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 
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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

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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

OWENS v. AMERICAN STEREOGRAPHIC

     This is the third and final installment of my investigation into the litigious back story of 3-D comic books. To get a full understanding of what follows, it is best to have read both of my previous posts, "Two Views of 3-D Comics" and "Tale of the Tape". Unheard in the courtroom, but very much in the minds of the participants, chosen portions of the tape are interspersed throughout this article.-- Ken Quattro
__________________________________________________________

          FELDSTEIN: When we made all these conjectures, I lifted myself from being Lenny’s friend, and looked at it from a purely business point of view.

__________________________________________________________

THE PLAINTIFFS

     The whole situation had gotten out of hand. It started with an uncomfortable business meeting between old friends, schoolmates, suspiciously eyeing one another over a contract. Clandestine dealings and a month of contentious communications followed, capped by a surreptitiously tape-recorded interrogation/brainwashing. Smooth legalese soon tempered blunt accusations and elevated a Brooklyn street fight to a Foley Square courtroom.

Stenographer's minutes from  OWENS v. AMERICAN STEREOGRAPHIC [filed Oct. 7, 1953]

 
     On Sept. 1, 1953, the attorneys for the opposing parties appeared before Judge Irving R. Kaufman at 10:30 a.m. to argue the case. Emanuel Posnack, who represented American Stereographic, the corporation formed by brothers Norman and Leonard Maurer, their friend Joe Kubert and publisher Archer St. John, requested more time to prepare his case. Martin Scheiman, representing inventor Freeman H. Owens as well as Gaines, fought that request. Judge Kaufman heard both attorneys and granted a one week delay. The case was rescheduled for the following Tuesday, after the Labor Day holiday.
     The attorneys next appeared before Judge Edward A. Conger on September 9, 1953, which was a Wednesday. In a quick hearing, Scheiman requests to be heard as soon as possible. It is indicated that Posnack cannot make it the next day (Thursday). Court is adjourned and convenes once more at 10:30 a.m., Friday, September 11th.
     Scheiman immediately asks the judge for permission to serve Posnack with additional papers. When the court asks why, Scheiman launches into a long story explaining how Posnack served him with papers late in the afternoon the previous Wednesday. Since it was so late in the day, and the following Thursday was a Jewish holiday, he wasn’t able to serve Posnack in turn. The judge cuts Scheiman short and allows him to serve Posnack with additional papers. The court briefly adjourns.
     When court finally resumes at 12:15, Scheiman begins.
     "If your Honor please, this is a motion for a preliminary injunction in connection with a suit for the infringement of a patent issued to one Freeman H. Owens, on October 13, 1936. The patent will expire on October 13 of this year."  ¹ 
     "Then it will be moot on October 13th," reasoned Judge Conger. Scheiman agrees, and after noting all the parties involved, he points out the uniqueness of Owens patent,“…to provide a set of complementary stereographic pictures from a flat drawing.” He goes on to say, “Lest your Honor be in any way misled by what I say, I want to impress upon you that no claim is made by the Owens patent or by the plaintiffs that Mr. Owens invented anything new in the sense of stereoscopy as a science, which has been long and well known for perhaps a hundred years or so; what he did do in his invention was to make it possible to make an ordinary drawing and by a unique process convert that drawing into something which could be adapted to several forms of entertainment, advertising, and other purposes.”

"Method of Drawing and Photographing  Stereoscopic Pictures in Relief"

(patent # 2057051)      

     “If you will examine the letters patent you will note that Mr. Owens illustrated his process in part by the use of certain panels cartoon-like in character depicting what might be termed a Tarzan-like scene.”      
     "The defendants," Scheiman continued, "have produced in the recent past a number of so-called comic books. Several of them are before your Honor. The first one which was produced by the defendant St. John pursuant to the process which I have referred to as the Illustereo process professedly invented by certain of the individual defendants, was on the New York newsstands approximately on July 3rd or July 5th."
     "It has been followed in rapid succession by a number of similar comic books employing the same process."
     "It is the plaintiffs' contention, and I don't think there can be very much doubt of that in view of the affidavits that are now before this Court, that the defendants have, in fact, made use of the Owens process in the preparation and production of their comic books. 
     “The defendants have attempted to explain their position by introducing the proverbial red herring in this matter in large quantity. I submit, your Honor, that most of those red herrings are so decomposed that they putrefy the atmosphere,” Scheiman suggested. You should imagine that he took a pause to let his colorful imagery sink in.
     “The defendants have attempted by the use of distortions and other media to create the impression that the Owens patent is not a patent relating to the conversion  of an ordinary drawing into a 3-dimensional effect. That, your Honor, I submit is equally transparent and sham.”
     Scheiman then presents an affidavit from a retired chief examiner for the United States Patent Office named George Hanlin. Hanlin was the examiner who approved Owens original 1936 application and Scheiman claims that his affidavit , “…clearly and convincingly demonstrates that the Owens patent is beyond reproach, beyond criticism, as valid as any patent.”
     Scheiman notes the case being made by American Stereographic is, “…that the Owens patent constitutes in part prior art.” This claim, he says, undermines their own Illustereo patent application, which was made in May, 1953.
     Legally, prior art constitutes everything ever known publicly about an invention before a given date. In other words, if knowledge relevant to an invention is accessible by the public, it could disqualify a patent application. A trade secret, which is confidential information not readily available to the public, is usually not considered prior art.
__________________________________________________________

          GAINES: Now, at that time, I was very definitely given to understand that he had...that you had...patents pending.

