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Home , 2011 in comics, Andy Helfer, Apache Kid (comics), Archie Goodwin (comics), Arnold Roth, Atlas Comics (1950s)

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A TwoMorrows Publication No. 4, Winter 2014

The New Voice of the Medium

0 1 over art Nowlan & color by Kevin

C 1 82658 97073 4 also inside: DAN GOLDMAN • MORT TODD • • • Winter 2014 • The New Voice of the Comics Medium • Number 4 table of contents

Ye Ed’s Rant: Ruminations on that “artist’s artist” of comics, ...... 2 W©©dy CBC mascot by J.D. King Comics Chatter ©2014 J.D. King. Goldman’s Digital : Hannah Means-Shannon reports on digital graphic About Our novelist Dan Goldman’s leap from pixels to print with Red Light Properties...... 3 Cover Incoming: Is CBC really a “new voice” for the medium? Plus a few corrections...... 8 The Good Stuff: Jorge Khoury discovers that makes good with a mammoth Art and colors by Omnibus devoted entirely to the Amazing Roger Stern’s Spider-Man epics...... 12 REMEMBRANCE Au Revoir, Rouge Enfant and Viscardi: Lamenting the passing of two greats...... 14 Hembeck’s Dateline: The Atlas-era Russ Heath “talking head” villain, The Brain, chats us up in Our Man Fred’s latest strip...... 15 Aushenkerology: learns about Mort Todd’s Ditko years!...... 16 Irving on the Inside: The concluding installment of Christopher Irving’s career retrospective of award-winning veteran comics scripter Mark Waid...... 20 The Human Gargoyles Return: Rich Arndt talks about a Skywald revival of sorts..... 25 Cowan the Conqueror: Part one of our interview with Milestone man and multitudinously talented comics creator and “animated” guy, Denys Cowan...... 26 Art ©2014 Kevin Nowlan. One of our favorite artists in The Lost Father of Andrews: Who was Vic Bloom, the man listed on the entire field,Kevin Nowlan, the first story featuring “America’s Typical Teenager,”and what happened to him?...... 30 contributes this evocative portrait of our headline guest, SPECIAL RUSS HEATH SECTION Russell Deheart Heath, Jr., “That Crazy Bastard Heath”: Legendary writer and editor appropriately placed in a setting. As the tells us what makes Russ Heath such a great artist in a 1973 tribute...... 36 veteran comics artist revealed Beautiful, Sublime & True: The Art of Russ Heath in the career-spanning inter- view within, Russ has always S.C. Ringgenberg examines the artistry of a true master...... 38 had an affinity for the frontier, Above and Beyond: The Russ Heath Interview though never had a true desire to become a cowpoke. When Comic Book Creator’s extensive career-spanning Q-&-A with the superb artist...... 46 contemplating a tribute cover, Creator’s Creators: Christopher Irving shares his storied background...... 79 Ye Ed immediately thought of Kevin because of his lush style, Coming Attractions: Join us for Kitchen, Romita Jr., Cruse, Cowan, Everett & Tilley!... 79 not too dissimilar to the Heath approach. Kevin’s career was A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words: A classic — No joke!...... 80 examined by yours truly in the Right: Detail from Russ Heath’s memorable G.I. Combat #130 [June 1968] cover. comprehensive and lengthy Nowlan interview, which We kid you not! Every issue of Comic Book Creator includes a 16-page (sometimes more!) PDF bonus section containing exclusive material not found in the printed edition. So go and get your free CBC now! If you’re viewing a Digital appeared in Edition of this publication, Vol. 1, #25, now available in PLEASE READ THIS: PDF format from TwoMorrows. Please check out the ad in this This is copyrighted material, NOT intended www.twomorrows.comComic Book Artist Vol. 1 & 2 are now availablefreestuff for downloading anywhere except our ish or visit our website at / as digital downloads from twomorrows.com! website. If you downloaded it from another twomorrows.com to learn more! website or torrent, go ahead and read it, TM & © DC Comics. and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal download, or a printed copy (which entitles you to the Comic Book Creator ™ is published quarterly by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Dr., free Digital Edition) at our website or your local comic book shop. Otherwise, DELETE Raleigh, NC 27614 USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Jon B. Cooke, editor. John Morrow, publisher. Comic Book IT FROM YOUR COMPUTER and DO Creator editorial offices: P.O. Box 204, West Kingston, RI 02892 USA. E-mail: [email protected] NOT SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Four-issue subscriptions: $40 US, $54 publications enough to download them, Canada, $60 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective copyright owners. All material © their please pay for them so we can keep Comic Book Creator creators unless otherwise noted. All editorial matter ©2014 Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Comic Book producing ones like this. Our digital is a proud joint production of editions should ONLY be downloaded at Creator is a TM of Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows. Printed in China. FIRST PRINTING. Jon B. Cooke/TwoMorrows www.twomorrows.com comic book zeitgeist Goldman’s Digital Ghosts Dan Goldman’s odyssey from pixel screen to printed page in Red Light Properties

by Hannah Means-Shannon has attracted attention for many reasons, from its psychedelic and occult themes to its sensitive portrayal of tense family Discovering doorways into the strange and unknown in his relationships and raw, realistic exploration of the local library made the young Dan Goldman a storyteller, picking of economic decline. It’s a comic about relationships and up volume after volume in the “weirdo-occult” aisle with his new their haunting legacies, whether regarding the Tobins’ lives or library card. Reading psychedelic and occult comics as a teen in the lives of ghostly murder victims making Miami properties drove him to write comics, but it was only after realizing the unsellable. There’s an edginess and depth of pathos in potential behind digital composition when he took up Goldman’s storytelling that’s only matched by his the stylus as both writer and artist to create the ability as an artist to convey supernatural experi- reluctant exorcist Jude Tobin and the condemned, ences in ways that are both moving and visually ghost- Miami real estate of Red Light arresting. In many ways, Red Light Properties Properties. Now that the digital iterations of is a series Goldman has been building toward Goldman’s comic series are making their way since his earliest creative efforts, and the most to print, he is re-mastering and expanding the personal work he has yet produced. “case files” of an average guy who can talk “I want to tell adult stories organic to to ghosts to turn a buck on cursed homes where my other agents finding just too hot to handle. brain and Goldman has been making waves in both my soul digital and print comics since his 2006 debut are,” says of webcomic series Kelly on the creator- Goldman, owned site Act-i-vate Comix, followed by a state- major digital and graphic novels ment that in a wide suggests variety of a certain degree genres, from of reflection at this 08: A Graphic Diary point in his varied of the Campaign career. He wants to Trail with Michael both create and read Crowley and Ctrl. things that make him Alt. Shift in 2009, to “feel something.” Red his Light Properties may nominated Shooting be a supernatural War with Anthony relationship drama, Lappé from 2007– but Goldman is 2011. Goldman has pragmatic about its found that exploring components and the ways in which they appeal to different genres and readers. He comments that in Red Light Properties styles has led him to the “ghost stuff on a level is incidental. It’s really more personal choices about relationships. But you just do relationship in subject matter and an opus all his own. His creative comics, who’s gonna read it?” There may be journey led him to develop his now long-running and some truth in the idea that readers want to be ongoing digital series Red Light Properties in 2010, and taken off the beaten path of relationship dramas Goldman is rapidly approaching a career milestone with into unexplored realms of narrative, but the fact the release of the first print collection of the series from remains that Goldman has long been fascinated IDW in January. Red Light Properties, which follows the by the horror and occult themes now found life of beleaguered haunted house exorcist Jude Tobin, his in Red Light Properties and so is particularly ambitious but estranged wife Cecilia, and their young son, equipped to wrestle them into narrative format. represents a culmination of Goldman’s personal vision in Goldman’s childhood is a rich mine of storytelling and in artwork. It’s a watershed series for the influences and material that continue to find creator, and one that he expression in his work and also in his approach intends to pursue through to life. Born in , he became immersed in multiple print volumes, based on updated versions of Background: CBC photographer extraordinaire his digital comics, into Kushner snaps Dan Goldman in ’s Grand new story lines. Central Station. Inset upper left: Dan illustrated 08: A Red Light Properties, Graphic Diary of the Campaign Trail. Inset left: The originally published on Tor. Anthony Lappé-scripted, Goldman-illustrated com, and now in digital Shooting War was nominated for an Eisner distribution through Monkey- Award. Above: Red Light Properties cover. Brain Comics (monkeybrain-

