Welcome to the two-hundred and thirty-third in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirty-two.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Peotry Legends Revealed to learn what poet was asked to come up with a name for a line of Ford cars (her suggestions alone are worth the read!).

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: By reprinting an issue of X-Men in their Essentials format, Marvel inadvertently showed nudity where none was intended.

STATUS: True

An interesting thing can happen when something meant to be produced in one particular format gets changed to another one. This was made perfectly evident when an old issue of X-Men was re-done in the Essentials format by Marvel.

X-Men #123 came out in 1979. It was penciled by John Byrne and inked by Terry Austin. It was colored by Glynis Wein.

At one point in the issue, the following scene occurs...

Now, if you happened to be reading the issue, it's likely you wouldn't have even given a second thought to the page.

Check Storm coming out of the shower...

Again, nothing really to see there, which is just how the issue was intended to be read.

However, years later, this issue of X-Men was reprinted in Essential X-Men Vol. 2...

There, however, that same Storm panel shows up in an entirely different light...

It seems pretty clear that, as a guide to himself in drawing Storm's body in the towel coming out of the shower, either penciler Byrne or inker Terry Austin slightly drew in Storm's naked breast, with the idea (which clearly was correct) that the colorist would then cover it up when the panel was colored (note that Austin, if he did not draw it himself, inked the piece so that it is barely visible anyways).

And that DID happen.

However, two decades later, Marvel reprinted the scene...sans the color!!

So you get a funny example of a reprint causing nudity that was never intended to be seen!

Thanks to reader Andy S. for the head's up (and the scan)!

COMIC LEGEND: Judge Anderson of the Psi Division was modeled after Debby Harry.

STATUS: True Enough for a True

Judge Cassandra Anderson was one of the few notable female Judge characters in the popular 2000 A.D. Judge Dredd series. She was introduced pretty early on, in 2000 A.D. #150, by writer John Wagner and artist Brian Bolland.

She soon became popular enough to maintain her own series in 2000 A.D. (here is the trade paperback collecting many of her solo adventures), written by Alan Grant mostly (if not solely), highlighting her psychic powers.

For years, folks had wondered if Anderson had been modeled after singer Debbie Harry of the band Blondie.

David Bishop got to the heart of the matter in his extensive history of 2000 A.D., Thrill-Power Overload...

when he interviewed Brian Bolland...

Bishop: According to legend Debbie Harry was the model for Anderson – true?

Bolland: She pretty much was… The thing I always found about drawing for 2000 AD was we never got to draw women. There just weren’t any. I don’t know why. I think it came out of the tradition that boys comics and girls’ comics were separate. There were artists in America whose work I admired who did gorgeous women and I wanted to have a go at it. I thought this was a great opportunity to draw a sexy looking girl. See if I could draw that.

She was based on Debbie Harry. I think I did a Forbidden Planet advert and I draw a lot of famous people into that, such as Debbie Harry and David Bowie. I think I must have just drawn her. I’m not sure she’s particularly Debbie Harry…

Here is that Forbidden Planet ad...

And here is a cover of Judge Dredd by Bolland featuring Anderson...

Thanks again to Mark S. (who wrote in for last week's installment on Rocky Balboa, as well) for the head's up (and the scan of the Forbidden Planet ad)! Thanks to David Bishop for the interview and thanks, of course, to Brian Bolland for the information!

COMIC LEGEND: Zodac in the Masters of the Universe was meant to be connected to Metron of the Fourth World.

STATUS: Basically False, With Some Truthiness to it

Reader Squashua has been wondering for a long time about a possible link between Zodac of the Masters of the Universe and Metron of the New Gods.

Here is Zodac on the cover of DC's Masters of the Universe mini-series (written by Paul Kupperberg and drawn by the late, great George Tuska). He is the fellow behind Skeletor's sword...

And here, of course, is Metron (from his first appearance in New Gods #1)...

Squashua asked awhile back...

Did the DC Comics writers intend there to be a connection between New God character "Metron" and Master of the Universe character "Zodac, the Cosmic Enforcer"?

The classic Zodac toy was a dude with red space armor and a laser pistol. Originally billed as an Evil warrior, the accompanying EARLY literature had him as more of a neutral keeper of balance, which was what followed ever since.

When he was presented in both the toy-included comic books (apparently all written by DC before Mattel took over) and the short-lived DC Comic series/insert (prior to Marvel's Epic-line MotU series), if I recall correctly, Zodac flew around in a chair (much like Metron) and did cosmic "stuff". The Zodac toy did not come with this chair, but if you look at the chair in the manner in which it was drawn, it is identical to the throne that comes with the original Castle Greyskull playset. There was no reason for him to use the chair, but when you go think about it, Zodac of the DC Comics issue(s) is pretty much intended to be Metron.

Here they are in their respective chairs (thanks to Squashua for the pic)...

Well, just the other week, Sean T. Collins at CBR's own Robot 6 blog was discussing Masters of the Universe, and Squashua showed up in the comments and so did Paul Kupperberg!

Squashua presented the question and Paul answered it as follows:

DC signed the rights to MOTU before the toys were released. They had virtually no back story set up besides a very basic good guys vs. bad guys idea. A rep from Mattel came to DC and editor Dave Manak and I spent an afternoon on the floor of DC's conference room playing with the prototypes of the figures and accessories and making shit up as we went along. I took a few notes, talked out a few very basic ideas with Dave and the rep and then went home and started writing. Zodac and the flying chair were part of the presentation, so I went with that--don't recall for certain if the Metron parallel was brought up at the time, but with fan-boy-me in the room, I'd find it tough to believe I wouldn't have at least mentioned it. They might have gotten rid of the flying chair (or switched it to a spot in the Castle) because of the similarity by the time the toys came out but after I'd written the comic.

A big fan of the Fourth World material, but I don't think I ever wrote any of it, certainly not around that time...unless I've got a major brain fart going. My first connection with any of the Kirbyverse was when I tied TAKION into The Force, but that wasn't until 1996.

I'm told -- and I don't know because I never watched the cartoon (being, y'know, in my 20s when it came out) -- that a lot of the back story was based on the DC comic, so I guess I'm to blame, but I doubt I would've had Zodac in a flying chair if it hadn't been part of that original presentation.

So it sounds like basically a no on the connection.

Thanks to Paul Kupperberg for the information, thanks to Sean for the blog entry that got this one resolved and thanks to Squashua for the stick-to-it-ness to finally get a reply to the query!! Good job!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

40 Comments

• At November 20, 2009, Charlie wrote:

  On that He-Man cover, that actually looks more like Mer-Man on an Attack Sled or whatever they were called. ...

• At November 20, 2009, Splint Chesthair wrote:

  Minor correction to the MOTU bit: Zodac is standing behind Skeletor on that cover. The guy in the flying thing ...

• At November 20, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Noted! Thanks, fellas. I'll admit that I stopped looking as soon as I saw the red helmet! :)

• At November 20, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Ha! I've read through that Essential X-Men volume a few times now and never noticed the clandestine nipple there. I ...

• At November 20, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Do note that Marvel may have corrected it in later printing of the Essential trade (they've gone through a few ...

• At November 20, 2009, Splint Chesthair wrote:

  My favorite part of that X-Men scene is Spidey in a phone booth trying to warn the X-Men about Arcade, ...

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  Thanks, Brian. From the link provided, here's a link to a better pic that shows both Metron and Zodac ...

• At November 20, 2009, Jace Mace wrote:

  Am I completely blind? I can't see the nudity in that Storm pic. Is there a nip?

• At November 20, 2009, Apodaca wrote:

  "Devils take the man..."

  "Sleepy-Bye, Honey-Chile."

• At November 20, 2009, The Amazing Spider-Ads wrote:

  Yep, I don't see the nipple there much at all either. I think blown up so big the grain obscures ...

• At November 20, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Fair enough, I shrunk the image for ya.

• At November 20, 2009, Jace Mace wrote:

  Thanks for the shrink. I totally see it now. John Byrne, you ol' rogue!

• At November 20, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  The thing Mer Man is in is a Wind Raider

• At November 20, 2009, azjohnson5 wrote:

  Funny that the Storm story was brought up, literally at the same time I was debating which Claremont/Byrne storylines should ...

• At November 20, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Storm used to be naked a lot in the old days (although aside from this time, there was always ...

• At November 20, 2009, Hisham wrote:

  I don't know if you've covered it before, but your discussion of MOTU and New Gods reminds about something I ...

• At November 20, 2009, Mxy wrote:

  Here's one: I know Kevin Maguire is a big Bond fan. I was wondering if he came up with the ...

• At November 20, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  Hisham - yep, he covered it.

• At November 20, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  Invest in an X-Signal, guys!

  Yeah, you'd think Cerebro could at least take messages or something. :)

• At November 20, 2009, Bill wrote:

  Huh! I never would have guessed when I got up this morning that I would see Storms nipple today. Funny ...

• At November 20, 2009, Henry wrote:

  Speaking of Byrne and nipples, didn't he also do that for She-Hulk as well after her clothes were torn up, ...

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  @Hisham, in my original request for research from Brian, I mentioned that my MotU/New Gods request is a different one ...

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  Also, if you look CLOSE ENOUGH at the colored version, you can also see Storm's nipple, albeit 98% blacked out.

• At November 20, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  Uh, forget the X-signal, how about beefing up their security? lol

  Ah, those early He-man comics...interesting how unplanned things were. Teela ...

• At November 20, 2009, hifidigitalboy wrote:

  I've always loved what came after the Spider-Man/Arcade phone conversation. Namely, Spidey destroying the phone booth because he was so ...

• At November 20, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  A little nipple never hurt anyone. ;-)

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  [url=http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showpost.php?p=2208948&postcount=40]Post on He-Man.org[/url] with some pics of a custom Zodac chair, plus a pic of Metron and a pic of ...

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  (Brian, you can kill the prior post and this sentence; I always forget there is no UBB code here).

  Link: http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/showpost.php?p=2208948&postcount=40

  Goes ...

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  Also, here is a pic of the interior of Castle Greyskull, which shows the throne I mention:

  http://www.toyarchive.com/STAForSale/NEW2001+/MOTU/Toys/Loose/PlaysetGreyskull3a.jpg

• At November 20, 2009, John Trumbull wrote:

  Actually, I'll bet that Terry Austin was the one who added that nipple to Storm in that panel. I ...

• At November 20, 2009, Tony wrote:

  Speaking of comic book characters based on Debbie Harry's look, Walt Simonson has stated in a number of interviews that ...

• At November 20, 2009, opeu38 wrote:

  I think John Byrne said that the 87 He-Man movie was merely a ripoff of New Gods. I thought I ...

• At November 20, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  "Truthiness"? Heh. :P

  Storm's nipple doesn't bother me, I'd heard that some artists often draw their figures nude before "dressing" them ...

• At November 20, 2009, Ipm wrote:

  "Do note that Marvel may have corrected it in later printing of the Essential trade (they've gone through a few ...

• At November 20, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  You really can't introduce a character more thoroughly than Kirby did Metron in that one page from New Gods #1.

  "You ...

• At November 20, 2009, Reno wrote:

  Was He-man a part of the Epic line from Marvel? It was the Star line for kids, right?

• At November 20, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  @opeu38

  As mentioned earlier, the first MotU movie being associated with New Gods via a comment by John Byrne was ...

• At November 21, 2009, Locusmortiis wrote:

  I've wondered for a while if the look of Metron and his throne by Kirby was influenced by Phillipe Druillets ...

• At November 21, 2009, Chris Stansfield wrote:

  Yep, it was Star Comics, and, generally, it was really terrible. Like stealing forty cakes terrible. However, the last two ...

• At November 21, 2009, Daniel wrote:

  Kupperberg is talking about the DC comics series, which as he says was conceived very early and on the fly ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and thirty-third in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirty-two.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Music Legends Revealed, where we learn the answer to the question "Was Barry Manilow's 'Mandy' written about a dog?"

This week is a theme week, of sorts. One of the most most off-beat theme weeks I've had yet - every legend this week involves basing a comic on someone!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Rocky Balboa appeared in a comic as a member of G.I. Joe.

STATUS: True

By 1987, Rocky Balboa had already single-handedly destroyed the Soviet Union (it would just take a few more years for their total defeat to sink in)...

So who was left for him to fight?

Well, Cobra, naturally!

In 1986, Sylvester Stallone was working on a deal with Hasbro to license his likeness and the character of Rocky Balboa as an action figure, making Rocky Balboa a member of G.I. Joe.

To commemorate this deal, which seemed like it was definitely going to happen, Marvel released the second issue of G.I. Joe: Order of Battle in late 1986.

Order of Battle was a listing of all the current members of G. I. Joe, with descriptions by Larry Hama and character art by Herb Trimpe.

In the second issue (M-Z), we met a new member of G. I. Joe...

Note that Trimpe made sure not to do a likeness of Stallone just yet, as the deal was not official.

Well, the deal, as you might have guessed, fell through. Stallone had instead signed a licensing deal for toys bearing his likeness for Rambo action figures.

Here is the unused artwork for the G.I. Joe Rocky Balboa action figure (thanks to YoJoe for the art)...

The next issue of Order of Battle had a great retraction at the end...

That same issue also had a page devoted to Big Boa, a member of Cobra who had been created to be Rocky's nemesis...

We never got Rocky, but at least we got Big Boa!!

Thanks to reader Mark S. for writing in suggesting this one, and thanks again to YoJoe for the unused packaging artwork!

COMIC LEGEND: Doug Moench named one of Moon Knight's secret identities after fellow comic book writer Steven Grant.

STATUS: False

Doug Moench's creation, Moon Knight, was unique in that he did not just have ONE secret identity. Instead, he had THREE!

His "real" name, Marc Spector (mercenary), plus Jake Lockley, cab driver and Steven Grant, rich guy.

It has long been thought that Doug Moench named the Grant character after fellow Marvel writer, Steven Grant, as a little in-joke.

However, that is not the case.

Moench DID name the character after a friend of his, but it was an entirely different Steven Grant.

Moench began working for Marvel in early 1974....

He quickly became the de facto head of their black and white horror comic magazine line...

His work with horror comics continued in color, until he introduced, in the pages of Werewolf By Night, Moon Knight...

That was 1975.

Grant was not working at Marvel until later in the decade.

So Moench did not name the character after Grant.

Amusingly enough, one of Grant's very first stories at Marvel (if not his very first)?

A Moon Knight team-up in Marvel Two-In-One!

Thanks to Doug Moench, who wrote about this in a text piece awhile back, and thanks to Steven Grant, who also wrote about it in a column of his (here at CBR! His old column, Master of the Obvious), as well!

COMIC LEGEND: Al Feldstein based the look of a character on the actress who played the character on the radio!

STATUS: True

It is normal enough, when writing a comic based on a celebrity, to draw the character to look like the celebrity.

Like the good folks at Welcome Back, Kotter, for instance...

However, interestingly enough, Al Feldstein did the same when working with a VOICE actress!

The popular radio series, Meet Corliss Archer, ran on CBS radio from 1943 until 1956.

The series was about a quirky teenaged girl named Corliss Archer.

The original Corliss was played by Priscilla Lyon, but JAnet Waldo is most known for the role.

In 1948, Fox Publications did a short-lived comic book adaptation of the series.

Fox art director Al Feldstein wrote and drew the comic.

Feldstein decided to use Waldo as his model, both for the character AND on the top of the comic book cover to show you that it was based on a radio show...

Here's a picture of Waldo...

Oddly enough, when the series went to television in the early 1950s, Waldo turned down the chance to star in the series, choosing to remain just the voice Corliss.

Waldo, by the way, has had a long and illustrious career as a voice actress ever since.

She did the voice for Penelope Pitstop in Wacky Races (she even recently did the voice for the video game based on the show - by the by, in this installment of TV Legends Revealed, you can read all about Penelope Pitstop's vibrator)...

She did the speaking voice for Josie on Josie and the Pussycats...

And, most famously, she has been the voice for Judy Jetson ever since the Jetsons first aired back in 1962.

We're quite lucky to still have both Ms. Waldo AND Mr. Feldstein still with us today!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

56 Comments

• At November 13, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  That drawing of "Big Boa" is absolutely atrocious.

• At November 13, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  Hey Brian, check the comments section:

  http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2009/11/geoff-johns-wants-the-power-of-grayskull/#comments

• At November 13, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  Oh man, we missed out on a Rocky Balboa/Sgt. Slaughter team-up.

• At November 13, 2009, Sean W wrote:

  Wow, I did not know that Big Boa was actually created to be Rocky's opposite number over in the ranks ...

• At November 13, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  As I recall, there were other members of GI Joe taken from actual character. Refrigerator Perry and the much ...

• At November 13, 2009, Conor E wrote:

  I actually thought Big Boa was created as a replacement for Rocky, to make use of already-sculpted boxer accessories, and ...

• At November 13, 2009, Michael wrote:

  In G.I. Joe, don't forget Sneak Peek, Owen King, based on one of Stephen King's sons...

• At November 13, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I had no idea Crossfire dated back that far. I always assumed he originated in the Hawkeye limited series. ...

• At November 13, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  I have that Order of Battle issue w/Rocky and had heard the story about Stallone turning down the licensing deal, ...

• At November 13, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  RE Other real people in Joe: While the data cards specified that the names and bios of the Joe ...

• At November 13, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  In G.I. Joe, don't forget Sneak Peek, Owen King, based on one of Stephen King's sons...

  And now that I'm forced ...

• At November 13, 2009, Tony wrote:

  Not the only one. Kevin Matchstick of MAGE leaps to mind.

• At November 13, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Stallone can't fight Cobra. He *is* Cobra!

• At November 13, 2009, Rev. Syung Myung Me wrote:

  BTW -- small typo: the header info claims it's the two-hundred thirty-second edition, rather than the #233rd.

• At November 13, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Interesting bit about Stallone and the G.I. Joe.

  I do believe that Stallone did a movie called Cobra, which actually had ...

• At November 13, 2009, spidertour02 wrote:

  Wait ... so why didn't they put Rambo in G.I. Joe? That would have made a hell of a ...

• At November 13, 2009, Matt Beahan wrote:

  Teebore - Both Todd MacFarlane and Stan Lee have been immortalised in action figure form. Now if Mattel would make ...

• At November 13, 2009, Edward Liu wrote:

  spidertour02: "so why didn't they put Rambo in G.I. Joe? That would have made a hell of a lot more ...

• At November 13, 2009, Bailey wrote:

  "she has been the voice for Judy Jetson ever since the Jetsons first aired back in 1962."

  You forget that Tiffany ...

• At November 13, 2009, CameronBrown wrote:

  Who would have thought the tagline: "Everything you ever wanted to know about... Gabriel Kaplan" would be a selling point ...

• At November 13, 2009, jediracer wrote:

  I don't know about you ugys, but my new toon crush is Corliss Archer

• At November 13, 2009, dave wrote:

  cameronbrown: you beat me to it. Apparently they printed blank pages in comics back then.

  Buh-DUM-Pum! (pathetic attempt at a rimshot ...

• At November 13, 2009, dave wrote:

  Corliss Archer is indeed cute. Those 40s hairstyles were nice.

• At November 13, 2009, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

  "Does that make him the only comic book writer with his own action figure?"

  Todd McFarlane showed up as a homeless ...

• At November 13, 2009, MarieDeGournay wrote:

  I love Rocky IV in retrospect. My favorite scene is when the Soviet doctors inject Dolph with steroids, while at ...

• At November 13, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  You forget that Tiffany (mall concerts in the '80s Tiffany) was the voice of Judy Jetson in the animated Jetsons ...

• At November 13, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  More seriously, I doubt Hasbro would have allowed a character from an R-rated movie in the comic book tie in ...

• At November 13, 2009, Jim wrote:

  Re: Real people as GI Joe figures:

  Scoop was based on an actual American newsreader, can't remember who though.

  Rowdy Roddy ...

• At November 13, 2009, majorjoe23 wrote:

  "Does that make him the only comic book writer with his own action figure?'

  Kevin Smith has also had several action ...

• At November 13, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Right, but he did not lend himself to a line of figures the way Rambo did (just talking money-wise).

  I'm betting ...

• At November 13, 2009, ParanoidObsessive wrote:

  "Rowdy Roddy Piper was made into a figure a few years back, as the trainer of Destro's Iron Grenadiers." ...

• At November 13, 2009, Stephen's Keyboard wrote:

  Isn't that Bolboa, Rocky figure drawn by Paul Smith? Through the decades, I still remember his blank staring faces, ...

• At November 13, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  COMIC LEGEND: Doug Moench named one of Moon Knight's secret identities after Steven Grant.

  Well, yes he did, but not THAT ...

• At November 13, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Wasn't Mr. T also a Joe figure at some point?

  Big Boa sounds absurd as a character. If Cobra training is ...

• At November 13, 2009, JoeIntel wrote:

  Great info on the proposed Rocky Balboa 'Joe, Brian.

  For everyone interested...Hasbro did actually sculpt & prototype the Rocky figure. ...

• At November 13, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Ha! Fair enough, onion3000! I'll change that.

• At November 13, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  As a long time fan of both G.I. Joe and Steven Grant (he even wrote a couple of issues early ...

• At November 13, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  Man, I remember when action figures were actually made and aimed at CHILDREN as opposed to the man-children that those ...

• At November 14, 2009, random surfer wrote:

  Play with them??? I thought you were supposed to keep them in mint condition, unopened in the box!

• At November 14, 2009, SwanShadow wrote:

  She played the titular Blondie in the long-running film series.

  *snicker* You said "titular." *snort*

• At November 14, 2009, Joseph wrote:

  About Janet Waldo, here's an interesting little tidbit. She appeared on an early episode of "I Love Lucy" ("The ...

• At November 14, 2009, worstblogever wrote:

  I am embarassed to admit that I had the Big Boa action figure.

  http://timetravellertoys.co.uk/action%20force%20gi%20joe/1987/Big%20Boa.jpg

  The removable gloves were kinda cool. Other ...

• At November 14, 2009, dave wrote:

  I think I remember somewhere that somebody's kid (I thought it was Joe Hill, aka Joe King) wrote the bio ...

• At November 14, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  It was Owen King again - he created Crystal Ball...or else he suggested the idea to his father who fleshed ...

• At November 14, 2009, Harv wrote:

  There are three columns I look forward to on CBR each week. CBLR is two of them. :)

• At November 14, 2009, The Ugly American wrote:

  There was also a mail-away figure that was customized after yourself.

  Of course, it wore a helmet.

• At November 14, 2009, sean wrote:

  "so why didn't they put Rambo in G.I. Joe?"

  There's several reasons; Stallone has more inherent rights to Rocky than he ...

• At November 14, 2009, Frank Rook wrote:

  In that bio pic, it looks like Rocky's been drinking milk. Ah, the days of white upper lips in an ...

• At November 14, 2009, Mudduck wrote:

  Corliss Archer actually began on Broadway, in the play KISS AND TELL. Broadway used to be a fertile source of ...

• At November 15, 2009, Craig Zablo’s StalloneZone » Rocky a Joe?! wrote:

  [...] Did you know that Rocky Balboa was almost a member of the GI Joe team? He was and you ...

• At November 16, 2009, Frank wrote:

  Funny that Rocky is a GI Joe and not Rambo.

• At November 16, 2009, jmy wrote:

  CameronBrown beat me to my comment on the idea that info about Gabe Kaplan would be a selling point.

• At November 16, 2009, random wrote:

  ""It reminds me of an excellent piece in the NYT Magazine about the reasons the Soviets lost the space race""

  But ...

• At November 16, 2009, Ian wrote:

  My favorite bit is the line on the retraction:

  "Rocky is not now nor has he ever been a member of ...

• At November 16, 2009, R3D RJ wrote:

  Adriaaannn!!! =P

• At November 17, 2009, J Gomez wrote:

  "Rocky is not now nor has he ever been a member of G.I. Joe"

  Now that's some light-speed retcon.

Welcome to the two-hundred and thirty-second in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirty-first.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Movie Legends Revealed, where we learn the secret motive behind Jamie Foxx's name!

Speaking of Jamie Foxx (at least the singing part of his repertoire), this week is a special theme week! All comic legends involving MUSIC!!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Irving Berlin sued Mad Magazine for copyright infringement.

STATUS: True

Today, the idea that one would be disallowed to do a parody of a famous song is almost absurd. And yet, at one point in time there was no clear law on the subject of parodies when it comes to songs.

Such was the state in 1961 when Mad Magazine released The Worst of Mad #4, the latest in their collection of pieces from the popular satire magazine.

They had a series of song parodies.

For simplicities sake, let's pick one song, a parody of Irving Berlin's "A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody," done by Mad as "Louella Schwartz Describes Her Malady."

Well, the songwriters of the world were fed up, so a group of famous songwriters got together, led by one of the most famous songwriters of all-time, Irving Berlin.

He was joined by two other legendary songwriters, Cole Porter...

and Richard Rodgers...

The case, Irving Berlin et al. v. E.C. Publications, Inc., went to District Court in New York.

Judge Irving Kaufman ruled that parody songs, especially those that only contained verbal parodies of the original song (as opposed to musical parodies, which would be a much dicier situation for years after this decision, all the way until the 1990s, really), were protected, provided that they were a limited borrowing of the original song (just enough to get the idea, really).

Of the 25 songs that were being contested (with the songwriters seeking about $1 million for each song - $1 per song per issue sold, for a total of $25 million), Kaufman ruled that 23 of them were fine, but he did hold that two of the song parodies ("Always," a parody of Berlin's "Always" and "There's No Business Like No Business," a parody of Berlin's "There's No Business Like Show Business") WERE too close to the original/contained too much of the original material.

The case was appealed to the 2nd Circuit Court in New York where Judge Charles Metzner ruled that ALL of the songs were protected.

The songwriters then appealed to the Supreme Court, who denied hearing the case, thus ending the case with a victory for Mad Magazine and parody writers everywhere!!!

Thanks to the UCLA Law and Columbia Law copyright infringment web site for the above scan and thanks to reader SanctumSanctorumComix for recommending that I feature this one (way back in January of this year).

COMIC LEGEND: Ben Orr of the Cars was related to famed letterer Tom Orzechowski

STATUS: False

The Cars were a popular New Wave band of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with hits like "Just What I Needed," "My Best Friend's Girl," "Good Times Roll," "Shake It Up," "Since You're Gone," "You Might Think" and "Drive."

The original lineup of the group was singer and guitarist Ric Ocasek, singer and bassist Benjamin Orr, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson.

Orr sang lead on "Just What I Needed" and "Drive".

Orr tragically passed away in 2000 from pancreatic cancer.

Orr's original name was Benjamin Orzechowski, and was born in 1947.

Well, legendary comic book letterer Tom Orzechowski was born in 1953.

About three years ago, reader gorjus asked:

Are longtime Uncanny X-Men letterer Tom Orzechowski and the sadly deceased bassist/singer of the Cars, Ben Orr, related?

It sure took me a long time to resolve this one (so fear not, those who wonder if I am ignoring their suggestion, I check them all out, sometimes it just takes awhile to prove one way or the other!), but I contacted Tom the other day, and he was kind enough to send me a quick reply.

He said:

You're only the second person to ask about this!... and the first since the Cars were a new band, 30 years ago.

No, the late Benjamin Orr was not a relative, at least not close enough that our families had any knowledge of each other.

I'm also not aware of any relationship to Bob Orzechowski, who did some penciling and lettering for Gray Morrow while he was doing the Buck Rogers (I think) syndicated strip, also 30 years ago.

Orzechowski is a relatively common name, apparently. Imagine that.

Imagine that, indeed!

Well, there ya go!

Thanks to gorjus for the question, and thanks so much to Tom for the helpful and prompt reply! Very cool of him. Oh, and thanks to Lee Hester (of Lee's Comics) for the picture of Tom!

COMIC LEGEND: A musician had to change his stage name and his album cover because of DC Comics.

STATUS: True

In 2001, musician Bruce Gordon came out with a pop album called Hero and Villain in One Man.

Bruce Gordon, you say?

Say, isn't that the secret identity for the comic book character Eclipso? The villain who good guy scientist Bruce Gordon transforms to whenever there is an eclipse?!?!

Why yes, it is, and Gordon realized this as well, so he titled his album Eclipso's tagline ("Hero and Villain in One Man").

Taking it one step further, Gordon decided to TAKE the name Eclipso and even put Eclipso on the cover of the album (using art from an old issue of House of Secrets - anyone know what issue in particular?)!!

(While I'm asking, anyone have a better copy of the album cover? This one is kinda tiny).

