Lots of Feedback!

Questions posed in past weeks get answered this time around...

The Russell Carley "script continuity" credit has been explained in various places but the most detailed was in a Peter Sanderson article in 1988's
WRATH OF THE SPECTRE # 2:
"Michael Fleisher explains that, 'When I first started writing comics, my friend Russell Carley, who's a fine artist, and I used to work on them together. We would get together on a Saturday afternoon and we plotted the story together. Then Russell would take the plot and break it down into panels, and I would write the script.' When Fleisher started writing comics, he only had experience writing prose. 'I had never written any kind of script in my life.' He believed that Carley had a stronger visual sense than he did, and therefore would be better at determining how the story should be expressed through comics panels.
" 'We wanted to come up with some kind of title that expressed what he did as opposed to what I did.' But Fleisher believes that the credits they came up with for Carley failed to make his actual contribution clear. 'All we succeeded in doing was confusing everybody,' Fleisher concludes, adding that whenever he is asked about the SPECTRE series, he is invariably asked just what Russell Carley did.
" 'A lot of the ideas for the Spectre, like the giant scissors cutting a man in half, were Russell's ideas,' Fleisher reveals. (Jim Aparo singled this scene out as one his own favorites in the series.) 'We had a lot of fun,' Fleisher continues. 'But then he lost interest. I think we only did this for a year. He wasn’t really interested in comics, and I was. So he dropped out. We're still good friends, but professionally we went our separate ways.'
Fleisher took over the work of breaking the story down into panels once Carley left the series."
-- John Wells (mikishawm@yahoo.com)

Thanks, John. No wonder you’re my Official Unofficial Researcher. Thanks also to my pal Bob Greenberger and to Mark Katzoff (mkatz36022@aol.com) for responding (in far more abbreviated form) on this topic.

BOBRO’S TRIVIA QUIZ
1. Vic Morrow starred in a TV show that shared a name with comics published by Atlas and Dell; what was the name?
2. EC’s HAUNT OF FEAR changed direction and became a war book; what was the new title?
3. The stars of three DC war features were combined as one team in OUR FIGHTING FORCES; name them AND the team they became.
4. Easy Company’s Phil Mason hated the heat; what was his nickname?
5. Rittmeister Hans von Hammer was better known as Enemy Ace; what kind of plane did he fly?
6. An ancestor of Bruce Wayne’s fought in the Revolutionary War; who was he?
7. Nick Fury was not the only Howling Commando to join S.H.I.E.L.D.; name another.
8. STAR SPANGLED WAR STORIES featured stories with soldiers fighting dinosaurs; what was the blanket title of that series?
9. Despite the fact that the Civil War had ended, what veteran traveled the west for years in a Rebel uniform?
10. After Zack Nolan lost an arm in combat, who replaced him as Easy Company’s bazookamen?
11. You may have heard of Captain Wings; do you know what title he debuted in?

BOBRO’S FUN FACTS TO KNOW & TELL:
1. The German surrender ending World War I was signed at 11:11 a.m. on November 11, 1918.
2. Though Alan Alda gained fame as Hawkeye Pierce on the “M*A*S*H” TV series, the role was created by Donald Sutherland in the movie.
3. The names of the more than 58,000 U.S. servicemen and women who died during the Vietnam War are engraved in the 70 panels of black granite that comprise the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial.

MORE FEEDBACK ON PREVIOUS COLUMNS:
I finally got some free time and checked out your column. I can actually give you an answer, re: SCIMIDAR. Hugh Hefner appeared in Volume 2, #1.
Porn star Kelly Nichols (who was also once interviewed in COMICS INTERVIEW) was part of the plot in all four issues of Volume four.

-- Brian Morris (bkmorris56@hotmail.com)

Thanks, Brian. And thanks to Damon Muraida (Adnomad@aol.com) and Mark Katzoff (again) for some info on this one too.