©2014 the respective copyright holders. Red Light Properties TM & Dan Goldman. Portrait Seth Kushner. 08 and Shooting .com), is a series that Photography by Seth Kushner

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 3 aushenkerology Mort Todd’s Monster & Metal Comics Ditko, Me & Marvel The cartoonist on Sturdy Steve and those Atlas reprints (and rock’n’roll funny books!) Weird ©2014 Mort Todd. by Michael Aushenker CBC Associate Editor font-festering creature leaping off of Ditko’s drawn page toward the artist himself. Meanwhile, in an editorial, Todd Mort Todd: was he monster? Menace? Or both?!? writes, “I asked Ditko if he’d like to comment on his early Such was the type of hyperbole found in the monster and monster work… I’m expecting something soon…” Ditko produced back in the 1950s and responds with an illustration: We see an airborne bottle early ’60s published by the pre-Marvel imprint, . of ink, thrown by the out-of-frame artist, pinging around And the answer to those questions? Check number three: with a Ditko-drawn chem trail, bouncing off of Todd’s ajar Definitely both! And we’re all the richer for having the office door. monstrously talented cartoonist and creative menace of an editor! Back in the late ’80s–early ’90s, writer-artist Mort Todd (still an extraordinarily prolific and ambitious creator today) occupied a unique position at Marvel. As a free-floating editor, Todd was given an office on an under-utilized floor inside the building, where he was put under contract to deliver a slate of products that would give the industry’s leading comic-book company some hip cache. So what did the ardent Ditko fan do? He indulges in his greatest passions, of course: horror comics and hardcore music… employing chums along the way. Todd was no stranger to the world of wacky, independent . Previous to this House of Ideas gig, he had inked the Dan Clowes Lloyd Ll- wellyn comics and, as editor of Cracked, the most formidable Above: No, Doc. V., and respected of the MAD knock-offs, he hired Clowes to that’s not a ’50s Atlas comic you’re create some comics for the humor mag. missing! Rather it’s the Zeus Now at Marvel, Todd was given access to the publisher’s Comics title you’ve never seen! vaults of Atlas-era stories, so he creates a handful of titles Oh, go to http://morttodd.com/ that would serve as vehicles to reprint treasured pre-Marvel zeus.html and learn all about a line works by Ditko, , , Russ Heath, Joe of delightful “lost” funnybooks! That Mort Todd, he’s a card, he is! Kubert, and various other masters who had, before the arriv- Below: Mort’s the one sporting al of Four and Amazing Spider-Man, spread their the Mr. A T-shirt; cartoonist Rick horror spore like an insidious virus throughout the company’s Parker is pointing the finger, in this publications. To bring this all full-circle, Todd capitalizes on a photo of the chums courtesy of Jen professional friendship with Ditko — established when Todd Vaughn who took the shot in 2011. ran Cracked — by assigning the Spider-Man co-creator to contribute to the reprint books Monster Menace, Curse of the Weird, and Book of the Dead. (Todd also

conjured up the / TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. extravaganza Sil- Though Sturdy Steve’s appearance in the ver Surfer vs. during of the ’90s wasn’t unusual, the playful, self-effacing pin-ups this time.) The books would are a throwback to better times at the House of Ideas, back be short-lived, and beyond in the early to mid-’60s, before the artist/plotter’s rift with the expert selection of top- Stan “The Man” Lee that led to his quitting Spider-Man and notch stories reprinted, of “.” Who would bring the artist into such a note was the new material comfort zone? Could it have been… a Todd called Mort??? by the ever-reclusive and always elusive Steve Ditko, When Todd joins Marvel in the early ’90s, he capitalizes one of the founders of the on a professional relationship with Ditko, a friendship that of Comics. has already been established back when Todd was editor Interestingly, a Monster of Cracked (MAD’s arch-rival in the field) Menace peripheral item — by assigning the Spider-Man co-creator to contribute includes a new Ditko pin-up nifty new cover art and peppy pin-ups to Todd’s line of the featuring a frightening, aforementioned reprint books.

16 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator irving on the inside Irrefutable Mark Waid & the Future of Comics The conclusion of Christopher Irving’s interview with the celebrated scribe

Inset right: Last issue, Ye ed was by CHRISTOPHER IRVING CBC Contributing Editor what [FF creators and longtime respective writer and artist] late in asking Mark Waid, who was Stan [Lee] and Jack [Kirby] had done, but I had never really on the road for a good chunk of the [Previously, Mark Waid described his early years in the com- connected to it. summer, for personal memora- ics industry, as an in-house staffer and subsequent freelance “My interest in the assignment wasn’t piqued until bilia, but our interview pulled writer, as well as early success as the scripter of memorable two things happened: One was that Tom mentioned that through with flying colors. Here is runs on Flash and , as well as collaboration Ringo [artist Mike Wieringo] would be drawing it, and that “William” Mark Waid’s DC Comics with on Kingdom Come. Last time, it was the early immediately got my interest; two was that Tom and I started employee identification card. part of the last decade, as Marvel was going through some talking about , who was a character with Below: Also courtesy of Mark, a major leadership changes and the new regime looked to a vast, untapped potential to be likable, but no one under photo of the writer (at right) and writer Waid to invigorate their flagship title, .] the age of 40 thought was even remotely interesting. That the late artist Mike Wieringo. right there seemed to be a worthwhile challenge to me. We “[Marvel] Editor called when he found started talking about him, then Sue and Johnny and, before I out I was leaving Cross Gen, pitched it to me, and I wasn’t realized it, I was wrapped up in the characters and had more interested,” Mark Waid to say about them than I ever dreamed.” revealed in 2002. “I was Fantastic Four reunited him aware of The Fantastic Four with the late, great Mike “Ringo” growing up, and had read Wieringo, and the results were it throughout the ’70s, but comics magic. Publisher Bill I was never a huge fan of Jemas, however, had other ideas the material. I had respect towards what the book should for the characters, and for be, and Waid found himself thrown off the title. Wieringo, out of loyalty to his friend, jumped ship as well. The backlash against losing the Waid and Ringo team was great enough, however, that they were back on the title within issues. Something potentially big was in Mark Waid’s future, and was both a dream come true, and the biggest disappointment of his career. “I know that, say, when it comes to , it’s hard for me to find a unique perspective because Superman’s been in my thoughts pretty much every day since I was six,” Waid had said around 2002. Just as things had changed at Marvel, so had they at DC Comics. Dan Didio came in as of Editorial, and things were on the cusp of chang- ing. One of Dan’s goals was to put a new polish on their oldest character, and the result was Superman: Birthright, a reboot of the Man of ’s origin by Waid and artist . “I think Birthright is the best long-form thing I’ve ever written in my entire life. I’m as proud of Birthright as I am of anything I’ve ever done. There was one creative misstep, and there were a bunch of marketing missteps, and a bunch of timing things that went kerflooey,” Mark observes. “First off, when we started the process, it was sold to me by Dan Didio and DC as ‘We really want this to be The Man of Steel for the 21st century, and the definitive new origin.’ We unfortunately got lost in a morass of legal stuff (this was

when the Siegel and DC lawsuit was going, and there were Photo ©2014 Seth Kushner. questions over what characters and elements we could use) that was creatively stifling, but I managed to navigate that pretty well.” At the same time as Birthright’s release, DC also put writ- er and artist Jim Lee on the main Superman Portrait by Seth Kushner comic for a year—a move that stole the marketing muscle

