Alter Ego # 196 November 2025 (magazine review)
This issue of ‘Alter Ego’ devotes another 55 pages to Eddy Zeno’s second part look at the Superman artists who ghosted for artist Joe Shuster as his eyesight was failing him. The cover points at Wayne Boring and Win Mortimer but there is a lot more covered inside. Looking at the art samples here has changed my mind about Curt Swan. I thought the odd ribcage Superman that gave him a barrel chest had was down to him but a lot of the other artists were doing this way before him. The Wayne Boring cover best displays it. Of course, in those days there were fewer examples of muscular men available as examples, hence barrel-chests and less proportionate arms and legs. If anything, today’s heroes tend to go in the opposite direction and have muscles where they shouldn’t have any.
I should point out that this isn’t a whistle-stop tour of the artists as each gets a lot of page space. One interesting point about Superman is that after appearing on the cover of Action Comics # 1, National Periodicals waited for reaction before putting him again on the cover of # 7, which shows really that they had no idea what they had.
By far the biggest section is devoted to Wayne Boring and he was still working way into his 80s for both Marvel and DC Comics, if not in comicbooks but selling commissions. He’s learnt how to watercolour which he said improved his art no end. Seeing the samples of his art here over the years, like a lot of comicbook artists, his strength lied in composition. He’s also another artist who didn’t read the entire script sent to him but doing it a panel at a time. That puts a lot of trust in the writer thinking out all the problems for the artist but I do wonder how many new comicbook artists try that today.
Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster continues his look at the varying logos for the W.Morgan Thomas ‘Mr. Mystic’ comicstrip. It does show how much a logo can be played with although you would have to ask what the readers felt back then. If you compared to Will Eisner’s ‘Spirit, where he incorporated the logo into the panel, you would expect that in a different contrast. To just do the logo has a different sort of daring.
Lastly, writer Carl Lani’Keha Shinyama goes up the number of the original Captain Marvel appearances in his original run, some 892 times, far more than Superman’s 541 times in the 1950s. To do that with the 1960s characters would be more challenging to count although this might encourage some of you out there to try. If you do, store the information in a database so you can keep an eye on which titles and issues. Anyway, he also assesses the number of Captain Marvel villains appearances which are obviously a lot less, although Dr. Shiva had 149 times. Black Adam only had one appearance! What is more telling is the number of one villain appearances and Shinyama looks at five of them whom he considered should have appeared again this issue and the remaining next time. As if names like Thor or Spider Man would ever catch on.
Maybe not the usual mixed back for this addition of ‘Alter Ego’, but for a learning curve, still a lot to read.
GF Willmetts
March 2026
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 1932-6890. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US))
check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1832&zenid=5bmmg385kot570ohjkjte35rg1
