Roy Thomas' Hard-Driving Comics Fanzine FROM HELL-RIDER TO ! 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 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! , 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! 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— ...... 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. 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 . 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 and . 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’ #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 that would be sharing an apartment in 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 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! by . 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. Other he turned 16, we took his Marvel characters he wrote family’s car sometimes. included the , Captain I can hardly picture him America, Daredevil, Black back then without a bottle Widow, , X-Men, of Pepsi in his hand. He’d Captain Marvel, the Monster drink a six-pack or more of of Frankenstein, and Nick it a day. Fury as Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. He also memorably co-created both a new Ghost Rider (the supernatural motorcyclist) and the Son of Satan. I had friends in my own “class of ‘58,” of course, but I also hung out with several guys from two grades below after I began During 1970-71, Gary wrote for the short-lived Skywald dating a girl in that class, Linda Rahm. Our informal little riding- Publications. In 1975-76 he wrote for Martin Goodman’s equally around group gave ourselves a nickname that somebody—but not short-term comics company Atlas/Seaboard, and “” for Gary or me—ran across in a dictionary: the Gaberlunzies. Several Marvel’s British imprint. His last work in the field was done for Topps centuries ago, it meant “a wandering beggar.” That was us, all right, Comics in 1992. In addition, he co-wrote several paperback reference works pooling our quarters to buy gas. We rarely got up to anything really on rock’n’roll and country music. This interview was conducted by phone bad—although whenever we did, I’m afraid Gary was likely to be at on March 31 & May 15, 2020. the center of it, as he’d have been the first to admit. RICHARD ARNDT: You two both came from the same small town, RA: What kind of trouble are we talking about? Jackson, Missouri, is that correct? THOMAS: Well, for example, one Halloween—I don’t recall if I ROY THOMAS: Yes. I was born there. I think Gary was, too. It’s was still in high school, or maybe by then commuting to college in the county seat of Cape Girardeau County, 10 miles or so from the Cape Girardeau—several of us were riding around in my car, and Mississippi. We both went to Jackson High School, but we only Gary and another guy had us drop them off for a little while. After met when he came to work at the local movie house—the Palace we picked them up again, we drove by a local milling company that Theatre—where I’d been working for a couple of years as usher had a big open yard with a 15-foot-high pile of sawdust. And it was and popcorn boy. He said in his Comic Book Artist interview that he smoking… it was on fire! We duly alerted the cops. Later that night, was thirteen and in the seventh grade when he started there; that Gary admitted to me that he and the other guy had started the fire means I’d have been a sophomore—about sixteen. So we must’ve as a Halloween prank. They hadn’t meant any real harm, of course. “Gary Friedrich And I Were Part Of Each Other’s Lives For Over 60 Years!” 9

with my girlfriend Linda a few times a night. But Gary and the rest never got to dance at all, even if they’d wanted to. RA: How smoothly did you guys generally get along as a band? The group dynamic can get tricky sometimes, especially after being together for years. THOMAS: We all got along great, mostly. Oh, Gary would get annoyed at me Meet The Gaberlunzies! from time to time when he (L. to r.:) Gary F., Roy T., Frank Tripp, and Charles “Rocky” Bierschwal, at about the time they formed the rock’n’roll thought I was trying to sing group that eventually got rebranded as the Galaxies. The first three pics are from early-’60s editions of theSagamore , the some ballad too much like yearbook of Southeast Missouri State College in Cape Giraredeau; courtesy of Tyler M. Koenig. The picture of Rocky B. is Sinatra instead of like Elvis courtesy of his brother Danny and his sister Carol. It was only when Gary’s yearbook photo turned up that Roy remembered or Bobby Darin. He was his buddy had briefly attended college! probably right about that.

