25 mm 226 mm 23 mm 226 mm 25 mm 25 mm

EWIS CARROLL stars in a story! Alice becomes , Lucy, LL and ? The Cheshire Cat becomes ? The March Hare becomes… Bugs Bunny? And the cast of Wonderland meets the Man of Steel?! Only in Alice in Comicland! in

Some of the greatest tumble down the rabbit hole for their own unique looks at ’s famous creation! , Charles Schulz, Alex IN Toth, Dan DeCarlo, George Carlson, MAD-men , , and , the Simon and Kirby Shop, the Studios, Yellow Kid

creator R. F. Outcault, and many more visit Wonderland and draw home to tell IN about it!

You’ll be astonished to see Alice starring in gruesome tales in the banned horror in of the 1950s, in a romance comic, riding on a flying saucer, meeting Santa Claus, as a teeny-bopper, going to the weird Monkey Island, looking like Alfred E. Introduction by Neuman, selling out to shill bread... and even having a sex change—TWICE! Mark Burstein President of the Lewis Carroll Society ALICE IN COMICLAND of North America

The fascinating comics, the rare original art, a special introduction by Mark YOE BOOKS/IDW Burstein, president of The Lewis Carroll Society of North America, and a revealing foreword by the award-winning comics historian Craig Yoe make this book truly a wonder!

Alice in Comicland will leave you grinning like the Cheshire Cat! 287 mm 337 mm Yoe & Burstein

® Visit YoeBooks.com

® ISBN: 978-1-61377-913-2 idwpublishing.com $29.99 US

® Charles Schulz • • Harvey Kurtzman Walt Kelly • Dan DeCarlo • Dave Berg Jack Davis • George Carlson • and more! 25 mm

525 mm

IN in

Craig Yoe Introduction by Mark Burstein President of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

®

IDW PUBLISHING SAN DIEGO,

Ta-da! Dedicated to my friend Ted Adams who conceived the idea of this book!

If you like this book, please blog; post on Facebook, Tumblr, Amazon, and Goodreads; podcast; and tweet about it! Visit the International Team of Comics Historians blog www.TheITCHblog.com. Become a fan of YOE Books on Facebook! Friend Craig Yoe on Facebook!

