posted July 02, 2002 02:51 PM    

In these classic outfits--or sometimes a black tux--Clark Kent was quite a distinguished looking gentleman. And next to Lois Lane--the pair complimented each other. I dare say that it was the visual attractiveness of this couple that sparked the writer's into playing up the sexual chemistry. Clark was Cary Grant to Lois's Katherine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby.

The handy Comic Book Artist collected edition, vol. 2, provides some info on the artwork for Superman around this time. I'd read some time ago that Terry Austin had worked as an assistant for Oksner. In the CBA book, an interview with Austin clears up some of the details while adding more confusion. Austin and Bob Wiacek (both working at Continuity Associates) were brought in by Carmine Infantino to do backgrounds on Superman for Oksner and Blaisdell. I really wouldn't be able to pick out Wiacek's inks on these stories--his style is a question mark in my memory. But I would guess that Austin didn't begin doing backgrounds until the stories coming up on this list. Austin relates that he and Wiacek were given the pencilled pages first. They would put in the backgrounds where needed, then the pages were handed over to Oksner or Blaisdell who inked the foregrounds and main figures. Yet Terry Austin says he only worked on a few stories, then it was all Wiacek. I think Austin underestimates how much work he really did. I detect Terry's pens on several issues of Superman (from 292 through 307). I say pens, because Austin never used a brush. Oksner's inks look like he used a lot of brushwork (the same as Giordano, another inker who used Austin as an assistant for backgrounds). This contrast of pen with brush, while perfectly harmonious, does make it easier to spot Austin's possible backgrounds.

>>>>>16 SWOKSNERs 16<<<<<

Superman

13) # 289 (July '75) "The Phantom Horseman of Metropolis!" story: Cary Bates, 13 pages.

In Cary Bates' defence, he began as a Superman writer for Mort Weisinger, not Julie Schwartz, which is probably why his mind turns to oddball twists in his plotting. In this story though, I'd say the plotting is Schwartz inspired while the spirit is Weisinger. Our tale concerns one absent-minded Professor J. J. Pepperwinkle (from the Superman TV series of the 1950s, Inspector Henderson also appears in this story)--not quite the crackpot inventor that Lana Lang's uncle, Professor Potter, used to be, but a close enough resemblance. Pepperwinkle's home is populated by his many devices, and also his neglected wife, Elaine. On this day he's looking for his new invention for that evening's inventors' convention, but can't find it anywhere. If he were a little more attentive he might notice it sitting ontop of his wife's portable TV set in the kitchen. But he doesn't and so Metropolis becomes menaced first by a phantom horse and rider and then by a phantom roller derby skater (actually phantom images from Elaine Pepperwinkle's TV). A wingnut radical group calling themselves the "Metropolitan Revolutionary Army" claim responsibility and demand one MILLion dollars! but they are soon exposed and in the end the real culprit, Elaine, is found out. She just hid the device on her TV because she wanted her husband to miss the inventors' convention and take her dining and dancing on this their 25th wedding anniversary (which the absent-minded professor forgot).

Steve Lombard's pick-up in this story is a rodeo gal named Candy Chapin. And the cover is actually a photograph cover by production man Jack Adler with the image of Superman and the phantom horseman, from the inside splash page, pasted over it. The photo was actually taken on the streets of Manhattan and shows Bob Rozakis, Cary Bates, Jack Harris (behind him is Carl Gafford, but we can only see his legs and one arm), and E. Nelson Bridwell!

14) # 292 (Oct. '75) "The Luthor Nobody Knows!" story: Elliot S! Maggin, 13 pages.

I find myself having a lot to say about this story, but most of it takes the form of commentary. Summing up the story, by contrast, is very easily done. Since I don't want to waste a lot of time before getting to the final stories on this list, I'll reserve most of my comments for afterward.

Luthor has used his scientific weaponry against a large passenger aircraft, drawing Superman into action. Lex's devices upset Superman's muscular control, causing him to careen on a destructive path through the Metropolis International Airport. Superman takes rest on the tarmac for fear of causing even more destruction. However the supine Supe vibrates his body to create Earth tremors. The Super-quake causes some debris to fall and knock out Luthor.

Luthor having been brought to justice again, Superman cleans up after himself. As he moves at super-speed to restore the airport, Supe chats with Mr. Hales, chief of operations for Metropolis International. Hales asks, "Was Luthor always evil? Was hate all he ever had?" Which causes the big blue and red guy to fall into a personal reverie on their early days in Smallville. Stirred from his private thoughts, Superman answers Hales that hate wasn't always all Luthor ever had, "but it's the only thing on Earth he's got left!"

Inside this issue there's an ad for two DC tabloid books for the summer--Limited Collector's Edition # s C-38 (Oct.-Nov. '75, Superman) & C-39 (Oct.-Nov. '75, Secret Origins: Super-Villains). C-38 is that one I mentioned before with the cover probably illustrated by Oksner, showing a kid riding on the back of a flying Superman, while in the background is the Statue of Liberty--actually a photo of Miss Liberty. This mock-up was probably the work of Jack Adler. And C-39 reprints "How Luthor Met Superboy" with art by Al Plastino from 1960. The events of that story are summed up pretty much on pages 9 & 10 of "The Luthor Nobody Knows!"

My guess is that Austin provided detailed backgrounds for pages 1-7, 10, & 13.

15) # 293 (Nov. '75) "The Miracle of Thirsty Thursday!" story: Elliot S! Maggin, 18 pages.

On Wednesday, August 20th, 1975 an accident at STAR labs unleashes a serum that causes everyone in Metropolis to suffer a fear of water, meanwhile the scientist who caused the accident is transformed into a rampaging monster. Superman secretly uses his heat vision to release a sleep gas that puts everyone else in the city to sleep for 24 hours, the time it takes for the effects of the hydrophobic serum to wear off. During those 24 hours Superman continues to engage the monstrous scientist in battle, until the effects of transformation, sleep gas, and water fear serum all wear off. Consequently on the following Thursday everyone awakes thirsty.

As it never became common knowledge how Superman put everyone to sleep, history recorded the 24 hour sleeping syndrome as a mysterious "miracle." And so at the beginning of our story, historian Joann Jaime travels back in time from Aug. 20, 3475. There she checks into a hotel which is full of incognito time travel historians, also come to witness the miracle--however, since they all go to sleep with everyone else in Metropolis, none of them ever learn the secret of the miracle. Jaime is the prototype for another Maggin character, Kristin Wells (who appears in the Elliot S. Maggin novel, Superman: Miracle Monday, 1981, and debuts as Superwoman in DC Comics Presents Annual[/i} # 2, 1983), but I prefer J.J. as drawn by Swan and Oksner to the K.W. of Kieth Pollard and Mike DeCarlo. Steve Lombard tried to pick up Joann, while Jimmy Olsen hit on Kristin.

