Alter Ego #191 January 2025 (magazine review).
This issue of ‘Alter Ego’ marks the 250th appearance of the Fawcett Collector of America, which has a checkered past dating back to the 1970s, where it first started.
A bit confused with the Elvis Presley connection to Captain Marvel Jr as written by Carl Lani’Keha Shinyama. Not that Elvis probably read comics as a youngster, but look at how much he used as an adult when you consider how much he must have been dressed by other people. Roy Thomas goes one better with his article, focusing on the book ‘Elvis and Gladys’ by Elaine Dundy, looking at his early life. In short, it does look like Elvis was a comics geek in his youth.
I suspect the reason why this was played down in his other two-volume biography by Peter Guralnick might be solely due to this author not getting the comic book interest. Even Thomas hints that might be the case. Mind you, Elvis’s dyed hair probably has more influence from Tony Curtis, as pointed out, than anybody else. Outside of the ‘Star Trek’, some of whom dress in Starfleet uniforms all the time, how many people dress like their superhero characters in real life?
Writer PC Hamerlinck points out the ‘Wheaties’ comic book freebies in 1947 when assorted publishers, including Fawcett and National, contributed their characters comics. If you’re going to be a completist, then you’d probably need them, although mint copies of all of them are hard to come by and I suspect, in the UK, non-existent. This is where the likes of ‘Alter Ego’ come into their own, revealing things you might never have heard of.
Under ‘Mr Monster’, writer Alan Jadro recounts his experience at the 1966 New York Comicon. Roy Thomas supplements this with the biography sheets he provided for it.
Writer Will Murray looks over ‘Adventures Of The Jaguar’ from Archie Comics in the early 1960s. When Ralph Hardy puts on a magic belt, he transforms into the Jaguar, gaining enhanced animal abilities and a vanishing moustache. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, Murray points out the Inca manufacturers also had rocket jets. His comparisons to Superman and that its writer, Robert Bernstein, was using revised material rejected by Mort Weisinger for the Man of Steel probably affirm the editor probably had due reason.
The end section is devoted to Thomas Yeates, a Tarzan artist with knowledge of and a collection of the wannabes, both male and female, that were around then. As explained, Africa was unknown to the American audience except through films, which gave a lot of leeway to the artists. Looking objectively, their outsides aren’t that different from superhero zoot suits showing the thinly disguised body. Certainly, the natural landscape provided more creative opportunities than an urban cityscape.
Don’t underestimate ‘Alter Ego’; there’s always something to read.
GF Willmetts
July 2025
(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=1785
