Back Issue #148 Preview

Volume 1, Number 148

December 2023

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

Michael Eury

PUBLISHER

John Morrow

DESIGNER

Rich Fowlks

COVER ARTISTS

Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson

(Originally produced as the cover of DC Comics’ Strange Adventures #222, Jan.–Feb. 1970.

Art scan courtesy of Heritage Auctions.)

COVER COLORIST

Glenn Whitmore

COVER DESIGNER

Michael Kronenberg

PROOFREADER

David Baldy & friends

SPECIAL THANKS

Mike W. Barr

Cary Bates

Richard Bruning

DC Comics

Dave Gibbons

Michael T. Gilbert

Robert Greenberger

Dan Hagen

Jack C. Harris

Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Heritage Auctions

John Joshua

Dan Jurgens

Candace Kearney

Todd Klein

Adam Kubert

Psul Kupperberg

Paul Levitz

Elliot S. Maggin

Alissa Marmol-Cernat

Brian Martin

Shawn McManus

David Michelinie

Doug Moench

Luigi Novi

Jerry Ordway

Juan Ortiz

Tom Powers

Bob Rozakis

Philip Schweier

Tod Smith

Joe Staton

Laurie Sutton

Peter J. Tomasi

Mark Waid

John Wells

Marv Wolfman C’mon

Don’t STEAL our Digital Editions!

March, May, and Nov.) by TwoMorrows Publishing, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614, USA. Phone: (919) 449-0344. Periodicals postage paid at Raleigh, NC. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Back Issue, c/o TwoMorrows, 10407 Bedfordtown Drive, Raleigh, NC 27614

Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief. John Morrow, Publisher. Editorial Office: BACK ISSUE, c/o Michael Eury, Editor-in-Chief, 112 Fairmount Way, New Bern, NC 28562. Email: euryman@gmail.com. Eight-issue subscriptions: $97 Economy US, $147 International, $39 Digital. Please send subscription orders and funds to TwoMorrows, NOT to the editorial office. Cover artwork by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson. Adam Strange TM & © DC Comics. All Rights Reserved. All editorial matter © 2023 TwoMorrows and Michael Eury, except Prince Street News © 2023 Karl Heitmueller, Jr. Printed in China.

In DC Comics’ 25-issue run of From Beyond the Unknown , children’s dreams of the 1950s and early 1960s were transplanted into the troubled sleep of the 1970s.

In July 1969, when the first issue of From Beyond the Unknown (FBTU) appeared on newsstands with an October–November cover date, it sat there alongside Strange Adventures (SA) #220, a title already in its fourth issue of reprinting the early Silver Age adventures of DC’s spaceman hero, Adam Strange—who had originally appeared in Mystery in Space (MIS), not Strange Adventures.

Sales were presumably satisfactory enough to justify adding a new title devoted solely to science-fiction reprints.

At the time, publishers were tentatively attempting to expand in genres beyond superheroes, which were in danger of seeming passé now that the Batman TV show had burned itself out.

That same month, Marvel published the first issue of Chamber of Darkness, a new horror title. The month before, Marvel had added the horror title Tower of Shadows. And three months before, DC had introduced Nightmaster in Showcase #83,

Fueled by Shell

(left) Joe Kubert’s cover to From Beyond the Unknown #1 (Oct.–Nov. 1969). Editor Julius Schwartz’s new reprint title re-presented stories from DC’s Schwartz-edited sci-fi library, including (right) Strange Adventures #118 (July 1960), where “The Turtle-Men of Space!” first appeared. Cover by Sid Greene.

venturing into the sword-and-sorcery genre newly popularized by paperback reprints of Robert E. Howard’s Conan and JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

Published from 1969 to 1973, FBTU’s reprints were largely drawn from Mystery in Space and what I consider to be the golden era of Strange Adventures —roughly from the 20-40megacyle-beeping arrival of the Russian Sputnik satellite in 1957 to the assassination of President Kennedy in Dallas in 1963. Then came the escalation of the Vietnam War and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Riots had erupted in 100 cities, and the police and antiwar demonstrators clashed violently at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. American deaths in Vietnam had climbed from five in 1960 to 16,899 in the year 1968 alone.

So the America of 1970 was an appreciably darker place than the America of 1960—despite the nuclear cloud that had hung over the former (civilization had nearly come to an end in the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962). And even an innocuous reprint comic book subtly reflected that change.

Prints of Darkness

(left) Artist Murphy Anderson offers a bird’s-eye view of the “Giants of the Cosmic Ray!” cover of FBTU #2 (Dec. 1969–Jan. 1970).

(right) Artists Gil Kane and Joe Giella’s cover for the story’s original publication in Strange Adventures #82 (July 1957).

COVER STORIES

“The vast majority of the [editor Julius “Julie”] Schwartz covers were what might be called ‘situational,’ showing an interesting plot point from the story to intrigue the reader,” observed Mike W. Barr in TwoMorrows’ Silver Age Sci-Fi Companion. “Covers emphasizing action… had been a staple of comics since the medium’s inception, but had largely fallen by the wayside due to DC’s dominance of the industry until resurrected by Stan Lee with the advent of Marvel Comics in the 1960s.”

The FBTU covers remained situational, but were now slightly more sinister in keeping with the times.

Take, for example, the cover of From Beyond the Unknown’s first issue.

The cover story is “The TurtleMen from Space” by writer Gardner Fox and artist Mike Sekowsky, originally from SA #118 (July 1960).

Boys in 1960 often had pet turtles in little plastic water dishes that sported a plastic palm tree, and even more frequently owned green plastic “Army Men” (sold in bulk for as little as

a penny apiece in clear plastic bags during the decade, until the Vietnam War eroded their popularity).

Massage those interests for a while in your subconscious, and you might come up with the idea that turtles are armored, and military tanks are armored, so why not a gigantic turtle carrying alien military invaders?

Sid Greene’s gigantic Trojan Horse turtle on the Strange Adventures cover, stretching its neck toward a fighter jet, almost appears to be laughing in delight. But Joe Kubert’s FBTU #1’s giant turtle looms in the foreground, towering over the human soldiers and looking as if he might well eat them.

If Murphy Anderson’s cover for FBTU #2 (Dec. 1969–Jan. 1970) seems similar to Gil Kane’s original cover spotlighting the story “Giants of the Cosmic Ray!” ( SA # 82, July 1957), that’s probably because there was no need to rework the idea, which was already sinister enough.

Both covers feature puzzled authorities examining a spaceship that bears a gigantic handprint and sits next to a monstrous three-toed footprint. The Anderson cover makes the humans appear

Adam Strange was dead, Julius Schwartz concluded, at least in terms of being an ongoing character. It was time to tie things up and move on.

Born on Earth, Adam was an archaeologist who had been struck by a communication beacon-turned-teleporter called a “Zeta-Beam” [“Zeta Beam” in some later texts] back in 1958. Swept 25 trillion miles away to the planet Rann in the Alpha Centauri star system, the blond young man quickly established himself as the hero of a fragmented civilization still struggling to recover from a nuclear war a millennium in its past. Locales ran the gamut from the scientific advancement of Ranagar and the primitive superstition of Yardana.