<Austin is a good guess for some of the backgrounds.>

16) # 295 (Jan. '76) "Costume, Costume--Who's got the Costume?" story: Elliot S! Maggin, 18 pages.

In a sequel of sorts to [i]Kamandi # 29, Maggin seems to be harkening back to the Weisinger sixties when LSHers would appear in some ridiculous guise in the first half of a Super tale only for their elaborate ruse to be revealed with a contorted explanation in the last half. In this story it isn't actually a Legionnaire but the Green Lantern from Earth's space sector in the 30th century, Xenofobe, posing as "Father Time." The ruse leads Superman to travel to the 30th Century, but not the LSH's 30th Century. Rather an alternate timeline, the future of the Kamandi series, when a new race of humans has finally overthrown the animals for dominion of the Earth. Greatest of these is a man named Jaxon, who now wears the super-costume and displays abilities like those of Superman--and might chance to be the descendent of Superman and Lois Lane. In the story's epilogue, Lois Lane has her tea leaves read (she will marry and have many strong children), but Clark Kent passes on the offer of a reading, leaving Madame Olga to stare in disbelief at the residue in his teacup.

<Austin is a good guess for some of the backgrounds.>

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>fin. =>

What? "Who Took the Super out of Superman?" Sorry, that's a Herculean task, doncha think? I'm afraid that trying to deal with that four-parter would have made my list unwieldy. Besides I like the alliterative lilt of SIXTEEN SWOKSNERS. How-some-ever, I am sure if I shan't get 'round to that character driven quartet of quality cartoons, eventually somebody else shall.

posted July 02, 2002 08:54 PM    

I can remember when I first read it feeling let down by the story. Probably because I expected that it was going to tell me more about what made Luthor tick.

The scene with Luthor and Clark in their science class is fun and gives some insight into the friendship that they shared. It's actually not surprising that CK plays along with Lex. He was quite a mischievous fellow was Kent. We see this when he turns around Lombard's pranks. And even in the Weisinger era, Superman was known to play cruel jokes on Lois.

But while we get a certain feeling for Clark--do we really understand anything about Lex?

In the orginal story, "How Luthor Met Superboy," Lex looks taller than Superboy, and I would guess he's a few years older than Clark. That story says that Luthor's father is a travelling salesman and is away from home a lot.

Putting Lex in the same class as Clark makes him too young in my opinion. It's good to have Lex a few years older (just as on the "Smallville" TV show). One could explain away his presence in the chem class, however. Being Lex travelled around a lot with his family, despite his genius he didn't have a good school record. When he got to Smallville, he had to do some courses that he was missing. And maybe the chem class was taught to many different grade levels at once (this is Smallville, with supposedly a very small population).

The neglect of his father (his mother doesn't seem to be much of a presence, either, in the original story) could suggest that Luthor didn't have good family models. And he needed family which is why he latched onto Clark and/or Superboy.

But this is mostly my conjecture. We get hardly any information to work on from the Maggin story.

I remember back in the seventies I really wanted to understand why Lex turned on Superboy. He lost his hair, and one of his prized scientific discoveries was destroyed, but does that really motivate his hate for Superman?

The Joker's hatred of Batman is understandable, because the Joker is mad. But Luthor, apparently, is not mad. So what's his motivation?

When "The Luthor Nobody Knows" offered no solutions to this nagging question I think I felt that the story failed to do its job.

What's more, Superman's conclusion that hate is the only thing on Earth that Luthor has left rings false. I know that isn't true.

In the lettercol of issue 196, in response to one LoC on this story, ENB emphasized the "on Earth" part. He reminded us that Luthor was a hero on Lexor, and he had a wife there. Bridwell even suggested that, although Lexor had not appeared in the chronicles for many years, Luthor probably still visited that planet whenever he wanted to get away from it all.

Since I had discovered Lexor in 1971, it was never far from my thoughts. I knew that Lex had much more than hate.

But even if Maggin was discounting Lexor as no longer a part of ongoing continuity, we still have to wonder about all those times when Luthor acted to prevent the destruction of the Earth. Luthor may hate Superman, but if destroying Superman means destroying the Earth in the process, then Luthor will not do it.

I think Maggin knew there was more to Luthor than just hate. So why does Superman say what he says?

Because it's Superman. Superman doesn't understand Lex. The title is "The Luthor Nobody Knows." Nobody knows Luthor, and that includes Superman. Superman can offer no insights into Luthor because he has none to give. In his flashback memories, Clark can only relive the events, while not understanding why Lex acted the way he did in any of these events.

The story isn't really about Luthor at all. It's about Clark, it's about Superman. It's about the sadness that he feels and it's about his inability to comprehend why people do bad things. He doesn't understand why Luthor hates him. He doesn't understand hate at all. Superman doesn't hate anyone. We, the readers, who are more prone to petty hatreds, we can understand better a character like Luthor than Superman can.

posted July 02, 2002 09:10 PM    

quote:

---

Adventure Comics #271
April 1960

Cover Credits
Penciller: Curt Swan
Inker: Stan Kaye
FIRST STORY

"How Luthor Met Superboy" (13 pages)

Credits
Editor, plotter: Mort Weisinger
Plotter, scripter: Jerry Siegel
Artist: Al Plastino

Synopsis

Superboy meets a new resident in Smallville, Lex Luthor. Luthor saves Superboy from a Kryptonite meteor. The Boy of Steel learns that Luthor is a fan of his, so he rewards Lex’s good deed with a new lab to further the boy’s scientific interest.

Luthor creates an amazing protoplasm which is a scientific breakthrough. He decides to use his discovery to create a Kryptonite antidote for Superboy. He is successful in his creation, but he accidently starts a lab fire. Superboy blows out the fire, but the chemicals cause Lex’s hair to fall out and his work has been burned up.

Blaming Superboy for the accident Lex seeks revenge against the Boy of Steel. However he still wants to do good for the community. He invents several things to help Smallville, but each backfires on him. He blames Superboy for their failure, so he tries to kill him with Kryptonite. Superboy escapes doom, but is disappointed in Lex. He can only hope that Lex will someday change his ways.