Our band did have one minor comicbook connection I should The only time I can mention. Around ’63, Rocky did something or other, I forget what, recall him really getting mad at me had to do with “I Can’t Stop that landed him for roughly a week in the county jail in Jackson— Loving You,” the big Ray Charles hit. Bobby Darin had done a which then was right next to Jones Drug Store, where I bought a knockoff of it called “You’re the Reason I’m Living,” and our band lot of my comics. Rock got bored and wanted something to read, so did both songs. Only problem was that, once—well, more than Gary and I bought some at Jones’ and just took them once—I’d start out singing the Ray Charles song, and, when we around the corner and handed them to him through the bars. He came to the bridge, I’d accidentally veer off into the very similar knew a little about Norse mythology, so he especially liked “.” one from Darin. The teenagers dancing to that “belly-rubber,” as Luckily, he was released in time that we didn’t miss any gigs. we called slow songs, never noticed, and it didn’t cause any real problems for the band—but Gary’d just get furious. The second or Gary had named the band the Gaberlunzies, after our old third time I did that, the first I even realized I’d done it was when I high school “gang.” It lasted from spring of ‘61 till early ‘64. After heard this big crash behind me, then I saw one of his drumsticks go a year, since nobody we dealt with could spell, pronounce, or flying past me out onto the roller-rink dance floor. He’d slammed it even remember the name “Gaberlunzies”—for the record, it’s down so hard on the rim of his drum, it’d flown out of his hand! But pronounced “GAB-er-lun-zies,” pretty much the way it’s spelled— he quickly got over it and we laughed about it. he decided he had to change it to the much more pedestrian “Galaxies.” Yech! Like I said, it was Gary’s band, except he couldn’t really control Rocky. [laughs] Getting Rock to show up for practice sessions was Mostly, we did covers of rock songs. Whatever was coming hard enough. And sometimes, when he got in a surly mood, he’d out in the early ’60s, plus “golden oldies” from the late ’50s. We just turn around and sit on his amp and play with his back to the never dreamed of writing our own material. The closest we came dancing teenagers, and nothing Gary could say would make him was when I’d start out real slow singing “Old Shep,” about a boy face front. Once, while we were setting up in the Roll-O-Fun, before and his dog—then after one verse we’d suddenly launch into they let in the kids, he sort of beat up on Gary when Gary said “Hound Dog.” That always got the crowd jumping. At least, I guess something insulting to him—well, he didn’t really beat him up, it did. I could never see them all that clearly, since I refused to wear just got him down on the floor and pummeled him for a minute to glasses when I sang. Rock’n’roll singers didn’t wear glasses! For “teach him a lesson,” as he said to me right afterward. Gary was just our theme song, Gary and I chose “C’mon, Everybody,” which had shaken, not hurt, and mostly he and Rock got along great. So did been a hit for Eddie Cochran. The band played only a handful of Rocky and I, though we were even more different than he and Gary. instrumentals like “Sleepwalk” and “Tequila,” so I only got to dance The coming of the Beatles around the end of ’63 basically torpedoed our band. Suddenly, group vocals were in, and nobody in our band except me really sang. Well, Gary and I did an

Alias The “Roll-O-Fun” The longtime Jackson Skate Center sported a “Roll-O-Fun” moniker when the Gaberlunzies/Galaxies played there most Friday nights from mid-1961 through early ’64. It was located at the town’s edge and was surrounded by an oft-muddy, potholed parking area. The roller-skating area, in the front of the building, is on the left; Friday night dancing was held in the back addition, seen on right. This drawing by local artist Jeanie Eddleman, based on a photo, appeared in a 2020 “Treasures of Jackson” calendar. [© the respective copyright holders.] 10 A Conversation With Roy Thomas About A 6-Decade Friendship

Even though it coincided with the years I was teaching high school, a job I never liked, being in that band was one of the high points of my working life—rivaling even my first couple of decades in comics. I’m sure it was fairly high up there for Gary, too, even though we never made much money at it. We usually played for the door, and if we got $10-15 apiece for the night, we were likely to go out and celebrate, swigging beer by some creek. RA: The article in A/E #162 mentioned that you graduated from high school in 1958. That would have meant Gary was in the class of 1961. Is that correct? THOMAS: Yeah. He had the same birthday as my sister Katy… August 21... except she was a year younger. That was [artist] ’s birthday, too—and Ozma, in the Oz books I loved as a kid. RA: You were also involved with early comics fandom—working on the early-1960s version of Alter Ego, and writing articles for other fanzines of the day. Did Gary participate in that? THOMAS: Not really. But he did use comics to stir up trouble once or twice. His senior year, as editor of the high school newspaper, he raised a minor storm by writing an editorial in favor of comicbooks. That didn’t go down too well with the school administration or teachers, especially just a few years after Dr. Wertham’s little crusade against them. I’m not sure if it was before or afterward that he used comics to bait his English teacher, Miss Jenkins—who he claimed tried to get him expelled for that editorial. The way he told it to me, one day he brought the new Justice League into class and sat there brazenly reading it. When she admonished him for reading such “trash,” he asked her innocently if Roy Thomas had been in her classes a few years earlier and won the English Award two years running. “Yes,” she said, “Roy was one of my best students.” Then he sprung his trap, waving around the comic: “Well, he’s got a letter in this comic, so it can’t be that stupid!” Of course, I did have a letter in it, one of Don’t Be A Thor Loser! many I wrote to editor Julius Schwartz. #88 (Jan. 1963) may—or may not—have been the particular “Thor” issue that, along with other Marvel comics, Besides the school paper and marching band, Gary had a major Gary and Roy bought to entertain Rocky Bierschwal while he was part in at least one high school class play, adapted from the novel languishing in the local hoosegow for a few days. Thanks to Barry Pearl. The Egg and I. After the film version, they’d spun off a decade of Ma [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] and Pa Kettle movies—the forerunners of The Beverly Hillbillies. Gary played Pa Kettle. Well, actually, they couldn’t use the name “Kettle” occasional gag duet like “Paul and Paula” and “Speedy Gonzales,” in the play for some legal reason, but he knew that’s who he was but that was about it. So we couldn’t do decent covers of the Beatles really playing and hammed it up… way beyond what the teacher/ or the other English groups that soon followed. So, over the next director wanted. He really chewed the scenery. few months, our band kind of faded away, just like a lot of much bigger American rock acts did at the time. Oh, and he was also in a 15-minute black-&-white horror/ comedy amateur silent movie that he, John Short, and I, and three Several years later, Gary and Rocky put together another band, other guys, made in the late ’50s: Les Ghouls… a ripoff of Abbott and with more of a country sound—I guess it was after he’d moved Costello Meet Frankenstein. John played a Frankenstein-type monster; back to Jackson—and, on one trip back, I went to see them play we used his brand new movie camera, and it was entirely filmed in at some wonderfully sleazy honkytonk in Cape Girardeau and I his family’s house. I wrote it and played a werewolf. Gary played wound up singing a couple of numbers with them. It was a hoot, the Bud Abbott part, but with more than a touch of Leo Gorcey of and reminded me how much I missed our earlier band. the Bowery Boys. It was a pretty primitive film. One thing I remember vividly from the early-’60s band days He never really got involved with the comics fandom that grew was trying to talk Gary out of getting married the first time... out up after Xero and Comic Art and Alter Ego... but he did help me out of a grand total of five. He’d met some cute younger girl who twice after I took over Alter Ego in ‘64. First, after Linda and I broke wanted him to give her drum lessons, and even before she’d had up—she had posed for me for photos that ran in Ronn Foss’ two her first lesson, he informed us he was going to marry her. He was issues, as “Joy Holiday,” the costumed mascot he’d designed—Gary impulsive like that. Linda and I, in between sets at the Roll-O-Fun, arranged for a girl we knew, Pauline Copeman, to pose in that tried to talk him out of it. So did Rocky. We talked till we were outfit. She appeared in my three pre-pro issues, #7, 8, and 9. blue in the face, but it did no good. The marriage lasted a couple of years. Sorry, I can’t remember the girl’s name. I barely knew her, He also arranged for #7, my first issue as editor/publisher, to and had nothing against her, really. They had a child together... a be printed by Cash-Book Printing in Jackson. A crusty older guy son. named Leroy Beatty did a wonderful job with it. But Gary told me that, later, Leroy groused, “The best printing job I ever did, and it “Gary Friedrich And I Were Part Of Each Other’s Lives For Over 60 Years!” 27