The Zeta-Beam wore off, but its inventor Sardath had fired a lot of them at Earth and Adam was determined to catch every one. Adam had fallen in love with Sardath’s daughter Alanna, and a little thing like 4.5 light years wasn’t going to stand in his way. Nor was the language barrier, thanks to a translation device called a Menticizer.

For five years, boy met girl under the green skies of Rann, and all was good. Well, aside from dealing with things like Tornado Tyrants and ray-guns in the sky or fading away during a lovers’ embrace.

THE SILVER AGE WAS HIS GOLDEN AGE

“Science dictated that you could only see Alpha Centauri from below the equator,” Julius “Julie” Schwartz explained in his biography Man of Two Worlds (2000), “so we always had to get Adam down there to hook up with [a Zeta-Beam]. It couldn’t be in Hollywood or New York. I remember we set one down in Rio during Carnival and another in the South Pacific.”

Created by Schwartz and writer Gardner Fox for 1958’s Showcase #17–19, the Adam Strange series concept was broadly based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ pulp adventures of John Carter on Mars, although Fox insisted the parallel had been unconscious. Adam’s sharp red and white costume was designed by Murphy Anderson, and the initial stories drawn by Mike Sekowsky.

Beam Me Up, Julie!

Strange Adventures #217’s (Mar.–Apr. 1969) logo was altered to promote DC’s sci-fi hero as editor Julius “Julie” Schwartz attempted to boost Adam Strange’s visibility for the burgeoning Bronze Age! Cover art by Neal Adams. Unless otherwise noted, all scans accompanying this article are courtesy of John Wells.

It wasn’t until Adam was awarded an ongoing series in Mystery in Space (MIS) #53 (June 1959) that Carmine Infantino began penciling the feature and everything clicked into place. The cartoonist’s sense of design and futurism defined the series for generations. The rich, luxurious inking of Murphy Anderson—a frequent contributor to the strip—brought Infantino’s pencils to a higher plane and made most fans swoon.

The art was only part of the reason that Adam Strange became a critical favorite in the early 1960s. Although not known for his characterization, Fox invested Adam and Alanna’s relationship with genuine sweetness and a degree of mutual support that stood in contrast to most superhero romances of the era. Alanna loved adventures and exploration every bit as much as her boyfriend.

Schwartz and Fox also eschewed the cliché brutal, shoot-first mentality in favor of making Adam a “thinking man’s hero,” someone who typically employed a scientific principle in solving the latest threat—alien or native—to Rann.

His heroism utterly unknown on Earth, Adam nonetheless made the acquaintance of the Justice League of America (in 1962’s MIS #75 and 1963’s JLA #24). He also became fast friends with Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who briefly had their own feature in Mystery in Space #87–90 that culminated with a spectacular team-up. The archaeologist and the museum curators had much in common even beyond larger-than-life heroics.

In 1964, Schwartz, Fox, and Infantino were assigned to overhaul Batman, leaving Adam (effective with MIS #92) at the mercy of editor Jack Schiff, writer Dave Wood, and artist Lee Elias. Dumbed down and stripped of his signature finned hood, Adam lingered for a year before ceding his spot to Ultra the MultiAlien in Mystery in Space #103.

Regretting that the character had gone out with a whimper, Schwartz and Fox put their heads together in 1966. Joined by artist Murphy Anderson, they brought Adam back for a last hurrah, a team-up in Hawkman #18 where Sardath negated the Zeta-energy in Adam’s body and enabled him to stay on Rann permanently. There was a downside, of course: “You can no longer return to Earth without suffering instant death.” Adam took the news in stride, quickly scheduling a wedding to Alanna. The procession was interrupted by the evil Man-Hawks, but readers were left to assume that the couple lived happily ever after.

Silver Age Spacemen

(top left) Carmine Infantino’s art enlivened the early Adam Strange adventures. Cover to MIS #60 (June 1960). Inks by Joe Giella. (top right) Adam occasionally joined forces with the Winged Wonder, including Hawkman #18 (Feb.–Mar. 1967). Cover by Murphy Anderson. (bottom) Michael T. Gilbert’s delicious salute to Adam and DC’s Silver Age sci-fi pantheon in a fantasy cover commission from the collection of John Joshua. Color version courtesy of Michael T. Gilbert.

Adam Strange Returns

A titanic trio of talent—writer Denny O’Neil, penciler Gil Kane, and inker Murphy Anderson—present Adam’s return to new stories in Strange Adventures #222 (Jan.–Feb. 1970), the title’s first Bronze Age issue. Original art page courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com). (inset) The comic’s cover, whose art was repurposed for this issue’s BI cover.

BLAST-OFF FROM EARTH— DESTINATION RANN

Imagine Schwartz’s surprise when he was once again assigned to edit the adventures of Adam Strange, effective with January 1969’s Strange Adventures (SA) #217 (cover-dated Mar.–Apr. 1969). Although DC management had abruptly killed the book’s “Deadman” feature, they were reluctant to cancel such a long-running title. Instead, they handed it back to its original editor, who was charged with continuing it as a reprint book filled with SF stories from 1950–1963. The headliner, whose name could be neatly integrated into the book’s logo, was Adam Strange.

Appropriately, it and issue #218 started off by reprinting Adam’s first two appearances from Showcase #17. Schwartz perhaps didn’t want to waste time getting to the more celebrated Infantino, so he skipped over the other Showcase issues and re-ran Mystery in Space #53 in Strange Adventures #219. Moving forward, the book also skipped MIS #54, 56–58, 60, 61, and 66 before settling in for an uninterrupted run with SA #227 (reprinting MIS #67).

The clamor for new Adam Strange stories started immediately, and Schwartz obliged with “an untold tale” written by Denny O’Neil in SA #222 (Jan.–Feb. 1970), on sale in November 1969. Illustrated by Gil Kane and Murphy Anderson, “Beyond the Wall of Death” was a good-looking piece that lacked the scientific elements associated with the series. Instead, the plot replayed the legend of the Trojan Horse as Adam and a group of Rannians worked to free damsel-in-distress Alanna from a barbarian tribe. The tale’s most uncharacteristic moment came when Adam (in reference to the kidnappers) snarled, “Nuts! Let’s wipe ’em out!” So much for the thinking man’s hero.

Writing as Sergius O’Shaugnessy in issue #225’s letters column, O’Neil declared, “I would never write stories like those currently being reprinted in Strange Adventures [but] I certainly enjoy reading them. To strain a metaphor, they are part of that legion of psyche-sculptors which formed my head; like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and the guys on the radio from 4 to 6 daily, they stimulated my sense of the mysterious, the beyond—in a word, wonder.”

