|
Post by tartanphantom on Oct 24, 2023 9:53:00 GMT -5
Like Slam_Bradley, I picked up a bunch of back issues in the recent TwoMorrows sale, but I've already got a substantial collection of both Back Issue! and Alter Ego mags, as well as a smattering of Kirby Collector. Any time they run a sale I always see if there's anything I need. Golden Age, Silver/Bronze, even some modern stuff, I'm good with it all as an amateur comics history buff.
|
|
|
Post by tonebone on Oct 24, 2023 14:51:27 GMT -5
So, Alter Ego is a magazine published by Twomorrows. It's a revival of the old-school fanzine, headed up by Roy Thomas and is now in its 24th year of its current incarnation. It mostly focuses on Golden and Silver Age comics...dipping its toe in to the Bronze Age now and then. There's generally a cover feature, some other articles, a small bit devoted to the Fawcett Collectors of America, etc. It's very well done prozine and has featured work by our own Cei-U! . The first issue I got in the current batch was issue #101, cover featuring the comics of Victor Fox. I certainly know the name and that he was a Golden Age comic publisher with questionable ethics (which may well be a redundancy). I'm not 100% this issue really filled in many blanks. The main feature was a reprint of Richard Kyle's 1962 article "The Education of Victor Fox" which ran in the fanzine Xero under the "All in Color For a Dime" header. It's a fine fanzine article and a somewhat interesting relic, but as actual history or scholarship it's not much. It's really mostly a review of some then twenty year old comics and a bit of speculation. Ultimately very forgettable. Much better is the article by Ken Quattro about the lawsuit between DC and Fox over Wonder Comics and Wonder Man. Particularly revealing were the transcripts from the testimony of the trial, which cast a huge light on Will Eisner and his, very false, portrayal of his part in the trial. This was honestly some bombshell stuff and I was shocked that I hadn't heard anything about it (the magazine is dated May 2011). Maybe I just missed it. But...damn. Amazing work. We then get part one of Jim Amash's interview with Jack Mendelsohn. I very vaguely knew of Mendelsohn as the creator behind the comic strip Jacky's Diary, but that was about it. And I only knew that strip by reputation. The interview was interesting and kind of cemented the fact that comics history is just horribly super-hero centric. Mendelsohn did a ton of work in the 40s and 50s, a lot of it with Howie Post, but most of it is was on funny animal and Archie type comics so it tends to get forgotten. I really love this kind of stuff. Michael T. Gilbert's "Mr. Monster" section looks at the disappearance of Spirit letterer Abe Kanegson. Not a name I knew, but I definitely knew his lettering. If you've read The Spirit during the time period that Kanegson was working with Eisner, you know tht the lettering was simply incredible. But he fell out with Eisner (probably over money) and just absolutely disappeared. So Mr. Monster decided to track him down. This first installment is a look back at Kanegson's work as a letterer. Very interesting stuff. The FCA section has the regular "We Didn't Know it Was Golden" by Marc Swayze. Swayze was one of the main artists on Captain Marvel, designed Mary Marvel and also worked on the comic strip Flyin' Jenny. I've always liked the feature it's short and well-written and just very conversational. This time around Swayze's wife talks about meeting him. Very sweet. There's also a short essay from C.C. Beck. Honestly I don't even remember what it was about and don't feel like looking at it. I mostly find that when I read anything by Beck I get less of a curmudgeon vibe and more of a full-on jerk vibe. All-in-all a pretty typical issue of Alter Ego. If you aren't in to Golden Age stuff it's one to miss. I was overall pleased. A lot of it wasn't particularly successful, but it was entertaining at the time and some of it was just super good stuff. Mixed bag...which is kind of to be expected. LOVE Alter Ego. I find it's interviews to be incredibly enlightening, whether I am initially familiar with the creator or not. I actually prefer AE to Back Issue, even though tha's more my wheelhouse, era-wise. Back Issue sometimes tends to be a little like Chris Farley's interviewer character on SNL ("Member when Moon Knight first came out? That was awesome!"). When AE ventures into the bronze age, that's when it's sooo good.