---

posted July 09, 2002 07:24 PM       

We're getting into the "dog days", and people are running off every which way (at least that's my excuse).

I do have much more to say about my some of my favorite '70s stories, like the Schwartz-edited World's Finest issues, Kirby's Jimmy Olsen, and some other odds and ends if I find the time one of these days!

posted July 09, 2002 09:16 PM    

If I was responding to someone else's post, then I wouldn't necessarily simply "bump,"--I might have something to say. But if I've posted extensively, I don't feel right responding to what I've posted--I'd prefer to wait for responses from other posters. There are other subjects I'll be moving on to, but I don't want to push ahead without giving anyone else a chance to respond to what's all ready been said.

Nor do I feel right interrupting someone who might want to continue with a subject. In which case, too, I might "bump," just to keep the topic on the first few pages.

But at some point this thread will get rather long, and Rob will have to delete it. That's just the way this message board game works. And I also fear that some new posters might not even be bothering to open this thread, seeing how long it is.

Sooner or later...there will have to be a new 70s thread--that's just the awful truth.

posted July 10, 2002 12:36 AM    

quote:

---

Posted by India Ink:
But if I've posted extensively, I don't feel right responding to what I've posted--I'd prefer to wait for responses from other posters. There are other subjects I'll be moving on to, but I don't want to push ahead without giving anyone else a chance to respond to what's all ready been said.

---

You bring up something here that I want to address. When I read your posts, I really enjoy them, and I sometimes feel I ought to say something in return. But that's not always the case. I don't post just for the sake of posting. So even if it seems like no one has replied, be assured there are those of us who appreciate your thoughtful posts, even if we feel we have nothing immediate to contribute by way of reply.

posted July 13, 2002 11:12 AM    

It seems to have been a tricky thing to get Luthor "right" in this time period.(Hamilton Pasko and Maggin usually did a bang-up job. Siegel, Bates and Dorfman were more hit-or-miss. Wolfman couldn't seem to get a fix on it.) Up until the gradual shift in the 60s, Luthor was just a typical power-mad criminal scientist with no real personality. He wanted to kill Superman because Superman was the one who could stop him from getting fabulously rich by robbing banks, or, on his more ambitious days, from conquering the world. After the origin, it was personal. Luthor was a criminal only as a means to an end. It was all about humiliating and destroying Superman... he had no real interest in crime or even wealth for its own sake.

The hair-loss origin had some pretty absurd moments even for its time, and everyone likes to point out that Luthor's reason for hating Superboy is a pretty flimsy one. Is it? Reading it, I for one sure feel sorry for Lex, despite the attempt to depict him as willfully self-delusional.

Think about it... there must have been dozens of other ways for Superboy to easily put out that fire, but he carelessly chose the one that DID cost Lex his hair, and DID destroy his greatest scientific discovery... the discovery that was supposed to make those Smallville country bumpkins sit up and see that he was a genius, not an oddball. What if the fumes had burned or fatally poisoned him instead of making him just go bald? Didn't he have a perfect RIGHT to be resentful? Most teenagers are inherently awkward and uncomfortable with their appearance to begin with; they feel paranoid; their hormones are already in an uproar. Superboy impulsively doused him in fumes that made him go BALD, at a time and place when that made young men an oddity, and boys almost freakish. For all we know, those chemicals acted on his brain to make him even more irrational and suspicious than a NORMAL teenager. Did Superboy ever try to get him a medical exam? Can you really blame Lex for suspecting that the seemingly oh-so-perfect Superboy COULDN'T have done such a thing by mistake? That his one real friend couldn't have turned on him? With the speed, intelligence and powers at his command, Superboy made a mistake like THAT? It's hard for ME to believe it was accidental, and I only know Superboy had good intentions because I can read his thought balloons!

I'm being half-serious here, of course, but you see what I'm getting at...

So now, the goal of Luthor's career is beginning to crystallize. Even then,though, despite his outburst of rage, Lex doesn't entirely choose hatred as his path in life. He angrily breaks off his friendship with Superboy, but he continues to work on "good" inventions that he can use to benefit Smallville, and eventually, all the world. He creates genetically-altered seeds, weather-control towers, etc. The Smallvillers are skeptical and barely seem to tolerate him, but they condescendingly agree to try out his inventions. At first they work fine, but Luthor has overlooked some flaws in the design, and the inventions (through no bad intent of Luthor's) become dangerous. Superboy arrives and once more saves the town. The Smallville citizens mock and jeer Lex and practically seem to want to run him out of town.

Superboy made a careless mistake, with the best of intentions, and did Luthor genuine harm. Luthor made careless mistakes with the best of intentions, but (thanks to Superboy, we must admit) no lasting harm was done to anyone. Yet Superboy is hailed as a hero and Lex jeered as a pariah. (Did anyone ever taunt, "Nice going, Superboy! You made that poor kid Lex Luthor bald"?).

So now Lex will be satisfied only with the complete humiliation and destruction of his once-friend. These cruel accidents make it seem as if destiny would have it no other way. Fate is conspiring to make Superman and Lex Luthor enemies.

But there's a deeper interpretation of Luthor's psycholgy at work here too... I'll get to that soon...

posted July 13, 2002 11:45 AM    

I think that what Maggin was getting at is that Luthor was so intellectually superior to everyone else, especially in a hick town like Smallville, that he had to set a virtually impossible task for himself just to make his existence bearable. KIlling the man who is all but invulnerable became the ultimate challenge that he needed to give his boring, unstructured life meaning. Not that he thought it out on a conscious level, but fate conspired to cause it with the lab accident that cost him his hair, and gave him a reason to hate. (And Maggin often seems to suggest that Luthor doesn't really hate Superman... he just THINKS he does. Hence, Maggin's hints that Superman and Luthor will one day be friends again, once Lex realizes this and finds other challenges worthy of him.)

Anyway, as we have seen, the accident provided Lex with a reason for his existence: hatred. And provided him with the perfect focus for that hatred: Superboy. It's not really about rejection from society. Even on Lexor, with an adoring wife and public, he simply could not give up the hatred for long. He was on a quest that hadn't ended...the only thing that could really challenge his incredible mind. He could not simply settle down and be happy yet.

