The Spectre and The Almost Man, Part 2

      For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast,
      And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed:
      And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
      And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
                 -- Lord Byron, from The Destruction of Sennacherib
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     "...Siegel came up with the feature, The Spectre," Bernie Baily told interviewer Ron Goulart, "The look of the character I created, the script he wrote." ¹
     Apparently nobody involved gave much thought to the incongruity of publishing The Spectre, Spirit of Vengeance, in a comic entitled MORE FUN COMICS.

     The Spectre, a supernatural being whose mission on Earth is to stamp out crime and to enforce justice with the aid of such weird powers as becoming invisible, walking through walls and delivering death with a glance. -- Introduction from the splash page of MORE FUN COMICS #52

     Although this oft-told tale of the reincarnated murdered police detective, Jim Corrigan, was likely rooted in Siegel's grief over his father's death, his words in the splash panel of The Spectre's debut appearance read as a simplistic reimagining of a far older Judaic entity, the Angel of Death. This entity was so important that on the first day of Creation, God granted, "Over all people have I surrendered thee the power," ² to take life.
     Like the Talmudic version of this angel, who was said to be "full of eyes",³ doomed evil-doers can't escape The Spectre's stare.
     While this antecedent may have provided inspiration, and while Siegel's words gave The Spectre purpose, it was Baily's drawings that gave him form.


MORE FUN COMICS #52 (Feb. 1940)
     Proving himself up to the challenge, Baily accomplished the remarkable task of modernizing the traditional depiction of Death. His was a brawny Grim Reaper, sans scythe.
     Along with the hooded cloak, life-stealing eyes and blanched complexion expected of his ghastly position, The Spectre also unnecessarily sported boots, gloves and tighty-whiteies (albeit, green*) in keeping with the already de rigueur superhero fashion of the era.
     *(In reality, The Spectre was initially depicted as being gray. My assumption--supported by two panels near the end of his origin story in MORE FUN #53--is that he was wearing a costume, which was later reinterpreted as his bloodless pallor. Furthermore, MORE FUN #52 had his cloak, gloves, boots and shorts colored blue. This coloring suggests that DC wanted potential comic book buyers to confuse this ghostly newcomer with their current star, The Batman.)


MORE FUN COMICS #53 (March 1940)
     (Addendum: to further complicate matters, the VERY first appearance of The Spectre, in the last panel of Baily's final Buccaneer story, bizarrely depicts him as having a purple cape, blue shirt and a green face!)


MORE FUN COMICS #51 (Jan. 1940)
Last page of Baily's final Buccaneer story
     Baily's drawing was equal to The Spectre's grim task. Terrified villains would visibly cower at his appearance, mouths agape, while his pupil-less eyes would send chills through the reader. As the Earthbound ghost was unapologetically remorseless, Bernie responded with appropriately graphic bluntness. In one memorable sequence from MORE FUN #56, The Spectre first crushes, then heaves, a car full of pleading criminals. Mercy be damned!


MORE FUN COMICS #56 (June 1940)
[as reprinted in THE GOLDEN AGE SPECTRE ARCHIVES]
     Baily also proved to be a masterful cover artist. His striking rendition of a towering Spectre striding through a battlefield, wreaking destruction, ranks as one of the most iconic images of the Golden Age.


MORE FUN COMICS #54 (April 1940)
     One might think that the portrayer of such Old Testament-minded retribution to be a misanthropic recluse, but nothing was further from the truth.
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     When Bernie married the former Regina Rachinsky on June 24, 1939, he had already taken to using the truncated version of his last name, Bailynson. "He always said," Stephen Baily told me,"the reason he did it was that there was a Mickey Mouse wristwatch he coveted when he was young in which you could substitute the letters of your name for the numbers--and Bernard Bailynson was four letters too long." Then, too, the Anglicization to Baily wouldn't hurt when looking for a job.


Bernie and Regina Baily
[photo courtesy of Eugene Baily]
     Regina, born Riva, emigrated to the U.S. from Russia with her family in 1923. While details of her grandparents courtship are lost, granddaughter Miriam Risko recalled, "...I heard they met in the Catskills."
     The young couple moved into a four room apartment in a 13-story high-rise at 22 Metropolitan Oval in The Bronx. The kitchen table in apartment 5H became Bernie's de facto art studio.


22 Metropolitan Oval
The Bronx, New York
     At about the same time the Bailys were beginning their life's journey, Bernie's comic career was beginning to take off.
     While The Spectre replaced his Buccaneer feature in MORE FUN, Baily continued work on Tex Thomson.
     "At the time," Baily told Ron Goulart, "I feel everything was being geared to Superman, who'd become their big property. At the height of his popularity, in the beginning, I had my Tex Thomson feature in ACTION. I created a cyclops character called The Gorrah."


"The Return of the Gorrah!!"
ACTION COMICS #27 (August 1940)
[image courtesy of Bruce Mason]
     "Now, they had a contest at that time. The kids sent in the names of the characters they liked the best and that character ran so close to Superman in popularity that they made me cut it out. Really." ⁴
     In the same issue as the above mentioned Gorrah story, Bernie got the rare opportunity to display his humorous side, with the filler page, Mr. Pots. Just the month before, in ADVENTURE COMICS #52 (July 1940) and then again in MORE FUN COMICS #58 (Aug. 1940), Baily contributed a Farmer Doode page to each issue.


Farmer Doode page
ADVENTURE COMICS #52 (July 1940)
     Meanwhile, Editor Vin Sullivan apparently had enough confidence in the Tex Thomson creative team to assign them another feature, a new super-powered hero to headline ADVENTURE COMICS.
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     While Jim Corrigan paid the ultimate price to transform into The Spectre, writer Ken Fitch ⁵didn't expect Rex Tyler to make a similarly gruesome sacrifice to become the Hour-Man. He simply took a pill.

     "Rex Tyler, a young chemist, discovers MIRALCO, a powerful chemical that transforms him from a meek, mild scientist to the underworld's most formidable foe...with MIRALCO, he has for one hour the power of chained-lightning--speed almost as swift as thought. But unless he performs his deeds of strength and daring within one hour the effects of MIRALCO wear off and the Hour Man becomes his former meek self..." -- Introduction from the splash page of ADVENTURE COMICS #48


"Presenting 'Tick Tock Tyler' The Hour-Man"
ADVENTURE COMICS #48 (March 1940)
     Ken Fitch was 13 years older than Baily and his upbringing couldn't have been more different. Born and raised in Norwalk, Connecticut, Fitch had deep familial roots in the Nutmeg State going back hundreds of years and an ancestry that boasted colonial governor Thomas Fitch. ⁶
     Before heading off to Pace College in New York and obtaining a degree in accounting, Fitch was a member of the Young Men's Community Club; an organization whose presidency he fiercely pursued. The battle between Fitch and his main opponent was dutifully chronicled in the Norwalk newspaper's local news column.
     Now, that in itself may not matter much. What is interesting, though, is the name THE NORWALK HOUR gave to the anonymous reporter who wrote of Fitch's campaign. This writer was known as "Hour Man".


