20. Moskowitz, The Immortal Storm, 32.
21. Ibid, 34.
22. Letter from Julius Schwartz to Otto Binder, March 19, 1934.
23. Letter from Julius Schwartz to Otto Binder, May 25, 1934.
24. Moskowitz, The Immortal Storm, 34.
25. Julius Schwartz, Man of Two Worlds (New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 2000), 19.
26. Letter from Otto Binder to Mort Weisinger dated August 24, 1935.
CHAPTER 4—THE NEW YORK BEAT
27. Letter from Otis Adelbert Kline to Otto Binder on May 14, 1938, OAK Leaves 2, no. 16, ed. David Anthony Kraft (Summer 1982): 3.
28. “Otto Binder’s Letters to Otis Adelbert Kline,” OAK Leaves 1, no. 5, ed. David Anthony Kraft (Fall 1971): 4.
29. Ibid. 5.
30. Letter from Otto Binder to his parents on January 5, 1936.
31. Ibid.
32. “Otto Binder’s Letters to Otis Adelbert Kline,” OAK Leaves 1, no. 5, ed. David Anthony Kraft (Fall 1971): 8, 13.
33. Letter from Otis Adelbert Kline to Otto Binder on May 14, 1938, OAK Leaves 2, no. 16, ed. David Anthony Kraft (Summer 1982): 4, 11.
34. “Otto Binder’s Letters to Otis Adelbert Kline,” OAK Leaves 1, no. 5, ed. David Anthony Kraft (Fall 1971): 16–17.
CHAPTER 5—BANGING THE KEYS
35. Letter from Otto Binder to Earl Binder on February 27, 1937.
36. Ibid, handwritten addendum by Jack Binder.
37. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 31.
38. Letter from Otto Binder to Earl Binder dated March 13, 1937.
39. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 31.
40. David Anthony Kraft, unpublished interview with Otto Binder, from a forthcoming book on Otis Adelbert Kline. This excerpt is from an email to the author on September 5, 2002. © 2003 by David Anthony Kraft.
41. Letter from Earl Binder to Otto Binder on January 16, 1936.
42. Letter from Otto Binder to Earl Binder on January 20, 1936.
43. Author’s interview with Julius Schwartz on August 18, 2000.
44. Ibid.
45. Ibid.
46. Ibid.
47. Letter from Otto Binder to Earl Binder on February 27, 1937.
48. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 14.
49. Most of the “Via” stories were reprinted in a “fix-up” novel in 1971 by Curtis Books called Puzzle of the Space Pyramids.
50. Morgan Holmes, Forgotten Ages no. 57 and no. 60, 2002. Holmes writes persuasively in the Robert E. Howard APA (amateur press association) that Wright was too ill to have assumed the task of completing the last chapter of Almuric, and that Otis A. Kline’s style was unlike that found in the chapter in question. His comparison between texts by Binder and the mystery writer of that chapter points out a number of striking similarities in style and word choice, which casts OOB as the most likely candidate as of now.
CHAPTER 6—CITIZEN LINK
51. Eando Binder, “Meet the Authors,” Amazing Stories 13, no. 1 (January 1939): 129.
52. Eando Binder, “Adam Link,” Amazing Stories 13, no. 1 (January 1939): 8.
53. Letter from Earl Binder to Otto Binder dated May 1939. (No day of the month shown.)
54. Letter from Earl Binder to Otto Binder dated July 1, 1939.
55. Eando Binder, “The Trial of Adam Link,” Amazing Stories 13, no. 7 (July 1939).
56. Eando Binder, “Adam Link in Business,” Amazing Stories 14, no. 1 (January 1940).
57. Ibid.
58. Raymond A. Palmer, editorial, Amazing Stories 15, no. 2, February 1941.
CHAPTER 7—SEDUCED INTO COMICS
59. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 14.
60. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973, unpublished. Provided by J. Randolph Cox.
61. Letter from Otto Binder to Jerry Bails dated January 28, 1970.
62. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
63. Ibid.
64. P. C. Hamerlinck, Fawcett Companion, “The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, Or Better, Than Anybody,” (North Carolina: TwoMorrows Publishing, 2001), 11.
65. Author’s telephone conversation with Alan Moore, 2002.
66. Marc Swayze, “We Didn’t Know It Was The Golden Age,” Alter Ego 3, no. 24, ed. Paul Hamerlinck (May 2003): 38.
CHAPTER 8—LIGHTNING STRIKES!
