According to Ted White, Stan “was pissed off about it. When Stan found out that Binder had the Avengers book, he told Bantam, ‘Well, the least you can do is get Ted White to do the Captain America book.’”179 To this day, White is still angry with OOB, not for getting the first of two Marvel books, but for poisoning the well.
“Binder’s book came out,” White recalled. “It stunk. Anybody who picks it up and reads the first page of it knows that, and apparently a lot of people did. The book did not sell. It became an embarrassment to Bantam, a failure, a misfire. My [Captain America] book almost wasn’t published at all.” When White’s book was halfheartedly dumped on the market a year later, the book sold about 75,000 copies, three times the Avengers book. But Ted’s deal with the publisher gave him no royalties until it sold 95,000 copies. Therefore, there was no payday for Ted White.180
The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker (June 1967) by Otto Binder, with cover art by Robert McGinnis. ™ & © Marvel Characters, Inc.
The story of The Avengers Battle the Earth-Wrecker is serviceable, pitting the Avengers against Karzz the Conqueror, a.k.a. the Earth-Wrecker. It’s the quality of the writing itself that disappoints. Binder seems to be grasping his way toward a quasi-Stan Lee “punchy” prose style, which results in a lot of campy, awkward dialogue. The descriptive passages are flat, the characters cardboard. Without question, The Great American Gold Steal by Ted White is a much better book. Apparently, Binder “killed” the projected series by botching the first one. Sadly, it would stand as the only time Binder worked on any of Marvel’s Silver Age characters.
Binder continued to be a supporter of comic fandom in 1966. Most notably, he began corresponding with John Benson, who was planning a convention in New York City that summer. Benson, a longtime fan of Mad magazine and EC in general, had become well known for his penetrating interviews with Harvey Kurtzman, the creator of Mad, and Bernard Krigstein, the remarkable artist best known for his work at EC.
Benson and Binder met at Lunacon, a convention mainly for SF fans, where Binder learned of Benson’s upcoming event. OOB took the time to write two letters full of suggestions for making Benson’s con more successful. “I really would like to see your Comicon become a big success as I’ve always been in favor of fandom, whether in SF or comics.
“One glaring omission … at the Lunacon (or any SF gathering) is no organized attempt to acquaint the crowd as to which pros or VIP-fans are there,” Binder wrote. “At the Comicon, I strongly recommend that you put up some sort of blackboard or big placard, on which you write in each such person as they arrive, so all the attendees will know who is there. And, of course, lapel labels for everyone but make them bigger and more readable.”
He suggested several topics for possible panel discussions by pros, and added, “Be sure to insist on brevity in all panels. Limit all answers to one minute each. Nothing is more boring that the long-winded speeches the panelists gave at the Lunacon!”181
In his second letter, he offered “a few more brief suggestions,” including “insist on a good PA system from the hotel people.”182 He also suggested “Some pros get so besieged [for autographs] it partly interferes with their full enjoyment of the affair. Perhaps you can set aside a half-hour of ‘autograph time’ only, after which the fans must cease and desist.” OOB also suggested inviting Wendell Crowley as a guest speaker. “Be sure to have him on a panel, as he is a most interesting speaker.”183
The eventual convention hosted by Benson proved to be the best organized one yet, perhaps partly due to some of Binder’s suggestions. Of course, Binder was on hand, as were many top professionals, including Jack Kirby, Gil Kane, Archie Goodwin, and Leonard Darvin of the Comics Code Authority. Everyone agreed it was a wonderful occasion. Beginning in 1967, John Benson would join forces with Phil Seuling to perfect the model that all subsequent comic book conventions would follow.