Visit YouTube.com/TheYoeTube

Deep thanks to Mark Burstein and the Lewis Carroll Society of North characters’ names and likenesses are the exclusive trademarks of Archie America for all their ideas, help, and support. Visit them at Comic Publications, Inc. ARCHIE characters created by John L. Goldwater. www.LewisCarroll.org. The likenesses of the original Archie characters were created by . Archie in Wonderland was previously published in Mad House Gratitude to Giovanna Anzaldi, who scanned and restored many of the and copyrighted by Archie Comic Publications, Inc. in magazine form in materials in this book, Andrew Ogus, and David Schaefer; our proofreaders 1960. This comic can not be reprinted in whole or part without written Mark Lerer, , Robert Schaad, and Steven Thompson; permission from Publications, Inc. lenders of art Alan Kaplan, Frank Pauer, Bud Plant, Alan Tannenbaum, and Doug Wheeler; art experts Mark Arnold, Jerry Beck, Tillmann Courth, “Alice in Wonderland!” from Mad #18, December 1954, is © William M. Jim Engel, Steven Rowe, Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr., and Richard West. Gaines Agent, Inc. Reprinted with permission. Our heartfelt gratitude to Scott Daley and OGPI, Nina Fairles, From #41 © DC Comics. Used with Permission. Greg Goldstein, Jon Goldwater, Victor Gorelick, Heritage Auctions, The illustration by Walt Kelly on the title page and this page are Corry Kanzenberg, and Jean F. Schulz. reproduced from the original art in the collection of Mark Burstein. Under the direction of Joe Woos, the esteemed ToonSeum in is “Imagine” © 2014 Mark Burstein. preparing an exhibit based on this book. Please visit .org for the dates for this and their other great exhibits. YoeBooks.com Craig Yoe & Clizia Gussoni, Chief Executive Officers and Creative Directors Deep thanks to the following people who helped promote this book: • Sandy Schechter, VP of Research • Media Associates: Steve Bennett, Ellen S. Abramowitz; Mark Arnold; Jeff Barnes; Ric Best; Steve Biasi; David Burd, Steven Thompson, and Doug Wheeler. Ed Bode; Jim Brenneman; Lloyd Chesley; Kent Cordray; Edward R. Cox; The Cultural Gutter; Randall Cyrenne; Brian Dick; Benjamin Dickow; IDW Publishing Michael Dooley; J. Emmanuel Dubois; Michael K. Earls; Fester Faceplant; Ted Adams, CEO & Publisher • Greg Goldstein, President & COO • Robbie Andrew Farago; Aiden Fowler; Bryan Fowler (Buck Edward); Philip Frey; Robbins, EVP/Sr. Graphic Artist • Chris Ryall, Chief Creative Officer/ Stephan Friedt; Frederic Gleach; Jim Gray; Diana Green; Jonathan Green; Editor-in-Chief • Matthew Ruzicka, CPA, Chief Financial Officer • Alan Karen Green; Scooter Harris; Ted Haycraft; Peyton Holden; Dan Hoskins; Payne, VP of Sales • Dirk Wood, VP of Marketing • Lorelei Bunjes, VP of Kerry Huffman; Jukka Issakainen; Stephanie Johnson; Tim Johnson; Digital Services. Chuck Johnston; Donovan ‘Slinus’ Jones; Gene Kannenberg, Jr.; Sean Kleefeld; Harlan Krissoff; Kate Laity; Lawrence Laney Loftin; ISBN: 978-1-61377-913-2 17 16 15 14 1 2 3 4 Robin Lynn; Roger McKenzie; Dan Merritt; Jerry Moore; Dean Motter; April 2014. First printing. Alice in Comicland is © 2014 Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Nicholas John Pozega; Michael Price; Neal Retke; Wallace Ryan; Inc. All Rights Reserved, including the digital remastering of the material Annika Schaad; Bridgette Schaad; Brian Schaaf; David Scroggy; not held by copyright owners. Yoe Books is a trademark of Gussoni-Yoe Rebecca Sevrin; Walter Simonson; Jonathan Sloman; Anthony F. Smith; Studio, Inc. Yoe is a registered trademark of Gussoni-Yoe Studio, Inc. Rev. Sam Smith; Tom Stein; Lew Stringer; Rene Thompson; Tara Thompson; Michele Witchipoo; Joe Wos. IDW Publishing, a division of Idea and Design Works, LLC. Editorial offices: 5080 Santa Fe Street, San Diego, CA 92109. Any similarities Sunday strip artwork courtesy of the Charles M. Schulz Museum to persons living or dead are purely coincidental. With the exception of and Research Center, Santa Rosa, California. Photographer “Skylark artwork used for review purposes, none of the contents of this publication Images.” PEANUTS © Peanuts Worldwide LLC. Dist. By UNIVERSAL may be reprinted without the permission of Idea and Design Works, LLC. UCLICK. Reprinted with permission. All rights reserved. Printed in Korea. Peanuts Cheshire Beagle 1973 drawing © 2014 Peanuts Worldwide LLC. IDW Publishing does not read or accept unsolicited submissions of ideas, Archie in Wonderland TM & © 2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. All stories, or artwork. rights reserved. Used with kind permission. The individual ARCHIE Contents

9 73 141 Imagine! Superman: A Modern Through The Looking Mark Burstein Alice in Wonderland! Glass! & Stephen Kirkel 17 Wonder! 86 147 Craig Yoe Alice in Terrorland Archie in Wonderland Alex Toth Dan DeCarlo 22 Alice in Cartoonland 91 151 K.L. Roberts Alec in Fumbleland Alice in Flying Saucers George Carlson Dave Berg 25 Alice in Funnyland 97 156 Glory Little Max Meets Alice Walt Kelly in Wonderland 33 Artist Unknown Alice Cover Girl! 103 164 41 Mother’s Gooseberry Alice in Wonderland! Lewis Carroll Rinds Harvey Kurtzman & Artist Unknown Walt Kelly Jack Davis 44 Alice Through The 109 Alice on Monkey Island Looking-Glass Serge S. Sabarsky & Artist Unknown George O. Muhlfield

Imagine!