__________________________________________________________

    Scheiman further contends that the defendants' application, "...to my knowledge has not been prosecuted beyond its initial stages, except that the defendants have alleged that they have made application for special treatment of that particular application."
     The special treatment he referred to was the requested accelerated consideration and approval of the Illustereo application by American Stereographic. Clearly, they wanted to get their comics on the stands and start licensing their process as soon as possible. The 3-D fad was currently hot, and there were no guarantees on how long that would last.
     After stating his opinion that this request would be denied, Scheiman says, "If the defendants knew about the Owens patent at the time they "jumped the gun" then they have committed a serious wrong, created an immoral situation, in my humble judgment."
     "If they did not know about the Owens patent existed at the time they filed their application, then they were guilty of inexcusable ignorance because they professed in their papers to have made a laborious search through experts."
__________________________________________________________

          FELDSTEIN: Who made St. John’s patent search?

          KUBERT: The one guy was this Asher Blum." 

__________________________________________________________

     Asher Blum was an old-time patent attorney and while it's curious that St. John used him instead of Posnack to do the patent search, it's even more interesting (as far as comics history is concerned) that Blum was the lawyer for Victor Fox in the landmark copyright infringement lawsuit brought against him by D.C. comics, Detective Comics, Inc. v. Bruns Publications. [covered in my article in ALTER EGO #101 and online beginning here: DC vs VICTOR FOX]
     Scheiman went on. "It would be impossible, your Honor, for a patent of this nature to be overlooked in the ordinary course of such a search. But I shall no dwell upon the facts in that connection, because it is unnecessary to the attainment of the relief sought herein to prove knowledge on the part of the defendants or lack of it."
   Once again asserting that the defendants had "usurped" Owens process, Scheiman points out, "...that the papers that have been interposed by the defense illustrate and clearly depict a steady retrenchment, a steady backward motion of the position originally asserted by the defendants as to their rights."
     "For example, in the original comic book published, the first one of this nature using the plaintiffs' process and referred to in the trade and publicly as "Mighty Mouse", there are clear indications that the defendants have published this book pursuant to a licensed process for which a patent application is pending. Gradually and steadily the defendants have obliterated, removed, and concealed any such assertions."
     At this point, he picks up a comic book. "Yesterday, the book I hold in my hand, "Little Eva", went on the New York newsstands for sale, and it significantly omits any references to there even being a patent pending application for their alleged Illustereo process."

   

Comparison of "Mighty Mouse" comic with "Patent Pending" note 

and "Little Eva" comic without.

     Scheiman then makes another accusation. As soon as American Stereographic had applied for their patent in May, "They immediately licensed the St. John Publishing Company under that so-called Illustereo process."

     "I submit, your Honor, that the evidence before this Court suggests strongly that the defendants never intended in any way or manner to license anybody else. But they were pretty sly. They knew what they might be confronted with should they confer upon St. John an absolutely exclusive right, and they profess to offer such license to competitors of St. John."

     "They did this, mind you, sometime after they had given Mr. St. John the opportunity to be the first "infringer". 

     Hyperbole aside, there was some truth to Scheiman's accusation. Years after the fact, Leonard Maurer told interviewer Ray Zone,"We gave St. John a 25 percent partnership in our licensing company, along with a 6 month's head start for his publishing company in exchange for financial guarantees for Norman and Joe as Editors, and myself, as supervising producer...".  ²

     Scheiman went on.
     "But in the course of the next succeeding months or weeks they preferred self-styled standard licensing agreements to the plaintiffs in this action, and presumably to other comic book publishers in the City of New York and perhaps throughout the country."

    Copy of licensing agreement offered to E.C.  and likely other publishing companies.        "These contracts, those self-styled license agreements, are so unfair, your Honor, that if time permitted I believe I could convince you from the bench to agree wholeheartedly with me that it was never the intention of the defendants to license anybody other than St. John."
__________________________________________________________

          GAINES: How do we know that we don’t have the same process as you have? Or maybe we have a different process. Why should we pay you $2,500 a book?

__________________________________________________________

     Scheiman claimed that, “…in the course of the negotiations had by the defendants with the plaintiff corporations it became quite obvious to the plaintiffs and their counsel that the defendants had nothing to license, nothing to sell, and they were asking quite a price."

     “In the course of those negotiations because of the suspicious inclusion and/or exclusion of necessary clauses in the license agreement, the plaintiffs became suspicious.”
     “They undertook to make a search of their own. They discovered the Owens patent. They negotiated with Mr. Owens and secured a license agreement under the Owens patent and have been endeavoring since obtaining that license in July to publish 3-dimensional comic books for sale to the public.”