Well, SHOCKINGLY DC didn't like this idea so much, so they sent him a cease and desist letter (it's debatable if DC would have won any sort of lawsuit, but naturally, if you're Gordon, why would you want to even push the issue?) and he quickly changed the cover of the album AND his "alter-ego," now going by Mr. Encrypto, instead.

The comic book references continued with his latest album, Secret Identity Crisis (where he does a bunch of cover songs - clever).

Feel free to check out Bruce's site here, where you can listen to tracks from each album. His cover of Ray Davies' "Dreams" is good!

Thanks to Jim Kosmicki for recommending this one back in January!!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

57 Comments

• At November 6, 2009, Blackjak wrote:

  Some really interesting ones this week!

  Like the name-linking one, particularly...

  I didn't realise, until we were playing "Google Yourself" in the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Y'know, that third bit, about Bruce Gordon changing his name because of DC Comics reminds me of certain blogger who ...

• At November 6, 2009, Ortiz wrote:

  The parodies thing was very interesting. Great work Brian.

  Peace.

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Y'know, that third bit, about Bruce Gordon changing his name because of DC Comics reminds me of certain blogger who ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  He transformed whenever their was an eclipse? That sounds like a really rare occurance; I would think it would ...

• At November 6, 2009, kevinj wrote:

  so he put the name of a character, the tagline of a character and a piece of artwork of the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Roman wrote:

  I hope he covered "Southern Man" or something on that album...Neil Young deserves more than just an album cover reference.

• At November 6, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Yeah seems pretty blatantly spitting in the face of DC comics to try and get away with the whole Eclipso ...

• At November 6, 2009, OTL wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 6, 2009, Bill Angus wrote:

  I think that's a fairly common occurrence when it comes to bands. I vaguely remember a (Ottawa-based I think) band ...

• At November 6, 2009, kevinj wrote:

  just remembered a story i never quite found out was true or not that there was a band called Captain ...

• At November 6, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 6, 2009, Carl wrote:

  Superhero universe eclipses don't generally follow the usual rules. See the TV show Heroes, for an example. In ...

• At November 6, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  There's too many K. Urbans in this world.

  It's easy to get them all mixed (nixed) up!

• At November 6, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  Obviously artists and writers (or writers and artists) get the lion's share of credit when a comic book is successful ...

• At November 6, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  "Today, the idea that one would be disallowed to do a parody of a famous song is almost absurd"

  No, it's ...

• At November 6, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Actually Eclipso changed whenever Gordon saw ANYTHING that resembled an eclipse, even a *TV picture* of one! But yeah, the ...

• At November 6, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Aaron,

  Weird Al asks for permission from the artists, but he actually doesn't have to, legally. He does it as a ...

• At November 6, 2009, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  @Aaron Poehler:

  Actually, I believe the situation is that Yankovic has decided not to do parodies unless the artist gives him ...

• At November 6, 2009, rolly wrote:

  @Adam

  Michael Jackson reportedly liked Weird Al's parodies, and saw the imitation as flattery. Since Weird Al did both ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  To Rolly-- Weird Al got permission for 'Eat It' and 'Fat', but was denied permission to base a song ...

• At November 6, 2009, A.J. wrote:

  "just remembered a story i never quite found out was true or not that there was a band called Captain ...

• At November 6, 2009, rolly wrote:

  @Mary Warner

  Per the Rolling Stone article, Al says Michael "wasn't so into it" (the parody of "Black or White") for ...

• At November 6, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  @KevinJ

  Captain America was Eugene Kelly's band after The Vaselines (probably only known today because of their influence on Kurt Kobain). ...

• At November 6, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  Showing my age but the only Bruce Gordon I connected this with played Frank Nitti in the old TV show ...

• At November 6, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  @Iron Maiden -

  "Showing my age but the only Bruce Gordon I connected this with played Frank Nitti in the old ...

• At November 6, 2009, I AM FeAR wrote:

  Speaking of comic-named bands/band members, there's Jamie Madrox from Twiztid, who sometimes refers to himself as the Multiple Man and ...

• At November 6, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I don't know if the Butthole surfers ever went by the name "Silver Surfers", they used lots of names before ...

• At November 6, 2009, Daniel Kravetz wrote:

  The infamous booklet of MAD's song parody lyrics was called "Sing Along With MAD" and was included as a bonus ...

• At November 6, 2009, RD Francis wrote:

  Actually, There was a difference between real and artificial "eclipses" - with a real eclipse, I believe Gordon transformed into ...

• At November 7, 2009, ykw wrote:

  So, with all these artists having to make name changes to satisfy comics-company law-things, why is DJ Green Lantern allowed ...

• At November 7, 2009, Tornado Ninja Fan wrote:

  The Eclipso art is from House of Secrets No. 80. It was the last appearance of Eclipso in the magazine.

• At November 7, 2009, Allyn Gibson wrote:

  Honestly, I don't really see how it could be debatable if DC could have won a lawsuit against Bruce Gordon; ...

• At November 7, 2009, Bill wrote:

  X-Factor as a phrase was in common usage before Marvel used it for a comic title. I don't think they'd ...

• At November 7, 2009, jccalhoun wrote:

  Here's another music related question. I'm not sure if it counts as an urban legend but it is something that ...

• At November 7, 2009, Gapalanaky wrote:

  Bill-

  That was just WRONG! I'm surprised DC hasn't sued over that. Although it may explain Sinestro's "mustache"!

• At November 7, 2009, dr kopp e. wright wrote:

  IRVING BERLIN, COLE PORTER and RICHARD ROGERS must be really MAD !!!

• At November 7, 2009, tekende wrote:

  Gapalanaky-

  Actually, even if DC ever found out about that club, I doubt they'd sue. They'd likely win if they did, ...

• At November 7, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Interesting stuff, JC, I'll see what I can find out!

• At November 7, 2009, Corey wrote:

  X-Factor might be too generic to really defend but Marvel's use (comic books) is different than the TV show's use ...

• At November 7, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  It seems far more likely that Kurt Vile took his name from Kurt Weill (pronounced Vile) - which Moore himself ...

• At November 7, 2009, JackKing wrote:

  Kamino Neko is right, Moore took the pseudonym from Weill. He also used Jill de Ray which he snagged from ...

• At November 8, 2009, Daryll B wrote:

  Well I'd love for a "Bruce Gordon" to someday sue a comic company for suing their name claiming defamation...

  *gets handed ...

• At November 8, 2009, Daryll B wrote:

  whoops...suing should be using there...my bad again folks...

• At November 8, 2009, Fraser wrote:

  RD is right, fake eclipses split Bruce Gordon into two.

  I prefer the idea of an artificial eclipse (loosely as they ...

• At November 9, 2009, sean wrote:

  "Instead, it seems that Al, sensing Michael's hesitation, and being the class comedy act that he is, chose not to ...

• At November 9, 2009, sean wrote:

  (as opposed to the attorneys for The Beatles, who successfully sued Neil Innes for co-songwriting credits on all of the ...

• At November 9, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Did the Beatles lawyers really sue Neil Innes? He was a friend of theirs! (Of course, the Beatles ...

• At November 9, 2009, Corey Bean wrote:

  No one's mentioned the Wu-Tang Clans Marvel references. Maethod Man for a while called himself Johnny Blaze. Ghostface ...

• At November 9, 2009, Mark Evanier wrote:

  Hey, you guys have the wrong MAD cover up there. That's THE WORST OF MAD #4. The songbook ...

• At November 9, 2009, Allyn Gibson wrote:

  "Did the Beatles lawyers really sue Neil Innes? He was a friend of theirs!"

  The songs on the LP version of ...

• At November 10, 2009, gorjus wrote:

  Oh, gosh! Brian, a friend just sent me this link. I normally swallow great gulps of Legends at ...

• At November 10, 2009, Andrew Perron wrote:

  The different reactions to the Rutles are interesting!

  Also, "Cheese and Onions" used the melody of "Green Onion", didn't it?

• At November 10, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  'Cheese And Onions' did NOT use the melody of 'Green Onions', which was not a Beatles song anyway. (It ...

• At November 12, 2009, SM wrote:

  "Since Weird Al did both "Eat It" ("Beat It" parody) and "Fat" ("Bad" parody) with Michael's permission (and even was ...

• At November 14, 2009, Iggy Pop's Brother Steve Pop wrote:

  "the Supreme Court, who denied hearing the case"

  I think you mean "who declined to hear the case" or "denied the ...

• At November 14, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  'Cheese and Onions' was based on 'A Day In The Life' - it has the orchestral climax and a nod ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and thirty-first in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and thirty.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Dance Legends Revealed, which includes an interesting story involving Radiohead and Sigur Rós!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Pressures to release Secret Wars in Brazil led to some interesting editing in the Brazilian edition of Secret Wars.

STATUS: True

Readers Les Fontenelle and Rene both wrote in to let me know about the interesting editing that went on when Marvel's Secret Wars series was adapted in Brazil in the early 1980s.

You see, the Brazilian publishing company Editora Abril began reprinting Marvel Comics during the very late 1970s.

Capitão América was their main title, which was a magazine where obviously more than just Captain America comic stories would appear.

Here are some examples...

Indiana Jones...

and the X-Men...

In any event, as you might imagine, since they began reprinting the stories starting in the late 1970s, while they were not held to any strict reprinting guideline (to wit, they would not, say, reprint all the stories in exactly the same chronological order, so they could skip over large chunks of issues), they were still behind Marvel's current continuity.

For instance, while they were still reprinting older Captain America stories, they were already reprinting the All-New, All-Different X-Men stories, just well behind the pace that the X-Men were being released in the United States.

This became an issue in the mid-1980s.

You see, Marvel had released Marvel Super-Heroes: Secret Wars in 1984-1985 to coincide with the release of a series of action figures based on Marvel characters.

Well, naturally, the desire was to release these toys in other countries, as well, and the Brazilian toy company Gulliver produced the Brazil editions of the Secret War toys in 1986.

(Thanks to SpiderManCollectibles.com for the photo!)

However, since they were releasing the Secret Wars TOYS, there was pressure on Editora Abril to release Secret Wars itself in Brazil.

Which was fair enough, except that the continuity at the time was well behind the continuity of Secret Wars.

To wit, Rogue had not yet been introduced as an X-Man, Captain Marvel had not yet been introduced as an Avenger and Storm had not yet gotten to the pint where she had a mohawk and a leather costume.

So Editora Abril did what they felt was most prudent - they edited!

Extensively!!

Check out the covers of the twelve (bi-weekly) issues of Guerras Secretas from August 1986-January 1987 as compared to the original twelve covers of Secret Wars!

As you might notice, the edits weren't always consistent (they do not always remember to change Wolverine's costume back to his old costume), but what they did do was for certain changes (Storm's mohawk hair, Professor X walking and Spider-Man's black costume), they had the Beyonder transform them into that new form and then, at the end of the series, so as to not mess up the continuity of the Marvel reprints at the time, they all changed back!

Later on, though, when continuity caught up, they re-did Secret Wars...

And Secret Wars has been done a few times in Brazil since (more accurate versions of the story).

Thanks again to Les Fontenelle and Rene for recommending this one!

COMIC LEGEND: SpongeBob SquarePants indirectly got his name from Bob Burden.

STATUS: True

This is a pretty simple, but cool, story!

Stephen Hillenburg is the creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, the goofy, energetic and sweet character who lives under the sea.

Originally, Hillenburg wanted to name the character SpongeBoy.

However, he discovered that Bob Burden, creator of Flaming Carrot..

had already trademarked the name Sponge Boy.

Still wanting to keep the name Sponge (because, as Hillenburg has noted, if he didn't expressly tell people that the character was a sponge, they'd probably think he was made out of cheese), Hillenburg then just used Burden's first name, ending up with a name only a letter removed from Sponge Boy - SpongeBob!

Sponge Boy first appeared in AV in 3-D in 1984.

He then appeared along with Flaming Carrot as a guest star in an issue of Dave Sim's Cerebus...

Now, Sponge Boy was not exactly a major character, and who's to say that Hillenburg would have actually been stymied if he had gone through with the original name. It's not like Burden threatened to sue or anything like that. But nevertheless, Hillenburg has been quite open with the fact that it was Burden's character being around that compelled Hillenburg to change the name.

COMIC LEGEND: Lee Falk was a world traveler when he created Mandrake the Magician and the Phantom.

STATUS: False

Reader Deidre wrote in to ask:

While reading about Lee Falk I keep seeing conflicting stories about his exploits traveling the world. Was he an actual explorer or not?

This is an interesting question, Deidre, and I can see why you might be confused, because this is a case where it ONCE was false but then later became true.

Lee Falk was, of course, one of the most celebrated comic strip creators of all-time.

He created both Mandrake the Magician...

and his most famous comic creation, Phantom...

Falk's comics often contained stories of exotic places all over the world (heck, Phantom was FROM Africa!).

And in the early days of Falk's burgeoning comic empire, his expertise was credited to his own world traveling.

This, though, was untrue.

You see, Falk never actually left the United State until after World War II. In 1944, he joined the Army Signal Corps (after serving for three years with the Office of War Information in Illinois), and on twelve separate occasions he was scheduled to head overseas before ultimately staying in the United States (he was stationed all over the United States, though).

But when the claim was originally made, Falk had not even done THAT much traveling!

When he sold Mandrake in the early 1930s, that trip to New York City was the farthest he had ever traveled from his home state of Missouri!

Falk, himself, related the story years later:

As soon as I began writing Mandrake for King [Features - BC}, their publicity department requested a biography from me. Up until that point, I hadn't done much of anything except grow up, so I manufactured a great tale to satisfy them. I wrote that I was a world traveller, that I had met with the magicians of the east and had been initiated into all their mysteries, etc.

In reality, I'd just been in Missouri and Illinois - and that's about it. But when I came to New York, most of my friends turned out to be in the newspaper business, so I began to know foreign correspondents. They were a very glamorous bunch, the stars of the newspaper world. In those days, people didn't travel very much, so the foreign correspondents were like movie stars. Naturally, these men had travelled a great deal, and they soon read about Lee Falk, world traveller, in King's publicity releases.

They began to tell me about that little restaurant in Venice, or that great bistro in Paris, expecting me, of course, to regale them with stories of some of my own favourite hangouts abroad. Naturally, I had to bluff my way through these sessions, so I began to travel in order to catch up with my own autobiography! I travelled and travelled and finally caught up with my bio, and even went ahead of it. Believe me, this is a true story! Finally, the King publicity department sent out releases telling the truth about my original bluff and how I resolved it.

And it is true that yes, Falk eventually became a very impressive world traveler (although, oddly enough, I don't believe he ever made it to Africa - isn't that funny?).

So that, Deidre, is almost certainly why you have seen conflicting reports about Falk's travels.

He EVENTUALLY became a world traveler, but for a time, he was just making it all up.

Thanks to Deidre for the question and thanks to Bryan Shedden's awesome Phantom website, The Deep Woods, for the information about Falk (and the brilliant quote)!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

103 Comments

• At October 30, 2009, Allen wrote:

  I think that first one should be True, not False.

  I still want to know why it's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and not ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I think that first one should be True, not False.

  Gracias.

• At October 30, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  Lee Falk just drew himself in as Mandrake, didn't he? Then again, everybody looked like that back then.

• At October 30, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Why is the She-Hulk blue in those reprints? I'm wagering it has something to do with She-Hulk having not ...

• At October 30, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  Nice legends again, the edited SW covers are pretty funny! But you wrote:

  COMIC LEGEND: Pressures to release Secret Wars in ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  They started in the late 70s, but they didn't hold to any strict patterns, so She-Hulk could have appeared already. ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Too slow, Tuomas! :D

• At October 30, 2009, Tuomas wrote:

  Whoops, sorry, looks like the status error was corrected already.

• At October 30, 2009, Ken Raining wrote:

  So when they edited the comics, did they redraw things so that Storm was in her original costume, and someone ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Basically, Ken, the series was just abridged, so they simply took out the scenes featuring Rogue and Captain Marvel.

• At October 30, 2009, 33pigs wrote:

  "In any event, the ending of the series was also changed to coincide with the continuity of the Marvel reprints ...

• At October 30, 2009, 33pigs wrote:

  Dang. Someone moved the 'r' and 'f' keys on my keyboafd.

• At October 30, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  I'm Portuguese and I originally read Secret Wars in the Brazilian version when I was 12. (it was the only ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I notice they still had Xavier walking, at least on one of the covers, even though that didn't happen until ...

• At October 30, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Man, those Brazilian editions are awesome/wacky. How much do those go for, I wonder? And where would one get them? ...

• At October 30, 2009, Andrew Collins wrote:

  Never noticed how prevalent Rogue was in the Secret Wars covers until now...

• At October 30, 2009, Carlos Futino wrote:

  Ok, I don't really remember the original brazilian edition of Secret Wars that well, but if I remember correctly Storm's ...

• At October 30, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Ironically, Hasbro is now selling Secret Wars figures that come with a free comic.

• At October 30, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Three fun legends this week!

  In the early days, it was more often implied that the Phantom's deep woods were in ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, true, Matt, Phantom took a long time having his origin pinned down.

• At October 30, 2009, Michael wrote:

  Why is Doom referred to as "Dr.Destino"? Destino means destiny in Portugese,right, not Doom?

• At October 30, 2009, Major Retcon wrote:

  They started in the late 70s, but they didn't hold to any strict patterns, so She-Hulk could have appeared already. ...

• At October 30, 2009, jose wrote:

  Does the Brazilian edits have anything to do with why there were action figures from the Secret Wars line of ...

• At October 30, 2009, Bill wrote:

  Man, I'd love to see how the Brazilian telling of the Secret Wars went down! How were things different, exactly?

• At October 30, 2009, Major Retcon wrote:

  Why is Doom referred to as "Dr.Destino"? Destino means destiny in Portugese,right, not Doom?

  Names are not always literally translated in ...

• At October 30, 2009, bbb wrote:

  Wow...Secrets wars was the lamest comic ever in multiple countries. What a great world we live in....

• At October 30, 2009, Adriano wrote:

  Well, I'm brazilian and didi read Secret Wars in the first time that it was published, here... Let me see ...

• At October 30, 2009, Adriano wrote:

  (quote)

  Why is Doom referred to as "Dr.Destino"? Destino means destiny in Portugese,right, not Doom?

  Names are not always literally translated ...

• At October 30, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  I don't know Portuguese, but it looks like they were giving away free figures. The American edition didn't do that.

  I ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  I read those books in Brazil when they were originally published. Heck, they were my introduction to Marvel Comics!

  So I ...

• At October 30, 2009, Adriano wrote:

  Oh, and the question about the free toys.

  No, it didn't come with free toys, but with free "figurinhas"

  "Figurinha" is like ...

• At October 30, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  If you find the translation for Dr. Doom funny, you should see the Brazilian translation for "it's clobberin' time!" :-)

  In ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  What's even more fun it that both DC's Dr. Destiny and Dr. Fate ALSO translate as Dr. Destino!

  They solved that ...

• At October 30, 2009, Major Retcon wrote:

  They get A LOT of criticism in Brazil, but to be fair they had a very ungrateful job - Marvel ...

• At October 30, 2009, Jukka Laine of Finland wrote:

  Here's another one from Finland. Spider-Man went to the Secret Wars in Finnish edition as early as 1984. The X-Men ...

• At October 30, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  Nowadays brazilian Marvel and DC are edited by Panini - thank god! Marvel cronology was something lik 4/5 years behind ...

• At October 30, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  haha I'd love to see how much they changed things and how some of the signature quotes got translated... I'm ...

• At October 30, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  Also, so you guys can understand:

  Editora Ebal had the rights to Marvel and DC. The various economic crisis that Brazil ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  "...I still want to know why it's "SpongeBob SquarePants" and not "SpongeBob RectanglePants", as his pants aren't square..."

  Even under the ...

• At October 30, 2009, Citizen Scribbler wrote:

  What perfect timing! I just finished watching the first set of DVDs for Defenders Of The Universe, which stars the ...

• At October 30, 2009, Ortiz wrote:

  Translations are always hard to do, the names are no problem at all, try to translate jokes or cultural references, ...

• At October 30, 2009, Ivan Isaacs wrote:

  Heh. Abril reminds me of our first publisher of Marvel Comics here in Germany - Bildschriften, who published their Marvel ...

• At October 30, 2009, Matt D wrote:

  I swear it looks like they made She-Hulk into Dorma in the beginning there.

• At October 30, 2009, David Branson wrote:

  "Doom" also means "destiny" or "fate" though that usage is archaic. :) So that may be behind the ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pollux Dioscuros wrote:

  In Mexico Secret Wars was published after a serious economic crisis we had in the country. Marvel was published then ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Someone mentioned that Xavier was in his wheelchair in the first issue, but then the Beyonder did something to allow ...

• At October 30, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Hey all! i love the fact that there are plenty of foreign born [non-USA] readers/commentors on this site. It's really ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I see someone beat me to the Phantom's vague early setting might well have been India.

  Anyway, I swear the shape ...

• At October 30, 2009, Fraser wrote:

  ":They solved that by calling Dr. Fate "Sr. Destino" (Mr. Fate). The character never had a doctorate anyway..."

  He was an ...

• At October 30, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  I don't think the original Kent Nelson was ever a doctor. He was an archeologist. The current Kent Nelson is ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pollux Dioscuros wrote:

  QUOTE: Why is Doom referred to as "Dr.Destino"? Destino means destiny in Portugese,right, not Doom?

  Names are not always literally translated ...

• At October 30, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  "Doom" is a synonym of "fate" and "destiny." Doomsday, for example, refers to the last day, the day on ...

• At October 30, 2009, Ivan Isaacs wrote:

  In Spain "Dr. Doom" is called "Dr. Muerte" (Dr. Death) and "Deadpool" is called "Massacre".

• At October 30, 2009, Christopher Stansfield wrote:

  @Wesley: You'[re wrong and right, depending on your (or Obi-Wan Kenobi's) "point of view." Yes, Kent Nelson was/is an archaeologist. ...

• At October 30, 2009, Alf Tupper wrote:

  As someone broughtup on the British reprints of Marvel I find this perplexing.

  They just not bother with continuity, and really ...

• At October 30, 2009, Lex Luthoro wrote:

  Dr. Destino may have been a bad guy, but I bet he never took forty cakes. He never took ...

• At October 30, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  -"Hey all! i love the fact that there are plenty of foreign born [non-USA] readers/commentors on this site. It's really ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Maybe Spanish language Marvels weren't available in Puerto Rico because whoever published them didn't have the rights to distribute them ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pollux Dioscuros wrote:

  @ Sijo

  Editorial Novaro from Mexico DID had a Marvel Property which was "Hulk, El Hombre Increíble". Aside from that, Novaro ...

• At October 30, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  More brazilian facts:

  Wonder Man is called "Magnum" (???), Hawkman is "Black Hawk", Martian Manhunter is Ajax (????).

  In the Film Nation ...

• At October 30, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Hey, Brian!

  Very cool that you went with an idea in part inspired by a post of mine!

  And I'm sorry that ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  Even catching a glimpse of normalman makes me chuckle.

• At October 30, 2009, Pollux Dioscuros wrote:

  Actually, I forgot to add, the translator from Novedades, JG Holguín, also began to work simoultaeneously with Editorial Vid (Marvel-DC).

  He ...

• At October 30, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  Rene,

  Deadman was Desafiador also because of the D in his costume.

• At October 30, 2009, kanak wrote:

  dont care for secret wars

  hate...hate...hate..spongebob

  but me loves phantom a lot & its lee's first entry in 231 weeks

• At October 30, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Christopher,

  Kent Nelson wasn't an archeologist, he was the SON of an archeologist! Originally he hadn't even finished high school!

  Didn't know ...

• At October 30, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "Oh! And the Invisible Woman was always called Mulher Invisível in Editora Abril's comics. She was never called "girl." Even ...

• At October 30, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  Pedro,

  you´re from Portugal, right? Who publishs Marvel/DC there, Panini? Is it translated in Portugal or you still get the ...

• At October 30, 2009, Grum wrote:

  I think Brian could put together a nice multi-week series of "Marvel and DC Around The World".

  Name translations, storyline adjustments, ...

• At October 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  but me loves phantom a lot & its lee's first entry in 231 weeks

  And as of right this second (a ...

• At October 30, 2009, J Gomez wrote:

  Black Lynx is an awesome name for Shadowcat. Kitty's always needed some better codename action.

  Lee and his ...

• At October 30, 2009, Mary wrote:

  I don't understand why some of those ridiculous Brazilian edits include blue Hulk and She-Hulk (Loeb before Loeb?!) and a ...

• At October 30, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  Victor Von Destino?? And how might one say "Weak" in Portuguese?

• At October 31, 2009, Bat2supe wrote:

  hey, Brian !

  I don't know if you're aware about this article but they could definetly put this column as inspiration ...

• At October 31, 2009, Bat2supe wrote:

  ooops the article starts here the link point to page 2.

  here's page 1:

  http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article6892313.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

• At October 31, 2009, Ivan Isaacs wrote:

  In Germany "Hawkeye" was first translated als "Falkenauge" (literal translation and they even changed the H on his costume to ...

• At October 31, 2009, Wilbur Lunch wrote:

  In Sweden, Spidey had been in the black costume for about a year before Secret Wars was published. They never ...

• At October 31, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Hi Anderson,

  Here in Portugal we get the brazilian Panini editions, with the occasional "local" TPB or HC special (for example, ...

• At October 31, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  As for exotic foreign names, the best was how Superman was called on pre-war Belgiam publication (on the Spirou magazine). ...

• At October 31, 2009, Christopher Stansfield wrote:

  @Pedro: "Marc," huh? Is that considered a particularly butch name in Flemish?

  As for good ol' Kent Nelson, yes, his origin ...

• At October 31, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Dr. Doom's real name was still Victor Von Doom, even though his codename became Doutor Destino.

  Funny, She-Hulk isn't colored blue ...

• At October 31, 2009, Wilerson wrote:

  @fourthworlder

  The interesting thing is that Dr. Doom was only named Victor Von Destino at the start of Abril's publication. Some ...

• At October 31, 2009, Rene wrote:

  As for popularity of specific characters and creators here in Brazil, I think it's roughly the same as in the ...

• At October 31, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  Hulk is blue on the cover because of bad printing. He was green on the inside :)

  By the way, SW ...

• At October 31, 2009, Ajit wrote:

  Though we rarely (if ever- I don't really have copies of the More Fun series lying around) saw Kent, himself, ...

• At October 31, 2009, Anderson wrote:

  What´s surprising is that, for years, CONAN was one of the best selling comic in Brazil. He had two publications ...

• At October 31, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  @ Pollux Dioscuros: Thanks for the information! :)

  However, I'm still puzzled as to why Novedades would not sell their ...

• At October 31, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  Christopher,

  Spirou is in french - and Marc isn't a particularly macho name in french as far as I know.

  Rene,

  Batman was ...

• At October 31, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Regarding the Deutsch name for Spidey-- die Spinne... In the Spider-Man versus Wolverine one-shot from 1987, Peter Parker was ...

• At November 2, 2009, Fabricio wrote:

  Ok, that´s what I have in my hands: the original 85 reprint, and a latter and more accurate 1990 version.

  1) ...

• At November 2, 2009, Fabricio wrote:

  / \

  / \

  |

  |

  Talking about Secret Wars, of course.

• At November 2, 2009, Von DEWS! wrote:

  I just wondering what Marvel thinks about those "edits" of Ed. Abril...

• At November 2, 2009, Von DEWS! wrote:

  Ah... I suggest see what was cut in Abril's The Incredible Hulk vol.01 #300... seriously!

• At November 2, 2009, Fabricio wrote:

  "I suggest see what was cut in Abril's The Incredible Hulk vol.01 #300"

  Well,

  Spider-Man is in his red&blue.

  As for Starfox, paint ...

• At November 3, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  In the Arab world, for much of the 80s and 90s, we didn't have translations, they would just have the ...

• At November 4, 2009, Sérgio wrote:

  Wow, I'm brazilian and I didn't know that the SW comics were edited (I'm 17 years now), I own the ...

• At November 5, 2009, Doug Bathmann wrote:

  About SECRET WARS in Brazil:

  There, you said: "Later on, though, when continuity caught up, they re-did Secret Wars..." and then ...

• At November 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Thanks, Doug.

  Honestly, I knew it was in #119, I just didn't have the cover for #119. :)

  If someone has ...

• At November 5, 2009, Paulo Monte wrote:

  Unfortunately they don't have the cover for Capitão América 119 by Abril, but otherwise this site is a really good ...

• At November 6, 2009, Kaliman wrote:

  In Mexico something similar happened with the dialogues of the reprinting of Amazing Spiderman Annual 1. It was published by ...