Elsewhere, Adam’s presence in Strange Adventures inspired editor Murray Boltinoff and writer Bob Haney to feature him alongside Batman in The Brave and the Bold (B&B) #90 (June–July 1970). The

premise had a solar flare affecting the Zeta-Beam, temporarily bouncing Adam into Earth’s future, where he tore off a fragment of a newspaper reporting the Caped Crusader’s death. After Adam shared his discovery, an unnerved Batman briefly took refuge on Rann before deciding to accept whatever was to come.

Fans took issue with a multitude of details, starting with the fact that Adam’s role in the story was more catalyst than guest-star. The wonky use of the Zeta-Beam drew criticism, as did the fact that Adam was using it at all, since he’d permanently relocated to Rann. Nor, despite a caption to the contrary, was Rann in another galaxy. (It was in our own.) Finally, the normally bald, bespectacled Sardath was depicted by artists Ross Andru and Mike Esposito as having long hair and no glasses. Haney used half of B&B #92’s letters column to defend himself.

Schwartz hoped for better success by having Gardner Fox himself write another new Adam

“So, I wrote Adam Strange twice and have fond memories of each story,” Barr reflects. “That’s the best possible average; maybe I’d better quit while I’m ahead.”

Adam’s other appearances in that period were insubstantial. Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe #1 (Mar. 1985) included an entry illustrated by Infantino and Anderson, while Wolfman and Pérez’s History of the DC Universe #2 (Feb. 1987) also offered a glimpse. Echoing an earlier walk-on in Neal Adams’ 1978 Superman vs. Muhammad Ali tabloid, Adam and Alanna strolled through the 30th Century in a panel of 1985’s Tales of the Legion #325 before Adam cameoed in Swamp Thing #45 months later. Recalling his 1971 Flash flyby, Adam appeared prominently on Bill Sienkiewicz’s cover for Elvira’s House of Mystery #7 (Sept. 1986).

Writer Gerry Conway faithfully detailed Adam’s beginnings for Secret Origins #17 (Aug. 1987), a story most notable for the fact that Carmine Infantino (inked by Tony DeZuniga) drew it. Since Mike Sekowsky had penciled the original 1958 Showcase pilot, this was Infantino’s first opportunity to illustrate Adam’s origin in detail.

‘THE FALL OF ADAM STRANGE’

Behind the scenes, plans percolated for Adam’s inevitable return. It began with artist Klaus Janson challenging DC art director Richard Bruning to come up with a pitch for a series that he could illustrate. Bruning quickly zeroed in on an Adam Strange makeover and was developing ideas when he learned that superstar Alan Moore intended to use the character in late-1986’s Swamp Thing #57 and 58 (illustrated by Rick Veitch and Alfredo Alcala).

“Having become friends [with Moore] working on Watchmen ,” Bruning wrote in Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds (2003), “we were able to swap back and forth the directions in which our respective ideas were taking us and integrate key elements we could explore. The Swamp Thing stories didn’t dictate the AS series but certainly and wonderfully influenced it.”

Moore’s plot found the elemental Swamp Thing expelled from Earth and accidentally falling into the path of a Zeta-Beam at the same time as Adam. In Alpha Centauri, their initial encounter didn’t go well, the Earthman uncharacteristically raging about “ugly, stupid-looking brainless monsters” as he stewed about the Rannians’ veiled resentment of him. Once the language barrier was breached, however, Adam realized that Swamp Thing’s abilities might represent the means of ending the drought that had progressively plagued Rann since its long-ago nuclear war.

Such news didn’t sit well with visiting representatives of Thanagar, who had made their own offer to restore the environment in exchange for data on Rann’s

‘Here Lies Rann’s Champion of Champions’

Writer Mike W. Barr combined his penchant for murder mysteries and passion for DC’s sci-fi library into a Batman/Adam Strange team-up in The Brave and the Bold #190 (Sept. 1982—100 issues after the two heroes originally teamed up in B&B!).

(top) Its cover, by Jim Aparo. (bottom) Batman recalls his friendship with Adam on this page illustrated by Carmine Infantino and Sal Trapani.

Superman #233 (Jan. 1971) is a landmark issue of one of DC Comics’ longest-running series. With its iconic “Kryptonite Nevermore!” cover by Neal Adams, it heralds a new era for the Man of Steel. Longtime Superman editor Mort Weisinger had retired, handing over the reins to his colleague, Julius “Julie” Schwartz, who sought to update the character for the 1970s. [ Editor’s note: Schwartz was assigned Superman and World’s Finest Comics , with the remaining Superman family titles in other editors’ hands until Schwartz eventually inherited the entire Superman line. See BI #12 or the TwoMorrows book The Krypton Companion for the story behind Superman’s revamp.]

In addition, Schwartz introduced a new backup feature: “The Fabulous World of Krypton” (subtitled “Untold stories of Superman’s native planet”). According to longtime DC Comics writer Cary Bates, “Given Julie’s lifelong love of science fiction, it was probably his idea to explore stories of what life was like on a distant planet—which just happened to be Krypton.”

Throughout the 1970s, Bates wrote for the Superman books and other titles under Schwartz’s editorship. He regards the Fabulous World of Krypton (FWOK) stories as cousins to the scores of eight-page stories that ran in Schwartz’s longrunning Strange Adventure and Mystery in Space books of previous decades. The feature offered opportunities for refreshing chances and narrative departures that went beyond the boundaries of the superhero books of the day. It fell to Schwartz as editor to maintain a consistent tone for the feature, even though it was written and drawn by a broad range of creative personnel.

Elliot S. Maggin, another prolific DC writer of the era, says, “Julie took the same degree of handson approach he did with all our stories. He liked to plot them with us in person, but we had a good degree of flexibility when it came to execution of the scripts.”

Following his DC debut with Green Arrow backup story in Green Lantern #87 (Dec.1970–Jan. 1971), Maggin began writing DC’s flagship character with “Must There Be a Superman?’ in Superman #247 (Jan. 1972). Schwartz edited both titles. “I got the impression that Julie made individual assignments based, as much as anything else, on who was walking by the office door that day,” Maggin says. “So I made a point of hanging around as much as I reasonably could.” His editor often credited the writer in print as “Elliot S! Maggin.”

Welcome to Krypton

Page 1 of the first “Fabulous World of Krypton” story, written by E. Nelson Bridwell and illustrated by Murphy Anderson. From Superman #233 (Jan. 1971).

Another artist Bates singles out is Michael Wm. Kaluta. “The Man Who Cheated Time” in Superman #240 (July 1971) was only Kaluta’s third assignment from DC Comics, and his only contribution to the FWOK library.

Superman #249 (Mar. 1972) featured “The Challenge of Terra-Man,” the debut of the intergalactic outlaw. A key element to the story was how Kryptonians observe their birthday as a time of sorrow. This was continued later in Superman #263’s (Apr. 1973) FWOK backup, “Unhappy Birthday to You,” explaining the origin of Krypton’s natal observance. Both were written by Bates.

