Letterheady is a relatively new site that’s quickly become one of my favorites. It was started a few months ago by Shaun Usher, who also runs the wonderful Letters of Note.

Letterheady is devoted to posting interesting … well … what does it sound like?

A few of my favorite letterheads have been those belonging to Nikola Tesla, Harry Houdini, and Robot Salesmen. I liked the site so much I even decided to share old Marvel Comics letterhead with them.

Browsing the site today, I discovered letterhead for an event I’d never heard of before, something called Macy’s Superman Adventure.

Macy’s Superman Adventure? What the heck was that?

I have no idea. I feel as if I should, but I don’t. And except for a few vague facts, it doesn’t look as if the Internet has much of an idea, either.

Here are a few things I was able to discover.

I was able to find out that it was a 1940 promotional show sponsored by Macy’s Department Store and WOR Radio 710. (Though, of course, that was already apparent by the strip at the bottom of the sheet.)

I was able to find a letter which had been accompanied by two complimentary passes to the event given to semi-finalists from Superman Day at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. (Now that’s an event that’s been well-documented, since it was the first public appearance of Superman in costume.)

I was able to find a poster promising that “Before your eyes the World’s mightiest Comic Book and Radio hero COMES ALIVE in a spectacular action filled adventure for all ages.”

But what I wasn’t able to learn is … If I’d gone to Macy’s 5th floor, what would I have seen? What actually happened during that spectacular adventure?

I know that out there, someone knows. So—if you know, would you please let me know?

And would it be too much to hope for pictures?

Back before I abandoned the comic-book business, I wrote many short stories for the horror mags put out by DC Comics, including House of Mystery, House of Secrets, The Unexpected, and Secrets of Haunted House. (And even some for the science fiction and war titles, such as Time Warp and Weird War Tales.) This being Valentine’s Day, I thought I share a horrific romance with you.

The story below, “To Master a Mummy,” was published in House of Secrets #154, the October/November 1978 issue. I had a second spooky story in that issue, “The Knight in the Gilded Cage,” drawn by the magnificent Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, but alas … no romance.

This story was pencilled by Charles Nicholas and inked by Romeo Tanghal. But that doesn’t really tell the whole story. Because three different artists have used the pseudonym of Charles Nicholas over the years. I’m fairly certain, however, that the artist who drew my story was this one, not this one. And most definitely not this one.

But none of that minutiae has to do with Valentine’s Day, so—Happy Valentine’s Day.

And may your romances not end up as horrifically as this one!

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I love timelines, particularly when they’re about something I already know. Reading them is an exercise in recognition, in remembering, in reliving. But every once in a while, there’s that odd factoid that seems to have slipped through from an alternate universe, that causes me to go—”Huh? I don’t remember that!”

So it was with the page below, plucked from Jimmy Olsen #100, and originally published in March 1967. As I read it, I thought—

Return of Krypto? Check! Remember that.

Jimmy teams with Superman to become Nightwing and Flamebird? Check! Remember that, too.

Jimmy turned into a werewolf, and only brought back to normal thanks to the intervention of—Mr. Mxyzptlk’s girlfriend, Miss Gzptlsnz?

Who? What? (more…)

I was going through some old comics this evening and found the ad below in Jimmy Olsen #90, the January 1966 issue. The Superman 80-Page Giant being advertised was cover-dated the same month.

If you click through the image several times to blow it up as large as you can, you’ll see a couple of things that intrigued me.

First, note Superman is telling the audience of 1966 that the reprinted stories were “published before you were born,” that “less than 100 copies of this issue are still in existence” (tsk, tsk, Superman, don’t you know the proper usage should be “fewer”?) and that “collectors will pay $30.00 and up for a perfect copy!”

$30.00? Wow! (more…)

Looking through a copy of the October 1944 issue of Action Comics, what attracted my attention wasn’t wasn’t any of the, well, action comics, but rather the ad below, which appeared on the back cover.

The fact that we were promised a “recipe on every wrapper” makes me think that Baby Ruth candy bars were once a baking staple, but could that really be? This is the first I’ve ever heard of it.

And how many recipes could there possibly be? Other than using them in those cookies the sailor seems so thrilled to be biting into, I can’t think of many other uses for them.