20 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator an artist unchained Cowan the Conqueror From edgy animation to Django Unchained, the artist has been there and done it all! ©2014 the respective copyright holder. by Michael Aushenker CBC Associate Editor Marvel and DC Comics, it’s only because this nagging little side-career kind of intruded and took over his hemisphere. Denys Cowan never left us. You know, Hollywood? Developing animated series and on- The once-prolific, two-time award nominee for the Will line content for Black Entertainment Television…? Working Eisner Comics Industry “Best Artist” category (1989-90), the as a producer and supervising director for Sony Television penciler and has never really abandoned his career in Animation on the Boondocks series for Cartoon Network’s comics. It just kinda… well, morphed. Adult Swim lineup…? Stuff like that. These days, the wiry, gregarious, East Coast-bred, West Breaking into the industry at an early age as a comic book Coast-based creator of comics and cartoon shows is a penciler, the African-American New Yorker quickly landed devoted family man who doles out his energetic, quick-wit- the dream-making opportunity to draw some of Marvel’s ted on Facebook or at the occasional comic book most popular super- of color, making waves via his convention in smaller doses these days. He recently made a collaboration with writer on Power Man and Iron splashy return to comics when he created covers and pen- Fist, and by 1990, on the mini-series (and subsequent regular ciled fill-in issues on DC Comics’ smash adaption of auteur title) — which ran four times longer than the clas- filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained movie (the sic original feature in ! — the latter written first issue of which sold out quickly and warranted reprints). by good friend and subsequent business partner, Dwayne If Cowan has been more scarce in McDuffie, who stunned the comics world in 2011 when he recent years within the pages of died at 49. It was only fitting that Cowan worked on 34 issues and the pair of annuals of Deathlok in the early 1990s. That was a full-circle moment for the artist, who had en- tered the comics industry at the ridiculously young age of 14 to work an assistant to the legendary , creator and penciler of Marvel’s that most revered futuristic feature of dystopian demolition and destruction. The youngster had met Buckler through artist Armando Gill. “I was hanging out with Arman- do,” Cowan explained, “and he said, ‘I’m going to meet someone, you wanna come along?’” I didn’t know we were going to meet Rich Buckler.” Thanks to Gill, Cowan landed the gig to assist the Detroit-born artist at Buckler’s Upper West Side studio. Cowan drew backgrounds, cut out reference photos, and ran on errands for the Fantastic Four and Mighty artist. “He literally taught me about doing comics,” Cowan recalled. “You have to do a lot of stuff you may not want to do, but it was invaluable experience. He put me in touch with other comics people to teach me things. But who was I? I was lucky to be there. He took a little colored kid from Queens [and created a professional artist].” The one-time protégé has nothing but praise for his mentor. “He’s one of the best drawers I’ve ever met,” Cowan said. “He was the of his day. He came out of De- troit with . He is a very smart man. A smart, smart man. I tend to focus more on the art and that’s it.” (Years later, Cowan repaid the favor and hired Buckler to do some assignments after he had launched the Milestone Comics imprint.) Attending a vocational high school focused on art and design, “I started working in high school,” Cowan said, making his official start penciling a 1979 “” back-up series in . At 17, Cowan became tight with one of his contemporar- ies, Trevor Von Eden, who had his own book, . At one point, Cowan, who had moved away from home in his late teens to live in , shared a Queens apartment TM & © DC Comics. with Von Eden. As possibly the only two African-American teens working in mainstream comics, they had much in common. They had even more in common when Marvel editor-in-chief Jim

26 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator Shooter gave an revival of Steve Ditko’s , 18-year-old Cowan when Marvel had him finish the last issue of the the opportunity Panther mini-series… four years after doing the to draw Marvel’s third issue! Black Lightning In some circles, Shooter has proven a doppelgänger: polarizing figure, but not in Cowan’s sphere. urban crimefighter “I never had any problems with Shooter,” he , Power said, adding, “I didn’t draw the Marvel style. I Man. was already a storyteller. He was just aiming “That was my for clarity. If you could tell a story clearly, first super-hero you never had any problems.” shot,” Cowan said Over at DC, Cowan had been of his work on the drawing the last two issues of early 1980s series. Vigilante and working on V, Power Man the science-fiction television and had adaptation, when The TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. become Marvel’s beckoned in 1987 after a veteran last-ditch effort to perpetuate two characters whose indi- artist turned down the book. vidual titles suffered from sagging sales. Cowan was paired “The art was originally going with writer Mary Jo Duffy, who infused much verve and wit to be done by Ernie Colón,” into her under-the-radar series, taking out the stuffiness. Cowan remembered. “Ernie “I struggled with it because Mary [was] writing [Bob Hope couldn’t do it. [DC Executive and Bing Crosby’s] The Road to… type scripts. She was Editor] literally doing comedy. I was drawing directly opposite.” [May ’82’s called me into the office with PM&IF #81’s story was actually titled “The Road To Halwan” the finger wave. ‘Come see Opposite page upper left: — Y.E.] But the pairing worked, and readers and critics took me!’ Like something out of a Skybox produced a Milestone note of the Duffy/Cowan issues. “I can’t look at it anymore,” movie. He told me, ‘We’ve always liked your art. Media series of trading cards in Cowan said, laughing of his early work, which has neverthe- How would you like to do The Question?” 1993, which included this Denys less become a treasured run of . It gets better. Giordano informed Cowan that Dennis Cowan self-portrait. Lower left: During this period, Cowan moved around Manhattan. O’Neil, one of the best writers in the medium, one who had Collaboration with his oft-artistic “Back in the Marvel days, working for Shooter, my room- tackled controversial social issues in /Green partner of the day, , mate was ,” Cowan said and adding, “We never Arrow drawn by in the 1970s and who, as editor, on a print featuring DC characters worked together.” helped guide Frank Miller on his legendary 1980s (courtesy of Heritage). Shooter next assigned Cowan a Black Panther mini- run, would be scripting this reboot of The Question. Inset: Denys Cowan in 2010. series [1988] in which T’Challa goes to South Africa. “It was Cowan’s art on Vigilante had become a back-door audition Photo courtesy of Ely Liu. intense!” Cowan said. “We did three issues [of the four-issue for this series. Ironically, The Question offer triggered a series]. They shelved it for four years. Just shut it down.” quizzical response by the artist capped off with a big This page top left: Cowan made an impact on his Deathlok series Over at DC, he had already been drawing The Question, a question mark. for Marvel. Cover of #1 [July 1991], with his pencils and inks. Above: Luke Cage carries the black man’s burden in this cover detail from Power Man and Iron Fist #83 [July ’82], pencils by Cowan and inks by Joe Rubinstein. Left: Courtesy of Ivan Velez Jr., a 1990s convention photo of [from left] the late Dwayne McDuffie, cosplayer, and Denys Cowan. Special photographic effects by Ye Crusading Editor. Icon TM & © DC Comics. portrait ©2014 Beth Gwinn.

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 27 creator secret origins Archie’s Lost Father Uncovering the mystery of Boni Victor Bloom, author of the first ‘Archie’ stories TM & ©2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. by SHAUN CLANCY with Jon B. Cooke

To the naked eye, the evidence couldn’t be more apparent. There it is, in the splash panel’s upper right hand corner of Left: the character’s very first story, a tale reprinted ad infinitum Detail since its initial appearance. The box, peeking out from the from Pep cartoon foliage, reads plain as day: “by Bob and Comics #22 Vic Bloom.” Just as we know Archibald “Archie” Andrews’ [Dec. 1941] comic-book parents are Mary and Fred Andrews, upon splash page looking over the credit notice, we’d consider the case closed of the very first on the identity of the character’s real-world creators. “Archie” story (seen Alas, the old adage, “success has many fathers,” is inset right) featuring the never more true than in the case of Riverdale High’s most name of the character’s famous pupil, the four-color adolescent foul-up described by co-creator, writer Vic Bloom. author as, “a certain freckle-faced, gap-toothed, Below: Detail from Archie plaid-pantsed, saddle-shoed, carrot-topped teenager.” Fan Club pin-up. Bottom right Archie is among the most recognizable and successful inset: Cover of the 1980 trade comic book characters in the history of the form, and the paperback The Best of Archie fea- plethora of titles sporting his unmistakable likeness are turing John Goldwater’s prominent probably the most widely distributed comics line currently credit as Archie’s sole creator. in these here of America. Any comics aficionado worth his or her salt knows it is in the pages of Pep Comics, the MLJ title then headlined by a stable of stalwart super-heroes, where the red-headed youngster first appears. In the 22nd issue, cover-dated Dec. 1941, regulated to the sixth in the anthology title, sandwiched between a Jolly Roger and his Sky Pirates war story and an exploit of Eddie, a pro boxer known as “Kayo” Ward, Archibald Andrews quietly debuts in an untitled tale. The opening page depicts the freckle- youth “risking life and limb to