67. Ed Herron originated Capt. Marvel Jr., but it was William Woolfolk who actually wrote the first Junior stories, as well as his original trilogy, creating Captain Nazi.
68. Captain Marvel Junior wasn’t the first spin-off from Captain Marvel. Four issues before Junior first appeared, Whiz Comics no. 21 (September 5, 1941) introduced the three Lieutenant Marvels (three other Billy Batsons who shared Captain Marvel’s powers). The Big Red Trio appeared only sporadically over the years, and never had their own series.
69. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” in Fawcett Companion, ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, 64.
70. Otto Binder, “From Fiction to Factual ‘Fantasy’” Shazam Annual no. 3, ed. Don Glut (August 1964): np.
71. All quotes from William Woolfolk are from the author’s interview with Mr. Woolfolk on June 29, 2002.
72. Otto Binder, “Comics Odds and Ends,” an unpublished collection of Binder’s typed notes about his career, dated January 9, 1965.
73. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” in Fawcett Companion, ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, 61, 63.
CHAPTER 9—PLAYING THE FIELD
74. Otto Binder, “From Fiction to Factual ‘Fantasy’” Shazam Annual no. 3, ed. Don Glut, np.
75. Ibid.
76. Roy Thomas, editor, “Otto in Binderland,” Alter Ego no. 9 (June 1965): 18.
77. Roy Thomas, editor, Readers Write… letter column, Alter Ego no. 7 (October 1964): 35.
78. Ibid, 36.
79. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” in Fawcett Companion, ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, 63.
80. According to Binder’s records, a total of eighty-seven Jon Jarl stories were written. Four never got into print because of the sudden cancellation of Captain Marvel Adventures.
81. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
82. Klaus D. Haisch, “Fawcett Comics’ Greatest Hits, The Test of Time,” ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, Fawcett Companion, 53.
CHAPTER 10—LIFE IN ENGLEWOOD
83. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk on June 29, 2002.
84. According to Jack Binder’s shop records (supplied to Jerry Bails), women who worked in the shop included Ann Brewster, June Hill, Gloria Kamen, Pauline Loth, and Marcia Snyder.
85. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk.
86. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 36.
87. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk.
88. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 32.
89. Otto Binder and Earl Binder, “An Autobiographical Sketch of Eando Binder,” Fantasy Magazine no. 38 (September 1936): 14.
90. Author’s interview with Patricia Turek, Ione Binder’s niece, on October 18, 2002.
91. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, The Fawcett Companion, 63.
92. Author’s interview with Mr. Woolfolk.
93. Ibid.
94. Ibid.
95. C. C. Beck, “The World’s Mightiest Waste of Time and Money,” ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, Fawcett Companion, 14.
96. All quotes are from unpublished manuscript Memoirs of a Nobody found in the special collections of the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M University.
97. This is a reference to its revelation in the first edition of this book. Abridged and edited portions of Memoirs of a Nobody have appeared in P. C. Hamerlinck’s Fawcett Collectors of America segment of Alter Ego magazine in recent years, starting in A/E 3, no. 119 (August 2013).
98. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
CHAPTER 11—GOOD-BYE FAWCETT, HELLO EC
99. Interview with Otto
Binder on October 29, 1973.
100. Letter from Oswald Train to Otto Binder dated December 15, 1947.
101. Ibid.
102. Letter from Oscar J. Friend to Otto Binder dated February 28, 1949.
103. Ibid.
104. Isaac Asimov [biography] at http://frsr.free.fr/other/ia0000.html.
105. Ibid.
106. Isaac Asimov, In Memory Yet Green (New York: Avon Books, 1980), 591. (All quotes describing this anecdote are from the same source.)
107. Eando Binder, Adam Link—Robot, blurb on cover by Isaac Asimov (New York: Paperback Library, Inc.), 1965.
108. Letter from Oscar J. Friend to Otto Binder dated July 6, 1953.
109. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
110. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk on June 29, 2002.
111. Gerry de la Ree, “Captain Marvel’s Mouthpiece,” Bergen County Evening Record (February 7, 1953): 2–3.
112. Captain Marvel Adventures had been cut from fifty-two pages to thirty-six pages with no. 122 (July 1951). Superman stayed at fifty-two pages for another year. Then, with Superman no. 79 (November–December 1952) it dropped to forty-four pages, where it would stay through no. 96 (March 1955) before going to thirty-six pages, long after CMA had been cancelled.