• At November 6, 2009, Kaliman wrote:

  Spain has the most incredible translations for character´s names: She-hluk is "Hulka" (as most feminine names in Spanish end with ...

• At November 7, 2009, Callum wrote:

  I think it's interesting that in issue 2 of Secret Wars (Brazil) they take out most of the Fantastic Four ...

• At November 10, 2009, Luis Dantas wrote:

  Abril edited Marvel's stories out of sheer necessity, not incompetence.

  By the time of the first Brazilian edition of Secret Wars, ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and thirtieth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-nine.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of Movie Legends Revealed, which takes a specific look at movie soundtracks.

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Don McGregor intentionally created the first interracial kiss in mainstream comics.

STATUS: False

In last week's installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, we discussed how Dick Giordano sneaked in the first interracial embrace in mainstream comics (note that independent comics were doing pretty much whatever they wanted during the 1960s, so this stuff was practically passe in indie comix of the late 1960s/early 1970s).

Well, Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell are responsible for the first outright interracial kiss in color mainstream comics, which happened in Amazing Adventures #31, part of their acclaimed run on Killraven.

Killraven was a freedom fighter in a post-apocalyptic Earth where the planet has been invaded by Martians.

Killraven is aided by the "Freemen," a group of, well, free men who also fight the aliens.

Here are the Freemen in battle!

M'Shulla Scott was Killraven's "mud-brother" and his closest friend. Carmilla Frost was a scientist (but she could also carry herself very well in a fight).

Well, in Amazing Adventure #31 (in 1975), the two had an intimate moment...

Okay, so McGregor was responsible for the first interracial kiss in color mainstream comics.

But McGregor actually wrote the first interracial kiss in black and white mainstream comics, too!

So knowing that McGregor was later responsible for the kiss in color comics, it seems reasonable to believe that he intentionally had the early kiss, right?

However, the interracial kiss that happened in Warren Publishing's Creepy #43 in 1972 was a mistake! It was a case of mis-communication between McGregor and his artist, Luis Garcia.

The story involves an African-American private detective investigating the disappearance of a young man (SPOILER - the kid turns out to be a werewolf).

García decides to draw the private eye like Sidney Poiter for whatever reason...

Anyhow, McGregor had the detective interview the young man's girlfriend.

McGregor only had a page to work with here, so he wanted the scene to be as dramatic as possible. The girl here is really upset, ya know?

So for the last panel, McGregor added the phrase "This one is the clincher."

Well, García took that to mean that this would be the scene the two characters would kiss!

And that's what he drew.

As you no doubt notice, the scene really doesn't make much sense. They just kiss out of nowhere.

And likely BECAUSE it was a matter of just a clear mistake, Warren did not make McGregor take it out (there was likely not enough time to get it fixed, either), so by way of a misake, the first true interracial kiss in comics came to be!

Funny stuff, eh?

Thanks to Don McGregor and Jon B. Cooke for the information, courtesy of a great interview between the two men in Cooke's The Warren Companion. And thanks to David Frankel for pointing out that Garcia could have been a name that the young Jose-Luis García-López was going by back then. There's debate over whether it was Jose-Luis García-López or Luis Garcia Mozos - it doesn't really matter for this story, so I'm just ignoring it.

COMIC LEGEND: Mojo Jojo was partially inspired by the Super Dictionary!

STATUS: True

Last year, I did an installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed on the Super Dictionary, the cult classic dictionary put out during the 1970s by Warner Educational Services.

What makes Super Dictionary stand out is how oddly it was written.

The most famous bit from the dictionary is this piece for Lex Luthor...

That's just bizarre, right?

It's the sort of thing that sticks in your mind, ya know?

Back to that in a bit...

So, during the late 1990s, Craig McCracken debuted the Powerpuff Girls!!

The greatest enemy of these superpowered tots was Mojo Jojo, a talking mad scientist chimp..

Mojo Jojo had a very funny way of speaking.

Here are some sample quotes:

Excuse me sir, but can you direct me to the location of where I can locate some eggs for I would like to purchase them so that I can take them home with me and I can eat them today.
[pause]
And maybe tomorrow.

Hey you kids, get out of my moat, it was not meant to be played in. I must remember to destroy those kids after my breakfast has been eaten.

In the grading system, I would have assigned you all with an "F," which, if I had control of the grading system, I would make the lowest grade a "Z" since that is the final letter in the alphabet, which starts with "A" and ends with "Z."

Now to catch up on the world's latest events that have happened that this paper has reported with the words that they wrote.

Now, as you see, the gag is that he over-explains everything.

Primarily, this is a subtle mocking of the way the characters on Speed Racer talked...

However, McCracken ALSO remembered the Super Dictionary, and in an interview for Newsarama, he explained how it, too, was an influence on Mojo Jojo...

It was a book called The Super Dictionary. It was basically a dictionary for little kids that described words in paragraphs. For instance, it would say something like “Krypto made Superman laugh. It makes a positive sound come from Superman’s belly.” Reading it made me think what were these guys doing? We would sit around reading that book and just laugh over it.

Isn't it awesome when the seemingly most random things are connectied?

Thanks to Steve Fritz for the interview in question and thanks to Craig McCracken for the info!

COMIC LEGEND: Spider-Man is called Super-Man in an early issue of Amazing Spider-Man.

STATUS: True

This is just one of those extremely simple ones.

Reader Jody wrote in to ask:

Is is true that Spider-Man was called Superman in an early issue of Amazing Spider-Man?

Simply put, yep, Jody, that's pretty much exactly what happened!

But tell ya what, rather than just showing you that, I'll show you a couple of other silly typos/mistakes in early issues of Amazing Spider-Man!

As we've established in a previous installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed (over 200 columns ago!!!), Stan Lee would often forget the name of his characters.

That's fair enough, but in the FIRST issue of your character's title, Stan?

From Amazing Spider-Man #1, here are how two panels appear now in reprints...

But here's what they originally looked like...

Now as to Jody's original question, I believe this mistake was actually that of letterer John Duffy, not Stan. So this was a typo, not a matter of forgetting the character's name!

From Amazing Spider-Man #3...

From the original...

Ta da!

Thanks to Jody for the question and thanks to the classic Marvel No-Prize Comic Book for the original panels!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

51 Comments

• At October 23, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Marvel should re-publish an expanded Marvel No-Prize book. I LOVED that thing as a kid. The quick n' ...

• At October 23, 2009, Thok wrote:

  Ah, you didn't include my favorite Mojo Jojo quote, from Los Dos Mojos, when he responds to Bubbles speaking like ...

• At October 23, 2009, avengers63 wrote:

  I actually won a No-Prize. It's an empty envelope with some Marvel crap printed on it.

• At October 23, 2009, brian wrote:

  One mistake I recall is from Tales of Suspense 49, where Anthony Stark is called Anthony Blake. Perhaps someone ...

• At October 23, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Weird that they corrected "Peter Palmer" back to "Peter Parker," but "Bruce Banner" is still printed as "Bob Banner" in ...

• At October 23, 2009, Ian wrote:

  I've never even heard of that No-Prize book, I would love to hear more about it.

• At October 23, 2009, Ritchard wrote:

  And I was hoping for another quote from "Los Dos Mojos," where he suddenly lapses into the Holy Hand Grenade ...

• At October 23, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Weird that they corrected "Peter Palmer" back to "Peter Parker," but "Bruce Banner" is still printed as "Bob Banner" in ...

• At October 23, 2009, Darth Krzysztof wrote:

  Some of Mojo Jojo's hand gestures came from Dr. Gori, the ape villain on the tokusatsu show Spectreman (who also ...

• At October 23, 2009, David Frankel wrote:

  Luis Garcia who drew that Creepy McGregor kiss is better known by his full name ... Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez!

• At October 23, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Ha, you're right, David. I totally forgot that he started at Warren! Thanks!

• At October 23, 2009, David Frankel wrote:

  Although some sites credit these Creepy tales to the Spanish artist Luis García Mozos, the official JLGL checklist, with ...

• At October 23, 2009, Erica wrote:

  Hi,

  I just wrote a blog post about an recent event featuring comic book historian Kent Worcester on New York City ...

• At October 23, 2009, Tym S. wrote:

  It makes perfect sense that McGregor and Lopez would use Sidney Poitier as the model for their detective. He'd just ...

• At October 23, 2009, PowerBook Pete wrote:

  There was also a short film on Saturday Night Live in the mid-80s in which the characters spoke like Mojo ...

• At October 23, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  No, those are Luis Garcia Mozos stories at Warren, as confirmed by JLGL via Kevin Nowlan to the GCD. ...

• At October 23, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  I LOVED that Super Dictionary when I was a kid. I remember making my parents read it to me before ...

• At October 23, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  In Amazing Spider-Man #17, Liz Allen's father is addressed as 'Mr Brant'. I always thought that was funny. ...

• At October 23, 2009, Drew Geraci wrote:

  Another great column as alway, Bri...

  I'm grateful that the 800-plus page ASM Omnibus restored the Super-man typo for authenticity! I ...

• At October 23, 2009, The Relic wrote:

  After reading about the Spider-man errors, I remembered to check out my Pocket Books collection (the first Spider-man volume I ...

• At October 23, 2009, snakeman99 wrote:

  That García-López art is just superb

• At October 23, 2009, mdk wrote:

  I always wanted one of those damn No-Prizes as a kid. Then they changed the rules, you couldn't just ...

• At October 23, 2009, danjack wrote:

  Hi Tym S!

  You wrote, "When people divide each other by false concepts (gender, ethnicity, orientation, nationality), it's like old superstitions."

  There ...

• At October 23, 2009, el tio berni wrote:

  "No, those are Luis Garcia Mozos stories at Warren".

  Right. I'm from Spain, Luis Garcia is an artistc completely different from ...

• At October 23, 2009, Roman wrote:

  Yeah, those Creepy stories are definitely Mozos, not Garcia-Lopez.

• At October 23, 2009, rolly wrote:

  "...this is a subtle mocking of the way the characters on Speed Racer talked..."

  This has me a tad confused. ...

• At October 23, 2009, sgt rawk wrote:

  Loved that No Prize book. Bought it for a buck in a back-issue bin. I bought it, back in the ...

• At October 23, 2009, sgt rawk wrote:

  The BEST one was Captain America, making a speech, facing down a villain. "Only one of us is going to ...

• At October 23, 2009, Eric wrote:

  Was Superman a Spy...der-man?

• At October 23, 2009, Ted wrote:

  @ rolly:

  I haven't watched Speed Racer, but I'm pretty sure what happened. Dialog in another language is likely to be ...

• At October 23, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  A few Spidey writers over the years have dusted off that "Peter Palmer" gaffe and used it in a story. ...

• At October 23, 2009, Marianne Farleybaconcheeseburgercombo wrote:

  Never seen that Killraven series before. Might have to check that out...

• At October 23, 2009, Robert Fuller wrote:

  That Lex Luthor page from the dictionary is the funniest thing I've ever seen. Oh, that dastardly Lex Luthor! ...

• At October 23, 2009, R3D RJ wrote:

  Lovely art from Garcia =)

  Great Powerpuff girls info (Mojo Jojo!)

  and Oy...it's Peter PALMER, SUPER-MAN!

  =D

• At October 24, 2009, J Gomez wrote:

  Someone definitely needs to write the adventures of Peter Palmer, The Steeltacular Super-Man....

  Though, I will say using a different last ...

• At October 24, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  "One more thing, has anyone noticed that, on the Weather Channel's morning show, Wake Up With Al, that Al Roker ...

• At October 24, 2009, Wilbur Lunch wrote:

  Jose-Luis García-López or Luis Garcia Mozos - whoever drew it, that's some gorgeous artwork.

• At October 24, 2009, rolly (not dubbed) wrote:

  @ Ted

  Thanks for trying to be helpful. But the thing is, it's a cartoon. From the 60's, no ...

• At October 24, 2009, Monica Dickey wrote:

  That Luis art is really amazing. Like I would really consider framing it and hanging it.

• At October 24, 2009, Ted wrote:

  the lips aren't going to match the voices for the majority of screen time anyway.

  It depends what you mean by ...

• At October 24, 2009, DoubleWide wrote:

  I loved the way Mojo Jojo talked, but didn't he gradually stop talking that way?

• At October 25, 2009, Thom wrote:

  For his earliest work at DC (1975), Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez was credited as just "Garcia Lopez." I would think any ...

• At October 25, 2009, James Moar wrote:

  @rolly

  "They probably never matched in the original Japanese either, for all I know."

  Probably not. Anime has been fairly loose about ...

• At October 25, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  Ted - reducing a half hour show to 20 minutes to fix lip sync would be a lot more noticeable ...

• At October 26, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Yeah, but then you'd get ten more minutes of ads. I'm suprised that wasn't reason enough for the networks.

• At October 26, 2009, Jamie Ott wrote:

  Mojo Jojo and Chim-Chim have nearly the same hats....I think more than his speech patterns were influenced by Speed Racer.

• At October 26, 2009, John Cage wrote:

  I remember Kurt Busiek picking up on the Palmer and Watkins gaffs from early Spider-Man issues and having Peter Parker ...

• At October 26, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  There really shouldn't be any "debate" over whether that art's by Jose-Luis García-López or Luis Garcia Mozos. Not only does ...

• At October 27, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  In David Frankel's defense, that misidentification is out there. I'm pretty sure the source is Richard Arndt, who did ...

• At October 27, 2009, "O" the Humanatee! wrote:

  @jefhamlin: Thanks for that clarification. I didn't actually attribute the mistake to Frankel (nor do you say I did). I ...

• At November 7, 2009, Callum wrote:

  Peter Palmer.. Oh god, does that mean there's ANOTHER clone running around out there?

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-ninth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-eight.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this installment of TV Legends Revealed, which features the Lawrence Welk Show's performance of "One Toke Over the Line."

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: The District Attorney of New York arrested the business manager of EC Comics over the release of Panic #1.

STATUS: True

As I noted in a recent installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, the first issue of EC Comics' follow-up to Mad, Panic, caused quite a stir upon its release in 1953.

I already told you how it was banned in Massachusetts, but the issue ALSO led to the arrest of both the business manager of EC Comics as well as EC Comics' receptionist!!

The first time around, in Massachusetts, it was the Will Elder Santa Claus parody that was at issue.

This time, it was a great Mickey Spillane parody by Jack Davis, titled "My Gun is the Jury," specifically the depiction of women in the following pages...

A group of New York City police officers went to the EC Comics offices and purchased a copy of Panic #1 from the EC receptionist. Now with proof of sale, they went looking for Bill Gaines, the publisher of EC Comics.

Lyle Stuart was the business manager of EC Comics at the time. When he and Gaines heard cops were looking for Gaines, Stuart had Gaines hide in a restroom while Stuart welcomed the police in and offered himself up for arrest in place of Gaines.

They took Stuart up on his offer, and when they got to the station, they realized they also needed to arrest Shirley Norris, the receptionist who actually sold them the copy of Panic. So they went back and brought her to the station, as well.

As the pair awaited their hearing in front of a judge, Gaines was given a chance to quietly settle the case before it got that far. Gaines was willing to do so (after all, we're talking about a guy who gave himself up for Gaines, naturally Gaines felt responsible for him), but Stuart insisted on taking it all the way to the court.

When the hearing took place, the judge dismissed the case quickly, as the argument that the above shots of women's legs were pornographic were, well, quite ridiculous.

Still, while Stuart and Norris were released and the case dropped, the publicity certainly did not help EC Comics at all when the US Senate Hearings took place a few months later.

Thanks to Digby Diehl's great book, Tales From The Crypt: The Official Archives Including the Complete History of EC Comics and the Hit Television Series, for the information about these arrests!

COMIC LEGEND: Dick Giordano had a page of Teen Titans colored blue to help sort of "sneak" the first interracial embrace in mainstream comics through.

STATUS: True

Dick Giordano took over editing Teen Titans in 1968...

It was during his tenure that Bob Haney was basically phased out as the writer of the title.

Giordano was also behind one of the more famous (or infamous?) periods in the book's history, when the group indirectly led to a peace activist being killed, so the group decided to abandon their costumes and fight for social justice in plain clothes.

In the first issue with this new dynamic, writer Robert Kanigher and artist Nick Cardy debuted Mal, who was the first African-American hero in a DC Comics superhero book. This issue was only a few months after Teen Titans #20 (which was meant to be the introduction of DC's first black superhero before the issue was squelched by editorial), so you can bet that Giordano wanted to get past #20's issues as soon as possible.

We meet Mal when Wonder Girl is being accosted by some hoodlums...

Later, Mal boxes (and defeats) a representative of the bad guy's gang in some sort of 1970' version of a duel.

The bad guys don't take kindly to losing, so Mal's in trouble, but his new friends, the Titans, help him out...

Mal thinks he knows what the score is, but he is wrong...

So anyhow, Mal is offered a spot on the Titans, but he feels unworthy at the moment (I guess because of his lack of powers?), so he takes off on a secret mission, but first, he says goodbye to Lilith (the telepathic Titan, who was also a recent addition to the team at the time).

In the scene, Mal and Lilith embrace, and I guess it is sort of kind of meant to be Lilith kissing Mal on the cheek.

Whatever the case, Giordano was told by editorial to nix the scene, but instead, Giordano had the whole page colored blue...

He still ended up receiving a good deal of hate mail (and even a death threat or two) over the issue.

As it turns out, Mal decides to sneak off on a mission to space to "prove" himself...

He'd eventually return and join the team for real when the Titans started up again in 1976 (after the first series quietly ended in 1973).

Pretty amazing the stuff that had to be done in the SEVENTIES, even, to work black characters into comics.

Thanks to Michael Eury and Dick Giordano's book, Dick Giordano: Changing Comics, One Day At A Time, for the information!

COMIC LEGEND: Kurt Busiek followed Marvels up with Astro City.

STATUS: False Enough for a False

There are many ways in which a "legend" gets started. This whole column started when something said in a letters column of Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four was misconstrued (see this installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed to see what said misconstruing led to), so it can happen in the most innocent of fashions.

In this case, a bit of a legend has sprung up based on a self-deprecating joke Mark Waid told about his career many years ago.

Now do note that I'm pretty sure Waid's used this same line a few times, but the only concrete example I've found is from an interview ten years ago on a Jesse Quick fan site by Aeia Leilani...

Leilani: Looking back, what are your thoughts on the success of your work to date? Is there anything you would have done differently?

Waid: I would have capitalized better on the success of KINGDOM COME. Kurt Busiek used MARVELS to launch ASTRO CITY; I followed KC with such stellar works as X-O MANOWAR. Nothing WRONG with it, but I would have, in retrospect, been much better served to use that momentum to launch a creator-owned series.

Clearly, the intent of this comment is to say that, upon further consideration, Waid thinks he should have followed the success of Kingdom Come with creator-owned work. And he just points out that Kurt Busiek used the fame he received from the success of Marvels to launch a creator-owned work, Astro City (a work that continues to this day).

However, the way the quote has been preserved over the years has simply been "Kurt Busiek followed Marvels with Astro City. I followed Kingdom Come with X-O Manowar."

In THAT context, Waid appears to be self-deprecatingly making fun of his work on X-O Manowar, which was never the actual case. On the contrary, Waid is proud of his work on X-O Manowar.

But the other interesting thing is that that said quote has become so indelible, I think it gives a false impression of Busiek's career, as well.

It is true that Waid essentially followed Kingdom Come with X-O Manowar.

At the time Kingdom Come was ending, Waid was still writing Flash for DC Comics, but his Marvel Comics work was coming to an end (for a time), with Captain America ending due to Heroes Reborn and Waid's X-Men run cutting short.

So the next ongoing series he did after Kingdom Come was, in fact, X-O Manowar, as part of Fabian Nicieza's relaunching of Valiant Comics.

Kurt Busiek, on the other hand, was a different story.

First off, it seems as though folks occasionally have the wrong impression on Busiek. He is really the proverbial case of the seemingly "overnight success" who was actually working to that point in his career for years.

Before Busiek had his breakthrough comic work with Marvels in 1994, he had been working in comics, in one capicity or another, for over a decade after graduating from college in the early 1980s!

His first professional story was a back-up in an issue of Green Lantern Corps.

His first ongoing gig was a year-long stint as the writer on Power Man and Iron Fist, working alongside fellow young comic book creator, the great Denys Cowan (who had a bit more experience at the time, as he had been working in comics professionally since he was still in his teens) as well as later, the veteran artist Ernie Chan.

For the next ten years, Busiek kept working in comics professionally, which is impressive in and of itself.

But Power Man and Iron Fist remained his last sustained ongoing series for Marvel or DC.

Until 1994, that is, when he wrote Marvels alongside comic artist, Alex Ross.

The comic launched Ross' career as a superstar comic book artist and also firmly put Busiek's name on the map.

However, if you were Kurt Busiek, and you were just working for a decade on whatever assignments you could get a hold of, how could you know how this comic would affect your career one way or the other? How could you really change your approach of doing whatever work you could get?

So the comic that Busiek literally followed Marvels with?

Spider-Man/X-Factor: Shadowgames

Next, he took on as writer of Valor from Mark Waid for the conclusion of that title's run...

And his first real ongoing comics project after Marvels?

Following Fabian Nicieza as the regular writer on Night Thrasher.

(By the by, the writer who did a fill-in between Nicieza and Busiek was Dan Slott...

That has no real importance except it's amusing that Night Thrasher had as its three writers Nicieza, Slott and Busiek - not a bad pedigree for Night Thrasher!)

Busiek worked alongside co-writer Steve Mattsson (who also co-wrote Superboy and the Ravers with Karl Kesel) on Night Thrasher until the title ended with #21.

It was a few months later that Busiek did, indeed, launch his excellent creator-owned work, Astro City.

Do note that at almost the same exact time he launched his excellent Marvel comic series, Untold Tales of Spider-Man.

As I note at the very beginning, we're basically talking semantics here. Busiek certainly did use Marvels to launch Astro City, in the sense that he never would have had the opportunity to make such an impact with Astro City had it not been for his work on Marvels (heck, Alex Ross' involvement alone was a big deal). However, since almost a year and a half (and two ongoing series) lapsed between the end of Marvels and the beginning of Astro City, I don't know if you can really say that Busiek followed Marvels with Astro City.

It's totally a semantic point, but I think it's one that demonstrates a mistaken impression that people have with Busiek's career, so I felt that it was worth pointing out.

Thanks to Aeia Leilani and Mark Waid for the initial quote!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

69 Comments

• At October 16, 2009, Steve Flack wrote:

  I think you misconstrued the whole point of the "Kurt Busiek followed Marvels with Astro City" legend. Sure , I ...

• At October 16, 2009, Mordechai Luchins wrote:

  Is it 299 or 298?

• At October 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I think we all know that that literally didn't happen

  The whole point of the legend is that many folks expressly ...

• At October 16, 2009, J. L. Bell wrote:

  I don’t think Mal was “the first African-American hero in a superhero book.” He was the first for DC, but ...

• At October 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Is it 299 or 298?

  Neither. ;)

• At October 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I don’t think Mal was “the first African-American hero in a superhero book.” He was the first for DC, but ...

• At October 16, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Y'know, I was going to snark about "X-O Manowar..." And then I see that "Night Thrasher" reached 21 issues.

  At that ...

• At October 16, 2009, brian wrote:

  Not sure if it's a legend that's been covered, but isn't Busiek also created with coming up with the idea ...

• At October 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Not sure if it's a legend that's been covered, but isn't Busiek also created with coming up with the idea ...

• At October 16, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Sadly, the notion that Mal and Lilith coilnd't kiss chastely in a comic isn't so surprising when you consider that ...

• At October 16, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Sadly, the notion that Mal and Lilith coilnd't kiss chastely in a comic isn't so surprising when you consider that ...

• At October 16, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  Just what I was thinking, Omar.

• At October 16, 2009, Casey wrote:

  I do believe that's a dog with boobs on the cover of "Spider-Man/X-Factor." Man, the '90s were crazy.

• At October 16, 2009, Nick Marino wrote:

  Brian, you said "Panther had him beat by four years!!!" but technically (at least the way you worded it), it ...

• At October 16, 2009, Zane Smtih wrote:

  I may be missing the point, but on what grounds did the police arrest the EC employees...the depiction of women?

• At October 16, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  Check out the next issue box of that Teen Titans issue: "Don't miss the new Teen Titans in their next ...

• At October 16, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Depressing, but racism isn't quite dead yet in the US.

  I remember when HEROES started (by the way, remember when HEROES ...

• At October 16, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  Busiek's Power Man & Iron Fist is probably the best the title was post Byrne/Claremont - especially issue 100 which ...

• At October 16, 2009, Carl wrote:

  Wow, considering I've been in an interracial marriage for 9 years, with our fifth child on the way, this completely ...

• At October 16, 2009, Michael wrote:

  That's actually Wolfsbane on the Spider-Man/X-Factor cover, but "dog with boobs" was pretty much her characterization at the time.

• At October 16, 2009, Clint Adams wrote:

  I have a legend for you: Would the Defenders technically be considered the first all female super team?

• At October 16, 2009, Josh Brown wrote:

  Funny story about Busiek and how prolific his body of work actually is-- I was at a con two years ...

• At October 16, 2009, Ian wrote:

  Having just read Essential Powerman & Ironfist vol 2 a couple of weeks ago, I was really surprised to see ...

• At October 16, 2009, eric wrote:

  From one of the featured Teen Titans issues...

  "Lets cream these hoods, with sour cream!"

  HAHAHA..that rules.

• At October 16, 2009, tk. wrote:

  "The Untold Tales of Spider-Man's Missing Neck"

• At October 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  Sadly, the notion that Mal and Lilith coilnd't kiss chastely in a comic isn't so surprising when you consider that ...

• At October 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  Depressing, but racism isn't quite dead yet in the US.

  Racism will never be 100% dead anywhere in the world. ...

• At October 16, 2009, Rene wrote:

  You are correct, T.

• At October 16, 2009, Annoyed Grunt wrote:

  Is Mal going to space an homage to EC's Judgment Day story?

• At October 16, 2009, Kurt Busiek wrote:

  What Mark actually ays in that quote is that I used MARVELS to launch ASTRO CITY, which is partly true ...

• At October 16, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Reading that Panic story, I kept thinking that Mike Hammerschlammer kept coming across as gay, up until I got to ...

• At October 16, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  I've been reading comics since the sixties, and that shot of Mildred Muckle's ass on page five of Panic is ...

• At October 16, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  I recently read about the story of the arrest of the business manager of EC Comics, but I've never seen ...

• At October 16, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Alan, you may have read about it in a book called 'The Ten-Cent Plague'. I can't remember who wrote ...

• At October 16, 2009, alex le grand wrote:

  Waid: X-O Manowar :: Busiek: Ninjak

• At October 16, 2009, hondobrode wrote:

  I liked the Acclaim X-O.

• At October 16, 2009, sean wrote:

  "But in a country as heavily populated as America. which still had officially recognized segregation as recently as 4 decades ...

• At October 16, 2009, sean wrote:

  "But America's probably the best majority-white country for blacks on the whole planet."

  I like this, because it doesn't even bother ...

• At October 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  I like this, because it doesn't even bother to come up with a fake statistic to justify it.

  Okay, here's a ...

• At October 16, 2009, Martin Gray wrote:

  Brian, you give the impression that Mal never joined the Titans until the revival. Wasn't he actually around all through ...

• At October 16, 2009, T. wrote:

  This is a very naive statement; basically, as long as we don't see it, it isn't happening?

  No, that wasn't my ...

• At October 16, 2009, Ted wrote:

  If the only way to say America is good is to have it achieve absolutely zero, zilch, nonexistent racism in ...

• At October 16, 2009, Bill wrote:

  <>

  Yes, Mal was a member with TEEN TITANS #26. And despite some self-doubts, he WAS a member until the hiatus ...

• At October 16, 2009, stealthwise wrote:

  I'm thinking it's probably easier, or at least there's less baggage, to be black in Canada. Or Australia.

• At October 16, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  I was under the impression that comics were still considered kid stuff in the 1970's, so I can't imagine children ...

• At October 16, 2009, Deron wrote:

  Not just any black leader, one that has a remarkably flimsy resume for the job. It's not like he had ...

• At October 17, 2009, Basara wrote:

  Deron, since when is FOUR years of a SIX year term, "a full term as a US Senator", especially when ...

• At October 17, 2009, bjf wrote:

  Folks,

  let's end this silly aspect of the conversation now:

  There are exactly four criteria one needs to satisfy in order to ...

• At October 17, 2009, bjf wrote:

  Sorry, meant to say "...another country with a substantial minority Black population."