et us imagine two pieces side by side. The first is replace or greatly enhance the narrative and descriptions Lewis Carroll’s handwritten and self-illustrated of the text, the medium itself is often looked down upon by 9 manuscript of Alice’s Adventures under Ground the soi-disant intelligentsia, yet is guaranteed to outlast that he presented to his “infant patron,” Miss their effete ramblings by many millennia. Alice Liddell, in November of 1864, which later Lwas reworked, expanded, and professionally illustrated to become Given the intense similarities of the worlds of the Alice books and the classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The second is the the comic or media, that this paragraph applies equally first issue ofPogo comics by Walt Kelly, published in 1942. to both should not be surprising. Carroll (Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was very much alive during the time of the development Behold here a work of art, written and illustrated by the of proto-comics, and can himself be considered a progenitor. same person, a product of acknowledged genius aimed Comics—like another art form flowering in America in the somewhere between the child and the child within, an early years of the twentieth century, jazz music—are colorful, Æsopian fairy tale set in a magical realm where a youth wide-ranging, and slightly seditious. The genres range from the wanders amidst animals that can talk. Here the illustra- swing of Dixieland and Peanuts through the conventional stylings tions and the text are intentionally and inextricably in- of Marsalis and Marvel to the revolutionary avant-garde of Miles tertwined; simple enough for a child to read, yet capable Davis or . Both media are capable of crossovers, of great profundities and subversive paradigms; innocent mixings, and adaptations of classics. And, unlike Athena, emerg- and fragile-looking, but canny, deep, and enormously pop- ing full-blown from the forehead of Zeus, both media are strongly ular. Mixing images and dialog with flights of fancy, verse, rooted in their ancestry. and loving commentary on the foibles of the human con- Without belaboring the analogy too much further, another dition, rejoicing in the multilayered meanings of words, commonality they share is the constant fight for respectability. and delighting the eye with sumptuous illustrations that When asked to consider great composers, how many of us would ALICE IN COMICLAND

name “Duke Ellington,” though certainly he was? Greek pottery; in ancient Sumerian, Egyptian (Book Or asked the same of writers would respond “Walt of the Dead), and Japanese scrolls; in pre-Columbian Kelly,” or of artists would think of Winsor McCay? stone carvings; and in Renaissance tapestries, such , who wrote and drew Li’l Abner, remarked as the Bayeux. After the invention of printing, their on “the superiority of cartoonists over writers who story goes from medieval religious tracts up through can’t draw and artists who can’t write—two classes the etchings and narrative picture stories of William who are respected more than we are.” Or as Art Hogarth and Thomas Rowlandson. (Dodgson himself Spiegelman, creator of , said, “A writer can bought a set of 117 Hogarth prints in 1882.) write, ‘A man caught a fish’; a comics artist has to Thomas Rowlandson and William Combe’s Dr. know what the tackle looked like.” Syntax was a regularly appearing cartoon character This lack of regard is probably a holdover from starting in 1809. Word balloons were brought into the Victorian era in England when the “quality” prominence by the satirical cartoonist James Gillray newspapers associated any graphic representation around the year 1800, although examples can be with illiteracy and vulgarity, haughtily leaving such found as far back as 1680. The political and humorous things to the Illustrated London News and Punch. published in Punch, founded in 1841, also must be considered progenitors. The idea of telling a story in pictorial form goes way, Typical of this period, the cartoon “The Scanty way back. Such works appear in cave paintings; Meal” is from the hand of young C. L. Dodgson, circa 1850, from his family magazine 10 The Rectory Umbrella. The father of modern car- tooning is often acknowledged to be Rodolphe Töpffer (1799 – 1846), a French-speaking Swiss artist, playwright, novelist, and teacher whose cartoons (“drôleries”) used panel borders and interdepen- dent words and pictures. 1 His first “” appeared in 1837, five years after Carroll was born. Sir , the origi- nal illustrator for Carroll’s two Alice books, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, was himself do- ing sequential comics in Punch, as shown in “Mr. Spoonbill’s Experience in the Art of Skating,” 1855. ALICE IN COMICLAND

11

Nineteenth-century (now classified as “Victorian The British would proudly counter with their Age”) comics almost never used word balloons: nar- comic magazines, such as Chips and especially Ally

3 ration and dialog were beneath the panels. So: what Sloper’s Half-Holiday from 1867, which was pub- Left, Top Lewis Carroll, 1857, and was the first comic? lished, by the way, by the Dalziel Brothers, engrav- a John Tenniel The Germans would point proudly to the work ers of the Tenniel illustrations for Carroll’s Alice self-portrait, circa 1889. of Wilhelm Busch in the 1860s, who produced masterpieces. Arthur B. Frost, the American illus- Left, Bottom “The Scanty Meal,” circa Bilderbogen among whose characters were these trator of Carroll’s Phanstasmagoria and A Tangled 1850. Young Charlie Dodgson makes fun of little imps, Max and Moritz. 2 William Randolph Tale, was also drawing comics throughout the 1880s the then-famous J.F. Herring’s painting by Hearst had spotted them as a child on a trip to and 1890s. drawing a cartoon with speech balloons. Europe with his mother, pretty much stole the idea In America, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York Above in 1897, and had his staff cartoonist, German-born World began publishing a Sunday comic supple- “Mr. Spoonbill,” 1855. John Tenniel draws a , build a strip inspired by them, the ment in 1889, to great success. In 1894, the World ! (From the collection of Katzenjammer Kids. purchased a new color printing press and began Doug Wheeler.)