113. Binder retained a carbon copy of this memorandum in his files. It was first written about by Brian Cremins in Alter Ego 3, no. 123 (March 2014), in an article titled “Otto Binder’s Magic Words.” (It was found in the Otto Binder collection of the Cushing Memorial Library at Texas A&M University.) Binder used the other side of the sheet for a carbon of a letter to Sam Moskowitz (on other matters) dated October 15, 1952, so we can presume the “CMA memo” was written earlier, probably slightly earlier. The reason it isn’t known for sure whether Binder delivered the memo to the Fawcett publishers and editors is that he drew a large “X” over the text. It isn’t possible to know the reason for the “X.”
114. P. C. Hamerlinck, “The Fawcetts Could Do It As Well, Or Better, Than Anybody,” Fawcett Companion, 11.
115. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” in Fawcett Companion, ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, 59, 60.
116. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk.
117. Letter from Al Feldstein to author dated August 21, 2002.
118. Letter from Otto Binder, Fantasy Illustrated no. 2, ed. Bill Spicer (June 1964): np.
119. Letter from Al Feldstein to author dated August 21, 2002.
CHAPTER 12—SITTING PRETTY
120. Otto Binder, Memoirs of a Nobody [unpublished], 1948.
121. Les Daniels, Superman: The Complete History (New York: Chronicle Books, 1998), 102.
122. “Ghost Writers in the Sky,” Alter Ego 3, no. 20, ed. Roy Thomas (January 2003): 19, 22.
123. Author’s interview with Patricia Turek, October 18, 2002.
124. Author’s interview with Bonnie Binder Mundy, March 1, 2003.
125. Ibid.
CHAPTER 13—THE MOST DIFFICULT MAN IN COMICS
126. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
127. Ibid.
128. Otto Binder’s personal records.
129. Matt Lage, “We Were More or Less Inspired,” in Fawcett Companion, ed. P. C. Hamerlinck, 63.
130. Classic Comic Books Internet home page: http://mikegrost.com/superboy.htm.
131. Ibid.
132. Letter from Bob Cosgrove dated January 2, 2005, relating the story Binder told him when relaxing after a formal interview in the early 1970s.
133. Dale Crain, editor, Supergirl Archives, Vol. 1, foreword by Diana Schutz (New York: DC Comics, 2001), 5, 6.
134. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk on June 29, 2002.
135. Ibid.
136. Otto Binder, Web of Horror no. 3, “Dead End,” (April 1970).
137. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk.
138. Otto Binder, “From Fiction to Factual ‘Fantasy,’” Shazam Annual no. 3, ed. Don Glut, np. Binder’s unbridled enthusiasm leads the author to suspect that this piece was written earlier than 1963.
139. Ibid.
CHAPTER 14—BINDER IN FANDOMLAND
140. Otto Binder, “At Home with the Marvels,” Xero no. 3, ed. Richard and Patricia Lupoff (December 1960): 33.
141. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
142. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk on June 29, 2002.
143. According to Binder’s records, he was awarded an honorary master’s degree in astronautical science by NASA in 1963, along with a teaching certificate.
144. Author’s interview with Murphy Anderson on July 15, 2002.
145. Ibid.
146. Jim Steranko, History of Comics, Vol. 2, 21.
147. Author’s interview with William Woolfolk.
148. Roy Thomas, editor, Alter Ego no. 7, letter from Otto Binder: 38.
149. Interview with Otto Binder on October 29, 1973.
150. Letter from D. Bruce Berry in 1997.
151. Letter from Otto Binder, Fantasy Illustrated no. 2, ed. Bill Spicer (June 1964): np.
152. Ibid.
153. Ibid, letter from Russ Manning.
154. Ibid, letter from Richard Kyle.
155. Ibid, letter from Otto Binder.
156. Author’s interview with Roy Thomas on July 8, 2002.
157. Letter from Otto Binder, Alter Ego no. 7, ed. Roy Thomas: 36.
158. Author’s interview with Roy Thomas on July 8, 2002.
159. Letter from Ralph Daigh, Alter Ego no. 8, ed. Roy Thomas (March 1965): 37.
160. Otto Binder letter to Michael Uslan and Robert Klein, dated May 9, 1965.
161. Isaac Asimov, In Memory Yet Green (New York: Avon Books, 1980), 591.
162. Author’s interview with Roy Thomas on July 8, 2002.
163. Ibid.
164. Ibid.
165. Author’s interview with Michael Uslan on August 30, 2002. All quotes from Uslan in this chapter are taken from this interview.
Otto Binder: The Life and Work of a Comic Book and Science Fiction Visionary Page 28