• At October 17, 2009, Remo Braun wrote:

  That Spider-man/ X-Factor cover reminds me how much I miss the Morrison era on X-Men. A time where Marvels comicbook ...

• At October 17, 2009, rolly wrote:

  "America's probably the best majority-white country for blacks on the whole planet." Why? "America is the only ...

• At October 17, 2009, deron wrote:

  Basara, I stand corrected on the Senate issue. He also has provided the only extant birth certificate (officials in Hawaii ...

• At October 17, 2009, T. wrote:

  Well, he might be less qualified if the presidency had any actual listed qualifications.

  My point is this: if this country ...

• At October 17, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Woodrow Wilson was one of the ten best presidents???? Are you insane? He was almost certainly the ...

• At October 17, 2009, T. wrote:

  I'm thinking it's probably easier, or at least there's less baggage, to be black in Canada. Or Australia

  If you listen ...

• At October 17, 2009, Martin Gray wrote:

  I don't suppose you guys could swap emails and we could talk comics?

• At October 17, 2009, deron wrote:

  @ Mary Warner: I never said he was one of the ten best; I said he is considered one of ...

• At October 17, 2009, deron wrote:

  @ T: Your point is understood. My point is that the issue of qualifications is itself suspect. No one questions ...

• At October 17, 2009, deron wrote:

  @ Martin: OK. What's up with Green Lantern's hands?

• At October 17, 2009, Martin Gray wrote:

  No, really, this is one of the most wonderfully trivial columns around and its focus is meant to be comics. ...

• At October 17, 2009, Mark wrote:

  I apologize to all comic fans for adding another political comment but, if you can't figure out why Obama doesn't ...

• At October 17, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  Experience didn't matter much to voters in the 2008 US Presidential campaign. People were so frustrated with the government that ...

• At October 18, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  I think the "Panic" story might have been considered objectionable not just because of the transvestism but because the violence ...

• At October 18, 2009, Drew wrote:

  Hey, just thought I'd draw attention to T.'s 3:24 p.m. post. It's quite interesting, he makes some good points, and ...

• At October 18, 2009, Ted wrote:

  T: I'm not going to try and defend the Hey Hey skit, although I will point out that Australia never ...

• At October 18, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  T.: "And no black politician to my knowledge has come close to Barack's heights in Canada."

  No black Canadian has ever ...

• At October 19, 2009, Zabba wrote:

  Kurt Busiek, thanks for info. I love it when a creator comes along and gives his side of the story.

• At October 20, 2009, Random wrote:

  "for a black person to be elected president he'd need to have a LOT more experience than his white opponent ...

• At October 24, 2009, Jacob T. Levy wrote:

  I'd almost forgotten about Shadowgames, which for my money was some of the best Marvel superheroics of the 90s. ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-eighth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-seven.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out the first installment of Cuisine Legends Revealed, which shows that even lasagna can be something to fight over!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: When told to draw in the style of George Tuska, Pete Morisi asked Tuska for permission to do so.

STATUS: I'm Going With True

I spoke about Pete Morisi in an old installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed.

Morisi was a long time comic book artist who passed away in 2003.

Working in comics during the early 50s while still in his early 20s, Morisi took a break from comics when he became a New York City police officer during the mid-50s.

However, after awhile he was back to freelancing in comics, now going by his initials (in case the NYPD would frown upon his moonlighting), becoming the mysterious PAM.

His most notable contribution to comics came at Charlton Comics, where he created the hero Peter Cannon...Thunderbolt!

In any event, upon his passing, Mark Evanier had a great anecdote about Morisi's early career in comics.

Reportedly, an editor told him to try and draw more like George Tuska, who was then the "star" artist in the field of crime comics. Morisi liked Tuska's work and saw that others were emulating the man, but felt it was wrong to simply appropriate someone else's style. So, the story goes, he phoned up Tuska, asked if he could imitate his approach and offered to pay a small royalty for the privilege. Tuska was so amazed that anyone had asked that he gave Morisi permission to draw like him and waived the fee. Thereafter, some of Morisi's work was so close to Tuska's in style that when they worked for the same firm, the editor got them confused.

Here's some Tuska from the 1940s and the 1950s (Tuska was ten years older than Morisi)...

and here's some Morisi from the early 1950s...

It's a great story, and one I've been wanting to prove or disprove for years now (heck, I've been curious ever since I read the story six years ago, two years before I even began this column!).

Well, recently, Morisi's son Val dropped me a line and he said I could run the anecdote by him.

He confirmed the basic gist of the story, but he said that it was actually his father asking the editor, in a bid for work, what style the editor wanted, at which point the editor said Tuska, and Morisi said okay, so long as he got Tuska's permission first, which he did.

Val added, though, that his father said that there was no money offered or suggested.

But still, the basic framework of the story is true according to Val, which is cool, because it is a neat story.

Thanks to Mark Evanier for telling the initial anecdote and thanks to Val Morisi for helping confirm the story in part!

COMIC LEGEND: The first alternate world in DC Comics was Flash #123.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

A lot of folks believe that the Multiverse began with Flash #123, "Flash of Two Worlds!" In fact, I was just recently reading a book on comic book history that specifically cited that issue as the first appearance of an alternate universe in comics (I'm not naming the book, because I feel bad about seemingly "picking" on other books, especially when they're just repeating the conventional wisdom).

That's certainly the point where the whole Earth-1/Earth-2 deal was started, but that issue (which came out in 1961) was beaten to the punch by a whole EIGHT YEARS by a story in Wonder Woman #59, by writer Robert Kanigher and artist H.G. Peter.

In this story, Wonder Woman travels to an alternate Earth where she meets her exact opposite, Princess Tara Terruna, whose name translates as "Wonder Woman." The two heroines team-up to beat up the dastardly Duke Dazam.

There's really nothing more to this story except to note that, yep, this was the first appearance of the "Multiverse" in a DC Comic.

I can't rightly blame them for glossing over this one.

I still love how Princess Tara Terruna translates into "Wonder Woman."

My old Legend suggesting pal, John McDonagh, suggested this one way back in May of 2007. Thanks, John!

Let that be a note to the folks who occasionally send me reminders about the legends they've sent in in the past - I didn't forget, it just sometimes takes a long time for a legend to be featured! It's a capricious business.

COMIC LEGEND: Desire to maintain continuity with a second reprint title caused a British comic company to alter the covers of classic Marvel comics.

STATUS: True

Reader Cliff asked the following a few months back (it was April - does April count as a "few months back"?):

I wonder if you can answer or find out about some circa 60's UK reprints of Iron Man that appeared in a comic entitled "Fantastic". I remember getting this weekly comic that had b & w versions of Iron Man, X-Men & Thor.

I recently picked up the essential Iron Man that had the early Iron Man stories and was surprised to see him fighting the Melter in his original gold armour, as I thought he fought him in the first version of the red/gold armour.

I was wondering if there's any way you can find out why the decision was made to put him in the red/gold suit earlier than the US issues. I also remember that some of the panels had badly pasted images from other IM issues (no doubt to cover up the gold suit)

Here's what Cliff is referring to...

Tales of Suspense #47 (1963)....

and its reprint, Fantastic! #19 (1967)...

And yes, Cliff, I actually CAN tell you why they made that decision!

Fantastic, a weekly reprinting of various Marvel comics, began in early 1967, with reprints of Thor, Iron Man and the X-Men.

As you can see, Iron Man is drawn basically the way he was in the early Iron Man stories...

Even when they made changes, they were slight ones...

HOWEVER, a few months later, the company (IPC Magazines Ltd, for the record) launched a brand NEW title called Terrific...

Now, in THIS comic, they reprinted old issues of the Avengers...

And, naturally, by the time the Avengers really got going, Iron Man had ditched the gold armor and had moved on to the red and gold armor.

So Editor Alf Wallace figured that it did not make sense to have Iron Man in the gold armor in one of their titles while he was in the gold and red armor in the other title, so he made the command decision to photo stat the red and gold armor onto the older Iron Man stories.

Mystery solved!

Thanks for the question, Cliff!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

61 Comments

• At October 9, 2009, Ian wrote:

  I was really surprised to discover that Steve Ditko was actually responsible for designing the first red and gold Ironman ...

• At October 9, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  If I ever figure out who designed what for Iron Man, I'd do an installment on it right away.

  As ...

• At October 9, 2009, Bill wrote:

  Iron Man is one of those characters that seems to have many creators. Stan Lee made up Tony Starks personality, ...

• At October 9, 2009, The Ugly American wrote:

  Princess Tuna Tarragon???!!!???

• At October 9, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  Maybe you clearly explain it in the legend and I'm just being thickheaded (it's been a long week), but is ...

• At October 9, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Actually, Larry Lieber scripted the first issue, so he should get a lot of credit for Tony's personality. I ...

• At October 9, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Now, the real question is: Did those crafty Brits employ their cutting and pasting (or just a bottle of white-out) ...

• At October 9, 2009, Ian wrote:

  Not knowing the controversy behind it, I figured it MUST have been Ditko, especially given that he went into all ...

• At October 9, 2009, Michael wrote:

  Watch for Geoff Johns's Tara Terruna: Reborn miniseries in 2010!

  I love "The Mighty Fantastic Thor." Yep, that Thor sure is ...

• At October 9, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  Wow the Melter sure had an awful costume there. He looks like he got stuck with the Mandarin's hand-me-downs.

• At October 9, 2009, Les Fontenelle wrote:

  A similar thing happened in the Brasilian editions of Marvel Comics in the 80s/early 90s. I remember that when they ...

• At October 9, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Maybe you clearly explain it in the legend and I'm just being thickheaded (it's been a long week), but is ...

• At October 9, 2009, Harold wrote:

  Oh no, why did you mention pricess Tara Terruna? Now Grant Morrison is going to use her in his Multiversity.

• At October 9, 2009, Tony wrote:

  Followed by the Fantastic Fantastic Four.

• At October 9, 2009, Joseph wrote:

  It's really interesting hearing about how all the Marvel creators worked together on various aspects of the creation of their ...

• At October 9, 2009, buttler wrote:

  Oh no, why did you mention pricess Tara Terruna? Now Grant Morrison is going to use her in his Multiversity.

  Just ...

• At October 9, 2009, Rob Imes wrote:

  Joseph, the costume of Spider-Man was created solely by Ditko. Kirby had no part in that costume's creation.

• At October 9, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  Mr. B.C., you're just chock FULL of interesting trivia, aren't you?

  Bet you win at all comic-related questions at Trivial Pursuit. ...

• At October 9, 2009, worstblogever wrote:

  That Wonder Woman issue still has some of the early bondage thing going on. Like the villain having her bound ...

• At October 9, 2009, Jherek Carnelian wrote:

  I vaguely recall a Superboy story where he encounters an alternative Earth. The giveaway clue is the spelling on the ...

• At October 9, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  I think it's pushin' it to say that Tony Stark HAD a personality, per se, beyond that of "generic Marvel ...

• At October 9, 2009, buttler wrote:

  I can't recall when this was published but it is definitely Silver Age and may well predate the Wonder Woman ...

• At October 9, 2009, Rodrigo Baeza wrote:

  Pete Morisi confirmed the story in an interview that appeared in Comic Book Artist #9 (August 2000). From page 62:

  Glen ...

• At October 9, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Actually, Larry Lieber scripted the first issue, so he should get a lot of credit for Tony's personality. I was ...

• At October 9, 2009, Wayne Allen Sallee wrote:

  The first time I saw the word 'multiverse' was in an issue of STAR HUNTERS, a DC comic from the ...

• At October 9, 2009, Jim Kakalios wrote:

  Flash # 123 has a cover date of Sept. 1961.

  Superman # 146 has a cover date of July 1961.

  In the ...

• At October 9, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  Because Robert Kanigher, that's why!

• At October 9, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  "It's really interesting hearing about how all the Marvel creators worked together on various aspects of the creation of their ...

• At October 9, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  The Morisi story is nice to read about. How many artists ASK permission to copy someone else... much less GET ...

• At October 9, 2009, arcee wrote:

  Re: Sijo and no Marvel Translations

  I hate to disagree with you but my memory and experiences may be a bit ...

• At October 9, 2009, Eric wrote:

  Some great covers in this week's installment...those PAM Jonny Dynamite covers. But also, that pop art fabulous It's Terrific cover...it's ...

• At October 9, 2009, Basara wrote:

  Jherek: That story was reprinted in one of the digest books (Adventure?), and I thought it was "Smallvile", not "Smalville" ...

• At October 9, 2009, Shane wrote:

  2 great stories, and Wonder Woman's statement in the last panel about how its just that she was affected by ...

• At October 10, 2009, Dreggor Gade wrote:

  "NO! I am Wonder Woman! Tara's double - from your co-existing world-earth! I took her place while she waited to ...

• At October 10, 2009, KAM wrote:

  What about Zrfff? This fifth-dimensional world would seem to occupy Earth's space, but be in a different dimension. First appearance ...

• At October 10, 2009, Jonesy wrote:

  That Thunderbolt guy looks one hella gay.

• At October 10, 2009, JAM wrote:

  This is my first comment, but I have been a long-time reader and enjoyer of your feature -- I bought ...

• At October 10, 2009, Travis Pelkie wrote:

  It's a little unclear, but I'd assume if George Tuska was 10 years older than PAM, Tuska is no longer ...

• At October 10, 2009, Brian wrote:

  I love this column! Look forward to and every installment.

  I have a question. Don't know if this is Legend worthy ...

• At October 10, 2009, Mart wrote:

  I always liked George Tuska's work, though I've only seen the stuff from the Sixties on; it's great to hear ...

• At October 10, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Arcee: Where did you see the Daredevil translation? Was it in a comics store or on a newsstand? I should ...

• At October 10, 2009, John Dunbar wrote:

  Travis- I just wiki'ed George Tuska and he is still alive, 93 years young, and living in New Jersey!

• At October 10, 2009, SwanShadow wrote:

  George Tuska is indeed still with us, and right up until an e-mail he distributed to fans earlier this week, ...

• At October 10, 2009, MarvelSmartAss wrote:

  Speaking of multi-verses ... another take on Flash #123: http://wp.me/pBLmC-3p

• At October 10, 2009, suedenim wrote:

  Let that be a note to the folks who occasionally send me reminders about the legends they've sent in in ...

• At October 11, 2009, Dan Bailey wrote:

  Every time I see an example of George Tuska's pre-Silver Age art (which unfortunately isn't very often at all), I'm ...

• At October 11, 2009, Gavin Bell wrote:

  another vote for "where the hell are the Grant/Breyfogle trades?" here!

• At October 11, 2009, Jherek Carnelian wrote:

  Yeah I remember that Superboy story as a reprint from an 80 page giant annual so 1961 sounds about right. ...

• At October 11, 2009, ParanoidObsessive wrote:

  Wait, am I the only one who noticed this?

  "Well, recently, Morisi's son Val dropped me a line and she said ...

• At October 11, 2009, arcee wrote:

  Re: Sijo

  The comic translations I remember were sold back in the day when comics (also Mexican comics with heroes like ...

• At October 11, 2009, Eastin wrote:

  Brian just wanted to let you know that I've spent the last few weeks reading the entire archive of CBLR. ...

• At October 11, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  That dialogue in that WW story is priceless. Interesting look at they style of stories from that era.

• At October 11, 2009, KAM wrote:

  Sijo - "To count as a counterpart of Earth it must specifically be called that; there's plenty of planets in ...

• At October 12, 2009, Richard Morrison wrote:

  Grrrrr.... this reminds of something.

  I discovered my love of comics through reading reprints issued by marvel UK in the ...

• At October 12, 2009, Marti Gray wrote:

  I heard that too. Very cheeky.

  I especially enjoyed that strip about four monkeys who went up in a rocket, got ...

• At October 12, 2009, Marti Gray wrote:

  Ah, here goes Richard, courtesy of the excellent It Came From Darkmoor blog;

  http://itcamefromdarkmoor.blogspot.com/2009/06/it-came-from-darkmoors-marvel-uk-to-z.html

• At October 12, 2009, Richard Morrison wrote:

  Ha! just spent a few hours reliving my childhood after following that link . Thanks Marti!

• At October 12, 2009, Richard Morrison wrote:

  Wow ! what about that alfredo alcala art for Beneath Planet of The Apes too.

• At October 13, 2009, Paul Ware wrote:

  Since we're raving about Fantastic and Terrific this month can I take another opportunity for a shameless plug? If you ...

• At October 14, 2009, jmy wrote:

  I would imagine some of the EC sci-fi comics had alternate realities. Of course, if we limit it to ...

• At October 22, 2009, The Amazing Spider-Ads wrote:

  Ha, so did they also photostat over the insides of those Iron-Man stories with the red-and-gold version?

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-seventh in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-six.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this Magazine Legends Revealed, which takes a look at the claim that Time Magazine was intentionally designing their covers to make it look like subjects on the cover had devil's horns.

This is a theme week! All the legends today involve, in one way or another, legendary comic book artist Carmine Infantino!!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Carmine Infantino tried to fire Nick Cardy because Cardy ignored a cover instruction from Infantino.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

Besides being an excellent artist period, Nick Cardy was a particularly prominent cover artist for DC Comics in the late 1960s and early 1970s (after working for the company on various comics since the 1950s).

Here is a quick sampling of some of his work...

As good as Cardy was, he was not without his detractors among DC's editorial staff (heck, Neal Adams, one of the most quintessential cover artists of all time was not without his detractors among DC's editorial staff).

Perhaps riffing on that fact, in John Coates' 2001 book The Art of Nick Cardy, longtime DC editor Julius Schwartz had this to say:

At the time Carmine used to lay out many of the covers for the artists. Well, one day Nick comes into the office to turn in a cover. Carmine looks at it and says, "This is not what I gave you." Nick says, "Yeah, I know - but it's better." Carmine says, "You're fired!" Nick calmly replies, "Okay" and walks out. I then go into Carmine's office and the cover really is beautiful. I say, "Carmine, this is great!" He says, "Yeah, I know. Go get Nick!"

It IS true that Infantino would lay out a lot of the covers for DC. It is also true that Infantino has been been extremely vocal over the years in how much he loves Nick Cardy's work.

So what of the gist of the anecdote?

When the book came out, Cardy was surprised to hear the story from Schwartz, as he did not recall the event and he thought it didn't sound like Infantino. So at a comic book convention a couple of years later, he went up to Infantino and asked him about it. Infantino denied it ever happen. So both men went to Schwartz, who replied simply "Well, it's a good story, anyway."

Cardy and Infantino took this as an admission that he had made it up, and I think that's fair enough, which is why I'm going with a false here (especially since Schwartz passed away soon afterward, so it's not like we can check with him to clarify).

Thanks to The Art of Nick Cardy for the original quote and thanks to the great magazine Back Issue for the story of Cardy and Infantino confronting Schwartz about the incident.

COMIC LEGEND: The cover for the first Superman/Flash race has an error on it.

STATUS: True

Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson's cover for Superman #199 is one of the most famous covers in comic book history.

Here are a couple of homages to this classic cover...

As famous as the cover is, one thing that has always been a bit of a mystery over the years is why, exactly, Batman, who was good pals with Superman at the time, was cheering on the Flash to "show up" Superman.

Well, as it turned out, that was because there was a mistake with the word balloon placement!

A couple of issues later, in response to a letter bringing up that very point asking "How to you explain this?", Superman editor Mort Weisinger (well, almost certainly his assistant editor E. Nelson Bridwell) admitted:

With a very red face. The balloon was meant for Green Lantern, who is standing beside Batman, but the tail got pointed to the wrong hero!

Mystery solved (granted, the mystery was technically solved a couple of months after it came up, but, well, it still counts if most everyone forgets about it over the forty-two years since that issue came out)!!

Thanks to Rob Schmidt for being one of those who DIDN't forget, as he recalled the editors admitting their mistake.

COMIC LEGEND: Mike Ploog had a rather embarrassing introduction to Carmine Infantino.

STATUS: I'm Going With True

Mike Ploog had an interesting path to the world of comic books.

Born in 1942 in Minnesota, Ploog grew up on a farm in Minnesota before moving to Burbank. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17 and stayed there for 10 years. After leaving the Marine Corps in the late 1960s, he got work at Filmation and then Hanna-Barbera before becoming Will Eisner's assistant at P*S Magazine.

After working with Eisner for a couple of years, other Eisner associates recommended he try his luck drawing comic books.

Ploog was not a follower of comics, as he got into drawing only while in the Marine Corps. He got a few gigs at Warren Publishing, and soon he parlayed his work at Warren into work for Marvel Comics, where Marvel embraced him fully, giving him a number of projects to work on right away, including launching a number of characters like Werewolf By Night, Frankenstein and, most famously, Ghost Rider.

After working for Marvel for a number of years, Ploog left comics all together for decades to work in the film industry.

He returned in 2004 to do a few really good series with J.M. DeMatteis...

Most recently, he has been doing some fine work writing and drawing the Spirit for DC Comics...

To sort of bring things back full circle, here's a recent issue of the Spirit written and drawn by Ploog (with inks by Dan Green)...with a Nick Cardy cover!

Ploog's working at DC Comics now, but he never did in the 1970s, and Ploog has a great story (courtesy of a great interview by Jon B. Cooke from the awesome comic book history magazine Comic Book Artist) that may or may not explain why (it most likely does not explain why, but it's still a darn funny story):

Cooke: Once you got into comics, did you become a fan of others' art yourself? Did you hang out with the guys?

Ploog: I did in a sense. I respected their talents but I knew nothing about comics. I remember sitting in a cafe called Friar Tuck's, across from DC Comics, with a group of artists. Sitting next to me was a total stranger. He had been introduced to me as a big wig at DC Comics. His name was Carmine Infantino. Everybody was chatting and drawing on the table cloth. Suddenly this executive next to me picks up a ball point pen and begins to draw on the table cloth. I was impressed; imagine an executive that can draw! I attempted to pay him a compliment, and said, "I'll be a son of a gun! You can draw too!" [laughter] He glared at me, and you could have fried eggs on his cheeks. I don't think he said a word, just glared at me as if to say, "What do you mean, I can draw??" I looked around the table at a lot of blank, wide-eyed faces. And, with a further display of ignorance, I added, "Yeah, now if worst comes to worst, you could do that for a living." My memory is a bit vague about what happened next but I never worked for DC Comics.

Because of his history, I can believe Ploog honestly did not know who Infantino was, which is why I'm going with a true here.

Pretty funny stuff.

Thanks to Ploog and Cooke for the great story!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

70 Comments

• At October 2, 2009, steve wrote:

  The antecdotal stories are my favorite thing about this series.

• At October 2, 2009, Clayton Emery wrote:

  The best comment I've seen about those Superman-Flash races was in a recent Flash comic(?). Superman argues something like, ...

• At October 2, 2009, Scratchie wrote:

  It would have been *really* funny if Ploog had followed that up with "But you drew too many speed lines... ...

• At October 2, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  That Alex Ross Supes/Flash cover isn't really an homage to Superman #199 at all.

• At October 2, 2009, Aqualad wrote:

  Whatever you say, Aaron

• At October 2, 2009, Scott Harris wrote:

  I'm still curious about the Superman #199 word balloon issue. Based on the composition of the page, I just don't ...

• At October 2, 2009, Ron Moses wrote:

  Is legendsrevealed.com dead? The sports section hasn't been updated since August, and the entertainment section hasn't been updated since ...

• At October 2, 2009, Jim Kakalios wrote:

  Batman's cheer on that cover remnds me of Butter's encouragement to Wendy when she had the schoolyard fight with Eric ...

• At October 2, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  I remember being a kid and reading Adventures of Superman 463.

  I was blown away, especially because Flash beat ...

• At October 2, 2009, Randall Majors wrote:

  Ploog is amazing... there i said it!

• At October 2, 2009, Kevin T. Brown wrote:

  I'm with Ron Moses.... What's going on with legendsrevealed.com?

• At October 2, 2009, Michael D. wrote:

  The Superman/Flash races were some of the biggest cop-outs in comics history.

  The first race, from Superman #199, ended in a ...

• At October 2, 2009, Scott MacIver wrote:

  But...What is the secret of the Phantom Quarterback?

• At October 2, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  Wow, that first Cardy Bat Lash cover is awesome. Well, they're all awesome, but that one is the awesome-est.

• At October 2, 2009, Terence wrote:

  I could look at Nick Cardy covers all day, especially Teen Titans.

• At October 2, 2009, Allen wrote:

  The original art to the cover of Superman #199 is around; here's the link to a small copy of it: ...

• At October 2, 2009, Jason wrote:

  Nick Cardy does beautiful cover work when the circumstances are right. He did a lot of wonder work as ...

• At October 2, 2009, kevin wrote:

  Nick Cardy's Bat Lash covers have always been among my favourites. They're timeless.

  If the fact that Ploog complimented Infantino on ...

• At October 2, 2009, Casey wrote:

  I agree with Scott Harris' assessment of the Superman 199 cover. I think they just needed someone saying the line ...

• At October 2, 2009, Thenodrin wrote:

  "I remember being a kid and reading Adventures of Superman 463.

  I was blown away, especially because Flash beat Superman, ...

• At October 2, 2009, Jack Fear wrote:

  "Yeah, now if worst comes to worst, you could do that for a living."

  And the funny (or tragic) thing is, ...

• At October 2, 2009, Reaper wrote:

  Too bad Ploog's recent horror art in the Thicker Than Blood comic (http://www.fcp.cc/) wasn't mentioned.

• At October 2, 2009, Gabba wrote:

  Look out, that snake has a gun! And I think its been drinking!

• At October 2, 2009, dhnaka wrote:

  If I was Superman, I'd just let the Flash win.

• At October 2, 2009, Johnny Bacardi wrote:

  My favorite Cardy cover. That thing just screams at you, doesn't it?

• At October 2, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  @ Thenodrin:

  well, in the story it certainly seems to be their first race and I thought it was but with ...

• At October 2, 2009, The Dude wrote:

  Wait, now that I think about it, Superman 199 was almost certainly Pre-Crisis, so the Flash was Barry Allen.

  That would ...

• At October 2, 2009, Brian wrote:

  Wow, I've never cared about Aquaman, but those Cardy covers sure are beautiful.

• At October 2, 2009, Ian L wrote:

  I'm curious about the Legends Revealed website as well. Is it on an unscheduled hiatus, or is it simply ...

• At October 2, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  "If I was Superman, I'd just let the Flash win."

  If when you say Flash you mean Wally, and assuming both ...

• At October 2, 2009, Steven Grant wrote:

  To bring things completely around, Nick Cardy, under his real name Nicholas Viscardi, got his start with Eisner in the ...

• At October 2, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I definitely agree about Ploog and the Marvel monster books: right place, right time. I was much younger when they ...

• At October 2, 2009, Dave wrote:

  Oh, man...that Ploog/Infantino story...I fell off the chair, I laughed so hard...

• At October 2, 2009, Clayton Emery wrote:

  The Secret of the Phantom Quarterback... Pretty clever story for the era. As I recall, the absent-minded professor ...

• At October 2, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  COMIC LEGEND: The cover for the first Superman/Flash race has an error on it.

  STATUS: Cobblers

  I don't see it as an ...

• At October 2, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  You know, Brian, sometimes I think you use way too many images to make your points- but this time, I'm ...

• At October 2, 2009, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  Just curious- why display covers that are homages to the cover in question, instead of the actual cover in question?

• At October 2, 2009, Glenn Simpson wrote:

  Never mind - it just hadn't loaded when I was reading through.

• At October 2, 2009, TheGoose wrote:

  I thought it was weird that Batman was asking to the Flash to beat Superman.

  Also, Nick Cardy is an awesome ...

• At October 2, 2009, Zor-El of Argo wrote:

  @The Dude:

  All of the Superman/Barry Allen races were retconned out of existance, making Adventures Of Superman #463 the "first" time ...

• At October 2, 2009, ElectricPeterTork wrote:

  "And the funny (or tragic) thing is, that's exactly what happened - after Infantino was ousted as Editor in Chief ...

• At October 2, 2009, I AM FeAR wrote:

  A mostly off-topic comment: not to knock Infantino or anything, but when I was a kid he ruined Nova for ...

• At October 2, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  If you click through to the pencil version of the Superman #199 cover linked to above, you can notice another ...

• At October 2, 2009, Lt. Clutch wrote:

  Nick Cardy can do it all. That Bat Lash # 2 cover is a true classic. He draws some of ...

• At October 2, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Onbe thing I will say for Infantino at Marvel -- his costume designs are really quite memorably quirky. Even ...

• At October 2, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  I think there's more to the Superman cover too. I imagine the process went something like this:

  1) Infantino and ...

