RECORD and subsequently WFIL? One thought is that THE RECORD was not limited to comics from a single syndicate, as titles from seven such firms graced the pages of the daily and Sunday issues. The Register & Tribune Syndicate was a newcomer to those already supplying comics to the newspaper and the Sunday Comic Book Section was evidently an admirable addition.

   THE RECORD had much experience in promoting itself on the airwaves. Prior to The Spirit, the newspaper had solidified relations with WIP for its Nine o'Clock Scholars program and also WFIL for the musical quiz, Sound Your A. These programs expanded the usual time-for-space agreement in that live productions were utilized instead of the banter going for spot announcements.
 
   WFIL had a top-notch promotional campaign and was on its way to winning the 1940 annual exploitation award from THE BILLBOARD in the Regional Station Division when The Spirit was launched in October 1940. The station had been at the forefront in producing local dramatics since its founding in 1935; the result of the merger of stations WFI and WLIT More on the history of WFIL and Philadelphia radio may be found at the Philadelphia Broadcast Pioneers website www.broadcastpioneers.com.

   George Lilley, radio editor of THE RECORD in his December 22, 1940 column, echoed the praise for WFIL and its program director James Allan for their efforts in developing the current array of programs not only The Spirit, but also Drama Laboratory, Mystery History and the daily serial, The Ghost of Thunder Island. The extensive exploitation of WFIL included: ads, merchandising, billboards, school bulletins. and cards in cars, subways, busses, trains and even windows.

   There is no doubt that The Spirit was afforded his share of such publicity in addition to the newspaper copy illustrated above. Moreover the discovery of such items is crucial to further chronicling The Spirit on WFIL and other stations. Furthermore, this exploitation may have been a major factor WFIL was selected rather than WHAT, a station which had been purchased by THE RECORD just months prior to The Spirit making its radio debut. WFIL was a full-time station rated for 1000 Watts, but was soon to be upgrading its signal strength to 5000 Watts. This is compared to the 100 Watt, part-time status of WHAT On his blog, Ken also suggests that general program format of WHAT precluded The Spirit from airing on the station.

   Enid Hager who had previously been a member of the WFIL production staff before engaging in her current position as radio promotion chief of THE RECORD, took on the added task of script author in addition to her duties as producer of The Spirit. During the course of researching OTR, one may find a major source of pertinent material to be located in various advertising and ad agency archives. In the case of The Spirit however, this potential resource is not available. THE RECORD had negotiated directly with WFIL, thus no agency was employed, ultimately saving THE RECORD a tidy sum. This author does not imply, however, that correspondence, publicity, a script or even a transcription of the program would not have eventually made its way to any such archive.

   Additional leads on The Spirit are being pursued at Temple University, and other academic institutions along with collections of The Free Library of Philadelphia and The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The Spirit is still being elusive in Washington, Baltimore and in other markets but attempts are ongoing to remedy this situation. Thus, as of this writing, The Spirit can be classified as a local and not syndicated program.

Readers may contact Karl Schadow at bluecar91@hotmail.com.

Men of Steal

An Editorial by Ken Quattro:

     To say I'm indebted to the Internet would  be a huge understatement. It has opened doors into research that were never available before it existed. It allows me to communicate with people all over the world in seconds. And it has introduced me to friends that I never would have met without it.
      Yet one cancerous side effect of this magnificent communicative tool is that it encourages laziness. Sloth. One of the Seven Deadly Sins if you believe sins still exist.
     Highlight.
     Right click.
     Copy.
     Paste.
     It's so easy, isn't it?
     Recently I came across a website with a page devoted to the artist Elmer C. Stoner. As I have written my own piece about Stoner, I began reading it. I was only a few sentences in before I noticed a remarkable similarity between it and my article. While the "author" had padded the first part of his bio with info obtained (but not credited) from Ancestry.com, and a few speculations based on nothing in particular, he followed the structure of my article exactly. The references to Stoner's patron Fred Morgan Kirby, his involvement in the Harlem Renaissance, his failed early marriage. There was a mention of the 1939 World's Fair children's book I also wrote about and the comic books he chose to list were all from my piece. He even included information that artist Samuel Joyner related to me in a personal letter. There was more, but you get the gist.
     I wouldn't have minded at all if the "author" had made the simple gesture of acknowledging my article as his source. But he didn't. Instead he employed the quasi-plagiarism  preferred by middle schoolers who change a few words of a Wikipedia entry and turn it in as a term paper.
     To add further insult, nearly all of the images he used to accompany his article were lifted completely from mine. And to put his intentions in an even worse light, he ran a copyright notice at the bottom of the page with the year 2009; one year earlier than my posted article that he swiped.
     I wish I could say that this was the only time I'd experienced such blatant theft, but it's not.
     Some years back I wrote an article about Archer St. John and his publishing ventures. This was the first comprehensive history ever written about St. John and an effort that took a decade of research on my part.
     Within two weeks of my putting the article online on my Comicartville website, a St. John Publications entry appeared on Wikipedia that was basically a Cliffs Notes version of my piece. The Wikipedia editor, who hides behind the username "Tenebrae" (which tellingly means "darkness" in Latin), that contributed this entry has gained the enmity of a host of legitimate comic historians for his unabashed thievery. When confronted about his theft of my St. John article, he shrugged it off by claiming mine was only one of his sources. A provable lie since mine was the ONLY source available at the time.
     Several years later, I published the testimony from the historic Detective Comics v. Bruns Publications trial on this blog. Again, this was the first time this information had been presented to the general public since the trial in 1939. Soon after, a publisher who I had previously allowed to reprint one of my articles, decided to download the trial transcript and publish it without any acknowledgement of where he had gotten it.
     These are but a few of my experiences. And I'm not alone.
     Jim Amash, artist, writer and the man behind some of the most historically important interviews ever conducted with comic creators, has been similarly victimized. He has many had quotes and anecdotes taken directly from his interviews and dropped into others writings without any credit to him. This practice occured so frequently and had become so prevalent that Jim decided in the past year to stop doing interviews altogether. His decision is a great loss to all of comic fandom, but one I can fully appreciate and have contemplated myself.
     Virtually every serious comic historian has a similar story. Dr. Michael Vassallo, Bob Beerbohm and Roy Thomas have all related tales of plagiarism and intellectual property theft. And yet it continues. If anything, it is getting worse.
     On the chance that some of the research-phobic freeloaders are reading this, I have to ask:
     What happened to common courtesy?
     What is gained by stealing someone else's work?
     What is lost by giving someone else credit?
     I understand that research isn't easy. It can be a painstaking, boring, and often, expensive undertaking. But if you don't want to make that effort, at least acknowledge the people who do.

Note: Please feel free to copy this post and reprint it anywhere you like. 
    