impress his new neighbor — ,” TM & ©2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. the start of a charming, silly ditty that not only Montana’s heirs. “The terms are confidential.” Since the introduces the “good gal,” but contains the settlement, every Archie product has listed John Gold- of Archie’s perennially famished pal, water as “creator.” The name Bob Montana falls under a Jughead. Yet, as good-natured and goofy as it is, there’s separate credit line that defines him as the “creator” of “the little indication that this six-pager will kick off a comics original characters’ likenesses.” phenomenon, launch a lucrative trend of teenage humor John Goldwater, the “J” of the founding company MLJ comics, and establish a publishing powerhouse, besides (which would become Archie Publications), long declared spawning many dozens of titles and characters. Archie’s that he was the sole creator of the iconic character, most ex- fame has continued unabated for three-quarters of a pressively on the credit emblazoned across the cover of The century, overall a span that has made him — and all of Best of Archie, the 1980 collection, released his pals ’n’ gals — a very valuable property indeed. after Montana’s and in the But the creative pedigree of the character, unsurprising wake of revised copyright laws. perhaps for such a profitable franchise, has been a source (Curiously, the copyright page of of bitter contention time and again. And though, because of editors Michael Uslan and Jeffrey the agreement mentioned below, there’s not much in the way Mendel’s book contains the oddly of a legal paper-trail, Jim Windolf’s article on , placed declaration, “In the World “American Idol,” in the December 2006 issue of Vanity Fair, encyl. Of comics, 1976, credit gives a glimpse of some acrimony behind the scenes: for the erroneously ascribed to Bob Montana, one The matter of who was the main creator of Archie of many illustrators of Archie, and the gang has been the subject of rancorous dispute. the actual creator of which is After Bob Montana died, in 1975, his heirs objected to John Goldwater. Cf. Info. [Archie publisher John L.] Goldwater’s taking so much From J. Goldwater & of the credit. In 1996 they filed a lawsuit against Archie Putnam, New York.”) Comics in the hopes that a judge would rule Bob Mon- In his unpublished auto- tana the real Archie-daddy. Led by Gold- biography, cited at length water, who would die in 1999, the company in Craig Yoe’s Archie: A fought back. “There was a settlement,” Celebration of America’s says Steven Grill, the lawyer for Favorite Teenagers 30 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator [Yoe Books/IDW, 2011], publisher Goldwater writes, “One day, while I was sketching, a face stared back at me. ‘Why are you so special?’ I asked the penciled drawing on my table in front of me. He reminded me of someone else, an old school friend named Archie. As soon as I remembered my high school friend’s name, some things went ‘click.’” Goldwater,

TM & ©2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. never known as an artist and notorious in some circles Another twist is found in an unpublished 1999 interview Above: Panel from the story “A as a founder with Joe Edwards, conducted by Richard Rubenfeld. The Share of Happening,” Everything’s Archie #29 [Oct. ’73], which a and director longtime Archie Publications cartoonist — and indexer in- of the Comics notably the creator of L’il Jinx — reveals that forms us: “This story was made to Code Authority, in 1941, “I worked with Bob Montana on ‘Archie.’ One day, John Goldwater called coincide with Archie [Publications] claims to have becoming a public company: it’s an me and Bob in, and said, ‘We’re a little established the attempt to give readers ‘a chance classic love triangle at troubled. Everything out there is Super- to get in on the world of Archie’ by the heart of Archie’s appeal man and there is a lot of competition. telling them about the Archie mer- — “Instead of ‘boy chasing girl,’ I I know you two guys just got out of chandising push and encouraging would have the girl chasing the boy — school. Write whatever you know. them to invest in the company.” and usually not getting him. ‘Eureka!’ So Bob and I sat down and Pencils by Harry Lucey and inks by I cried out.” The publisher asserts his worked it out. ‘Well, how Chic Stone. That’s publisher John L. own romantic misadventures as a young about a teenage boy?’ Goldwater making an appearance. man were behind the “Archie” series, and It was as simple as Inset left: From top, Bob Montana, that he locates Riverdale in Kansas: “‘Of that because we the artist-father of ; course,’ I said, almost slapping myself. ‘They knew it. So we the creation himself in a cover will come from America’s .’” wrote stories detail from Comics #4 But Montana, cartoonist of the early stories and, after about a guy going [Winter ’41]; George Frese carica- World War II, the artist and writer of the popular Archie out to get girls ture of Archie publisher and pro- newspaper comic strip, is absolute when he tells editor Jud and dating, and fessed creator, John L. Goldwater. Hurd of Cartoonist PROfiles [#6, May 1970], “John Goldwater how to get a job to Bottom inset left: Bob Montana’s came to me and said they’d like me to try and create a teen- make it, which was art graces the cover of Pep Comics age strip. John thought of the name ‘Archie’ and together we a simple formula, #36 [Feb. ’43], with The Shield and worked it out. I created the characters and developed it.” adding a blond and Hangman triumphantly carrying the In his online Comics Journal article “John Goldwater, the brunette. If you recall, MLJ comic line’s new , Archie Comics Code, and Archie,” comics historian R.C. Harvey everybody used to have a Andrews, whose strip was barely a year old. Bottom inset center: notes, “This [PROfiles] interview undoubtedly took place buddy. That’s where Jughead came in. If you look at Jug- The strip’s eternal love triangle is well before the official version of Archie’s conception was head, very clearly Jughead was really [early film comedian] Stan Laurel. And we took [Dead End Kid/Bowery Boy] Leo expertly portrayed by artist Bob formally adopted as a compromise between the Goldwaters Montana in this Archie Annual #4 Gorcey’s hat, the little hat he had, and we gave him a little and the Montanas (with Goldwater inventing the characters [1953] cover detail. Below: Pub- and Montana visualizing them), and while it fits, albeit some- hair. Pop Tate was [Laurel’s performing partner Oliver] Hardy. licity photo from the MGM movie what awkwardly into that formulation, Montana says quite And Betty was [longtime MLJ/Archie artist] Harry Lucey’s Love Finds Andy Hardy [1938], star- unequivocally, ‘I created the characters.’ At the time of this wife’s sister, Betty. We picked Betty. We needed a common ring Mickey Rooney [left] and Judy interview, Montana was producing the Archie newspaper name. And Veronica was around — Veronica Lake — so we Garland. It’s commonly believed strip, but he was still working for Goldwater, and presumably said that would be good. And it worked.” that the popular franchise served anything he said had to conform, more-or-less, with what- Okay. No argument about Bob Montana as an inspiration for Archie and the rightfully deserving credit, whether , Archie, Veronica, and Betty TM & ©2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Andy Hardy ©2014 Warner Brothers. and Betty TM & ©2014 Archie Comic Publications, Inc. Andy Hardy Warner Pep Comics , Archie, Veronica, ever notions Goldwater was nurturing — hence, Goldwater whole Riverdale gang. names the character and just the “original characters’ ‘together we worked it out.’” ‘likenesses,’” or the whole enchilada.

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 31 by S.C. RinGgenberg Contributing Writer that you might have some knowledge or what the heck If artistic talent were currency in the comics field, then you’re drawing.” Russell Deheart Heath, Jr., would undoubtedly be one of Given Heath’s preference the richest men in the world. Heath, a veteran toiling for war comics and West- in the field since the mid-1940s, has long been one of erns, it’s a little surprising the most talented draftsmen in the business, but has that we can find only one become less a “fan favorite,” because he was usually story that mixed the genres: working in genres other than costumed super-he- “Four Legged Tank,” which roes, the industry’s dominant paradigm for the last appeared in Star Spangled four decades. Indeed, despite a comics career that War Stories #36 [Aug. 1955], has lasted more than six decades, he remains some- telling the story of a World thing of an enigma to mainstream comics fans. His War II cavalryman who work is, of course, well-known to fans of war, Western, mounts a stray farm horse adventure, romance, and humor comics because he has while on a scouting foray, focused on those genres with only occasional forays into and takes on Wehrmacht the realm of the “long underwear” characters like soldiers and a German tank Above: Self-portrait by the or The . He is assuredly, as Archie Goodwin said, an from horseback. artist in question. Coloring by the “artist’s artist,” and among those who enjoy a story brilliantly After being released by Masked Morrow. Below: Heath rendered, his fans are . the U.S. Army Air Corps at cover art, Outlaw Fighters #5 [Apr. In addition to his peerless draftsmanship and slick inking, of the Second World War, Heath began his profes- Portrait ©2014 Russ Heath. Covers TM & Marvel Characters, Inc. 1955]. Is that Anthony Quinn? Heath’s work has always been character- sional art career in earnest, first working as a gofer at an ad ized by intense realism, excellent use of agency. During his lunch hour he would make the rounds, lighting effects, and expert attention to portfolio in hand, and wound up getting some work drawing historically accurate detail, whether cos- Westerns for Atlas in 1947, at the time when the publisher tuming, vehicles, and other technology. was just starting to release a profuse number of shoot-’em- This penchant for authenticity stems from ups; editor recognized that Heath’s determinedly his earliest childhood. Watching Western realistic style was perfect for the genre. movies with his dad (who, in his day, had As Heath’s later editor and scripter Goodwin noted in the been a working cowboy), and listening 1973 Comic Art Convention souvenir book in his tribute to his to his father pick apart the clothing, friend, “While other artists of the period seemed mired in the horsemanship, and faulty depictions of fancy-dress look of Hollywood’s singing cowboys, his West- the Old West gave Heath an early, and erns were always filled with convincing grit and realism.” long-lasting respect for the value of Although Heath’s style was firmly rooted in reality, he was authenticity. not quite as obsessive as was his friend , an As Heath recalled in a 2002 inter- avowed history fanatic. Since the ’50s, Heath did only a few view for Comic Book Marketplace, Westerns, instead concentrating on war and adventure com- “My father…had been a cowboy, ics. However, whenever he does revisit the genre, he always and when we’d go these Saturday invests his Wild West sagas with the same authenticity that afternoon movies… at the movies got his work noticed in the ‘50s. they had these continuous things, While working for Atlas throughout the ‘50s, at a time like Tom Mix or the — when Westerns were one of the dominant cultural tropes serials, I guess it was — and he’d in film, television, toys, and comics, Heath did a staggering say, ‘Oh, no self-respecting cowboy number of covers and stories for titles like Frontier Western, would wear that fancy thingam- All-Western Winners, Outlaw Fighters, , Westerns abob there… Anybody that was Outlaws, Western Thrillers, Quick Trigger Western, Wild really in there, that was a cowboy, Western, Reno Browne Hollywood’s Greatest Cowgirl, Black would know that, you know, that Rider, and Wyatt Earp, as well as chronicling the adventures fancy hopped-up costume.’ And of a small army of Atlas’s “Kid” characters, the Two-Gun Kid, that, I guess, got me on the trail to , , Arizona Kid, The , and be authentic so that the people, last but not least, Outlaw. His first earliest job for your audience, might believe Timely/Atlas is not definitively established, but most Heath