Between Hand Grenades & Motorcycles While noted primarily for scripting other Marvel features, Gary also had popular if limited runs on series that included The Incredible Hulk #107 (Sept. 1968); art by Trimpe & Shores—, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. #15 (Nov. 1969); art by Trimpe & Ayers—and #142 (Oct. 1971); art by John Romita & . In that last issue of the original S.H.I.E.L.D. series, he actually talked into letting him “kill off” Colonel Fury—though he was resuscitated by later hands. Thanks to Robert Higgerson and Barry Pearl for the scans. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] recall his younger sister Becky being there, and singing a moving acapella version of the Rolling Stones song “As Tears Go By.” His marriage to Cindy didn’t last all that long. As a wedding gift, her family gave them a high-rise apartment in Queens—I think in Lefrak City—with wall-to-wall carpeting. Cindy and Gary promptly went out and bought a dog, but with them both working, it didn’t often get John Romita properly walked, and within a few months From the 1969 Fantastic that beautiful carpet was totally ruined. Four Annual. That probably didn’t help endear Gary to his in-laws. I get a bit hazy on his relationships after that. Not long after the breakup with Cindy, he and some new girlfriend took off for Nevada... Reno, maybe Lake Tahoe, too. He went AWOL from his staff job—and naturally, Stan was livid. For a little while, I think Gary became a blackjack dealer out there. Then he came back to New York... I think he and that girl had split up by then. I don’t think he got his staff job back, and I thought at the time maybe even his freelancing was history. Stan was pretty pissed. 28 A Conversation With Roy Thomas About A 6-Decade Friendship

War Is Hell! (No, Wait—That Was A Later Marvel War Mag!) The splashes of Captain Savage and His Leatherneck Raiders #1 (Jan. 1968) and #1 (June 1972), both by the Friedrich/Ayers team… with inking the former, and the latter. Curiously, of Marvel’s three Silver Age war-hero comics, only on Captain Savage was the name of the hero’s team a part of the actual indicia title; not so for Sgt. Fury or Combat Kelly. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.]