Moreover, Maggin shows that even before losing his hair, Lex had a kind of benign contempt for everyone around him. It came across as sarcasm and arrogance, but it was really just frustration and an awareness of self (the classic "Don't trust me" line he gives upon meeting everyone). That's why Maggin tells us his only friends were Superboy... and Clark Kent. The only two other boys in Smallville who were outsiders like him. Superboy's awesome powers and Lex's awesome mind set them above everyone else in Smallville, one way or another. Despite Superboy's heroic fame, Lex knew that neither of them really fit in there... they were the only two who seemed aware of how much more there really was to the universe than a little farm town. And, although he treated Clark rather contemptuously too, the pre-baldness Lex clearly regarded Clark as a friend and fellow outsider. Clark was the town nerd, of course; but more than that, Maggin tells us, Lex recognized that Clark always seemed to know more than he was letting on.

Not that he could imagine Clark being Superboy, since having a permanent double identity didn't seem to Lex like anything Superboy would bother with. Lex created many "secret identities" of his own in Maggin's novels, but they were conveniences he quickly disposed of. He even made himself wealthy many times over. Maggin tells us that Superman would be happy to let Luthor live out his life in peace under any one of these identities, but Luthor just keeps returning to trying to kill Superman. This IS his life.

posted July 13, 2002 12:31 PM    

Luthor was still sneaky and underhanded, but he now had limits that every good writer would adhere too. Luthor was only interested in killing Superman now. He would not kill, or try to kill, innocent people for a diversion or anything like that, as the pre-origin Luthor would.

In one early 70s ACTION story I intend to comment on later (written by Cary Bates), Luthor kills another criminal in self-defense, during a scheme to infiltrate Superman's Fortress and plant a bomb there. He refuses to tell Superman where it is, even knowing that he will be trapped in the explosion himself. After Superman removes the bomb, he asks Luthor if he would have really been willing to die just to take Superman with him. Luthor says, "You know the answer to that, Superman!" To me, Luthor is perfectly in character here. He would be willing to die, and probably kill, for his quest.

In an early 80s story, also written by Bates, there's a scene where I think he's NOT in character. Lois Lane and Lana Lang have been infected with a lethal virus that will soon kill them. Having exhausted everything else he can think of, Superman visits Luthor in his prison cell to ask for his help. Luthor only laughs at him. Not only does he refuse to use his genius to discover a cure for the virus, but Luthor produces a sample of it in a bottle and flings it at the floor. Of course, Superman catches it before it can break open and infect Luthor with the virus. Luthor gloats that, even though Luthor would be FORCED to find a cure if he himself were infected, Superman won't let it happen... because he refuses to take even the tiniest chance of Luthor failing to find the cure, and dying too. I think Bates really dropped the ball here. Luthor would have wanted to humiliate Superman this way, but he would have FOUND the cure, and then gloated that he succeeded where Superman failed... he could still achieve his goal without contributing to the deaths of two innocent women.

Perhaps the best example of this is DC COMICS PRESENTS ANNUAL #1, surprisingly written by Marv Wolfman, who seems to usually prefer the more evil Luthor. Here, the Earth-One Alexis Luthor teams up with the Earth-Two Alexei Luthor to destroy the Supermen of both Earths. (The Earth-Three Alexander Luthor, Ultraman, and all three Lois Lanes get involved as well). When it becomes clear that the Earth-One Alexei intends to blow up the Earths of both universes, the Earth-One Alexis is appalled and can't go through with becoming a mass murderer. He admits that the Earth means too much to him and his sister Lena is still there, saying "I'm just not as ruthless as you, Alexei!" The properly written Luthor would not consider this a weakness. It is a violation of his personal code.

posted July 13, 2002 04:32 PM    

I'm slowly re-reading Maggin's Superman: Last Son of Krypton (while at the same time reading several other things) and it seems to me that Maggin has developed his idea of Luthor more fully by the time of this novel (published in 1978). It's possible that he had such ideas well before the novel, but comics don't lend themselves to a truckload of exposition, whereas prose novels prosper on exposition.

I like his concept of Luthor the businessman. And his way shows how the writers of today could do the character. Today's Luthor is publicly a businessman (and president), while privately a criminal. Maggin's was privately a businessman and publicly a criminal.

The Luthor/Superman rivalry is like Salieri and Mozart--in Amadeus. It reminds me, too, of Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle--which Maggin would have been quite familiar with--and the George F. Walker play Zastrossi which Maggin would never have heard of. Actually there's a lot about Last Son... which parallels Cat's Cradle. In the Vonnegut novel, there are two political figures on this strange little island--one is a radical religious leader, and the other is a dictatorial head of state. Both came to the island as young men, and were good friends, and they devised this plan of pretending to be political enemies because in this way they could preserve a balance of powers on the little island. When people pretend in Vonnegut novels they soon lose sight of their intentions and the pretense overtakes their lives.

posted July 27, 2002 11:41 AM    

Writer: Cary Bates
Artists: Curt Swan and Bob Oksner
Cover: Nick Cardy

The cover this issue features the Flash running up to greet Superman ("What brings you to Central City?") only to receive a punch in the face for his hospitality. (A caption reads: "Surprise guest-hero--the FLASH! Surprise guest-VILLAIN--the Weather Wizard!" But how much of a surprise can there be when you announce it right on the cover??)

*****************

As TV news anchor Clark Kent wraps up the WGBS six o'clock local newscast, he turns it over to Metropolis weatherman Oscar Asherman, "the man who knows ALL about the WEATHER...WHETHER you believe it or not!" (Groan. Leave the jokes to Johnny Nevada, Clark.) Oscar takes the screen to declare that instead of his usual citywide forecast, he has a special bulletin to announce. "At exactly 6:41 tonight, a BLUE TORNADO will touch down at 52ND STREET and 3RD AVENUE... to repeat... all those who live along the tornado track are WARNED to EVACUATE before the twister hits 17 MINUTES FROM NOW!"

Watching the newscast from his luxury penthouse digs, network honcho Morgan Edge nearly falls out of his chair at this announcement. He instantly calls up the newsroom to chew out Oscar. Edge warns him that Metropolis had better experience its first tornado tonight... a blue one, no less... or he's out of a job.

Meanwhile, Clark has slipped away to change to Superman (in the men's washroom, for once), and flies quickly to 3rd Avenue. Absurd as Oscar's forecast sounded, he has a hunch there might be something to it. "I've known Oscar ever since he drew his first isobars on the WGBS weathermap... and his sense of humor just ISN'T! I've never known the guy to JOKE about ANYTHING!"