|
|
|
Post by tonebone on Oct 24, 2023 14:53:27 GMT -5
I remember Fantaco's Chronicles series. They were terrific. I had 'em all once upon a time but they were victims of The Great Fanzine Purge of 1990 when I got rid of hundreds of CBGs, comics Journals, Amazing Heroes, Comics Scenes, and the like. I'll have to see if I can find digital copies online. I'd love to read them again. Cei-U! I summon the nostalgia for nostalgia! A lot of stuff of this sort can still be found on Internet Archive.
|
|
|
Post by Roquefort Raider on Oct 24, 2023 15:00:36 GMT -5
I wish I could have taken advantage of the sale at Twomorrows, but with the Canadian loonie being worth as much as Hamlet's unbloodied thoughts, I had to pass. (Shipping costs are murder, too). When it comes to mags about comics, I still have very fond memories of Comic Book Artist. It brought back all the fun of reading comics in the 1970s. The Chronicles that EdoBosnar showed above were also pretty groovy, as were the two volumes of the X-Men companion. The interviews in there weren't particularly deep, but fans rarely got to hear creators talk about their comics elsewhere than in biased letters pages. Lovely art, too (especially that Michael Golden cover). I also have two issues of an interview magazine titled "Charles Brownstein's features". Very long talks with Dave Sim and with Frank Miller, respectively; that type of discussion was very hard to come by in the pre-Youtube days. Nowadays I still enjoy Alter Ego from time to time, but I must settle for the PDF version.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Oct 24, 2023 17:37:56 GMT -5
The Chronicles that EdoBosnar showed above were also pretty groovy, as were the two volumes of the X-Men companion. The interviews in there weren't particularly deep, but fans rarely got to hear creators talk about their comics elsewhere than in biased letters pages. Lovely art, too (especially that Michael Golden cover). Ooooh, I forgot about these! I had them, too, a long time ago.
Cei-U! I summon the pang of regret!
|
|
|
Post by driver1980 on Oct 25, 2023 6:36:38 GMT -5
I used to try and get this one back in the day: And this one:
|
|
|
Post by wildfire2099 on Oct 25, 2023 23:43:34 GMT -5
I don't think I've ever read a fanzine...I did see some back issues of Alter Ego at a shop once. It's funny how people have different experiences with things. The problem I'd have with them is probably the same problem I have with baseball books... once I read them I want to go out and by the APBA or Strat-o-Matic season to try. I suspect golden age comics would be hard to do that with .
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 28, 2023 13:50:57 GMT -5
Finished up Alter Ego #102 a few days back. So here we go. Cover featuring the first two incarnations of Green Lantern, first up we get a nice article by novelist and fan Will Murray with brief histories of Alan Scott and Hal Jordan. I'm not sure there was a huge amount here that I didn't already know...a few tidbits here and there, but it was a nice read. I've never been a huge GL fan, but he the book was one I read sporadically. Next up transcriptions of a series of interviews that the late Shel Dorf did with Mart & Carrie Nodell. Mart Nodell was the (co-)creator of Green Lantern...the original Alan Scott version. A fun interview, as we get a bit of added perspective from Mrs. Nodell. Mart talked about the creation of Green Lantern, Bill Finger's contributions, his time in comics and his time in advertising (he was part of the team that came up with the Pillsbury Dough Boy). He did a lot of conventions and did commission paintings prior to his death. Nice stuff. The second and final part of the interview with Jack Mendelsohn was excellent. He talked about getting Jerry Siegel work with Hannah-Barbera (it didn't last). Working with Mel Lazarus. His work writing on EC's Panic. Working for Dell. Working for Jay Ward. Writing for Laugh-In and for Carol Burnett. Really interesting guy with an incredibly varied career. An interview with Betty Tokar, who had dated Bob Montana and may have been a partial inspiration for Betty Cooper when Montana created Archie and the gang. Marginally interesting look at Montana's early life. Michael T. Gilbert solves part of the mystery of the missing letterer Abe Kanegson. So good for him. The highlight here is the incredible art from The Spirit and Kanegson's lettering. Bob Rozakis does a coda to his long-running alt-history "The Secret History of All-American Comics." Meh. The "fandom" article is the second part of an interview with fan artist Rudi Franke that was, to me, completely uninteresting. One page obituaries to Vic Dowd and Jerry Grandenetti, both of whom had passed the previous year. The lead time for magazines of this sort make these kind of untimely. But it's nice to see them recognized and Jim Amash and Mark Evanier are definitely knowledgeable. So I'm very good with these things. Alter Ego's letter page is amazing even if you haven't read the issues the letters are about. The FCA section had a short interview with Marc Swayze in "We Didn't Know it Was Golden." I generally like that section, but there really wasn't much new here. There was also a short article about the Fawcett one-shot All Hero Comics that was fairly interesting. Overall a very good issue. Varied content that was certainly more good than bad. The stand-outs were the interview with Mart Nodell and the Jack Mendelsohn interview.