But, like I said, Gary’d spent time in Reno—and, as many had to offer. He wasn’t as into Broadway plays as I was, but we people nowadays know from either Stan’s autobiography or the went to a lot of musical events together. I remember that, early on, Stan Lee Story book I wrote, although I didn’t know it back then: we were really thrilled to get to see Chuck Berry, a favorite of ours When Stan’s wife Joan had divorced her first husband—she’d ever since high school. Our band had done “Johnny B. Goode” just been an English war bride—she went to Reno for the six weeks about every night we ever played. of residence there you needed for a quickie divorce. That’s what people who could afford it did in 1947. According to Gary, as Gary really got into the late-’60s rock group Country Joe and soon as he mentioned Reno to Stan, Stan launched into his own the Fish, whose main hit was an anti- War song called memories of how, when he’d wanted to fly out to Nevada to see “The I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” After they wrote Stan a fan Joan, he’d been in such a hurry that he told the travel agent to get letter, Gary arranged for a couple of them to come up to meet Stan, him on “the first plane to Reno”—which turned out to be one that probably mostly so he could meet them himself. One was David made “milk stops” all the way out, so it actually took him a day or Cohen, the keyboarder... I don’t think Joe himself came up. A night two to get there. Well, in the course of Stan relating that story, all his or so later, Gary and I went to see them play at the Fillmore East anger at Gary just evaporated, and the two of them came out of his [theatre] downtown, but it turned out not to be their best night. We office smiling like best buddies. Like I said, somehow, even without were really knocked out by the new band that opened for them... always trying to, Gary had Stan’s number. Ten Years After. When the Fish came on, by comparison, they just seemed to be jamming, and a bit undisciplined. But after the show RA: That’s a pretty good story. [chuckles] we went backstage, ’cause they were basically a good band. I was crazy about their song “Not So Sweet, Martha Lorraine.” Gary, of THOMAS: It’s the best kind of story: it’s totally true! course, preferred “The I Feel Like I’m Fixin’ to Die Rag.” Around 1970, Gary worked for Goodman’s men’s magazines Both of us liked various kinds of pop music. There was a for a while, apparently first for David George and later for Ivan jazz club called The Riverboat, where we and our Prashker. But I know next to nothing about that work. current ladies went to see Ella Fitzgerald, whom we both adored. When Gary lived in New York, during both his marriages We saw the Supremes when they played the famous Copacabana there and especially before his first move out West, we tried to take night club—and later dragged Gary and me and advantage of the culture—at least the popular culture—New York several other people there to see [insult comedian] Don Rickles. “Gary Friedrich And I Were Part Of Each Other’s Lives For Over 60 Years!” 39

with his own book about those days. I don’t know if he started it before his health problems made it impossible. Now, I regret we didn’t do that book. Some of the anecdotes it would’ve recorded are now lost for good, since they’d have been his memories, not mine. Also, sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s, while I was still doing occasional scripting related to movies and TV, I wrote out a bunch of 3”x5” cards listing ideas for scenes based on our rock band days. I paid Gary an advance to write a screenplay based on his recollections added to mine, mixing truth and fiction. It was to start out in the early ’60s, like our band did, and end just after JFK’s assassination in November ’63. The last scene was to have the band sitting around by a creek listening to Beatles music and then going their separate ways… which isn’t that far from what really happened, since the Beatles first became popular in America around the end of 1963, and, we always felt, did lead to the breakup of our band. We called the screenplay Good Rockin’ Tonight, after one of Elvis’ early Sun records. My plan was to rewrite Gary’s draft and have my Hollywood agent try to sell it. Gary and I would’ve shared co-author credit. But then Dann and I moved to South Carolina, my agent switched to being a producer, and I got Bombast Away! discouraged about prospects for selling the screenplay without an agent, so I never did a rewrite. But Gary’s first draft still exists, and Pre-existing art was used for the cover of Topps’ Bombast #1 at least it preserves—in fictionalized form—a lot of what we were (April 1993), as part of its limited Secret City Saga series. The story inside up to in the first half of the 1960s, not long before we got into comics was plotted by Roy Thomas and dialogued by Gary Friedrich, who was reunited by editor Jim Salicrup with his old Sgt. Fury team of Dick Ayers & professionally. John Severin. A surprise guest star was The , popular Image He also had this interesting idea, in 2010—I think it was his Comics character created by Erik Larsen; that was Jim’s idea, too. idea, not mine—to start a “Silver Age Comics” imprint to publish However, contrary to the cover copy, “Big John” at Marvel pretty invariably new comics written and drawn by Silver Age guys… the two of meant J. Buscema, not J. Severin; the latter was occasionally referred to as “Long John,” owing to his love for drawing adventure stories. Thanks to us, plus others we could the GCD and Nick Caputo, respectively. [Page TM & © Topps; Bombast TM & line up. He created a Sgt. © Estate of Jack Kirby; Savage Dragon TM & © Erik Larsen.] Fury-type hero called Sgt. Darkk, who led a Gary got a job driving medical supplies and equipment Howling Commandos- around St. Louis between one hospital and another. It kept him style group of vampires. hopping, and he enjoyed driving anyway. But, after a few years, he He figured that might contracted Parkinson’s disease, and that ended that job. His hearing appeal to two different had gotten steadily worse, too, and he never found a hearing-aid audiences, and it very that helped him much. That eventually made it impossible for him well might have. Also, to talk on the phone. Later, complications from the Parkinson’s put he made up an American an almost total end to our communication via e-mail, because it Indian hero named became impossible for him to type more than a sentence or two at a Doomryder, in a series set sitting. It was a very sad situation, but Gary and Jean coped as well in a post-Apocalyptic as possible. They had a strong, wonderful bond. world… a sort of mash-up of Hell-Rider and Mad Max. I don’t know if Sometime before the Parkinson’s, he suggested we write a Wedding Bells book together about what it’d been like to be a pair of young comics he ever had anyone do writers in New York in the 1960s. A good idea, but I felt it would’ve any concept drawings for Gary and Jean’s wedding picture, February 1988. Courtesy of Jean Friedrich. clashed with my plans to eventually write my own autobio, so either idea; at one point he Jean today is an essential worker in a I reluctantly declined, though I did encourage him to go ahead planned to contact Dick hospital lab, testing for COVID-19. “GROOVY GARY” DEPT.

