The Eye Day!

Captain Billy Joe "Biljo" White was born on this date in 1929. He is perhaps most famous for creating the term "Batmania" with the publication of his fanzine of that same name. White was a dedicated fan artist, one of the best of his time but he never broke into the pros. He created more than a few heroes but for me none match the sheer awesomeness of The Eye which he co-created with Grass Green. Wearing a spell-binding helmet the Eye was a classic crimefighter with a Golden Age gloss in a Silver Age fanzine environment. 

Biljo White co-created a hero who is one of the most fascinating superheroes I've run across. Working in a city filled with crime, this hero goes out and deals with the threats in a most direct manner. The visuals on this hero are outstanding, having instant recognizability and long-lasting memory. That impossible helmet, those jodhpurs - outstanding! The original design was dreamed up by Richard "Grass" Green who drew a single image of a strange bloke with a bizarre eye helmet. Later this was used by White to actually fashion a character from the single image. 

The Eye operated in Yorkton City. He's actually an undercover cop who uses the guise of the Eye to operate in the underworld as a seeming criminal enforcer. The character debuted in full bloom in Star-Studded Comics #3 and later in Fighting Hero #10 before graduating to his own self-titled comic. He soon became a favorite among the fanzine crowd and went on to appear ultimately in two issues of his own. The combines pulp mystery with superhero hijinks, possessed of a helmet that can hypnotize and blind his enemies. It also allows him to see behind him. 

Over that last several decades his adventures have been reprinted in various places by Hamster Press. Even new adventures written by Bill Schelly have been created with the blessing of White himself. 

(Jerry Ordway)

(Ron Frenz)

(Bill Schelly)

I got to know The Eye though the publications of the late Bill Schelly's Hamster Press. Here's a link with more on the father of the Eye -- Biljo White:

BILJO WHITE

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Giant Labors Of Love!

Fanzines of any era are "labors of love" produced by fans who want desperately to express themselves about a hobby they love or in some measure to participate in the production of the works that make up that hobby. In the case of comics, there were scores of low-print fanzines manufactured cheaply  which were distributed to only a few hundred fellow fans at most. Fanzines of this type were well served by the antique production process of ditto or spirit duplication. 

"Ditto" copying was a standard technique for cheap duplication of documents in many smaller outfits like churches and schools and such since its invention in the 1920's. It was once standard practice to see purple-tipped fingers on many folks who made use of the process. When I first started my teaching career Ditto was still a regular way to make sufficient copies of teaching materials for distribution to students in a classroom. I've administered more than a few tests committed to the spirit duplication format. And as it turns out I used the process  when I briefly took part in comic fanzine publication in the late 70's long after most publications had switched to offset printing. I had access to that too, but much of the work developed by members of my APA (Amateur Press Association) came to me via Ditto masters. Learning to use Ditto and even to draw on it took practice and there were even some slight advantages at the time because of certain shading effects common to the technique. The smells of Spirit Duplication were distinctive and not necessarily unpleasant.  

That's the method used by all of the stories collected in Bill Schelly's Giant Labors of Love. I'm taking a look at the "Revised and Expanded Edition" released in 2000. It's the smallest of the collections Schelly published under his Hamster Press brand both in page count (112 pages) and overall dimensions (7 inches by just under 10 inches). There are ten stories and many examples of small spot art work. 

The collection leads off with not one but two stories starring the most visually iconic of the fanzine heroes -- Bijo White's The Eye. White was adept at using the Ditto process to get effective art and it shows her with two stories that first introduce the enigmatic underworld  hitman and then a second which reveals his true heroic nature. This is followed by Richard "Grass" Green's Speed Marvel a light hearted funny strip that has a hero who gets the job done and has a laugh at the same time. The art here evoked those fantastic Terrytoons character styles. 

Next up is Dimension Man by Ronn Foss and of particular note in this story is the lovely dame rendered by Foss, a fetching chick from Venus where women rule and men serve. Foss seems to be okay with that idea, forward thinking for the 60's when "feminism" was just aborning. 