Besides—what’s he doing taking cookies from a strange woman anyway? Wasn’t he paying attention to all those WWII ads for venereal disease? He should have known better!

DC Comics would like you to pitch stories for their new “EC-type” book Strange Adventures of Science Fiction.

And by you, I mean me.

And by me, I mean me in 1979.

I received the letter below from editors Jack C. Harris and Joe Orlando almost 31 years ago to the day. January 9, 1979, in fact. Just in case the date alone doesn’t make you realize how long ago that was, perhaps their statement that “We also want the book to sell like tickets to King Tut” will!

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I’ve been so busy digging out from under work since my return from Florida for the unveiling of my father’s grave marker that I haven’t had time to consistently post here, just micro posts over on twitter. So here’s a tiny appetizer as I rev up to regular posting again.

Remember the cover I shared with you from the June 1973 issue of the fanzine The Comic Reader? Well, it turns out that there’s fun stuff on the inside as well!

Let’s step into the time machine and read some of Paul Levitz’s editorial from that ancient publication. Anyone worried that Paul will be pulling back from his fine work on The Comic Reader due to an increasing workload at DC Comics needn’t fear—he has “no desire to make a career for myself in this industry.”

Wow! Just imagine how much further Paul might have gone had he wanted a career in the comics industry!

I was going through some old comics to prepare them for sale (a story for another time) when I noticed something on the cover of Strange Adventures #71, the August 1956 issue.

Floating above the image of an interplanetary clock counting down the time until the death of Earth was a banner which read “EXCITING NEWS! GIGANTIC CONTEST!” And what did you have to do to win one of those “5000 PRIZES?” Simply come up with a new slogan to describe DC Comics.

DC provided a few (rather lame) examples, such as “I buy when I see DC,” “DC Comics are Decent Comics,” and “Your reading key is the symbol DC.”

[I’m sorry the interior pages aren’t crisp and clear, but considering the comics’ age and value, scanning was out of the question, so I simply snapped the best photos I could.]

There were no details yet on how to enter. That was to come later, as announced on the cover of Mystery in Space #34, the October/November 1956 issue. Inner pages provided a list of prizes and an entry form. (more…)

Frederick Seidel, whose first book of poetry, Final Solutions, caused a controversy in 1962, was interviewed for the Fall 2009 issue of The Paris Review.

(As I’ve explained before, I have a lifetime subscription to that magazine, instigated by my wife as a present way back in 1979. The gift that keeps on giving!)

One of the questions dealt with the poetic influence of and his friendship with Poet Laureate Robert Lowell.

An unexpected name popped up in Seidel’s answer:

“He was my mentor and a friend and certainly an influence. I went to interview him for The Paris Review in 1959. It took two days, maybe four or five hours a day—an enormous amount of effort and time. At a certain moment late in the first day, my friend Whitney Ellsworth, who was manning the tape recorder, said, I’m afraid we’ve got to start over. It turned out he hadn’t had the machine on. That’s when I got to know Lowell! We hit it off, and he became a good friend.”

Unless there’s some other Whitney Ellsworth I don’t know about, this means that the comic-book editor of Action Comics, Adventure Comics, Batman, Detective Comics and Superman in the ’40s and mid-’50s, who later became the producer and story editor on the television series The Adventures of Superman, was also hanging around with the poetry circle of the period. Is this something that was commonly known?

On the other hand, he might not have had an interest in poetry at all. Maybe it’s just that Ellsworth had been a classmate of Seidel’s, and was also one of those early adopters of the ’50s who fooled around with reel-to-reel tape recorders, and so was called into service because of that.

Does anyone out there have further information on Ellsworth’s non-comics background? I’ve been unable to turn anything up online.

In any case, it’s an interesting case of six degrees of separation, and a piece of comics history I knew nothing about.

It’s true! Paul Levitz has left the building. Why, I read it only yesterday.

At least … it seems like yesterday …

Actually, though, he announced his retirement in the 100th issue of his fanzine, The Comic Reader. The Comic Reader started out called On the Drawing Board, which, at the time I started subscribing as soon as I read a mention of it in a DC comic, was being edited by Mark Hanerfeld. But Paul took over in October 1971, and by this issue two years later, dated August-September 1973, he was ready to call it a day.

Here’s the cover of his farewell issue:

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