Maggin’s initial contribution to the feature was “The Day Krypton Didn’t Die!” in Superman #251 (May 1972), drawn by Rich Buckler. Employing the same framing device, a Kryptonian judicator relates how during his world’s ancient era, inhabitants used Krypton’s natural plant life to defeat an alien invasion. However, one of the invaders is left behind, abandoned by his people. The ancient Kryptonians wished to execute him, but soon discovered the mix of the alien’s feathers and their native soil was volatile. Sparing the alien’s life prevented the destruction of their planet. In this spirit of mercy, the judicator decrees an end to the death penalty on his world.

cary bates

Many of Krypton’s historical tales are set during its preindustrial era, rather than the advanced society readers might have expected. “That came about by chance, based on what we knew of the history of Earth,” explains Maggin. “Industrial and sociological progress seemed to be a continuum on Earth, and so did we apply it to Krypton. We didn’t think political or natural disasters would likely make history into the kind of patchwork we’re now slowly learning that humans on Earth appear to have experienced.”

However, Maggin believes it would have been interesting to include a few disastrous setbacks on Krypton, similar to Earth’s catastrophic flood or the European incursion into the New World cultures, and the spread of smallpox among its native people.

Superman #257 (Oct. 1972) features “The Greatest Green Lantern of All,” by Maggin, “from an idea by Neal Adams.” Maggin attributes this to an offhand remark Adams made one day as they were walking down the street. “He said something like, ‘Who do you suppose was the Green Lantern of Krypton? They would have had someone assigned like everywhere else, right?’ Then probably the subject abruptly changed to something like why there are continents or what a turd Nixon was,” Maggin laughs.

“When I told Julie the idea the next day, his eyes lit up and it was good for a morning full of ideas flinging around and loud disagreements over whatever came up.”

Covering Krypton

(top) The Superman issue before #233’s revamp, #232, was a Giant collecting Krypton-based reprints. Cover by Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson. (bottom) The FWOK backup was rarely acknowledged on Superman covers. Consider yourself an honorary Kryptonian if you can identify these cover blurbs’ issue numbers.

As I searched for “Fabulous World of Krypton” original art scans for the preceding article, at Heritage Auctions ( www.ha.com ) I discovered six pages of a ten-page FWOK story that went unfinished and unpublished. Great Krypton! What’s this?

The story involves racing on Krypton, perhaps inspired by the 1975 cult flick Death Race 2000 and ’70s popularity of motorcycle stuntdriving (from Evel Kneivel to Ghost Rider). Its all-important title page is among the four missing pages, so the author’s identity is unknown. I consulted four of FWOK’s writers— Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggin, Paul Kupperberg, and Bob Rozakis—all of whom said the script wasn’t theirs.

There’s no mistaking its artist, however. Juan Ortiz had a short but prolific stint illustrating comics (mostly for DC) from 1977 through 1979. At DC, his first published story appeared in Weird War Tales #53 (May 1977), and a flurry of comics followed, including “Enemy Ace” in Men of War , “Krypto” in Superman Family , “Superboy” in Adventure Comics , Karate Kid , Steel the Indestructible Man , House of Mystery , and Batman Family . The FWOK story in question is clearly his work, as evidenced by his signature at the bottom of each page.

Attempts to locate Juan Ortiz were unsuccessful, although it’s important to note that this 1970s artist shares the same name with an illustrator of more recent vintage. “Sorry, but I’m not that Juan Ortiz,” the “other” Ortiz tells BACK ISSUE. “That Juan is 13 years older than me,” remarks the animation artist/graphic designer who has produced, among many wonderful projects, the books Star Trek: The Art of Juan Ortiz and Lost in Space: The Art of Juan Ortiz, coffee-table-sized showcases of the artist’s interpretations of episodes of those beloved sci-fi adventures in the vein of classic movie posters.

Comics’ original Juan Ortiz’s late-’70s affiliation with DC Comics offers a general timeline as to when this FWOK story was originally in production. DC historian John Wells hypothesizes, “my guess is that this was meant for the Superman Family Dollar Comic, whose first issue (#182) ran the only other ten-page FWOK story. Once ‘Nightwing and Flamebird’ and ‘Krypto’ became regular strips in SF , there was never a spot to run the Ortiz tale.”

Let the Games Begin!

Artist Juan Ortiz is off to the races on page 2 of this unfinished “Fabulous World of Krypton” story. Four more art pages are presented on page 44. All scans accompanying this article are courtesy of Heritage Auctions (www.ha.com).

TM & © DC Comics.

If John’s theory is correct, the script’s author might have been the late Martin Pasko, one of the primary Superman scribes of the era.

We are unsure, however. If anyone has additional information about this story, please contact ye ed at euryman@gmail.com and I’ll share that with our readers.

In the meantime, enjoy this special “Greatest Stories Never Told” peek at pages from the “Fabulous World of Krypton” story that never was!

“Far below, two dense and massive creatures crash together like angry planets. [...] Their enmity can only be measured in the skipped heartbeats of distant seismographs.”

– “For the Man Who Has Everything,” Superman Annual #11 (1985)

That is the way the titanic clash between Superman and Mongul is described at the climax of the villain’s most iconic appearance, and indeed the ability to physically take on the Man of Tomorrow is what had set Mongul apart from other Bronze Age menances for the longest time. Even subject to a decrease in power once the Crisis had rewritten history, Mongul remained a formidable enemy to various heroes well into the mid-1990s and up until his unceremonious death at the hands of the demon Neron.

As we take the scenic route in this exploration of the tyrant’s history, we’ll touch on everything that had come along the way and all the destruction in-between.

FORCED ENTRY

Mongul’s debut in “The Key that Unlocked Chaos!,” published in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov. 1980), was an abrupt one in the most literal sense: the first sighting of his strange, jaundiced features is in a holographic message unexpectedly transmitted via scrambled signal to Clark Kent’s unassuming apartment on the very first page of the story.

The danger is stark from the get-go as Mongul’s message explains he’s imprisoned Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Steve Lombard in a cube meant to crush them if Superman refuses to do his bidding. In fact, co-creators Len Wein and Jim Starlin waste no time in establishing a series of facts that would come to haunt Kal-El throughout the remainder of the Bronze Age: Mongul was keenly aware of both his heroic exploits and his civilian identity.

Meet Mongul (If You Dare)

Our spotlighted interstellar despot first appeared in the Superman/Martian Manhunter team-up in DC Comics Presents #27 (Nov. 1980). Cover by Jim Starlin.

This was an exciting period for DCCP: the New Teen Titans preview had premiered in the previous issue, and Mongul’s first storyline would continue in #28.

It is precisely these elements that permit Mongul to manipulate Superman throughout the story, sending him on a chase for the key that can activate Warworld and forcing him into a confrontation with J’onn J’onzz. Despite his Justice League colleague’s warnings, Superman is convinced of his ability to prevail over the villain. However, Mongul quickly vanishes along with Warworld and the tale gives way to a rare failure on Superman’s part.

Famously remembered by longtime fans as the writer who had revitalized Justice League of America, Len Wein’s script adds a much-needed degree of complexity and all-too-human fallibility to the Man of Steel. “I warned you that you were dealing with forces beyond your comprehension—but you were just too overconfident— too egotistical—to listen!” cries out the Martian Manhunter in the bleak finale and all at once, it seems clear that Mongul must be an enemy like no other to have brought out such traits in Superman.

