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Let Otto Binder show you how the mid-’60s comic book sausage was made

Posted by: Scott    Tags:  Adam Link, Ellen Vartanoff, Frank Thorne, joe orlando, Otto Binder    Posted date:  August 5, 2021  |  1 Comment


Two more treasures found in my late sister-in-law Ellen Vartanoff’s collection — mid-’60s scripts by the extremely prolific comics writer Otto Binder. Wikipedia claims he wrote 4,400 stories under his own name — and 160 more under the pen-name Eando Binder. But how many survived?

One was published in Mighty Samson #6 (June 1966) …

… the other in Creepy #6 (December 1965).

His story in Creepy adapted of one of the 10 stories he wrote for Amazing Stories with his brother Earl Binder (under the pen name Eando Binder) about the intelligent robot Adam Link.

Someday I’ll scan and share the entirety of both scripts, but for now, here’s a comparison of the first page of the Mighty Samson one, as well as the published page, with art by Frank Thorne — who’s perhaps best-known for his work on Marvel’s Red Sonja.

And here’s the script for one of Binder’s many Adam Link adaptations. This was the third of eight published by Warren — with art by Joe Orlando — who also drew Adam Link adaptations for EC’s Weird Science-Fantasy. Note the opening journal entry was heavily cut to fit the space.

Plus here’s a P.S. to prove everything’s interconnected: I own a sketch of Adam Link by Joe Orlando, which I asked him to do for teen me when we met at the 1972 EC Fan Addict Convention, years before he became my editor on such comics as Welcome Back, Kotter.





Comment for Let Otto Binder show you how the mid-’60s comic book sausage was made


Daniel Dern

Otto Binder was one of many writers, artists and musicians living in where I grew up — along with Will Elder and Lionel Hampton, to name a few. Their kids were in (some of) my schools and classes. I of course had no idea who the parents were/what they had done, or you can bet I would have fanboyed my way over to the Binder house for more than selling Unicef cards.



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