Roy Thomas’LENgthy Comics Fanzine LEN WEIN RE-LIVES THE LATE SILVER AGE AT DC & MARVEL! $8.95 In the USA No.135 September 2015 Hey—Maybe He Can get ME in! Characters TM & © DC Comics. 7 0 5 3 6 7 7 2 8 5 6 2 8 1 P.S.: LEN WROTE A FEW OTHER THINGS, TOO! Vol. 3, No. 135 / September 2015 Editor Roy Thomas Associate Editors Bill Schelly Jim Amash Design & Layout Christopher Day Consulting Editor John Morrow FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck If you’re viewing a Digital J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor) Edition of this publication, Comic Crypt Editor PLEASE READ THIS: This is copyrighted material, NOT intended Michael T. Gilbert for downloading anywhere except our website or Apps. If you downloaded it from another website or torrent, go ahead and Editorial Honor Roll read it, and if you decide to keep it, DO THE RIGHT THING and buy a legal down- Jerry G. Bails (founder) load, or a printed copy. Otherwise, DELETE IT FROM YOUR DEVICE and DO NOT Ronn Foss, Biljo White SHARE IT WITH FRIENDS OR POST IT ANYWHERE. If you enjoy our publications Mike Friedrich enough to download them, please pay for them so we can keep producing ones like Proofreaders this. Our digital editions should ONLY be downloaded within our Apps and at Rob Smentek www.twomorrows.com William J. Dowlding Cover Artists Dick Giordano & Bernie Wrightson Cover Colorist Unidentified DC personnel Contents With Special Thanks to: Writer/Editorial: Out With The Old…?. 2 Neal Adams Douglas R. Kelly Heidi Amash David Anthony “I’ve Never Had To Get A Real Job!” . 3 Pedro Angosto Kraft Writer & editor Len Wein tells Richard Arndt about his first decade in comics. Richard J. Arndt Mark Lewis Seal Of Approval: The History Of The Comics Code – Rodrigo Baeza Jim Ludwig Bob Bailey Doug Martin Chapter 6, Concluded . 41 Rod Beck Brian K. Morris Our ongoing serialization of Dr. Amy K. Nyberg’s 1998 study of comics censorship. William Biggins Mark Muller Robert Brown Chip Newton Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt: Get A Clue – Part 2!!! . 51 Nick Caputo Dr. Amy Kiste Michael T. Gilbert examines more of the hilarious hoodlums on those Hillman crime covers. James Cassara Nyberg Comic Fandom Archive: Chatting With Jim Van Hise . 57 Shaun Clancy Barry Pearl Bill Schelly continues a multi-part tribute to G.B. Love and . Chet Cox John E. Petty RBCC John De Mocko Nik Poliwko In Memoriam: Roger Slifer. 66 The Dick Dillin Gene Reed Family Bob Rozakis re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . 68 John Ellis Randy Sargent FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #194 . .73 Harlan Ellison Vijah Shah P.C. Hamerlinck presents two unseen essays by Captain Marvel co-creator C.C. Beck. Shane Foley Jeff Taylor Stephan Friedt Dann Thomas On Our Cover: Len Wein, this issue’s intrepid interviewee, has been known particularly for his Janet Gilbert Jim Van Hise scripting (and editing) of super-heroes and of his muck-monster co-creation Swamp Thing—so Grand Comics Lynn Walker we’ve conspicuously combined Dick Giordano’s cover for Justice League of America #105 Database (website) George Warner (April-May 1973) with a masterful early-’70s Swamp Thing figure drawn by that entity’s other Dan Hagen John Warren co-creator, Bernie Wrightson. With due thanks to Sean Howe, Pedro Angosto, & Mike Zeck Hero Initiative Len Wein for the 1971 photo of Len himself. [Art TM & © DC Comics.] Sean Howe Marv Wolfman Above: The villain in Len Wein’s first scripting assignment on Marvel Team-Up (#11, July 1973), Dr. M. Thomas Inge Andy Yanchus carried over from the previous couple of issues, was none other than Kang the Conqueror—while Jim Kealy Mike Zeck Spider-Man was teamed in #11 with the incomparable Inhumans. Pencils by Jim Mooney; inks by Mike Esposito. Thanks to Barry Pearl. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] Alter EgoTM is published 8 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. This issue is dedicated to the memory of 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. Eight-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $85 Canada, $104 elsewhere. All characters are © their respective companies. All material © Roger Slifer 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. 