Hour Man column
THE NORWALK HOUR (July 9, 1920)
     As a life-long Norwalk resident, Fitch was undoubtedly aware of this long-running column, but whether his appropriation of its writer's nom de plume was intentional or based upon latent memory will never be known.
     Baily's depiction of Hour-Man was straight forward. Clothed head-to-toe in a traditional circus strongman's outfit, the Man of the Hour's added accouterments were his cape, half-mask and a dangling hourglass to remind him of his time constraint. And if he forgot, small boxes counting down the waning minutes appeared at the bottom of every few panels.
     Although lacking The Spectre's moodiness and opportunity for expanding his artistic horizons, it was Baily's Hour-Man that received the editorial popularity boost. In ADVENTURE #54, at the end of a tale involving his new young partners, The Minute Men of America (a bit of jingoist provincialism from Fitch--the Connecticut Yankee in Rex Tyler's court), an announcement in the last panel informed readers of a contest that included a cash prize and an original piece of artwork from Baily.


ADVENTURE COMICS #54 (Sept. 1940)
[image courtesy of James Ludwig]
     The entries were read, the winners determined and finally, in ADVENTURE #57, their names were announced.


ADVENTURE COMICS #57 (Dec. 1940)
[image courtesy of James Ludwig]
     Along with the $1.00 cash prize, the ten winners each received their personalized artwork, including "William Carroll", the first person listed.


Hour-Man contest winner original art
inscribed to "William Carroll"
[image courtesy of Jon Berk]
     Soon after their debuts, both The Spectre and Hour-Man would find themselves appearing in other venues.
     When the New York World's Fair opened for its second season on May 11, 1940, the kids in the crowd who were able to coax their parents into spending the exorbitant sum of 15 cents for a comic book (!), were greeted by a cover featuring DC's big guns--Superman, Batman and his young sidekick, Robin--waving cheerily back at them. Not to be outdone, the newcomer, Hour-Man, had secured a place on the inside for his own fair-oriented adventure.


NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR COMICS #2 (1940)
     Virtually simultaneously (on May 24th, actually), ALL-STAR COMICS #1 (Summer 1940) appeared on newsstands, featuring both The Spectre and Hour-Man, both illustrated by Baily.


ALL-STAR COMICS #1 (Summer 1940)
     The concept of ALL-STAR was likely an outgrowth of the NEW YORK WORLD'S FAIR comics' success. Instead of featuring its heavy hitters, though, DC and related publisher All-American,⁷ chose to showcase their second-tier heroes in this new title.
     Along with DC's Sandman and All-American's Ultra-Man and The Flash, Baily's Spectre captured one of the coveted quarters of the cover. Meanwhile, Hour-Man was relegated to "Also Featuring" status in a blurb along the bottom. The disparity continued on the interior as Hour-Man was given just six pages for his adventure, while The Spectre topped everyone with his ten-page tale.


The Spectre splash page from ALL-STAR #1
Debut of classic Spectre logo, which was essentially
a reworking of Baily's MORE FUN #54 cover.
[as reprinted in THE GREAT COMIC BOOK HEROES]
     The Spectre's cover presence percentage increased with the second issue as Ultra-Man was gone and he now appeared alongside only The Flash and Green Lantern.
     While the first two issues of ALL-STAR were anthology comics made up of unrelated individual adventures, a radical new format was introduced in ALL-STAR #3.
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     "I worked from the beginning with the Justice Society stories," wrote famed writer, Gardner Fox, in a letter dated March 26, 1979, "though the idea of creating the Justice Society was Gaines' (I believe)."⁸ Additionally, Roy Thomas has speculated it was the aforementioned 1940 WORLD'S FAIR comic cover that inspired the concept of a super-team.⁹
     Whatever the inspiration, the format premiered in ALL-STAR #3 allowed the reader to see their favorite super-heroes (and DC/All-American had more than anyone else at the time) meeting to swap stories of their exploits.


ALL-STAR COMICS #3 (Winter 1940)
     Each hero related their individual adventure in turn. The Spectre told of his battle with an interplanetary beast named Oom. Baily's unique style was well-suited to depicting their cosmic rumble.


Baily Spectre page
from ALL-STAR COMICS #3

     Unlike the other JSA members, who ended their tale in one panel before the next hero appeared in the following one, The Spectre and Hour-Man (spelled Hourman here) occupied one panel in a seamless segue. Curiously, even though it appeared in the middle of a Baily drawn page, this panel was drawn by E.E. Hibbard, who also provided the bracketing JSA sequences and the linking interludes between the individual adventures.


The Spectre and Hour-Man panel
from ALL-STAR COMICS #3
drawn by E.E. Hibbard
     For his part, Hour-Man battled a gang of thieves dressed to look like him. In this case, Baily's artistic versatility prevailed over a fairly pedestrian story.


Baily Hour-Man page
from ALL-STAR COMICS #3

     By 1941, with two lead features, their additional ALL-STAR stories and his long-running Tex Thomson, Baily had established himself as DC's most reliable artist. He was also apparently given a greater say in the plotting of The Spectre.
     "The thing I created in The Spectre was his sidekick, Percival Popp, the Super Cop. An interesting thing is that in many cases the side characters became more popular than the main characters. For the obvious reason that you could do more with them."¹⁰
     While it's difficult to see how anyone could do more with a bumbling, self-deluding, wanna-be detective than the limitless wraith, Percival Popp not only became a part of The Spectre's supporting cast, he eventually took over his feature.


MORE FUN COMICS #81 (July 1942)
[image courtesy of Bruce Mason]
     But introduction of Popp in MORE FUN #74 (Dec. 1941) wasn't totally driven by creative possibilities. There were larger concerns.
     In an article dated May 8, 1940, author Sterling North decried the fact that, "Virtually every child in America is reading color "comic" magazines--a poisonous mushroom growth of the last two years."
     North seized the moral high ground, royally noting that, "...we found that the bulk of these lurid publications depend for their appeal upon mayhem, murder, torture and abduction...".
     What likely resonated particularly at DC, was North's scorn for, "Superman heroics, voluptuous females in scanty attire, blazing machine guns, "hooded" justice...".¹¹ The pointed mention of their franchise star made it apparent that they were a target.
     In reaction to North's essay and the growing murmur of condemnation heard expressed by other concerned citizens, DC developed an in-house editorial code that mandated squeaky clean behavior from its heroes, including the edict that none of them would ever knowingly kill. What was a minor inconvenience for Superman, was a game-changer for The Spectre.
     By the summer of 1941, the company had also created an Editorial Advisory Board, populated with child-rearing specialists and other upstanding citizens. Goodbye death-staring Spirit of Vengeance, hello clownish Super Cop.
     The Spectre, I can't avoid noting, became a ghost of himself .
     Meanwhile, even though the team concept in ALL-STAR was proving to be a success, Hour-Man's role in it was apparently not. He became the first original member of the JSA to leave, making his last appearance in issue #7 (Oct.-Nov. 1941). What prompted Hour-Man's departure is speculative (He was granted a leave of absence after the last JSA story in this issue.), but it resulted in Baily having one less story to draw each month. And the loss of income couldn't have come at a worse time. Bernie's son Stephen had just been born.
     As with most who worked in comics at the time, Baily's steady production hadn't been enough to warrant special compensation. "When I was working for DC, I wasn't on salary." said Bernie, "It was always page rates."¹²
     Baily's prospects at DC were limited. Added to that fact, a growing family and a diminished workload were realities that couldn't be ignored. Reasons enough for Baily to look elsewhere to pad his income.
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     Bertram D.(“Bert”) Whitman's transient career as a cartoonist had taken him from Chicago to Los Angeles, from Detroit to Cincinnati. But like many of the young (he was born in 1908) artists eking out a living, he ended up back in his native New York City and the boomtown environment of the late-1930s comic book industry.