      Scheiman continued. “Now, your Honor should bear in mind that the comic book market today is highly competitive, that the introduction of 3-dimensional comic books was considered a great scoop. Mr. St. John has admittedly done a wonderful job filling his coffers with profits and in enhancing his prestige in the industry.”
     “The inventors admit in certain releases,” he states, “…that the market for 3-dimensional comic books is necessarily a limited one in respect of time, that in the course of a few months succeeding the introduction of the epic “Mighty Mouse”, it would be highly probable that millions of this one comic book would be flooded throughout the United States and elsewhere, perhaps, so that comic book publishers who undertook to sell their own comic books at a later date would find it virtually impossible to gain a ready and successful market.”
     “The evidence before the Court is replete by admissions by the defendants that it was their intention to glut and flood the market…”.
     The gushing  publicity that was so welcomed by St.. John and the others just weeks before was being used against them. "It was a publisher's dream come true," wrote Aron Mathieu in the August issue of WRITER'S DIGEST, "enough sales of one issue of one magazine to call it quits and retire...or bat out a dozen imitations for three months before the onrush of 50 hurried and harried competitors swamp the field."  ³ 
     Schieman opined that however the defendants learned of Owens' patent, "...they knew the Owens patent would expire, and whether they learned it when Mr. Owens sent letters to them, is immaterial. Those letters were sent in July. It has not stopped the defendants from releasing for publication three or four more of the same kind of books, employing the very same infringing process."
     “What cared they? They made their investment and they were going to protect it,” he dramatically stated, “But in an effort to conceal, to confuse, to obscure the rights of Mr. Owens and the plaintiffs in this dispute, they have resorted to skullduggery and roughism such that I have never confronted in my life.”
     When Judge Conger asks for an example of distortions claimed by Scheiman, he directs the jurist to Leonard Maurer’s affidavit. When Scheiman goes on at length to point out an observed discrepancy between Maurer’s affidavit and Owen’s, the judge finally cuts him off.
     “I don’t see anything so frightful about that. I don’t see that there is any great or deliberate or terrible distortion.”
     Scheiman makes one more attempt. He points to Norman Maurer's affidavit which attempts to show the differences between the Illustereo process and Owens' patent.
     "By the Owens process, several months are required to produce a 3-dimensional comic book," Maurer claimed,"whereas by the Illustereo process, the production can be completed in 14 days."
     Schieman sees this as a purposeful distortion on behalf of the defendants.
     "The matters pertaining to the placing of a book on the market are far beyond the process used. There are many things that follow the use of this process, the making of photographic plates, the printing on the plates, the assembling of the book, the putting of the covers on the books, the stapling of the books, the placing of the finished product in the hands of the distributors, and the like."
      "It is now obvious, transparent and clear that the defendants were attempting to delude the plaintiffs and they were attempting to delude this Court when they uttered those remarks."
     This draws no comments from the judge this time, so he launches right into another claim.
     “I realize full well that the Owens patent hs not been adjudicated before. The defendants are relying strongly on the fact that because the Owens patent has not been adjudicated, they can go on freely and merrily selling their books, preventing the plaintiffs from having the possibility of enjoying a fruitful market, and in that respect they estimate that whatever penalties they may have to pay in the future for their infringement will only be a fraction of the prestige they have gained by being self-professed pioneers in an industry that at the present time is one of great proportion.”
     “Your Honor knows that the 3-dimensional craze has seized this country in its grip,” Scheiman observed.  "Your Honor knows that while there is a tendency on the part of all of us to enjoy a fad or a fashion, these books will sell.”
     Then, obviously referring to Joe Kubert’s statements in the WRITER’S DIGEST article, “But Mr. Kubert, one of the inventors, said in a press release,” said Scheiman, “that by November there will be nothing left in the market. They are going to be sure that theirs are sold, and not their competitors, that their competitors will not have a free and equal chance to make a reasonable and proper profit.”

portion of WRITER'S DIGEST article (Aug. 1953) 

After acknowledging the fact that while he is not a patent attorney, Scheiman concludes that the defendants argument is, "...so much balderdash and nonsense...". Once again, he refers to Hanlin’s affidavit.
     "...a man whose integrity is clearly beyond reproach," Scheiman attests, "and I point to the contents of that affidavit as completely and significantly demonstrative of the fact that the Owens patent is entirely valid."
     He was much less impressed, though, by an affidavit supplied to the defendants by animator Paul Terry. In addition to being owner of Terrytoons Studios, Terry also licensed St. John to publish comic books based upon his cartoon characters. Including Mighty Mouse.

Paul Terry (July 13, 1951)
[Associated Press wire photo]

     This affidavit was what Posnack’s office presented to Scheiman late the preceding Wednesday. Scheiman asserts, “…that the only thing that impresses me in this affidavit is Mr. Terry’s residence, which is the Westchester Country Club, Rye, New York, and I envy him that.”
     Despite Schieman's flippant dismissal of Paul Terry's affidavit, there was no denying his animation credentials. Starting out in the studio of J.R. Bray and Earl Hurd, Terry had been witness to many of the earliest innovations in the industry. Bray had patented the method of making cartoons on translucent paper, a method cited by Terry as a predecessor of Owens' process.    
     “The affidavit is offered in a suggested attempt to demonstrate that the process described in the Owens patent was well known as far back as 1915. The affidavit,” claimed Scheiman, “was drawn in an inartistic attempt to convey the impression that one reading its contents would be impressed that such a process was indeed known to the animated cartoon industry in 1915.”  
     Scheiman disputes this by noting that, “ Mr. Owens’ patent states in its disclosure and in its specifications that its process involves the tracing of drawings on cells, which, in Mr. Owens’ language,is a well known process employed for many years in the animated cartoon industry.”

Detail from page 1 of the Owens patent

     Scheiman states that, “….the defendants either through ignorance, or, again, in an attempt to delude someone or some persons, suggested that that old process of tracing used in the animated cartoon industry is the Owens’ process. Nothing is further from the truth, and a close reading of Mr. Terry’s affidavit indicates that he said no such thing.”
     Scheiman then quotes Terry's affidavit at length.
     "As a result of my long experience, I am thoroughly familiar with the methods, processes and devices employed in the production of composite pictures having a stereoscopic, 3-dimensional effect."
     After granting that Terry is indeed familiar with such processes, Scheiman reads on, "Since 1915, I have actually used in  my various businesses and am still using a process relating to the creation of 3-dimensional effects from a drawing, whereby the final product, whether viewed through a stereoscope of some similar device, produce a final picture with a 3-dimensional or multi-planar effect."