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PART II Remembering GARY FRIEDRICH Wife JEAN FRIEDRICH & Nephew ROBERT HIGGERSON On the Marvel Writer’s Later Years— With Echoes of His Earlier Ones Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt

NTERVIEWER’S I INTRODUCTION: Jean Ellen Jean & Gary Friedrich Friedrich was married to Gary and their granddaughter Ava, a few years Friedrich from 1988 until his in August back—juxtaposed with a Ghost Rider poster 2018. Robert Higgerson, Jean’s nephew, drawn by especially for Gary to whose interview directly follows Jean’s, was sell at comics conventions. The poster hangs in their home; they also have the original art. Gary’s nephew-by-marriage. Both of them met Thanks to Jean Friedrich for both scans. Gary some years after he had largely stopped [Ghost Rider TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] writing comics, but each was able to give an informative account of Gary’s later years. The interview with Jean took place on January 11, 2020… the one with Robert Higgerson on January 4, 2020. Interview #1: JEAN FRIEDRICH RICHARD ARNDT: Today we’re welcoming Jean Ellen Friedrich, the late Gary Friedrich’s wife. Thanks for agreeing to this interview, Jean. JEAN FRIEDRICH: Roy was a very good friend of Gary’s, so I’m happy to do this. came back and started going RA: Both you and Robert met Gary after he left the comics field, by and to the local AA large... so I don’t expect you to know the ins and outs of his comics career. meetings. I was This will be more of a character study. going to them in Jackson, Missouri, FRIEDRICH: Okay, good, I’m much more comfortable with that. I which was Gary’s met Gary in 1986 at an AA—Alcoholics Anonymous—meeting. hometown. I walked into the RA: Before we get too far on that—is it OK with you to mention AA? I meeting and sat want to be sure you’re comfortable talking about it before we get too far in down and Gary depth about that. was chairing the FRIEDRICH: It’s fine with me. Both Gary and I felt that, as long as meeting. It was we weren’t breaking someone else’s anonymity, it would be fine— just—BOOM! we can break our own. Gary was of the opinion that it’s very hard RA: I’m guessing it was a good BOOM? to help people if you’re completely anonymous. He totally believed in that. FRIEDRICH: Well, yeah! [laughs] It was. Our marriage lasted 30 years and only ended because Gary passed away. RA: So then I guess my first real question is: “How did you meet Gary?” [both laugh] RA: So you met Gary when he was about 43, is that right? FRIEDRICH: Well, it was at an AA meeting. It was so funny, FRIEDRICH: Yes! That’s exactly right. We got married in 1988. because I had returned to St. Louis—I had been raised in Perryville, Missouri, but I’d been living in Texas for some time. Anyhow, I RA: Do you know when he moved back full-time to Missouri? Because he 50 Jean Friedrich & Robert Higgerson On The Marvel Writer’s Later Years

the , and Gary loved being back in New York. We’d get there and we’d just run the streets. He’d remember certain places he’d gone to. It was exciting! RA: It’s fun to share that sort of thing with someone, especially if it’s all new to the person you’re sharing it with. FRIEDRICH: I had a wonderful time with him at those conventions. Some of the best times of my life, sharing that with Gary, meeting all those comics people. After a few conventions, you’d start seeing the same people at different conventions, and you’d become friends that way. It becomes a big family in a way. You’re always going, “Good to see you again!” For many of them, the only time they see each other is at a convention. What’s amazing to me is that this little town of Jackson, Missouri, produced two really talented people. Not just in writing. Gary and Roy were in a band together. They were both so artistic. Stan The Man & Groovy Gary—Together Again! It’s mind-boggling. Gary played the drums in that band, but all Although he received a well-deserved that year, Friedrich’s the years I was with him, I never heard him play the drums. His happiest memory of the 2007 San Diego Comic-Con was reconnecting with his brother told me, after Gary passed away, that Gary was a really old boss Stan Lee, and the two of them having their picture taken together. good drummer. In turn, Gary had told me Roy was a very good Hey, and Gary didn’t even have to pay for it! Photo snapped by Jean F. singer. The only time I heard Gary play anything like drums was when he was bouncing his finger on the console of the car when he FRIEDRICH: I’m not really at liberty to talk about it. was driving or on the table! RA: Fair enough. Gary won the Inkpot Award in 2007, the year the movie RA: Gary also received the Bill Finger writing award in 2010. Like the came out. To get the Inkpot, you have to actually be in attendance at the Inkpot, you have to attend Comic-Con to receive that, if you’re the living San Diego Comic-Con. What did Gary think about that? recipient. Unlike the Inkpot which is for contributions to comics in general, the Bill Finger Award is given out only for underrated writers. FRIEDRICH: Yes, we were treated well when we were there. Gary was really happy, and one of the happiest moments was when Stan FRIEDRICH: Yes, you only get it if you’ve been ignored for too Lee—I don’t remember if this was the first Comic-Con we attended long! The people who have won that award are all good writers. or the second—but Stan was going to be there. Gary e-mailed Stan’s Receiving that award was one of the few times I saw Gary really assistant to see if Stan had any time available to talk with Gary. That nervous. The Inkpot is usually given to you after or during a panel assistant said that Stan was really busy, and, of course, he was, but you’ve been participating in and you don’t even know you’re that after Stan did his forum he was scheduled to be meeting with getting it until they hand it to you. But the Bill Finger Award is in a the press and he’d have a little time in between. So we’re at the convention and Stan’s done his forum and has gone rushing out of the room. We could not keep up with him! He was 80 then and we were running down the hallway trying to catch up! However, we did get in the room and Gary got to talk to him again for a little while. I got a picture of the two of them together. RA: I did an interview once with , who was a colorist for Marvel from the 1940s through the mid-’60s, and he told me that Stan [Lee] didn’t like to sit down. When he was writing, Stan would stand up. He didn’t take taxis, he walked everywhere he could, as fast as he could. Stan G. told me that, if you were walking alongside of him on one of those walks, you were really going to have to hustle! He thought that particular habit was why Stan was so spry in his later years. He was always exercising, by walking whenever he could. He said, “Stan walked really fast!” FRIEDRICH: It’s true! He did! [laughs] It was unreal! I The Finger Of Fury couldn’t get over how a man Gary with his Bill Finger Award, 2010—and part of one of many Marvel pages that that age could move so fast! I remind us how much he deserved it: a key scene from “The War Lover!” in Sgt. Fury was running to keep up! #45 (Aug. 1967). Art by Dick Ayers & John Severin. Thanks to Scott Rowland for the photo, and to Barry Pearl for the comics scan. [Page TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] We were also invited to Remembering Gary Friedrich 57