Mongul’s subsequent appearances have much the same effect on the hero, memorably in the immediate continuation found in DC Comics Present s #28 (Dec. 1980) that sees him ultimately rendered unconscious by the mental strain of a psychic link to Warworld, yet still managing to send Kal-El on something of a spiritual quest in the following issue. That same story also showcases a first insight into Mongul’s backstory, having once been the despotic ruler of a world that had revolted against him and forced him to flee for his life.

Not quite down for the count, Mongul reemerges in DC Comics Presents #36 (Aug. 1981) and 43 (Mar. 1982) for his last appearances in the run, first in an attempt to conquer Throneworld by

taking out its protector—Prince Gavyn, one-time Starman—and later launching a much more direct attack on Superman by unleashing a Sun-Eater bound for Earth and finding himself defeated only by the combined might of Kal-El and the Legion of Super-Heroes.

As co-creator, frequent plotter, and artist, Jim Starlin put it in a 2018 interview with the DC in the 80s webzine, “I wanted to do my Thanos over at DC. But once I got in there, I wanted to do something different, so we got the whole Warworld in there. I wanted somebody... a big villain that would really... Superman had not taken on Darkseid by this point... so it really was Superman taking on somebody possibly more powerful than he was. It all led up finally to the Starman crossover—which I ended up inking myself—that was really just these two boxing it out and... y’know... two titans smashing up the landscape and having a great time doing it.”

It was this sense that Superman had met his match that also appealed to writer Paul Levitz, who had scripted those final DCCP Mongul stories. As he tells BACK ISSUE , “I always thought Mongul was an interesting opponent for Superman because his power was so visibly physical—very much unlike the classic Superman foes who pitted science and brainpower against him.”

In truth, as DCCP #36 marked the first outright physical confrontation between these ardent adversaries, something seemed to have shifted within Mongul; his quest to regain his empire would never really fade but his hatred for Superman had clearly grown into a personal vendetta—a quality that would set the tone for the rest of the character’s villainous existence.

‘The

(left) Look who’s back! Jim Starlin and writer Paul Levitz united for the Superman/Starman shocker featuring Mongul in DCCP #36 (Aug. 1981). (right) Inside the issue, Supie and Mongul mix it up.

Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons co-produced perhaps the ultimate Mongul tale in 1985’s Superman Annual #11—and it’s also one of the best Superman stories of all time, too!

HIS HEART’S DESIRE

At the twilight of the Bronze Age, Mongul takes that vendetta a step further and finds his revenge in the form of the aptly named Black Mercy—under the thrall of which Kal-El experiences his greatest wish, life on a still-standing Krypton, as the plant feeds on him in a horrific form of symbiosis.

“For the Man Who Has Everything,” published in Superman Annual #11 (1985) and reprinted several times over the years as well as adapted for television in the Justice League Unlimited animated series, has become one of the most highly regarded Superman stories to have ever hit the stands, and that’s in no small measure thanks to the creative team of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.

Sharing some insights with BACK ISSUE about the process behind the Annual, Gibbons explains: “We’d spoken about this particular story some years before—where I remember sitting in a pub garden outside a little convention and Alan was holding forth and talking about this idea that he had for a story that was set on Krypton if it hadn’t exploded, and we had a little chitchat about that and I thought, ‘That’s a really neat idea for a story.’

And I think when it came to the point that he and I were asked to do the Superman Annual, he kind of had the basic story and the basic Krypton end of it laid out and then mixed it in with the part of the story that takes place in the Fortress of Solitude. So it wasn’t one of these things that suddenly came about, it was something that had been cooking for a while and that I’d been aware of a little bit of the early history of.”

While the true heart of the tale can certainly be found in the Krypton sequences, Mongul himself is no less impressive. If he’s not an especially cerebral antagonist by design, then he very much is an intuitive one guided by sheer cruelty and capacity for evil. Gibbons’ Mongul, especially, appears quite literally larger-than-life—an immense and intimidating figure more than ever before as he looms over our heroes, not only able to take down Wonder Woman but ready to go another round with the Man of Steel, too.

Discussing his first time drawing the character, Gibbons recalls: “One of the things that I did, and I don’t usually do this, was that I actually made a miniature Mongul head out of what we call

‘For the Man Who Has Everything’

“Who are the Omega Men!” proclaims the fantastic George Pérez cover for Green Lantern #141 (June 1981). We’ll answer that question, and a number of others, surrounding the assemblage’s career. So come with us as we travel from Earth and on to the star Vega and its varied worlds. And beyond!

THE ALPHA OF THE OMEGAS

In the aforementioned issue of GL, Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton were at about the midpoint of their collaboration on the title. Hal Jordan and Carol Ferris were at an “on” stage of their relationship, and while vacationing in Newfoundland they find a town in which the residents seem to be a little… strange. To the point that the “Constable” soon decides that the pair need to leave the town and telepathically sends them and their car flying off. They are, of course, unaware that Hal is a Green Lantern, and the duo soon returns. It seems the town is the Earthly refuge of a group of aliens known collectively as the Omega Men. The requisite superhero battle ensues until Queen Kalista intervenes.

The issue introduces us to the septet that would form the core of the Omega Men for the first couple of years of their existence. From the start it is readily apparent that they are not all from the same race. Harpis and Demonia are sisters, though the former is avian, the latter reptilian. Primus and Kalista are humanoids who are man and wife and planetary leaders. Tigorr is… well, an upright-standing tiger, though he and Demonia can both shape change to forms closer to their Earthly analogues. Broot, the requisite physical powerhouse, resembles a golem. And finally there’s Nimbus, a pure, white-skinned, black-cloaked character that manifests a mist-like aspect and death touch in battle.

When it comes to the look of the characters, “The designs were all done from Marv’s descriptions,” says Joe Staton. “He was pretty clear. I think he went with all that I drew, with one exception. I had originally shown Primus with a bald head, because I thought it would make him look more mature and in command. (This was, of course, before the time of Jean Luc Picard.) Marv disagreed, so I reworked him with flowing locks.”

The other thing we find out very quickly is that these seven do not get along. Initially, Demonia and Harpis are in favor of killing the interfering humans, while Tigorr believes he should be leading the group, not Primus. These divisions would be omnipresent as the group moved forward. When quizzed by BI , Wolfman states, “I needed the characters to all have their own agendas and not team up in the traditional sense where everyone is working together.”

The Omega Men’s Alpha Moment

The mysterious Omega Men encounter the Emerald Gladiator on George Pérez’s powerful cover for Green Lantern #141 (June 1981).

In Development

As the next issue begins, Kalista, what we call a witch on Earth, enlightens Hal on the history of the alien group.