Bert Whitman (1961 photo)
[photo courtesy of Allan Holtz]
     While he may have established himself a bit with individual efforts in several early Fox titles¹³, Whitman quickly followed the entrepreneurial lead of Harry "A" Chesler and Eisner & Iger by forming his own comic shop, circa 1939. And Whitman's primary, if not only, client was Frank Z. Temerson.
     Temerson was the former city attorney of Birmingham, Alabama, who had partnered with Irving W. Ullman in various business ventures going back to 1935, at least. One such was the early comic publisher, Ultem Publications.
     Ultem folded in 1938, selling their titles to Centaur Publications. However, Temerson soon re-emerged with a new company, Tem (AKA Nita) Publishing, at the same 381 4th Avenue address.¹⁴
     While Bert Whitman Associates packaged such comics as CRASH and WHIRLWIND for Tem and Nita respectively, they also supplied the contents of the licensed GREEN HORNET COMICS for yet another Temerson company, Helnit Publishing.
     Both CRASH and WHIRLWIND failed quickly, off the newsstands by the fall of 1940. With his shop pretty much reduced to packaging the GREEN HORNET, Whitman began considering other options. Although a proposed Green Hornet newspaper strip didn't sell, Whitman continued to produce the comic book a bit longer, until issue #6 (Aug. 1941). He ultimately sold the publishing rights to the character to the new Harvey company (Ron Goulart wrote, "He later maintained that he made more money by selling the rights to the Green Hornet than anyone ever made off publishing comic books about him."¹⁵) and closed up his comic studio.
     In the meantime, though, Whitman had already moved on to another strip that did sell.
     In March, 1940, the Chicago Tribune debuted their new Sunday supplement, the CHICAGO TRIBUNE COMIC BOOK, a format similar to the better known SPIRIT supplement which was to come along in June of that year.


Bert Whitman Mr. Ex page (circa 1941)
[image courtesy of George Hagenauer]
     Whitman sold the syndicate a strip about a secret agent, a master of disguise. And on January 19, 1941, Mr. Ex premiered in their supplement.
     Enter Bernie Baily.

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     It's hard not to note the irony in Bernard Baily, artist of The Spectre, being a "ghost".
     How he came to be an uncredited assistant on Bert Whitman's Mr. Ex isn't known, and neither is the exact time frame. But the loss of the Hour-Man solo story work in ALL-STAR closely corresponds to the ending of Whitman's comic shop, circa the summer of 1941.
     It is difficult to ascertain exactly what strips Baily had a hand in. As with many "ghosts", Baily's own style virtually disappears in an effort to maintain visual continuity with Whitman's. But Baily's moody, seriousness appears at times in contrast to Whitman's own lighter, cartoony style, as in the undated Mr. Ex strips that were reprinted in A-1 COMICS #2 (1944).


Mr. Ex page
from A-1 COMICS #2 (circa 1944)
     Even though Mr. Ex ran until late June of 1943, Whitman was still drawing comic books. As was Bernie.
     In Fawcett's MASTER COMICS #32 (Nov. 4, 1942), Whitman took up the art chores on the ongoing El Carim feature, introducing Balbo, Boy Magician in the process. By the next issue, Balbo had taken El Carim's spot in MASTER's line-up.
     Coincidentally (or not?), an inter-office memo dated "Sept. 21"--without a year designated, but likely 1942--notes that Baily was also working for Fawcett. Historian Roger Hill, who revealed the contents of this memo to me, reports that Baily is credited with having completed a Captain Marvel Jr. story entitled, "Once Upon a Time".
     Armed with this information, I conducted a search of CM Jr. stories and though that line didn't show up as a title, it did appear as an opening line in a CM Jr. backup tale in CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. #2 (Dec. 18, 1942).


"The Pied Piper of Himmler" splash page
CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. #2 (Dec. 18, 1942)
     Once again, it is hard to see Baily's style in this work (perhaps it is only his pencils under another artist's inking). The intent was to give the illusion that primary CM Jr. artist, Mac Raboy, was drawing this back-up as well.


Comparison of panel details
from MORE FUN #68 and CAPTAIN MARVEL JR. #2

     As with other CM Jr. artists, Baily employed liberal use of pasted-up stock Raboy poses and CM Jr. faces. Unlike his DC art, this story is unsigned--not only in deference to his role as a "ghost", but likely a job-saving consideration in light of DC's discouragement of their artists' freelancing, particularly with their main competitor.
     Bernie's moonlighting at Fawcett continued at least until early 1943. A March 29, 1943 artists rate list retrieved from the files of editorial director Ralph Daigh (and published in P.C. Hamerlinck's FAWCETT COMPANION), indicates that Baily was still producing work for the company at that time. Note, too, that his credits also included artwork for the Spy Smasher feature.


Fawcett artist rate list (March 29, 1943)
crediting "Bernard Bailey" (sic)
[image courtesy of P.C. Hamerlinck]
     Curiously, at about the same time, Bernie was getting a helping hand on The Spectre. The helping hand of Pierce Rice.
     The Spectre chapter in ALL-STAR COMICS #14 (Dec. 1942-Jan. 1943) has been identified as having been penciled by Rice, with Baily providing the inks. Furthermore, Rice also handled the art chores on the Ghostly Guardian's story in MORE FUN COMICS #90 (April 1943).


Pierce Rice Spectre splash page
MORE FUN COMICS #90 (April 1943)
     At first look, it doesn't add up. Why would an artist jeopardize his bread-and-butter job (and split his page rate) in order to pick up a few assignments elsewhere? It's not like Baily was overwhelmed with work at DC. During this same time period--fall of 1942--Hourman (who had lost his hyphen along the way), ended with ADVENTURE COMICS #83 (Feb. 1943).
     So what was going on?
     A clue can be found in a statement made by Bernie's son, Stephen.
     "From the time he was a kid he preferred working for himself."
     Fate had positioned Baily perfectly. The burgeoning comic book industry was full of guys just like him: would-be entrepreneurs with little money, but a lot of moxie.
     The marketplace demanded material; it was ravenous...and undiscriminating. At best, quality was an afterthought; publishers just needed something to fill their pages. This shallow need spawned the comic shops--low paying, no frills, grind-it-out art sweatshops.
     Bernie Baily had seen Jerry Iger, Will Eisner and Bert Whitman profit from this business model.
     Why not him?


