Alter Ego # 119 August 2013 (magazine review)
Going back to 2013, this issue of ‘Alter Ego’ is full of material. For openers, we have Alberto Becattini interviewing comicstrip artist Mel Keffer (1926-2022). I’ll have to confess I hadn’t heard of him but most of his work was in newspaper strips before getting involved in animation design, including ‘Jonny Quest’. However, he was also the illustrator for a Jack Lemmon 1965 film ‘How To Murder Your Wife’ and I like making connections like that. Much to Alex Toth’s distain when told, Keffer often picked up the work he didn’t take. Its interesting seeing the samples of his work how he developed, principally as a serious illustrator before doing the odd caricature. A fascinating interview.
Michael T. Gilbert’s ‘Mr. Monster’ feature looks at artists like Russ Heath and Charlie Stern taking their artistic influence from Harvey Kurtzman’s EC war comics. I think all comicbook artists are influenced by others in the field. With the 1960s-1970s generation it was either Kirby or Adams or even both but whether they kept that way as they developed varies a lot. Some, like Colan and Sienkiewicz become impossible to reproduce with their own techniques.
Bill Schelly, whose speciality was American fandom, is interviewed in the first part here by Gary Brown about his background and his first comicbooks and their influence. Just as a general comment here. When I was young and hooking into American comics, I was aware of the so-called rivalry between DC Comics and Marvel, with the former urging not to read the latter and yet this rarely comes up, let alone how people finally forgot all about it. Even so, you do have to wonder why it doesn’t come up from time to time.
Back in 1978, comicbook artist C.C. Beck wrote a piece, ‘Advice For Young Artists’, rather than having to explain to all he saw at conventions. Much of which is still reliable advice today. In any creative endeavour when you have to deal with other people, you have to have a rhino skin when it comes to criticism and to recognise when what is being said is to be helpful than a deterrent or self-destructive. Beck’s assertion that many of these people don’t have creative talent is probably true although I’m probably the exception to that rule as you readily see my writing and draw/paint well depending on the subject so know what I’m talking about.
The final section is devoted to the late Marc Swayze (1913-2012) as his wife, June, went over his musical background where he played piano or guitar and she was a singer with him in various bands. While in the military, he even played guitar for a Bing Crosby concert there and applauded by the singer on the radio later. There’s also a ‘Phantom Eagle’ story and a lot of artwork, including paintings, as he adapted his style to what was required. Swayze wrote many articles for ‘Alter Ego’ and this is a nice tribute to a nice person.
It’s always worth going after early TwoMorrows magazines because they fill in a lot of early American comicbook history.
GF Willmetts
November 2025
(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 82 page illustrated magazine. Price: $ 8.95 (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=1077&zenid=hs32m18l112m48hmrutckga031