• At October 2, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  Maybe Geoff Johns could do an untold story to retcon the cover balloons into plausibility. You know...Batman is investigating ...

• At October 2, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  Oh dear lord, Rob, the fool probably would. Heck, the race itself could be a one-shot entitled "The Race to ...

• At October 2, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  Really, there's a whole untapped realm of stories for DC's marketing genius to exploit here. A series of series ...

• At October 2, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  I don't get it -- I wrote a note, clicked PUBLISH and it never showed up. So I waited a ...

• At October 2, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It was held for moderation, Mike, and I then approved it when I saw it later in the day.

• At October 2, 2009, Mark-Wayne Harris wrote:

  OK--I have to ask because it's eating me alive and no one else has brought it up. Whut da heck ...

• At October 3, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Unless the story established why Batman supported Flash instead of Superman, that cover doesn't quite make sense. Are they friends ...

• At October 3, 2009, HooveR wrote:

  <>

  That's how cover artist Gene Ha signs his work.

  I really wanted to say that the alligator was supposed to be ...

• At October 3, 2009, Mark-Wayne Harris wrote:

  Ahhhhh, yes. I'm not familiar with the issue, so I didn't realize Mike Ploog didn't do the cover. I see ...

• At October 3, 2009, Q:? wrote:

  That Aquaman no. 50 cover is brilliant

• At October 3, 2009, Zor-El of Argo wrote:

  Why was who Batman cheered for even an issue? He and Flash were friends, too. Good enough friends that when ...

• At October 3, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Here's an Urban Legend for you: a young Frank Miller saw Batman rooting against Superman on the cover to Superman ...

• At October 3, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  Man, that Alex Ross recreation really sucks all the fun out of the Superman/Flash race.

  BTW, Brian, I just checked the ...

• At October 3, 2009, Clayton wrote:

  "Find out what happens when Clark and Diana have a torrid affair. When Hal and Barry have a closer-than-brothers "moment." ...

• At October 3, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  "Man, that Alex Ross recreation really sucks all the fun out of the Superman/Flash race."

  Yes! After all the homages ...

• At October 4, 2009, Cei-U! wrote:

  Nobody's mentioned the *other* error on the cover of Superman #199: Aquaman's costume is miscolored. His shirt is bright yellow ...

• At October 4, 2009, Zor-El of Argo wrote:

  "With a little effort Johns could stretch this to four-issue mini-series. Make it a prestige series at $4.99 a shot. ...

• At October 4, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Cei-U! suggests to me the premise of replacing "Crisis" with "Penis" in all relevant stories. "Penis on Earth-1" ...

• At October 4, 2009, John Sinclair wrote:

  Mike Ploog told me that story himself a couple of years ago, after a meeting of a Cardiff, Wales (as ...

• At October 4, 2009, Panji Sudoyo wrote:

  "If Bart were still alive, he'd beat Superman, and probably even Wally."

  Uhmmmm, i thought Bart was alive again..Not sure about ...

• At October 5, 2009, CSBlakebrough wrote:

  Brian Is legendsrevealed.com dead? It used to have daily updates but now the lase entry is from the beginning of ...

• At October 9, 2009, OM wrote:

  ...Possibly the thing I love the most about all the stories about Carmine's regime at DC that have surfaced over ...

• At October 17, 2009, Drew wrote:

  Hey, Brian, thanks for mentioning DeMatteis and Ploog's Abadazad and Stardust Kid—those two books are both great but don't get ...

• At October 22, 2009, The Amazing Spider-Ads wrote:

  What the hell is a Bat Lash?

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-sixth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-five.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out this TV Legends Revealed, if you're interested in two possible links between sitcoms and pornography!

This is a theme week! You might find this week's theme hard hard to believe (heck, I find it hard to believe), but today's theme is...all comic book legends having to do with...Deadman!?!? Hard to believe, but read on, true believers!!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Green Lantern/Green Arrow #85 was the first Comics Code approved story involving drugs.

STATUS: False

First off, here's an interesting tidbit you might not know about the original Comics Code. There was no official banning of the depiction of drugs or narcotics in the actual text of the Comics Code. Any objection would have been made based on the general clause:

All elements or techniques not specifically mentioned herein, but which are contrary to the spirit and intent of the code, and are considered violations of good taste or decency, shall be prohibited.

It was this clause that was used to tell Marvel Comics that they could not do a storyline in Amazing Spider-Man in early 1971 about drugs, even though the United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare not only sanctioned the concept, but REQUESTED it.

Marvel, as you know, decided to go without the Comics Code approval for these issues...

this quickly led to the Comics Code being changed so as to allow stories involving narcotics, so long as narcotics are shown to be bad.

And DC, who had been basically sitting on an issue of Green Lantern/Green Arrow on the topic of drugs, quickly moved on the new freedom and did a much more powerful issue involving drugs.

This issue has long been cited as the first Comics Code approved comic book to involve drugs.

But that's not true.

I honestly don't know WHAT comic book was the first one to be approved by the Comics Code while having drugs in it. Like I said, it wasn't officially against the rules of the Comics Code, so depending on who was making the decision that day, I'd imagine there might be a few comic books out there that sort of sneaked drug references in there.

But one comic that I know preceded the 1971 amendment was Strange Adventures #205, the first appearance of Deadman!

Deadman is about a circus acrobat named Boston Brand, known as Deadman because his stunts are so dangerous, every time someone comes to one of his performances, it might be the day he dies. Well, in Strange Adventures #205 (written by Deadman creator Arnold Drake and drawn by Carmine Infantino), Brand actually DOES die, shot by an unknown assailant during his act.

But then he discovers that he "lives" on as a ghost, as the goddess Rama Kushna has given him the ability to possess any living being in his quest to gain justice for his murder.

Well, in the issue, he does just that, possessing another member of the circus and while in possession of this other man, he discovers...

So there you go, a clear reference to narcotics, over THREE YEARS before Marvel Comics would have to go without the Comics Code to do an issue about drugs.

Now granted, it's one thing to have a bad guy be selling drugs and a whole other thing to actually do a FEATURE on drug use like the Spider-Man story or especially the Green Lantern/Green Arrow story, but still, the fact remains that while some think that Green Lantern/Green Arrow was the first Comics Code approved use of narcotics, it was not.

Thanks to Paul Blanshard for suggesting this one!

COMIC LEGEND: An artist's error lead to a storyline in Jack Kirby's Forever People.

STATUS: True

Neal Adams became the artist on the Deadman feature in the next issue of Strange Adventures, and Drake left after that story. After a number of issues with Jack Miller scripting the book, Adams took over the writing duties on top of the art with issue #212 (although Robert Kanigher wrote issue #214), writing the book until Deadman left the title after issue #216.

Well, in issue #215, Deadman finally finds the man who killed him!

The problem was...well, let's first take a look at Deadman #205...

So, the guy who killed Deadman had a hook on his right hand.

But if you take a look at the cover of Strange Adventures #215...

Notice anything odd?

The hook is on the LEFT hand!

All throughout #215 and #216, the hook keeps showing up on different hands...

Right hand...

Left hand...

Uhmmm...no hook at all, it seems?

Left hand...

Next issue, right hand...

Granted, Neal Adams did not draw #205, but still, pretty confusing, no? But hey, mistakes happen, right?

That WOULD be the case if it were not for Jack Kirby getting an odd assignment.

In 1972, a few years after Deadman's story had basically finished (he had found his killer and gotten justice for his murder), Jack Kirby was told to have Deadman guest star in Forever People.

Kriby was a trooper, so he did what he was told. So to come up with ideas on what to do with Deadman, he and his assistants (okay, maybe just his assistants) read the original series, and it was there that Kirby's assistant, Mark Evanier, recognized the same mistake we noted. Evanier told it to Kirby, and that mistake became the foundation for a new story that would appear in Forever People #9 and #10.

When the Forever People go to a medium...

Later, Deadman possesses basically an android version of himself (this was another innovation of Kirby, give Deadman a corporeal form, but have it be an inanimate object, so he's still technically a "deadman") and finds out that a group called the Scavengers were behind his death...

And that's how Kirby left Deadman.

Isn't that funny? A mistake by Adams led to a story by Kirby!

COMIC LEGEND: Deadman appears as a DJ in a couple of videos for the music group Cassius.

STATUS: Basically True

Cassius is a house music group from France consisting of Philippe Cerboneschi and Hubert Blanc-Francard, who go by the names Philippe Zdar and Boom Bass, respectively.

They had a hit single on the UK charts in 1999 titled, appropriately enough, "Cassius 1999."

In the video, oddly enough, DEADMAN shows up!

Or, well, a guy dressed as Deadman except for a C on his chest for Cassius.

He shows up at various points throughout the video...

but mostly, the video depicts motorcycle racing.

Cassius' NEXT single, though, "Feeling For You," is basically ALL Deadman/Cassius DJ hero!

He turns into the hero when he spills a soft drink on to the stereo where Cassius' music is being played - the resulting feedback turns him into this hero...

He then races to the club...

The club goers are suffering the music of a...GASP...LAME DJ!!!

Cassius/Deadman punches the DJ out and then rocks the house...

Sadly, Cassius/Deadman draws too much attention with his awesomeness, and a bunch of record producers kidnap him...

and try to force him to sign with a Major Record Label...

One guy even goes so far as to put a pen in his mouth so he can sign the contract...

Only Cassius/Deadman responds by spitting the pen through one of the executives brain and uses the distraction to break free and escape!

Pretty hilariously bizarre, no?

Reader Luciano wrote in to tell me about this last year.

Thanks to Luciano for the suggestion! Check out Luciano's website here.

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

47 Comments

• At September 25, 2009, Wraith wrote:

  Dang. That pen through the head trick rules!

• At September 25, 2009, Mark D. White wrote:

  Fantastic stuff as always, Brian - but that video takes the cake!

• At September 25, 2009, Stephane Savoie wrote:

  I always wondered about the legality of those Cassius videos...

• At September 25, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  Anyone have any idea why DC randomly told Kirby to bring back Deadman in the first place?

  With Deadman's story ...

• At September 25, 2009, T. wrote:

  I always thought the Green Lantern Green Arrow book was famous for being the first code-approved comic to show drug ...

• At September 25, 2009, Jim Kosmicki wrote:

  in the early 70's, DC was re-trying a lot characters, usually in reprint books. Any character who had ever had ...

• At September 25, 2009, Mark Evanier wrote:

  A slight modification to the above...to where it says, "So to come up with ideas on what to do with ...

• At September 25, 2009, Brian wrote:

  Now my first thought on the left hand/right hand thing would have been flipped negatives. Nice work to make ...

• At September 25, 2009, Nemo wrote:

  Thanks so much for giving Deadman his day!

• At September 25, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  Reading Mark's afterword before reading that Forever People/Deadman team up in the Fourth World Omnibus really helped make sense of ...

• At September 25, 2009, Brad Curran wrote:

  And what Nemo said. I've become a fan of Boston recently.

• At September 25, 2009, JosephW wrote:

  I know I'm going to take some heat for this but, man, that is one UGLY Deadman by Kirby. ...

• At September 25, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  To Mark Evanier: You may want to update the Wikipedia entry on Deadman. It basically says what Brian ...

• At September 25, 2009, Roman wrote:

  Wow, I've never seen that issue of the Forever People...but I have to disagree with Joseph and say that Kirby's ...

• At September 25, 2009, DesertSon915 wrote:

  Am I the only one who thinks giving Deadman a robot body is really @#$%ing stupid?

• At September 25, 2009, Fraser wrote:

  It wasn't really necessary for Kirby to do any of that. The ending of Deadman has him returning to the ...

• At September 25, 2009, Ribbit wrote:

  "You know -- Snow -- Poppy Juice -- Opium, baby!"

• At September 25, 2009, WondaWeasel wrote:

  Really enjoyed the spotlight on Deadman. I hope you are doing more comic legend spotlights on less mainstream characters in ...

• At September 25, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  "Vykin the Black"? Oy.

• At September 25, 2009, mrdr wrote:

  Reading about Deadman and the Comics Code Authority reminds me of earlier columns about Code restrictions on the depictions of ...

• At September 25, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  A slight modification to the above...to where it says, "So to come up with ideas on what to do with ...

• At September 25, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I think a lot of people would think that giving Deadman a robot body is a pretty lame concept.

  And ...

• At September 25, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  To Rob Schmidt: why don't you update wikipedia yourself, I'd prefer to think actual writers have more important work to ...

• At September 25, 2009, Denmad wrote:

  Not to mention that adding/editing something that is about yourself in Wikipedia is a big no-no as far as I ...

• At September 25, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  "Am I the only one who thinks giving Deadman a robot body is really @#$%ing stupid?"

  You're a sad person for ...

• At September 25, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  To Aaron Poehler: I thought about it, but I don't know exactly what happened, so I might not word ...

• At September 25, 2009, SwanShadow wrote:

  "Vykin the Black"? Oy.

  That was characteristic of Kirby, and of the times, too, I suppose. Kirby created or co-created three ...

• At September 25, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  @Roman: JLGL did two runs on Deadman, one when Adventure was a dollar comic with Len Wein, and a later ...

• At September 25, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Here's a Kirby creation: "Non-Fat", one of the "Dingbats of Danger Street". Kirby didn't name him "Non-Fat the Black". ...

• At September 25, 2009, Crusader k wrote:

  Wait...the Kirby story postulates that the Hook killed by the Sensei wasn't Deadman's actual murderer. That there was some kinda ...

• At September 25, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Nice Legends this week, Brian. I've never cared much about Deadman, but these facts were very interesting. I saw many ...

• At September 25, 2009, Ethan Shuster wrote:

  Some may find it a sign of unoriginality, but regarding Deadman returning to comics later, I've always kind of admired ...

• At September 25, 2009, random surfer wrote:

  Reading about Deadman and the Comics Code Authority reminds me of earlier columns about Code restrictions on the depictions ...

• At September 25, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Haven't you heard that comics are all about "theme"--Deadman and the Hook = Cain and Abel or Captain Ahab and ...

• At September 26, 2009, PB210 wrote:

  I find it interesting that they seemed to try to keep the paranormal in the Deadman stories restricted to largely ...

• At September 26, 2009, Frank Rook wrote:

  I always hated that cover to "Forever People" #9. The proportion and logistics of how that frankenstein's arms and heads ...

• At September 26, 2009, Chris Smith wrote:

  Heres a link to the 'Feeling For You' video

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLA1M7BKdGM&feature=related

  The pen execution rocks...

• At September 26, 2009, Jawa wrote:

  I actually really like the idea of Deadman inhabiting an android body. I think that's something DC should bring ...

• At September 26, 2009, GC wrote:

  Is the pen killing a Deadman thing? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that Bullseye have done that before.

• At September 26, 2009, deron wrote:

  On the subject of covers -- what is going on on the cover of Strange Avengers 205? Brant is leaping ...

• At September 27, 2009, Jeff Albertson wrote:

  Sijo, yes, in a couple of stories appearing in World's Finest, Deadman winds up with the body of Bruce Wayne's ...

• At September 27, 2009, Blair wrote:

  The Deadman Vertigo reshuffle of a few years ago sucked big fat ones.Other than that Deadman rocks and mighty fine ...

• At September 27, 2009, Frank wrote:

  So what was the storyline about that he had two hooks?

• At September 27, 2009, Bruce wrote:

  Jawa, that's basically the setup they use for Red Tornado. It was a major aspect to Brad Meltzer's recent ...

• At September 29, 2009, DexX wrote:

  I really hate to be such a nitpicker, but it is a pet peeve:

  "Kirby was a trooper" should be "Kirby ...

• At September 29, 2009, Mart wrote:

  ThatGL/GA cover never fails to amuse, it's Hal's audition for Superdickery: 'Haha Ollie, you're not so big, Speedy's a JUNKIE!'

• At October 28, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #226 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-fifth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-four.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out Pulp Fiction Legends Revealed #1 for an interesting bit involving future DC Comics editor Mort Weisinger.

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: The first issue of EC Comics' Panic was banned in the state of Massachusetts for making fun of Santa Claus.

STATUS: True Enough for a True

In 1952, EC Comics debuted a parody comic book called Mad...

It became quite popular.

So much so that at the end of 1953, EC launched a slightly more risque spin-off called Panic (think of Mad as PG and Panic as sort of an R, or at least a PG-13)...

This issue lived up to its title, as it caused quite a panic in the state of Massachusetts, over the last story in the comic, drawn by the great Will Elder, who adapted Clement Clarke Moore's classic (in public domain) poem, "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," as only someone like Elder could.

Here are a few pages...

Responding to a number of complaints received over the issue, Massachusetts Attorney General George Fingold announced that Panic #1 was to be banned in the state of Massachusetts because it "desecrated Christmas."

Now here's where the "True Enough" part comes in.

As you might imagine, the Attorney General doesn't actually have the power to just announce the banning of random periodicals because they "desecrated Christmas," and Fingold acknowledged as much, instead saying that what he was asking was for retailers to VOLUNTARILY "ban" the issue, and in great numbers that's exactly what retailers in Massachusetts did.

I guess you don't mess with Santa Claus in Massachusetts.

And as you might imagine, none of this publicity helped EC much when the The Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency held their hearings a few months later in the Spring of 1954.

COMIC LEGEND: Walt Kelly picketed Walt Disney during the 1941 Disney Animators Strike.

STATUS: False

After a short time working in journalism, Walt Kelly moved to California in the mid-1930s (when he was in his early 20s) to work in animation.

He got a job at Walt Disney and worked there for about six years, helping to animate some film classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

During this time, he also began to do his first comic book work, with a little work here and there for the comic company that would eventually become National (DC) Comics.

In 1941, many of the animators at Disney had joined the fairly newly formed Screen Cartoonists Guild, and they attempted to unionize at Walt Disney Studios, who naturally were not in favor of their cartoonists being in a union. Eventually, a strike occurred.

According to a number of sources (including this one):

Kelly was one of many Disney animators, including Art Babbitt, Bill Tytla, and John Hubley, who picketed Disney during the 1941 Disney animators' strike, after which he left the studio.

This is not true.

Kelly did not want to choose a side during the debate, so he actually took a leave of absence from Disney, citing a family illness.

He would never return to the Studio (but there did not appear to be any hard feelings - Disney apparently even recommended Kelly to do some Disney comic book work at Dell).

Instead, he got work drawing comic books for Dell Comics, including Animal Comics #1, which introduced a fellow you might have heard of called Pogo...

Eventually, Kelly would take Pogo to a syndicated comic strip and worldwide renown...

Here's a picture of Kelly from some time in the 1950s...

Kelly passed away in 1973 at the too young age of 60.

COMIC LEGEND: Vince Colletta once erased Mr. Fantastic from a Jack Kirby penciled panel in an issue of Fantastic Four.

STATUS: True

While folks can't seem to agree on the relative merits of the inking of Vince Colletta, one thing we all can agree on is that people seem to love to talk about Vince Colletta!

Just recently, in another blog entry where Colletta's inks became a topic of conversation, a reader sent me a question.

Reader Randy asked if there was actually an issue of Fantastic Four where Colletta erased a Kirby drawing of Mr. Fantastic.

Yes, Randy, that actually did happen. It's actually one of the panels that Mark Evanier often cites when he discusses the relative merits of Vince Colletta.

Now listen, you rabid Colletta-lovers out there, all I am doing here is answering a question from a reader about Colletta. This is not "Colletta-bashing" or whatever. Randy asked and I'm answering.

The panel in question appeared in the classic Fantastic Four storyline where Doctor Doom takes over the Baxter Building and the Fantastic Four (and Daredevil) have to take it back.

Here is the panel, mixed in the context of a four-page sequence...

Now here's the panel by itself...

And here's what Kirby originally drew...

So yeah, Colletta chose not to ink the Reed figure and instead erased it.

Here's the next panel, in sequence, where Reed reappears...

There.

That's it - that's your answer, Randy, sans any possible "Colletta-bashing"!

Thanks to Mark Evanier for the original panel, which he posted here, in a piece on Colletta. And thanks, of course, to Randy, for setting me up for the ire of Colletta-defenders.

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

79 Comments

• At September 18, 2009, Rob wrote:

  The article you cited about Walt Kelly striking had another error: it listed Bill Tytla's name. According to Shamus Culhane, ...

• At September 18, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  I never knew there were pro- and anti-Vince Colletta factions. Go figure.

• At September 18, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I'd say that ignorance was bliss in this instance, Mr. M, but not realizing that a errant comment about Colletta ...

• At September 18, 2009, Josh wrote:

  I guess the only question is... WHY did Colletta choose to erase Mr. Fantastic?

• At September 18, 2009, Mike wrote:

  Ooo, this has the potential to get even uglier than that whole Stan Lee kerfuffle a couple of weeks ago. ...

• At September 18, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Ha!

  I don't think so, Mike.

  Even Dan McFan admits that Colletta did it, and that's all that is being said here. ...

• At September 18, 2009, Scott Dunbier wrote:

  As a former art dealer I can tell you that I've seen a lot of erased backgrounds and figures in ...

• At September 18, 2009, Cousin Cory wrote:

  I've read this issue of Fantastic Four, but hadn't noticed an oddity on the 4th panel of page 10: Doom ...

• At September 18, 2009, CF wrote:

  Vince Colletta - VANDAL.

• At September 18, 2009, buttler wrote:

  Maybe Vince felt funny about hiding Reed behind Johnny's leg flames like that -- or Reed gained Sue's powers for ...

• At September 18, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  I never heard of this before, but I see it now, and I was looking through the panels to find ...

• At September 18, 2009, ColonelLee wrote:

  As a kid, I used to hate it when Coletta inked Kirby. Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, Joe Sinnott...oh happy ...

• At September 18, 2009, MWGallaher wrote:

  It's silly to single out Vince Colletta for this. It could as likely have been Stan Lee ordering Reed's erasure ...

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  Most people including his contemporaries say Coletta did it because he liked to do a lot of pages, he apparently ...

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  It's silly to single out Vince Colletta for this. It could as likely have been Stan Lee ordering Reed's erasure ...

• At September 18, 2009, Dan wrote:

  Since he appears on the other side of Johnny in the next panel, I think it was a good choice.

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  By the way, I didn't post all that to show that I agree with Coletta bashing, just to show that ...

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  Another informative piece on Coletta:

  http://ohdannyboy.blogspot.com/2007/04/vinnie-collettas-exit-interview.html

• At September 18, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  Cousin Cory: "I've read this issue of Fantastic Four, but hadn't noticed an oddity on the 4th panel of page ...

• At September 18, 2009, Tom Fitzpatrick wrote:

  I thought the EC MAD comic making fun of Santa was funny.

• At September 18, 2009, Paul wrote:

  I know Kirby's reputation is sterling, but let's face it: that's not a particularly well drawn panel. Reed is scrunched ...

• At September 18, 2009, MWGallaher wrote:

  The Jack Kirby Collector--of which I have every issue--has shown maybe 3 or 4 examples of Colletta rubbing out figures ...

• At September 18, 2009, jose wrote:

  Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it looks like Colletta chose to not ink the rendering on Doom's ...

• At September 18, 2009, Kirth wrote:

  ..

  Colleta is/was a hack, but hacks make money. And that's what pays thebills.

  ..

• At September 18, 2009, Mike Sangregorio wrote:

  F*ck Vince Colletta.

  You don't erase the God damn King's pencils especially to make your sub par inking job easier. Who ...

• At September 18, 2009, Zapps wrote:

  I really like the coloring on that ray-gun beam that Dr. Doom's holding in the first page.

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  Some more good Coletta debates from pros, the first from Stuart Immomen's blog and the second from Mark Evanier's site ...

• At September 18, 2009, Casey wrote:

  Is Mister Fantastic transforming his arm into a cushion on page 11? I'm confused about what's going on there.

• At September 18, 2009, danjack wrote:

  @Mike S.

  Are you being serious or funny? i truly can't tell, and i'm not sure that anyone should get that ...

• At September 18, 2009, Mike Sangregorio wrote:

  For the most part I'm serious, granted I know little of Colletta's work outside of his relationship with Kirby but ...

• At September 18, 2009, Josh wrote:

  I'm now curious how many inkers deleted figures/backgrounds from pencils in that or any other era. Or filled in ...

• At September 18, 2009, Mike Sangregorio wrote:

  Worrying about quantity over quality is what I would take to be the very definition of a "hack." and that ...

• At September 18, 2009, Terence wrote:

  Or, I don't know, maybe it was just judicial editing - like Kirby needed in all aspects.

• At September 18, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  Kirth said it all

  "Colleta is/was a hack..."

  If it wasn't for Coletta's relative, nobody would like him.

• At September 18, 2009, Rob Schmidt wrote:

  I never knew Colletta cut corners. I tend to dislike his inking because it makes everything look too soft.

  Add ...

• At September 18, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  "How were comics supposed to be taken seriosuly if they people making them rewarded a "just get it done" attitude?"

  How ...

• At September 18, 2009, Joe Shmoe wrote:

  Not only was Vinnie a mediocre inker who erased anything he didn't feel like applying ink to, he was ...

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  Add this story to the long list of stories where the Human Torch is defeated by a serendipitously placed fire ...

• At September 18, 2009, Terence wrote:

  To Joe above;

  Stop spreading gossip.

• At September 18, 2009, Joe Shmoe wrote:

  Terence: That's not gossip; that's relatively well known information amongst comics historians. Try doing a little research on ...

• At September 18, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Colletta had the magical ability to turn great art into terrible art. I wish that Kirby could've had as ...

• At September 18, 2009, Omni-man wrote:

  I gotta back up Joe Shmoe on his statements, I've also read interviews with anecdotes along those lines.

• At September 18, 2009, Kevin James wrote:

  All these people who say they like Colletta are his relatives? Guy's got a massive family there, Alan. Five or ...

• At September 18, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  I sometimes wonder if the degree of Colletta vilification is directly proportional to the degree of Kirby scrutiny. There exists ...

• At September 18, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  BTW, just would like to note that most of those panels with Daredevil were inked by Wally Wood.

• At September 18, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  I don't like Colletta's inking on most of Kirby's work (haven't read much Thor, though, which is supposed to be ...

• At September 18, 2009, Twin1todd wrote:

  I never liked Coletta's inking compared to the other wonderful inkers the King had over his many grand years.Ayers,Chic Syone,Sinnott,Everett.Some ...

• At September 18, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  I'd walk a half a mile to see Ed Sullivan smile any day.

• At September 18, 2009, T. wrote:

  But getting back to Coletta,he erased much of Kirbys detail and backrounds so that the book could be ontime to ...

• At September 18, 2009, deron wrote:

  To be fair to Colleta, several of those panels are very badly composed. In the panel where Reed is climbing ...

• At September 18, 2009, Gokitalo wrote:

  "Never having seen Ben Grimm, Dr. Doom is not yet aware that he himself was once the mighty Thing!"

  Interesting. Did ...

• At September 18, 2009, Gokitalo wrote:

  Ah, I'm see I'm not the only one who caught it. And the explanation does stretch things a bit, but ...

• At September 18, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  It was all rushed back then. As several posts have already noted, this stuff had a print deadline ...

• At September 18, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  I don't mind him erasing Reed this time. Keeping Reed added nothing, and to be honest, Kirby's positioning of Reed ...

• At September 18, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  Forgot to add, that Pogo strip is really good.

• At September 19, 2009, Q:? wrote:

  Colleta's change makes the panel read better.

• At September 19, 2009, Super I.T.C.H » Blog Archive » Makin’ Links # 8 wrote:

  [...] http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/09/17/comic-book-legends-revealed-225/ [...]

• At September 19, 2009, Kevin James wrote:

  Why is this news?

  We have been reading about the tiny erased Reed Richards for how many years now?

• At September 19, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  ...Wow, I guess Colleta REALLY is a controversial topic. I'll ignore it too and instead ask:

  What was the point of ...

• At September 19, 2009, Josh wrote:

  Interesting. I saw in the Immonen piece that Tom Palmer is a guy who had a rep for altering/deleting/changing ...

• At September 19, 2009, Iron Maiden wrote:

  Yes, I thought that was a refreshing and honest opinion by Bob Hall that puts it all in perspective. ...

• At September 19, 2009, J. Kevin Carrier wrote:

  I'm not a Colletta fan, but erasing a tiny figure from one panel doesn't strike me as a big deal. ...

• At September 19, 2009, Michael wrote:

  "How many other non-Kirby pencil erasures by Colletta have surfaced? I don't know of any. "

  Eric Larsen complained of a ...

• At September 19, 2009, Heroid wrote:

  I never was a big Colletta fan, especially when he was paired with an artist like Gene Colan whose fluid ...