|
|
|
Post by Cei-U! on Oct 28, 2023 17:56:46 GMT -5
I met Mart Nodell at SDCC one year and bought an autographed GL mouse pad from him. I must've caught him on a bad day because he was grouchy, if not downright unpleasant.
Also, Abe Kanegson was a letterer, not an inker.
Cei-U! I summon the red pencil!
|
|
|
Post by tartanphantom on Oct 28, 2023 18:25:15 GMT -5
I met Mart Nodell at SDCC one year and bought an autographed GL mouse pad from him. I must've caught him on a bad day because he was grouchy, if not downright unpleasant. Also, Abe Kanegson was a letterer, not an inker. Cei-U! I summon the red pencil!
I suppose you could say that his Art was Ink-letter...ing.
Thank you, I'll be here all week... enjoy the buffet.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Oct 28, 2023 18:58:12 GMT -5
I met Mart Nodell at SDCC one year and bought an autographed GL mouse pad from him. I must've caught him on a bad day because he was grouchy, if not downright unpleasant. Also, Abe Kanegson was a letterer, not an inker. Cei-U! I summon the red pencil! He was definitely a letterer. That’s what happens when I type faster than I think.
|
|
|
Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 26, 2023 15:42:13 GMT -5
I finished up the next issue I had Alter Ego #107 a bit ago. And I have some spare time today because I'm avoiding going to the office. First off after 107 issues in this incarnation Alter Ego is now in full color. Which makes far more sense than the random a few pages of color they had been doing previously. The cover and the first article celebrates long-time DC artist Dick Sprang (that really sounds a bit like a porno name) with a nice interview of Sprang by San Diego Comic-Con founder and long-time fan Shel Dorf. I'm not a huge fan of Sprang's work (it's fine), but he was an important figure whose work started in the pulps and spanned the Golden and early Silver Age. I love this kind of thing and getting down the first-hand knowledge of these legendary creators, even at a point when their memories aren't the greatest is important. Following up is a nice long interview with Jim Mooney, whose started drawing comics in 1940 and continued well in to the 70s. Mooney was brought in to comics by Henry Kuttner (I had no idea) and worked for years for DC ghosting Batman, on Supergirl and other books before moving to Marvel where he worked on Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Omega, etc. I guess I was always aware of Mooney's art but it kind of flew under my radar. Solid but not flashy...which is fine. Again, I love these kind of interviews and really do think they're important. We get part II of Jim Amash's very long interview with Tony Tallarico. I honestly knew very very little about Tallarico other than his work on the Dell Monster/Super-hero books. So this was a revelation (even though I don't have part one, sigh). The guy did tons of work in comics, advertising and coloring books which I was completely unaware of. Extremely informative and interesting. The kind of thing that makes these books really worthwhile because it's a great addition of knowledge in an area of the industry that's under-studied. Michael Gilbert and Mr. Monster give us the final entry in the quest to find letterer Abe Kanegson in an interview with his widow. Nice to have some closure on a comics mystery, but maybe not crucial. His widow seems like a nice lady who didn't know much about her husband's work life. We get twelve pages of color photos of old-time fandom. Again, somewhat interesting, but not crucial. There are some nice pics of pros (and not yet pros) including Neal Adams, Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Elliot S! Maggin. Obituaries of Gene Colan (sigh) and Dave Hoover. Very out of date even at that time. The internet has sped up comics news like some of us would never believe. The letters pages of these magazines are always very interesting. Our own Cei-U gets a mention on an article he wrote. The Fawcett section includes some reminiscences of Mark Swayze and Part IV of an interview with Roy Ald, who was an editor and writer for Fawcett from 1946-53. A super solid issue.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Nov 26, 2023 17:09:13 GMT -5
I met Mart Nodell at SDCC one year and bought an autographed GL mouse pad from him. I must've caught him on a bad day because he was grouchy, if not downright unpleasant. Also, Abe Kanegson was a letterer, not an inker. Cei-U! I summon the red pencil! He was definitely a letterer. That’s what happens when I type faster than I think.