(Incidentally, Oscar's appearance is unique enough that he just has to be based visually on a real person. If I had to make a guess, I'd say he resembles Dick Giordano at that time, though his hair is a little more Sonny Bono-ish than Giordano's ever was. And I know there was a DC staffer named ALLAN Asherman around this time, but I've no idea what he looked like.)

Anyway, Superman arrives at the predicted intersection at 6:40 pm, and, sure enough, exactly one minute later, a raging blue tornado appears out of nowhere, blowing with such force as to send parked cars and even Superman tumbling through the air.

Regaining his wits, Supes flies straight into the heart of the tornado and uses his super-breath to inhale the whole thing. "With THOUSANDS of cubic feet of violent, swirling air pressurized in his super-lungs," he flies up to the stratosphere, and exhales the tornado in one mighty blast to disperse it harmlessly.

(For one panel, Swan draws the inhaling Man of Steel with his chest temporarily swollen to double and perhaps triple its normal size. I'm struck by the way this resembles how current artists draw Superman ALL the time.)

The next morning, Oscar Asherman and Clark Kent are sitting in Morgan Edge's office, where the boss-man congratulates Oscar for his accuracy and demands to know how he made such an unusual forecast. Unfortunately, Oscar doesn't know... it just seemed to pop into his head suddenly. Edge's secretary, Laura Conway, interrupts over the intercom, reminding Edge of the dedication ceremony that he and Clark are scheduled to attend tomorrow in Masonville.

Oscar suddenly pleads with Edge to cancel the trip, since another bizarre prediction has just popped into his head unbidden. "The forecast calls for HAILSTONES as big as BASKETBALLS to fall on MASONVILLE tomorrow... leveling it to the ground!"

Edge pooh-poohs the warning, and is in Masonville on schedule the next day. You see, he's giving a speech to dedicate the new public library there, which has been named the Morgan Edge Library in HIS honor.

Up on the podium, Edge launches into his speech ("Ah yes, how well I remember my wintry boyhood in VERMONT... when ofttimes I'd trek through miles of drift-piled snow to town... just to borrow a book from our local LIBRARY!"). And among the crowd, "rival TV newscaster DALE SMITH" and Clark Kent are filming the ceremony with hand-held cameras. Just don't tell the camera operator's union about you anchormen doing that yourself, guys.

"HA!" says Smith. "From what I've heard about your boss, Clark, that poor little rich kid went to town riding a SLEIGH of HORSES!"

Smith notices that Clark doesn't even seem to be filming the ceremony... he's got his camera pointed straight up into the sky. Unknown to him, Clark's telescopic vision has spotted clouds forming overhead and beginning to release... you got it, basketball-sized hailstones.

Clark points to the sky and yells the old "Look, Superman is coming to save us!" bit, but of course Smith can't seem to discern anything like that up there. So Clark quickly offers to "share the scoop" if Smith keeps filming, while he runs off to phone in the story to Metropolis.

The crowd is fleeing in panic by now... at first, Morgan Edge thinks they just can't stand his speech anymore. Finally, Superman really does come zooming down from the darkening sky to save the town. He skillfully punches and kicks certain key hailstones at super-speed, setting up a billiards-style "chain reaction" that makes all the hailstones pulverize each other into harmless snow within seconds. Dale Smith catches it all on film, but Clark strolls up to remind him that their two stations will be sharing a joint exclusive. (Clark doesn't wink at the readers, but he does flash us a grin while straightening his tie.)

Did someone say "Flash"? We're getting there...

The next day, Clark has lunch with Oscar Asherman in the WGBS cafeteria. Oscar still can't understand how he made his fabulous predictions. But he IS starting to remember a name that popped into his thoughts at about the same time. "MARK...MARK Something... beginning with an M... got it! MARK MARDON! Ever hear of him?" It's a name not entirely unfamiliar to Clark...

West of Metropolis, in Central City, the Man of Steel arrives to greet his old pal, the Flash, who has just used his awesome super-speed to defeat yet another gang of bank robbers. In fact, the last of the fleeing robbers runs right into Superman and knocks himself cold.

Superman soon briefs the Scarlet Speedster on the recent weather anomalies, while they relax on a nearby park bench. (Yeah, a park bench. Why not? It's a lovely day...)

The Flash recognizes Mark Mardon's name much easier than Superman did.... Mardon is "the WEATHER WIZARD...one of the deadliest members of my ROGUES' GALLERY! Last time I put him behind bars, the WIZARD swore he'd find a way to KILL me BEFORE his sentence was up! He's now finishing out his term at a model PRISON FARM upstate!" Not only that, but he likes wearing pointy-toed leotards with a striped sash around his waist, as the Flash's thought-balloon image reveals to the snickering readership. Supes and Flash decide to pay Mardon a visit in prison, but first they'll take certain precautions...

Before long, the two heroes have arranged to have the library at Central State Prison cleared of inmates so that they can interrogate Prisoner # 975347201 (Mark Mardon) inside privately. Superman instantly accuses the convict. "I CHARGE you with causing freak weather conditions a thousand miles away in METROPOLIS!"

Mardon happily admits he's guilty as charged. In fact, he insists on explaining exactly how he managed to pull it off. Using chemicals he swiped from the prison infirmary, Mardon created two "marvelous METEOROLOGICAL PELLETS".... one to generate the blue tornado, another to create the giant hailstorm. His weather expertise was so brilliant that he calculated how to make the pellets detonate at an exact place and time, right down to the specific street and minute, merely by letting the wind carry them off from a particular spot in the prison yard. And he planted both the forecasts and his own name in Oscar Asherman's mind by means of long-range hypnosis... "a basic application of bouncing electronic brainwaves off the ionosphere!" (If this guy has such freedom INSIDE prison that he can pull off something this outrageously complicated, I wonder why he would ever want to leave.)

But why did he go through all this just to lure Superman and the Flash to visit him in prison together? It all began a few months ago, continues the Wizard, as he pulls a book from the nearby shelf. He had chanced across this volume while browsing the library and it inspired him: THE FABULOUS WORLD OF KRYPTON, by Lois Lane.

He explains that it was "a most thorough account of what life was like on your home-planet, SUPERMAN... including its WEATHER CONDITIONS! What interested me MOST was a meteorological phenomenon called BLACK LIGHTNING! Unlike lightning on EARTH that strikes its victim DEAD... BLACK LIGHTNING on KRYPTON turns its struck victim into a KILLER! Although HARMLESS to Earth-people, BLACK LIGHTNING sent a KRYPTONIAN into a MURDEROUS RAGE that could be relieved only by KILLING the person CLOSEST to him when it struck.... which just so HAPPENS to be YOU, FLASH old foe!"