• At September 19, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Interestingly enough, Twomorrows Publishing is planning upcoming retrospectives on both Vince Colletta and Don Heck, as part of an oft ...

• At September 19, 2009, Clayton wrote:

  I don't see the big deal about the panel. I'm not a fan of Colletta's work, but removing Reed ...

• At September 19, 2009, T. wrote:

  It was all rushed back then. As several posts have already noted, this stuff had a print deadline that had ...

• At September 20, 2009, Dean Kravitz wrote:

  It's sad that the defense of Colletta has sunk to the level of assuming that every job he ever did ...

• At September 20, 2009, Jim Hammond wrote:

  Colletta was a hack. Look at his DC work. Look at his ink job on Matt Baker pencils. Hack. Anyone ...

• At September 20, 2009, Kevin James wrote:

  Wise up. Even if Kirby was never late with THOR, Marvel still dropped a ton of other work on Colletta's ...

• At September 20, 2009, Dean Kravitz wrote:

  It's a myth that Marvel and Stan were piling work on Colletta. He didn't do that much for them. ...

• At September 21, 2009, Kevin James wrote:

  I believe ya! My opinion, if were talking about the guys later work, would be the same so what context ...

• At September 21, 2009, Nuno wrote:

  Animal Comics 1, what a beautiful, dynamic and expressive cover!

• At September 21, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Isn't it so?

  Amazing work by Kelly.

• At September 21, 2009, MrC wrote:

  Here's a picture of Kelly from some time in the 1950s...

  Are you sure?!

  That looks like Ricky Gervais to me!

• At October 13, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #225 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

• At October 13, 2009, Philip Frey wrote:

  Wow, that "Panic" material is pretty lousy. No wonder it didn't last. You can tell that "Panic" didn't ...

• At October 13, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  That was when Kirby's ego was beginning to get out of control and he wouldn't want anyone not slavishly devoted ...

• At November 3, 2009, The Consummate Compendium of the Inventions of Dr. Reed Richards « Drilling Holes in the Wall wrote:

  [...] Bibliography Images provided (unwittingly) by fellow scholars. [...]

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-fourth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-three.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend you check out the archive of Music Legends Revealed, as that ties in with this week's theme.

That theme?

All legends involving comic books and rock 'n' roll!!!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Josie and the Pussycats had the first African-American regular cartoon character on a Saturday Morning cartoon.

STATUS: False

In 1968, Filmation produced a cartoon series starring the major Archie characters (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, etc.) called The Archie Show.

The main hook of the series was that they would perform in a garage band called The Archies, with singers Ron Dante and Toni Wise doing the vocals.

The Archies actually had a #1 hit record with the song "Sugar Sugar."

What's interesting is that as far as I can tell, the first comic book appearance of Archie in a band specifically called the Archies was in 1968, so presumably the cartoon band preceded the comic book band. If anyone knows for sure when the Archies first appeared (and I mean a band specifically titled "The Archies" - Archie and Jughead and occasionally Reggie have been in various "bands" for many years before they were "The Archies").

In any event, with the Archies having such great success for Filmation, Hanna-Barbera wanted in on the action, so they went to Archie Comics and asked if they had any other characters they could adapt in the same manner.

Luckily for Archie, the legendary Dan DeCarlo had given them just such a character when he debuted his character, Josie, in the early 1960s.

Josie, named after DeCarlo's wife, was basically a female version of Archie for a number of years. Along with her two best friends, the ditzy Melody and the brainy Pepper, Josie had series of typical teen adventures, a la Archie.

The book was re-named from She's Josie to Josie after a couple of years...

Eventually, in 1969, with the plans in place to get a Josie cartoon series out in 1970, some changes were made to the book.

Alan M was introduced...

Alexandra Cabot discovers she has witch powers when she holds her cat in her arms...

and finally, in Josie #45 (now Josie and the Pussycats), the Pussycats are formed, and we're introduced to the third member of the group (along with Josie and Melody), Valerie.

Here's the group on the cover of #48...

A problem showed up, though, when Hanna-Barbera had a different idea of how to approach the group on the cartoon. You see, they wanted an all-white girl trio. So they wanted Valerie gone.

However, the folks behind the music of the TV show, La La Productions, headed up by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young, had already cast the show based on the comic book, and had Kathleen Dougherty as Josie, Cherie Moor (who would later become famous as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway as Valerie.

Janssen refused to re-cast Holloway's part (at least partially because he felt the group would not work, musically, without Holloway), and after a tense three-week stand-off, Hanna-Barbera backed off, and Valerie was once again African-American!

Here's the band from the show's first season...

And here's the whole cast from the show's first episode...

Many people believe that Valerie was the first regular African-American character in Saturday Morning cartoons (which, as we just saw, was a pretty big deal in that Hanna-Barbera was against doing it).

But while she was pretty darn close, she was not the first.

You see, while Hanna-Barbera went to come up with THEIR own version of The Archies, Filmation was not sitting still with the concept, either, and in 1969, they debuted a new carton series, using the then out-of-use (in TV, at least) Hardy Boys property. Now Frank and Joe Hardy are still mystery solvers, but they're also in a BAND!

That's the actual session band that played the songs for the show.

And, sure enough, they included an African-American drummer!

Bob Crowder is the actual drummer seen above, but his character on the show was Pete Jones.

Oddly enough, Pete was not only a drummer - he would change instruments, sometimes DURING songs!

Here's one song by the Hardy Boys - notice that Pete is playing guitar THEN he's playing the drums.

Impressive, right?

Well, that's nothing compared to the chubby kid in the group (whose voice on the show was INSANELY horrific) - in that same song, he plays...

the upright bass...

the drums...

AND the sax!!

Paul McCartney, eat your heart out!

Here's Pete from an episode of the show.

So in any event, The Hardy Boys came out in 1969, a year before Josie and the Pussycats. However, Josie and the Pussycats was a lot more popular, so Valerie's got that going for her!

COMIC LEGEND: Marvel Comics did a Cheap Trick comic book in 1990!

STATUS: True

In the late 1970s, with Marvel having done an Alice Cooper comic...

and a KISS comic...

and a Beatles comic...

It really wouldn't have been that weird for Marvel to have done a Cheap Trick comic book.

Not at this point...

However, in 1990?!?

And yet that's when Marvel did a promotional comic for Cheap Trick's latest album, Busted.

Here's the cover of the comic and the cover of the album...

The comic was written by Jim Salicrup and drawn by June Brigman, of Power Pack fame (well, she's of Power Pack fame to ME, at least! She was awesome on that series!).

It is an "origin" story of sorts, for the group.

Here's a taste...

That is one unbelievable comic book.

I wonder who was the driving force behind it being made?

COMIC LEGEND: Walt Kelly forced a band that named itself in honor of Pogo to change their name.

STATUS: True

In 1968, two members of Buffalo Springfield, Richie Furay and Jim Messina, along with Rusty Young, who had played with the group, were looking to start a new band.

Inspired by a country music-esque song on the last Buffalo Springfield album, they decided to become a country rock band, one of the earliest such bands.

Their first album, "Picking Up the Pieces" is really quite good. It's mostly ABOUT the Buffalo Springfield break-up.

In any event, their original name was Pogo, named after Walt Kelly's classic comic character.

Kelly, though, was one of the few comic creators of his time to have full control over the rights of his creation (he had had a trademark on Pogo since the late 1940s), and he was very protective of those rights.

So he let the group know that he was not down with them using Pogo as the name of their band. I do not know if he ever went to the point of actually sending a cease and desist, or if it was simply a matter of "Hey, if you DON'T change it, THEN I'll have to seek legal action."

In any event, they complied, but since they were just beginning to hit the scene, in terms of getting a label to sign them, they did not want to change their name THAT drastically.

So they ended up with...

And some 50 albums later, does that count as "and the rest is history?"

I guess this will be the only Pogo band we'll ever see...

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

69 Comments

• At September 11, 2009, Matthew Johnson wrote:

  Speaking of cheap, it was pretty cheap of Marvel to use that Alice Cooper cover for the KISS and Beatles ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It was fixed already by the time your comment went up, Matt. ;)

• At September 11, 2009, Adam Jones wrote:

  I want you.....to want me never bring up the Cheap Trick comic cover again!

• At September 11, 2009, Sam L. wrote:

  When I think of The Hardy Boys as a band, my mind immediately goes to Hank's terrible three-piece ensemble from ...

• At September 11, 2009, Nemo wrote:

  Wow, Cheap Trick hadn't even come back ironically at that point... suddenly over-compensating with Adam-X the Extreme makes a lot ...

• At September 11, 2009, Scott MacIver wrote:

  A big "boo" to Hana-Barbera for wanting to whiten the Pussycats.

• At September 11, 2009, Dave Blanchard wrote:

  Never heard of the Cheap Trick comic before. I was hoping it would tell the REAL story of how the ...

• At September 11, 2009, Adam wrote:

  It's funny that in a CBULR column involving Archie, music, and forcing a band to change its name, you leave ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's funny that in a CBULR column involving Archie, music, and forcing a band to change its name, you leave ...

• At September 11, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  I'm seeing the Alice Cooper cover 3 times instead of the other two band comic covers

• At September 11, 2009, Aqualad wrote:

  Nemo, did you forget about a little power ballad called "The Flame"?

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  I'm seeing the Alice Cooper cover 3 times instead of the other two band comic covers

  Just hit refresh, Philip.

• At September 11, 2009, Robert wrote:

  The upright player in the Hardy Boys band must be talented if he can play the sax successfully while holding ...

• At September 11, 2009, Ken wrote:

  Good on that Janssen guy for having the guts not to give in to Hanna Barbera and recast the role.

  Here's ...

• At September 11, 2009, Philip Ayres wrote:

  Sorted. Ta

• At September 11, 2009, random surfer wrote:

  *gasp!* Maybe Pepper & Valerie are the same person!

• At September 11, 2009, sgt pepper wrote:

  There's no way he could shoot arrows accurately when he's holding his sax like that.

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Good on that Janssen guy for having the guts not to give in to Hanna Barbera and recast the role.

  Well, ...

• At September 11, 2009, Jeremy A. Patterson wrote:

  AC Comics did get the rights to do a Cheap Trick comic book in 1982-83, during the early days of ...

• At September 11, 2009, Kevin wrote:

  Brian - Quick question about buying your book...if I just go to Amazon and search for it and buy it ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  It's a special link, Kevin.

  Thanks for the intent to buy! :)

• At September 11, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  I don't understand why the Pussycats had to be sent into space? Was there too much competition with Scooby ...

• At September 11, 2009, Daniel wrote:

  It may sound odd for the Cheap Trick comic at the time, but if my memory serves, that was on ...

• At September 11, 2009, Andrew wrote:

  I actually have a copy of the Cheap Trick comic along with the special promo version of the Busted cd ...

• At September 11, 2009, Andrew wrote:

  BTW, if you want a TRUE biography of Cheap Trick look for the book "Reputation is a Fragile Thing" by ...

• At September 11, 2009, Mr. M wrote:

  "Printed in real KISS blood"

  A a kid, I wasn't sure if that was cool or creepy. All these ...

• At September 11, 2009, OTL wrote:

  That cover of Pep may have some of the worst crimes against fashion I've ever seen.

  (Seriously, rainbow pants? Orange ...

• At September 11, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  Sing it with me...

  Oh Boy, here come the HAAAARDys!

  Oh Boy, we're havin' a PAAAAArty!

  Hello, Hey, Hi How are you now?

  You ...

• At September 11, 2009, Dave wrote:

  Building off of what OTL said, Alan M. looks an awful lot like Scooby Doo's Fred in that group shot, ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Sing it with me...

  Oh Boy, here come the HAAAARDys!

  Oh Boy, we're havin' a PAAAAArty!

  Hello, Hey, Hi How are you now?

  You ...

• At September 11, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  And BTW, Chubby Morton was voiced by character actor Dallas McKennon, the very same guy that voiced Archie Andrews.

• At September 11, 2009, Teebore wrote:

  "My boy band good looks, Dermot's bizarre anger, and a robot on drums!"

  Yeah, that was awesome.

  I love the giant ...

• At September 11, 2009, Bill wrote:

  huh...Alexandra Cabot used to hang with the Archie gang and Josie and the Pussycats? This was prior to her being ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And BTW, Chubby Morton was voiced by character actor Dallas McKennon, the very same guy that voiced Archie Andrews.

  Then how ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  huh...Alexandra Cabot used to hang with the Archie gang and Josie and the Pussycats? This was prior to her being ...

• At September 11, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I'd never heard of that Hardy Boys cartoon. I can remember (barely) watching Josie and the Pussycats, but I ...

• At September 11, 2009, mdk wrote:

  I never remember her name being Alexandra Cabot. When I was a li'l tyke she was always just "the ...

• At September 11, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  I never heard of the show, but it must explain the Gold Key Hardy Boys comic I always wondered about! ...

• At September 11, 2009, MRW wrote:

  "I don't understand why the Pussycats had to be sent into space? Was there too much competition with Scooby Doo ...

• At September 11, 2009, Dan Felty wrote:

  "Good on that Janssen guy for having the guts not to give in to Hanna Barbera and recast the role.

  Well, ...

• At September 11, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Couldn't they have kept the actress but changed the drawing? I guess it's plausible enough that H-B was racist enough ...

• At September 11, 2009, JRC wrote:

  I had an aunt who worked for the company in Buffalo that printed the KISS comic, and according to her ...

• At September 11, 2009, Andy Mangels wrote:

  Filmation Studios became quite well-known for its commitment to diversity on their cartoon shows. From the Hardy Boys forward, almost ...

• At September 11, 2009, Go Fish wrote:

  Now that's an exhaustive edition of CBLR! And a THEMED edition, to boot. Very cool.

• At September 11, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  I am 100% sure that Archie Comics created "The Archies" after the song became a hit, but I don't know ...

• At September 11, 2009, John Asperger wrote:

  I only had time to skim this , nor to read the Chapp Trick comic , but:

  IIRC , ...

• At September 11, 2009, John Asperger wrote:

  ...What happened to the answer i JUST PUT UP:-(?????

• At September 11, 2009, John Asperger wrote:

  ...Oh , OK...It did?? ( I hope)

• At September 11, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Minor typo: It's Toni WINE, not Toni Wise. And while she was the most famous and prominent of ...

• At September 11, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  It's funny that Andy Mangels mentions Filmation being known for racial diversity in their casts. Whenever I think of ...

• At September 11, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Doesn't anybody else think that Archie naming his band after himself was hugely egotistical? Can't believe Reggie went along with ...

• At September 11, 2009, Digital Gonzo wrote:

  Just as a PS to the Pogo myth, interestingly there actually is an album released by Walt Kelly that contains ...

• At September 11, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  "Printed in real KISS blood"

  As a kid, I wasn't sure if that was cool or creepy.

  I would have said gimmicky.

• At September 11, 2009, Thadd wrote:

  What I find amazing is that Sugar Sugar was too childish for the Monkees to perform. This has ...

• At September 11, 2009, Michael Howey wrote:

  Slightly off the point but the June Brigman/Louise Simonson (first 25?) issues of Power Pack were outstanding.

  You are not alone ...

• At September 12, 2009, kevinj wrote:

  Talking of rock star comics did i imagine it or did DC once put out a Prince comic where he ...

• At September 12, 2009, wwk5d wrote:

  The Cheap Trick comic look worth picking up for the June Brigman art.

  Dan Decarlo was prob my favorite Archie arist. ...

• At September 12, 2009, Jorge Cantu wrote:

  I second the comment that Rock N' Roll comics first two issues Guns 'N' Roses and Metallica successes was the ...

• At September 12, 2009, Daedsiluaplifornia wrote:

  Speaking of Power Pack... (well, two people did....) have you looked into whether Michael Higgins (I believe that was his ...

• At September 12, 2009, Dave wrote:

  Whoa...I remeber Chet (the fat kid in the Hardy Boys books) having lots of hobbies in the books, but I ...

• At September 12, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  I'll never understand why Power Pack's writers had to make Whoopie Goldberg into a Galactus.

• At September 12, 2009, John Asperger wrote:

  ...If you'll check Mile High , the Archies are billed on the cover of Life With Archie #61 , 1967 ...

• At September 13, 2009, LW wrote:

  One thing that I always think of when I think of Filmation (seriously,) was that Scheimer had a social conscience. ...

• At September 13, 2009, Generalissimo Fernando wrote:

  Back to the Revolutionary Comics comments: it was a ongoing series of unauthorized biographies about various bands, almost all hard ...

• At September 14, 2009, ilana wrote:

  i love you superman! ...

• At September 15, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  Holloway's backing vocals on the "Josie" theme was the coolest part of the whole series. Did she ever get a ...

• At October 2, 2009, Iggy Pop's Brother Steve Pop wrote:

  Man, you can tell JatP was a Filmation series just from that last screencap. That's a classic Filmation character ...

• At October 2, 2009, Iggy Pop's Brother Steve Pop wrote:

  Oops, I mean you can tell Hardy Boys was a Filmation series.

• At October 14, 2009, Christopher Stansfield wrote:

  (Slightly) off topic, this, but I did get a chuckle out of reading that Jim Salicrup was the writer of ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-third in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-two.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend last week's Movie Legends Revealed to learn the answer to the question "Could Béla Lugosi speak English when he starred in Dracula?"

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: DC once sued a porn film for, among other things (including trademark infringement), the usage of flying sequences!

STATUS: True

When you're a major company and you get hit by a lawsuit over trademark, you revise your product.

But what do you do when you're a small company making a pornographic film?

Well, that's what the producers of 1977's Super-Woman found out when DC Comics served them with a complaint over their porn film's use of the character Super-Woman and the "S" on the chest of her costume.

The film starred Desiree Cousteau as Super-Woman, a super strong heroine who could also fly. Along with co-workers, reporters Lois and Clark, Cousteau investigated the evil deeds of Kreetia Borgia, played by Jessie St. James. Here's Borgia...

In a move cleared designed to secure trademark protection, DC had a character named "Superwoman" show up a few times in the 1940s.

Here's one such appearance, where Lois Lane dreams she's Superwoman in Action Comics #60...

So DC registered for (and received) a trademark on the name "Superwoman" for usage in commerce.

In 1977, Superman: The Movie was soon to be released, and obviously Fantasy Films Productions knew this when they did their film.

So DC Comics sued them, and the courts agreed on pretty much all of the counts, except DC wanted them to remove all flying sequences, as that was going to be a big part of Superman: The Movie, and they felt that it was too similar to their Superman TV series. The court disagreed, but allowed all the other changes.

So the movie went from Super-Woman to Ms. Magnificent!

She does two things extremely well...one of them is flying!

However, this being a small production, do you know how they complied with the court order? They just went through the soundtrack and simply cut out any mention of the name "Super-Woman." Characters aren't dubbed in saying "Ms. Magnificent," people are just silent when her name comes up!

And the "S" on her costume?

Someone just went by frame by frame and scratched out the logo on her costume, resulting in what looks like an almost intentional special effect!

Of course, it is clearly NOT intentional when you see the scratch accidentally go too far in a scene...

Oh, just because I figured you folks would be interested, Kreetia Borgia does, indeed, have a dildo made out of a green alien substance that is "Ms. Magnificent's" weakness.

I just figured you should know that.

Let's move on!

COMIC LEGEND: The term gerrymander comes from a political cartoon.

STATUS: True

Really, when you look back at the life of Elbridge Gerry (1744-1814), it's a shame that he is now known almost entirely for a negative aspect of his life, and not for all the impressive accomplishments he had.

I mean, the guy signed the Declaration of Independence, for crying out loud!

He was James Madison's second Vice-President (fellow Declaration signer George Clinton was Madison's first veep, before Clinton died in office). Gerry, too, died in office.

Gerry, though, is not remembered for these deeds, nor will he really be known for being the ninth Governor of Massachusetts, but for his support of the notion of redistricting for political gain.

Redistricting for political purposes is something that goes on today, where whichever party is in power tries to draw up the voting districts to help keep their party in power. So long as you aren't doing it to negatively affect ethic or racial groups, it is allowed.

In any event, in 1912, then Governor Gerry decided to have Massachusetts redistricted so that the Federalists would get their own district, but the rest of the districts would fall to Gerry's party, the Democratic-Republicans.

In the Boston Gazette, editorial cartoonist/painter Gilbert Stuart decided to compare Gerry's plan to a salamander. However, Stuart's editor, Benjamin Russel, suggested that he instead call it a "Gerry-Mander," after Gerry (by the by, the term "Gerrymander" is pronounced "jerrymander," but Gerry's name was actually pronounced with a hard G, not a J).

The cartoon appeared in the March 26th, 1812 edition of the Boston Gazette...

And the rest is, as they say, history.

Now almost two hundred years later, that's really Elbridge Gerry's legacy, a sneaky political move (that he did not create, by the way - it was already being used decades earlier). That's a bit of a shame, I think.

COMIC LEGEND: Warner Bros. bought DC Comics.

STATUS: False

With the news this week about Walt Disney purchasing Marvel Comics, an interesting misconception was often repeated, and reader Paul Blanshard wrote in to suggest that I address said misconception, and I think he's got a good point, so here goes.

It is often said that DC Comics was purchased by Warner Brothers. After all, DC is currently a subsidiary of Warner Communications, Inc. which is, itself, a subsidiary of Time Warner, Inc., a massive media conglomerate.

However, that's not how it actually happened.

It really all began with, of all things, a funeral home.

In 1953, when he was 26 years old, Steve Ross married Carol Rosenthal, whose father, Edward Rosenthal, owned a funeral home. Ross went to work with Rosenthal, and soon the pair got involved in small business entrepreneurship.

In the late 50s, Ross took out a loan from the bank to start a rental car business, Abbey Rent a Car.

Ross eventually partnered with a garage Business called Kinney. The new company was called Kinney Parking Company.

During the 1960s, Kinney Parking Company merged with an office cleaning company owned by a relative of Ross' father-in-law, the National Cleaning Company.

The new company was called Kinney National Company.

When it went public in the early 1960s, it was worth about $12 million.

In 1967, the company purchased National Periodical Publications (better known as DC Comics).

That same year, it bought Ashley-Famous, a talent agency.

So in 1967, DC was part of the Kinney National Company, not Warner Brothers.

And in fact, National was basically kept its own company, just part of the larger Kinney National Company (as seen on this indica...

)

Then, in 1969, Kinney purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts., which was extremely cash-poor at the time.

Still, though, the company was called Kinney National Company, not Warner.

Warner was just a "Kinney Leisure Service," as seen in this movie poster from this period...

That changed in 1972.

A parking scandal (the parking industry has not always been the most honest of industries) forced Kinney to separate its other industries from its burgeoning entertainment empire, so it split off all of its non-entertainment businesses and and continued under a NEW name, Warner Communications, Inc.

And it was only THEN that DC Comic was officially part of Warner (and even then, it took DC a long time before acknowledging Warner Communications, Inc. in the indicas).

So, this is basically a long way of saying that no, DC Comics was not purchased by Warner Brothers.

Still, it's fun to know the history, right?

Thanks to Paul for the suggestion!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

69 Comments

• At September 4, 2009, Eric wrote:

  Dusty and Sweets McGee... I gotta track down that movie...

• At September 4, 2009, Ian wrote:

  First off:

  "A parking scandal (the parking industry has not always been the most honest of industries)"

  HUH?

  Second:

  Amazing story, I had no ...

• At September 4, 2009, Mason King wrote:

  Wow, fascinating recap of the DC/Warner relationship. Awesome entry, Brian.

• At September 4, 2009, Edward Liu wrote:

  "A parking scandal (the parking industry has not always been the most honest of industries)"

  HUH?

  Check out Gerard Jones' Men of ...

• At September 4, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, the parking garage aspect of Kinney National Company was almost directly connected to organized crime.

• At September 4, 2009, Betsy wrote:

  Wow, "Dusty and Sweets McGee" looks outtasight!

• At September 4, 2009, Scott MacIver wrote:

  The green dildo is awesomely creative.

  Poor Ms Magnificent. I bet that's no fun at all.

• At September 4, 2009, Drusilla lives! wrote:

  Nice one Cronin... I see you're not only an authority on comic trivia but an aficionado of the obscure... shall ...

• At September 4, 2009, T. wrote:

  Then, in 1969, Kinney purchased Warner Bros.-Seven Arts., which was extremely cash-poor at the time.

  Is that why Warner Bros' logo ...

• At September 4, 2009, Drusilla lives! wrote:

  Correction... I should say, car rentals, parking lots, office cleaning services and bone crushing. :)

• At September 4, 2009, DoubleWide wrote:

  Not to mention that their animated shorts left a lot to be desired. Bunny & Claude anyone?

• At September 4, 2009, Ricardo Amaral wrote:

  I think it's time for Dan Didio to add Ms. Magnificent to DCU. It's all very logical after Red Circle ...

• At September 4, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  I remember seeing that porno at my ex-brother-in-law's stag party, and in this one had the "S" costume. I'm ...

• At September 4, 2009, Aaron Poehler wrote:

  Grant Morrison's probably already working a Ms. Magnificent reference into Multiversity.

• At September 4, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  In any event, in 1912, then Governor Gerry decided to have Massachusetts redistricted so that the Federalists would get their ...

• At September 4, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Loved the gerrymander bit. Never knew that. And being originally from Newbury, I got a kick out of seeing that ...

• At September 4, 2009, john paine wrote:

  Brian,

  Are you aware that you're Entertainment Legends website is posting about a week behind at this point?

  I like all your ...

• At September 4, 2009, Tanner wrote:

  After hearing that story about DC Warner Brothers is anyone else reminded of how NBC is owned by the Sheinhardt ...

• At September 4, 2009, Mxy wrote:

  Here's one for you: Is it true that Northstar used to cough a lot in Alpha Flight because John Byrne ...

• At September 4, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  To Corey-- I'm pretty certain Looney Tunes was always Warner Brothers, although some individual cartoon shorts were sold to ...

• At September 4, 2009, Da Fug wrote:

  Hey, Brian, I have a question about the back cover of your book. Is the bearded cartoon guy giving ...

• At September 4, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Grant Morrison's probably already working a Ms. Magnificent reference into Multiversity.

  I would SO pay money to see an Earth populated ...

• At September 4, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  The gerrymander thing isn't really that obscure or unknown. I think just about every High School textbook I had ...

• At September 4, 2009, Agent of Chaos wrote:

  DUSTY AND SWEETS MCGEE:

  http://www.wbshop.com/Dusty-And-Sweets-Mcgee-+EST-MOD/1000087930,default,pd.html?cgid=ZARCHIVEALL

• At September 4, 2009, ykw wrote:

  @ Mary Warner:

  Wasn't just a few shorts sold to TV. Warners at one time had sold off all but two ...

• At September 4, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  The earliest Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were not owned or produced by Warner Bros., but by Leon Schlesinger Productions. ...

• At September 4, 2009, Donald G wrote:

  Actually, Mxy, Northstar's coughing didn't start until Bill Mantlo took over writing the book.

• At September 4, 2009, CoreyW wrote:

  While talking with to some friends about the Marvel deal, someone brought up that they had heard that Pixar ...

• At September 4, 2009, hondobrode wrote:

  I'd never heard of the Superwoman / Ms. Magnificent thing. I gotta get a copy now ! That ...

• At September 4, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  While talking with to some friends about the Marvel deal, someone brought up that they had heard that Pixar bought ...

• At September 4, 2009, Brian from Canada wrote:

  There's no way Pixar bought Disney as that Pixar was started as a joint venture between Disney and Apple. (Or, ...

• At September 4, 2009, Aylwinatrix wrote:

  Love the column, but I'm not sure about the way the porno story was reported. Yes, it's an interesting ...

• At September 4, 2009, Xenos wrote:

  Wow. Never thought I'd see my home town in the same article as a green alien dildo.

  Ah. The old tale ...

• At September 4, 2009, radar wrote:

  Brian from Canada - When did this situation with Warner take place? Are you talking about an animated Wonder Woman ...

• At September 4, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Actually, I COULD have done without knowing about the dildo thing in Superwoman... seriously next time avoid such things OK? ...

• At September 4, 2009, Corey wrote:

  It was a political COMIC that established the term, so it very much has to do with comics.

  And I DEFINITELY ...

• At September 4, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Do kids come here? In any case if they have access to the inernet then there are far worse things ...

• At September 4, 2009, Evan wrote:

  And guys if you do look around you can find Ms. Magnificent on DVD sold online or probably at a ...

• At September 4, 2009, Tonebone wrote:

  Pixar was founded by George Lucas, and bought by Steve Jobs.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Lucas

  They merely partnered with Disney, and remained a self-contained entity ...