Sincerely Yours, Busy

     Before email, before texting, when only birds tweeted, people wrote letters. Letter writing was a craft, an art form in deft hands, wherein thoughts could be expressed with nuance not limited to 140 character bursts. For some, though, letters were a cudgel to prod the recipient down a certain path. Business letters were often of this type and when it came to writing them, Busy Arnold was all business. -- Ken Quattro
__________________________________________________________

Dear Bill,

As I told you over the telephone today, Lou has been changing his costumes form month to month especially on The Ray. In the first installment of this feature, he had The Ray wearing a peaked headpiece but in the second installment he left off the peak on this, later it was restored. In some installments The Ray wore slippers and in others he did not have any. Also the stars around the neck of The Ray were omitted in some instances, although Ed Cronin usually added these.

I am enclosing a memorandum with some tear sheets and would appreciate having you tell Lou to make the costumes of both The Ray and The Black Condor the same each month.

  Everett M. "Busy" Arnold (smiling) Will Eisner (at drawing board) circa 1941 [as reprinted in THE ART OF WILL EISNER by cat yronwode]        Arnold was both Will Eisner's business partner (in The Spirit comic section) and client of his comic shop. It was in that role as owner of Comic Favorites, Inc. that Arnold wrote (more accurately, dictated) this October 1, 1940 missive. They would always come typed and on company letterhead. This was a business, after all, and Arnold's concern was for the product he was selling. The elegance of the artwork and the future status of Lou Fine as a Comic Book Legend wasn't even a consideration.

  The Ray by Lou Fine SMASH COMICS #15 (Oct. 1940), pg. 4

Try and build up the characters in both of these features so that they are more human and likeable. The Ray is in reality Happy Terrill, a reporter who works on The Morning Telegraph. His boss, the city editor, should have a definite name and other characters might be introduced from time to time.

While Happy Terrill leads a normal life at most times, he has the power to change to The Ray when he goes in a beam of light an then can perform his wonderful deeds. As The Ray he can also bring people to him by means of the ray forces which he has in his hands.

The same sort of build up should be given to The Black Condor and he should be a definite personality who operates as The Black Condor only in times of necessity. Originally you had The Black Condor brought up by birds when his parents (British) were killed by outlaws. I don't believe that he should be British and in any "build up", you should naturally assume that he is an American.

I assume that you will finish the next HIT and NATIONAL covers within the next few days so that Lou can start working on The Ray for the February issue of SMASH COMICS.

Sincerely yours, 

Busy

     Eisner once told interviewer Jim Amash, "Busy Arnold and I had a very interesting relationship. I regarded him as a partner and he thought of me as an employee."  ¹ When it came to the content of the comic books, it appears there was little doubt as to who was the calling the shots. By the next issue of SMASH, Happy Terrill was in more panels than The Ray and not long after, his boss finally had a first name.

  The Ray by Lou Fine   SMASH COMICS #17 (Dec. 1940), pg. 2
  Panel from page 9 of The Ray   SMASH COMICS #19 (Feb. 1941)
     For his part, The Black Condor had soon forgotten his rarely mentioned British origins and apparently his name (Dick Grey), becoming instead an American named Tom Wright. A U.S. senator no less.

  The Black Condor by Lou Fine   CRACK COMICS #13 (Dec. 1940) splash page
     Within in a few months, the business arrangement of Arnold and Eisner had evolved even further. On January 20, 1941, the pair agreed to a joint publishing venture. On that day they signed contracts specifying their co-ownership of two new properties: UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY and ARMY AND NAVY COMICS, soon to be retitled MILITARY COMICS. While Arnold agreed to pay the artists for their work, Eisner was to receive no money for his editing. Both shared any profits equally.
     Despite the parity suggested by this new arrangement, however, the hierarchy seemingly didn't change.

 Dear Bill,

The issue of MILITARY COMICS which Julian delivered here yesterday was handled in a very sloppy manner. So for the fifteenth time will you please ask your gang to go over things more closely so that we don't have so much work on this end of the line.

The ears which your boys put on page one and page 33 are very sloppy and you should have new ears made for these pages. Also, you should have whoever puts them on do a better job than they have done in the past. Not only are they ears always dirty and partly torn, but whoever drew the originals looks like they had the palsy. They have to be retouched here by Tony and this work could be eliminated if your office didn't do such a careless job.

Sincerely yours, 

Busy

     But he wasn't done yet. As he would many times, Arnold added a postscript in his own handwriting.

P.S.

Please don't supply any more art work for Military by the artists who did Miss America and The Sniper. They are awful so put Jerry Robinson on these two features--he [is] to do everything except the lettering. Sniper is a good idea but this artist is impossible--also [the] Miss America artist.

  The Sniper by Jerry Robinson   MILITARY COMICS #7 (Feb. 1942) splash page
     The "ears" referenced by Arnold that needed retouching by in-house artist Tony DiPreta were likely paste-over corrections to the artwork. It's just as likely that poor Julian, Eisner's younger brother, received an earful from Arnold. Arnold got his wish as Robinson briefly filled in on The Sniper. Eisner must have agreed with the assessment of Maurice Kashuba's artwork on Miss America, as she disappeared from the pages of MILITARY soon after Arnold's September 17, 1941 letter.
     Arnold's comments weren't restricted to just the comic books. Just a couple of weeks later, on October 3rd, he had something to say about The Spirit, too.

Dear Bill,

I was able to correct the text on page three of The Spirit in the October 19 issue. It certainly was a good thing this happened on a number 1 issue of the weekly comic book since if it had happened on a number 2 issue, it would have been too late to change it.

I think that the October 19 issue of The Spirit was absolutely the worst you have done to date and I don't think you should run any stories in this groove. This particular episode was altogether too heavy and profound. It is on the philosophical side and will not interest most readers. I think you should make The Spirit more along the usual lines with a good interesting story and plenty of sustained rapid fire action. And the art work could certainly be much better than the October 19 issue which was pretty sad.

I think that you might try and get more close-ups of The Spirit, Ebony, Ellen Commissioner Dolan, etc. and eliminate some of these far shots you have been running.

Sincerely yours, 

Busy

  "The Oldest Man in the World" The Spirit by Will Eisner (Oct. 19, 1941)
     This one probably hurt. It can be supposed that Eisner was used to Arnold's criticisms by now, but they usually were directed at the work of the artists he employed. This hit closer to home. Eisner was the principal artist on The Spirit at this point and probably plotted this story ("The Oldest Man in the World") as well.
     No detail was too small to escape Arnold's notice. On October 31st, he sent a letter to Eisner critiquing the work of a letterer.

Dear Bill,

Will you please get after Sam, your lettering man, and instruct him to make his commas properly in both the weekly comic book and the daily Spirit strips? He uses a straight line with no loop for a comma and this is very bad. Have him use regular commas in the future.

     Not content with this admonition, Arnold demonstrated in his own hand this punctuation that was causing him so much grief.

  Busy's punctuation lesson for Sam Rosen
     Usually, though, Arnold's concerns were not so trivial. Money was the main subject of his November 6 letter. Along with a few suggestions, of course.