3 “I’ve Never Had To Get A Real Job!” Award-Winning Writer & Editor LEN WEIN Talks About Nearly Half A Century In Comics Len Wein in his photo card from Eclipse’s Interview Conducted & Transcribed by Richard J. Arndt Famous Cartoonists trading card series of the 1980s. [© Eclipse or successors in interest.] IINTERVIEWER’S INTRODUCTION: Len Wein is one of the crew of teen-age writers who entered the comics field in the late 1960s. Over the past 45 years, he’s created or co-created “The New X-Men,” Wolverine, Swamp Thing, The Human Target, Dominic Fortune, and many more. He’s been the writer on The Teen Titans, Fantastic Four, Thor, The Phantom Stranger, The Incredible Hulk, The Amazing Spider-Man, Before Watchmen, “Supergirl,” and an incredible number of other titles. He’s been an editor at Marvel, DC, and Disney. He was the editor who hired Alan Moore to write Swamp Thing, as well as the editor on Moore & Dave Gibbons’ Watchmen. He recently wrote the Ozymandias limited series for DC. This interview was conducted Aug. 21, 2012. “Oh Boy, I’m Gonna Be A Comic Book Artist!” RICHARD ARNDT: Let’s start things off with your background. Where did you grow up? LEN WEIN: I was born in the Bronx, New York. I had one kid brother. When I was 7½ years old, I stepped out between two trucks onto the street. My father grabbed me by the back of the collar just in time to pull me out of the way of another truck driving by. He stood there for a second and said, “We’re going to the suburbs!” So I grew up in Levittown, New York. I wasn’t the only comic fan there. Even though I didn’t meet many of these fellows until I was grown, Michael Gilbert grew up there. Bob Schreck grew up there. Bill Griffith grew up there. So there was a small group of comics Swamped! enthusiasts who grew (Above:) When Len Wein began writing The Phantom Stranger with #14 up there, completely (July-Aug. 1971), he started off with a monster-in-a-swamp scene, illustrated unaware of each other. by Jim Aparo. (Left:) A year later, he and artist Berni(e) Wrightson caused a minor sensation with Swamp Thing #1 (Oct.-Nov. 1972). Thanks to Jim Ludwig for the page from PS #14, and to the Grand Comics Database for the cover shot. [TM & © DC Comics.] “I’ve Never Had To Get A Real Job!” 5 today—I drew a picture of a shark. My art teacher looked at me and said, “That’s a very good picture. You actually have artistic talent. Enough to be an actual artist.” I looked back at him and said, “Oh, boy! I’m gonna be a comic book artist.” He said, “That’s not what I mean.” But I said, “Yeah, but that’s what I meant!” So I majored in art the rest of my high school and college career, to help me in becoming a comic book artist. RA: I haven’t actually seen a lot of your comic art… but I do recall you did a fan illustration for one of Jim Warren’s fan pages back in the 1960s… in Eerie #22 (July 1969). It wasn’t too bad, as I recall. WEIN: Thank you. Yep, there were a lot of aspiring artists who showed up on those fan pages. When I became a professional, I actually got to draw one four-page story for Gold Key. It was a story called “Walk the Plank” for Grimm’s Ghost Stories [#9 (May 1973)]. That’s the only actual story I’ve ever drawn. RA: The Grand Comics Database lists three stories you illus- trated, one apparently a ghost penciling job for Sal Trapani for Masquerader Of The Lost Arcs (Above:) Len Wein was a fannish double-threat. First, as a writer: His brief interview with Jack Kirby in the 6th issue of future fellow pro Mike Vosburg’s fanzine Masquerader in the early 1960s was quite possibly the first conversation with “The King” ever published. Thanks to Doug Martin. [© the respective copyright holders.] (Right:) Secondly, as an artist: Besides being assistant editor of the fanzine Popular Heroes Illustrated, he drew this 1964 cover spotlighting Steve Ditko’s Marvel co-creations. Thanks to Nick Caputo. [Spider-Man & Dr. Strange TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Later that same year, I got very sick. I spent some time in the hospital and my father brought me a bunch of comic books to keep me occupied. As they say, “Done is done.” I was hooked. I was a comic book fan from that moment on. RA: Do you remember any of the titles in that batch? WEIN: They were mostly DC, I think. I remember Batman and Superman. There were no Marvels, because Marvel didn’t exist back then. They would almost have to have been DC comics.