A LETTER TO JERRY DEFUCCIO By Bill Everett, May 19 '61 The Comics, v10 #1.
You seem to have pegged the old comic-book industry pretty well, from the few simple
facts you stated in your letter. It's true that Carl Burgos and I started
in the game at it's very inception, somewhere back in 1936 or '37, when the going rate
was $2.00 per page - believe it or not! I think my very first strip was "Skyrocket Steele",
but shortly after that came "The Amazing Man", which enjoyed a short but popular
life. Then there was "Dirk the Demon", and several others of short duration,
whose titles I can't even recall at this date. Of course, our biggest enterprise
was "The Sub-Mariner" and Carl's "Human Torch", both of which carried us along
successfully for many years.
I was associated with Lloyd Jacquet, as you probably know, at Funnies, Inc.,
from about 1938 until the war, when I went into the service. The Sub-Mariner
carried on at the hands of Carl Pfeiffer and a few others in my absence, and it was
not until late 1946 that I picked it up again. He was finally dropped as a feature title.
You might recall that at Funnies we had such writers as Mickey Spillane, Ray Gill,
and John Compto. Bob Wood started with us, then joined forces with Charlie Biro to
produce crime comics for Lev Gleason. I guess you know what happened to Bob. Charlie,
I understand, is still quite active with the National Cartoonists Society.
Bob Davis was, indeed, one of my best friends. He met his death on his way home
to Tarrytown, when he apparently went to sleep at the wheel of his car ( a Sedan, not a sports
car) and plunged into a shallow pond off the Saw Mill River Parkway. As I recall it, he
did not drown, but dies in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. What made
his untimely death so poignant to us was the fact that it occurred after an afternoon
and evening of frolic and fun with Carl, myself, and a couple of others from the Funnies gang.
I remember that Bob kept calling his wife, Ruth, to tell her he’d be on his way shortly,
and we finally persuaded him to leave about 7:00 p.m. That was the end.
To go back a bit, here is a brief resume of my experience in the publishing and related fields:
My first job out of school was with the Boston Heraldtravel, on the Retail Advertising
art staff - at an overwhelming salary of $12.00 per week. I quit that job when
they put me on the night shift, and went to work as a draftsman for The Brooks System,
civil engineers in Newton, Mass. I got fired because I refused to chauffeur one of the partners,
whose rancid cigar smoke made me ill.
From there I went to Phoenix and on to L.A., jobhunting, but no success. Finally,
I returned to New York, and got a job on the Herald Tribune, once again doing retail advertising art work.
That job led to another, as Art Editor for Radio News magazine, Teck Publications, Inc. Teck
eventually sold out to Ziff-Davis, and I went to Chicago to become Assistant
Art Director to Herm Bollin. Unfortunately, Herm and I didn't get along, and I was too
big for my britches. I got canned.
I came back to New York, all set to take the world by it's heels - and wound up on the unemployment
insurance breadline. I was still drawing compensation when I stumbled onto the comic book field, then
brand new. I can't even recall how it happened - wait...Now I remember. A fellow by the
name of Walter Holze (sic) had worked with me at Teck, and when Teck sold out
went with a small publisher, whose name I can't recall. John H----, something. Anyway, Walter got
in touch with me, and told me this guy was doing comic, and was I interested? I was. I was interested
in anything at that point. So I went to see him, and that's when I met Lloyd Jacquet and Carl Burgos.
Later, Lloyd split with John, and offered me and a fellow by the name of Max Neill a chance to go in
with him and two other guys, John Macon and Frank, on a fifty-fifty basis. We took a small
loft office of 45th Street, and started an art service. One of our accounts was Martin Goodman,
who was just entering the comic field. Another was Famous Funnies, Eastern Color Printing Co., for whom I did
a rather successful strip called "Hydrogen", plus several one-shots. You may know
of Steve Douglas, former editor of Famous Funnies. He's had quite a career, and would
make interesting material for your book. He and I have been friends for many years. While with Lloyd
and the others, I also did a great deal of work on the World's Fair of '41, for the
Electric Utilities Corp. of New York. Interesting, but brief. Our biggest client, as it turned out,
was Martin Goodman. We produced many different comic titles for him, until about 1940, when he dropped
our contract and decided to set up his own production staff, with Arthur Goodman in charge.