Butterfly By Night Along with the title character, another notable co-creation of Gary Friedrich’s debuted in Skywald’s Hell-Rider #1 (Aug. 1971)—namely, The Butterfly, whom Robert Higgerson calls “presumably the first black super- heroine.” Pencils by , inks by . She also appeared in the second and final issue. Thanks to Peter Normanton & Robert Higgerson for the scans in this grouping. Also introduced in Hell-Rider #1 was the motorcycle gang “The Wild Bunch,” by GF, Dick Ayers, & Mike Esposito. The member named “Slinker” was surely named after Gary’s Missouri pal C.L. Slinkard, who’s mentioned back on p. 37. [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders.]

kind of money that super-heroes were in the 1970s. HIGGERSON: A lot of his super-hero work was done on titles that were in some form of transition as well. “The Hulk” was moving up from half a book to a whole book. Daredevil was in the process of moving from a solo hero to being teamed up for several years with The Black Widow. The Hulk special wasn’t a solo Hulk adventure; he was teamed up with The Inhumans. It was a thick book, with more pages than the average comic. He wasn’t one of my favorite characters, and I haven’t collected the comics he was in yet, but Gary also did some work with the original Captain Marvel, who was a male Kree spy. He worked on Captain Marvel #13-15 (May-Aug. 1969). They were, again, transition issues. In #16, they traded out the character’s Kree uniform for a super-hero costume, and his purpose for being on Earth was greatly changed. Gary also wrote some of The Black Widow’s adventures in in 1970. [INTERVIEWER’S NOTE: #1-3 (Aug.-Dec. 1970).] This was shortly after she got a new costume—an all-black cat suit. I don’t really remember her original costume— it may have had fishnet stockings or something like that. I’m curious as to whether Gary designed that costume or if it was ’s idea.

Man’s Inhuman-ity To Man Friedrich scripted the 51-page story in Incredible Hulk [Annual] #1 (1968), which co-starred The Inhumans, and introduced several new specimens of that super-powered species. Pencils by Marie Severin; inks by Syd Shores “and almost the whole blamed Bullpen,” if you can believe the credits—and you probably can. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] “GROOVY GARY” DEPT.

61 Headline PART III Headline 2 Author

by Peter Normanton

ary Friedrich was one of the first names I G got to know when, as a teenager, I became obsessed with comics—essentially those of the Marvel ilk. He was the scribe assigned to [The Monster of] Frankenstein and The Incredible Hulk, and my rapport with his writing was almost immediate. Soon after Gary arrived on the scene in 1966, the wind of change was once again billowing through the industry, thus ensuring this period would be every bit as exciting as those which had gone before. My interest in comics had been growing for some time, so it was no surprise when, in February of 1975, having picked up a copy of the British Marvel reprint Dracula Lives #19, comicbooks became my thing. Amid the contents of this issue, which included “Tomb of Dracula” and “Werewolf by Night,” were the last six pages of “The Last Frankenstein” from Frankenstein #10, a tale originally published some months before in May of 1974. For those of you unfamiliar with these British reprints, their black-&-white pages were appreciably larger than their US counterparts. Those released in the mid-1970s ran to 36 pages, with only three of them given over to in-house advertising, leaving another couple