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¹ Baily, Bernard. interview by Ron Goulart, "Golden Age Memories", THE HISTORY OF DC COMICS (1987), pgs. 50-51.

² Tan. to Ex. xxxi. 18; ed. Stettin, p. 315.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Baily, op. cit.

⁵ There has been some debate as to the writer of the first Hour-Man story. Even the influential Grand Comic Book Database [GCD] site credited Gardner Fox for some time. My inquiries into the subject led historians Craig Delich and Martin O'Hearn to re-evaluate the writing style of the origin story. In an April 15, 2009 email, Delich informed me, "Ken Fitch wrote the Hour-Man story in NY WORLD'S FAIR 1940, and also wrote the stories for the character in ALL-STAR #2, and ADVENTURE #48 well into issues in the 50's.The credits came from Jerry Bails, who got it from Fitch himself, who also said that he created the character." Delich, with verification from O'Hearn, made subsequent corrections to the GCD credits.

⁶ Another Fitch ancestor, the Governor's son, Colonel Thomas Fitch, Jr., was THE "Yankee Doodle". According to the story, during the French and Indian War, Fitch commanded a rag-tag troop of colonists attached to the British army. Elisabeth Fitch, the colonel's sister, thought to dress-up the uniform-less Norwalkers by giving them chicken feathers to wear as plumes in their hats. Upon seeing this, the British regulars ridiculed them unmercifully, prompting one of them to mockingly change the words to the then popular tune, Lucy Locket, to what we now know as Yankee Doodle.

⁷ All-American (AA) Publications was owned by Max C. Gaines and, ostensibly, Jack Liebowitz, DC's "secretary and treasurer". In reality, Liebowitz, while certainly a partner, was gifted that position by Harry Donenfeld, Detective Comics undeniably shady owner and the real money behind AA. The two companies enjoyed a special relationship, outwardly evidenced by reciprocal advertising and the publication of ALL-STAR COMICS.
     Eventually, Gaines would sell his share of AA to DC, as it became one part of the amalgamation of distribution and comic book companies under the umbrella corporation, National Periodical Publications.

⁸ Fox, Gardner. letter printed in ROBIN SNYDER'S HISTORY OF COMICS, vol. 2, #2, (Feb. 1991).

⁹ Thomas, Roy, "Seven Years Before the Masthead", THE ALL-STAR COMPANION, (2004), pgs. 13-14.

¹⁰ Baily, op. cit.

¹¹ North, Sterling, "A National Disgrace", THE CHICAGO DAILY NEWS, May 8, 1940.

¹² Baily, op. cit.

¹³ Although several sources give Whitman credits as early as NEW FUN #1 (Feb. 1935), this is unlikely. Not only was Whitman living and working halfway across the country at the time, the feature credited to him--Judge Perkins--was probably drawn by Bert Salg, a veteran illustrator who died in 1938.

¹⁴ The Temerson saga is an involved one that necessarily dovetails into a discussion of the quagmire surrounding such publishers as Holyoke and a plethora of small publishers with a possible, but indeterminate, relationship. As Bernie Baily was himself related to this discussion, I will return to it in a later installment of his story.

¹⁵ Goulart, Ron. COMIC BOOK CULTURE: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY, (2000), pg. 113.

The Spectre and the Almost Man, Part 1

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

(This project has been long in development. I would like to thank the following kind individuals for their contributions, patience and help. I couldn't have done this without them:

Jim Amash, Ger Apeldoorn, Amy Baily, Eugene Baily, Stephen Baily, Shaun Clancy, Beau Collier, Craig Delich, Michael Feldman, Bob Fujitani, Ron Goulart, George Hagenauer, Dave Hartwell, Roger Hill, Allan Holtz, Carmine Infantino, Bruce Mason, Harry Mendryk, Frank Motler, Will Murray, Marc Tyler Nobleman, Martin O'Hearn, Howard Post, Lynn Potter, Miriam Baily Risko, Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr., Dr. Michael Vassallo, and Hames Ware. -- Ken Quattro)
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INTRODUCTION
     His work appeared in some of the most important comic books in the history of the medium.
     His comic studio was the breeding ground of legends.
     He drew some of the most memorable covers of the 1950s.
     He was an artist, a writer, an editor and a publisher.
     And chances are you know little or nothing about Bernard Baily.
__________________________________________________________

      Dr. Harold G. Campbell stood at the podium surveying the audience. Before him sat 228 graduating seniors of New York City high schools who had been chosen as the June, 1933 recipients of the Cooperation-in-Government award. The award was given semi-annually to those that had performed an outstanding piece of public service and was considered to be the highest honor bestowed upon a student.
     “Of the nearly 4,000 who have received the awards,” Dr. Campbell proclaimed, “not one has failed to make good.” ¹
     Not one has failed to make good. Practically a guarantee of success.
     “I congratulate you as super-graduates on the fact that each of you in your school has stood out as a person upon whom that school can put its stamp of approval.” ²
     As the noble words of the Ephebic Oath were administered and recited by the eager young students seated about him, Bernard Bailynson had to be feeling good about his prospects. He was, after all, one of the “super-graduates”, one of only a handful representing James Monroe High School in The Bronx. Not bad for a child of immigrant parents. Not bad at all.
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      As family legend has it, Gershon Beilinsohn used to cut the hair of “Crazy Moyshe the Painter” back in their native Vitebsk, Russia. Moyshe eventually left Russia and changed his name to Marc Chagall when he reached Paris, while Gershon became Harry Bailynson when his name was Anglecized as he passed through Ellis Island in 1910. Rumors were that Gershon was a deserter on the run from the czar's army, but that tale, too, remains unsubstantiated.
      Harry had sailed to the U. S. aboard the T.S.S. Rotterdam--pride of the Holland America Line. Unlike the well-heeled First and Second cabin passengers that enjoyed their luxurious accommodations and the ocean breezes as they strolled the promenade deck, it's likely Harry spent his voyage crammed into steerage with some 2,000 other immigrants.


T.S.S. Rotterdam
      Harry settled in the teeming ethnic melting pot of The Bronx. In time, he resumed his vocation as a barber. If the story is true, Harry once again had a brush with history when he cut the hair of Leon Trotsky during the revolutionary leader's brief stay in The Bronx. Harry also met a girl from his hometown of Vitesbsk (a common occurrence in the tightly-knit Eastern European Jewish enclaves in New York City) and married her. While her given name was Zelda, she went by the more American sounding, Jenny.
     Back in Russia, Jenny was a dressmaker, a gifted one who had her own business while still a young woman. But now in America, the Old World paternalism of her husband wouldn't allow her to work outside the home, even when times were tough. She had four children to raise; Bernard was the oldest.
__________________________________________________________

     Bernard was born April 5,1916, and accounts of his early years have mostly faded from memory. What is known is that by the time he reached James Monroe High School, Bernie began making his mark.