Dear Bill,

I am enclosing [a] check for $730.45 covering the material for issue No. 7 of MILITARY COMICS as per your statement dated October 17. However, there was no Diary of A Draftee in this issue so I deducted the $15 charge for this.

You had four pages of Inferior Man listed whereas this was cut to three pages. However, I imagine the cost of $40 was still the same. You also listed Death Patrol as being six pages whereas it was only five pages but the price of $75 was correct. The Sniper which was done by Jerry Robinson was only five pages in length and I believe you were a bit off on the figure of $104 for this feature. 

I hope you have the material pretty well in hand for the next issue of MILITARY COMICS. If Jerry Robinson isn't going to handle X Of The Underground, you had better get Borth or some other artist started on this right away so we can get out a complete book in another week or 10 days. 

Please have Chuck Cuidera do the next MILITARY cover and also make up a full page of promotion for MILITARY COMICS. In other words, you can make up the page of promotion on everything except the reproduction of the cover and I will have this stripped in by the engraver. I expect to have some covers available next month and will run a promotion on MILITARY COMICS in everything except FEATURE COMICS. 

Sincerely yours,

Busy

And he couldn't help adding a postscript.

P.S.

Is Cuidera getting ahead on Blackhawk? If he only takes about 12 days for each 11 pages of Blackhawk in Military Comics, he should be able to turn out some work for the Quarterly now.

     The first inkling that events in the outside world were affecting their product were mentioned in Arnold's letter of December 12, 1941. After reprimanding Eisner for a continuity mistake in The Spirit daily, Arnold has some thoughts about the direction of the comic books.

In view of present war conditions, don't you think it wold be best to have the Blackhawks get a new base and operate from the Pacific? Also, have the Hero Stamps about Americans rather than Britishers. A good subject for the first American Hero Stamp is Captain Kelly who was killed sinking the Japanese battleship yesterday. 

I think this same applies to the material for UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY No. 3. I don't believer you should let Ed Cronin go through with the original plans on this magazine but should have new up to the minute stories written for the third issue. In UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY No. 3, I think that you should eliminate the four pages of illustrated poetry since this doesn't "ring the bell" with kids.

Sincerely yours,

Busy

     Arnold once again got what he wanted. UNCLE SAM #3 quickly took on a more sobering tone. No longer was the titular character circumspect in his choice of foes. The George Tuska drawn cover depicted a resolute Uncle Sam swatting down readily identifiable Japanese Zeroes. Over in MILITARY, soon gone was the Anglocentric Hero Stamp, replaced by a new United States Hero Stamp, with the first being the Arnold nominated Captain Kelly.

  United States Hero Stamp #1   MILITARY COMICS #9 (April 1942)
     It took the Blackhawks a bit longer to follow his orders, as they had to finish up an ongoing continuity in Europe. But eventually they too relocated to the Pacific Theater per Arnold's request.

  Blackhawk by Chuck Cuidera   MILITARY COMICS #11 (Aug. 1942), pg. 10
     Not all of Arnold's correspondence was directed at Eisner. One particularly blunt and detailed letter was sent to Eisner's former partner, Jerry Iger on December 26, 1941. And Arnold had plenty to say to him.

Dear Jerry,

The total combined loss on HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS for the June 1941 to the November 1941 issues (six issues of each magazine) was $10,704.87. During this period we were operating under our agreement dated January 13, 1941.

Starting with the December issues of HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS, we worked under the terms of a second agreement dated July 21, 1941, The loss on the December issue of HIT COMICS was $1,261.99 and the loss on the December issue of NATIONAL COMICS was $1,506.51 -- a total of $2,768.50. While I haven't as yet any exact figures on the January and February issues of HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS, they will be even worse than the results on the December issues. So for the period from June 1941 to February 1942 we will lose a total of nearly $20,000.00 on HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS. You must realize that we cannot operate any longer under the terms of our agreement dated July 21, 1941 and this letter is to officially cancel all past deals on HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS effective with the April issues  of each magazine. By then we will probably be in the red for a total of almost $25,000.00  and, if we are going to buy any material from you in the future for these magazines, it must be on an entirely new setup. Incidentally, HIT COMICS is now on a permanent bi-monthly basis and I plan to drop the May and July issues of NATIONAL COMICS so that temporarily this book will also be on a bi-monthly basis.

In the first place, the 20 per cent profit arrangement up to a total of $5,000.00 covered in our agreement of January 13. 1941 and the 30 per cent profit arrangement on HIT COMICS covered in our agreement dated July 21, 1941 are both cancelled by this letter. If we ever recover our losses on these two magazines we will be very lucky. The present features obviously will not sell HIT COMICS or NATIONAL COMICS well enough to enable us to make a profit on either magazine, so in order to try to get "out of the red" in the near future on HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS, I must add the best available material which I can buy independently to each book and kill several of your features which apparently do no sell comic magazines.

     Busy Arnold's methodically precise recounting of his profit and loss statements are a painful reminder that the content of comic books were driven by more than editorial whim. It's likely Iger read the above dense paragraphs with growing anger over the cancellation of his ongoing contracts with Arnold and trepidation at what was to come.

Strictly on a month by month basis, I will buy the following material from you for these two magazines in the future:

NATIONAL COMICS

6 pages  Sally O'Neil  (by Bryant) --------------------------  $90.00

5    "       Prop Powers  (By Williams) ----------------------   75.00

5    "       Wonder Boy  (by Bryant) -------------------------   75.00

5    "       Kid Patrol  (by artist who did April job) -------   75.00

5    "       Kid Dixon  (by Nordling) -------------------------   60.00

HIT COMICS

6 pages  Betty Bates  (by Bryant) --------------------------  $90.00

6     "     The Red Bee  (by Williams) -----------------------  90.00

5     "     The Strange Twins  (by Blum) --------------------  75.00

7     "     Don Glory  (by Peddy) ----------------------------  105.00

5     "     Bob and Swab  (by Nordling)  --------------------   60.00

All of the above features (except those done by Nordling) are at the arte of $15 per page which is a fair price with conditions in the comic magazine field as they are at the present time. You are only paying Nordling $10 per page for his work and since he completes everything and writes his own stories, $12 per page is a fair price for Kid Dixon, and Bob and Swab. If you prefer, I will buy these two features direct from Nordling and pay him per page.

     This last line was surely included to tweak Iger. In no way did he want to lose his $3 per page cut by letting Arnold deal directly with an artist.

I may have Lou Fine or Chuck Cuidera handle Stormy Foster starting with the June issue of HIT COMICS. However, this feature is very second rate and it hasn't any character. So unless Lou or another top notch artist can do a first class job on it right away, I will get another lead feature for HIT COMICS. 

     Once again, Arnold casually tossed in a possibility meant to get Iger's goat. Iger knew very well that both Fine and Cuidera were in the employ of his former partner Eisner and losing work to his shop would be particularly galling.