The Frankenstein Monster and Ghost Rider, both drawn by Mike Ploog, from the covers of Frankenstein #1 (Jan. 1973) and Marvel Spotlight #5 (Aug. 1972). [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] 62 From The Tomb Presents

of pages reserved for readers’ letters. The lack of colour never detracted from the impact of these stories; rather, the artistry of Messrs Colan, Palmer, Ploog, Kane, Sutton, and Buscema was showcased in a format befitting their masterly line. In allowing the art to thrive in this way, the stories penned by Gary and his compatriots appeared all the more impressive. Just before he began freelancing for Topps in the mid-1960s, working for Woody Gelman and Len Brown, the same warped minds that only a few years before had conceived the Mars Attacks! bubble-gum cards, Gary received an offer of work from , following a conversation between Roy Thomas and editor . It was towards the end of his brief sojourn with Charlton, a period spent largely on their romance titles, that he ushered in the first of his monsters, the avaricious Gertrude Partridge. #60’s “If I Had Three Wishes,” cover- dated March 1967, observed the grieving Gertrude’s refusal to listen to her imploring husband as she schemed to use one of the wishes alluded to in the title to resurrect her deceased son. In but six pages, Gary’s endeavour would help lay the foundations for Charlton’s revival as a publisher, in due course elevating them to a deservedly loftier status. Mr Dedd served as master of ceremonies, as he had for almost 12 months, introducing a piece which outshone everything else on show in this issue, neatly penciled by before being embellished by the brush strokes of Rocke Mastroserio. This same artistic team joined forces for Gary’s finale at Charlton, coming just one issue later in Ghostly Tales #61’s “The Wee Warriors,” cover-dated June 1967. It was a riveting excursion that surely bode well for both Gary’s and Charlton’s future. Alas, this duo of horror stories would be his last for the company, as Marvel Comics were offering him an abundance of better-paid work, originally on their Westerns Outlaw and Two-Gun Kid. With only a couple of horror stories to his name, Gary had revealed a clear understanding of what it took to chill his spirited readership. However, it would be another two years before he stepped anew into this darkened world, beholden to the success of his Westerns, along with a bounty of tales for The Incredible Hulk, Not Brand Echh, and Sgt. Fury. He was enjoying the moment, as were his employers, who continued to reap the rewards felicitous with their enormous popularity, yet remained rightly conscious of the competition. They would have been all too aware of how well-received their rivals’ horror/ mystery titles had been on the newsstands.

(From top of page:) Pablo Marcos’ cover for the premiere of the UK edition of Dracula Lives, in October 1974, left the reader in no doubt as to that which lay within… followed by the / collaboration for Dracula Lives #19 released at the end of February 1975, a cover first seen adorning the US Tomb of Dracula #29, published for that same month. (Right:) Rocke Mastroserio’s Mr Dedd cover for Charlton’s Ghostly Tales #60 (March 1967), and ’s Marvel splash for #1’s “Always Leave ’Em Laughing!” [TM & © the respective trademark & copyright holders & Marvel Characters, Inc., respectively.] 67

(Above:) The 1965 Tales of the Incredible paperback. [Art © the respective copyright holders; Incredible Science Fiction log & EC sigil TM & © Wm. M. Gaines Agent.] 68 Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! Frazetta at EC: The Covers That Never Were! by Michael T. Gilbert rank Frazetta had a complicated relationship with F Entertaining Comics publisher Bill Gaines. Gaines was a huge Frazetta fan, and desperately wanted Frank to work for EC. Frank had similar ideas. Gaines paid well, respected his creators, and encouraged artistic individuality. But there was a problem. Like most comicbook publishers in the ’50s, Gaines insisted on keeping the rights to the stories, as well as owning all the original artwork he commissioned. That didn’t sit well with Frank, who (rightly!) held his work in high regard. He was an early advocate of creators’ rights, specifically his own. As such, he insisted on keeping his original art. Which created a bit of a logjam between the two. Despite Gaines’ attempts to find some compromise, things didn’t pan out, and Frank took his talents elsewhere. At the time, Eastern Publishing was reprinting Buck Rogers newspaper strips in their venerable Famous Funnies title. They hired Frank to illustrate a series of Buck Rogers covers. Frank drew nine in total, classics all. The last of these covers was likely intended for Famous Funnies #217 (May 1955). This was the first issue under the dreaded Comics Code (which quickly rejected Frank’s ultra-violent cover!). Undeterred, Frazetta took the finished art and offered it to Gaines, providing Frank could keep his original art. This time Gaines accepted the offer, and the cover (reworked slightly to remove Buck’s helmet) graced the front of Weird Science-Fantasy #29 (March 1955), the comic’s final issue. In the decades since, fans have speculated as to how Frazetta’s Famous Funnies covers might have looked had they all appeared on EC’s sci-fi comics as God (and Bill Gaines!) intended. The Weird Science Is Settled! (Below left:) Frazetta’s original covers to Famous Funnies #213 (Sept. 1954) and #214 (Nov. 1954). [© the respective copyright holders.] (Above & atop facing page:) The above- mentioned cover art, re-positioned as a pair of covers for issues of EC’s seminal SF title, Weird Science. [Weird Science logo & EC sigil TM & © William M. Gaines Agent, Inc.; art © the respective copyright holders.]