Out of the ashes of the Space World debacle arose another interest, and another kind of opportunity. Editing the magazine had fanned Binder’s interest in UFOs, which would be his principal interest, and writing topic, for the rest of his life. Synergy was at hand, as his credentials as editor of Space World gave him a cachet of credibility that helped him stand out in the crowd of other ufologists and enthusiasts. If that wasn’t enough, Binder signed an open-ended contract with NASA to write for their educational publications on Projects Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo, which were distributed to virtually every high school in the United States. In doing so, Binder became a voice for NASA, though never an employee.184
Klaus Nordling, Otto Binder, Larry Ivie and Ted White, on a panel at John Benson’s 1966 New York Comicon. Courtesy of Maggie Thompson.
How does one go from the world of “straight science” to the world of UFOs? The details of Binder’s journey from skeptic to believer in visitors from other planets (or dimensions) are not known. It is known that the trip occurred during the years between the birth of Space World and the summer of 1967, after he completed his first book on the subject. By then, his views on UFOs had changed. About this time, Binder joined NICAP (National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena). Of that organization, Jerome Clark wrote, “For many middle-class Americans and others interested in UFOs but repelled by ufology’s fringe aspects, it served as a sober forum for UFO reporting, inquiry, investigation, and speculation.”185
Louis Black recalled, “Otto was fascinated by [UFOs], but in my memory he was not a fanatical true believer. This may be my sensibility leveling his, but Otto was definitely more skeptical than a lot of other writers. An open mind, an enthusiasm for science and a passion for the unknown really drove him.”186
As if to fuel what amounted to Binder’s conversion, there was a wave of UFO sightings across the country in 1965 and 1966, the most since the height of the UFO hysteria of 1952. Many sightings were over the New Jersey skies, beginning in the summer of 1965, and continuing (according to Binder) “almost unabated into the spring of 1966. In America the press went wild as region after region reported UFOs by the dozens and the hundreds.”187 The UFO sightings reported to the U.S. Air Force in 1965 and 1966 totaled 1,946, an increase of almost double the prior two-year period.
Binder found the local sightings especially impressive. “A remarkable number of sightings are over bodies of water—lakes, reservoirs, rivers and such,” he wrote. “Notable of them are the sightings at Wanaque Dam in New Jersey, where throughout most of 1965 and 1966, various UFOs were spotted by the local police patrols. Always the UFOs hovered or darted over the water, sometimes sending down dazzling searchlight beams.”188 On the night of August 16, between the hours of 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., sightings reached a peak. Most came that night from Minnesota, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Arkansas, and New Jersey. Perhaps Binder himself was out that night with his telescope, watching the skies.
He made his change of mind quite clear: “I believe that they exist, simply because the documentary evidence is so strong,” he told some visiting fans later in his life.189
Just as Binder’s natural skepticism was lifted, so was that of the public. Interest in UFO phenomena reached new heights. Suddenly there was a market for articles and books on the subject. It was perfectly logical that Binder would attempt to fill that market. With his Space World and NASA credentials, he could be touted as a serious-minded science expert.
What We Really Know about Flying Saucers, a Fawcett Gold Medal mass-market paperback by OOB published in late 1967, attempts to pull together all the available documents, theories, and diverging points of view, and make sense of them. What, he wonders, would a person trained in scientific thought make of the evidence?
As Binder states in an early chapter, “To make it clear, this book is not going to solve the mystery of the UFOs but merely tabulate all the patterns exhibited by the saucers that prove them to be real and not to be ignored by the government and the scientific establishment as ‘unimportant’ or ‘illusionary’ phenomena.”190
The book provides
an interesting amalgam of information, blending material provided from some of the most credible UFO researchers. Binder wasn’t the only person with a respectable science background who was persuaded to believe in visitors from other worlds. It indicated, if nothing else, that he had an open, inquiring mind.
On January 12, 1966, the Batman television show debuted on ABC, becoming an instant hit and causing reverberations throughout the popular culture landscape. One of the most noticeable effects was the proliferation of superheroes in comics, including a number of odd attempts to publish comics by entrepreneurial spirits who wanted to get a piece of the Batman action. One such attempt came from veterans of Fawcett comics.