38 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator scholars believe his first work for the company was a trio up and they’d answer. And I’d say, of short Western tales, including a “Kid Colt” story in Wild ‘I’d like to show you my portfolio.’ Western #4 [Nov. ’48], the second “Two-Gun Kid” story in And they’d say, ‘Come on over this Two-Gun Kid #5 [Dec. ’48), and another “Two-Gun Kid” story afternoon, after lunch.’ Which is, in #5 [Dec. ’48]. After the ’50s, Heath focused you know, unheard of today. They’ve more on war comics than Westerns, though he did contrib- got a barrier of secretaries to keep ute one strikingly composed cover of a DC Western reprint people out.” collection for #72 [Jan.–Feb. ’68]. Despite his being an unknown When Heath drew the syndicated comic strip The Lone quantity in the late ’40s, older estab- Ranger (with scripts by ), which was carried by lished artists did allow Heath to visit a handful of regional newspapers in the mid-’80s, the Amer- and show his work. Among the famous ican adventure strip was all but defunct. Still, Heath gave illustrators he met this way was Albert the strip his artistic all from 1981 through ’84, and produced Dorne, later one of the founders of the a beautifully drawn, exciting Western that deserves to be Famous Artists School. Heath even reprinted. [In 2011, Dynamic Forces had announced an trekked to to show his port- impending hardcover release collecting 500 strips, but that folio to the Post, which at the time was has apparently yet to see print. — Y.E.] In 1981, Heath also still the Holy Grail for American illustra- lent his historical expertise and inking skills to Stan Lynde’s tors. Unfortunately, none of Heath’s work Latigo, the Western strip Lynde did after leaving Rick O’Shay ever appeared in that popular magazine. As in 1977 following a syndicate dispute. disappointing as it might have been to the The word legend often gets bandied about when referring artist to miss out on the heyday of magazine to many of the oldest, most venerable comics artists, some illustration, we comic book fans are all the of whom are frankly unworthy of the appellation. However, richer for it. Russ Heath, the comics artist, really is a talent of almost Heath’s first professional work came in mythical proportions, though he was always less of a car- the mid-’40s when he was still in high school, toonist and more the realistic illustrator in the mold of artists penciling and inking a “ Hawley” like his inspiration and than a car- story for Captain Aero Comics [V3, #11, Jan. toonist in the style of a or Red Ryder artist ’44] that he did over summer vacation from Fred Harmon, also an early influence. As he said in the 2002 school after meeting Quinlan. Then after CBM interview, “I wouldn’t even use the word cartoonist. I serving in the Air Force through the end don’t even like it for myself.” You see, Heath had originally of World War II, and from the late 1940s

All covers TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. intended to crack the slick magazines like Collier’s and The on, year after year, he quietly produced Saturday Evening Post as hundreds and hundreds of pages of an illustrator, but when gorgeous artwork, many of them for DC, he tried to break into that but also for Warren, Timely/Atlas/Marvel, market in the late ’40s, those and the abortive 1970s Atlas/Seaboard magazines were either on a imprint edited by Stan Lee’s brother, slow spiral to extinction, or . Although there isn’t much changing from painted and of it, his work for Seaboard is some drawn illustrations to pho- of his best from the ’70s, especially tography, so that career was a violent, hard-edged crime story not be. “I didn’t start to look entitled, “Tough Cop” executed in for comics, really. Of course, beautiful ink washes that appeared I looked at anything and in Thrilling Adventure Stories #2 everybody. It was a whole [Aug. ’75]. Heath also contributed a different setup in those days. WWII P.O.W. tale to the first issue You could look up some of of Thrilling, [“Escape From Nine the great illustrators in The By One,” Feb. ’75, scripted by Saturday Evening Post. A lot Heath] also executed in wash. of them were in New York. Interestingly, Heath’s work here And I’d just look them up in was accompanied by stories the phonebook and call them from some of his old E.C. Comics

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 39 TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. , he continued working with Kurtzman on other magazines, including Trump, , and Help!, through the mid-’60s. He also contributed to the Atlas MAD rip-off, Wild (sometimes using a surprisingly Kurtzman-esque style), and other ’50s clones such as Lunatickle, Frantic, Riot, Loco, and the original Crazy. Later he contributed some realistic humor strips and illustrations for National Lampoon, as well as the ’70s Lampoon knock-offs Harpoon and Apple Pie, and Cracked, the most successful MAD imitator. His humor work, it should be noted, also includes a long stint working with Kurtzman and on the “Little Annie Fanny” strip for Playboy from 1962 through ’68. Heath did not work on every strip, mind you, but enough that he was one of Kurtzman and Elder’s most prolific ghosts, alongside such greats as Arnold Roth, , and . In all, Heath contributed to 16 “Annie Fanny” strips during that time. As Heath recalled in his Alter Ego #40 [Sept. 2004] interview with Jim Amash, “I ended up staying in Chicago, doing changes, just waiting for Hefner’s okay. He might not be able to see me for two weeks, and I’d sit there twiddling my thumbs, chasing girls, whatever. It was flying back and forth from New York that prompted my staying in Chicago.” So, while assisting Kurtzman in the early ’60s, Heath actually took up residence for several months in the Playboy mansion after traveling there to assist Kurtzman and Elder on yet one more tight deadline, and then simply didn’t leave. As recounted the story in “Honoring Russ,” a 2010 column: “One time when deadlines were nearing meltdown, called Heath in to assist in a marathon work session at the Playboy mansion in Chicago. Russ flew in and was given a room there, and spent many days aiding Kurtzman and artist Will Elder in getting one installment done of the strip. When it was completed, Kurtzman and Elder left… but Heath just stayed. And stayed. And stayed some more. He had a free room as well as free meals whenever he

