Roy Thomas' Xtra-strength Comics Fanzine THE POWER AND THE PANDEMONIUM OF YOUNG $9.95 DAVE In the USA COCKRUM No. 163 March 2020 1 82658 00376 0 Art TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc. Vol. 3, No. 163 / March 2020 Editor Roy Thomas Associate Editor Jim Amash Design & Layout Christopher Day Consulting Editor John Morrow FCA Editor P.C. Hamerlinck Don’t STEAL our J.T. Go (Assoc. Editor) Digital Editions! C’mon citizen, Comic Crypt Editor DO THE RIGHT THING! A Mom Michael T. Gilbert & Pop publisher like us needs Editorial Honor Roll every sale just to survive! DON’T Jerry G. Bails (founder) DOWNLOAD Ronn Foss, Biljo White OR READ ILLEGAL COPIES ONLINE! Mike Friedrich, Bill Schelly Buy affordable, legal downloads only at www.twomorrows.com Proofreaders or through our Apple and Google Apps! Rob Smentek William J. Dowlding & DON’T SHARE THEM WITH FRIENDS OR POST THEM ONLINE. Help us keep Cover Artist producing great publications like this one! Dave Cockrum Cover Colorist Writer/Editorial: The Red Planet—Mostly In Black-&-White! .. 2 Glenn Whitmore The Genius of Dave & Paty Cockrum .................. 3 With Special Thanks to: Joe Kramar’s 2003 conversation with one of comics’ most amazing couples. Don Allen David Hajdu Paul Allen Heritage Comics Dave Cockrum—A Model Artist....................... 11 Heidi Amash Auctions Andy Yanchus take a personal look back at his friend’s astonishing model work. Pedro Angosto Tony Isabella “One Of The Most Celebrated Richard Arndt Eric Jansen Bob Bailey Sharon Karibian Comicbook Artists Of Our Time” .................... 15 Mike W. Barr Jim Kealy Paul Allen on corresponding with young Dave Cockrum, ERB fan, in 1969-70. Al Bigley Jim Korkis The Charles Joe Kramar From The Tomb: A Step Into The Unknown! ........... 44 Biro family Mark Lewis Peter Normanton brings his celebrated horror-comics fanzine to the pages of Alter Ego. Dominic Bongo Art Lortie John Broome: Letter To An Unknown Reader .......... 50 Ricky Terry Doug Martin We return to the 1998 memoir of the late great Golden/Silver Age comics writer. Brisacque Mike Mikulovsky Bernie Bubnis Brian K. Morris Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt! The Other Stan Lee, Part 3... 53 David Burd Will Murray Michael T. Gilbert winds up his compare-and-contrast of two of comics’ greatest. Aaron Caplan Peter Normanton Nick Caputo Barry Pearl Comic Fandom Archive: In Memoriam - Malcolm Willits ..59 John Cimino David Phelps The final column prepared by the late Bill Schelly—Jim Korkis on a major collector. Paty Cockrum Richard & Pierre Comtois Wendy Pini re: [correspondence, comments, & corrections] . 65 Chet Cox Frank Plowright David Drake Gene Reed FCA [Fawcett Collectors Of America] #222 ............ 71 Doug Ellis Al Rodriguez P.C. Hamerlinck presents R. Arndt’s talk with David Drake re Manly Wade Wellman. Linda Fite Randy Sargent On Our Cover: While there’s more space given in this issue to Dave Cockrum’s early Edgar Rice Shane Foley Jim Steranko Burroughs-influenced artwork than to his later triumphs with DC’s “Legion of Super-Heroes” and Bob Fujitani Steve Stiles Marvel’s X-Men, we felt this cover Dave drew for F.O.O.M. Magazine #10 (June 1975) would remind Janet Gilbert Dann Thomas readers—if they needed reminding!—of his sterling contribution to comics. Drawn when Dave was Greg Goldstein Michael Uslan just starting out on his journey as the first artist of the revived/expanded X-Men, it already displays the Grand Comics Ted White mastery that would skillfully bridge the gap between the 1960s mutants and their 1970s permutations. Database Kendall [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] (website) Whitehouse Gary Groth Marv Wolfman Above: A 1970s painting by Dave Cockrum of one of his favorite artistic subjects ever: ERB’s John Robert Guffey Andy Yanchus Carter of Mars! Thanks to Paty C. [John Carter TM & © Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc.] George Hagenauer Mike Zeck Alter EgoTM is published 6 times a year by TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Roy Thomas, Editor. John Morrow, Publisher. Alter Ego Editorial Offices: 32 Bluebird Trail, St. Matthews, SC 29135, USA. This issue is dedicated to the memory of Fax: (803) 826-6501; e-mail: [email protected]. Send subscription funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial offices. Dave Cockrum, Malcolm Willits, Six-issue subscriptions: $67 US, $101 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 & Manly Wade Wellman of P.C. Hamerlinck. Printed in China. ISSN: 1932-6890. FIRST PRINTING. 