Will Lieberson, former editor-in-chief of Fawcett’s comic book division, recalled, “In the latter part of 1966, I ran into Bernie Miller, who had been one of the regular writers for Fawcett comics. As we sat down to have lunch and discuss old times, we decided to try to put out some comics ourselves.” The company was called Milson Publishing, owned by Bernie Miller and his brother.191
Fatman
Publisher Lieberson then contacted Wendell Crowley to act as editor, C. C. Beck to do the artwork, and Otto Binder to collaborate on a new superhero title. The idea was to try to capture some of the lightning-in-a-bottle magic of Captain Marvel by bringing the same creative team together again.
A number of concepts were kicked around, until the name Fatman was selected (perhaps because it rhymed with Batman). Binder injected his UFO interest by suggesting the whimsical Fatman also be given the ability to turn himself into a human flying saucer “with powers from other worlds.”
A glimpse into Binder’s thought processes behind the creation of Fatman can be found in his letter (undated but certainly from late 1966) to Lieberson. It accompanied Otto’s script for the third story in Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer #1.192 He began, “I think I should explain my ‘theme’ in the first book, and the whys and wherefores of it.
“The first Fatman story was purely introductory. The second story utilized a simple theme in order to highlight his special powers.
“This third story introduces a powerful new villain … to be continued … who is not defeated at the end. This, if you’ll take a look through current mags, is the going stuff. Most of the books, whether thirty-two pages or sixty-four or even more, often carry through with one villain in all the stories or one evil plot that is the running thread.
“In a sense, most comic mags today are ‘novels’ and it is ‘old hat’ to have two or three or six separate stories, all neatly wrapped up.
“Take note of the following, in case they are totally different from the old days. My blurbs on the splash pages of each story are ‘intimate,’ taking the reader into your confidence, standard practice today. They violate all former principles of story-telling in that you sort of admit it is all fiction and yet you cajole the reader into accepting it. The important thing is to hook the reader by confiding in him with almost any outrageous trick of captionizing. They love it! (Stan Lee’s big success is talking directly to the reader in this fashion, and DC and the other outfits are following suit, so why fight it?)
“But I think we have a couple [of] aces up our sleeves, borrowed from the old days or Golden Age, that hopefully will make a hit. Namely, the special ‘whimsy’ (as [New York Times SF book reviewer] Anthony Boucher calls it, in the various letters he’s written to me about Capt. Marvel) that Beck and I have always seemed to work up into something unique. I can’t explain it myself and what’s the point? But that whimsy quality plus adult humor, without any sacrifice of action for the kids, is what I think made CM skyrocket … and I’m willing to risk every penny your backer’s got to find out if I’m right.
“My feeling is that basic humor never fails. DC’s so-called humor is pathetic, and Stan Lee’s wise-cracking talk is not humor but just smart-aleck slang which changes constantly. Somehow, we hit the keystone of true basic humor in CM, which I’m applying to Fatman without trying. It seems to come naturally to me. If it is the wrong formula, we can always change it.
“Some things may puzzle you or seem out of place, but only in the context [of] twenty-five years ago. I’m dovetailing the whole thing with the modern ‘trend’ in general, with my own innovations. Trust me that I know what I’m doing. All the five stories, when done, will form a continuous theme, in a sort of haphazard fashion.”
After the scripts were approved, they were forwarded to C. C. Beck in Florida, who did the artwork. Otto also wrote Super Green Beret, a second Milson title, and conceived a third called Captain Shazam that never made it past the preliminary stages. Unfortunately, like Space World, the books failed to receive wide distribution, and didn’t seem to go over very well with those who could find them. Lieberson remembered, “These comics were never given a fair chance, and $64,000 went down the drain. We still think they might have made it but so many things were against us circulation-wise which would make a story in itself.”193
For his part, Binder was a little more realistic. “That was a big fiasco, of course! We just never could get together on the character.”194 He had to count this a personal failure, and it added no luster to the Binder-Beck team’s reputation.