wanted them from Hef’s 24-hour kitchen. He also had access DC Special panel & Showcase TM © Comics. to whatever young ladies were lounging about… so he thought, ‘Why leave?’ He decided to live there until someone told him to get out… and for months, no one did. Everyone just kind of assumed he belonged there. It took quite a while before someone realized he didn’t and threw him and his drawing table out.” Despite eventually being evicted from the Playboy man- sion, Heath bore no ill will; he had too many fond memories. “When I was living in his house, [Hefner] might be sitting in the living room one evening with ten different people and they’d be comedians that were playing in town or something. Shel Silverstein was a sort Previous page: Russ Heath colleagues, including and John Severin, as well as of semi-permanent guest. covers for Atlas 1950s Western nice work by younger artists like Ernie Colón and Walter Si- We’d be sitting comics. Bottom left is Kid Colt monson. Sadly, despite the excellence of both issues under there talking Outlaw #39 [July 1954]. Upper the editorship of Jeff Rovin, the Thrilling Adventure Stories until eight in the right is Kid Colt Outlaw #34 [Feb. anthology was dragged down by the total collapse of the morning, but Hef ’54], and bottom right is Western Seaboard line in 1975. He also contributed a beautiful cover wasn’t there the Thrillers #3 [Jan. ’55]. Above: and interior art to one of the best Seaboard color comics, the entire time. He Hyper-realistic Heath cover for evocatively titled Planet of [#3, July ’75], the story was always locked Western Outlaws #3 [June ’54]. of a group of astronauts trapped on a planet that is quite up in a room doing Inset right: Nice Heath cover for literally overrun with bloodsuckers (a concept that screams Showcase #72 [Jan.–Feb. 1968], his ‘Forum’ articles which featured assorted reprints. to be revived, by the way.) Rounding out his contributions to and such.” Heath Below: busts Russ’ the Seaboard line was his work in the black-&-white horror even gives the balls. DC Special #5 [Oct.–Dec. ’69]. magazine Devilina, whose title character was the sexy sister publisher credit for of Satan, and was presumably intended to cash in on the his cartooning acu- popularity of Warren’s . men, saying of his Aside from his realistic war, Western, crime, mystery, critiques of “Annie romance, and super-hero art, Heath demonstrated his ver- Fanny,” “They were satility with numerous (and largely unknown) contributions very reasonable. In to humor magazines like MAD (both in its comic-book and fact, we saw eye-to- magazine incarnations. His art chores on the parody “Plastic eye on a lot of things. Sam,” in MAD #14 [Aug. ’54] is a bona-fide classic, both in Harvey used to use me the way he referenced Jack Cole’s style, and the hilarious as a sounding board ways he and editor/writer/breakdown artist Harvey Kurtzman to figure out what Hef skewered the absurdity of the concept). Although Heath only was going to say about contributed a single story to Kurtzman’s seminal war comic things. And it’d usually

40 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator Above &

Portrait by Greg Preston

46 “ Conducted by Art comes to you proposing frankly to give nothing JON B. Cooke but the highest quality to your moments as they pass.” — Walter Pater BeBeyond yon d Russ Heath on giving his all to comic book art Back in the day, filled with an insatiable desire for more comics stuff, in an age when four-color funnybooks were suddenly hip, my brother and I would tread far afield of the exploits of super-heroes in search of Good Art. And it was in the pages of Warren’s black-&-white horror magazines and gracing the parodies of National Lampoon, as well as within comics as diverse as “Sgt. Rock” and Son of Satan, we’d find it, gorgeous and sublime, inscribed with the distinct signature of Russ Heath. Whether depicting the absurdity of an interstellar Amish family cavorting with aliens, a stroll through a Hieronymus Bosch-inspired Hades with the offspring of Lucifer himself, or a seemingly rational man inexplicably executing his wife and children on a perfectly lovely summer’s eve, Heath would draw the story with a panache and sensuality that was simply heart-stopping. I search now for comparisons to describe the magic of stumbling upon, often unexpectedly, a work by R.H.: the first time one tastes orange sherbet mixed with vanilla ice cream; seeing Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot; reading for pleasure The Catcher in the Rye as a teenager; encountering Billie Holiday’s voice on a scratchy old record; suddenly looking at the girl next door in an entirely new light. Distilled to a word: Satisfaction. Few put in the effort as has Russell Deheart Heath, Jr. This tribute is a long time in coming. I have been friends with Russ since first we met in San Diego, enough so I was invited to stay at his Van Nuys bungalow, where the following interview took place ten years ago, on Jan. 20, 2004. It’s is our sincere hope that this issue serves as proper kudos to that tremendously gifted artist and delightfully wry, witty rapscallion

Sgt. Rock and the TM & © DC Comics. The Baroness ©2014 , Inc. Portrait Greg Preston. Sgt. Rock and the Haunted Tank for a lifetime of outstanding achievement. Thank you, Mr. Heath.

Transcribed by Steven E. Tice 47 Battlefield TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc.

Clockwise from top left: Comic Book Creator: Where’s your family from, Russ? Russ: He did a number of Smilin’ Russ in a 1945 pic from his Russ Heath: My father’s from Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. things before he was married. nine-month U.S. Air Force stint; My mother is from Pittsburgh. He was a cowboy in Arizona, the young artist finishes up his CBC: What’s your father’s ethnic background? punching cows. He worked assignment, the cover of Battlefield Russ: My great-grandfather, James Heath, came over from in the Arizona copper mines, #6 [Dec. ’52], shown inset; studio England back in God only knows when. There’s other relative and then he worked in power portrait from, it appears to us, lines up there that go way back. plants in Arizona, and I guess about the same time; and Russ’ CBC: England? that led to connections to senior pic from the 1945 Montclair Russ: I’m not sure. It keeps dividing, each of these comes Westinghouse, and he came to High School yearbook. Below: from somewhere else. Alan Barnard knows where in Pittsburgh and met my mother. Russ’ cowboy dad, Russell, Sr. England my great-grandfather came from. I didn’t even know CBC: Your mother is from ? my great-grandfather’s first name until Alan, who lives in Russ: Yes. Then they came east to New York for his work, Hamilton, Ontario, did some research. Alan became an artist but then I was born and they moved to New Jersey. partially because of my comic books when he was reading CBC: Was your dad a rugged guy? as a kid. He’s now a pretty well-known illustrator. He re- Russ: Yeah, I got pictures of him looking pretty rugged. searched my family history, sent me pictures of gravestones, CBC: Did he have any education? of my great-grandmother and great-grandfather’s. My grand- Russ: He attended a couple different colleges. In Arizona mother on my father’s side was from Whitby, Ontario, a local and one was here in . town near Hamilton, where my grandfather met her. CBC: What was he taking? If you go way back one line, great-great-great — I don’t Russ: Engineering. He became an engineer and worked for know how many greats — grandfather, Balthizer DeHart, Westinghouse for over 20 years, commuting back and forth married Mary Stuyvesant, sister of Governor Peter Stuyve- from New Jersey to New York. It’s probably about 16 miles sant, with the wooden leg. directly west of Montclair. CBC: What did your father do before settling down? CBC: So he went from cowpoke to white-collar worker?

48 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator Russ: Well, no. As I say, he worked in a power plant. Engineering led to his connection with Westinghouse. He became the president of Westinghouse International. When I was a kid, they’d send him down to Venezuela, or somewhere when they’d opened up a new power plant or whatever — refineries and stuff. CBC: So he became quite successful? Russ: Yeah. He was an executive. CBC: How old was your father when he met your mother? Russ: I was born when he was about 29, give or take. It’s hard for me to remember that far back. [Jon laughs] CBC: What was your mother’s background? Russ: She was an only child. I guess it’s possible that my grandfather worked for Westinghouse as well, that might have been the connection there as to how he met her. Everybody in the family, including my ex-wife’s father, worked for Westinghouse. CBC: So they got married in their twenties? Russ: She was quite a bit younger.

CBC: What was her name? and Hammerhead Hawley TM & ©2014 the respective copyright holder. copyright respective the ©2014 & TM Hawley Hammerhead and Captain Aero Comics Aero Captain Russ: Margaret. CBC: And his name? Russ: Russell. CBC: Are you a junior? Russ: Yes. CBC: What’s your middle name? Russ: Deheart. [Points to wall plaque] There’s a coat of arms for the Dehearts. CBC: French? Russ: I guess it’s French, but I don’t know. My father was also in the Canadian Highlanders, with the kilts and . CBC: In what year were you born? Russ: 1926. CBC: What was your mother’s maiden name? Russ: Longnaker. CBC: What was her background? Russ: Pennsylvania Dutch, I’m guessing. CBC: Any creative types on either side of the family? Russ: Somebody — I think it was my grandmother — did some drawing. She did a copy of a painting. My father

This page: Russ Heath’s first professional comics work was the feature “Hammerhead Hawley” in Captain Aero Comics, which he drew during summer vacation in high school. Above: Last page panel in #8’s installment [Sept. ’42], featuring a tell-tale “R/H.” Top: #8 splash. Far left: Splash, #13. Left: Splash #14. All courtesy of Brian House and Jim Vadeboncoeur Jr.

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 49 TM & ©2014 , Inc.

