Comic Books 101

by Chris Ryall

  Angel: After the Fall, Vol. 1 by Joss Whedon, Brian Lynch and Franco Urru

  Angel: Auld Lang Syne by Scott Tipton and David Messina**

  Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show by Chris Ryall and Gabriel Rodriguez*

  Clive Barker's The Thief of Always by Kris Oprisko and Gabriel Hernandez

  The Complete Chester Gould's Dick Tracy, Vol. 1 by Chester Gould

  The Complete Terry and the Pirates, Vol. 1 by Milton Caniff

  Completely Doomed by Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson, David J. Schow, F. Paul Wilson and others

  Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales of the Here and Now by Cory Doctorow

  Fallen Angel: To Serve in Heaven by Peter David and J.K. Woodward

  Locke & Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

  Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell by Scott Tipton, David Tipton and David Messina**

  Supermarket by Brian Wood and Kristian Donaldson

  Tank Girl: The Gifting by Alan C. Martin, Rufus Dayglo and Ashley Wood

  The Transformers: Infiltration by Simon Furman and E.J. Su

  Wormwood: Gentleman Corpse by Ben Templesmith

  Zombies vs. Robots by Chris Ryall and Ashley Wood*

  *Yes, I'm admittedly a bit biased about these. — Chris

  **What he said. — Scott

  THE IDW LOGO IS A REGISTERED TRADEMARK OF IDEA AND DESIGN WORKS, LLC.

  PART V1

  THE CREATORS: THE MEN BEHIND THE SUPERMEN

  Wherein dues are paid to those who paid their dues; ink-stained fingers are celebrated; and the captains of this industry are hailed. The opportunity to learn about the names behind the creations, as well as the greatest hits they've recorded on paper, is afforded the reader within this chapter.

  1 Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster

  Sometimes fate can be cruel.

  In retrospect, there's no way these two teenagers from Cleveland could have possibly conceived of the ironies in store for them. Even if you could've warned them somehow, they'd have never believed it.

  “Jerry, Joe, listen up. The two of you are going to create a character so universally beloved, it will revolutionize an industry. Your creation will be known worldwide for decades, with no end in sight. It'll spawn radio shows, television shows, stage plays, movies and countless spin-offs. Just the money from merchandising alone would make you rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

  The first autograph of Chris's life, from 1975 when he was too young to appreciate the greatness in front of him. He appreciates it now.

  FROM THE COLLECTION OF CHRIS RYALL.

  “And you won't see any of it.

  “Oh, you'll be well-compensated for a while, but after it's clear that you're no longer necessary, you'll be edged out of the operation, and lose control of your creation. Over the ensuing decades, you'll eke out a modest living, and wind up in near-poverty in your golden years, until a combination of corporate guilt and fear of bad publicity will restore you proper credit to your creation, and you'll be given a reasonable (if nowhere near appropriate) pension. Your example will stand as a shameful lesson of everything that's wrong with the comics industry.

  “But your creation will live on forever as an example of everything that's right.”

  Would they still think it was worth it?

  These days, anyone with even a remote interest in comics knows the story: how writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster shopped their proposal for a newspaper strip called Superman around to every syndicate and comic-book publisher in town with no luck; how editor Vin Sullivan finally took a chance on the project no one believed in and purchased it for use in Action Comics; how Siegel and Shuster quickly cut apart their newspaper strips and converted them into a comic-book format; and most infamously, how National Comics purchased the character of Superman outright for $130 as a condition of publication, in a move that would make the company untold millions in profits, and relegate Siegel and Shuster to mere hired hands on their own creation.

  It's an ugly story, and one that could discourage any positive discussion of Superman, just from the sheer stinking injustice of it. Here's why we should discuss, and enjoy, Superman in spite of the indignities visited upon his fathers: despite their shabby treatment, Siegel and Shuster remained proud of their creation and its impact on the world, and certainly were proud of all their work on the character. In addition, over the following six decades, a small army of writers and artists have toiled on the character, each adding to and shaping the Superman legend. One can sympathize with Siegel and Shuster's plight, and condemn those whose actions led to it, yet still admire and enjoy the work.