James Monroe High School, The Bronx
     “I think he began drawing cartoons in high school, " wrote Bernard’s eldest son, Stephen Baily, "possibly for the student newspaper. I also have a vague memory of him telling me that he sold his first cartoon while he was still in high school. I don't know if he had any formal training”.
     Stephen's father never gave the full, biographical interview that comic fans and historians glean for details. Perhaps he considered that part of his life private, perhaps it recalled bad memories. In any case, it was his sons Stephen and Eugene that I turned to in hopes of filling in the blanks.
     Legendary comic creator Sheldon Moldoff, in an interview with Roy Thomas, remembered that Bernie, "...lived in the same apartment house I did in the Bronx. He was a few years older than me; he went to James Monroe High School, and he was also his school's newspaper cartoonist. He was a very good-looking guy, and I think he was class president." ³
     President of the school's General Organization (G.O.), Baily called for a student walk-out over the questionable use of student dues paid to the group’s fund. His actions led to a brief expulsion in his senior year, but he apparently stayed in the good graces of the school’s administration as they nominated him for the prestigious citizenship award.
     Moldoff continued, recounting his first meeting Bernie.
     "I was drawing in chalk on the sidewalk-Popeye and Betty Boop and other popular cartoons of the day-and he came by and looked at it and said, "Hey, do you want to learn how to draw cartoons?" I said, "Yes!" He said, "Come on, I'll show you how to draw." So we went across the street and sat on a bench in the park, and he showed me how to start with a circle, and how to make the body, and how to make a smile, and the proportions for cartoons. He said, "Keep practicing. I live on the fourth floor, and if you want to show me some of your work, I'll be glad to look at it." So we became friendly, and I'd periodically go up and show him my stuff, and he would help me and criticize me. ⁴
     Moldoff lost touch with Baily when the latter moved away. Bernie's son Stephen picks up here: “(my father) told me that he was offered a scholarship to the Philadelphia Art Institute (or possibly it was a Boston art school) after high school but that he turned it down because he was already selling his artwork.”
     Eugene remembers a bit more, “I think my father went to City College, but my memory also suggests it might have been Columbia; it never went beyond the first year.”
     City College of New York was a natural choice for Depression era high school grads. Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, coincidentally speaking before the January, 1934 graduating class at James Monroe, urged the students to enroll at City College instead of entering the strained job market. More importantly, tuition was relatively cheap: $2.50 per credit hour.
__________________________________________________________

     While some questions remain about his education, there is little conjecture about the publication hosting Bernie’s first comic book work.
     For reasons unknown, John Henle Jr. wanted to be a publisher. He had inherited his family’s well-established shirt factory--a seemingly more secure venture than taking a flyer on the fledgling comic book industry. In any case, he set up shop in the front offices of his factory and hired a journeyman cartoonist, Samuel “Jerry” Iger, as his editor.
      Iger’s task was simple, but daunting. He had to put together a staff.
      In a perverse way, the economic realities of the time worked in his favor. This was the nadir of the Great Depression and virtually everyone was looking for a job, any job. Located firmly at the lowermost end of publishing, the emerging comic book industry became the train platform of career opportunity. Aging illustrators and cartoonists would pass through on their way down, as well as eager, young neophytes would on their way up.
      Moonlighting painter Louis Goodman Ferstadt and illustrator Serena (aka "Serene") Summerfield were a few of the veterans on staff other than Iger himself. Among the rest were Bob (actually, Kahn) Kane and Bill Eisner--two kids from DeWitt Clinton High--Dick Briefer, who had the honor of drawing the cover to the first issue, and Bernie Baily. Each of them was young, talented and ambitious; some with more ambition than talent.
     The first issue of the immodestly titled WOW, WHAT A MAGAZINE! was dated July, 1936.

Smoothie page by "Bernard"
WOW, WHAT A MAGAZINE! #1 (July, 1936)
     Baily’s contributions to this diverse mix of strips and text features were a Smoothie humor page (signed simply, “Bernard”) and the factoid-bearing Stars On Parade. This strip was drawn in the photo-realistic style of Bob Ripley or Stookie Allen, and featured movie-star trivia along with illustrations of Shirley Temple and Fred Astaire. It was also the prototype for other Baily features that would follow.

Stars on Parade page
WOW, WHAT A MAGAZINE! #1 (July, 1936)
     Henle’s publishing venture was short-lived as WOW ended with its fourth issue. Whatever personal gratification Bernie gained from being published, it is reasonable to assume that financially his experience was much like Eisner’s, who once told an interviewer: “I ended up being owed money I never collected.” ⁵
     Even Iger found himself on the street. “Iger was let go, of course. There's no need for an editor at a shirt-manufacturing business.” ⁶ Faced with a similar dilemma, Eisner approached Iger and proposed a business arrangement. Using Eisner’s modest investment (a very modest $15) to rent office space, they opened their own comic studio. Their intent was to supply original content for the growing comic market. And they didn’t have to go far to find artists to fill their shop. From out of the ashes of WOW! came much of the first incarnation of the Eisner & Iger Studio.
     At Eisner and Iger, Baily specialized in the Stars on Parade format he'd begun in WOW!. now titled Screen Snapshots, it debuted in "Busy" Arnold's FEATURE FUNNIES #2 (Nov. 1937).


Screen Snapshots page
FEATURE FUNNIES #16 (Jan. 1939)
     Under the shop-name of "Glenda Carol", Baily continued it as Movie Memos in Fox's WONDER COMICS #1 and #2 (May and June 1939, respectively) and early issues of its successor, WONDERWORLD COMICS.


Movie Memos page
WONDER COMICS #1 (May 1939)
signed "Glenda Carol"
     Breaking out of that mold, Bernie drew the Gilda Gay strip for Eisner and Iger's Phoenix Features Syndicate, circa 1938.


Gilda Gay strip
(circa 1938, as published July 21, 1943)
     Originally intended (and regionally distributed) as a newspaper daily strip, Gilda found it's way into JUMBO COMICS #1 (Sept. 1938). Following the life of a stylish career gal, Gilda Gay (based in name upon dancer Gilda Gray), the strip found new life in the mid-1940s when it was acquired along with other Phoenix Features material such as Eisner's Harry Karry and Stars on Parade, by strip re-marketer International Cartoon Company. It's unlikely none of the artists involved in these strips, including Bernie, saw any remuneration for this secondary publishing of their work.
     Another daily strip, Phyllis, was reportedly drawn by Baily for the same Keystone/Lincoln Features syndicate, circa 1938-39, that published some of Jack Kirby's early work. To this point, however, no example has been found.
     In any case, sometime in 1938 Bernie Baily left Eisner and Iger.
     It's tempting to draw comparisons between Eisner and Baily. To be begin with, they shared similar back-stories: a couple of Jewish kids from The Bronx using their artistic talent to better their circumstances. Moreover, neither was inclined to simply make ends meet.
     With a business savvy that at least equaled his drawing ability, Eisner was among the first of his generation to capitalize on the opportunities afforded by the burgeoning comic book industry. Years later, he would tell interviewer Marilyn Mercer that, "I got very rich before I was 22." ⁷
     Bernie witnessed that success and perhaps he looked at Eisner's path as a template for his own career. He also had the drive, the intelligence and the talent--how could he fail?
     But he wouldn't go far working within the confines of a comic shop. With that likely in mind, Bernie found work at Detective Comics (DC).
__________________________________________________________

     Baily arrived at DC in early 1938, shortly after founder Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson went bankrupt and Nicholson Publishing Company's assets were bought by Harry Donenfeld. Under the editorship of Vin Sullivan, Bernie was assigned two regular features.
     Debuting in MORE FUN COMICS #32 (June 1938), The Buccaneer strip owed its existence to the popularity of such Errol Flynn film swashbucklers as "Captain Blood" and perhaps more directly, Eisner's Hawks of the Seas. Baily had the opportunity to see that strip in its earliest incarnation in WOW, WHAT A MAGAZINE! and then as it became the lead feature of the Eisner and Iger shop.