The Vega system has been conquered by a tyrannical collective known as the Citadel. Two hundred dissidents imprisoned together are freed by Primus. Seventy died in escaping and a few more in transit. Further delineating the characters’ relationships based on this history, Wolfman says, “In my mind the characters were among the last few of their race, their people having been murdered by outside forces. Their only real concern was to find any others of their race and make sure their people didn’t all die. Therefore, their own personal agendas superseded the group. They were together only because they had a mutual problem, but they were separate in how to deal with those problems. A lot of this might not have clearly come out in the books, but that was my original intent.” This means that though seven are prominently featured, the actual number of Omega Men is over 100! “I don’t think others were designed,” according to Wolfman. “But since an entire star system was eradicated, we needed other ‘soldiers’ to be ready to fight. We’d invent them as needed.” Joe Staton agrees, telling BI , “I don’t think I ever worked out any specific designs, though I think there were random alien types shown in backgrounds.”

At the end of the breakout, an extraordinarily powered character named Lambien saved them from the pursuing fleet but was bombed into a coma. The Omegans have been hiding on Earth ever since, about six months our time, but the Citadel’s Hunters have found them. Naturally, GL agrees to help them.

Though they fight to kill, the battle begins to go against the Omegans—that is, until the chamber that holds Lambien opens.

In the finale of the trilogy, the creature that emerges now goes by the name of Auron, god of light—a rather fitting title, as we have been told Lambien is the son of X’Hal, the goddess the Omegans worship. Suffice to say that his powers are of such a magnitude that he is able to toss most of the Citadel attackers into the Sun. The battle ended, Primus says that it is time to take the war back to the Citadel.

Tellingly, as the Commander of the surviving Citadel fleet flies away, he says that a war station has already been dispatched to punish Earth for harboring the princess Koriand’r (Starfire in the New Teen Titans, in case you didn’t know). In the editorial in Omega Men #2, Wolfman detailed how one of his goals at DC was to create consistent alien races across the DCU. Since he had already introduced the planet Tamaran and the Citadel in New Teen Titans, when it came time to have an alien foe in GL, it was a no-brainer.

ACTION FIGURES

The characters would be dormant for almost a year until in Action Comics #535 (Sept 1982), they contact Superman on GL’s recommendation. Wolfman was writing the title and Joe Staton was on hand to pencil this issue and the next, with Pablo Marcos then Sal Trapani along as inkers. Staton tells BI , “I had a little run on Action with Marv, so it just made sense that he was writing our characters into the Superman stories as well.” The Omegans are ready to return to the Vega system, but they need fuel. Over this issue and the next, they assist Superman in his battle with the Mole, all the while engaging in the infighting they had exhibited in their debut as Harpis, Tigorr, and Demonia especially chafe at any delay in their heading home. Villain defeated, they proceed to the JLA satellite, where the elements needed to create the fuel are kept. As Superman finishes creating the propellant, the satellite alarms sound and the Man of Steel has to rescue the Teen Titans. It seems they were tossed into space when Koriand’r’s sister Komand’r kidnapped her and headed back to… the Vega system. This story leads directly into New Teen Titans #24 (Oct. 1982), where George Pérez and Romeo Tanghal were the resident art team.

Was it a measure of the characters’ popularity that caused them to appear again, and in Titans , DC’s bestselling title? Marv Wolfman reveals that “It was planned from the beginning to introduce them in Green Lantern, then port them over to Superman, then the Titans, the DC characters who had their own adventures in space. Also, they were three of the books I was writing, so I could control the stories.

“The idea was to give the readers a sampling of the characters, hopefully to make them interesting to their readers because of these early appearances. I treated the Omega Men very much like an advertising campaign; get readers to care about the group by slowly building them up, then coming out with their own comic. That was always my plan from the start.”

OF COURSE, YOU KNOW THIS MEANS WAR

That slow build comes to a head as the two teams join forces. Heading back to Vega, Primus decides to stop at the planet Okaara to pick up reinforcements. We find out that X’Hal is a living goddess, herself possessing extraordinary powers like her son—so much power, in fact, that she is imprisoned on Okaara to contain those powers. As the issue ends, the Citadel attacks, attempting to kidnap X’Hal.

New Teen Titans #25 and the first Titans Annual detail the war for X’Hal and the Titans’ rescue of their teammate. It is their book, after all. Where our subjects are concerned, though, we learn a lot of valuable information, including a thought balloon (remember those?) by Demonia, where she admits she is a traitor to the group.

After a prolonged battle, X’Hal surrenders to prevent more killing. This is important since, as Primus details in the goddess’ history, she was a human warrior queen who commanded the operation that repelled a Psion (another Wolfman alien race that also hates the Citadel) attack and was revered in the entire Vega system. Years later, however, they returned and captured her.

Being a scientifically minded race, they performed experiments on her and converted her into an energy being. Unfortunately, she was now possessed by battle lust. She destroyed the Psion world, then went wild and destroyed three Vegan planets. Vega’s greatest warriors stopped her and imprisoned her on Okaara, and became her jailers.

Back in the present, at the climax of the tale, X’Hal is freed by Demonia as her loyalties vacillate and the goddess ends this skirmish, vanishing and seemingly dying. As the Titans head home, the Omegans vow to carry on their mission.

Our heroes make a small return trip to the Green Lantern book with issue #161 (Jan. 1983), in a tale crafted by Mike W Barr, Keith Pollard, and Pablo Marcos. Importantly, we are made aware of the fact that there is a non-interference pact between the Citadel and the GL Corps.

I’M READY FOR MY CLOSEUP

The time was right for the Omega Men to begin their own book, and with a first issue cover-dated April 1983, scripter Roger Slifer teamed with inker Mike DeCarlo. But the main drawing card on the new Omega Men series was its penciler. Keith Giffen was riding high producing Legion of Super-Heroes with writer Paul Levitz and inker Larry Mahlstedt.

Co-creator Wolfman was tapped as editor. “When I realized I was overbooked with other assignments, I decided to give the Omega Men to other writers to handle.”

An additional hook to the series was that it was DC’s first continuing series on the upscale, stark-white Baxter paper, a facet they emphasized in their advertising.

The creative team spoke in the first issue of Comics Interview (Feb. 1983) about their plans for the title. Since the characters were involved in a war, “I think it’s important we portray a realistic view of violence,” stated Slifer, with Giffen echoing, “It should be distasteful. I don’t want people coming away from a fight scene in Omega Men saying, ‘What a great fight scene.’ I want them to feel a bit uneasy.”

As for characterization, Giffen stated, “The Omega Men have been guest stars, that’s all. There’s never been any development of the characters. We got them basically untouched. You can’t change basic personalities, but you can maneuver them around.”

When it came to setting the book in another system, Slifer stated, “One of the things we’re trying to do is establish that when we have a story take place somewhere on a planet in the Vegan star system, we really define the culture of that planet. When you go somewhere you get the ambiance, so it’s not just another bunch of aliens with scales.”

And those more than 100 characters? Slifer again: “This is more of a society [than a group]. There are 100 people in it,

Beta-Driving the Omegans

Writer Marv Wolfman continued the Omega Men’s saga through appearances in DC titles he was writing.