This is why I am considering hiring a full-time letterer to hand-print my posts. Also an editor to fix my continuity mistakes and a writer to give me some new ideas.
|
|
|
Post by berkley on Nov 26, 2023 17:10:59 GMT -5
I finished up the next issue I had Alter Ego #107 a bit ago. And I have some spare time today because I'm avoiding going to the office. First off after 107 issues in this incarnation Alter Ego is now in full color. Which makes far more sense than the random a few pages of color they had been doing previously. The cover and the first article celebrates long-time DC artist Dick Sprang (that really sounds a bit like a porno name) with a nice interview of Sprang by San Diego Comic-Con founder and long-time fan Shel Dorf. I'm not a huge fan of Sprang's work (it's fine), but he was an important figure whose work started in the pulps and spanned the Golden and early Silver Age. I love this kind of thing and getting down the first-hand knowledge of these legendary creators, even at a point when their memories aren't the greatest is important. Following up is a nice long interview with Jim Mooney, whose started drawing comics in 1940 and continued well in to the 70s. Mooney was brought in to comics by Henry Kuttner (I had no idea) and worked for years for DC ghosting Batman, on Supergirl and other books before moving to Marvel where he worked on Spider-Man, Ghost Rider, Omega, etc. I guess I was always aware of Mooney's art but it kind of flew under my radar. Solid but not flashy...which is fine. Again, I love these kind of interviews and really do think they're important. We get part II of Jim Amash's very long interview with Tony Tallarico. I honestly knew very very little about Tallarico other than his work on the Dell Monster/Super-hero books. So this was a revelation (even though I don't have part one, sigh). The guy did tons of work in comics, advertising and coloring books which I was completely unaware of. Extremely informative and interesting. The kind of thing that makes these books really worthwhile because it's a great addition of knowledge in an area of the industry that's under-studied. Michael Gilbert and Mr. Monster give us the final entry in the quest to find letterer Abe Kanegson in an interview with his widow. Nice to have some closure on a comics mystery, but maybe not crucial. His widow seems like a nice lady who didn't know much about her husband's work life. We get twelve pages of color photos of old-time fandom. Again, somewhat interesting, but not crucial. There are some nice pics of pros (and not yet pros) including Neal Adams, Roy Thomas, Rich Buckler and Elliot S! Maggin. Obituaries of Gene Colan (sigh) and Dave Hoover. Very out of date even at that time. The internet has sped up comics news like some of us would never believe. The letters pages of these magazines are always very interesting. Our own Cei-U gets a mention on an article he wrote. The Fawcett section includes some reminiscences of Mark Swayze and Part IV of an interview with Roy Ald, who was an editor and writer for Fawcett from 1946-53. A super solid issue.
Yes, I agree, these interviews are important - and can be highly interesting even if one isn't a huge fan of the individual's work, just as a window into a different time and place.
|
|