  Siegel and Shuster had a ten-year contract to write and draw Superman comics, and with that agreement near its end in 1947, the two sued National, for which they received a modest cash settlement and rights to the character Superboy, which they then sold to National as well. Siegel returned to National in 1959 to again write Superman comics, a relationship that continued until 1967, when he once again sued over the Superman rights, with little success. Shuster, meanwhile, continued to eke out a living as a cartoonist, a situation made problematic by his failing eyesight.

  It wasn't until 1975 that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster finally received some recognition for their creation. With Superman: The Movie looming on the horizon, Siegel began a public-relations campaign about the way he and his partner Shuster had been treated, a move aided and abetted by comic-book artist Neal Adams. Fearing bad publicity just before their multi-million-dollar blockbuster was about to hit movie screens, Warner Communications (then DC Comics's parent company) came to an agreement with Siegel and Shuster: the two men would receive a modest pension for the rest of their lives, and the credit line “Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster” would appear wherever Superman did, be it comic books, movies, television shows, you name it. Was it enough? No, not nearly enough. But at least it was something.

  In recent years, Siegel's heirs have continued to fight for ownership of their father's creation, with some success. In 2008, the Federal District Court ruled that Siegel's estate was entitled to share in the United States copyright to Superman. To what extent remains to be seen, but at least for now, it looks like there may be something to this “truth and justice” business after all.

  RECOMMENDED READING 101

  SIEGEL & SHUSTER

  Superman Archives, Vol. 1–7

  Superman: The Action Comics

  Archives, Vol. 1–5

  2 Bob Kane

  As much as one has to empathize with the plight of folks like Superman's creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, it is important to remember that there were also creators in the Golden Age of comics who, through a combination of hard work, creative inspiration and canny business instincts, managed to do pretty well for themselves. To quote Carl Barks's Uncle Scrooge, these guys were “tougher than the toughies and smarter than the smarties.” Guys like the creator of Batman, Bob Kane.

  Kane got his start as a cartoonist early, selling humor stories first to Jerry Iger's publishing concern in 1936, then to Eisner & Iger in 1937, before moving on to adventure strips such as “Rusty and His Pals” for National Comics. When Superman took the comics world by storm in 1938, Kane responded, working with writer Finger to create an all-new mystery man Kane conceived as the Bat-Man. Beginning with Leonardo da Vinci's famous drawings of the ornithopter, a machine that da Vinci hoped would allow man to fly with giant, scalloped wings, Kane began to develop his Batman, a strictly mortal vigilante to contrast against the decidedly superhuman Superman. While Bill Finger was an integral part of Batman's creation, Bob Kane held the contract with National Comics and was officially considered the creator of Batman, a situation that has rankled comics historians for decades, and one which Kane himself, in his later years, admitted was probably a mistake. He conceded how much Finger brought to the character and how important he was to Batman's conception and development.

  Kane secured for himself a much more favorable deal than Siegel a
nd Shuster had, operating under a longer-term agreement that guaranteed him much better financial compensation for his work, as well as the retention of his “Created by” credit on the Batman comics — a situation made all the more ironic by Kane's gradually decreasing involvement in the actual production of the comic, as Kane would rely more and more over the years on ghost artists Dick Sprang and Sheldon Moldoff, artists whose conceptions of the Caped Crusader would become just as well-knownas Kane's, if not more so.

  Not that Kane was without influence on the character. A fan of Orson Welles's Citizen Kane and the Warner Bros. gangster films, Kane worked to bring that kind of cinematic approach to the early Batman strips, which exhibited a darker, moody feel and exaggerated, almost outlandish approach. In the series' early days, Kane worked closely with Finger and assistant Jerry Robinson, and together the three created nearly all of the trademark Batman elements still known and loved today, from the Batcave, Batmobile and utility belt to Batman's bizarre array of villains like the Joker, the Penguin and Catwoman. While precisely who created what has long been a source of debate, it's clear that there was a congruency of thought that made for the creation of some very entertaining comics.

  An even more influential creation of Kane and company was Robin the Boy Wonder. In fact, the addition of Robin turned out to be such a hit with the comics readership that the idea spread like wildfire, and soon no tights-wearing mystery man would be seen without a similarly dressed youngster at his side.

