Reuben Award Photo Album Edition!

[Hogan's Alley]

READ THIS NEWSLETTER ON THE WEB:
http://groups.google.com/group/hogans-alley-newsletter?lnk=srg

Dear fellow comics fan:

The glitz! The glamour! The drinking! The cartoonists! The drinking!
The red-carpet moments! (And did we mention the drinking?) The
National Cartoonists Society held its annual meeting/bacchanalia in
Hollywood over Memorial Day weekend. We've just put up our photo album
at:

http://www.cagle.com/hogan/reubens/reubens2009/main.asp

We haven't made the album accessible off of our main site yet, so
newsletter readers are the first to see it! Please forward the link to
anyone who might enjoy it.

WE’RE NOT ON KRYPTON ANYMORE: We recently talked to cartoonist/
historian Craig Yoe about his most recent book, “Secret Identity.”
It’s a compelling look at the post-Superman career of artist Joe
Shuster, co-creator of the Man of Steel. How did a respected artist,
one of the highest-paid illustrators in his field, go to drawing
fetishistic, sadomasochistic illustrations for a low-rent men’s
magazine? Yoe pulls back the curtain on this heretofore unexplored
aspect of comics history.

HA: What's the genesis of “Secret Identity”? How did you become aware
of this aspect of Joe Shuster's career?
Craig Yoe: I'm always going to antique shows and rare book sales and
such to look for rarities of comics history. At one, I made the
discovery of a lifetime, a curiosity called “Nights of Horror.” This
thin, almost comic book was in a dusty old cardboard box at a book
dealer’s table at a rare book sale in New York City. The book was
primitively printed, the type was out of a clogged up typewriter, and
the production and style screamed 1950s. But the illustrations were
oddly familiar All of a sudden it dawned on me--I realized it was the
work of Superman's artist/creator Joe Shuster! The same great
compositions were there, the pencil rendering he liked to do, the
shading of a left-hand from top left to bottom right. And the
characters looked strikingly like Superman, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and
Lex Luthor. The citizens of Metropolis gone wild in noir-ish S&M
scenes! From comic books or Seinfeld you've heard of the characters
from the old DC comics, the Bizarros? This was the bizarro of the
Bizarros! I was trembling with excitement! On the other hand the place
was air-conditioned, and I had forgotten my sweater.

HA: Describe the overall tenor of “Nights of Horror.”
Yoe: These were tales long on villains and short on heroes, obviously
targeting the fetish crowd. These were dark, grim sadomasochism, like
something out of the old pulp magazines that Joe Shuster and Jerry
Siegel used to love, the “Spicy” pulps that were ironically published
by Irwin Donenfeld before he published Superman. As teenagers, in
addition to the science fiction pulps, Jerry and Joe loved “Weird
Tales,” and probably the “Spicy” pulps--racy pulp fiction! The “Spicy”
pulps were, ironically, published by Irwin Donenfeld before he
published Superman and were also sold under the counter like “Nights
of Horror.” In “Nights of Horror,” there's lesbianism, bondage, drugs,
bizarre torture machines, sex “devices” like cactuses and a now-
infamous scene involving lady parts, honey and red ants! And there's
nudity, too--though curiously, there was a 1950s taboo that was not
broken: The MEN don't t have nipples. I thought I was the only one!

HA: What were the circumstances of Shuster's career by the time he
began illustrating for “Nights of Horror”?
Yoe: Joe lived like a rock star for pretty much the first 10 years of
Superman, despite what other people might tell you. On the Superman
comic strip alone he was making today's equivalent of $750,000 dollars
a year. Plus he was running a studio with Jerry Siegel filled with
assistants turning out reams of art for the comic books and licensing.
Joe was driving expensive cars, taking care of his family in a mansion
with a maid and collecting all the latest gadgets. But Jerry and Joe
were royally bugged by the publisher earning tons more and them not
legally owning or having a rock-hard, legal piece of Superman. A
lawyer Jerry met while in the service during World War II convinced
the duo to go after DC and try and get Superman back. They took DC to
court in 1948, and the judge ruled in favor of DC.

Apparently Joe had gone through all the money he had made, and by 1953
he was down on his luck financially. Joe was depressed, according to a
letter I have now received from his sister. He was doing odd jobs,
apparently like sweeping up in a grocery store or being an errand boy--
a very sad situation for the artist and co-creator of one of the most
iconic characters in fiction. And Superman, as we all know, to this
day earns millions and millions for the corporate coffers. Down on his
luck and despondent and persona non grata in the comic book industry,
the opportunity to do the “Nights of Horror” books popped up. The
publisher was Ed/Eddie/Edward Miskin, a Jewish mobster with ties to
the Gambino family. Mishkin sold “Nights of Horror” in his sleazy
Times Square bookshops. I think he owned four or five shops throughout
this zone of raw humanity in the Big Apple in the '50s.