So much for the material for HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS. I am also losing money at present on SMASH COMICS and POLICE COMICS and I can only afford to pay you the following rates for your material in these two magazines in the future:

SMASH COMICS

6 pages  Rookie Rankin  (by Peddy) ----------------------  $90.00

5     "     The Purple Trio  (by Blum) -----------------------  75.00

POLICE COMICS 

6 pages  Phantom Lady  (by Peddy) ----------------------  $90.00

5     "       Eagle Evans  (by Williams) ---------------------  75.00

5     "       Steele Kerrigan  (by Bryant) -------------------  75.00

Although FEATURE COMICS is still operating at a profit, it has dropped considerably in recent months and we can only afford to pay the following prices for your material in this book in the future:

5 pages  Zoro, Ghost Detective  (by Bryant) -------------  $75.00

5    "      Samar  (by artist who did April Kid Patrol) ---    75.00

5    "     Spin Shaw  (by Williams) --------------------------  75.00

I will continue to pay you $20 per page for Crandall's features on a month by month basis. However, I am not sure whether I will keep The Firebrand in POLICE COMICS much longer as a six page feature after I jump Plastic Man into the lead position in this magazine. Like Stormy Foster, The Firebrand is very second rate even with Reed handling the art work in it.

It is understood that you will supply better and more timely stories for all of the above features in the future and will give first class art work on all of this material.

     Arnold's reconsideration of The Firebrand become a reality as it soon dwindled to a 5-page feature before exiting POLICE within the next year. With the bulk of the financial business completed, Arnold's letter takes a different tone and gets personal.

In closing may I take a crack at the statement in your letter of December 4th where you say "Maybe I'm a fool, but I've turned down considerable business so that I may better serve you in your books. What do I get in return?"  Are you trying to be funny or do you think I am a bit simple? You never turned down any business because of me and grabbed off all of the accounts you could get from such magazines as Pocket Comics, Champ Comics an Speed Comics. And aren't you the same Jerry Iger who started Great Comics and Choice Comics with Fred Fiore even though you were supposed to be concentrating on producing extra good work for E. M. Arnold and Thurman Scott? Don't make me laugh, Jerry.

     Arnold was just getting warmed up. As much as this paragraph probably irked Iger, it was the next one that was pointedly crafted to infuriate.

And please don't tell me again that you personally developed every top-notcher in this business including Bill Eisner. He was largely responsible for the success of Eisner & Iger as you well know. Bill always was a swell artist with a flair for writing interesting plots and nobody helped develop him except Wm. E. Eisner, a lot of natural ability and plenty of good hard work.

     Arnold knew this was the sorest of Iger's sore spots. The split between Iger and Eisner left the older partner with a lingering grudge toward his departing junior. A grudge that lasted his lifetime. Even in his later years, Iger would downplay Eisner's role in the creation of characters and contend that he was no more than a freelancer in his shop who worked on an "as-needed" basis. That Arnold took special glee in writing this paragraph is evident in his handwritten notation at the top of the copy he forwarded to Eisner.

Bill/  Maybe you better send Jerry some smelling salts and flowers. Is paragraph #5 on page 3 okay or did Jerry really develop W. Eisner?

     But he didn't stop there. He made sure to get in a few more jabs as long as he had Iger on the ropes.

As regards the $10,000 you paid Bill for his share of the business, may I remind you that I had nothing to do with this and it was a matter entirely between Wm. E. Eisner and S. M. Iger. We paid you several thousand dollars as a split on the first ten issues of HIT COMICS and NATIONAL COMICS after Bill sold out to you and you got plenty more from Scottie about the same time. So I guess the deal you made with Bill was pretty fair to you both.

     And then back to business.

Don't think there is anything personal in anything I had done, Jerry. It is strictly a matter of good business and you can readily see why I cannot afford to pay $18 and $20 per page for material any longer. And please don't get me together with Sid Klinghofer as I don't care to waste a lot of time talking about something that will have to stand as outlined above.

Incidentally, in addition to dropping the May and July issues of NATIONAL COMICS, I am also dropping the April and June issues of SMASH COMICS and POLICE COMICS. So during the weak selling spring months (March, April, May and June issues), FEATURE COMICS will be our only magazine published on a monthly basis. If business improves by next summer, I will put NATIONAL COMICS, SMASH COMICS and POLICE COMICS back on a monthly basis, otherwise I will leave them all bi-monthly magazines. 

     Business must have improved, as all three titles were back to a monthly schedule by the following summer.

I hate to take so much work away from Nordling and, if you wish me to do so, I will drop a five-page feature from CRACK COMICS and put Pen Miller in this magazine (five pages instead of four pages). But I can't afford to give you an agent's fee of more than $2 per page for Nordling's features so the price for five pages of Pen Miller will be Sixty Dollars ($60).

In closing may I ask you to deliver the balance of the material for issue No. 2 of THE DOLL MAN QUARTERLY just as soon as possible. You are nearly three months late in delivering this book with the result that we have to call issue No. 2 Spring instead of Winter. Follow up with 11 pages of Doll Man for April FEATURE COMICS (we need this just as soon as possible), then have Crandall do six pages of The Firebrand.

Sincerely yours,

Busy

     His business (and evisceration) of Iger completed, Arnold recommenced his correspondence with Eisner on January 5, 1942.

Dear Bill, 

Will you please send me the script for the next eight pages of Secret War News and one page of The Atlantic Patrol. Alden McWilliams is about ready to start working on these pages and I would like to turn over the script to him just as soon as possible.

Sincerely yours, 

Busy

P.S.

For very apparent reasons I would like to get Alden ahead on his comic magazine pages.

   Arnold's handwritten postscript reveals a concern then facing all publishers. The United States entry into the ongoing World War posed the real possibility of losing many of their artists and writers to the mandatory conscription. It made good business sense to stockpile some inventory as a buffer against the lack of artists to provide material for their comics.
   While that eventuality loomed, Arnold still had more to say about the work coming out of Eisner's shop, as in this short letter from January 13, 1942.

Dear Bill, 

Will you please have Nick spend more time on his backgrounds and eliminate the free-hand sloppy type of stuff. On the last set of Lady Luck which we sent to the engraver today, many of the backgrounds had doorways, windows, etc. done in free-hand which were pretty awful.

Sincerely yours,

Busy

P. S. 

Lady Luck for the past couple of months has been awful -- not even comic book quality.

     A similar letter dated January 26th critiqued Eisner's handling of a story-line before launching into yet another scolding about the work of Alex Kotzky.

The six pages of Espionage for SMASH COMICS which I picked up last week weren't completed. We have to do the lettering, heading and general clean up here. This was an awful set of Espionage so try to have Kotzky do a better job next month.

   By February, there was a sense of urgency to Arnold's correspondence. His letter dated February 10th covered a lot of ground. After reminding Eisner to keep Tuska working on UNCLE SAM and to get a script to McWilliams as soon as possible, Arnold once again confronts the inevitable loss of talent.

You now have Cuidera about two episodes ahead on Blackhawk as well as an extra cover for MILITARY COMICS. Better have Cuidera do a couple more covers right away, then start him on another 11 pages of Blackhawk. Try to get him as far ahead on everything as possible.