John R. Bray's first patent, 

"Process of and Articles for Producing Moving Pictures"

(patent # 1107193)      

     Scheiman then makes a lengthy argument disputing Terry’s affidavit. He claims that Bray-Hurd patents referred to by Terry have been examined and contain no similarity to Owens’ except for, “…the simple expedient of tracing characters on transparent sheets.” He again notes Owens’ acknowledgement of that particular technique in his patent and to refute the defendants’ argument that it constituted “prior art”, a claim which, if proven, would devalue Owens’ patent. His counter argument once again, was Hanlin’s affidavit, which, Scheiman asserted, “…states that if there had been any such prior art he never would have granted the Owens (application) letter.”
     Scheiman finishes with, "There is nothing 3-dimensional about the Bray-Hurd process referred to by Mr. Terry. As I say, the affidavit is utterly insignificant, and if read in conjunction with the answering affidavits, the transparency of the argument is quite obvious.”
     This closes Scheiman’s presentation and the judge recesses the court until 2:15.
__________________________________________________________

 GAINES: He said Posnack has a civil suit all prepared to hit us with no matter what our process is.
 __________________________________________________________

THE DEFENDANTS

     William Gaines had good reason to be concerned about Emanuel Posnack.
     The man knew his stuff.
     Not only did American Stereographic have a top notch patent attorney representing them, he was an inventor himself. Putting the engineering degree he acquired to good use, Posnack had patented everything from desk accessories, to a stapling machine. He even invented an exhaust system for industrial furnaces.
    
   Emanuel R. Posnack (circa 1951) 
     When court resumes in the afternoon session, the defendants’ attorney, Posnack, presents his case.
     “Your Honor, this motion is based upon a simple cause of action for patent infringement,” he began. "In such a case there are only two issues: The issues of infringement and validity. In the trial of a patent infringement suit the burden of proof as to infringement is, of course, upon the plaintiff.”
     As Posnack starts into a description of what is necessary to proof a plaintiff’s case in such matters, Judge Conger cuts him short. After a discussion of several similar cases, Conger then asks Posnack a question.
     “Any injunction that I might issue here, would that go beyond October 13th?”
     “It becomes a moot case,” replies Posnack.
     “I  can only grant an injunction for a short time,” states the judge.
     “Up to October 13th. The question of damages is something else,” Posnack points out.
     As the judge pondered the usefulness of such a short-termed remedy, Posnack begins his attack on Scheiman's arguments by noting that there has been not, “…one word describing or comparing the process of the defendants with the claims of the patent, and I know of no other way in which infringement can be proven except by that comparison.”
     "We have a defense of non-infringement, we have a defense of invalidity," he stated flatly.
     Referring to the Bray patents, Posnack continued, "Our defense of invalidity is based upon prior art which we have discovered, which the Examiner (Hanlin) has never seen."
     "And we have even better," he offered, "We have an affidavit from one of the world's most famous cartoonists who swears he uses the very  same process which is described and has used it since 1915. Now, assuming that the affidavit of Paul Terry raises a doubt with respect to validity, I think that doubt is completely dispositive of this motion for a preliminary injunction.”
     But dismissing the validity of Owens' claim was not Posnack's whole case.
     “Up until the spring of this year the printing industry had never been able to produce a 3-dimensional effect from a drawing. Stereoptican pictures are old. Your Honor may remember the old stereoscopic arrangement that was known and practiced at the turn of the century.”
     “That was 3-dimensional,” notes Conger.
     “Yes, but that was taken from a photograph,” Posnack answers. “There were two pictures and when you looked through the stereoscope you saw a single picture giving the effect of real depth.”
     “Yes, my  grandmother had one,” interjects the judge.
     “It dates back as long as my  grandmother’s time,” agrees Posnack. “Now, never has anyone been able as a practical matter to take a drawing on a flat sheet and give a multi-planar effect, as we call it. They tried it. And while they produced some effect, it was impossible to produce it on a mass production basis so that it could be printed.”
     “The defendant St. John Publishing is one of the oldest and most reputable publishing companies in this country,” Posnack states emphatically, but with more than slight exaggeration. Although he had once been a crusading newspaper publisher thirty years earlier, Archer St. John's comic book company had only been in existence about six years.
     The judge inquires, “Are they responsible and reliable?”
     “Most reliable,” assures Posnack, “and I don’t think it is questioned by the plaintiffs. Two of the employees, two of the artists who had been doing work for St. John, had together with another party developed and perfected a new technique for making 3-dimensional pictures for printing purposes. The presented this to the employer of two of them, St. John, and when he saw the process he was impressed, impressed to the point of putting in in, in the last few months, close to a million dollars in the production of publications showing this 3-dimensional effect.”
     “Success was instantaneous and dramatic. I was the attorney for the inventors, as well as for the St. John Publishing Company. I was instructed to file patent applications and to file a petition to make the case a special one so to expedite the consideration. That was done. Patents are now pending. Your Honor knows it takes time for a patent to issue.”
     Posnack continued.
     “In the meantime, since St. John had decided to expedite this, a company was formed, the American Stereographic Corporation, whose main objective was to do this, to help in the perfection of the process, to surevise licensees in their use of the process, and to license others. Licenses were offered to all.“
     Then Posnack makes one of his main points.
     “Included among those who were interested was this very plaintiff Gaines and all his corporations that are producing various publications. At the time they negotiated with the St. John Publishing Company or with American Stereographic Company, they did not know and did not have the Owens patent, which is the patent in suit.”
     The judge seems surprised. “I did not hear that,” he states. Posnack goes on.
     “At the time the plaintiff Gaines was negotiating with the defendants for a license under the defendants’ Illustereo process, Gaines did not have the patent in suit; it was only after the negotiations fell through that he sought and found this patent.”
     “Was he an assignee of the patent?”, Judge Conger asks.
     "He became an assignee either of the whole patent or certain rights," Posnack replied uncertainly, "I did not get that clear."
__________________________________________________________

          FELDSTEIN: ...So we had to buy the patent. We didn’t exactly buy the patent. We bought the exclusive assignment. 

          KUBERT: So he let it go for three bills, huh?

          FELDSTEIN: That’s right. We would have paid a thousand.