3 The Genius Of Dave & Paty Cockrum A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Dave & Paty Cockrum Amazing Couples at a comics convention, probably sometime in the 1990s—and (below left) the Dave-drawn splash page of Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975), the comic that by Joseph Kramar started it all over again for Marvel’s merry mutants. Script by Len Wein. The issue’s cover was spotlighted two issues ago. Thanks to Paty for the photo. [TM & © Marvel Characters, Inc.] NTRODUCTION: Joseph Kramar is a student of comics history, I film history, etc., as well as an artist, a convention promoter, a political journalist, and a small business owner. He is currently the that fans realize that he created or co-created X-Men characters Storm, historian for the local Sons of the American Legion. He feels fortunate, Nightcrawler, Colossus, Thunderbird, Mystique, and Phoenix, as well as in his youth, to have met many of the great artists and creators in the The Starjammers, Deathbird, Llandra, various members of DC’s Legion comicbook field, including most particularly Dave and Paty Cockrum, of Super-Heroes, and a host of others too numerous to name. As Joe who were guests of honor at several of his comic, film, and media expos. says, “The wealth of creativity from the imagination and genius of Dave He feels it is vital to Dave’s legacy (he passed away in 2006, at age 63) Cockrum will endure forever.” In 2003, a month or two before the release of Bryan Singer’s X-Men 2 film, I made the trek up to Cragsmoor, NY, to visit with the illustrious renaissance couple Dave and Paty Cockrum. I brought them a peculiar gift: a gourmet omelet-maker set. I set up a primitive recording device and an archaic video recorder, and we spent the day and part of the evening discussing creators’ rights, office antics and politics at Marvel, DC, and Warren. We reminisced about the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages of the comics industry and our nostalgia for old film and the fantasy sci-fi genre. I asked Dave about his creative influences and about the inspiration and origins of the diverse plethora of innovative characters he created. Although members of the world-famous Legion of Super-Heroes and X-Men characters are the most prominent, the myriad others he created are equally fascinating. These fantastic characters may have their origins in primordial archetypes emerging from the vast depths and limitless vistas of David’s subconscious mind. I asked him about the inception, development, and genesis of the majestic matriarchal Storm, the goddess-like weather witch of The X-Men. Dave elucidated and elaborated on the creation of Storm. He explained that, while working on concepts for what would eventually emerge in 1975 as Giant-Size X-Men #1: “I came up with a proposed Legionnaire, a bird-lady called Ketzil with a beautiful face and long hair, and a proposed X- Men character called Typhoon with weather powers. There was another proposed X-Men character called The Black Cat [not the later Spider-Man character] who wore the Storm costume without the cape. She had a tufted hairstyle like Wolverine and could transform into a humanoid cat or house cat. There was a hiatus for some reason, and the project was put aside. In the interim all these cat characters popped up— Tigra, The Cat, Pantha at Warren—so it seemed as The Black Cat was gonna be redundant. Roy Thomas said, ‘Why not make the girl Typhoon?’ That sounded interesting, so I put this cape on her from 4 A 2003 Conversation With One Of Comics’ Most Amazing Couples she had to be killed as retribution.” I spoke of Sue Richards developing into a powerful liberated woman rising from mediocrity and obscurity, emerging to great prominence. She was a sleeper revealed at last to be in many ways the most powerful of the Fantastic Four. I believe that was in the ’70s. I remember it made an impression on me. I wrote extensively on the merits of equality of race and gender in many of my early articles. I suspect that Paty may be the inspiration for the creation of Dave’s strong female characters. She is an excellent role model for girls who wish to pursue their ambitions in this patriarchal society. I loved hearing Paty’s tales of old Marvel during the transitional period of the Silver and Bronze Ages. To some, Chris Claremont and Dave’s Giant-Size X-Men # 1 is credited with heralding in the latter. For reasons of nostalgia, Silver Age Marvel is my personal favorite period. It was magic. In the early ’70s I attended the first Star Trek cons, Phil Seuling’s early Comic Art Cons, Creation Cons, the first Marvel and first Famous Monsters Cons. When Paty was at Marvel, she referred to the atmosphere as a boys’ club. I loved Marie Severin’s work on Sub-Mariner and the humor books.