Alter Ego #112 August 2012 (magazine review).

The cover of this 2012 edition of ‘Alter Ego’ shows how DC editor Mort Weisinger coerced the Man of Steel and his alter ego, Clark whatshisname, to edit his titles for him. 14 illustrated pages show all the ideas Weisinger got from him and out through the fingers of his tortured writers.

Weisinger had an incredibly bad reputation for maltreating his writers, and you needed a pretty thick skin to work for him for any length of time. When he finally retired and changed his mind, the company itself said they didn’t want him back. Of course, this isn’t covered here because the focus is on Superman’s history in that period when he was editor, although as the cover shows, he only ever wrote one story about him.

It should hardly come as a surprise that Joe Shuster employed ghost artists for Superman and other creations he and Joe Simon published at National Periodicals, or that they would have continued to do so. Everyone knows Wayne Boring, but did you know about Paul Cassidy? Me neither. Well, until now, as writer Mel Higgins goes over Cassidy’s career as an art teacher and needing a second job to support his family during the depression.

He also did a lot of tidying up with Superman’s cape connection to his shirt and added the ‘S’ yellow. These ideas may not seem significant at first, but every Superman artist since has incorporated them into their work. Oh, you also get to see the pencils for a proposed ‘Superman Scrap Book’ that was of Shuster’s art in the DC archive until Sol Harrison handed it back and then got sold after the event. Cassidy’s last Superman story was the ‘K-Metal’ story, which was going to change the Clark/Superman/Lois relationship permanently as well as introduce the nascent green kryptonian but got nixed by the company. That wasn’t the reason he left, as Cassidy went back to teaching with drawing as a sideline with other companies.

Now here’s an intriguing thing. Writer Alberto Becattini explores the Italian reprints of Superman. I do remember seeing Batman having red togs instead of grey, but this is the first time I saw what happened to Superman. Editor Arnoldo Mondadori had a problem. The translation of Superman was Superuomo, but that brought comparisons to Friedrich Nietzsche’s Übermensch, which when translated into Italian also became Superuomo. As that would never do, the Man of Steel’s ‘S’ emblem became a yellow block, and he was re-named the Nembo Kid in 19667. ‘Nembo’ means cloud, by the way. Seeing the artwork does look a little odd, mostly because the yellow shape is distracting and…well…scene-stealing.

The third part of Jim Amash’s interview with cartoonist Leonard Starr focuses on his time at DC Comics and the people he knew worked there. It was during this time that he hired Tex Blaisdell to do backgrounds, which he took with him to the ‘Annie’ newspaper strip. I’ve got the next issue, so I want to read the last part, which should tell you how good it is.

Sometimes luck falls into your hands, or rather, Roy Thomas did when Joseph Eacobaschi supplied him with mementoes of editor/writer Richard E. Hughes (also known as Leo Rosenbaum) as given to him from Hughes’ wife. Thomas, in turn, got permission to hand them to Michael Vance, the expert on the American Comics Group, for analysis, which we have here. ACG is the same group that released the Nedor comics, the checklist of which was in ‘Alter Ego’s previous issue. Gold.

The second part of Comic-Con International 2011, titled ’50 Years of Comic Book Fandom,’ features individuals who were present at the inception of American fandom sharing their personal reminiscences. The most obvious thing is that they didn’t expect it to grow; they just wanted to connect with others who shared their interest.

A mixed but interesting bag this time, but you should spot my enthusiasm here. Even better, it’s still available as a paper edition.

GF Willmetts

May 2025

(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 1932-6890. Direct from them, you can get it for $ 8.95 (US))

check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1031