Top, this page and next: Panels might have done it when he was younger, I don’t know. you!” So, being smart, she screamed — he ran. Before my from the “Return of the Brain” CBC: But no professional artists? father met her, she was walking home from high school with story, illustrated by Russ Heath, Russ: No professional talent, no. Somebody recently said some girlfriends and a car jumped the curb and hit them all from Adventures Into Terror #6 I have a God-given talent, and I said, “Oh, I always thought I up against the building. People rescued three girls away, and [Oct. ’51] (and reprinted in the Mort was self-taught.” then somebody said, “There’s a girl’s shoe under the car.” Todd-edited Curse of the Weird CBC: [Laughs] Where were you born? After further investigation, it turned out to be my mother. #3 [Feb. ’94]). Below: Detail from Russ: I was actually born in , but we were So she was in a bad way. Russ’ marvelous living in New Jersey. I guess Jersey didn’t have a good CBC: Did the other three die? #130 [Jan. ’55] cover. Inset right: enough hospital yet. Russ: No, they were pretty much okay. When the court Professional dancer blithely reacts CBC: They had to go across the Hudson to get you born’d? case came up, my mother in fact felt pretty good, she put on to an admirer’s suicide in this Russ: Well, I don’t know, there’s nobody left to ask. makeup and went in looking nice, and the others came in all page from Menace #2 [Apr. ’53], CBC: Did you know your grandparents at all? bandaged, one in a wheelchair, so they got most of the money. drawn by R.H. and courtesy of Cory Russ: Yes, but I knew them only as old people. I was two Sedlmeier and Marvel. years old when my mother’s father died. In fact, I was one of the last persons to speak to him, and that was the only time I ever saw him. He looked like John L. Lewis. Then I knew my grandparents in Hamilton, because we’d take trips up every few years and go up there, and they had a huge tree in the back and I’d fill up on cherries. And my grandmother would make cherry-topped cookies. CBC: Do you recall these visits fondly? Russ: It’s very strange. I knew my grandfather and grand- mother only as old, white-haired people. Then I found a love letter he wrote to her a week before they were married. Reading it was like meeting him when he was a young man. CBC: It opened your eyes? Russ: Yeah. CBC: Are you an only child? Russ: Yes. And of an only-child mother. The only thing they ever let my mother do was roller-skate. She was robbed once, when she was liv- ing at home. She had just said goodbye to my dad. She said to my father, “Do you want a umbrella? It’s raining.” He says, “No, I don’t need one,” and he left. CBC: Did she have education? Then the bell rings Russ: Not as many people went to college in those days. a minute or two No, I think she met my father after high school. Dad didn’t TM & ©2014 Marvel Entertainment, Inc. later, and she have any hobbies like fishing or getting together with the goes thinking boys to play cards. He just came home to us every day of his he’s coming life. Any arguments they might have had, I never heard. They back for the just did not let that happen in my presence. It was a very umbrella, and this guy tranquil, happy home. There were two incidents: Once they with a handkerchief over had an argument, he packed his bags and says, “I’m going his face and a knife. He to Hamilton,” he marched up to the corner, she ran after says, “ and I’ll kill him, and they came back arm-in-arm. The other time, he

50 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator TM & ©2014 the respective copyright holder. you could take maybe three days on a job, maybe a week, depending on what the circumstance, you could do one thing and get it absolutely perfect. Comics, you couldn’t do that, do one panel. One advertising agency wanted just three panels, with characters like Tarzan and Flash Gordon. They paid $600 a panel! So that’s the difference between advertising and comic book rates. I knew several illustrators through the years who would get a couple grand for whatever they were doing. CBC: After you separated, you lived with your parents for a time? You go to New York? Russ: Well, I lived in the city first and then my mother died, so I stayed at my dad’s place. A year went by, I’m working off the dining room table. It’s 12:30 and my father is not home yet, and I’m worried. But I suddenly realized who the hell was I to be waiting up for my father? He doesn’t need my help. He’s out on a date! So I moved. I had kept my apart- ment, but I moved back after a year with him. I realized I wasn’t helping any by staying there, because he was okay. CBC: Where did you live in the city? Russ: On 91st in New York, near the mayor’s mansion. CBC: Gracie Mansion? Russ: It was on the East River. The buses from 86th Street stopped at my building. I got the apartment from a model I was dating. She wanted to go on the road with a dance troupe. Her mother was staying there, but she couldn’t afford the rent, so she had to go somewhere else. So I got the apartment. CBC: Did you have fun in New York, being a bachelor? This was the late ’50s and early ’60s? Russ: Yes! CBC: You had always been in touch with Harvey Kurtzman, right? He used you as a model in his Help! fumetti, and had you do some artwork as well, right? Russ: Oh, when he started to do Little Annie Fanny, he asked me if I wanted to work on it, and I said, “Sure.” So a bunch of us flew to Chicago, worked out of the attic of the Playboy mansion, there were a couple of apartments where we worked for two weeks until we had that issue to bed. Then they went home, except for Harvey, Willie, and myself. Then I went home. Then there was another issue, and we flew back again. Eventually it was just me going back and

Art ©2014 Alex Ross. Characters TM & Marvel Characters, Inc. Comics. forth. Rarely did Harvey go. Then I kept asking Harvey for a raise. It was already one of the most expensive feature in the magazine. Production cost about $4,000 a page. But for the time it took, and there was a bunch of us on it and never enough money. I says, “I got kids and a house.” (We sold the original house because she couldn’t afford to keep it, and bought a smaller house.) So I kept asking Harvey for more money. I had been up all night working on the thing. We cut the page apart so Will could work one half of it while I’m working Above: We think it’s fair to say over there, it’s one of the only times your wife has to do stuff on the other. I mean Harvey would physically cut the page in that Russ Heath reached his artis- she wants to do or go on a date or whatever, and the kids are half. It’s a mess… the tissues, the Scotch tape… everything tic apex in the 1970s, particularly scattered. This one’s over at so-and-so’s house, this one’s sticking to everything else. on “Sgt. Rock” for DC Comics. over there. So I’m sitting there, cleaning the gutters in the Picture this: I’m in my apartment in New York. Harvey But he was also all over the place house, and I thought, “This isn’t seeing the kids.” When you calls me up, seven in the morning. I tell him I’m finished. during that decade, freelancing for did see them, they were on their best behavior, all dressed He says he’ll drive down and pick it up, only he doesn’t virtually everyone and producing up for a special occasion, and that’s not normal. mention he’s bringing his daughters, and I open the door in exemplary work… including work CBC: So when did you get married? my underwear. And they all come running in! Unbeknown for Martin Goodman’s short-lived Russ: In 1946 or ’47. to anybody, as Harvey’s looking at my stuff, one of the kids venture to compete with Marvel CBC: When were you working at the advertising agency? grabs my telescope, takes it into the bathroom, and flushes Comics, Atlas/Seaboard. Here’s a During the same time you were doing work for DC Comics, all the lenses down the toilet! I was dumbfounded. If one of nice page from his “Tough Cop,” ’64, ’65? my kids had done such a thing… So he’s showing me what appearing in their black-&-white Russ: Yeah, I started at DC in 1950, and the advertising needs to be done on the job, I’ve been up all night and I’m comics magazine, Thrilling period was in the early ’60s, but I was doing comics at sitting there, and he’s suddenly gone with his kids. I sat there Adventure Stories, #2 [Aug. ’75], for about a half-an-hour, looking at it. So I gave him enough courtesy of Heritage Auctions. the same time. CBC: Does any of that advertising work survive? time to get home, and I call him up and says, “Harvey, turn Next page: Spread from Russ’ Russ: I might find two or three sheets of it. around and come down and pick up all this. I’m done, I’m pencils and inks on “The Blood CBC: Was it good stuff? out of here.” Come back and get the job. I quit.” So Harvey Plague,” in Planet of Vampires #3 Russ: Yeah, it was good stuff. I did comps. comes down and he’s -stricken. I said, “No, I’ve had it.” [July ’75], also from Atlas/Sea- CBC: Did you always want to do illustration work? Pieces of tissue and Scotch tape are all over the place. So board. Words by John Albano. Russ: Well, illustration, to me, was much better, because by five o’clock that afternoon, Hefner is on the phone. Harvey

70 #4 • Winter 2014 • Comic Book Creator TM & ©2014 the respective copyright holder.

