Roy Thomas' Hard-Driving Comics Fanzine FROM HELL-RIDER TO GHOST RIDER! FROM SGT. FURY TO–SGT. DARKK!? GARY $9.95 FRIEDRICH In the USA No. 169 May RIDES AGAIN! 2021 HANG LOOSE, HERBIE! 7 4 3 4 0 0 8 5 6 2 8 1 Art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Vol. 3, No. 169 / May 2021 Editor Roy Thomas Associate Editor Jim Amash Design & Layout Christopher Day Consulting Editor John Morrow FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck Don’t STEAL our J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor) Digital Editions! Comic Crypt Editor C’mon citizen, DO THE RIGHT Michael T. Gilbert THING! A Mom & Pop publisher Editorial Honor Roll like us needs every sale just to Jerry G. Bails (founder) survive! DON’T DOWNLOAD Ronn Foss, Biljo White OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Mike Friedrich, Bill Schelly Buy affordable, legal downloads only at www.twomorrows.com Proofreaders or through our Apple and Google Apps! Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep Cover Artist producing great publications like this one! Mike Ploog Cover Colorist Unknown With Special Thanks to: Heidi Amash Beverly Hahs Contents Richard J. Arndt Kirk Hastings Bob Bailey Robert Higgerson Writer/Editorial: My Best Friend—Gary Friedrich .......... 2 Carol Bierschwal Sean Howe “Gary Friedrich And I Were Part Of Each Other’s Lives Danny Bierschwal Jim Kealy Ray Bottorff, Jr. Troy R. Kinunen For Over 60 Years” ................................. 3 Len Brown Katy Kirn A conversation with Roy Thomas about those six decades, conducted by Richard Arndt. Jean Caccicedo Tyler M. Koenig Remembering Gary Friedrich ........................ 45 Aaron Caplan Mark Lewis Wife Jean Friedrich and nephew Robert Higgerson on the Marvel writer’s later years. Nick Caputo Jim Ludwig John Cimino Mears Auctions From The Tomb Presents: The Friedrich Monsters ....... 61 Jim Clark (website) Peter Normanton on Gary’s horror/mystery comics at Marvel, Charlton, et al. Comic Book Plus Peter Normanton (website) Barry Pearl Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Frazetta Covers That Never Were .. 67 Chet Cox Warren Reece Michael T. Gilbert displays some exquisite Frazetta EC covers that didn’t quite happen. Brian Cremins Scott Rowland Justin Fairfax Joe Rubinstein FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #228............. 75 Albert Fisher Matt Scullin P.C. Hamerlinck showcases Mark Voger’s fond look at Golden Age great Ken Bald. Shane Foley John & Martha Jean Friedrich Short On Our Cover: The first and probably most famous image ever drawn of the hard-driving Ghost Rider is Janet Gilbert Ken Steinhoff Mike Ploog’s cover for that supernatural hero’s Devil-may-care debut in Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972). Grand Comics Dann Thomas Yet, important as Mike was to the killer look and instant popularity of that Marvel stalwart, he was basically Database Mark Voger the brainchild of writer Gary Friedrich—so we’ve replaced the eldritch biker’s skull/visage with a photo (website) Brandon Williams of the scribe, who is this issue’s chief topic of discussion. Thanks to John Cimino for first putting this image Robin Green Kent Wilson together for us, and to Chris Day and John Morrow for the final version. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Above: We figure you won’t get far in this edition ofAlter Ego before you understand why we parked the splash of Sgt. Fury #70 (Sept. 1969) atop this page. “The Missouri Marauders” was (were) the creative offspring of aforementioned scripter Gary Friedrich, artistically realized by the stellar talents of penciler Dick Ayers and inker John Severin. Far as Ye Editor knows, the only one of the seven Marauders Gary named after an actual fellow denizen of the Show-Me State was Pvt. Paul Schade (pronounced “shod-dy” rather than “shade,” not that it really matters). Their adventures alongside the Howling Commandos This issue is dedicated to the memory of continued into the following issue. Thanks to Barry Pearl for the scan. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Gary Friedrich Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: [email protected]. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Six-issue subscriptions: $68 US, $103 Elsewhere, $27 Digital Only. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © their creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter © Roy Thomas. Alter Ego is a TM of Roy & Dann Thomas. FCA is a TM of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890. FIRST PRINTING. “GROOVY GARY” DEPT. 3 “GARY FRIEDRICH And I PART I Were A Part Of Each Other’s Lives For Over 60 Years” A Conversation with ROY THOMAS About Their 6-Decade Friendship Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt NTERVIEWER’S I INTRODUCTION: This interview is intended to be an examination and a reminiscence of a long friendship between comicbook professionals Gary Friedrich (Aug. 21, 1943-Aug. 29, 2018) and Roy Thomas (b. 1940). “Groovy” Gary Friedrich & “Rascally” Roy Thomas Besides covering Gary’s (on right & left, respectively) at the 2011 Heroes Con in Charlotte, North considerable comics career, Carolina. This snapshot taken by Bob Bailey accompanies splash pages it also reveals how their from Friedrich’s two trademark Marvel series: Sgt. Fury #56 (July 1968), relationship intersected with art by Dick Ayers & John Severin, and Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. with that career. In that 1972), with Mike Ploog drawing a brand new Ghost Rider! Thanks to respect, it’s an adjunct to Barry Pearl & Nick Caputo for the scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Jon B. Cooke’s informative conversation with Friedrich for TwoMorrows’ Comic Book Artist #13 and performed, as well his work in later years for Alcoholics Anonymous, (May 2001). Gary’s early years in a small Midwestern town, and his not only in overcoming his own addiction but in helping others cope return there in his later life to enjoy a successful marriage and family life with theirs, are all crucial parts of Gary’s life—aspects that should be as and eventually to receive national recognition for his contributions to the celebrated as his writing career. field, are every bit as noteworthy as his comics work. The music he loved 4 A Conversation With Roy Thomas About A 6-Decade Friendship Born met in 1956 and raised or early ’57, in Jackson, despite my Missouri, misstating he honed in Alter Ego his writing #162 that talents circa it might’ve 1964 as editor been a bit and lead Gary Friedrich Roy Thomas, Jr. later. writer for the local newspaper. In late 1965, When I was growing up, Roy, a friend and fellow Jacksonian everybody seemed to have who’d recently become a writer nicknames. Mine was “Junior,” and editorial assistant at Marvel since I was Roy Thomas, Jr., Comics, suggested Gary might Suddenly, At The Palace… and Gary was “Butch” to some find profitable work freelancing The long-gone Palace Theatre in Jackson, Missouri, where Gary and Roy first folks. But never once in my life in the comics. Soon the two were met in 1956 or early ’57. This photo, from a 2016 edition of the town’s Cash- did I ever call him that. Book Journal newspaper, probably dates from 1954; the film that would be sharing an apartment in New York RA: How soon did you become City, and before long Friedrich was playing that night, but not at this kids’ matinee, is Suddenly, wherein Frank Sinatra portrayed a would-be Presidential assassin. That’s the year Roy, outside-of-work friends? writing comics for Charlton. around the time he graduated from eighth grade, first went to work at the THOMAS: Pretty quickly. In By early 1967 he was on “picture show.” Gary signed on a couple of years later. Thanks to the boys’ JHS schoolmates Beverly Hahs & Kent Wilson; his family owned the movie house. spring of ’57 I got my driver’s staff at Marvel, scripting a revival [© the respective copyright holders.] license, so I had wheels—a of the 1950s-era Western Ghost The pics of both lads are from Jackson High School’s 1957 Silver Arrow two-tone blue ’52 Chevy. Rider. He wrote several very funny yearbook, and were probably taken around the time they met. Actually, it was the family car, stories for Not Brand Echh, before but I managed to commandeer assuming writing chores on the And, just for good measure: below is a Kurt Schaffenberger panel from Fawcett’s The Marvel Family #45 (March 1950), a comic both guys probably it much of the time, since title on which he’d have his longest read back in the day, in which Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and Captain my dad was on the road in a run—Sgt. Fury, beginning with Marvel Jr. are flying an entire Palace Theatre to safety! Script by Otto Binder. panel truck a lot for his job. As #42 (May 1967). For it, he Thanks to P.C. Hamerlinck. [Shazam heroes TM & © DC Comics.] long as my buddies and crafted a number of stories I kept the car gassed up, known today as the “The” we could drive around series—tales that related most evenings. We’d pool Fury’s World War II exploits our loose change to buy a with the sensibilities of the buck’s worth of gas, which 1960s. He wrote Sgt. Fury took you a fair distance in until #116 (Nov. 1973), though those days. Gary was along some of the latter-day stories on a lot of those rides; after alternated with reprints.