*****
I'm sure you'll hear about this from other "Who-vians," but the Doctor (not Doctor Who ... the show's title was a bit of an in-joke: "Doctor? Doctor who?") traveled in a space/time vehicle disguised as a British police call box that (to Americans at least ) may resemble -- but is not -- a phone booth.
-- RSBerry@aol.com

I've been a fan of yours for a long time, but it's no-prize time! (Oops, wrong company.)
I've only seen a few episodes, but from what I've read, his transport, the TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension In Space) is stuck in the form of a "police call box". In England, until about the time "Dr. Who" started, they were located in different places for people to call the police. I've even heard suspects could be detained in them temporarily until someone could come and pick them up.
Anywho, I said it was stuck in that form because TARDISes had a chameleon circuit which allowed them to blend in with whatever time or place it went to. The Doctor (his real name, although the credits listed the actor playing the character as "Dr. Who" until the fifth actor playing the part assumed the role) was a Time Lord, who were like the Watchers who recorded all of history. The Doctor saw that evil triumphed over good too many times to his liking, so he decided to take a more direct course of action, by stealing a TARDIS and going renegade.
*When the first actor decided to leave the series, the writers came up with "regeneration", or a time lord, when in a life-threatening situation, could regenerate his body, resulting in a different appearance. The name Dr. Who came from the first episode when two teachers, puzzled that one of their students, Susan Foreman, could easily explain complex scientific theories, but couldn't make change for a pound, went to visit her grandfather called the Doctor. One of the teachers addressed him as "Doctor Foreman" and he responded "Doctor Who?"
Imagine how much I would've told you if I watched the series more.
Anyway, thanks for reading and keep the columns coming!
-- Tony Collett (terror@ccrtc.com)

Clearly, I am not an expert on Doctor Who. Thanks for the corrections, guys.

*****
The younger Air Wave was renamed Maser by John Ostrander in 1989's FIRESTORM #88, which also identified him as Harold Lawrence Jordan and dyed his hair blonde in an effort to distance him from the OTHER Hal Jordan. Ostrander went on to use Maser in FIRESTORM #s 98 & 99 and SUICIDE SQUAD #s 58 & 59.
After that, young Hal appeared in a flashback in 1998's CHASE #9 with his namesake cousin. Then, as you mentioned, Maser was revived in JSA # 11 & 12. He recently returned in JSA: OUR WORLDS AT WAR # 1, once again calling himself Air Wave and clad in his blue and gold costume.
-- John Wells (once more)

Thanks for the Air Wave update, John. And while I’m out of town at a conference next week, John has provided a history of a team of lesser-known villains I’ve created. Be here to find out who they are.

*****
Regarding your October 22nd column, anyone wanting further details about the DC and Marvel Indexes can contact me by e-mail. Also, comics are still available in 7-11s where I live.
-- Murray Ward (mward@cc.umanitoba.ca)

I checked a couple of local 7-11s as well. One of them had a limited number of comic books on display. If the other one had them, they were hidden away somewhere.

*****
“100 Years - Lost, Stolen or Strayed” by Cary Bates, Curt Swan and Jack Abel appeared in ACTION COMICS #370, December, 1968.

Thanks to Robert Rowe (capybara@pacbell.net), John Greb (OldeWolf@compuserve.com), and the omnipresent information tag team of John Wells and Mark Katzoff for this information.

*****
Regarding the Fun Fact about the oil refinery with Batman in the name (2. The Batman Oil Refinery in Turkey that was shown on a Turkish stamp issued in the 1960s.): Did you know that as one of the "founding fathers" of Melbourne, Australia was John Batman? There was talk when the city was first founded of calling it Batmania instead of Melbourne? (Since Melbourne was destroyed by invading aliens in INVASION! some years back, I'm not quite sure where I'm living right now )
-- Jen from Australia (jenerators@optushome.com.au)

In a state of imagination, Jen?

FROM THE EMAILBOX:
Any idea what comics Gary Frank worked on before his run on the Hulk.
Thanks
-- Donal O'Connell (donal_oconnell@hotmail.com)

Ummm...no. Anyone?

Meantime, join us here again next week. And use the handy box in the column on the left to send in your comments and questions.

TRIVIA ANSWERS:
In honor of Veteran’s Day and those men and women past and present who protect us in times of war and times of peace…
1. COMBAT
2. TWO-FISTED TALES
3. Gunner and Sarge, Johnny Cloud, Captain Storm: The Losers
4. Ice Cream Soldier
5. A Fokker DR-1 Triplane
6. “Mad” Anthony Wayne
7. Dum-Dum Dugan, Gabriel Jones, Eric Koenig
8. “The War That Time Forgot”
9. Jonah Hex
10. Long Round and Short Round
11. WINGS COMICS

Ten-hut! March on over to BobRo’s Anything Goes Trivia at www.wfcomics.com/trivia for a daily ration of trivia. That’s an order!