     Again on February 27, Arnold requests that Nordling get ahead on all of his features. Then, in a paragraph midway through his letter, Arnold indirectly refers to a coming editorial change.

What do you plan to do for issue No. 4 of UNCLE SAM QUARTERLY? Will you figure out the make-up of this book and have Nitkin and Bob Powell write the stories? Or should I plan to handle this? At any rate, you might have George work on the cover for the No. 4 issue (Autumn) now so it is done under your capable supervision.

     In those few lines, Arnold seems to be contemplating taking over the editorial reins from Eisner on UNCLE SAM. But why? His closing comments make the picture a bit clearer.

See you on Thursday. Hope Lou is working them so we can get quite a distance ahead on everything before you leave.

     What both Arnold and Eisner knew, why Lou Fine was apparently overseeing Eisner's comic shop, was that Eisner wasn't going to be around to run it himself.
     Eisner and Arnold had fought vigorously in the summer of 1941 to keep Eisner from being conscripted. Eisner wrote a lengthy affidavit detailing how he was solely responsible for the employment of "sixteen artists, some of whom are married".²  But even the inclusion of supporting affidavits from several of these artists as well as Arnold and the top executive of The Spirit's newspaper syndicate failed to convince his local draft board. He entered the Army in May, 1942.
     The relationship of Busy Arnold and Will Eisner wasn't easy to explain. They were business partners, though never quite equals. The publisher was the artist's biggest fan, though not really his friend. Arnold was a demanding client who would critically scrutinize the minutest details and a generous patron who funded their joint publishing ventures and shared ownership of various properties. The complexity of their relationship seemingly mystified even Eisner, who simply told Jim Amash, "We had a different view of each other." ³ 
__________________________________________________________

¹ Amash, Jim, "I Always Felt Storytelling Was As Important As The Artwork", ALTER EGO, (May 2005), pg. 9.

²  Affidavit of William E. Eisner to Local Board No. 121, Bronx, New York.

³  Amash, op. cit., pg. 9.

Roy Thomas: More Corrections & Suggestions

      In the immediately preceding post, legendary comic creator Roy Thomas offered his perspective on details and events discussed in Sean Howe's recent book, MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY. In this second post, Roy continues his commentary on the second half of the book.  -- Ken Quattro

 __________________________________________________________

Re Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
Notes by Roy Thomas

[Alas, due to my heightened schedule, after p. 150 I’ve pretty much limited myself to correcting errors related to my own career.]

P. 152:  I was the “second-longest-tenured Marvel employee”?  Maybe… but that would have to discount both Stan Lee and Marie Severin.

Also, while Stan and I may have agreed that the future editorship be split up after I left the editor-in-chief job in 1974, it was entirely Stan’s idea and decision... I believe I only acquiesced, and like, what did I care?  But it’s true that, while I don’t generally correct anyone when Len Wein is referred to as the next editor-in-chief after me, I doubt if he really held that title… or at least held that authority… because I don’t think he was considered technically over Marv, the b&w editor, as I had been.  Marv was probably actually the next ed-in-chief after me, not that it matters much.

By the way, I “stayed on for a few weeks” (about two, I think) mainly because Len and Marv had left for the World SF Con, which was somewhere on the East Coast around that time, and they showed no inclination to cut that trip—and, I believe, vacations scheduled for after that—to come back and take over.  My idea was to leave two minutes after Stan and I agreed it was time I went.  I hate long goodbyes.

P. 153:  May as well mention that I have no knowledge about Shooter’s statement that Len and Marv influenced Stan not to hire Gerry as editor-in-chief, or precisely whatever that footnote says.

The account re the creation of THE X-MEN is in serious error on one important detail.  No way did Al Landau “charge” me to “devise a super-team of non-Americans.”  He merely stated, in a meeting of Stan, him, and me and perhaps Verpoorten or someone else that if Marvel had a team of heroes composed of characters from various countries in which Marvel sold large numbers of comics, it might help sales there.  The suggestion was tossed out to all of it.  I immediately suggested the X-Men revival idea and, I suppose, was “charged” (encouraged?) to go ahead with it.  It was Stan who decided I should go ahead with my notion, not Landau.  I’m not trying to deny that Landau was the impetus, but his suggestion was vaguer than the book suggests.

P. 154:  Not a big deal, but it really does irk me when all the credit for creating Wolverine is given to Len and John Romita, important as they were.  I mean, I didn’t just mention that I’d like a Canadian character.  I told Len I wanted him to make up a character specifically named Wolverine, who is Canadian and small/short of stature and has a fierce temper (like a real wolverine); if that doesn’t establish my bona fides as co-creator of Wolverine, I don’t know what does.   

P. 156:  I don’t recall keeping a box of index cards about where characters had last appeared, etc.  That sounds almost too organized for me.  Maybe I once started something like that, but I doubt I did much with it.  Where did I say that?

P. 165:  I don’t recall knowing that Stan once told Gerry he could have my job if I left, but if Gerry says so, I suppose he did.  I do know I told Stan, when I was getting set to leave the ed-in-chief job, that, as noted on p. 166, I told Stan that if he didn’t make some sort of provision for Gerry besides just being a writer under Len and Marv, Marvel would lose him… which is precisely what happened.

P. 166:  Ditto, I don’t recall promising Gerry he could edit a PUNISHER title, but I may have.  Sounds like me.

P. 174:  Error of fact here, pure and simple.  Jim Shooter was already writings long-distance scripts for Mort Weisinger when Mort hired me, nt months later.

P. 182:  I rather suspect Jim Shooter is, er, overstating the case when he says I showed him a list of people I intended to fire.  Carrying around a list, let alone showing it to a prospective assistant, was hardly my style… let alone a “nice chunky list” of people I was going to fire.  Nonsense, really… to put it politely.  How could I have had a “chunky” list of people I was going to fire, when I had hired most of them (Don McGregor included) and respected their talents.  This is just Shooter making up drama, or perhaps merely misremembering it.  Nor do I recall precisely whether I intended to remove McGregor from some of his assignments, but I may well have, and why not.  They weren’t selling, and, as noted, he showed no willingness to make even small concessions to change that situation.  By my lights, and Marvel’s, he deserved being replaced, no matter how passion (some of it perhaps misplaced) he showed for his series.  Still, I’m sure I’d have tried to find something else for Don if I did remove him.  I don’t believe I ever planned to fire him, and I’m suspect of Shooter’s motives for saying the things he does.  But even pilloring poor ol’ Don wouldn’t have amounted to the “chunky” list Shooter talks about.  Where does he go to dream these things up?

P. 193:  Was it Algeria George Lucas filmed part of STAR WARS in?  I was thinking it was Morocco, but that’s just a question, not a correction.