Fatman, the Human Flying Saucer was an enjoyable comic book in some respects, especially for the way it was reminiscent of the look of old Captain Marvel feature. Artistically, Beck was in fine form, though it wasn’t likely his style could have caught on with the more sophisticated comic book readers of the late 1960s. That type of cartoon-influenced superhero strip just wasn’t being done any more. Readers were unlikely to want to identify with an obese hero, and the idea of him turning into a human flying saucer went beyond whimsy to whacky. It just didn’t work.
But even in the worst of times, Otto Binder could always count on at least one happy reader. The first issue of Fatman bore the following line by Otto about his daughter Mary: “She is my biggest fan.”
Mary Binder posing for a photo in the autumn of 1966, with the Binder home in the background. Courtesy of Michael Cassiello. (Photo taken by John Cassiello.)
16.
MARY
By the mid-1960s, both Otto and Ione had drifted into real alcoholism. He probably drank to forget his financial worries and to relax. Ione probably drank to more easily tolerate her frustrations, and worse, her depression.
They were no longer the svelte, young lovebirds that would cuddle on the Lake Michigan beaches, with a future of endless opportunity beckoning before them. Otto’s curly hair was graying. Years of sitting at a typewriter had left him slightly chubby, and his complexion had grown florid from drink. Ione wore her black hair shorter now, though she had gained only a minimal amount of weight during their marriage.
The details aren’t known, but at some point Ione Binder began displaying symptoms of mental problems. On January 3, 1966, Otto wrote to Jerry Bails, “My wife had a severe nervous breakdown December 10th, and has been in the New Jersey state mental hospital since then, with an indefinite time to go.”
On May 22 Binder wrote Bails, “My wife is considerably better, although still going to a psychiatrist regularly as she may have to for quite some time. However, she has taken a part-time job at an office and is doing well.”
Ione’s niece Patricia (Patricia Anne Turek, b. 1959), daughter of her brother Frank and his wife Alice, was a regular guest at the Binder home, since her father and Ione were especially close. Many of those visits were on birthdays, and one of her most vivid memories is baking cakes with her aunt. Patricia said, “We lived in the New York area, so I celebrated quite a few birthdays with Uncle Otto and Aunt Ione. I was very close to their daughter Mary. They were excellent parents.”195
Mary Binder had, by now, outgrown the baby fat of her early years. “She was beautiful,” Patricia said. “She had long, straight blonde hair. She was angelic, almost.” With regard to Mary’s personality, Patricia added, “She had a beautiful personality. I always remember thinking I’d like to be like her. She
was caring, sensitive, she loved animals. … She was just very attuned to what people needed, an all-around nice person. Very bright.”
Though Mary was seven years Patricia’s senior, Otto’s daughter loved spending time with her young cousin. “We used to play games a lot, and play with Barbie dolls. We used to swim a lot in a neighbor’s outdoor pool. It was one of those that was above ground, you know? Everyone in our family swam very young so I was swimming by the time I was five. It wasn’t a problem with me going swimming but Mary, she was very attentive. You know, like she’d hold my hand when I was in the water, just to make sure I was okay.”
The Binders were no strangers to death in the family. In March of 1965, Otto’s mother Marie died. She was ninety-one years old, and had been in a nursing home for some years. More shocking was the news in October of the following year that Otto’s brother Earl had passed away. The only known cause, which doesn’t fully explain what took him, was that he succumbed of deteriorating health due to chronic alcoholism.
Nothing could have prepared them for the news they were to receive at 4:00 p.m. on March 27, 1967. Otto was on the telephone with publisher Calvin Beck when an operator broke in on the call with the news that Mary, now a teenager, had been in a car accident.
It isn’t known whether the Binders were informed by telephone that their daughter was dead. More likely they were summoned to Englewood hospital where Mary was taken, or given the news by a minion of the law at their door.
Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary Page 21