__________________________________________________________ 

     “Since that date," Posnack went on,  "the St. John Publishing Company has published many more of the 3-dimensional comics, and intends to publish more, under this new special technique. The plaintiffs have not as yet published a single 3-dimensional book.”

     “What was Gaines offered in his negotiations with the defendants? He was offered, just as every other publisher in the country was offered, a license to practice a secret process under a confidential disclosure. Gaines refused to accept certain of the obligations of a licensee with respect to confidential disclosure and, as I said, the negotiations fell through.”
     "In the motion papers Gaines is now challenging the defendants to disclose the process which they refuse to do. That is the general background picture."
     Posnack was well aware of the disclosure language in the licensing agreement. He wrote it. By signing the agreement, a licensee was legally required to keep the Illustereo process a secret. At the time of this trial, Gaines still didn't know for sure what that process entailed, making the claim that it infringed upon the Owens patent difficult to prove.       
     “This patent has never been adjudicated," Posnack continued,  "For almost 17 years of its entire life it has never been commercially exploited or used. It is known in patent parlance as a paper patent, unknown, unused, unadjudicated. The plaintiffs now wave this piece of paper at the Court and over the heads of these defendants and their proposed licensees and seek to destroy the terrific investment made by the defendants.”
     "We say, in the first place, that because the patent has not been adjudicated, there is no basis whatsoever for a preliminary injunction..." .
     “It seems to me that Mr. Scheiman, plaintiff’s counsel, was a bit naïve when he referred to the very Examiner (Hanlin) who passed upon the patent as proof of the validity of the patent," Posnack suggested,  "I think if an examiner’s word was sacred not a single patent would ever be adjudicated by the courts.”
     Posnack goes on to make the point that Hanlin was unaware of other prior art that would have never allowed issuance of Owen’s patent. Although he doesn’t go into all of the aspects he claims are similar between Owens’ patent and the method used by Paul Terry, he does point to one similarity.
     “All of the affidavits of the plaintiff indicate that the Owens patent relies upon a shifting of the cellophane sheets. First a stack of sheets are placed one upon the other, being transparent, and a picture is taken. Then there is a shifting of these sheets relative with each other. The picture looks different. Another photograph is taken. From that a combined effect is obtained which is 3-dimensional. Mr. Terry swears that that same series of steps which he sets forth in detail has been used by him. I rely upon that.”
     Posnack then confronts the claim of infringement; a claim he dismisses out of hand.
     “There is not a single statement made by the plaintiffs in the affidavits which indicates that anyone has seen the defendants’ process, which is held secret.”
     "Never seen what?", Conger asks.
     "The defendants' process," Posnack replied. "In other words, the plaintiffs charge that the Illustereo process infringes the patent. In order to prove infringement they must know the process. Not one of the affiants has stated that he saw the process in actual use. What did they say? The first group of affiants looked at the final product, which is not the patented process, and deduced it was made by this process, which is utterly inadequate for any suit."
__________________________________________________________

GAINES:  ...It took me about an hour to figure out what I thought I could produce...a way I thought I could produce a book to look exactly like the book you had produced.

__________________________________________________________

     “Two days ago a new witness was obtained by the plaintiffs," said Posnack, in reference to an affidavit sworn to by artist Bill Elder,  "He set forth in detail conversations he had with one of the defendants. Some steps he states he saw. Others he states he heard about. I submit, your Honor, it is utterly unfair and unjust and inequitable to decide a patent infringement suit in favor of the plaintiffs based upon such hearsay testimony without a single bit of evidence to show what the process consisted of.”
     “There is no actual proof of infringement. There is, on the other hand, positive evidence of non-infringement. The patent has never been adjudicated. The patent is invalid by the evidence which we have in our affidavits. For almost 17 years of the patent’s existence it has never been commercially exploited or used. The affidavits on behalf of the defendant American Stereoscopic (sic) Corporation indicate that a patent application for its process has been filed, and in order to expedite the issuance of the patent an application therefore has been made special.”
     “The defendants have been the first to exploit, popularize, and make successful 3-dimensional comics. The plaintiffs are utter newcomers in the field of 3-dimensional publications and are seeking unfairly to profit from defendants’ successful pioneering efforts.”
     “I submit for these reasons that this suit for preliminary injunction be denied.”
     With that, the plaintiff’s attorney Scheiman requested a rebuttal.
     “There is an affidavit before the Court given by Mr. Elder, who states that at the defendants’ offices on a particular day the defendants instructed him in the very process employed by them, step by step, making use of demonstrable exhibits that were employed by the defendants in the production of their first 3-dimensional book, “Mighty Mouse”. There is absolutely no question of hearsay evidence. There is no question of incomplete knowledge. There is direct proof by the defendants to this affiant stating what the process is. There can be no question with respect to identity of the process.”
     Scheiman refuted Posnack's test of validity by first agreeing with its necessity.
     "I agree with Mr. Posnack that it is necessary to prove a valid patent. I think that the proof of that validity is encompassed in the affidavits before this Court. There is no proper attack upon the validity of the patent in any of the answering patents."
     Continuing on, Scheiman pointed out that, "...the prior art referred to in the Terry affidavit is," as he stated earlier, "related to animated cartoons in the two dimensions."
     "Mr. Terry never produced prior to 1936, when the Owens application was filed, any 3-dimensional animated cartoons. I am prepared with exhibits and demonstrable apparatus in this courtroom to show this Court exactly what Mr. Terry has done. I realize time does not permit of any such demonstration at this moment. But I would gladly and happily proffer it."
     Having avoided subjecting the courtroom to a showing of Farmer Alfalfa cartoons, Scheiman goes on.
      "The Terry affidavit is self-serving, confusing in its contents, and by reference to motion picture patents goes clearly beyond the field of art that is in purview here, at least with respect to the process here, which was never employed by Mr. Terry at any time in the production of any of his motion pictures.”
     Scheiman avers the originality of Owens’ patent as, "...a unique process whereby a drawing just like the drawings that were used in the defendants' publications could be traced onto separate cells, photographed so as to create the image as would be seen by one eye; the cells would then be shifted laterally with reference to each other and for a background view so that a photograph could then be taken with the other eye."
     "By use of Mr. Owens' process the two complimentary pictures were obtained. These complimentary stereoscopic pictures are then available for reproduction and were available for reproduction when Owens invented the process.
     To counter Posnack's contention that Owens' invention was merely a "paper patent", Scheiman offered, "There is no doubt that Mr. Owens did not publish a 3-dimensional comic book in the form of "Mighty Mouse. The papers, his own affidavit, indicate that when he in 1936 attempted to exploit his invention, the people whom he approached were no longer interested in printing 3-dimensional material because there was no market for it at the time."
     While making a point comparing Owens’ patent to the pending Illustereo process, Scheiman parenthetically mentions,“…that the defendants have never shown us that application,” in an effort to cast doubt that it had even been subjected for patent consideration.