The Demon by Buddy Saunders (one of the "Texas Trio") a strip in which this magical powered hero is assisted by another superhero who doesn't survive the adventure. Death and dying are all too commonplace in comics today, but to kill any character in the 60's was a huge deal. Doc Darkness by Rick  Buckler is next and this is a complete story with this Doctor Mid-Nite knockoff battling some particularly nasty villains who want to use religion to shield themselves from justice. The O'Brian Gang is by Bill Schelly himself from 1972 and in his into he indicates there is some Fourth World influence on this story. That influence is mostly seen in the face and manners of the matriarch of the gang who looks more than bit like Granny Goodness. This is a wild fracas that actually draws you in quite effectively. 

Now we turn to the "Expanded" part of the book and we kick off with The Black Scorpion, a female hero by Larry Herndon. This is followed by The Defender by Herndon and Green with inks by Howard Keltner. Both Herndon and Keltner were the other two members of the "Texas Trio" alongside Saunders. 

The Viper by Ronn Foss is almost certainly the best drawn piece in the book featuring another heroine who this time uses a great costume and a whip made from snake skin to enforce her will on a devious criminal. The book wraps up with yet another Biljo White item starring The Lion, a hero who comes into being to help save a lowly pressman's job after he conjures up the hero out of nothing. The Lion's debut is novel for certain. 

These are not the most refined examples of comic art, even among the fanzine variety but they are filled with that furious enthusiasm which makes these kinds of collections so much fun to explore. 

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Fandom's Finest Comics Two!

In Fandom's Finest Comics Volume Two editor Bill Schelly takes advantage of this space to organize the stories in categories. This gives him the ability to focus on themes and to give added attention to individual artists of note from the fanzine days. Based on the outstanding Jerry Ordway cover featuring Biljo White's iconic The Eye, it's no question who one of those talents will be. 

The volume though is bracketed by a two-part Adam Link story. Created by Eando Binder for the science fiction pulps the story "Adam Link's Vengeance" was adapted for the debut issue of Fantasy Illustrated by Bill Spicer. The story is adapted by Spicer and drawn by D. Bruce Berry. It's a professional level job and it's a story with some depth of character. The second chapter is located at the very back of this collection. 

The first section is dedicated to Star-Studded Comics, arguably the most prodigious of the fanzines dedicated fan stories. Many stories from this long-running series appeared in the first volume as well. Here we get stories from a wide range of genres. In the superhero category we have "The Astral Man Vs. The Adder" by Howard Keltner (one of the Texas Trio who published the comic) and the amazing Sam Grainger. Landon Chesney steps in with a horror/superhero outing starring Dr. Weird called "The Thing out of  Time". "The House where Terror Lived" is drawn by  Rich Buckler and written by Larry Herndon (a second member of the Trio). Alan Weiss steps up with a rarity in the fanzines, a western and this is humdinger titled "Boy, You Sure Don't Look Like a Hero!'. Closing out this section is an adaptation of Robert E. Howard's "Gods of the North" by Herndon and artists Steve Kelez and Alan Hutchinson. 

The next section is dedicated to Biljo White and we get along with a profile of the great fanzine artist and publisher of Batmania, three stories. The first is an early offering starring a hero named The Fog and the other two star White's iconic hero The Eye. Included here are the stories "The Eye" (done as a newspaper strip) and "The Return of the Eye" a follow up to the story from the first volume. 

Schelly turns his attention to lighter offerings with some parody and humor strips. He get "Whatever Happened to Lance Lightning?" by James Toran, Bill Spicer, and the great fan artist Grass Green. Landon Chesney is back, this time with a light look at a team-up between the Flashes of two worlds, as they battle the Purple Slagheap. Robert Crumb's brother Charles gives us a spoof of Zorro with the story "Xorro!". The humor section is closed out by "The Wishing World", a story by writer Mark Evanier and artist John Pound taking a scornful eye at some classic cliches in vintage EC Comics stories. 