  As the years went by, Kane became less involved with the creation of the comic books. In 1943, he tackled the daily Batman newspaper strip, and after the strip ended in 1946, Kane relied on his personal ghost artists for the comic books, such as Moldoff, who labored for years on the Bat-books in anonymity. Kane found some success in animation in the 1960s with television programs like Courageous Cat and Cool McCool, and spent his elder years painting, showing his work in galleries nationwide, and generally basking in the spotlight of being the creator of Batman, especially after the character enjoyed newfound mass-media popularity in 1989 with Tim Burton's film. Bob Kane died November 3, 1998, and remains one of the rare examples of Golden Age greats who received the rewards and recognition they deserved.

  RECOMMENDED READING 101

  BOB KANE

  Batman Archives, Vol. 1–7

  Batman: The Dark Knight Archives, Vol. 1–5

  3 Will Eisner

  Actively writing, drawing and publishing comics from 1936 until his death in 2005, Will Eisner is the closest thing there is to the patron saint of comics. One of the founding fathers of the Golden Age, Eisner created and worked on characters and series from a variety of publishers. In 1940, Eisner created his trademark character, the Spirit, which was tremendously popular and saw an exposure unprecedented in today's comics market, and which served as a venue for Eisner to develop and hone his craft, taking the standard adventure strip in countless new directions. When Eisner ended The Spirit in 1952, he turned to new ventures, creating the modern graphic novel with his landmark work A Contract With God, thus beginning a series of intensely personal works that focused on the simplest of humanity's pleasures and sins. But let's not get ahead of ourselves…

  Chris shared panel space with Will Eisner upon joining IDW in 2004, which has made all subsequent panels suffer by comparison.

  FROM THE COLLECTION OF CHRIS RYALL.

  THE EARLY DAYS

  A nineteen-year-old Eisner cut his teeth in the comics biz in 1936 just as things were starting out. One of his first jobs was at the now-forgotten Fox Comics, creating the thinly disguised Superman knockoff Wonder Man at the behest of Fox's publisher, an assignment that soon found the young artist testifying at the lawsuit brought by National, alleging copyright infringement. When National prevailed, Eisner's days at Fox were over.

  EISNER'S BIG BREAK

  Eisner partnered with Jerry Iger to create the Eisner & Iger Studios, a production house that provided comics material to a number of publishers, most notably Quality Comics, producing such features as Uncle Sam, Doll Man and Blackhawk. Some of the all-time greats in comics art got their start at E & I, including Lou Fine, Jack Cole and Jack Kirby. Business was booming, but in 1939, Eisner got an offer he found hard to refuse.

  Eisner was approached by Quality publisher Busy Arnold and Henry Martin, the sales manager for the Register & Tribune Newspaper Syndicate. The men had a radical idea. Concerned about the growing competition they faced from comic books for young readers, the men proposed that Eisner produce for them a weekly sixteen-page comic book, which would be syndicated nationwide, appearing in Sunday papers across the country. Wise beyond his years, Eisner saw the artistic and financial potential of this new venture and negotiated a partnership agreement granting him complete ownership of the characters and material, a move unheard of in comics publishing of the time. Eisner thought that it was his artistic ability that gave him the extra leverage to gain this kind of agreement, but as he later discovered, they were less concerned with quality than with reliability: after all, this would be appearing week after week, and Eisner was one of the few producers they thought able to pull it off.

  Eisner sold his half of E & I to Iger, and threw himself into the new project. The sixteen-page section would be split into three features: four pages for Chuck Mazoujian's Lady Luck, five pages for Bob Powell's Mr. Mystic and seven pages for the feature Eisner himself would produce. Eisner had long thought that the comic-book medium was capable of work much more sophisticated than was commercially viable in the monthly magazines. With a syndicated weekly newspaper release, Eisner now had access to an older, more adult reader, and far more flexibility than was possible with a daily newspaper strip. He had gained the best of both worlds: the length and format of comic books and the much larger and more mature audience of comic strips.