     Will Elder (seated) and John Severin from FRONTLINE COMBAT #5 (March-April 1952) 

     Scheiman once again asserts that nothing Posnack presented, in any way cast doubt upon the patent’s validity. And secondly, “…the proof of the infringement lies in the affidavits on file, particularly the affidavit of William Elder, served upon the defendants a couple of days ago, in which he states under oath that on June 18, 1953, at the office of American Stereographic Corporation, with an address given in that affidavit, that the defendants, two of the inventors of the so-called process, there having been three in the first instance, instructed this Mr. Elder in the exact technique employed by them to create the “Mighty Mouse” publication.”

     “The affidavit states that they showed him the artwork that was involved in the creation of that “Mighty Mouse”, showed him the several cells, explained to him how they were assembled after they were created, explained to him the unique shifting technique that is the heart of the Owens patent, showed him that the “Mighty Mouse” itself was merely the product of the use of that process and the wonderful invention of printing that has existed for hundreds of years.”

     After once again pointing out that the defendants, “…do not have any patent application that can be granted at any time with respect to the process used by them to create “Mighty Mouse”, Scheiman asserts that, "it will be established beyond any doubt that the defendants have unlawfully, or at least, improperly usurped to themselves profits and rewards of the Owens invention that have no business being in their pockets. While, as I stated before, your Honor, they will be held responsible for pecuniary damage at the proper time, it is extremely unfortunate that while the defendants are reaping their rewards, the plaintiff is put in the position of having to meet this competition of the defendants."

     "The plaintiff hopes to have its publication reach the newsstands during this month, probably about September 20th, and that is being issued in the wake of a flood of Illustereo products, comic books, five or six in number, the last of which hit the New York newsstands yesterday."

     In actuality, E.C. didn't come close to that September date. Their first 3-D comic, THREE DIMENSION E.C. CLASSICS #1, was released with a Spring 1954, cover date late in 1953.

     "So great is the marketing of the defendants' products that the plaintiff corporations will have a very, very difficult time obtaining any financial return from their substantial investment."

     "I think that on an application for a preliminary injunction the equity should be regarded from both points of view, not from the defendants' point of view alone. If they made a mistake or if they were corrupt, whichever it may be, and made improper use of an invention, they should not be permitted to go along for the ride, they should not be permitted to continue on indefinitely, capitalizing on an improper and immoral act."

     "Bear in mind, your Honor, that these are competing companies. The plaintiff companies were in existence long before the defendant St. John; the plaintiff companies were the pioneer of comic books. These companies were founded by the plaintiff Gaines’ father, and the prestige which the St. John Company is now attempting to achieve through this immoral, improper and illegal act is being denied the plaintiffs. What good will come to the plaintiffs at a trial later on? The damage will have been done by illegal, improper and unlawful distribution of 3-dimensional comic books to a point where it will be virtually impossible, according to the defendants' own statements attached to the motion papers, to sell these books."

     Once again Scheiman cites Kubert's comments in the WRITER'S DIGEST article.

     “The defendants said that by October or November it will be practically impossible to do any business in that field. This is a passing fad, a passing fancy. The plaintiffs are being denied it merely because they proceeded in an honorable, in a proper, in a lawful manner to operate under the patent of an inventor who licensed them for that purpose.”

     “These defendants have on color of right; they have no title; they have no authority; they are usurpers; they are newcomers; they are the ones who have achieved and are achieving the fruits and labors and rewards that belong to Owens and his licensees.”

     “Mr. Posnack suggests that every one of the comic book publishers in the City of New York or elsewhere was given the opportunity to have a license. The fact remains, Judge, that St. John is the only one who has a license under this so-called Illustereo process.”

“Nobody else took a license because of the terms. I suggest to your Honor, as the moving papers show, that the defendants never intended any such license agreement to be accepted by anybody.”

     With that, the court adjourns to await Judge Conger's decision.

__________________________________________________________

THE DECISION

     On September 30, 1953, Judge Conger handed down his decision. What follows is an abridged version.

This is a motion for a preliminary injunction restraining the defendants from making and distributing three-dimensional comic books or magazines produced by a certain "3-D Illustereo" process upon the ground that said process infringes United States Letters Patent No. 2,057,051 issued to plaintiff Owens on October 13, 1936.

The plaintiffs have filed various exhibits as well as a number of affidavits in support of their motion.

According to the affidavit of the plaintiff Gaines, the corporate plaintiffs are well known publishers of comic books and he is well acquainted with the efforts involved in the production and knowledge of stereoscopy and the aspects of its production through the medium of photography; he is the assignee of the Owens patent and has made a study of it. He sets forth his analysis of the patent which is entitled "Methods of Drawing and Photographing Stereoscopic Pictures in Relief"...
 