The Buccaneer page
MORE FUN COMICS #37 (Nov. 1938)
     In early issues, not surprisingly, lingering vestiges of the Eisner and Iger shop style show through in Baily's drawing.

The Buccaneer panel
MORE FUN COMICS #38 (Dec. 1938)
     But gradually, he sheds the shop look and his own style emerges; a simplistic, edgy form of Mannerism.

The Buccaneer page
MORE FUN COMICS #48 (Oct. 1939)
     The comic book industry of the time was a small world unto itself. There were still only a handful of publishers and invariably, career paths would intersect time and again.
     "I was at National bringing in some filler pages for Vin Sullivan," Shelly Moldoff recalled, "and in walks Bernard Baily! He looked at me, and he said, "Sheldon?" I said, "Yeah, Bernie, how are ya?" He said, "Well, you made it, huh?" I said, "Yeah, yeah, thanks to help from you and other people, I'm a cartoonist!" ⁸
     Bernie's other strip was Tex Thomson, which appeared in another comic cover-dated June, 1938: ACTION COMICS #1. The feature, which followed the exploits of a wealthy globetrotting Texan, was the creation of veteran comic writer, Ken Fitch.


Tex Thomson splash page
ACTION COMICS #1 (June 1938)
     The first adventure, full of thick, black shadows and close-ups, exhibited the probable influence of film (and perhaps Milton Caniff) upon Baily; the contemporary setting seemingly a more comfortable fit for the artist than a period adventure.


Ken Fitch portrait
from SYNDICATE FEATURES #3 (Nov. 15,1937),
promotional flyer for the Harry "A" Chesler Syndicate
     Fitch had a wide-ranging résumé--wandering from longshoreman, to insurance salesman, to printing press operator--but what mattered in this case, he had credits at DC (née National Allied Publications) going back to the company's first comic book, NEW FUN COMICS #1 (Feb. 1935). He was also a stalwart of the Harry "A" Chesler shop, authoring such features as Dan Hastings as well as editing four of Chesler's comics. ⁹


Tex Thomson splash page
ACTION COMICS #17 (Oct. 1939)
[image retrieved from the Who's Whose in the DC Universe site
     Bernie had one more contribution to the premiere issue of ACTION--a filler page titled, Stardust, that was yet another version of his Stars on Parade format.


Stardust page, signed by "The Star-Gazer"
ACTION COMICS #1 (June 1938)
     As apparent evidence that he was quickly learning the tricks of the comic book trade, Baily re-used the image of Fred Astaire from WOW, WHAT A MAGAZINE! #1. Why re-draw what you can cut-and-paste? Perhaps Baily felt some remorse at the double-dip, since he signed the page anonymously as "The Star-Gazer".
      Ironically, though, it wasn't Baily's work on Tex Thomson (or his other strips) that would have the most lasting effect on his career. It was the success of another feature from that first issue of ACTION.
     As the sales figures came in, it was apparent that the cover feature was a winner--a character and concept that had been knocking around for years. Although its creators were already fixtures in DC’s comics, it was only when a young assistant editor at the McClure Syndicate, Sheldon Mayer, suggested that his boss Max Gaines take another look at this frequently rejected strip that it finally saw publication. Unable to use the strip himself, Gaines took it to his clients at DC.
     Gaines had a discussion, "...with Mr. Liebowitz and Mr. Sullivan, the editor of the comic magazines for the Detective Comics group, and impressed upon him the fact that this would be a good idea and by all means to use it in Action Comics." ¹⁰
     However, even they had to be surprised at the immediate success of Superman.

Superman panel
ACTION COMICS #1 (June 1938), pg. 1
by Joe Shuster
     Jerry Siegel had distilled most of the attributes people wanted in their heroes and poured them into the alter ego of Clark Kent. He was strong as could be, kind-hearted and just. Aware of his awesome power, Superman always pulled his punches. The same couldn't be said of The Batman.
     Following less than a year on the red-booted heels of Superman, The Batman was the inspired creation of writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane.
     (Kane was someone Bernie knew well from their days at Eisner and Iger. A marginal talent, his ego and hubris alienated many, including Baily. “…I know he didn’t like Bob Kane,” wrote Stephen Baily, “because he said so, often.”)
     Unlike the Kryptonian who came by his powers by landing on the right planet, The Batman had to earn his cape. Driven to avenge the death of his parents during a hold-up, Bruce Wayne resolutely forged himself into a crime-fighting machine. Whereas Superman adhered to the boundary of law, The Batman was a shadowy vigilante who meted out his own brutal interpretation of justice.
     Finger had created a hero who, like many of the pulp heroes before him, viscerally satisfied the popular desire for unforgiving punishment of evil. Siegel's immaculate creation was above common vindictiveness. A curious decision on the writer's part, as Jerry knew from personal experience that life doesn't always allow such nobility.
     On June 2, 1932, Michael Siegel, Jerry's father and the owner of a Cleveland clothing store, was robbed by three men. While it’s not clear if any of the men possessed a weapon, during the robbery, the elder Siegel collapsed and died. Although the coroner's report stated his death was due to heart failure, Jerry felt that the thieves had killed him. ¹¹
     Perhaps he was thinking of his father, or perhaps he just had The Batman on his mind, but in any case, when it came time for Jerry to create another hero, this one would be above all Earthly laws.
      And Bernie Baily would be the artist.


__________________________________________________________

ENDNOTES

¹ "228 City Students Are Honored By Civic Cooperation League" New York Times 25 June, 1933.

² Ibid.

³ Roy Thomas, "A Moon...A Bat...A Hawk", ALTER EGO vol. 3 #4 Spring 2000).

⁴ Ibid.

⁵ Tom Heintjes, THE SPIRIT: THE ORIGIN YEARS #1-4 (Kitchen Sink Press, 1992).

⁶ Ibid.

⁷ Marilyn Mercer, "The Only Real Middle-Class Crimefighter", NEW YORK, (Sunday supplement, New York Herald Tribune) pg. 8, (Jan. 9, 1966).

⁸ Thomas, op. cit.

⁹ SYNDICATE FEATURES #3, pg. 1, (Nov. 15,1937).

¹⁰ DETECTIVE COMICS, INC. v BRUNS PUBLICATIONS transcripts, pg. 133 (April 6, 1939)

¹¹ Noblemania website [The causes of Michael Siegel's death are listed on the coroner's report as "acute dilatation of heart" and "chronic myocarditis". In short, he had heart disease.]