13

publishing sequential comic strips as early as In an era before radio and television it is impor- Left January of that year. Soon after that, beginning tant to remember, comic strips were the mass enter- Punch, Vol. 46, 1864, the first appearance of the in May of 1895, a young artist named Richard tainment of the day. Pulitzer’s rival paper, William Alice character, a year and a half before Wonderland Felton Outcault evolved his single-panel comic, Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal, carried a com- was published. (From the collection of At the Circus in Hogan’s Alley, its hero a bald- ic section touted as “eight pages of polychromatic ef- Andrew Ogus.) headed street urchin named Mickey Dugan, who fulgence that makes a rainbow look like a lead pipe.” Above Punch, March 8, 1899. wore an oversize blue nightshirt. A year later a Part of that rainbow was the Yellow Kid, who Hearst The original caption reads: Alice in Bumbleland. The printer mistakenly (and serendipitously) printed had lured away from Pulitzer. Gryphon, City of London; his shirt with a bright new ink and “The Yellow Alice, The Right Hon. A.J. B-lf-r; The Mock Turtle, Kid” was born, spawning a rage of toys, cigar box- Again, let us note that Lewis Carroll was alive in this City of Westminster. “What is the use of repeating that es, stage plays, and so on. Though it had its prece- era. Just three years after his death, the first incur- stuff,” the Mock Turtle interrupted, “If you don’t dents, the Yellow Kid is conventionally celebrated sion of his own characters into the comics took place explain it as you go on? It’s by far the most confusing as being the beginning of the American newspaper in R. W. Taylor’s Alice’s Adventures in Funnyland in thing I ever heard!” (From the collection of comics features. the Sunday Tribune, November 10, 1901, Alan Kaplan.) (“”), part of whose fortune was made from such enterprises, later funded the Alice statue in Central Park.

The Alice books must be seen as a precursor, a sig- nificant inspiration, to all this, exploring that rich, surreal world of works ostensibly written for chil- dren but in fact written for the amusement of all. The Alice books’ pervasiveness in popular culture is overwhelming—as are their direct infusions into the comics. In Pictures and Conversations: Lewis Carroll in the Comics: An Annotated International

Bibliography (Ivory Door, 2003) my colleagues Alan

Tannenbaum and Byron Sewell and I listed more than 500 comic books in which the Alice characters have appeared. In the decade since then, there has been a wealth of others as well. As a way of organizing them, I rather arbi- trarily came up with some categories: direct adap- 14 tations or illustrations of the books, from onward; parodies, such as by Jack Davis in MAD and in National Screw; exploi- tations, which includes their use in horror, political , humorous adventure stories, , and erotica; and the manifold references to, or influences of, the Carrollian mindset on this medium. Iconic Wonderland characters have interacted with every- although Alice bears more of a resemblance to a one from the Archie gang to Superman, , Above proto–Alfred E. Neuman than to Tenniel’s protago- Raggedy Ann, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Dorothy Alice’s first comics- oriented cover nist. Very soon after that, in 1905, Richard Outcault Gale (and other Oz characters), The Incredible Hulk, appearances were on these publications which himself penned and drew a sequence called “Buddy Dr. Strange, , The , Bugs Bunny, reprint R.F. Outcault’s Tucker Meets Alice in Wonderland.” Buddy Tucker/Alice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, not to mention the material. (Cupples and The Buddy and Alice sequence was collected characters in the Disney universe. Leon, 1906 and 1907). into a book, Buddy Tucker and His Friends, and Right The printer’s proof published in 1907, and many hundreds of other such The one-shot allusions to Alice in comic strips and for the cover of MAD #15, September 1954. Platinum Age comic books were issued in the first comic books are innumerable, and Carroll’s playful Artwork, Bill Elder after John Tenniel; concept, few decades of the 20th century. The first news- influence is also hard to miss in great strip master- Harvey Kurtzman, who autographed this stand comic book with all original material was The pieces such as . Whole genres of “non- historic piece. (From Heritage Auctions.) Funnies #1, 1929, published by George Delacorte sense” comics abound, such as George Carlson’s