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Alter Ego # 147 July 2017 (magazine review)

An unusual twist from the usual ‘Alter Ego’ format as we have a graphic examination of Otto Binder’s material for Quality, Timely and DC Comics. As Binder kept reasonably accurate records all shown here but this puts things into perspective and you see samples of his work and the artists he worked with over his writing career.

Don’t under-estimate Binder’s storywriting ability as PC Hamerlinck points out, Binder wrote 986 out of the 1743 Captain Marvel/Marvel Family stories between 1941-1953 as well as writing for other companies as well. To call him prolific and creative is putting it mildly because he added much to their realities along the way. As such, it’s hardly surprising that the largest section of material looks at samples from Fawcett.

In some respects, his work at National Periodicals/DC Comics seems small by comparison but they were also at a later part of his career before the death of his daughter contributed to his loss of interest in writing comics and going back to writing books. Even so, a lot of his throwaway ideas in the Superboy mythos were used for many years and the Legion Of Super-Heroes started with him. If you bought the Bill Schelly book about Otto Binder then this is a worthy supplement to add to your collection.

Just in case you thought this was all to this edition, ‘Mr. Monster’s Comic Crypt’ looks at some of the adverts in the 40s comicbooks. I can’t recall some of those but they really are hilarious. Everything from jail-jamas where your pyjamas have that distinctive stripped pattern to your personalised tombstone to buying your own bullwhip. I agree with Michael T. Gilbert that the offer of 1000 comics for $19 would have been a bargain except that in that time period, that would have been more than a month’s wages. If you can’t afford them then buy this issue of ‘Alter Ego’ instead.

GF Willmetts

July 2017

(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 100 page illustrated magazine. Price: $ 9.95 (US). ISSN: 1932-6890. Direct from them, you can get it for $ 8.46 (US))

check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_55&products_id=1267

UncleGeoff

Geoff Willmetts has been editor at SFCrowsnest for some 21 plus years now, showing a versatility and knowledge in not only Science Fiction, but also the sciences and arts, all of which has been displayed here through editorials, reviews, articles and stories. With the latter, he has been running a short story series under the title of ‘Psi-Kicks’ If you want to contribute to SFCrowsnest, read the guidelines and show him what you can do. If it isn’t usable, he spends as much time telling you what the problems is as he would with material he accepts. This is largely how he got called an Uncle, as in Dutch Uncle. He’s not actually Dutch but hails from the west country in the UK.

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