Additional sources for general information included the archives of the NEW YORK TIMES and Ancestry.com.

The 1905 Comic Fan

(Sometimes a mystery begins with a small clue. This is one.

I'd like to thank Rod Beck, Allan Holtz, Frank Motler, Dave Reeder and Jeff Howard-Lindsey for their kind contributions.--Ken Quattro)
__________________________________________________________

San Francisco, California
July 1, 1905

The letter likely arrived with the rest of the mail.

As Harry picked up the envelope, he probably smiled at the hand-drawn caricature of him that the sender had inked on the upper left corner. Tearing it open, he read past his pen-name to the salutation.


     My dear sir: I've been trying to collect a few originals & have written to you in the hope that you can spare me one of you many drawings to add to my little store. I've drawings from ZIM, Harrison Fisher, Gordon Grant, Albert Levering, Culver, Tad, Swinnerton, Frank Opper, Bronstrup, H. King, Everett Shinn, E.J. Cross, Maynard Dixon, R.L. Goldberg, J.H. Smith, Will Grefe, Ransom and letters and etc. from a few others--as I'm very much interested in art and I think you do very good newspaper work. I have a very nice drawing from Haig Patigian which he gave me at his old studio."

At this point of the letter, perhaps Harry paused. The breathless recitation of names was impressive, as was the list itself. The letter continued.

     I admire also the stand you and The Bulletin have taken against the "grafters". My father has done all he could to purify politics in his district and sent Wyman and Steffens to jail."

This last line may have caused Harry to glance at the name at the bottom of letter. You can picture him as he nodded at the familiar last name. Fremont Older, editor of the BULLETIN, had made cleaning up city hall his personal crusade and the letter writer's father was a prominent ally.

     "Please if you can spare me anything I shall be deeply grateful to you and I assure you it will be a most welcome addition to my collection.
     Hoping to hear from you soon and wishing you all success--
     Believe me
     Very Respectfully yours,
     Edgar S. Wheelan"

Immediately below the closing was an inked drawing of a small boy accompanied by a curiously apologetic note.

     "P.S. Enclosed is a very poor proof of a drawing I did for our school book Down South--the original is pretty good for me.
     This is absolutely "ROTTEN" if you'll excuse my language--I was in a great hurry but I shouldn't have done anything."


It was obvious that the artist of the sketch was young and quite insecure about his work. It's not known exactly how or if Harry responded to this missive, but it's hard to imagine he didn't respond with a drawing of his own. After all, courtesy demanded it, and furthermore, it wouldn't hurt to show kindness to the son of a prestigious family.
__________________________________________________________

Fairfax Henry Wheelan cast a long shadow. A native San Franciscan, he was Harvard educated, vice-president of Southern Pacific Milling Company, head of several charitable organizations and as his son alluded, a leader against the political corruption that was prevalent in the city. In the wake of the devastating earthquake of April 18, 1906, Fairfax was one of the Committee of Fifty that led the city's relief efforts. And oh, yes,--he was a former classmate and close friend of President Theodore Roosevelt.

The distaff side of the Wheelan family was no less impressive. Albertine Randall Wheelan, in fact, was even better known than her husband. Her fame as an illustrator of children's books, calendars and magazines had made her name recognizable far beyond the Bay area and put her son Edgar in an advantageous position to pursue his art collecting. In a display of evidential marital bliss, she even illustrated her husband's few literary efforts for ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE.


Pansies for Thoughts
by Fairfax and Albertine Wheelan
ST. NICHOLAS MAGAZINE, pg 353 (March 1888)
In this case, the apple didn't fall far from the maternal tree. In 1905, Edgar was 17-years old and an aspiring artist as well as art lover. Still a few years away from beginning his own career as a cartoonist.

Harry--actually his given name was Henry--was eight years older than Edgar and had a more common upbringing. He was the son of French immigrants, Louis and Louise, who settled in San Rafael, a picturesque Marin County community north of the Golden Gate narrows from San Francisco.

an 1884 drawing depicting San Rafael
Louis was a tailor and a respected town leader, but he didn't have the Wheelan's wealth or connections. Youngest son Harry attended the Mark Hopkins Art Institute while making a living as an illustrator for the SAN FRANCISCO BULLETIN.

The Bay area was a spawning ground of artistic talent that included Jimmy Swinnerton, "Tad" Dorgan, Rube Goldberg and Herb Roth, the latter two being friends of Harry's future wife, Donna.


Undated note from Herb Roth to Adonias "Donna" Fulton
Roth's note mentions "R.L.G."--his high school pal "Rube" Goldberg, one of their art teachers at Polytechnic High School, Rose Murdock, and noted sculptor, Haig Patigian.

Within a year of Edgar's letter to him, Harry had moved over to the competing SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE where, he would later claim, he worked with a young sports cartoonist named Bud Fisher, who had just begun work on his new daily strip featuring a "Mr. A. Mutt" ("Jeff" would come a bit later).


SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE (Oct. 7, 1906)
[image retrieved from Heritage Auction Galleries site]
The strip made its CHRONICLE debut on November 15, 1907, but by December, Fisher took a better offer from William Randolph Hearst's SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER.

"A. Mutt Starts in to Play the Races" (1907)
While there is no proof that Harry assisted Fisher (though he most certainly had assistants), nor followed him to the EXAMINER, it is apparent that when Fisher made the move to New York and Hearst's NEW YORK AMERICAN in 1909, so did Harry.

Edgar, too, had moved on. After graduating in 1911 from Cornell University, he too took a job at the SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER as a sports cartoonist. While they may not have crossed paths while still in San Francisco, when Wheelan relocated to New York to work at Hearst's NEW YORK AMERICAN in 1915, he found Harry working there as well.

During his tenure at the AMERICAN, Harry also freelanced for various publications such as THE OUTING MAGAZINE and JUDGE. While he never quite broke into the ranks of the upper echelon illustrators, Harry had established a solid career and reputation.


THE OUTING MAGAZINE, pg. 674 (Sept. 1910)
illustration detail
In 1920, the commercial art firm of Louis C. Pedlar, Inc. announced Harry's hiring in PRINTER'S INK magazine. Touting "...his wide experience as a black and white artist, and a colorist of infinite imagination," their ad went on to proclaim that he was, "also a specialist in animal and Western subjects which gives his prowess an added value and wider scope."*

Still, Harry didn't equal the success of his younger admirer. In 1917, Edgar had come upon the novel idea of comic strip continuity. His "Midget Movies" strip was premised on the concept that it followed the episodic film offerings of an acting troupe. Wheelan even drew sprocket holes and used movie techniques such as scene fades to strengthen the film format.

"Midget Movies" (1917)
[image courtesy of Allan Holtz's Stripper's Guide blog]
The strip (eventually dubbed "Minute Movies" when he left Hearst's employ) was a hit. This success subsequently spurred a number of imitations (including its successor for Hearst, Elzie Segar's "Thimble Theater") and, not to mention, established a fundamental comic strip device.