HA: The drawings are actually quite lovely, but there's an anger
beneath the surface. What did you personally infer from the drawings
about Shuster, if anything?
Yoe: I dunno, he might have been mad at DC, Superman, his lawyer,
life, the comics industry or the dog that was barking at night next
door. We can only guess. I agree, though, that they have a beautiful
quality to them. Joe's art has often been overlooked because there was
so little of it that he did without assistants, and Superman the
fictional character overshadows Joe the real-human artist at times.
This makes the discovery of the art all the more important. Now, at
last, we can see a large body of work by the comic book's most seminal
artist. The art has a power, strength, and panache to it that will
make people not abandon their view of Joe as a great innovator but see
him as a masterful artist, too. I'm excited that this art will help
him get his due as a brilliant cartoonist. I myself wasn't a fan of
Joe's art until I immersed myself in it for well over a year putting
together this book. Joe's art, both his Superman work done as a
youngster and “Nights of Horror,” when he was at the top of his game
artistically, was simply brilliant.

The dramatic turn of events regarding this work was when a gang of
four Jewish Nazi juvenile delinquents got ahold of the booklets. The
leader dressed as a superhero while committing horrible crimes. The
leader, Jack Koslow, who sported a Hitler mustache and shouted “heil
Hitler” during the Pledge of Allegiance in school, was inspired by
“Nights of Horror” and comics books. How do we know? After flogging
girls in the park and murdering bums, the Brooklyn Thrill Killers--as
the press soon dubbed them--were caught. The judge called in an
interesting person, Dr. Fredric Wertham, who interviewed Koslow in his
cell. Koslow revealed how he had the complete set of “Nights of
Horror,” all 16 booklets, and aped what he saw there. Wertham later
testified before a Senate investigation about juvenile delinquents,
comic books and pornography about “Nights of Horror” and the Brooklyn
Thrill Killers--this important puzzle piece has been overlooked by
previous scholars writing on these subjects.

To placate an outraged public and press, 80 detectives in New York
City were put on the case by the mayor of New York to find the stash
of books and who was behind it. They arrested the printer, who I
interviewed for the book, and the publisher eventually went to jail
for three years for trafficking in such material, and the Times Square
bookstore that was selling them took the case all the way to the
Supreme Court. Tragically freedom of the press was thrown out the
window and the books ordered to be destroyed. If you've got any,
they're illegal, baby!

HA: What other sort of work did Shuster do after “Nights of Horror”
was forced to fold?
Yoe: There were at least a handful of other, similar booklets in the
same genre illustrated by Joe. I reproduce some illustrations from
them in the book. The best was a magazine called “Continental.”
Amazingly, besides Shuster bondage illustrations, there is a whole
four-page comic by him--this was my favorite find! Imagine a whole
sequence of pure Shuster after Superman hitherto unknown by fans and
scholars! And the art in this is gorgeous, right from the sweeping
logo in the first panel, next to the main character flying through the
air, in a parachute, in her skin-tight outfit. This SO reminds me in a
small, but very compelling way, of Superman, except this is mature
work. Mature in the sense that Joe was amply demonstrating his
terrific, now highly honed skills, and mature in that it was damn
sexy!

HA: Does it say bad things about me that I keep envisioning Shuster's
Lois Lane in a lot of these drawings?
YOE: Yes, Tom. But, does it say worse things about me that I keep
envisioning Lois Lane and ME in a lot of the drawings?

We encourage you to purchase this book to learn more about the rise
and fall (mostly the fall) of one of the comic book’s founding
fathers. You can learn more about the book and read some excerpts at
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0810996340/?tag=hogansalleyma-20.

HOGAN IS TWITTERING: If you’d like to receive cartooning news and the
occasional cartooning-related observation from Hogan’s Alley, we’re
HOGANMAG on Twitter. We promise not to pepper you with inanities about
what we’re having for lunch, etc.

If you’re interested in subscribing to the print edition of Hogan’s
Alley, you’ll receive issue #16 (our current issue) as your first one.
Just visit http://www.cagle.com/hogan/subscribe.asp or send $22.95
(for four issues) via Paypal to hoga...@gmail.com. At that same Web
page, you can also purchase issue #16, which we’ve just made available
as a single-issue purchase for $8 (postage included). REMEMBER: If
you’ve never experienced the wonders of Hogan’s Alley, you can order a
sample copy for a mere three dollars or buy assorted back issues at
that web page as well.

Also, we’re in the process of completely rebuilding our online store,
where you can buy various types of merchandise with vintage cartoon
images. We’re still stocking the store, but you can visit our work in
progress at http://www.zazzle.com/hogansalley. Also, during the month
of June ONLY, you can get an unprecedented deal: FREE SHIPPING! Just
use the code JUNESHIPFREE upon checking out!

Thank you for reading. We encourage you to forward this e-mail to
anyone who might enjoy it. To unsubscribe to this newsletter (or if
you are receiving duplicate transmissions), e-mail us at
hoga...@gmail.com or visit http://groups.google.com/group/hogans-alley-newsletter?lnk=srg.
Please visit our Web site at http://www.hoganmag.com and our shop
featuring classic comics characters at http://www.hoganshops.com.