(top) Gil Kane’s cover rough for Action Comics #535 (Sept. 1982; courtesy of Heritage), and (inset) the published cover, with Frank Giacoia inks. (bottom left)

Side-by-side with DC’s hottest super-team in New Teen Titans #24 (Oct. 1982). Cover by Pérez. (bottom right) A return to Green Lantern in issue #161 (Feb. 1983). Cover by Keith Pollard and Mike DeCarlo.

Even Stranger Adventures

Sans graphics, wraparound cover artwork to issue #1 (Mar. 1990) of writer Richard Bruning’s Adam Strange three-issue miniseries. Art by Andy Kubert, colors by Adam Kubert.

Richard Bruning is a lifelong fan of cartooning and comic books. He first arrived on the comics scene as a designer with his own Abraxas Studios before briefly serving as the editor for Capital Comics’ short-lived comics line ( Nexus , Badger, Whisper). He arrived at DC Comics in the mid-1980s as design director just as the need for more sophisticated publication design was required for its upscale comics. He helped introduce new readers to the collected editions and gave the Vertigo imprint its distinctive look.

He also stepped in to edit the Prisoner miniseries and later ushered in DC’s first foray into digital comics with Zuda

What few may recall, though, is that he also wrote a handful of comics stories between 1987 and 1999. Chief among those stories was the three-issue Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds project, illustrated by Andy and Adam Kubert. After remaining out of print for a decade or so, it was released in early 2023 in a new edition.

As for who Adam Strange is, I happily refer you to John Wells’ extensive look at the Bronze Age adventures of the Silver Age hero elsewhere in this issue.

In January 2023, Bruning and I spoke about the project, its origins, and reception. What follows is a transcript edited for length and clarity.

– Robert Greenberger

[Editor’s notes: Unless otherwise noted, bracketed comments throughout the text were provided by the interviewer. An interview with Adam Strange colorist Adam Kubert follows.]

ROBERT GREENBERGER: All right. So we’re doing it this way [video chat], so I get a transcript. This saves me some time so I can focus on you.

RICHARD BRUNING: Absolutely. That’s what it should be: all about me. [laughter]

GREENBERGER: Let’s talk about Adam Strange, but to do that, we need to go back a little bit. What led you to become a writer after doing the illustration and design work?

BRUNING: Well, I spent most of my childhood, my early formative years, wanting to be an artist, a comic-book artist. What I discovered was to draw comics, you needed a story to draw. And a couple of times I tried to redraw one page out of Daredevil #181 or something in my style, but that didn’t work for me. But it made me realize, I got a lot of ideas when I was thinking about what a story could be, but I was the artist, so who am I to say? Because this is 1970 and that’s how things worked. And so, it was always a desire in the back of my head to tell a story.

And in, whatever year it was—1985, ’86— Klaus Janson was doing one of the sciencefiction graphic novel adaptations that Julie [Schwartz] was editing. [Ray Bradbury’s Frost and Fire , the third release from the DC Science Fiction Graphic Novel line edited in 1985–1987 by Schwartz in the twilight of his legendary career at DC.] And because Julie was hands-off, shall we say, as an editor on these projects, I got very involved

Steamed Over the Beam

This 1980 Adam Strange cartoon by Bruning appeared in The Comics Journal #55. Scan courtesy of John Wells.

in them because having edited at Capital, I really had got a bug into me about storytelling and such.

Klaus had signed on to write and draw. [Prior to this, Janson, the former assistant to Dick Giordano, had only pencilled or inked comics.] We spent a lot of time talking about his story adaptation because he was a first-time writer. So he asked, “Can you tell me what I should do?” He just looked at me like I knew something, which I didn’t, but I was able to figure it out—and, yeah, we had a very good exchange… very good chemistry.

When he was done with that graphic novel, he said, “You know, I really liked working with you on that. Would you like to collaborate on another project?” And I’m thinking: “Well, let’s see—Klaus Janson just asked me if I want to work with him on a project. Yeah, I would love that.” So the ideas for Adam Strange: Man of Two Worlds started percolating, and it was literally one of the best creative experiences of my life. My mind was going in 12 directions at once, and it was all brilliant. Now, I wasn’t brilliant. It was a brilliant experience. It was really very rewarding.

GREENBERGER: Before that you wrote a Green Lantern Corps story with Kevin Nowlan, which is your first published credit for DC [“A Sense of Obligation,” in 1987’s Green Lantern Annual #3.]

BRUNING: Yes. And the reason for that is that not long after I started working on the Adam Strange story, Klaus got the gig doing Punisher at Marvel [the 1987 Punisher miniseries written by Mike Baron]. It was a big gig getting to do the Punisher at that particular point in time, as in many other times. He’s like, “Sorry, dude, I can’t do the book.” Bummer.

So I start looking around for another artist, and being the eclectic that I am, I remember seeing these Grimwood’s Daughter stories as backups in Dalgoda [the fantasy series written by Jan Strnad and last collected in 2009 by IDW] for Fantagraphics. It was something that kind of caught my eye, because I was always looking on the fringes for different artists.

And I reached out to [Kevin] cause he was one of those guys who could do the entire package and it would all look great [although Grimwood’s Daughter was lettered by Phil Felix and colored by Kenneth Smith; Nowlan tends to color his own work]. And then he does the f***ing logo, and that looks great.

I was like, “Oh, my God, if I could work with this guy…” So I reached out to Kevin and we had a very, very positive conversation on the phone. I was… we’ll say pushy… and I managed to get management to have him flown in from Kansas City to Manhattan for a meeting about Adam Strange because it was a prestige format series, and back then, as you know, that was a big damn deal. I mean, it wasn’t really long into the prestige format. [The 48-page squarebound format had heavier, glossy paper stock, and superior reproduction techniques and no advertisements. First introduced in 1986 with The Dark Knight Returns, Adam Strange would be the 12th.] So he flew out and Jonathan Peterson and I got together with him. Jonathan was acting as my assistant editor. At that time, who my editor would be was kind of uncertain, but ultimately it was Mike Carlin. Thank you, Mike Carlin. Anyway, so we had a great time and we had a thousand ideas; he was very jazzed about it. Then he went back home, and about a week later he calls me and says, “I can’t do it. That’s 150 pages. I’ve never done 150 pages of anything.”

GREENBERGER: So true.

BRUNING: He was slow; I mean, that’s why he was doing backups. His work was beautiful, but he was slow, and who can complain about that? As you know, at that time in comics, if you couldn’t do 22 pages a month, you couldn’t make a living.

So he had to bow out and I was like, “Oh, bummer, again, but okay.” And then Mike Carlin, who was fully seated as the editor at that point, he’s like, “I’ll find somebody. I’ll find somebody.” He comes back to me one day and says, “How about Andy Kubert, with his brother Adam coloring?” And I was like, “Oh, that would be horrible. *wink wink*” I mean, they were just starting to take off. They were doing Doc Savage for DC and Adam had just recently penciled and inked this series called Jezebel Jade [a spinoff from their Jonny Quest series] for Comico—which was beautiful, and he colored it too, and I’m like, “Wow. What a surprise, Joe Kubert’s sons are also tremendously talented. Whoda thunk it?”