• At September 4, 2009, Anonymous wrote:

  I think you might have a mistake when talking about mr. Gerry. You have 1912, though if he signed the ...

• At September 4, 2009, Randy B. wrote:

  "There's no way Pixar bought Disney as that Pixar was started as a joint venture between Disney and Apple. (Or, ...

• At September 4, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  I could be wrong, but I also remember hearing that Pixar was a primary factor in Michael Eisner being ousted. ...

• At September 4, 2009, Mxy wrote:

  @Donal G: ohhh, I read about Byrne doing that in a message board, then read most of his AF run ...

• At September 4, 2009, D wrote:

  1) I bet you've singlehandedly doubled or even tripled interest Dusty and Sweets McGee.

  2) I distinctly remember Desiree Cousteau ...

• At September 4, 2009, D wrote:

  What's really interesting about the WB/DC connection is that until the first Batman movie, none of the movies based on ...

• At September 4, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I don't see anything wrong with kids seeing a mention of a dildo. This idea that kids have to ...

• At September 4, 2009, stephen cade wrote:

  Forget all this stuff above--what I want to know is why nobody ever told me the Parliament/Funkadelic bass player was ...

• At September 4, 2009, Ted wrote:

  Is that why Warner Bros' logo was so damn ghetto and minimalist during that period?

  I would guess no, as MGM ...

• At September 4, 2009, ZZZ wrote:

  I don't know how many kids come here, but seriously: if someone already knows what a dildo is, how does ...

• At September 5, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Is that why Warner Bros' logo was so damn ghetto and minimalist during that period?

  WB's logo at the time had ...

• At September 5, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  I don't know how many kids come here, but seriously: if someone already knows what a dildo is, how does ...

• At September 5, 2009, Mary Cherry wrote:

  Someone asked about the Wonder Woman pilot from 1967 that was not picked up.

  Here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tKZJVhn7M4

• At September 5, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  "We are talking about s-e-x in front of the c-h-i-l-d-r-e-n!"

  "Sex Cauldron? I thought they closed that place down years ...

• At September 6, 2009, Joe wrote:

  I don`t know if this would be a comic book legend on itself but it has always been a mystery ...

• At September 6, 2009, Wesley Smith wrote:

  Wow! I had totally forgotten about the Secret Years! I must have been around 14 when that came out. I ...

• At September 6, 2009, Atomic_Kommie_Comics wrote:

  D said...

  What's really interesting about the WB/DC connection is that until the first Batman movie, none of the movies based ...

• At September 6, 2009, Eric Henry wrote:

  "In any event, in 1912, then Governor Gerry decided to have Massachusetts redistricted so that the Federalists would get their ...

• At September 6, 2009, Kimota94 wrote:

  That Warner/DC legend was so incredibly wacky that I had to read it aloud to my wife as I figured ...

• At September 7, 2009, Jeff Knight wrote:

  Wesley Smith wrote:

  "I would SO pay money to see an Earth populated by the characters that DC sued over copyright ...

• At September 7, 2009, D wrote:

  Atomic Kommie Comics: I know, it's strange, but we associate Warners with DC so much that we forget that most ...

• At September 7, 2009, Also hat Disney jetzt Marvel gekauft. Genauso wie Warner DC gekauft hat. Oder not? « HIRNWICHSE. (ich herz comics) wrote:

  [...] Comicbook Legends revealed [...]

• At September 7, 2009, Kamino Neko wrote:

  I invite everyone who's offended by the dildo reference to Newfoundland.

  We can visit Dildo, South Dildo, and Dildo Island. Which ...

• At September 7, 2009, Mark wrote:

  I've see Ms. Magnificent. It's pretty good. Actually has a story, a stupid story but it's got one. ...

• At September 8, 2009, Mark Drummond wrote:

  The pre- and post-lawsuit versions of Superwoman/Ms. Magnificent can both be found by searching the internet, though the pre-lawsuit version ...

• At September 10, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #223 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

• At September 13, 2009, John wrote:

  Related to the second topic:

  Back when Disney bought Pixar, there were rumors that Steve Jobs would become Disney's new CEO:

  http://www.slate.com/id/2134852/

  The ...

• At September 28, 2009, jmy wrote:

  I see online that a few sites distribute Ms. Magnificent, but I would love an unedited copy of Superwoman. ...

• At October 5, 2009, Jon Morse wrote:

  It's always interesting when two large companies are combined either through purchase or merger. Realistically, when you have two ...

• At October 12, 2009, Drew wrote:

  Wow, everyone seems to be raving about "Dusty and Sweets McGee," but that has to be the most horribly written ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-second in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty-one.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend this week's Photography Legends Revealed for a story that can best be described as "Ivy League Nude Photo Scandal."

I just couldn't help myself with this week's theme once I saw the number of this installment!

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: There were FIVE different Two-Faces in Batman comics of the 1940s and 1950s!

STATUS: True

In 1942's Detective Comics #66, we meet Harvey Kent, the villain known as Two-Face!

His first story continues in Detective Comics #68 (anyone know why the issue gap? My best guess is that while working on #66, they realized they liked the character enough to want to give him another issue, but had already begun the next issue, but I don't know if that's accurate)...

Interestingly enough, the next year, in Detective Comics #80, the Bat-trio of Bill Finger, Jerry Robinson and Bob Kane decided to give Harvey Kent a happy ending!

What's even stranger for the comics of the day, they decided that they did not want to go back on their happy ending!

So when it was determined to have Two-Face appear in the Batman comic strip in 1946, a NEW character was introduced - an actor named Harvey Apollo...

The character was too cool to go to waste, though, so in 1948, in Batman #50, we saw a brand-new Two-Face, who was really just Harvey Dent's butler in disguise...

The official "next" Two-Face showed up in 1951's Batman #68, in a story written by Bill Finger. Echoing the Batman comic strip idea, the new Two-Face was an actor, Paul Sloane, who was meant to just PLAY Two-Face!

Bizarrely enough, less than a year later, over in Detective Comics #187, writer Don Cameron was bringing the Two-Face character back, only he was sticking with the previous "guy pretending to be Harvey Dent even though Dent is still a good guy" story idea (naturally, no reference is made to Sloane).

This guy, George Blake, was ALSO an actor!

Then, two years later, in Batman #81, writer David Vern decided to bring Harvey Dent back as Two-Face...

From 1954 to 1971, the character basically fell by the wayside (with a few random appearances here and there) before Denny O'Neil and Neal Adams proudly brought Two-Face back into the Rogues Gallery in Batman #234...

So that's the bizarre publication history of one of Batman's greatest villains! Weird, eh?

Thanks SO much to William F. Jourdain's amazing Golden Age Batman site for the assistance in finding all the Two-Faces (and for the scans of the 1946 comic strip)!

COMIC LEGEND: A synopsis for Fantastic Four #1 written by Stan Lee shows that Lee was the one who created the Fantastic Four's names, powers and basic personalities.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

Determining who came up with what in the early days of Marvel Comics is always difficult, partially because Jack Kirby has been dead for 15 years, partially because Stan Lee tends not to have the best memory about details, but mostly because these comics were not intended to be something people would be studying decades later, so there wasn't exactly careful documentation of what was going on.

That's why it was such a big deal when, about two decades ago, the original synopsis Stan Lee wrote for Fantastic Four #1 surfaced.

Here is a re-typed version of the synopsis (with the original XXXs left in, as well as the various typos like saying "change change that gimmick"), as posted in 1991's Fantastic Four #358, the 30th Anniversary issue of the Fantastic Four (click to enlarge so you can read them better)...

Now, as you can see by what Lee writes in the top of the first page, this was offered up as, "See! Stan Lee came up with the names, the powers and the basic personalities of all the members of the Fantastic Four! Sure, Jack Kirby had to design their appearances (which IS important), but Stan did most of the personality work already!"

Lee has said that he feels that Kirby was the co-creator of the book, BECAUSE of the stuff that Lee felt that Kirby added to the book after the synopsis, as Lee has described this as the debut of the famous "Marvel Method" (where a writer and artist create a book in concert by the artist doing most of the page by page plotting based on a general description by the writer who later comes in and scripts what the artist creates).

But while I think that it IS clear that this was a case of the "Marvel Method," what I find bizarre is the notion that this synopsis tells us that Lee came up with the characters.

We know for a fact (both Lee and Kirby have confirmed this) that Lee, early on, would write Kirby synopses for issues which Kirby would then use to create a plot. We also know that as time went by, these synopses would slowly get less detailed until it was basically Kirby doing what he wanted and Lee would script what Kirby gave him (this would only be the case on books where Lee totally trusted his artist, like he did with Kirby and Steve Ditko).

However, we also know that Kirby and Lee would talk on the telephone about the plot of the issue BEFORE the synopsis was written!

We do not know that was the case in this instance, and Lee certainly seems to suggest that it was not, but really, when you look at the distinct similarities between the Fantastic Four and Jack Kirby's earlier series for DC Comics, the Challengers of the Unknown, a very reasonable scenario is that the two talked about the book BEFORE the synopsis and what Lee came up with in this synopsis was the Challengers of the Unknown filtered through Lee's particular take on things.

That take, by the way, is also a very diplomatic one, as it acknowledges BOTH men as the "creator" of the Fantastic Four, as it was something that they worked on together.

That might not be the truth, though - maybe this synopsis WAS written solely by Lee without input by Kirby.

That's possible.

But there's nothing in this synopsis that says that the other scenario could not be the truth (heck, there's some stuff in it that makes it clear that Lee DID work out ideas with other people, as he acknowledges he cleared the Torch's power use with the "Comics Association"). It is not "proof" that Stan Lee came up with the characters' names, powers, basic personalities, and it is often proffered as though it is.

By the by, since I don't think this document "proves" anything one way or the other, I didn't think it necessary to get into the other possible take on the situation, which Steve Sherman posted in the comments section (Sherman, if you're unfamiliar, was an assistant and friend to Jack Kirby), but since Steve was good enough to stop by with his personal experience of asking Kirby about this topic, I figure it's worth pointing out an alternate theory regarding this synopsis.

Here's Steve:

I asked Jack about that synopsis. He told me that it was written way after FF #1 was published. I believe him.

Certainly a possible explanation, as well.

Thanks to Steve Sherman for stopping by with this comment!

COMIC LEGEND: On the Fox Kids Spider-Man show of the 1990s, the Sinister Six was re-named the Insidious Six because of executive interference.

STATUS: True

As noted in a recent installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, Fox had some rather...interesting views, censorship-wise, on what was acceptable on a superhero animated series.

The Spider-Man Animated Series of the early 1990s had some similar problems, including a situation with the Sinister Six.

Or should I say...the Insidious Six!

Yep, when producer/writer John Semper went to write a multi-part story based on the introduction of the Sinister Six in Amazing Spider-Man Annual #1...

right down to the power loss, he thought it was a good idea.

Even though already it would be a bit different because he would have to use a different team (based on the characters available in the cartoon), so he had to sub in Rhino, Shocker, Scorpion and the Chameleon in for Vulture, Electro, Sandman and Kraven.

But then the name was changed from Sinister Six to Insidious Six!

According to interviews by Semper in the mid-90s, there was worry that the name "sinister" was too harsh/too scary/too something.

So they became the Insidious Six...

Here they all are...

Here they are versus Spidey (notice Chameleon pretending to be Spider-Man)...

Naturally, the fact that the X-Men currently had a major villain on THEIR animated series named, of course...

Mister Sinister, was irritating, but standards HAD changed from 1992, when Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series debuted with more leeway from censors. By 1994, when Spidey's series debuted, the outrage over the violence on shows like Power Rangers made the networks skittish.

I asked Semper about the situation, and he honestly did not remember one way or the other. He said that that was exactly the type of thing that the network DID do, he just doesn't remember if that was what happened here.

He also, though, offered up an alternative theory that is believable enough that I will share with you all.

Another way that the network interfered with the Spider-Man cartoon was denying Semper the use of certain characters. For instance, Electro and Sandman were off limites because James Cameron planned on using them as the villains in the ephemeral mid-nineties live action Spider-Man movie. Similarly, Kraven and Vulture also had not appeared on the show yet. So Semper says that it is possible he changed the name because it was not the actual Sinister Six, and as a long time comic book fan he understood how changing the story can sometimes be annoying.

I personally believe 1996 John Semper, but I cannot deny that 2009 John Semper suggests a believable scenario... So, let's just say that network interference, one way or the other, kept the Sinister Six from appearing on the Spider-Man cartoon show.

Sound good?

Then let's call it a day.

Thanks so much to 1996 John Semper and 2009 John Semper for being very forthcoming, whatever the decade.

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

120 Comments

• At August 28, 2009, Jack Fear wrote:

  Perhaps the word "sinister" was banned because it was originally a discriminatory term, associating left-handedness with immorality, and using it ...

• At August 28, 2009, KaraokeFanboy wrote:

  Wasn't there a recent storyline in Detective with a Paul Sloan impersonating villains or something? I remember enjoying it, ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Huh? Your interpretation of Lee's introduction is bizarre. Why would he be trying to convince anyone that he ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt D wrote:

  That Two-Face stuff is pretty interesting. I could totally see Alex Ross or someone going back and making him related ...

• At August 28, 2009, Kevin T. Brown wrote:

  It's funny.... In the first page of Detective Comics #66 that you show, Harvey Kent gets hit on the ...

• At August 28, 2009, bongoes wrote:

  Wow, Fox's censorship was really stupid.

• At August 28, 2009, Scott G wrote:

  I think the editors for DC back then are working for Marvel now!

• At August 28, 2009, Chris Kiser wrote:

  Great column this week, Brian, especially the Two-Face item! I can't believe there were incarnations of this character that ...

• At August 28, 2009, Mike Klander wrote:

  The Two-Face history is confusing. Like all of Batman's villian's gallery! That's what you get for having such a ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt Beahan wrote:

  I'd love to see an article on Fox BS&P's treatment of that Spider-Man cartoon. Thing had so many edicts imposed ...

• At August 28, 2009, Jake wrote:

  I love how Dr. Ekhart fixes Two-Face. That's classic.

• At August 28, 2009, Tom Daylight wrote:

  "Dr Ekhart" fixed Two-Face's face? As in Aaron Eckhart? Creepy...

  Where's your source for the Insidious Six thing being a Fox ...

• At August 28, 2009, Tom Daylight wrote:

  Whoop, Jake beat me to the punch...

• At August 28, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  @Matt Bird

  Are you kidding with that question? Why would Lee be trying to minimize the input Kirby had on ...

• At August 28, 2009, David S wrote:

  I like that the Spidey Villians were called the Insidious Six. Could they really be the Sinister Six with ...

• At August 28, 2009, jazzbo wrote:

  My mind has been irrevocably damaged by seeing the word "sinister." Thanks a lot, Brian.

• At August 28, 2009, David Serchay wrote:

  How nice of the Doctors to already have Harvey dressed in a two-colored hat and coat (with the colors split ...

• At August 28, 2009, RobM wrote:

  "From 1954 to 1971, [Two-Face] basically fell by the wayside" -- Wasn't this a result of the establishment of the ...

• At August 28, 2009, Cass wrote:

  I remember reading somewhere (it might've been here even) that Spider-Man couldn't break glass in that cartoon because... glass is ...

• At August 28, 2009, Si__ wrote:

  I can only see the panels of the last legend, the others are broken. Is it just me?

• At August 28, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  If you compare Kirby's plotting in FF w/ his Captain America plotting or Thor plotting, there are major tonal and ...

• At August 28, 2009, Bill Reed wrote:

  I love how every one of them shouts some variant of "Agh! My face!" Classic.

  The original ideas for the FF ...

• At August 28, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  Stan is notorious for fudging the story on a lot of this stuff, usually just tailoring the story for his ...

• At August 28, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  Any progress on that Kupperberg + MoTU = Metron ~ ( Zodac / Zodak ) research, Brian?

• At August 28, 2009, Brian wrote:

  Two Face - the Comics Code had his origin altered so that he wasn't scarred by acid. The recent ...

• At August 28, 2009, David Hackett wrote:

  The Paul Sloan "Two Face" has been used a few times before Brubacher. There was a "Two-Face vs. Two-Face" ...

• At August 28, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  "Spider-Man couldn't break glass in that cartoon because... glass is scary?"

  Repeatable behavior - the big fear was that kids would ...

• At August 28, 2009, Jeff Holland wrote:

  Sir, as a Left-Handed American, I find your repeated use of the word "sinister" HIGHLY offensive! I am shocked - ...

• At August 28, 2009, Charles Parmer wrote:

  One reason I could see for the "Insidious Six" but Mr Sinister getting to keep his name is the fact ...

• At August 28, 2009, random surfer wrote:

  Seconding (or thirding or whatever) "citation needed" on Sinister being an unacceptable word. Couldn't it have been that they ...

• At August 28, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  BS&P is very often run by people whose ideas about children are psychotically detached from reality.

  There's a screwed-up ...

• At August 28, 2009, Eric Sean wrote:

  Gotta love that Dick Sprang and Jerry Robinson artwork.

• At August 28, 2009, Strider wrote:

  Bill Reed -

  I laughed every time he uttered "Auuugh, my face!" also. That's good stuff right there.

• At August 28, 2009, Steve Sherman wrote:

  I asked Jack about that synopsis. He told me that it was written way after FF #1 was published. I ...

• At August 28, 2009, Rene wrote:

  We'll probably never know who did what in the early days of Marvel. Fans oppinions are very influenced by their ...

• At August 28, 2009, Scabby wrote:

  Gol-darn it.

• At August 28, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Omar Karindu, great comments.

  What irks me most about the "bomb-shelter" mode of parenting is that it excuses the parents of ...

• At August 28, 2009, Corey wrote:

  Wow, the Two-Face stuff is interesting.

  Based on those pages, I think Harvey Kent and Harvey Dent are supposed to be ...

• At August 28, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I am often shocked by the censorship on kid's TV, or even adult TV. Back in the '70s there ...

• At August 28, 2009, coconutphone wrote:

  Ahh the Golden Age. Where comic book writers, artists and readers had the attentions pan and memory of gnats.

  Loved ...

• At August 28, 2009, Crowley wrote:

  weirdest thing about the two face origin is the fact that it seems every gangster in Gotham just happened to ...

• At August 28, 2009, Spidermaniac wrote:

  Love the two face stuff.

  I'm disappointed in the Lee/Kirby analysis. Other than printing the synopsis, the rest is just ...

• At August 28, 2009, jccalhoun wrote:

  i love that they named the acid "Vitriol" and even reused the name at least once.

• At August 28, 2009, radar wrote:

  What I always read about Fox Kids' erratic censorship is that it had a lot to do with the huge ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  jefhamlin - I get what you're saying about Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes, but such debates were far more self-contained ...

• At August 28, 2009, AJ wrote:

  I always got the impression that Saban wanted to aim the Spider-Man cartoon at younger kids more than with the ...

• At August 28, 2009, ParanoidObsessive wrote:

  "I love that they named the acid "Vitriol" and even reused the name at least once."

  Well, vitriol IS a real ...

• At August 28, 2009, Miken Ayers wrote:

  I love how Fox wouldn't let them use the word Sinister, when episodes dealing with Black Cat's father knowing the ...

• At August 28, 2009, Alan Coil wrote:

  jefhamlin said:

  "The Comics Journal and Amazing Heroes chronicled Kirby's fight for his original art in the mid-80s..."

  That was a quarter ...

• At August 28, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "I asked Jack about that synopsis. He told me that it was written way after FF #1 was published. I ...

• At August 28, 2009, Ruler Bulon wrote:

  Great article, as always. Always wondered about the Insidious Six.

  Small error, though - Kraven had appeared in the first ...

• At August 28, 2009, Alex Dragon wrote:

  I really don't understand why some fans are so hung up on the Lee/Kirby who did what stuff. That said....

  I ...

• At August 28, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Right on Pedro. That synopsis may be some sort of post-facto forgery as Steve Sherman suggests... written by Stan ...

• At August 28, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Thanks for the Two-Face material, Brian, it is news to me! Wonder why they reinvented the same character so often ...

• At August 28, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Your version of the "Marvel method", while fashionable, is also demonstrably incorrect. Read the last year of Kirby's FF and ...

• At August 28, 2009, The Mutt wrote:

  You know know what one of the greatest things about comics is?

  I knew the word "insidious" when I was seven ...

• At August 28, 2009, BP wrote:

  @Alex Dragon-The reason that so many people get up in arms about who did what between Lee and Kirby is ...

• At August 28, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  According to Lee, the idea of a Marvel superhero team came from Martin Goodman, who saw the success of DC's ...

• At August 28, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  On the other hand, the last few issues of Lee/Kirby Thor were possibly the best the series ever had, so ...

• At August 28, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  I say thee nay, I live or die with Thor #128-130, the Thunder in the Netherworld stories. It's my one ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  MarkAndrew-- Yes, but Ditko, not Lee, was credited right there in the original comics as plotter of those final Spider-Man ...

• At August 28, 2009, Matt W wrote:

  To Bill Reed and the others who mentioned 'Ugh My Face!'... is it not more absurd and hilarious that all ...

• At August 28, 2009, Andy wrote:

  Truly, being a golden age comics writer must have been one of the great jobs of our time. Because ...

• At August 29, 2009, tekende wrote:

  Lee is well known for changing or "forgetting" details on who did what when it suits his purposes. And the ...

• At August 29, 2009, Lyle wrote:

  As I was looking through all the different Two-Faces, and how all the ones after Harvey Kent/Dent were actors, I'm ...

• At August 29, 2009, Rene wrote:

  Matt, I don't think it was just the Internet. A big part of the renewal of anti-Stan Lee sentiment started ...

• At August 29, 2009, jefhamlin wrote:

  @Matt Bird

  Do you mean by "self-contained" that only those in the industry knew about the Kirby fight? It WAS ...

• At August 29, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  As I understand it, Ditko was way more vocal about his displeasures than Kirby. After leaving Marvel and Charlton, Ditko ...

• At August 29, 2009, Blulk wrote:

  In the Long Halloween, Gilda calls Harvey her Apollo

  And Kirby did design Spidey, Stan had Ditko draw over him for ...

• At August 29, 2009, Matt Bird wrote:

  Rene and jefhamlin: I agree. I was there, and it was a big deal in the 80s at those ...

• At August 29, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I was there as well, and at the tender age of 13 I knew there was controversy over the whole ...

• At August 29, 2009, Blulk wrote:

  I agree. Many people, myself in included, find it easy to bash Lee in favor of Kirby, but it's obvious ...

• At August 29, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Matt Bird, I think you're right that the internet let a lot of fans read about the old controversies, and ...

• At August 29, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  Matt Bird -

  Oh yeah. I forgot Ditko did get solo plotting credit towards the end.

  I'm ...

• At August 29, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  "And Kirby did design Spidey, Stan had Ditko draw over him for Amazing Fantasy #15, supposedly to make him less ...

• At August 29, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  And it was featured in an earlier installment of Urban Legends Revealed!

  Plus, my book handles the "Kirby created Spider-Man?" bit!

  Check ...

• At August 29, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  I do have the book, Warlord Cro! But although it touches on the subject, it doesn't mention the Kirby/Ditko AF ...

• At August 29, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, good point, Pedro, perhaps I should have put the legend about Ditko's cover being rejected in the book?

  http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2005/12/29/comic-book-urban-legends-revealed-31/

  It didn't ...

• At August 29, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Thanks for pointing that out Pedro. Would that we only had Kirby's rejected 5 page Spider-Man story that preceded Ditko's ...

• At August 29, 2009, Pedro Bouça wrote:

  That's even more complicated than that. Simon claims that the pages Kirby submitted were in truth the original Spiderman/Silver Spider ...

• At August 29, 2009, Ivan Linares, from Recife (Brazil) wrote:

  On 28/aug/09, Sijo said:

  "And dammit, but Two-Face's origin has even more plot holes in it that I imagined. Batman, a ...

• At August 29, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  There's a whole weird history to masked people testifying in the DCU; real-world lawyer and comics aficionado Robert Ingersoll helped ...

• At August 29, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Also of note: Helfer's Post-Crisis and Year One compatible Two-Face origin was the story that introduced the concept that Two-Face ...

• At August 29, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Ah I forgot about CC. Beck's involvement Pedro. Than you. I doubt Kirby pilfered the thing lock, stock and barrel. ...

• At August 29, 2009, Scavenger wrote:

  As I recall, the Ingersoll Act was named for for Bob, but he didn't name it.

  I have a vague recollection ...

• At August 30, 2009, John Seavey wrote:

  So do you suppose that music fans have this kind of argument about Paul McCartney and John Lennon, and who ...

• At August 30, 2009, ninjawookie wrote:

  I can't remember where I read it, but they left Two Face alone because it was thought he was too ...

• At August 30, 2009, Joe S. Walker wrote:

  "Sinister" and "insidious" don't actually mean the same thing - in fact, they're almost opposites. To be insidious is to ...

• At August 30, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Ah, I had heard about the law allowing costumed heroes to testify in court in the DC Universe ( I ...

• At August 30, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  Sijo:

  They've shown that there are standardized methods of biometric scanning and testing to make sure it's the same meta in ...

• At August 30, 2009, Kimota94 wrote:

  This column provides the best weekend reading of anything on the Web, if you ask me (which you didn't, but ...

• At August 30, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  I think with the Beatles it was more clearly defined as to who wrote what.

  Not in every case I'm ...

• At August 30, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Beatle's songwriting is usually pretty easy to work out, because, with just a few exceptions, Paul sang the songs he ...

• At August 30, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Thanks, Kimota94.

  By the by, no one mentioned how awesome my theme was for this week!!

• At August 31, 2009, Earlofthercs wrote:

  The Stan=Paul (this one works best; they've even similar personalities), Jack=John, Ditko=George, comparisons get used all the time, but ...

• At August 31, 2009, Earlofthercs wrote:

  PS Awesome theme this week.

• At August 31, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Maybe John Romita is Ringo. You hear all sorts of nasty accusations about Stan, Jack, and Ditko, but nobody ...

• At August 31, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  two, four, six?

• At August 31, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Basically! :)

  For the 222 installment, I had 2, then 2+2, then 2+2+2!

• At August 31, 2009, Omar Karindu, with the power of SUPER-hypocrisy! wrote:

  No, clearly Vinnie Colletta was Ringo.

• At August 31, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Maybe Dick Ayers was Ringo. He filled a supporting role competently, and had a few minor solo hits.

• At August 31, 2009, T. wrote:

  the exact same dialogue was reused, with writer/editor Andy Helfer's blessing, by Jeph Loeb for Two-Face's backstory in The Long ...

• At August 31, 2009, Carl wrote:

  I like how in two completely separate trials, a two headed coin was a key piece of evidence and the ...

• At August 31, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  So Steranko would basically be Yoko Ono...

• At August 31, 2009, Earlofthercs wrote:

  Interesting suggestions.

  But who's Brian Epstein? Pete Best? Stu Sutcliffe?!

• At August 31, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Stu Sutcliffe is Larry Lieber. Little talent, got in because he had a personal relationship with a member of the ...

• At August 31, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  How about Joe Maneely for Pete Best?

• At August 31, 2009, Mike Loughlin wrote:

  Bingo.

• At August 31, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  Martin Goodman could be Epstein, I suppose.

• At August 31, 2009, Earlofthercs wrote:

  That works.

  Oh man, we need to write a full marvel/beatles history mash-up book. Its pity DCs so much older than ...

• At August 31, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  Joe Maneely was apparently artictically gifted and died, suddenly so there's yer basic Stuart Sutcliffe.

  Larry Leiber would be like Pete ...

• At August 31, 2009, fourthworlder wrote:

  "Artistically gifted" reads better...

• At September 1, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  "But who was Marvel's George Martin???"

  Joe Sinnott - the polisher.

• At September 1, 2009, LouReedRichards wrote:

  Ron Perelman = Yoko Ono/Mark David Chapman?

• At September 1, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  So has the original subject been completely forgotten now, and this is all about Marvel-Beatles analogies? I guess I'm ...

• At September 1, 2009, benday-dot wrote:

  Mike Loughlin... At the risk of being a wet blanket I don't think it's being fair to Larry Lieber to ...

• At September 3, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #222 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

• At September 8, 2009, suedenim wrote:

  Another possibility that comes to mind is that Mr. Sinister was the *reason* for the name change - i.e., some ...

• At September 9, 2009, Callum wrote:

  That Two-Face trivia IS really interesting. So then I went online and started reading some more about the previous ...