P. 208:  You’d have to show me some documentation to convince me that “Kirby refused to allow Thomas to script” the WHAT IF issue in which he and Stan, et al., became the Fantastic Four.  In fact, I’m quite certain it didn’t happen that way.  Jack was drawing away, and at some point I simply let him write it, but he never “refused” anything.  Jack wasn’t that confrontational.  I wish I were certain if it was before or after I learned that he was drawing Sol Brodsky as the Human Torch rather than me, as was his assignment, that I withdrew as writer, but I don’t.  In any event, Jack’s instincts were sound in that instance.  It made more sense for Sol to be in the comic because he was around for #1 if not on staff yet; he told me he even designed the FF logo.  It annoyed me that Jack didn’t do what he was supposed to do, since I was the editor… but I recognized his idea as an improvement, so I let it stand.  

I don’t recall if or why supposedly “everybody’s” grammar was changed for the better in that story except Jack’s… but the writing in UNTOLD STORY makes it sound as if it was a vengeance thing... getting even with Jack for real or imagined sins.  It wasn’t.  The Thing was the crudest-speaking of the FF, so that was the reason for any changes, and it fit with Jack’s vernacular.  It is true, though, that Stan insisted that all uses of the word “Stanley” be changed to “Stan.”  He didn’t like Jack calling him Stanley, for some reason.

P. 226:  Please check sources… book  may be right, but my result is that, after I received a contract which had been changed with regard to the writer/editor thing, in contradiction of what I’d been told, I talked to Paul Levitz at DC BEFORE I talked to Shooter.  But I wouldn’t swear to it.  The basic facts here are right, anyway.

P. 233:  Actually, Gruenwald and Macchio were brought in to finish (in #300) the THOR saga that Shooter wouldn’t LET me finish… just as he wouldn’t let me continue the CONAN newspaper strip even though DC Comics and Sol Brodsky (who was in charge of it) said that was fine by them.  That and the refusal to run a mild and non-threatening letter of goodbye in CONAN were par for the course for Shooter, and part of the reason why I continue to despise him to this day, and feel that he well earned that feeling.  (Which is a shame, because I have real respect for Shooter as a writer and in some other areas.)

P. 254:  Ah, I recall John Byrne’s quote.  It wasn’t specifically that quote over which I threatened to sue Byrne… there were a couple of others… but it will do.  A shame that such a talented artist is such a poor judge of others’ skill…sometimes, even of his own. 

P. 428:  Maybe I do spend more time on ALTER EGO than anything else, but of course I’ve continued to write comics, including a one-year run on a CONAN comic for Dark Horse in 2010-11… and I have, after all, been acknowledged by Stan as working with him on the SPIDER-MAN newspaper strip, which I’ve done since the turn of 2000… some 12-13 years now.  I’ve also written several books on comics.  This isn’t a request to add more… but the paragraph seems to indicate I’ve gone back to being a fan, pure and simple, and that isn’t really the case, even if I’ve had to put development of a new creator-owned comics feature or two on hold until I finish a humongous book on Stan Lee for the German publisher Taschen.

Roy Thomas: Corrections & Suggestions

     There is probably nobody in the comic book industry that I like and respect more than Roy Thomas. The man is truly a Legend and if I have to list his accomplishments for you...well, you are obviously reading the wrong blog. It only adds to my appreciation of him that he has occasionally published some of my articles in his essential ALTER EGO magazine. If it isn't on your must read list, it should be. Buy it. Now.
     I also like and respect Sean Howe. Sean is a terrific writer and editor who also happens to be a comic fan. His book of collected essays, GIVE OUR REGARDS TO THE ATOMSMASHERS!, is one of the finest tomes ever written about comics. Buy it. Now.
     Recently, Sean's latest book, MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY, was released and not without controversy. Howe reportedly interviewed more than 100 people in preparing his book. Not everyone agreed with all of the details that came from these interviewees, including Roy Thomas.
     Roy privately contacted Sean and gave him a detailed response to what he perceives as misconceptions and errors. After an exchange of emails among Roy, Sean and myself, it has been agreed to allow me to publish Roy's thoughts here, on my blog. Sean has also said that Roy's comments will be considered for inclusion in an updated edition of his book.
     As Roy notes, he didn't have time to type out the text from Sean's book that he is referencing. That means you have to buy the book to get a full appreciation of Roy's response. So buy it. Now. 
-- Ken Quattro

 __________________________________________________________
  
Re Marvel Comics: The Untold Story by Sean Howe
Notes by Roy Thomas

[SEAN:  I haven’t always taken the time and space to type down the precise text in the book to which the correction applies, assuming that will be clear from context.  If clarification is needed, please advise.]

P. 1:  Not a big error, but by the time of Blushing Blurbs and Golfers Anonymous, Stan’s name was long since legally Stan Lee, contrary to the impression given in the first paragraph.

P. 11:  To the best of my knowledge, there was never a Goodman magazine called Timely.  What Michael Feldman researched of late, and which is covered in detail with illustrations in Alter Ego #114 (Dec. 2012), was the 1939 Popular Digest magazine, whose subtitle was “Timely Topics Condensed,” and for which he started Timely Publications.  Chances are, as Feldman surmises, he wanted to call the mag Timely, but figured Time would sue.

P. 25:  “Jap Buster Johnson” was just a feature, not a magazine, so shouldn’t be italicized.

P. 47:  No big deal, but surprised you didn’t mention Mario Puzo’s expressing, around 1966 or so, an interest in writing for Marvel while finishing “his new book”—which would be The Godfather, of course.  He returned the comics Stan had me give him after a short time, saying there was just too much to learn about all the characters… he was better off continuing to write for Magazine Management.  ’Course, in the early ’70s for the first big open-to-the-public meeting of ACBA, he did send group a telegram Stan read there, thanking “Marvel Comic for teaching my children to read when the public schools failed.”  Of course, that’s just my memory…Stan’s long since lost the telegram.

P. 59:   Big error!  When Stan looked out the window of his office and asked (to correct the wording, which is not right for something in quotation marks), “So—what do we have to do to hire you away from National?” [not “DC,” in those days], he was standing, not swiveling in his chair.  We’ve got to get these important historical details straight.  If Stan stayed sitting, he couldn’t see the pretty girls walking down Madison Avenue (like in that Sinatra song “It’s Nice to Go Travelin’” from the “Come Fly with Me” album), and he liked to do that, in a harmless, non-lecherous way. 

Next paragraph:  There was no comic, of course, called Millie and the Model.  The character was Mille the Model… and the actual title of the comic I wrote that weekend was Modeling with Millie.  I didn’t even get to start off on the main Millie book!

No problem with your litany of the office interruptions that kept me from being effective as a “staff writer,” but one of the main problems, actually, was Stan himself, who was constantly asking me for bits of information (“Where did Sandman first appear?”  “When did Sandman last appear?”—that kind of thing), and in addition I was almost immediately given pages on which to do backup proofreading, seeing that Stan’s corrections were done.