  For the lead feature, Eisner wanted a detective strip with a very vulnerable, human protagonist, something miles away from the Supermen that were ruling over comics at the time. Eisner's hero, Denny Colt, wore no costume. Instead he sported a blue suit, gloves, a fedora and a domino mask. The flashy alias the Spirit was added at the insistence of the syndicate, who wanted something a little closer to the mystery men of the day.

  In his premiere appearance, criminologist Denny Colt pays a visit to Central City Police Commissioner Dolan, letting him know that he's on the trail of criminal scientist Dr. Cobra. Colt tracks down Dr. Cobra, and in attempting to apprehend him is drenched in a mysterious chemical, seemingly killing him. Dolan and the police arrive on the scene, and, assuming Colt is dead, haul him away to a waiting grave in Wildwood Cemetery. However, it turns out that the chemical only put Colt in a death-like state of suspended animation — a real bummer when he wakes up the next night six feet under. Presumed dead by the world, Colt assumes the identity of the Spirit, to go after criminals beyond the reach of the police, taking up residence in a hidden HQ beneath Denny Colt's crypt in Wildwood Cemetery. Only Police Commissioner Dolan and his daughter Ellen know who the Spirit is and where he can be found.

  Commercially, the strip was an immediate success, with some newspapers citing a 10 percent gain in circulation as a result of the Sunday insert. The strip was entertaining, and head and shoulders above anything else in crime comics, but nowhere near the heights it would later reach. In 1942, Eisner was drafted, but The Spirit, whose subscribing newspapers had tripled, continued right on schedule, with art by Lou Fine and scripts from Manly Wade Wellman, Dick French and Jack Cole.

  AFTER THE WAR

  It wasn't until Eisner came back to The Spirit after World War II in 1946 that the strip really began to hit its stride. Eisner was revitalized in returning to the work, and began to alter his approach to the already innovative strip by varying his storytelling and not always utilizing the Spirit as the center of the story. In addtion, Eisner couldn't afford the luxury of a traditional cover with only eight pages to work with each week. Instead, Eisner began to use his opening splash page to immediately set t
he mood and draw the reader into the story, incorporating the Spirit logo somewhere in the background, often as part of the landscape.

  In the postwar years, Eisner began to treat the Spirit as an antihero, becoming less and less the straight-shooting good guy he is at the series' inception. Often the Spirit is only peripherally involved in his own adventures. Eisner focused on telling a wide variety of stories, from comedy to tragedy, parable to suspense, with only a brief appearance by the Spirit to keep the reader connected to the strip as a whole. Just as Eisner was experimenting with story, so was he experimenting with art, as well. The storytelling became wildly different from week to week, mixing traditional panel-to-panel storytelling with prose sections, utilizing layout in brand-new ways to convey sensations or sounds, at times breaking format entirely when the story called for it.

  Eisner also created a number of femmes fatales for the Spirit to contend. There was Sand Saref, a girl from Denny Colt's youth turned smuggler and black marketer, whom the Spirit can never bring himself to apprehend. There's also Lorelei Rox, a modern-day siren with a voice that can kill. But no femme fatale can compete with P'Gell, the gorgeous international black widow who moves from husband to husband, from scheme to scheme, sometimes pausing in her plans to either tempt the Spirit away from the righteous path, or occasionally to warn him of some dire threat about to befall him. Eisner's women were usually dangerous, sometimes tragic and always damned sexy.

  Probably the most famous of the Spirit sections is “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble” (September 5, 1948). Another of Eisner's luckless schlubs, Gerhard Shnobble is a thirty-five-year veteran bank guard who is fired when he's unable to stop a robbery. Desperate to prove his value, Gerhard suddenly remembers that as a child, he discovered he could fly, until his parents forbade it, insisting he be normal. Determined to show the world, Gerhard heads to the top of a nearby building, where the Spirit is coincidentally headed to stop the same bank robbers. Gerhard leaps off the building and indeed can fly … at least for a moment. Eisner uses full-page spreads to express the feeling of height when Gerhard is in flight, and as he does in many of his later stories, utilizes the narrator's voice to provide a bit of poetic irony. “The Story of Gerhard Shnobble” is everything that made The Spirit great: funny, whimsical and tragic, with a spare but elegiac tone in narration and breakthrough storytelling unlike any seen before.