Ed Wheelan newspaper photo (Nov. 21, 1931)
By late 1936, "Minute Movies" successful run had ended. Early in 1937, Wheelan collaborated with Bill Walsh on a new circus themed strip entitled "Big Top". Not long after, Wheelan found another venue for the strip. There was now a burgeoning market for strip reprints to fill the pages of newsstand comic books.

The first issue of Everett "Busy" Arnold's FEATURE FUNNIES (cover dated October, 1937) contained "Big Top" reprints among its other offerings.


"Big Top" page
FEATURE FUNNIES #16 (Jan. 1939)
While the strip suffered when five dailies were reduced to fit on one comic book page, the experience still led Wheelan (and the George Matthew Adams Service syndicate) to offer "Minute Movies" in the comic book format. Unlike most other reprints, however, "Minute Movies" was published in a sideways oblong booklet entitled LITTLE GIANT MOVIE FUNNIES (Aug. 1938) from Centaur Publications. When the strip was revived in the All-American Publications', MOVIE COMICS #1 (April 1939), it was the beginning of a decade-long publishing relationship.


LITTLE GIANT MOVIE FUNNIES (Aug. 1938)
Unlike other name cartoonists, Wheelan embraced the comic book medium. As a particular favorite of All-American's young editor Sheldon Mayer, he created several new backup features, including Fat and Slat. This Mutt and Jeff-like duo proved popular enough that they were featured in ED WHEELAN'S JOKE BOOK (Dec. 1944).


Ed Wheelan photo from inside front cover
ED WHEELAN'S JOKE BOOK (Dec. 1944)
[image courtesy of Jeff Howard-Lindsey]
When Max Gaines sold All-American to DC in 1944, the Flat and Slat strip was one of the few properties that carried over when he formed Educational Comics (EC) Publications. The duo became a reliable staple of Gaines new comic line, appearing in such titles as HAPPY HOULIHANS and MOON GIRL as well as their own short-lived, four issue series beginning in 1947.


"Fat and Slat" original art
from MOON GIRL #4 (Summer 1948)
[image retrieved from Heritage Auction Galleries site]
Meanwhile, by the late 1930s, Harry likely saw his prospects dwindling. The jobs available for an aging illustrator were limited, particularly during the throes of the Great Depression. So like others in his predicament, he looked to the lowest end of the publishing industry for employment. Comic books would at least provide a paycheck.

He first found work through Funnies, Inc., Lloyd Jacquet's comic shop, illustrating such pedestrian fare as the biography of General George Marshall in TRUE COMICS #4 (Sept. 1941).


"U.S. Army Chief General George C. Marshall" splash page from TRUE COMICS #4 (Sept. 1941)
It probably took some effort for him to adapt his illustrative style to this new medium. But he did, and as odd as his work appeared at times, it apparently had its fans. At least, one fan.

Over at All-American, Gaines was trying to get a new character in print. As the story goes, his editor Mayer and the writer were involved in a debate over who was to draw the feature. Harry, for some unknown reason, was the writer's choice.

"I found an artist," the writer would claim in a 1943 AMERICAN SCHOLAR article, "...an old-time cartoonist who worked with Bud Fisher on the San Francisco Chronicle and who knows what life is all about..."**. Mayer protested that his style was too archaic. "The selection," Mayer said,"...was not my idea. It was one of the compromises I made."***. In this instance, the writer prevailed over the editor.

Now, it would be presumptuous to claim it as a fact, but was Wheelan's presence at All-American and Mayer's affection for him, a factor in Harry getting the job?

     "Dear Dr. Marston," wrote Harry, "I slapped these two out in a hurry. The eagle is tough to handle - when in perspective or in profile, he doesn't show up clearly -- the shoes look like a stenographer's. I think the idea might be incorporated as a sort of Roman contraption.


Wonder Woman model sheet (1941)
Harry simply signed this sketch to his future collaborator as "Peter", eschewing his full name, Harry George Peter. The rest, as it's said, was history. Wonder Woman not only became a hit, she became an icon.

At 61-years old, H.G. Peter had become a success. In April, 1942, he opened his own studio at 130 W. 42nd Street (although Marston's widow claimed years later that Peter was just an employee of Marston Art Studios****), employed several other artists and continued drawing Wonder Woman up until his death in 1958.


[left to right] William Moulton Marston, Harry G. Peter,
Sheldon Mayer and Max Gaines (1942)
[photo attributed to Alice Marble, as printed in
75 YEARS OF DC COMICS]
For his part, Ed Wheelan continued producing a number of features, including the "Foney Fairy Tales" back-up strip that ran in WONDER WOMAN and her sister publications, COMICS CAVALCADE and SENSATION COMICS. With his marriage in June, 1947 and Max Gaines tragic death soon after, Wheelan left comics and spent the final years of his life painting pictures of clowns.

But there was one more comic creation of his worth mentioning, perhaps the most telling Wheelan creation of all. It was "Comics McCormick", which premiered in TERRIFIC COMICS #2 (March 1944), and carried the subtitle, "The World's #1 Comic Book Fan".


Comics McCormick
TERRIFIC COMICS #2 (March 1944)
Despite a sporadic publishing history as the feature bounced from Et-Es-Go, to All-American, to EC, "Comics McCormick" charmingly depicted a young boy's love of comics; an affection Wheelan understood well.

One of the character's last appearances was also one that contained a a nod and a wink to his youthful idol, Harry G. Peter. In FLAT AND SLAT #2 (1947), "McCormick" encountered Marvel Maid, who bore a resemblance to a certain Amazonian princess.


Comics McCormick
FAT AND SLAT #2 (Fall 1947)
__________________________________________________________

I was admittedly a bit coy in not showing up front the letter that sparked this post. The original resides in my personal collection and it's my pleasure to share it with you.









__________________________________________________________
ENDNOTES

* PRINTER'S INK, Feb. 26, 1920, pg. 161.
** THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, vol. 13, pg. 43 (1943).
*** Les Daniels, WONDER WOMAN: THE COMPLETE HISTORY, pg. 24 (2004).
**** According to Roy Thomas in the article "Two Touches of Venus", When Jerry Bails mentioned Peter to Dr. Marston's widow in 1970," her response, wrote Thomas, was,"Re Harry Peter--think you must be referring to the Marston Art Studios located in the building on the southeast corner of Madison and 43rd in N.Y.C. Bill personally handled every aspect of production up to the point of sending to the printer. Harry Peter worked there, plus several young commercial artists who drifted in and out." [THE ALTER EGO COLLECTION, vol. 1, pg. 62]

However, an April 15, 1942, NEW YORK TIMES article notes an office rental at 130 W. 42nd by "Harry G. Peter, cartoonist," and no mention of Marston Art Studios. Furthermore, Peter's WWII draft registration card gives the same address with his notation that he was self-employed.

There is far more to the lives and careers of both H. G. Peter and Ed Wheelan than can be covered in this post. I highly recommend that readers scurry on over to the always informative, always excellent blog of Allan Holtz, the Stripper's Guide, for his recent post about Ed Wheelan and all things comic strip.