P. 79:  Just for the record, I believe Jim Steranko’s always claimed he did have an appointment in 1966 when he come up to the offices at the time of the convention… but that’s simply not how I remember it.  Or maybe he had indeed wangled an appointment somehow, through Flo or whoever or even Stan somehow… and it’s just that when the time came, Stan wanted out of it because he was busy.  But everything in this section is as I recall it.  I’ve said from time to time that I thought he also came up to the Marvel offices with no success in 1965, but I don’t really recall that now… and Jim denies it, and he may be right.  My memory’s much firmer on ’66.

P. 80:  Not sure that I wore goatee, Russian hat, alligator shoes, and Nehru jacket all at the same time… but I may have.  The jacket and suit were orange trimmed in white; I looked like an orange sherbert.  When a truck driver whistled at me as I walked up Second or Third Avenue one day on my lunch hour (where I often browsed book stores), I gave up the Nehru… and Jeanie married me in July 1968 on condition that I shave the beard.  Sol and I bought Russian hats together when it was a fad in New York… and they did keep the head warm.  And of course the gator shoes were before they became part of the uniform of pimps.  None of  this esp. belongs in the book, of course… just sayin’.

P. 93:  No correction needed, but it wasn’t technically a “vacation” I was on when Jeanie and I eloped.  Rather, I’d gone to St. Louis for the weekend to a Gateway comics convention.  But the lecture you mention was purely from Stan, not Sol… and actually wasn’t a lecture at all, just one stern remark in the middle of a conference when I made a light-hearted remark.  This isn’t a complaint, though.  Also in that paragraph the impression is given perhaps that Archie had been “hired” to replace me on Doctor Strange (italics needed; it was a full book then)… actually, all they’d done was give him the original art for that one issue to dialogue.  As I was coming in from being away, I ran into Archie by the elevator and, with no resistance from him, marched him right back in to Sol and demanded that I dialogue the book I’d plotted.  Archie didn’t mind that, I don’t think, though he’d wasted a trip into the office from the Upper West Side.  More than you need to know, I realize… but I need to make it clear so you can decide if you feel you can change anything beyond removing the “and Brodsky” in the lecture thing.

P. 94:  Re that “All the Way with LBJ” button in Brand Echh #1 (“Not” wasn’t part of the comic’s actual title then, though it did appear on the cover):  I didn’t tell Stan that button had been in the b&w proofs, as you write… Stan didn’t regularly look at those, I don’t think, leaving them to Sol… but the button had been in the original art, which Stan had proofread, and he’d just overlooked it.  Nor did I really quit… I merely told him that if he was accusing me of lying, I would quit, and with that I stormed back to my desk in the other office.  Stan came out to call me back into his office a few minutes later to explain himself.  A generally accurate portray, but I think I covered the facts pretty clearly in AE #95.  A painful experience, but there were, I think, no residual hard feelings on either side.

P. 112:  Surprised there’s no mention of the fact that I talked Stan out of a comic called The Mark of Satan by suggesting we make it The Son of Satan, instead.  ‘Course, Satan was still a major character in it… but at least he wasn’t the hero!  And the first Marvel vampire, of course, was Morbius in Amazing Spider-Man #101 by Gil and me, though he wasn’t a real vampire, more of a science-fictional one.  Not a request for changes, though.

P. 116:  Put me down as voting for “new levels of intertextual ectacy,” not “fumes from an empty tank.”  If the Marvel Universe was to be and remain a believable universe, it needed that continuity and integrity, and both Stan and I saw part of my job as being to oversee that.

P. 118:  Maybe Vinnie brought Kirby Fourth World pages to Stan, but if so, I don’t ever recall seeing them… and I sure don’t recall their being hung up in the office, or else I would have seen them and looked carefully at them and remember them, I’d think.  Do you really have a source for this, or is it mere scuttlebutt?  I have real doubts about that statement… and not because Vinnie wasn’t entirely capable of exactly what’s claimed.

P. 120:  With all that went wrong with the Carnegie Hall show in January of ’72, our two rock numbers went over fairly well, esp. with the dancing girls (Jeanie and two others—one may have been Mary McPherran) in Marvel costumes left over from the same Macy’s parade as “my” Spidey outfit… and despite the fact that the band’s mikes didn’t work so our banter had to be cut out, since I was on the stage and they were up on a pedestal 30 feet or so aawy.  But there were no “Elvis songs”—there was this one John Lennon song I hated (much as I love the Beatles and Lennon) that Barry talked me into against my good judgment, and “Be-Bop-a-Lula,” a song originally sung by Gene Vincent in, admittedly, very much an Elvis vein.  I think too much has been made of Gerry Conway’s assessment as to the backstage mood… I didn’t see that kind of thing, and I was around the whole evening.  But there were a lot of foul-ups and dissatisfactions.  I’m proud of some parts of the evening… but the slow parts and the non-comics-related parts really dragged us down.  High point for me personally, after the songs, was having Tom Wolfe, one of my favorite writers, read my long paragraph on Captain America. Compared to what I got out of that evening, the slings and arrows of a few outrageous fans were nothing.  I’ve forgotten their names, but I still remember singing on the stage at Carnegie Hall… and Tom Wolfe standing there in his white suit, reading something I’d written.

P. 121:  Apparently, Stan’s actual quote referring to me as the new editor-in-chief, made (as you perhaps know) to Don Rico, was, according to Don, “Oh, some guy out there.”  Just one word difference, beause Stan wouldn’t have said “back there” when referring to the other offices.

P. 123:  Along with my sincere feeling that Conan the Barbarian deserved rather more attention than it’s given in the book, for several good reasons I won’t bother going into, I find the mention of “Goodman’s cancellation of Savage Tales” potentially confusing to readers.  The mag is never previously referred to in the book, so there’s no context.  What was it? Why was it cancelled?  When?  (Savage Sword of Conan, also, which isn’t even mentioned in the book, deserved a little attention as a consistent moneymaker; it sold very well and had no color for its $1 price tag, as well as lasting more than 200 issues, Marvel’s only real b&w comic success.  The downplaying of Conan is, in terms of history, a fault of the book, I very much feel.

P. 124:  I wince at seeing a reference to “Roy Thomas, Gary Friedrich, and artist Mike Ploog” in that order as originating Ghost Rider.  Just a minor point… you cover it better later.  I feel I was far more of a player than Gary was likely to have acknowledged in his lawsuit against Marvel, but it was his idea, not mine. 

P. 127:  The paragraph about Don McGregor doesn’t make it clear he was working for Marvel around that time.  He was working as a security guard, I believe, when I called to offer him a writing and assistant-editing position at Marvel; but because of some obscure grudge which he refuses to spell out, Don refuses to admit in print that I hired him… nor do I care overmuch.  I’ve always just felt it makes him look small.  Hey, do I deny the role that Mort Weisinger played in getting me to New York?  Don was and is a disappointment to me, because I gave him real gainful employment for the first time and defended him against his critics.  But I have eight dogs, so I don’t need his gratitude at this late stage.