The Owens patent technique embraces according to Gaines the following production steps:
 
"(a) analyzing the drawing and breaking it down into the desired number of planes;
 
"(b) copying each plane, either by hand or photographically, on to a separate sheet or transparent cell (acetate, celluloid or the like) or a combination thereof, and, in the case of transparent cells, opaquing the areas covered with white where and if desired;
 
"(c) superimposing the sheets and/or cells in register to simulate the original drawing and then copying photographically;
 
"(d) shifting the sheets and/or cells laterally with reference to the background so that each sheet or cell is shifted slightly more in reference to the preceding one, which shift distances may be varied in amounts and in proportion to each other, and then copying the composite result photographically;
 
"(e) the photographic copies produced or obtained through steps (c) and (d) above described are then reproduced for visual observation.
 
"Reproduction for visual observation is achieved in the following manner: plates are made from each of the two photographic copies referred to in the process outlined above; one being usually inked in red and the other in green, and a printing is then made with the impression of each plate superimposed. When viewed through color filters of the same two colors that the said plates were respectively inked in, a three dimensional effect is obtained through the application of well-known and, concededly (sic), not now patentable principles of `stereo-anaglyph' viewing."
 
He reminds the Court of the "3-D" craze and the profits to be reaped, and he describes the efforts of the defendants in marketing the "World's First Three Dimension Comics" under a so-called secret "illustereo" process for which patent application is pending; he further describes his negotiations with defendant for a license to employ the process in his own publications and his refusal to accept the same because of the conditions imposed therein; he charges that the defendants actually never had intention of licensing anyone other than St. John Publishing Company and that defendants are out to corner the market in 3-D comic books; he cites an announcement in a trade magazine by one of the defendants and inventors, Kubert, to the effect that there will be an immediate but short-lived market for 3-D comics and "then it will be all over"; the announcement also refers to the problem of acquiring glasses for the comic books because of the limited supply of acetate in New York; this points up the difficulty because it takes Gaines' companies several months to produce a 3-D comic book.
 
Mr. Gaines' affidavit further goes on to relate his discovery, during the course of the license negotiations, of Owens' patent; that he became absolutely convinced the defendants were employing the Owens process; and he is equally convinced the defendants infringe the Owens patent since the "naked eye tells the story"; he studied defendants' work and can't think of any method other than Owens' that might have accomplished the result.
 
Mr. Gaines' affidavit winds up by "challenging" defendants to admit or deny the use of certain practices in their production and pleads the necessity of the relief sought, because of the defendants continuing publication despite full notice of plaintiffs' rights, the limited (in time) market, the limited source of supplies created by defendants' activities and the fact that the Owens patent expires October 13, 1953.
 
The affidavit of plaintiff Owens recites, among other things, his invention, his belief that defendants infringe, his failure ever successfully to promote the patent, or to receive one penny from it, his experience as an inventor, his introduction to the defendants' claimed infringing production, the receipt of a visit from plaintiff Gaines and subsequent conversations with the latter after which he assigned his patent to Gaines, his notification to defendants of infringement and various replies. He has no doubt that defendants use his technique in their productions, for the same reasons Gaines gives.
 
One Feldstein, a commercial artist and employee of the plaintiff corporations, also expresses the opinion that "only one of the methods invented, taught and detailed in the Owens patent could have been used in the production of that (`Mighty Mouse') comic book ****
 
Further, one George Hanlin files an affidavit in support of the application. Hanlin is no less than the Government patent examiner, now retired, who examined and allowed the Owens patent in 1936. It is his opinion that the Owens patent was and is valid in every way. This opinion results from a refreshed recollection and further study by Mr. Hanlin. He is further of the opinion that if defendants use certain processes in producing their comic books, they infringe the Owens patent.
 
One Elder, a commercial artist, formerly a free-lancer, but now employed by the plaintiff corporation, relates that he visited the offices of American Stereographic Corporation in June of this year and that defendants Kubert and Norman Maurer explained to him the process by which defendants' comic book "Mighty Mouse" had been produced. He is of the opinion that it "is undoubtedly the process invented and taught by Mr. Owens."
 
One exhibit is a transcript of a tape recorded interview between defendant Kubert and plaintiff Gaines and plaintiff corporations' employee Feldstein at Gaines' office in August of this year. It appears that Kubert was invited to Gaines' office by Gaines and/or Feldstein for a little chat and, unknown to Kubert, the conversation was tape recorded — 70 pages in all.
 
I read the entire transcript. Without giving consideration to its propriety or admissibility — plaintiffs have filed a memorandum in support of the submission — I can only conclude that it completely establishes that Kubert was innocent of any wrongdoing in connection with Owens' patent and the publication of defendants' 3-D comic books. Further, I regard it as worthless in establishing any impropriety on the other defendants' part. The conversation consisted mainly of Gaines' and Feldstein's relation to Kubert of what they had learned, suspected, speculated and otherwise. Kubert was astonished by some of the revelations but he was unaware of wrongdoing on his own part or anybody else's, except possibly, if what he was told was true, a certain lawyer's part.
 
The defendants have filed affidavits in opposition to the application.
 
Leon (Leonard) H. Maurer, general manager of the defendant American Stereographic Corporation, states that he, in conjunction with Norman A. Maurer and Joseph Kubert, invented the process whereby defendants produce 3-D comic books; that a patent has been applied for along with a petition for "special" attention in order to expedite the application; that defendants sought to license Gaines and his companies but the latter would not agree to the conditions in connection with secrecy of the process; he states that Owens' patent has no relation to defendants' process; he is of the opinion, after study, that the Owens patent is and always was invalid in view of the prior art which he purports to cite; that the St. John Publishing Company has invested three-quarters of a million dollars in the project and the plaintiffs have yet to produce a comic book.
 