So saying, the Weather Wizard pulls a miniaturized duplicate of his weather-controlling wand from inside his fluffy, 70s-style hairdo, and uses it to zap Superman with a Kryptonian Black Lightning-bolt.

The Action Ace doubles over in seeming agony, surrounded by a "glowing" black aura, as the Weather Wizard urges him to hurry up and kill the Flash. Instead, Superman snaps out of it and clobbers the Wizard with a super-fast karate chop to the neck.

It turns out that "Superman" is actually the Flash and vice versa. Expecting trickery, they used the hoary old Justice League ruse of switching costumes to fool the villain. The Flash wore a Superman facemask, and Superman provided BOTH their voices with his super-ventriliquism. Good thing they left nothing to chance, or Superman might really have become a murderer.

The two heroes soon turn over a groggy Mark Mardon to the warden. Mardon just can't figure out where his plan went wrong, and the warden asks what he's rambling about. Superman replies "Nothing serious, Warden..."

(Wait for it.)

(Wait for it.)

(Oh Jeez, you know what's coming...)

"...He's feeling a bit UNDER THE WEATHER!"

Ba dump bump. Goodnight everybody!

***************

By the way, I don't recall if anybody has touched on this yet, but during the 70s era, Superman's membership in the Justice League was a CONSTANTLY employed plot element in his own books. It seemed that you couldn't go more than three issues at most of a given title without the Man of Steel at least mentioning the JLA in passing; and at least one other member always seemed to put in an actual appearance within that time frame, from a cameo to a full-fledged guest- starring appearance like this. Batman, Flash and Green Lantern, especially, seemed to turn up often. I suppose it was only natural, since Julius Schwartz had been the editor of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA long before he took over any Superman titles, and he was used to thinking of Superman mainly in that context. Besides, Schwartz's writers like Bates and Maggin were probably slightly more influenced by Schwartz's JLA-er books growing up than by Mort Weisinger's Super-books, anyway... even though it was Weisinger who gave Bates his first assignment. And I'm sure it didn't hurt sales of JLA much either.

I won't harp on the fact that Cary Bates managed to come up with a story that was full of plot-holes, despite being INSANELY convoluted. I won't even point out, for example, that the Flash and Superman are both so fast that they should have been able to snatch that wand away from the Weather Wizard before one of his electrons could even orbit one of his nuclei. Why won't I? Because I think it basically IS a fun story after all, and because I just love the Flash of the Sixties and Seventies like crazy... absurd contrivances and all.

Allow me to ramble a bit. Batman and Spider-man will probably always be my favorite super-heroes, as little use as I have for most of their current stories, since they imprinted themselves on my little mind so early in life. And of course, Superman and Captain America have that special status near the top that they seem to almost intinsically deserve. Then there are the oddball heroes that never quite made the big time, and the "ordinary guy" heroic types like Sgt. Rock and Jonah Hex who remain sentimental favorites. But the super-hero I think I would most want to BE, if given the chance, was the Flash of this era.

Barry Allen had a cool super-power that every kid probably wished for once in a while growing up. He was faster than anybody else in the world. He could outrun anything, or race through time itself, or pass right through walls and make himself invisible to the rest of the world. He could land a million punches before an opponent could blink. He cobbled together cool gimmicks like the Cosmic Treadmill and the secret-compartment ring that any gadget-loving kid could envy.

But at heart, he seemed like an average guy that a comics fan like me could relate to on a very human level. He didn't have to see his parents die, or suffer some horrible trauma, to make him be a super-hero. He fought crime because he was basically just a good person, and that was the right thing to do. He was a bit of a nerd, but not too much. He had a job that wasn't exotic or glamorous, but he seemed to be making a good living doing something he enjoyed. He had a loving, supportive wife and a nice middle-class, two-income house in the suburbs. He seemed to always be having FUN, with all the fantastic adventures and outlandish villains... (Or at least he was until Cary Bates decided to "Marvelize" him in the 80s, and make his life a hellish soap opera full of frustration, heartbreak and harrassment.)

Best of all, he loved to read and collect OLD COMIC BOOKS as a hobby. So you see, I could forgive good old Barry almost anything.

posted July 27, 2002 04:34 PM    

Once I entered my teens, however, I wanted to be Barry Allen. Not necessarily Flash--but Barry Allen. The kinda guy that's friends with the kids in the neighbourhood, sharing his comic collection with them.

Of course, in an age where such grown-up guys are looked on with suspicion, becoming Barry Allen seems just as hair-brained as becoming Bruce Wayne.

And I never really did become either, although I guess I'm more like Barry than Bruce.

Of course, like the above poster, my parents thought I was wasting my time (back in the seventies) reading those comics. Barry Allen would never have expressed such a thought.

posted July 29, 2002 08:18 PM    

What I keep wondering is why do you still have all these seventies Superman comics? You say you have them all, and you rarely read them. You seem to find no sentimental or artistic value in them, yet you hold on to them.

Are you holding out for when there's a Superman movie (if there ever is), in the hopes that you can off-load them for big bucks to speculators?

If any other decade of Superman is preferable, why not trade ten seventies Supermans for one 1950s Superman?

I'm perfectly comfortable with the fact that most of the world doesn't find much if any value in the seventies Superman. I'm a unique person (as are we all) and it stands to reason that I have unique tastes. I don't expect everyone to love what I love (nor should I put down what others love, just because I have no similar emotions). But it seems almost, dare I say, immoral to hold onto comics you don't love (that you in fact despise), while there are people out there who would be so happy to have these comics. It would really make their day.

I'm sure Village Idiot would love to have your collection (as long as the comics are the right grade). I expect even Lildeath would get more joy out of these seventies comics than you confess to.

posted July 29, 2002 09:21 PM    

THE BICENTENNIAL MAN OF TOMORROW
(or The Spirit of '76 Superman)

Around about 1976, things started to happen in the Superman line. I won't go into details just now, but this would have an impact on us readers, though I doubt we realized what was happening even as it was happening. Only now, in retrospect do I see how pivotal '76 was.

As I've said before, in comics I prefer stasis to change. I don't think comics ever achieve full stasis (just as it's impossible to continually change), but there are times when they almost reach this level. A time when a regularity of stories and art is maintained month after month.