P. 128:  I never had any idea that Marvel president Al Landau, my pre-Shooter nemesis, was a godson of Albert Einstein.  It wouldn’t have made me despise him any less… but it’s interesting.

P. 129:  A bit awkward… discussing how I divvied up the writing of three “women’s titles” between three women… before mentioning that all three titles were Stan’s idea and names.  Puts the cart before the horse.  Stan came up with the titles and concepts… and it was then my idea to have women write them.  That can be called a cynical ploy… but on the other hand, I was well and instantly aware that if there were to be any real other-media coverage of those titles, the fact that they were being written by men would have been pointed out and held against them.  It was less cynicism than self-defense.  Besides, we didn’t have a lot of writers to spare.  Jeanie had worked with me on a few plots and I knew she could write in general… and Linda had written a bit before… and I knew Carole was intelligent and a comics fan.  They all three made sense.  When Linda asked me why it had to be a “Cat,” I should’ve just told her, “Because Stan says so,” and let it go at that.  Hey, you don’t quite what I said to her… so maybe I did.

P. 130:  “Lee dangled the idea of a secretarial job [before RT’s wife Jeanie upon her graduation from Hunter College in NYC] and then quickly withdrew the offer.”  Not really.  Actually, Stan had made the offer at least a year or so earlier (probably around 1969, actually), when Jeanie left the same job, which she’d held for some months not long after Flo Steinberg left.  He said the job would be hers when she graduated.  It was a year or two later that it was withdrawn when Jeanie came to him to take up the offer.  As to who or how many folks in the office “objected,” I never really tried to find out, as it would have severely impacted my relations with them had I known.  Stan told me that day that I should acquiesce because “You have to get along with these people.”  I replied, “I think they should have to get along with me.”  I should’ve stuck by my guns… I’m pretty sure Stan would have back me, and Jeanie would have done a good job in that position again.  But you’re right that it did color my view of Marvel.  I remember that the Carnegie Hall show was a few days later, and I seriously considered withdrawing from it in protest.  Glad I didn’t.  But I still despise the attitudes of the cowards in the office, who I’m sure were all smiles and friendliness to Jeanie’s (and my) face while aiming their knifes for our backs.

P. 145:  “Thomas, who’d secured the rights to Sax Rohmer’s pulp-novel Fu Manchu character, suggested they incorporate martial arts into a Fu Manchu comics.”  Sideways, more inaccurate than accurate in this case.  I’m fairly certain that, when Starlin and Englehart came to me with the Shang-Chi idea, I “suggested” (okay, insisted) that Fu Manchu be incorporated into the comic… and it was only then that I went after and acquired the rights to the character.  I may have been toying with the idea of a Fu Manchu comics before, but I mainly wanted to get the rights because of DC editorial director Carmine Infantino’s alleged statement to Denny O’Neil and others, when they told him that if DC didn’t publish a comic about the Warner-owned TV series Kung Fu, Marvel might license the rights.  Carmine was alleged to have retorted, “If they do Kung Fu, we’ll do Fu Manchu!”  Whatever that may have meant, it thus struck me as ironically amusing for Marvel to have a comic book called Master of Kung Fu—with Fu Manchu, as well, in that very comic.  It’s quite possible that Steve and Jim already planned to have an evil father, and that spurred me to “suggest” Fu Manchu to fill the roll.  Even if Marvel could never print that comic in France… and now can’t reprint it at all.  Pity.

P. 149:  About how I “talked things over” with Seaboard/Atlas publisher Chip Goodman to feel him out about a job, I don’t care if the info is added in the book or not, but that dinner meeting was at Chip’s request, not mine.  I was not looking to leave Marvel, but I felt I might as well talk to him, as long as he was paying for dinner.  I was offered the job of co-editor with Larry at equal status… same if any other editor was in place at that time.  That paragraph also makes it sound as of my “beginning all-night writing sessions at ten or eleven at night” was a result of problems in my marriage.  Rather, it was probably more of the cause… I’d been doing those all-night sessions since before Jeanie and I were married in mid-1968, and I mostly kept at it.  A combination of deadlines and poor work habits.

I’ve no quarrel with John Romita’s quote re some people not “cottoning” to me being in charge, but I can honestly say that any “disrespect” they felt was generally hidden by them if so.  Artists of the older generation almost never challenged me or talked back or whatever form “disrespect” should take, at least to my face… perhaps Sean means it was all behind my back?  I do recall that Frank Giacoia blamed me in late 1972 or so for his ceasing to be part of the triumvirate that Stan briefly put in charge when he became president and publisher, though again that got back to me through others; Frank merely complained to me about Stan, claiming he (Frank) had “busted my ass” for the company and the Stan had removed his as “associate art director” or whatever exactly he was.  Funny that older artists should think of me as a “kid”—since in 1972, when I became editor-in-chief, I was 31… more than a decade older than Stan had been when he’d become editor.  But then, didn’t Al Gabrielle get fired for complaining about Stan’s youth to Goodman, as the story goes?

Also:  Not exactly inaccurate, but I don’t feel it should be said that Vinnie Colletta actually quite threatened to “throw [me] out a window.”  Of course, that’s my own fault, since I used that phrase, but half-jokingly, in Alter Ego #70.  What Vinnie said when he found out (from Verpoorten) that he was being taken off Thor was, “I feel like you got your hand in my pocket and I’m thinkin’ about throwin’ you out the window.”  A small but real distinction, perhaps… but the actual quote would work better than treating it as a 100% bona fide threat… although I won’t quarrel overly with the sentence as written.  Of course, once I explained to Vinnie that the work would be replaced, page for page—something John V. knew but had neglected to tell him for some reason—all was forgiven and we became buddies from then on.

No, I never “wanted to fly to the Philippines to recruit artists” for cheaper rates or just because they were good artists.  For the most part, we already had the artists through the DeZunigas; I was just to pep-talk to them, etc., and get the lay of the land.  It was Stan’s idea that I go (probably so that he wouldn’t have to)… I never wanted to go, period, but was willing to be a good soldier about it.  I was annoyed at Landau for nixing the trip, because of what Stan told me he’d said his reason was (which Sean quotes accurately), but otherwise I was quite content to stay in the USA.

P. 150:  Is there any reason why it isn’t mentioned that the “freelancer” who became the final straw that led me to leave the editor-in-chief job was Frank Robbins, who fibbed about his DC rates?  Not that it matters that much.  By the way, for the record, it might be mentioned that, as per an angry letter he wrote to Alter Ego, Carmine Infantino vehemently denied ever agreeing to share rate info with Marvel.  He claimed he flatly refused to do so.  Me, I only knew what Stan told me… I wasn’t at the lunch, but Stan talked to me right after it.  Maybe Carmine heard what he wanted to hear and Stan heard what he wanted to hear. 

No quarrel with the basic bare-bones account of my half-resigning, half-being-fired from the position of editor-in-chief, so I’ll pick up with comments on chapter 6 at some near-future point… even if only you’re interested.
                                Best wishes,
                                Roy Thomas