had never asked him about increasing my salary. So he says, “I tell you what is holding the door open for us to go out. So we go over to her place. She sits I’ll do. I know you like living in Chicago and you’re getting paranoid about down on the corner of the couch, and I gave her a big . I thought, “Boy, New York. I will move you physically to Chicago. I’ll give you my old office am I making out like a bandit!” But then she says, “You don’t remember me, to work on them and I’ll double your salary.” Then I began to get pissed off. do you?” If he’d double my salary, that meant I could have been having more money CBC: Busted! [laughter] for quite some time, right? But I couldn’t bring that up at that point. So I said, Russ: I had gone out with her four months ago! Here I thought I was so “You’re on!” That’s how I got to Chicago. cool, and I had forgotten I had dated her! CBC: Did that Playboy lifestyle appeal to you? CBC: Well, it certainly was a sign that you were partying pretty hard! Russ: The Playboy lifestyle? Well, you know, it’s funny. When Harvey was Russ: Well, I always partied hard. It was a different era. Everybody wore enticing me to work on Annie, he’d say, “It’s the Playboy Mansion, Russ! suits in those days. Look at all this stuff, and all these girls!” I said, “Harvey, the life I’m living in CBC: Did you party with at all? New York isn’t very far from this.” I didn’t find it that unique because I was Russ: Not much. I had him over a couple times at parties in my apartment. already living a pretty swinging lifestyle. I learned how to live in New York, CBC: Looking back on your life, do you think you partied too much? Or was to go everywhere and do everything, on very little money. I’ll give you an it just the times you lived in? example. I’m walking down the street. I look up and see a party going on at Russ: I thought everybody was doing the same thing. Evidently I was doing the seventh floor of this apartment building. I see a hotel on my right, I walk more. Drinking too much and not remembering the next day what the hell into the hotel and check my bag and my coat, and went into the bar, and I you did. said, “Can you give me an empty glass?” I put it in my breast pocket, I go CBC: You were in Chicago for seven years? across the street to the apartment building. The doorman says, “Who do you Russ: Yeah. wish to see?” I run my finger down and “Oh, there it is!” I take the elevator CBC: How long were you living in Hefner’s apartment? to the seventh floor. I walk down the hall listening for the noise of the party. I Russ: In the mansion? hear it and I rap on the door. So when the door opens, I don’t look at whoever CBC: Yes. opened it, I just charge into the crowd holding my glass in front of me, like I’d Russ: Hef had given up going to the office. His old office was in a three- been somebody who went out in the hall and his glass is empty. And chanc- floor office building before they got the big one downtown. Everyone was es are the guy who opened the door doesn’t know everybody at the party. beautiful. There were just piles of girls. The refrigerator was in my office, I remember there was this one night, I’m dancing with this girl, and I so these girls would bring their lunches in brown bags and put them in the thought, “Well, I might as well strike out and get it over with.” So I cut in on refrigerator. I shared the office with a guy, he sat at Hefner’s old desk. So a girl dancing with another guy. He didn’t like that at all, but I started dancing Friday after he left, I took all the bags of forgotten lunches and open them up. with her anyway. All my pick-up routine was gone, because I was too drunk. You couldn’t imagine the mold! Every color in the world… Fantasia! Then I I says, “Do you want to leave?” She says, “Sir, I’m here with my boyfriend.” I put them all in the wastebasket under the center of his desk. So he comes in said, “Yes or no will do.” So she says, “Okay.” She gets her coat and her date Monday morning, after the heat of the weekend. This stuff by then had to be

Comic Book Creator • Winter 2014 • #4 71 Above: Some animation character Over the years, there would be strange policies: “Hey, a work by Russ Heath during his stint new edict from Timely! All the G.I.’s have stubble beards!” I’d at in the ’80s. say, “Oh, I didn’t know that.” Two weeks later: “A new edict from Timely! No more stubble beards!” [laughs] Who was minding the ship? I just ignored it and went ahead and did whatever I wanted. Next page top: Before working CBC: Was your experience as a scuba diver at all influ- on the syndicated comic strip, Russ ential on the development of Sea Devils? Did Kanigher just delineated a certain masked man come up with the idea and give it to you as an assignment, or and his faithful companion for the was there any back-and-forth discussion? Creepy #105 [Feb. ’79] story Russ: That’s one of the things about my career. All these peo- “The Dime Novel Hero,” written ple talk about how they sit down and shoot ideas and put this by Nicola Cuti. The tale cleverly together with the editor. There was no interplay between almost TM & ©2014 Marvel Characters, Inc. explains why there are no were- CBC: How did you know how to do it? all of my editors and myself. I mean, almost zero, or one-half of wolves in Texas Ranger territory… Russ: I’m an artist. It’s like that work I did for Jim Warren, Next page middle: Courtesy of one percent, with Stan Lee all those years. Talking about what “Give and Take,” where I figured, “Okay, the uniforms are Steve Kriozere, world’s greatest we were going to do? We didn’t do that. I wasn’t in the office. going to deep color, so I’ll just paint them dark.” And the skin Heath fan, a promotional piece by I just picked up scripts and delivered print-ready stuff. will be lighter tones, and so on. It’s a way to shade without Russ Heath announcing the CBC: But with certain writers you did collaborate, right? hatching. release of the comic strip. Didn’t you and click? Some of my stuff is over-hatched. I’m trying to keep away Next page bottom: The Sunday Russ: Well, I helped talk Doug into coming to New York. I from that because color on hatching just doesn’t work. It Lone Ranger strip of Oct. 25, 1981. said, “I’ll help you pack, because you need to go there, they works on the black-&-white, all those Big Book of were black- insist upon you living in the area.” At that time, everybody &-white. I got into hatching heavily doing that stuff. But it was had to live in New York to work there. So I helped him pack nine panels a page for much less per page than I was getting and saw them off together, he and his girlfriend. IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THEfor sixLINK panels TO aORDER page. I keptTHIS telling the editor, Andy Helfer. So Below: shared this CBC: What did you think of those strange covers that DC ISSUE IN PRINTI stopped OR doingDIGITAL it. I saw FORMAT! him at one of the cons, where we sat caricature of Russ and added, did on many of your comics? outside and had sandwiches together under the umbrella, and “A familiar sight at the Marvel Russ: The gray tones? Well, they wanted to get closer I said, “All right, I’ll do another one.” But why the hell should I Productions offices in ’84… comics to photographic covers, but a real photograph was too do nine panels, which is twice the work as normal, for a third legend Russ Heath at his drawing expensive to reproduce from, a finished painting was too less money? Going the wrong way on both counts! And the board, sittin’ up straight, pencil expensive, so this was their attempt to get more towards rest of the book was filled with such crap that I thought, “Who in hand… and sound asleep!” illustration or realism and so on. I thought it was a dumb will buy it?” But their idea behind it — they told me what it was Courtesy of Bruce. idea, although people seem to love it. Maybe because it was — is they figured everybody’s span of attention today is four the only stuff being done like that. But gray and any color or five minutes. I wanted to expand some of the stories, to give makes mud, so them enough room to breathe and pace properly… because why put gray in size has a lot to do with it. I want to know how something there? Then there looks, the bigger it is, the nicer it is, and the more you can put was a rumor that into it. But they said, “No, we just want something that you go somebody in the down in the subway or on the toilet and take a few minutes to office was doing look at it. We don’t want something you have to get into too the grays, and not deeply.” I just think it was a dumb thing. The thing should be as the artist. But thatCOMIC long BOOK as it takesCREATOR to tell it#4 as it should be told. I says, “You could wasn’t so.RUSS Each HEATH career-spanning interview, essay on Heath’s work by S.C. RINGGENBERGdo a(and story Heath about art gallery), a housefly, MORT TODD if it’s well-written and well-illus- artist didon the working with STEVEtrated, DITKO it’ll, a beprofile just of altas cartoonist good as DAN any other thing. It’s not what it is; grays himself.GOLDMAN, part two of our MARK WAID interview, DENYS COWAN on his DJANGOit’s howseries, well VIC it’sBLOOM done.”and THE SECRET CBC: WasORIGIN it OF ARCHIE ANDREWSIt’s amazing., HEMBECK Here, new IKEVIN was, trying to be an illustrator in the Jack AdlerNOWLAN or Solcover! comic book field, trying to paint comics and paint covers, Harrison who (84-pageand FULL-COLOR nobody magazine)wanted $8.95 anything to do with fully-painted stuff. came up with (Digital Edition) $3.95 http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1133Then Alex Ross comes along and fully paints everything, and this? Did they ex- it just blows my mind. Here I’ve been sitting all the time, why

pect you to know didn’t they ask me to paint? ©2014 Bruce Timm. how to do it? I worked my ass off, but for many reasons. It wasn’t just Russ: Well, I the artwork; it was all the research I did to put it together, just knew how and the lighting and taking the photos and all that stuff. to do it. [pointing at a piece] See, what’s happening here? The light’s

76 s7INTERs COMIC BOOK CREATOR