Volume 36, Number 1

Vol. 36, No. 1
January 2025
whole number 421
2025 pages 001-008

Rodney Schroeter provides the cover collage celebrating 35 of years of the newsletter.

In Under the Gun, Robin Snyder looks back on some memories and highlights of his publishing going back even before the newsletter.  Gary Kato's 2024 Christmas card is featured, Stephen Bissette writes in appreciation of some of the recent print-on-demand books featuring Gill/Ditko Charlton reprints and other things, plus outlines some of his future plans.  Daryl Coats, Eric Reese and Nick Caputo also write in, and the passings of Steve Erwin and Joy Seligsohn are noted.

Barry Pearl writes about his first hand experience with comics distribution and display in his family's store in the 1960s.

A Steve Ditko essay, "The Exceptional", includes some memories of the creation of the classic AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1 back in 1964.

Part 77 of the Robert Kanigher bibliography, "The Mystery Of The Human Thunderbolt" has a look at some of the members of Easy Company featured in various DC war books from 1957.

Volume 35, Number 7

Vol. 35, No. 7
July 2024
whole number 415
2024 pages 049-056

Volume 35, Number 2

Vol. 35, No. 2
February 2024
whole number 410
2024 pages 009-016

Volume 33, Number 12

Vol. 33, No. 12
December 2022
whole number 396
2022 pages 089-096 (8 pages)

Up front is part 72 of the Robert Kanigher bibliography, "The Mystery Of The Human Thunderbolt", featuring his character creations from 1947 to 1963.

Also featured are two pages from the Sheldon Mayer and Nestor Redondo unpublished "The Story Of Jesus" for DC, in both Mayer script/layout form and finished art by Redondo for the "Life In Bible Days" features.

There's a letter by Joe Frank "Under The Gun" and the yearly index to Vol. 33, 2022.

Volume 31, Number 3

Vol. 31, No. 3
March 2020
whole number 363
2020 pages 017-024

The cover is by Mel Crawford, from a 1970 issue of THE GOLDEN MAGAZINE which featured Gary Poole and his visit to the White House.

Part 63 of the Robert Kanigher bibliography, "The Mystery Of The Human Thunderbolt" has a quote by RK about the development of Rock and Easy, and the issue includes three pages from a Kanigher/Novick story from 1955 which is the first mention of Easy Company.

Part 13 of the Gary Poole bibliography looks at some of his 1980 work at Western.

Under the Gun has letters from Gary Poole on general topics, Rob Imes on fandom, and Charles Brenner and Gavin Callaghan both on the publication of Down Memory Lane, the last of Ditko's long-running 32-Page Series.

Volume 30, Number 8

Vol. 30, No. 8
August 2019
whole number 356
2019 pages 057-064

Robert Kanigher takes the focus this issue with the massive (62 numbered paragraphs) essay "It Was Easy", covering his career in comics. Almost every paragraph could be the launching point for a chapter in the book that RK (presumably) never got around to writing.

"26. If Editor Schwartz  suggests or states that he co-edited any of RK's titles - he is a God damn liar. You can quote me on that."

There really needs to be a collection of Kanigher's writings, maybe packaged with a reprint of the long Comics Journal interview he did in the early 1980s.

Also presented are the first paragraph of a proposed story, "The Lady and the Unicorn", a comparison of RK and Schwartz's memories of DANGER TRAIL and a list of some prototype Rock/Easy stories as part 62 of the ongoing RK bibliography.

The bibliography of the prolific Carl Wessler continues with Part 48, listing work from 1957 for Timely, Harvey, Prize and others.

Volume 30, Number 3

Vol. 30, No. 3
March 2019
whole number 351
2019 pages 017-024 (8 pages)

A Jack Davis / Harvey Kurtzman page from Mad #1, 1952, on the cover to note the passing of Jack Davis a few years earlier.

For part 57 of "Mystery Of The Human Thunderbolt", the long-running bibliography of Robert Kanigher, Robin Snyder writes about hiring RK in the early 1980s to write for the long-running series Turok from Western, with the script for the first three pages of what was going to be Turok #135.  

On the backcover is a 1955 war comic splash from RK and Irv Novick.

Also, for some reason, a reprint of Ditko's 2000 page "Tsk! Tsk! AP2 - The Unearned", first seen in v11#2.

Volume 23, Number 10

Vol. 23, No. 10
October 2012
whole number 274
2012 pages 073-080 (8 pages)

Up front this time is part 4 of a biography of Artie Saaf, looking at the artist's career in the 1950s, from jungle comics shifting to the romance and then to advertising work. This biography was by the prolific Ron Goulart, who passed away in early 2022.

