Alter Ego # 201 September 2026 (magazine review)
With the latest ‘Alter Ego’ # 201, writer Reed Tucker looks into the life of Edward Nelson Bridwell, commonly referred to as E. Nelson Bridwell (1931-1987). This is the first time I learnt his first name, but his reputation was well-known to my generation. He was a walking encyclopaedia of the DC Universe, although he knew a lot about other subjects as well. Bridwell was hired as an assistant editor to Mort Weisinger, who thought him an oddball but useful for ensuring he didn’t rotate plots too readily. I was amazed by how much he did beyond this job, as he also contributed irregularly to ‘Mad Magazine’. Bridwell thought himself made when his jokes there were picked up elsewhere. One of them was the classic gag of the Lone Ranger and Tonto surrounded by red Indians, as Native Americans were called then: the Lone Ranger didn’t think much of their chances, and Tonto reminded him of his own background. As the cover shows, Bridwell also created the Inferior Five. With the latter, I loved the first issue, where the baddie instructed his underling to fetch him a diamond and, having failed, the henchman returned with a fake obtained by smashing open a bubble gum machine. A classic.
For a time, Stan Lee hosted a 1976 cable TV show in the early hours in New York, interviewing comic book creators. Not all of these survived, but the Roy Thomas one did and is transcribed here by S.E. Dogaru. Thomas points out that there was too much focus on Conan at the expense of his other work up to that time. Even so, it does give some interesting insights into both of them.
Michael T. Gilbert’s Mr. Monster column looks at some of the early comics he acquired and will no doubt make you think of your own early ones and, looking back, whether you would choose them again.
Under the Fawcett flag, P.C. Hamerlinck looks at the 1950 film ‘The Good Humor Man’, starring Jack Carson, which is built around a junior Captain Marvel Club. As Fawcett was embroiled in legal entanglements with DC Comics, the film had to be careful about how much it could show. It’s still puzzling why the kids had to say ‘Captain Marvel’ backwards. An odd fact is that actor George Reeves appears as a reporter. The film isn’t available, although you would think someone would have done something about that by now, purely for its historical value.
Have I enticed you yet?
GF Willmetts
September 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=1889&zenid=5qah6nsst2bm1vm8crjrqhmq47