75 KEN BALD Saw Battle In The Comics—And In Real Life! by Mark Voger Edited by P.C. Hamerlinck H e was a Marine who saw battle during World War on four occasions, in 1997, 2002, 2012, and 2016. His wife, II… a super-hero artist during the Golden Age Kaye Bald, sometimes contributed her reflections to our of Comics… a commercial artist who illustrated conversations.) everything from movie posters to advertisements to syndicated comic strips… a family man married for 75 As with most artists of his era, Bald was introduced years… and a presence in Fawcett publishing history. to the world of illustration by way of newspaper comic strips. So Kenneth Bruce Bald had already amassed plenty of career accolades by 2016, when Guinness World Records “I started to draw, like so many kids. named him the oldest living comicbook artist still working. At the beginning, I used crayons or whatever I could get ahold of,” he “There’s not many of us left,” he then said of said. “I noticed the artwork of Hal fellow artists from his generation. Bald was born Foster, who did Tarzan. Then later, in on August 1, 1920, and died in of course, he did . Mount Arlington, New Jersey, on March 17, 2019. The first thing I can recall was [the He was 98. storyline] ‘Elephants’ Graveyard’ in Tarzan.” Bald grew up in Mount Vernon, New York. “My father had been a policeman in Pelham Manor, and got a job (also as a police officer) Kenneth Bruce Bald in Mount Vernon in 1925, I think it was,” he in a press photo from 1962—the year once told me. (I interviewed the affable artist he began writing and drawing the Dr. Kildare syndicated strip for King Features, whose Sunday title panel for Jan. 31, 1971, is seen below. At left is his “Bulletman” splash from Master Comics #26 (May 1942), although other artists of Jack Binder’s shop may also have worked on it; script by Otto Binder. [Bulletman & Bulletgirl TM & © DC Comics; Dr. Kildare panel TM & © Kim Features Syndicate, Inc.] 76 Fawcett Collectors Of America

Jack Binder (older brother of prolific Fawcett writer Otto Binder). There, Bald was not alone among Pratt alums. Recalled the artist: “I started working there with the whole gang—Vic Dowd, Bob Boyajian, Kurt Schaffenberger—after we graduated from Pratt in May of 1941. Jack started out in Englewood, but it got so big, he moved to 507 Fifth Avenue [in Manhattan]. He was always good to me. When I was 20, he made me the art director for a bunch of guys who were 35 and 40. “When we worked for Binder out there in Englewood on Saint Nicholas Avenue and—where the hell was it?—maybe Tenafly Road, he had a big barn that he converted the top of into a studio. Everything we did was ‘piecework,’ so to speak. Maybe six guys would work on the same page. A fella by the name of , who was a fraternity brother from Pratt, would do the layouts. I know I did pencil the main figures and ink. Somebody would do the secondary characters. Somebody would do the backgrounds. And then there’d be a letteringIF YOUman involved.ENJOYED There THIS might PREVIEW, be six or seven names on the back of thisCLICK big THEpiece LINK of TO ORDER THIS art that we’d be working on.ISSUE At thatIN PRINT time, OR DIGITAL FORMAT! the pages were quite large.” Fawcett Publications and Street Shop Talk & Smith were among Binder’s clients. Characters that Bald worked on during 1941 photo taken at the Jack Binder studio—a renovated barn next to Jack’s home in Englewood, New Jersey, which cranked out comicbook this time included Captain Marvel, Ibis pages assembly-line style for Nedor, Lev Gleason, Street & Smith, and the Invincible, Bulletman & Bulletgirl, (mainly) Fawcett Publications. (L. to r.:) Kurt Schaffenberger (cut off), Bob Captain Midnight, , Mr. Scarlet, Boyajian, Jack Binder (standing), Ken Bald, Samuel Memphis Brooks (far Blackstone the , , and right background), Victor Dowd, Ray Harford. The following year, Binder . appointed Bald as the studio’s art director. Photo provided to the FCA editor a decade and a half ago by Dorothy Schaffenberger. Since many of Binder’s artists were in their 20s, they needed to But art wasn’t a passing fancy for Bald, who had aspirations let off some steam during their of becoming a professional. After graduating from ’s Pratt lunch breaks. “We would play a Institute in 1941, he landed a job doing “assembly line” comicbook ALTER EGO #169 seven-inning game of softball,”Spotlight Bald on Groovy GARY FRIEDRICH—co-creator of Marvel’s artwork at a studio in Englewood, New Jersey, operated by artist recalled. “We would also playGhost Rider!softball ROY THOMAS on their six-decade friendship, wife JEAN FRIEDRICH and nephew ROBERT HIGGERSON on his later years, PETER NORMANTON Numberon GF’s horror/mystery One With com- ics, art by PLOOG, TRIMPE, ROMITA, THE SEVERINS, AYERS, et al.! FCA, MICHAEL T. GILBERT andA Mr. Bullet, Monster, Man!and more! MIKE PLOOG cover! While generally done (84-page FULL-COLORas magazine) collaborative $9.95 works (Digital Edition)by $4.99various artists from https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=133&products_id=1604the Binder studio, some pages produced were predominantly done by individual artists. Ken Bald is attributed as the main artist in, among others, these two “Bulletman” stories for Fawcett: “Their First Split-Up” scripted again by Otto Binder and appearing in Bulletman #9 (Nov. 1942), whose splash page appeared in a previous issue… and “Killer Gorilla” (writer unknown) from Master Comics #34 (Dec. 1942). Seen above is an undated Bulletman sketch by Ken Bald, courtesy of Troy R. Kinunen, who also kindly supplied the original artwork of “The Flying Detective” for this issue’s FCA cover by Bald and Josef Rubenstein. [Bulletman TM & © DC Comics.]