For me there's something comforting in that. To know that every month I will find that same thing. A certain entertaining moment, as I visit old friends (and some not so old). I'm sure this is how a lot of people felt about Seinfeld. They didn't expect completely different stories from one week to the next, nor did they expect the characters to change or grow. Indeed, such upset would have probably destroyed the show for most viewers.

So after the upheaval of the Sandman Saga, things started to settle down at Superman. Bates, Maggin, and Swan settled into a groove. Certainly Anderson inked stories were preferable to Blaisdell. And, indeed, as the page length of stories shrank (being about 25 or 26 pages total, not including reprint pages when DC comics were 48 pages for 25c, and gradually shrinking down until the full length of story was only 17 pages in a 32 page book for 30c) this put a strain on the quality and kind of story that could be told. But in the main, the period between 1972 and 1975 was a golden moment of Superman stories--when stories were told with cleverness and never attempted to have too much significance. There were enjoyable characters with foibles, but we didn't expect these characters to change or to grow too much. It was a safe happy place to be.

So we entered 1976. Actually coverdates being advanced, the first 1976 comics came out in 1975, and the first 1977 comics came out in 1976. So I'm talking about more than 12 issues of Action or Superman here--more like 15 or 16 issues of each title.

At the beginning is one kind of Superman, and at the end a different Superman.

The cover dated 1976 titles begin with Maggin stories in both Superman & Action--"Costume, Costume--Who's got the Costume?" from the Jan. Superman no. 295, while over in the Jan. Action (455) there's another full length (18 page) team-up with Superman, Green Arrow, and The Atom. Funny thing is Ray Palmer spends most of his time in this story in the bottle city of Kandor. Which I thought was inspired, since it made perfect sense for Ray to go to the shrunken city to help the Kryptonian scientists figure out how to safely enlarge their city. One striking scene is this story (which has Superman threatened by the Superman Revenge Squad--who hadn't been seen much since Weisinger days), shows Ollie Queen (at the time a P.R. agent) on the set of Clark's talk show. And rather like Mr. Lombard, Mr. Queen has an eye for the ladies. So Ollie tries to make time with Lois, and Clark blows up at him (clearly this is the straw that broke the camels back--Clark is fed up with guys making the moves on the woman he loves).

The next issue of Action would have a story that brings back The Shark--GL's old nemesis. As Schwartz continued to mine the silver age legacy that he helped to build. Aldous has already talked about this story at length, many months ago, back on pages 12 and 13 of this thread. But I just wanted to mention something I noticed as I recently was reading this issue. On page 11, panel 3, there's a scene of The Shark and Superman in a kind of bubble of bluish water, and the composition instantly made me think of the "Creation of Adam" from Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling. I had to get my Janson's History of Art off the shelf--and sure 'nuff--ol' Curt was cleverly copying from the master. The positioning of legs and arms is slightly different here and there, but there's no mistaking that Swan obviously intended the reference. Which-- when considering the context of evolution, life, man, Superman, and godlike powers--is all very sly on Curt's part. Anyone who has this story should take the time to check out what I'm saying.

In the same month (Feb. '76 cover date), began the much praised "Who took the Super out of Superman" storyline in Superman 296 (ending in 299). Since each issue of this "arc" has a blurb on the splash admonishing us that the events take place after all stories in other DC titles, in chronologically considered The Spirit of '76 Superman we have to realize that several issues of Action (Feb. to May) come before this four-part storyline.

This includes a tale of Jonathan Ross in which Superman has to convince him that he's Clark Kent (eventually Jon Ross sees that there's not much in Clark's medicine cabinet, which convinces him that Superman is being honest about his secret identity--which is a phoney scene in my book, but necessary to the story's conclusion, because Clark goes to great lengths to maintain the illusion of being fully human and he would have a razor, etc. in his medicine cabinet--but Gerry Conway wrote this story, so what else can one expect). This is then followed by the two-part Blackrock storyline which affords Maggin ample opportunity to make clever digs at the entertainment and broadcasting industries.

posted July 30, 2002 05:42 AM    

quote:

---

"Costume, Costume--Who's got the Costume?" from the Jan. Superman no. 295

---

Yeah... I like that one. A neat story. Swan-Oksner, wasn't it? I seem to recall the art was superb.

quote:

---

This includes a tale of Jonathan Ross in which Superman has to convince him that he's Clark Kent

---

Uggh! That's a silly story, and one which has always bothered me. An aberration.

quote:

---

Once I entered my teens, however, I wanted to be Barry Allen. Not necessarily Flash--but Barry Allen. The kinda guy that's friends with the kids in the neighbourhood, sharing his comic collection with them.

---

It'd be fun (and probably pointless) to psychoanalyse each other... "You wanted to be Barry (Flash) Allen. He wanted to be Bruce (Batman) Wayne..."

If we're talking boyish wish-fulfilment, I'd have to admit to a boyhood hankering for being Green Lantern. Hal Jordan had a somewhat austere lifestyle... no friendly neighbours and student boarders in the suburbs. Hal was more a loner, and with the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. (Not just any old responsibility -- he was policing a million square light years of space.) He wasn't born super-powerful, deciding to be a good guy. He wasn't in some kind of freak accident. He was CHOSEN.

Lynn, I wouldn't rate the 70s as the worst Superman decade. A lot of good stuff came out then. It's also true that a lot of terrible garbage came out too. I choose to ignore the garbage where possible and hang on to the stories I loved as a kid.

quote:

---

It was simply a very lackluster time for both artwork and stories.

---

posted July 30, 2002 08:21 PM    

For those keeping track of the details here are the titles, issue numbers, credits, etc.--all dated 1976, ALL from the Superman (original series) run...

296, Feb., "Who Took the Super Out of Superman!" cover: Bob Oksner; story: Elliot S! Maggin & Cary Bates; art: Curt Swan & Bob Oksner (with background assists possibly by Wiacek or Austin); 18 pages.

297, March, "Clark Kent Forever--Superman Never!" cover: as above; story: as above; art: as above; 18 pages.

298, April, "Clark Kent, Get Out of My Life!" cover: as above; story: as above; art: as above; 18 pages.

299, May, "The Double-or-Nothing Life of Superman!" cover: Ernie Chua; story: as above; art: as above; 18 pages.

A lot of background and pages for OOSS can be found on the Superman Thru the Ages site.