I met with Andy and Adam, though more with Andy because back then you focused primarily on the penciler or the inker rather than the colorist, although I’m a big supporter of colorists. And it was great. They had that workman-like approach. “Here’s the script.” “I’ll draw it. You’ll like it.” I mean, I walked into an incredibly wonderful opportunity to do a three-book prestige series early in the run of those things, with such young, but nonetheless super-talented artists. And I’d like to think, at the end of the day, I did not disappoint anybody with my writing—or let my inadequacies show too much, at least. It was a fabulous experience.

GREENBERGER: I want to make sure I didn’t miss something along the way: So it started with Klaus, who then got Punisher. Then you were talking to Kevin… who said, “I can’t draw 150 pages.” The Green Lantern story was a consolation prize.

BRUNING: No, that was actually a test flight that came after we had our initial get-together. It was just an eight-page story. Somehow, I got the gig from editor Andy Helfer [where Nowlan

GREENBERGER: That’s right. Alanna is alive. Sardath gets his eye back, but Aleea stays as your one contribution.

BRUNING: So, you want your cake and eat it, too? Come on. And I mean, Alanna was such a big character for you? I mean, okay, there’re some sour grapes. I was a little pissed that they were picking and choosing what to use out of my story or my interpretation of the character when they were accepting other people’s interpretations of other overhauls. Some pretty much whole cloth. But, you know, the end of the day, what are you gonna do?

GREENBERGER: I hear you. It took a while before it got collected, then it went out of print, and now it’s about to come back into print. Are you involved in the new edition at all?

BRUNING: Well, let me first say, I want to say, for the record? It took forever to get DC to agree to collect it in the first place.

GREENBERGER: Hey, it took longer for The Atlantis Chronicles—I still hold the record. [Adam Strange was released in 1990 and collected in 2009; my Atlantic Chronicles miniseries was out the same year but wasn’t collected until 2018. For more on my project, see BACK ISSUE #108.]

BRUNING: It also took longer than Time Masters, Bob Wayne’s book. [Time Masters, which I also edited, was co-written by Bob Wayne and Lewis Shiner, also released in 1990, and collected in 2008. For more on my project, see BACK ISSUE #67.]

Because Bob Wayne’s book had never been collected, Bob and I had a little rivalry, you know, it was a friendly rivalry for the most part, but we had a rivalry. And every time it would come up about collecting Adam Strange—and I’m not self-serving enough to be, “We should be collecting Strange ”—but when they were talking about ideas, and I was the head of [DC’s] Collected Editions, I would just throw it out because Andy and Adam Kubert were really big names… especially later on. Not me. I know I’m nobody in terms of that. But that’s okay, doesn’t matter. But you had these two powerhouse artists. And an interesting story, I’d like to think. He’ll probably deny it, and that’s fine because it doesn’t matter at the end of the day, but I felt like Bob was always spiking it. He’s like, “No, we’re not gonna do that one now.”

GREENBERGER: Bob always told me they surveyed the retailers and nobody wanted The Atlantis Chronicles. It took an Aquaman movie to finally get that done.

BRUNING: Who knows?

GREENBERGER: Right. Anyway, the new edition. Are you involved?

BRUNING: I finally called Curtis King, who is designing the book. Which I’m very happy about it because I hired Curtis as DC’s first digital [desktop] designer in 1989, I think it was.

He and I have an interesting history. There was a time in the computer world when if you wanted to print something out on a laser printer, you had to go to a service bureau. Then you would give them your files and they would print it for you. Give you a piece of paper with type on it, going, “Here you go. That’ll be however many dollars.” Because I was such a Macintosh nerd at that time, I wanted to see what we at DC could do with the Mac. And so I was starting to take some of our newsletters that we did and promotional materials for RRPs [Retailer Representative Program] and lay them out in whatever program I was working on at that time, maybe PageMaker, and then I bring them over to this service shop for output, to then paste down on a board. When I was outputting it, there was this guy there, a young guy, and he said, “Hey, you work in comics?” And I was like, “Yeah, yeah, I do.” And so we started talking, and he showed me all these little things I could do with the computer. I was like, “Oh, that’s so cool,” and so we developed a relationship, a friendship, and a professional relationship.

You know, I have a couple of proud moments. Some of them were around getting Paul [Levitz] to accept the fact that the digital world was coming. Because he was initially very resistant to it. And

The Kubert

Clan

(top) The master artist’s family, from DC Special #5 (Oct.–Dec. 1969), a salute to the work of Joe Kubert. Youngest children Adam and Andy followed their talented papa’s footsteps.

(bottom) Adam to the rescue… Kubert, that is. Adam’s colors over brother Andy’s illustrations, on page 3 of Adam Strange #1.

TM & © DC Comics.

ROBERT GREENBERGER: You and your brother were working with DC editor Mike Carlin on Doc Savage Was there a direct connection from Doc Savage to Adam Strange?

ADAM KUBERT: I have to say that I was just a second thought as far as Andy goes. I couldn’t even answer that. You know, Andy was actually heavily involved penciling and inking the entire thing. I was asked to color it at some point. I was kind of brought along to help out.

GREENBERGER: You guys had been working together on other stuff, so made sense to treat you as a package.

KUBERT: Yeah. Right. But on Doc Savage, we kind of traded off on art duties, you know—he drew an issue, I would draw an issue. The same with covers; we would alternate. Also, this one was full art by him, and I came along to do the color. I think I may have also done the lettering on that. Did I do the lettering on it?

GREENBERGER: No, that was Todd Klein. I know you were exposed to comics from the womb.

KUBERT: Yes. And [father Joe Kubert’s] studio room.

GREENBERGER: So, you were exposed to all the stuff that dad would bring home. Were you familiar with or a fan of Adam Strange before this?

KUBERT: I really wish I could say I was the biggest Adam Strange fan on the planet and it was a job that I would have died for. But, I know I wasn’t a big fan… I’m not even sure I knew Adam Strange existed.

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINK TO ORDER THIS ISSUE IN PRINT OR DIGITAL FORMAT!

GREENBERGER: By the time you were reading comics, Adam Strange was sort of fading out of Mystery in Space .

KUBERT: I gravitated to the books that were already leaning against the bathtub or on the toilet. I read them and they were always there. The book that I loved most was . It was the best book because there’s not a little kid who doesn’t dream that they could fly and be Superman. Batman, not so much, because it didn’t attract me. I wasn’t attracted to any particular artist. It was the characters that really did it for me as a kid.

GREENBERGER: It’s a little-known secret you began your career as a letterer…

KUBERT: I absolutely did. I started lettering when I guess I was 12 or 13.

GREENBERGER: …because I remember you were on To Tell the Truth.

KUBERT: I was actually on What’s My Line?

GREENBERGER: Sorry.

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