Both Arthur and Stan Lee were just kids than, and gave us considerable trouble. I guess we were all feeling our
oats at that time. We gave them trouble, too. Anyway, Lloyd and I weren't
getting along too well at that period, and then there was dissension between
Lloyd and John Macon. John left, and Frank Trophy went to work for Martin. Lloyd was
carrying on with Jim Fitzsimmmons when I left to go into the service.
I married while in the army - a girl named Gwenn Randell, from Nebraska, who
was working for the Ordinance Dept. in the Pentagon. I met her in '42 when
I was attending Officer Candidate School at Fort Belvoir, and married her when I returned from
the European Theater in '44. Our first child, a daughter, was born just before I was
shipped out to the Pacific. I was in the Philippines when the war was terminated,
and returned home in February, '46.
I'd come into a little money when my great-uncle died during the war, so I sort of loafed around
for a while after I got home, travelling around a bit, and finally settling
in my wife's home town, Fairbury, Nebraska. This was when I renewed my association
with Martin Goodman, working by mail on a free-lance basis, picking up the Sub-Mariner
where I'd left off four years ago.
Things got rough about 1949, and I felt it advisable to pack up and move back to New York.
I left my family (two kids by now) in Erie, Pa., with my sister and her family, and came to N.Y. by
myself. I picked up comic accounts with Quality Comics, Eastern Color, and, of course, with Stan Lee.
Things finally started to good in '50, and my family joined me (four of us lived and worked - in one tiny room
in a mid-town hotel for six months!), and we eventually moved to Ridgewood, New Jersey, where I brought a small house.
I guess it was about 1955 when Stan Lee called me and offered me a staff job working on a new satirical
magazine to be calledSnafu. I went to work for him, with John Severin and Joe Maneely, and we
had a heck of a lot of fun for many months. Of course, the rag eventually died, but we stayed on, still doing comics.
You probably know that Joe was killed falling off a train while on the way home after a night's work on Timely.
The whole thing blew up when Martin sold out his distributing company, and went with American News, who promptly
fouled him up. Anyway, the whole bunch of us were thrown out on our respective ears, and that was when I decided
I'd better find another outlet for whatever talent I might have. I was most
fortunate in landing a job with Norcross, specializing in humorous and "Studio" cards. Within a year,
I had become Planning Director, and was pretty well situated when I heard about an opening with Rust Craft Publishers
in Dedham, Mass.
I took the job, as Art Director, General Design, a year ago, and moved my family (three kids now - one sixteen, one twelve,
and one eight) up here to Winchester, a lovely little town. A couple of months ago, the guy who hired me, the Corporate Creative Director,
had a falling out with management, and was canned. That left me holding the bag, under Senior Art Director, and my
head was on the block. We finally agreed to disagree, and the job was terminated last week.
That brings us up to date.
Well, Jerry, this has been a rather long dissertation and I sure hope I haven't bored you. How much
of what I've written here is pertinent to your requirements, I don't know, but pick and choose as you like.
I'll be in New York from time to time, Jerry, and if I can do anything further to assist
you in preparing your book, I'll be more than glad to cooperate in person. I do remember
meeting and talking with you, and if we could get together again maybe I'd recall a few more
items that might interest you. You might look up John Jordan, John Daly, Joey Piazza, Mike
Roy, George Kapitan, and Al Grenet. There's also a very interesting story concerning Terry
Gilkisson, although you may have trouble getting it published.
The era of the ten-cent comic book was a romantic and adventuresome one,
and, I hope should make for interesting reading. There was the time, for
example, when we turned out the first combination "Sub-Marinener",
"Human Torch" volume - 48 pages of writing layout, drawing and
lettering, in three days. All done in my aprtment on 33rd St., with six
writers, four artists and a case of booze. Sandwiches sent in, Joey
Piazz lying in the bathtub, fully clothed, writin up a storm reams of
paper littering the floor, everybody yelling at each other, neighbors
complaining, the radio and record player going full blast, and the
telephone ringing constantly. But we got the job done, and it sold out
completely.
Such things were the comic book industry made up of, and I certainly
hope that you can compile enough anecdotes to make a small addition to
the history of publishing. Anything more I can do to help, I’ll be more
than happy to.