Part 33 of the bibliography of Robert Kanigher covers 1995 to 1999, which is mostly reprints in various DC books and a few unused inventory stories shown in the newsletter.

There's also the solution to a puzzle from Jim Ivey which appeared in the previous issue, some notes on the career of Terry Szenics (1919-1995) and several pages of letters in Under The Gun, including Mike DeLisa, Joe Frank, Stan Bycko, Bill Harris, Ben Herman, Gavin Callaghan, Jerry Deacon, Frederic Manzano, Michael Cohen, Athos Bousvaros and Barry Pearl.

Volume 23, Number 1

Vol. 23, No. 1
January 2012
whole number 265
2012 pages 001-008 (8 pages)

A cover of Archie's STEEL STERLING from 1984 on the cover, idea by Robert Kanigher, art by Carmine Infantino and Eduardo Barreto.  Inside are some commentary by Kanigher on cover design from 1983, plus part 30 of the ongoing bibliography of Kanigher, "Mystery Of The Human Thunderbolt", looks at 1989 and 1990, which are mostly reprints, plus some commentary on his work by Mike Esposito and Joe Kubert.

Under The Gun this time marks the passing of Jack Adler, Gene Colan, Del Connell and Peter O'Donnell.

Letters of comment by Stan Goldberg, Stephen Bissette, Bob Heer, Michael Barrie, S. Bycko, D. Fenton, Joe Frank, Nick Caputo and Paul DeVinny.

Hy Eisman provides the back cover, a celebration of the new year courtesy of Popeye.

Volume 14, Number 8

Vol. 14, No. 8
August 2003
whole number 164
2003 pages 057-064

Steve Ditko is on the front and back covers of this issue with a late chapter of his long series "A Mini-History" on the creation of Spider-Man, 13. "Speculation".  He features a then-recent quote by Lee on national TV discussing his tired old "saw a fly on the wall" version of the creation of the character, which even Lee admits might be made up. This also leads to one of my favourite Ditko quotes on the matter:

"A leap from a fly to a spider is like from man to a cannibal." -- S. Ditko

He goes into detail on what aspects of the creation he's familiar with and some thoughts about what might have been and what "creation" and "co-creation" means.

Matt Murphy talks about working with the then-recently passed Helen Meyer, publisher of Dell back in their heydey. 

Part 12 of the Robert Kanigher bibliography "Riddle Of The Sphinx" looks at part of 1976, which includes Ragman, Tarzan and some unpublished work like Savage World and Sextet.  

Part 11 of Paul Newman's bibliography, "Just Imagine", is up to 1955 and has him working at Dell, Timely, Avon, ME and Trojan, and that's just the A to F titles.

Lots of discussion in "Under The Gun", Snyder on Al Capp, a handwritten note by Hy Eisman on his career, Mark McMurray and David Transue on Ditko's "Avenging Mind", Murray Ward on Helen Meyer, Nick Caputo on an earlier "Mini-History" chapter, Jim Amash on Les Zakarin, Gary Kato on Mr. Jigsaw, Mike Ambrose on Jerry Grandenetti

Volume 14, Number 6

Vol. 14, No. 6
June 2003
whole number 162
2003 pages 041-048 (8 pages)

Steve Ditko on the front and back this issue, with a chapter of his "A Mini-History" series on Spider-Man:

11. "Further Complaints and Influences of the OOs".

Ditko discusses how two of the signature artistic touches of the series, the split-face and spider-sense used in panels where Peter Parker appears out of costume, were used in part to appease Stan Lee's wish for less of the school storylines, but later opposed by Lee thanks to the influence of "others, outsiders (OOs)", in this case college students who seemed to not understand the visual language.  Ditko also discusses the Comics Code as another source of OOs influence stifling creativity.

"But PP/S-m, a teenage hero, should be seen, understood, in his teenage context, environment. His normal (non-hero_ life can't just be shown in some brief transitional sequences between a number of hero/villain clashes." -- S. Ditko

 

The 10th chapter of the Robert Kanigher bibliography, "Riddle Of The Sphinx", covers more of his 1974 work for DC, with some Superman, Wonder Woman  Rima, Supergirl and Tarzan in addition to the war comics. Two pages of Frank Thorne art from the story "Big Man, Little Man" in RK's Gallery of War series are shown. 

Lively Under The Gun column, with letters from Sam Catalino, Nick Caputo, Orah Mae Miller, Mark McMurray, Robin Miller-Pallet, Marc Swayze and Arlen Schumer