• At September 9, 2009, Arvin Motion Graphics wrote:

  Incidentally, the cowriter of that Spider Man episode, David Lee Miller, recently directed the indie feature "My Suicide," one of ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and twenty-first in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and twenty.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend this week's TV Legends Revealed for a disturbing story involving prejudice and Cagney and Lacey.

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Irving Forbush's face was never shown!

STATUS: False

Forbush Man, the superhero name of fictional Marvel gofer Irving Forbush, appeared regularly in the pages of Not Brand Echh...

and What The--?!

Stan Lee also referenced him repeatedly in his Bullpen Bulletins.

He made a recent memorable appearance in Nextwave...

In any event, one of the recurring gags of Forbush Man was that we never see his actual face, even when he was not wearing his bucket mask.

Here are some examples of this gag from his classic origin story from Not Brand Echh #5, by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby (with Tom Sutton finishes over Kirby's layouts)...

However, Irving Forbush's face WAS seen and it was seen years earlier!

You see, during the mid 1950s, Stan Lee tried a Mad magazine knockoff (as did everyone else). It was called Snafu.

The "founder" of Snafu was, you guessed it, Irving Forbush!!

And here he is, in the "flesh," so to speak!

Pretty neat, huh?

Thanks to Kevin C. Garcia, who shared this bit with me. Be sure to check out Kevin's website, Monomythic, which "is dedicated to everything iconic about the hero, and every version and evolution of the hero myth – from ancient poems in dead languages to blockbuster movies, colorful super-heroes and state-of-the-art video games." Kevin's entry on Irving Forbush has even more pictures of Irving and his family of Forbushes!

It's pretty funny that Stan Lee really must have dug the sound of "Irving Forbush" to re-use the character like that.

Thanks, also, to The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive, for the Not Brand Echh scans. Whenever someone can save me from scanning, they are like royalty to me!

COMIC LEGEND: The phrase "back to the drawing board" was invented by a New Yorker cartoon.

STATUS: True

Like pretty much all magazines, as popular as the New Yorker still is, it probably will never reach the same level of widespread cultural influence that it had in the past, and the New Yorker was one of the most culturally significant magazines of the 20th Century.

One of the areas where the magazine really matched the cultural zeitgeist was the magazine's famous cartoons.

A 1928 cartoon by Carl Rose (with a caption by E.B. White, later writer of Stuart Little and Charlotte's Web) turned "I Say It's Spinach" into a national catch phrase!

But for adding to the common vernacular, it's hard to compare to Peter Arno's 1941 cartoon, which shows a man reacting to a plane crash by simply saying...

Naturally, the phrase became popular and now "back to the drawing board" is such a common phrase it is hard to believe that it ever was NOT a turn of phrase, let alone that it came from a cartoon in the New Yorker!!

COMIC LEGEND: A large portion of John Byrne's Next Men came from his proposal for Ravage 2099 with Stan Lee.

STATUS: Basically True

Reader Travis wrote in after reading the Comic Book Legends Revealed from two weeks ago, where I discussed how John Byrne's series proposal for DC, Freaks, was used as a partial basis for a number of other Byrne works, including 2112, Next Men and Danger Unlimited.

Well, Travis was thinking:

I was reading this week's installment about John Byrne's Next Men being originally drawn from a DC title called Freaks. If I remember correctly, however, I read an interview Byrne did where he stated that a large portion of Next Men came from his collaboration with Stan Lee on what would be come Ravage 2099. Can you wave your magic wand of clarity and tell us how Next Men really happened?

Certainly, Travis!

You see, in an earlier installment of Comic Book Legends Revealed, I mentioned that Byrne's original 2099 story that he worked on with Stan Lee eventually became 2112, which was most of the basis for Next Men.

So, you see, it's ALL true - his Freaks work influenced his 2099 work which became 2112 which was the basis for Next Men, so the recent Comic Book Legends Revealed talking about how Freaks influenced Next Men is not mutually exclusive with Byrne's 2099 work being the influence for Next Men!

Thanks for the question, Travis!

Consider the wand waved!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

41 Comments

• At August 21, 2009, Comic Book Legends Revealed #221 wrote:

  [...] here to read [...]

• At August 21, 2009, Adam wrote:

  Y'know, there was an "Irving Forbush" in the Stan Lee story in Incredible Hulk #600. Mind you, it was ...

• At August 21, 2009, Brian wrote:

  I might be looking at him wrong, but Forbush reminds me of Ma Hunkle's Red Tornado. Is there a ...

• At August 21, 2009, Paul1963 wrote:

  Yeah, both Forbush-Man and the original Red Tornado both have the red-longjohns-and-cooking-pot thing going on, don't they?

  Ahh, "Nextwave." I ...

• At August 21, 2009, Tekende wrote:

  So "back to the drawing board" wasn't a turn of phrase at all prior to that cartoon? Looking at it ...

• At August 21, 2009, Ron Moses wrote:

  I've never been able to determine whether Byrne's 2112 was any kind of reference to Rush's 2112. Anyone know?

• At August 21, 2009, Brian wrote:

  Tekende - not according to this: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/back-to-the-drawing-board.html

  Do links work? (Shrugs) Anyway, it looks like Brian's on the nose ...

• At August 21, 2009, Richard J. Marcej wrote:

  Nice choice with the "Not Brand Ecch" stuff today, since today is NBE artist Marie Severin's 80th birthday!

• At August 21, 2009, Ian wrote:

  "So "back to the drawing board" wasn't a turn of phrase at all prior to that cartoon? Looking at it ...

• At August 21, 2009, Liam wrote:

  I love that comic from the New Yorker with the plane crash.

• At August 21, 2009, DrDon wrote:

  BTW, Andrew "Captain Comics" Smith gives the Legends book a good review...

  http://captaincomics.ning.com/profiles/blogs/maggie-jiggs-and-myths-about

• At August 21, 2009, Father Dan Graves wrote:

  Brian:

  I have also wondered if there was a Ma Hunkel/Forbush connection... I put my vote behind an inquiry into this ...

• At August 21, 2009, kevin wrote:

  Tekende -- he's the designer of the airplane.

• At August 21, 2009, Exclesior wrote:

  Great stuff.

  Apologies for my past non-contributions to this blog.

• At August 21, 2009, Sean wrote:

  "Looking at it from that point of view, I have trouble seeing how that cartoon would make sense at all, ...

• At August 21, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  Mr. Forbush also appeared regularly in marvel's short-lived teen magazine "Pizzazz", usually in the letter columns or asking questions in ...

• At August 21, 2009, Mxy wrote:

  In the forbush story: Is that Mia Farrow in the same panel as Woody Allen??

• At August 21, 2009, Greg Burgas wrote:

  I like how the Not Brand Echh comics have the tagline "Who says a comic book has to be good??" ...

• At August 21, 2009, Batlash wrote:

  I'd love to see a Not Brand Echh tpb collection. I loved that comic when I was a kid and ...

• At August 21, 2009, Mary Warner wrote:

  I think it's Twiggy, not Mia Farrow, but I could be wrong.

• At August 21, 2009, buttler wrote:

  There were other parody heroes who traipsed around in red long johns too, but Forbush-Man definitely looks influenced by the ...

• At August 21, 2009, Jason Green wrote:

  Hey Brian, why didn't you use a What The--?! cover that actually had Forbush Man on it? Like, I dunno, ...

• At August 21, 2009, Rod G. wrote:

  I've read about Snafu.

  "Founded by Irving Forbush".

  "Losted by his cousin,Melvin Forbush".

• At August 21, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Hey Brian, why didn't you use a What The--?! cover that actually had Forbush Man on it? Like, I dunno, ...

• At August 21, 2009, David Murgo wrote:

  I'm with "Batlash"...I'd love to see an Essentials volume of Not Brand Ecch...for all the reasons listed above (Marie Severin ...

• At August 21, 2009, Jingoistic Crowd wrote:

  I'll get in on that Essential Not Brand Ecch... request too. The bit that made it in to one of ...

• At August 21, 2009, Jingoistic Crowd wrote:

  I mean, USA! USA!

• At August 21, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  If Stan used the name Irving Forbush more than once (see Vinnie B. above telling us about PIZZAZZ), I'm not ...

• At August 22, 2009, Zabba wrote:

  Brian, what's even more interesting about the Ravage 2099 story was how John Byrne left the book. I think it ...

• At August 22, 2009, Know_Access wrote:

  Wait, so Forbush-Man was actually used in-continuity? Wow. That page does make me want to pick up Nextwave, ...

• At August 22, 2009, Frank Rook wrote:

  Forbush Man once crossed over into the Spider-Ham universe during a back-up story in Marvel Tales. He gets around.

• At August 22, 2009, Stephane Savoie wrote:

  Nextwave's place in continuity is dubious. While many of the characters have retained the costumes and some personality traits ...

• At August 22, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Nextwave's place in the Marvel Universe can be explained easily, actually: as many of you know, there IS a Marvel ...

• At August 22, 2009, Bobo Newsome wrote:

  As much as I enjoy all Brian's Legends series, my eyes gloss over at mention of Not Brand Ecch. ...

• At August 22, 2009, Scott Harris wrote:

  I agree with Bobo here. Not Brand Ecch seemed really cool right up until I actually got an issue of ...

• At August 22, 2009, Mike Blake wrote:

  Forbush is definitely a real name:

  http://www.zazzle.com/forbush+falcons+high+east+gifts

  http://13thmass.org/aboutus.html

  And hey guys, Not Brand Ecch! was supposed to be childish. God forbid a comic ...

• At August 22, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  About Byrne and Rush's 2112:

  Someone asked about a connection between these two in the Next Men letters pages and Byrne ...

• At August 22, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Ravage 2099 was Stan Lee's idea for a future Marvel title, Rob.

  So it's doubtful that Byrne was all that involved ...

• At August 22, 2009, Baron Von Cruzer wrote:

  The Stan Lee and John Byrne collaboration that became 2099 was tentatively titled by Stan as "The Mighty Marvel World ...

• At August 23, 2009, I AM FeAR wrote:

  I dont really care if it's in continuity or not, NEXTWAVE rules and everyone needs to read it NOW!

  No wait.... ...

• At August 23, 2009, Rob Ocelot wrote:

  @I AM Fear:

  The essential JBNM books are pretty good, the story has aged well and it includes the hard-to-find-even-at-publication GN ...

Welcome to the two-hundred and twentieth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and nineteen.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend last week's Movie Legends Revealed for a really interesting Marlon Brando story from his first film.

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: John Rozum was credited for an issue of X-Man that he did not script.

STATUS: True

In August 1995, X-Man #8 came out, with a plot by Jeph Loeb and a script by John Rozum.

However, that was not actually the case.

Here's John on the topic...

I think there was a very bare bones plot provided by the regular writer with some thematic ideas, and my job was to flesh that out into an actual story. The editor and I were both happy with it, especially given the fact that I had to write it in one night, but at the last minute new ideas were decided upon by the writer, and most of the dialogue was changed by the editor to reflect this, but the way it was done was that it was all catered to fit into already existing balloons. This not only made it awkward because nothing anybody was saying matched their expressions or often what they were doing, but people were saying things out loud which they should have been thinking and vice versa.

I'm perfectly willing to take responsibility when my own writing is subpar, but it makes me cringe when stuff like that happens, and no one reading the comic has any idea it happened. It just makes me look bad and sloppy.

Here, then, are a few pages from the issue that seem to jibe up with John's take on the story...

Well, the record is cleared now, John! Thanks for doing the clearing up!

COMIC LEGEND: Stan Lee intended for Professor X and Magneto to represent Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, respectively.

STATUS: I'm Going With False

Reader James wrote in recently to ask about the legend that:

Stan Lee originally intended for Professor X and Magneto to be the comic book equivalent of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

It's an interesting situation, made much more difficult by the fact that Stan Lee himself every once in awhile has said words to that effect.

However, I just don't buy it.

It's certainly true that later on when Chris Claremont took over the writing of the X-Men that eventually the characters of Professor Charles Xavier and Magneto (whatever they're calling him these days) became a version of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X for mutantkind.

It was during Chris Claremont's run on the book that the civil rights analogy for the X-Men became an evident subtext of the comic book.

The most notable example of this is most likely Claremont's X-Men graphic novel (with artist Brent Anderson), God Loves, Man Kills...

However, in the original comics, it seems a lot more likely (and pretty clear), really, that Stan Lee was not giving the work any sort of deeper subtext beyond "these heroes are mutants, making them different than the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man and the Avengers," and he certainly was not positioning Professor X and Magneto as Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.

In fact, in other interviews, that WAS basically how Lee described the series, as a slightly more offbeat comic series that he originally wanted to call "The Mutants," but that was deemed TOO offbeat (and not commercial enough) of a title.

Really, though, if you don't believe me and think that Lee intended for the duo to stand-in for King and Malcolm X, then you certainly CAN believe this assortment of pages and panels from the first seven issues of the (Stan Lee-penned) X-Men comic book to show you that Professor X and Magneto really did not act like either Malcolm X or Martin Luther King...

Dude was chucking torpedoes at the X-Men!!

This was just a bad guy through and through, so unless Stan Lee had a really messed up idea of what Malcolm X was about (and if that were the case, I highly doubt Stan Lee would be admitting that later on), it appears that Lee is merely taking a little bit of credit for the work Chris Claremont later did with the characters.

A sort of "Oh yeah, that take on the characters you had was what I was thinking, too!" deal.

Nothing really wrong with that. I certainly don't expect a guy to remember exact details from work he did 46 years ago that he never intended at the time to still be discussed in 2009.

But if the question is "Did Stan Lee intend for Magneto and Professor X to be like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King?" then I'm going with no.

Thanks to James for the suggestion!

COMIC LEGEND: A 1950s issue of Haunt of Fear bears an uncanny resemblance to the Sam Raimi film Drag Me to Hell.

STATUS: True

Chris Irving sent me a head's up about this one the other day. It's pretty darn trippy.

However, spoilers for Drag Me to Hell will follow, so be forewarned!!

Drag Me to Hell is a horror film by Sam Raimi that came out earlier this year.

In it, Alison Lohman plays a young woman who is cursed by a Lamia, a demon that, once it possesses you, you're basically screwed, unless you can transfer the demon to another person (living or dead). In this instance, within three days of the demon possession, the person will be taken to hell.

Through the help of a swami and a seance (which her fiancee begrudgingly pays for, even though he doesn't believe any of it), she learns about the Lamia and how to stop it (transfer it to another person - in this case, the dead body of the woman who cursed her in the first place).

However, in a big twist, at the end of the film, in a scene at a train station with her fiancee, Lohman's character gets dragged to hell anyways (as she made a mistake with the Lamia transference).

Well, in Haunt of Fear #21, from July/August of 1953, in a story by Al Feldstein (with art by Jack Kamen and Bill Elder), we see a remarkably similar story!!

Here's the basic gist of the story...

Now, I don't actually believe that Sam Raimi took the idea for his film from this comic. I think it's almost certainly just a coincidence. It's not like the stories are even exactly the same. And it's not like Al Feldstein invented the Lamia - it's an established demo from Greek folklore (although it's a demon that has been used in many different ways over the years). But it's still interesting!

It WOULD be pretty funny, though, if EC, which was known for essentially appropriating story ideas from various forms of media (without crediting the swipe) was itself appropriated without credit!

Thanks to Chris for the suggestion! Be sure to check out his great site, Graphic NYC!

Okay, that's it for this week!

Thanks to the Grand Comic Book Database for this week's covers! And thanks to Brandon Hanvey for the Comic Book Legends Revealed logo!

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is cronb01@aol.com.

As you likely know by now, at the end of April, my book finally came out!

Here is the cover by artist Mickey Duzyj. I think he did a very nice job (click to enlarge)...

If you'd like to order it, you can use the following code if you'd like to send me a bit of a referral fee...

Was Superman a Spy?: And Other Comic Book Legends Revealed

See you next week!

62 Comments

• At August 14, 2009, T. wrote:

  I'd argue Chris Claremont had a messed up idea about what both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X were about ...

• At August 14, 2009, Squashua wrote:

  That "Drag Me to Hell" thing, at least the way you describe it, is a little TOO CLOSE for comfort. ...

• At August 14, 2009, D wrote:

  That's pretty freaky about Drag Me To Hell, actually. However, I still enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I ...

• At August 14, 2009, D wrote:

  And frankly. I take anything Stan Lee says about the glory days of Marvel with a grain of salt. I ...

• At August 14, 2009, William Watson wrote:

  Now I only saw the movie once but I seem to recall seeing something about it being adapted in the ...

• At August 14, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Now I only saw the movie once but I seem to recall seeing something about it being adapted in the ...

• At August 14, 2009, Mike wrote:

  Actually, "Drag Me To Hell" reminded me of one of my favorite movies, "Night Of the Demon," which had a ...

• At August 14, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Yeah, Mike, that's what I figure, as well.

  If the Lamia was not already an established piece of folklore, that'd ...

• At August 14, 2009, DDRM wrote:

  If Malcolm wanted to take over the world and if Prof. X opposed Johnson's Veitnam War on civil and human ...

• At August 14, 2009, Somebody wrote:

  You realise this is the THIRD "two-hundred and eighteenth" column in a row, right?

• At August 14, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Sounds like a cause for a celebration! 218 cheers for everyone!

• At August 14, 2009, R.C, Jr wrote:

  The similarities of plot between that issue of Haunt of Fear and Drag Me to Hell is only half the ...

• At August 14, 2009, Dave Miller wrote:

  Kamen pencils with Elder inks sure make for an interesting pairing.

• At August 14, 2009, Alex wrote:

  Man, I love those X-Men books. Try to explain the origin of X-Man to a non comic book fan, that ...

• At August 14, 2009, Vinnie Bartilucci wrote:

  There was an episode of Amazing Stories (The Spielberg show) called "Miscalculation" that was a note-for-note lift of a story ...

• At August 14, 2009, Excelsior wrote:

  With Jack Kirby introducing Black Panther in the Marvel pantheon. Maybe it wasnt Stan Lee's original Intention but I suspect ...

• At August 14, 2009, o.t.o. wrote:

  I love wat claremont did wit the xmen. Racisim has been a problem in this country since its establishment and ...

• At August 14, 2009, onion3000 wrote:

  The best way to deal with lamia is to have sex with them, then eat them; though this causes you ...

• At August 14, 2009, Brett wrote:

  Wow, the whole thing about EC and 'Drag Me to Hell' is just too close to be coincidental. The dialogue ...

• At August 14, 2009, Dalarsco wrote:

  Man was Kirby's X-Men mediocre. Definitely the weakest work of his career.

• At August 14, 2009, ParanoidObsessive wrote:

  "Actually, “Drag Me To Hell” reminded me of one of my favorite movies, “Night Of the Demon,” which had a ...

• At August 14, 2009, Dave Lane wrote:

  Get a load of the word balloon placement on panel 4 of page 15 of the X-Men excerpt. ...

• At August 14, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  Man, that X-Man dialog Is terrible- even if you hadn't told us about the rewrite, it would still sound odd. ...

• At August 14, 2009, Gavin wrote:

  Those early original X-Men comics were just badly done all around. They all read like rush jobs and after-thought ...

• At August 14, 2009, Drusilla lives! wrote:

  Which stories were the gang at EC "famous" for ripping off? I only know of the Ray Bradbury stuff... ...

• At August 14, 2009, Exclesior wrote:

  “Look, it is one of those mutants!!! Doesnt make sense. Try, "Hey look its one of those blacks" during ...

• At August 14, 2009, Exclesior wrote:

  Or Look, Its "One of those JEWS"

• At August 14, 2009, Michelle T wrote:

  I still have never seen a clear reason why mutants are so feared in the Marvel Universe but the Fantastic ...

• At August 14, 2009, ParanoidObsessive wrote:

  Well, look on the bright side (though, is it really a bright side?), Marvel seems fairly keen on playing up ...

• At August 14, 2009, Brian Cronin wrote:

  Which stories were the gang at EC “famous” for ripping off?

  That's for later installments of the column. ;)

• At August 14, 2009, Sijo wrote:

  About the "mutant fear" in Marvel comics: it isn't so much that some people have superpowers as the idea of ...

• At August 14, 2009, Ed Z wrote:

  Huh - I don't really see how the examples provided would do anything to disprove the notion that Lee based ...

• At August 15, 2009, rhod wrote:

  One of Stan's Soapbox columns in the late 90s actually fairly clearly said he DIDN'T base them on King and ...

• At August 15, 2009, Robert R. wrote:

  While I agree that Raimi almost certainly read the story and it was some sort of influence, either conscious or ...

• At August 15, 2009, D wrote:

  I think the point that Brian is trying to make (and IMHO he did) is that Lee and Kirby never ...

• At August 15, 2009, D wrote:

  It's funny, I really liked Drag Me To Hell (not sure why it wasn't a bigger hit), and normally when ...

• At August 15, 2009, DanLarkin wrote:

  If anything, I always thought the Lee/Kirby X-Men had more of a "reds under the bed" commie witch-hunt sort of ...

• At August 15, 2009, Jamie Coville wrote:

  Regarding EC stories, Al Feldstein once said that Gaines had insomnia and often spent the nights reading books and using ...

• At August 15, 2009, Drusilla lives! wrote:

  Hopefully (in fairness) you'll also mention all (documented) times EC was swiped as well.

• At August 15, 2009, Fraser wrote:

  My problem with Clairemont's xmen-as-minority work was that he didn't acknowledge the possibility of nonviolent protest. If there was a ...

• At August 15, 2009, Fraser wrote:

  And now that comics actually have gay and black characters, do we need X-Men to show us prejudice against a ...

• At August 15, 2009, Excelsior wrote:

  Fraser-- to answer your question---YEAH,

  Because a bigot doesn't stop with one group. usually if one hates blacks, they ...

• At August 15, 2009, Excelsior wrote:

  Stan also supported using comic books to provide some measure of social commentary about the real world, often dealing with ...

• At August 15, 2009, Exclesior wrote:

  From a Stan Lee Interview.

  PLUME: In the '70's, touring colleges, you were basically talking to the kids who grew up ...

• At August 15, 2009, Exclesior wrote:

  "We paid our fare just like anyone else!"

  (mutant Cyclops again, responding to the dirty looks the X-Men are receiving ...

• At August 15, 2009, Deron wrote:

  @ D: "People tend to read *anything* from the 60s as more political than it actually was...."

  Feh. Subtexts are not ...

• At August 16, 2009, twin1todd wrote:

  Hmmmm....I feel it would be a little naive to think that hollywood and indy writers and producers of the horror ...

• At August 16, 2009, Kimota94 wrote:

  I loved Onion3000's comment about the slippermen as I assume that's an obscure reference to Peter Gabriel's final Genesis album, ...

• At August 16, 2009, D wrote:

  Deron, I know what you mean, but I still think Stan was retconning his own story, and it wouldnt ...

• At August 16, 2009, AtomicKommieComics wrote:

  "Drag Me to Hell" also owes a huge debt to the film "Curse of the Demon" aka "Night of ...

• At August 18, 2009, Luke wrote:

  Wow, I never knew that X wanted to conquer and enslave mankind.

  (that's sarcasm, kids)

  So for those defending Stan Lee and ...

• At August 21, 2009, DesertSon915 wrote:

  I believe that TS Eliot once said "A good writer borrows, a great writer steals."

  The differences between Drag ...

• At August 23, 2009, Purple Hayes wrote:

  Unique question.

  With Professor X based off Martin Luther King and Magneto based off Malcolm X, could Dazzler be worked into ...

• At August 24, 2009, Drag Me To Comics « VIVER E MORRER NO CINEMA wrote:

  [...] Raimi adora a E.C. Comics. A descoberta foi publicada aqui e apontada por Jorge Coli em sua (como sempre) ...

• At August 27, 2009, langolier wrote:

  drag me to hell = haunt of fear

  ...

• At August 27, 2009, langolier wrote:

  i think its pretty obvious raimi simply broke down what made these stories tick and rehashed them into his own ...

• At September 10, 2009, grammar nazi wrote:

  your wording on the "drag me to hell" title line is backwards. since the comic was published first, technically, the ...

• At September 16, 2009, Lanier wrote:

  Just wanted to comment on the whole mutant fear thing in the marvel universe. it seems like the whole basis ...

• At September 16, 2009, Lanier wrote:

  And btw, I'm sorry that my last point is kinda rambling. Just got home from work and my brains are ...

• At September 16, 2009, MarkAndrew wrote:

  your wording on the "drag me to hell" title line is backwards. since the comic was published first, technically, the ...

• At September 24, 2009, ganky wrote:

  Regarding "Drag Me To Hell" (loved it!) "Curse of the Demon" and "Casting the Runes", I've also heard the same ...

• At September 24, 2009, ganky wrote:

  Surely you mean it "BEARS" a resemblance. Not BARES.

Welcome to the two-hundred and nineteenth in a series of examinations of comic book legends and whether they are true or false. Click here for an archive of the previous two hundred and eighteen.

Comic Book Legends Revealed is now part of the larger Legends Revealed series, where I look into legends about the worlds of entertainment and sports, which you can check out here, at legendsrevealed.com. I'd especially recommend this week's Fashion Legends Revealed, some really interesting stuff, like which current high end men's apparel company got its start when its Nazi founder began making uniforms for the SS?

Let's begin!

COMIC LEGEND: Jim Steranko's run on Nick Fury was repeatedly (and fairly oddly) censored by Marvel.

STATUS: True

Jim Steranko was a major artist for Marvel Comics during the late 1960s, but at the same time, he and Marvel were often at odds a bit over how to handle his artwork, generally because Marvel was worried about the Comics Code.

Steranko was doing the Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD co-feature in Strange Tales during the late 1960s when, in one particular panel featuring Countess Valentina (Val) Allegro De Fontaine (the sexy SHIELD agent who became Nick Fury's paramour), Marvel actually blacked out her buttocks!

Say Steranko, "There was a page-tall figure of Val seen from the back, and I put a lot of shine on the outfit, particularly on her buttocks. I defined the form on satin material -- and they eliminated the shine. Blacked it all in because it was too hot!"

Here's the panel from Strange Tales #168...

And here is Steranko's original drawing...

Another problem Steranko had was that they kept eliminating his "cleavage lines."

Take this picture of the Countess, for example...

Now, as you might imagine, typically, in that outfit, the Countess would be having a line to denote her cleavage. Instead, it was removed.

Amusingly enough, in the issue where her buttocks was blacked out, there was another panel where Steranko's cleavage line remained on an ancillery character...

The cleavage lines were removed specifically by request of the Comics Code (Marvel did the other edits usually as a mix of what their view of what the Comics Code would find objectionable mixed with suggestions from the Comics Code, but the cleavage lines were specifically taken out by request of the Comic Code).

The above panel of the Countess was also part of Marvel's other particularly hilarious editing job.

Here is the page as it appeared in Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD #2...

In the middle of the bottom panels, there is a picture of a phone.

Steranko originally drew a phone off the hook...

but Marvel had another artist literally draw the phone ON the hook, because a phone off the hook was too suggestive.

As Steranko recalled, "One panel also showed a telephone that was off the hook. They considered it suggestive, and put it back on. Now, every time I pass a phone that's off the hook, I get horny!"

In the last panel on the page, here is what Steranko originally drew - the Countess and Fury embracing while clothed..

And here's the panels aligned with the original panels...

Instead, though, Marvel had someone on the production staff take Fury's gun from earlier in the page and copy it and put it into the last panel.

Isn't that fascinating? Especially because, as Steranko notes, "They reproduced Fury's holster slung over a chair, which was much more suggestive: a big gun fitting very tightly in a holster, which was a sexual metaphor much more potent than my figures."

In any event, in what was a surprise to basically nobody, Steranko soon left Marvel. And at least part of the reason behind his departure was because of the way they kept tampering with his artwork because of the Comics Code.

A gazillion thanks to The Betty Pages, who did a feature on Steranko back in 1989 and they are the source of the Steranko quotes and the original "un-blacked out" buttocks drawing of the Countess. Thanks to Bill Angus and the World of Kane blog.

COMIC LEGEND: John Byrne had a promo in DC's History of the DC Universe Portfolio for what would be known as Next Men.

STATUS: False Enough for a False

Reader Chris asked:

is it true that the limited edition “History of the DC Universe” portfolio included a print that ended up being a promo for “Next Men,” which was published by Dark horse?

The portfolio he is referring to was something DC made in 1986 with some Folios of various DC characters drawn by the cream of DC's crop, artist-wise. Keith Giffen, George Perez, Dick Giordano, Joe Kubert (cover by Bill Sieniewicz) and, of course, this following Folio by John Byrne (click to enlarge)...

The idea was to both show you the stalwarts of the DC Universe (Giordano drawing Batman, Kubert Sgt. Rock) but ALSO to give yo