Archer St. John relates his part in the production, his substantial investment, the great success of the venture, his belief after investigation that his process infringed no patent, among other things.
 
Norman H. Maurer states that he is a coinventor of the Illustereo process; that it is different than the disclosures of the Owens patent; and that such Owens process is not capable of producing a product of the quality of defendants' comic book.
 
Paul Terry, a producer of well-known animated motion picture cartoons, states that he has used, since 1915, a process relating to the creation of 3-D effects from a drawing which process is described in many old patents, which he cites.
 
I believe I have given the highlights of the various affidavits and I have considered the exhibits.
 
I am convinced that the plaintiffs have not made a case for the relief sought.
 
I shall assume for the purposes of this application that the Owens patent is valid.
 
It is plain from all the circumstances, however, that defendants' infringement of the Owens patent is not reasonably clear, if at all.
 
Only Elder among the affiants in support of the application has any knowledge of defendants' process. Gaines and others cannot think of any method other than disclosed in the Owens patent to do the job. Hanlin says in effect that if the defendants use the Owens method they infringe the Owens patent.
 
Elder's affidavit remains practically unanswered. Of course, in general the defendants deny using the Owens patent, aver that the Owens method has no relation to their own and have their own invention for which they seek a patent. But they do not deny that their method was explained to Elder nor do they counteract Elder's opinion that it is the Owens method. This circumstance along with others raises a suspicion that the defendants may have appropriated Owens' work. I do not, however, regard it as clear proof of infringement in view of defendants' denials and averments, and particularly since defendants have seen fit to file their own "invention" in the patent office.
 
This doubt coupled with the fact that the plaintiffs will not be irreparably damaged by defendants' continued production compels me to deny this application. There appears to be no question that the defendants are financially secure and well able to compensate plaintiffs if and when they are successful in this suit. It may well be three years before it reaches trial, yet the patent will be in the public domain within a month. Even assuming that the defendants saturate the market within a short time, it may not be said that they are sole contributors to this circumstance since it appears that at least one other company is in the field.
 
The application is denied.
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THE AFTERMATH

     With the Sturm und Drang past, when the dust settled, in the end, nobody really won. 
     Despite their loss, Gaines and Feldstein eventually published their two 3-D comics. Despite their win, American Stereographic eventually folded; from lack of customers for their process and the predictable fading of the 3-D fad.
     Although Archer St. John probably lost as much as he had made on this debacle, he didn't go out of business. While his comic book company withered, along with the rest of the industry at that time, his other publishing ventures did well. Right up to his death by drug overdose on August 13, 1955.
     In addition to his continued success as a patent lawyer, Emanuel Posnack wrote several books on economics. His 1956 book, WORLD WITHOUT BARRIERS, proposed a theory of a global economy that presaged events decades later. 
     William Gaines would go on to other battles, including an ill-advised one with the Senate subcommittee investigating juvenile delinquency. A lesser skirmish with a lesser foe was fought by his attorney in December of 1953.
     Massachusetts Attorney General George Fingold, citing the depiction of Christmas in a "pagan" manner and Santa Claus as being divorced, had copies of E.C.'s PANIC #1 pulled off the stands. Gaines' lawyer, Martin Scheiman, decried the "wanton damage" suffered by his client, inflicted by people who had "come to the rescue of a wholly imaginary, mythological creature rarely believed to exist by children more than a few years old."  ⁴ 
     He would go on to represent Gaines in far more serious cases including a copyright infringement suit over the image of Alfred E. Neuman and Irving Berlin's attempt to prevent MAD from using his songs in their parodies.
     Scheiman, who counted Gaines cohort Lyle Stuart and radical publisher Paul Krasner among his clients, would be found dead in the Time-Life Building in 1966, an apparent suicide.
     And Freeman H. Owens, the inventor who Gaines had told Kubert in 1953, "...is so near to death. He’s had seven strokes. He’s an old man…a little old man," continued inventing until he died at age 89 in 1979.
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BONUS MATERIAL DEPT.

     Proving that a little thing like an expensive lawsuit couldn't stop their respective creative juices from flowing, both St. John and E.C. published humorous takes on the 3-D comics saga. Presented here, for not-for-profit historical purposes only, are "The 3-D-T's" from WHACK #2 and the first page of  "3-Dimensions!" from MAD #12. All copyrights are retained by the estate of William M. Gaines and all other respective copyright holders. 

      "The 3-D-T's"   WHACK #2 (Dec. 1953) pg. 1
      pg. 2
      pg. 3
      pg. 4
      pg. 5
      pg. 6

[the following image courtesy of Ger Apeldoorn]

    "3-Dimensions!" MAD #12 (June 1954) pg. 1   __________________________________________________________

¹  All quotes of Martin Scheiman and Emanuel Posnack come from the court stenographer's notes for OWENS v. AMERICAN STEREOGRAPHIC CORP., et. al.,United States District Court S. D. New York, Sept. 1-11, 1953.

²  Zone, Ray, "Leonard Maurer: 3-D Comics Pioneer",  http://www.ray3dzone.com/LM.html
³ Mathieu, Aron M., "3-D Comics Knock 'Em Dead", WRITER'S DIGEST, Aug. 1953.

⁴  "Santa Claus Cartoon Damages Are Charged", PALM BEACH POST, Dec. 28, 1953.

Additional general information obtained from the NEW YORK TIMES archives, HOLLYWOOD ON THE HUDSON by Richard Koszarski, ARKANSAS BIOGRAPHY: A COLLECTION OF NOTABLE LIVES by Nancy A. Williams and Jeannie M. Whayne and the online Google patent search engine.