In particular at this link...

http://theages.superman.nu/tales2/whotook/aboutspeced.html

info is provided there about a special reprint book of Supermans, which included the entire Out of Superman Saga--towit

quote:

---

In 1983 it was re-printed in The Great Superman Comic Book Collection. Unlike most comic books of the time, this reprint collection was a deluxe hard-cover volume with high quality paper and featured a beautifully printed reproduction of the story.

---

This book comes as a surprise to me, and I would dearly love to get my hands on it. Oh that DC might put out a new copy of this book!

Prior to OOSS, Bates & Maggin had worked on the previous summer's annual JLA/JSA crossover (Justice League of America 123 & 124, Oct & Nov '75), establishing a method of working together which carried over to the Out of Superman Saga.

Essentially it was Bates who broke down the story while Maggin delivered the dialogue.

[Elliot S! Maggin provides a fuller account on the above link--I'm dearly tempted to copy that whole thing onto this thread, but I think I'll hold off given how long my posts are anyway (perhaps I'll copy the link's quote onto the Backdoor to the Seventies thread).]

Looking at the titles for these parts, one will immediately see that "Superman" appears in the titles of the first and last story, while "Clark Kent" appears in the middle. Which gives some hint as to the theme--ie. the identity conflict of Clark and Superman.

The first story is very Maggin in its mood, as it establishes a back story for Xavier--the mysterious man in Clark's apartment building who was never seen--first mentioned in no. 246 (Dec. '71) "Danger Monster at Work!" story: Len Wein, 17 pages; the first story of the Schwartz era to deal with Clark's fellow residents at 344 Clinton--
--the doorman Frank, wheel-chair bound Mrs. Goldstein, Nathan Warbow, Mr. & Mrs. Lewis, Jonathan Slaughter, and Harold Jenkins, while the mysterious Mr. X is mentioned but never seen--and my conjecture is that Wein intended him as some in-joke, a reference to the X-Men's Prof. Xavier, who may or may not have been dead at the time. Bates and Maggin made more out of Mr. Xavier, an unaging alien who has come to Earth on some mission and doesn't become active, as it were, until the Out of Superman Saga.

As a consequence of Xavier's scheming, Superman is only Superman when he's fully out of Clark's Clothing. This prompts Superman/Clark to question his existence. There are several holes in all of this, but I don't want to take too much time dealing with them. Let's just say that the contrived plot allows for some fabulous bits of characterization (so it's all worth it in the end).

In 297, Clark gives up being Superman for one week. And this is probably the best part of the four. Clark allows himself to be totally human--letting off steam, challenging Lombard. For the first time--amazingly--he actually notices that May Marigold is cute (he really did need glasses afterall!). And then there's that scene with Lois. Re-reading it the other day, I still got chills. Clark and Lois making out. And the real pay-off is the panel on the next page (we have to assume what happened between the last panel that evening on page 12, and the first panel the next morning on page 13--as Lois wears the same dress as the day before) and "Beef Bourguinon" would have a whole new meaning in Superman comics from then on!

The reader will note that though Clark gives up being Superman for a week he unwittingly avoids a great disaster--which if he had taken action as Superman might have destroyed Metropolis--thanks to the schemes of Intergang.

Clark pursues Intergang, as an investigative reporter in 297, and then in 298 Intergang is out to kill Kent (who as a witness at trial could sink them), so it's fortuitous again that he takes that week to become Superman full time (since as Clark he would be vulnerable to an assasin's bullet, the same as any mortal). In 298, Superman gets no time to romance Lois or hang with Jimmy, because everyone expects him to be doing his job. Thus being Clark has had its benefits--allowing Supes to take a breath.

The last part of OOSS, has Xviar (Mr. Xaviar's alien identity) covertly recruiting nine of Superman's foes (Luthor, Mr. Mxyzptlk, the Prankster, Brainiac, the new Toyman, Terra-Man, Kryptonite Man (Kid), Amalak, and the Parasite), but Superman emerges triumphant in the end. The End.

Now let me tell you, for a time when I was originally reading this story back in the seventies, I was fooled into thinking that this whole thing might go on for many issues--like the Sandman Saga. It was a relief but also annoying to see it all tied up very neatly after just four issues.

And Bates and Maggin avoid the consequence of Clark's actions (in 297) by being very glib in the end. There's a little scene with Lois making fun about the whole thing--as to why Clark had acted out of character. It's all very light in tone. Which points out something about both Bates and Maggin and the Superman stories they told...

These guys will take Superman very close to serious consequences, but then they won't go further with it. They become glib, they fall back on humour or a light-hearted tone. Maggin will ask the question "Must There be a Superman?" but then he won't proceed further with the issue. As if to go any further would invite catastrophe.

In the Out of Superman Saga, Bates and Maggin danced very near the razor's edge, but in the end they decided not to go there.

I point this out, but I don't mean to make too much of it. Given that the whole signature of everything Superman post-Crisis has been to keep trying to break through one mythic boundary after the other, such that Superman now depends on these gimmicks for its sales--it's not entirely so terrible that Bates and Maggin never quite answered all the tantalizing questions they posed.

But where Bates and Maggin turned back and resorted to light-hearted story-telling, other writers who followed would not be so faint-hearted.

posted July 30, 2002 09:14 PM    

The last story with Maggin's name on it (for a few years anyhow) was the monumental "Tricentennial" story from Superman 300, June, 1976. Which was the final collaboration of the Bates/Maggin team.

In this year of upheaval, Maggin left. I thought he left because of political and artistic aspirations. I thought it was all warm and fuzzy moments, as a tearful B.O. Schwartz said good-bye to his young ward leaving the Bat-cave, as their man-servant E.N.B. struggled with his emotions.

But the link which I put up on the previous post tells us otherwise. The Out of Superman Saga (that telling page 13 of 297) had been slightly censored by Schwartz, just as Schwartz had edited other Maggin works. In Maggin's own words...

"All the changes were dictated by Julie Schwartz. The most significant one was the one I quit over. At some point, I did a story involving Perry White and the idea that as a young reporter he had uncovered the story of the Manhattan Project. Julie changed the ending not for any artistic or narrative reason, but because he wanted to use the story to make a point to me about editorial supremacy. I told him to take my name off the story and he didn't, so I went into the production room and brushed out my name with black ink, and that's how the story was printed. It was a backup story of some sort (maybe a Private Life story) and was attributed to no writer. I'm sure it must not be on your list because it never had my name on it, but it came out toward the end of my first run on the character."