Yet more superheroes arrive in the next section which starts off with a bio of Bill Black and then showcases one of his best early tales about the Vietnam vet turned psychic hero The Shade. "Night of the Shade" is a darn good story and we get another Shade story titled "Dream Walker" as well. "Skyline Robbers" is a story starring Ron Foss's hero The Eclipse, but this time the story is by Martin Grein and Foss is assisted on the art by Gary Kato. "The Web" is a comic strip style spoof of the spy stories of the day and gives the reader a parody of both James Bond and The Man from UNCLE. "The Prize...America" is a full-length story (twenty pages) by Jim Starlin and Keltner and it teams up two heroes -- The Eagle and the previously seen Astral Man. Starlin is very close here to his form in his earliest Marvel work. 

"Graphic Story Gallery" offers up a bevy of one and two page glimpses of work by George Barr, Michael T. Gilbert, Mike Kaluta, Jeff Jones, Jim Shooter, among others. Rounding out this collection is a section dedicated to other genres such as "Thundersaber" by Dave Cockrum an adventure in the ERB tradition, "Call It Karma" by Frank Miller about a mysterious murder and crime, "A Study in Horror" by Bob Overstreet and Landon Chesney (for the third time), "The Demon of the Dark Glass" by Martin Greim and Dan Adkins (this is pro level art by the way), and "What Happened to Jory" by Gary Henry and artist Marc Hempel. The final one is the strongest alongside the Chesney piece. 

As previously mentioned Adam Link shows up to close it out and the second heaping volume comes to an end. 

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The Invaders - The Second Wave!

It is evident that Roy Thomas was a having a grand old time writing The Invaders, as the series seemed to constantly froth with the creation of new superheroes and revised superheroes. At times the "Big Three" of Cap, Subby and Torch seemed almost guest-stars in their own comic, fighting for pages as the cast grew and grew.

Ron Wilson and Frank Giacoia

Also the pressures of actually creating the comic, along with some special side projects, began to tell as the "Dreaded Deadline Doom" became something of a chronic problem for the WWII saga. For instance the tenth issue of the comic was a few framing pages picking up the action as Cap and the others race to get Lord William Montgomery Falsworth and his daughter Jacqueline to hospital care after the battle with Baron Blood.

Between those few pages is a vintage Captain America story with art by Al Avison and Al Gabrielle from Captain America Comics #22 about a Nazi rabble rouser dubbed the Reaper who works to undermine the war effort by lowering the morale of the workers.

Jack Kirby and Frank Giacoia

Then in the next issue the team finally get the Falsworths to care and that saves their lives but proves also quite deadly when the hospital itself comes under attack by the Blue Bullet, the creation of a Professor Gold.

Herbert Lawrence Block

Thomas makes an aside that the Blue Bullet looks like a political cartoon character and the only one that came to mind that fits the bill is Herblock's "Mr. Atom", an Atomic Bomb-like figure which appeared in many of his more memorable images. (See the example above.)

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott

After fending off the threat of the Blue Bullet, the team is shocked to discover they have a new member Spitfire who of course is Jacqueline Falsworth herself. She got her speed powers when the Baron Blood bit blended with transfused blood from the android Human Torch, who did so because of his affection for Lady Falsworth. She for her part seems to dote on Cap creating a bit of tension among the team members.

The team discover that Professor Gold only created his dangerous Blue Bullet because his brother Jacob was under threat by the Nazis back in the Jewish ghettos of Germany. The Invaders go into the Fatherland to rescue Jacob who refuses to return with them. The team is captured by the Nazis.

Jacob Gold then uses his mystical powers to raise the Golem, a creature of Jewish legend. But a well-timed lightning bolt (there are a lot of these in the Invader stories it seems) bonds Jacob with his creation and this new Golem rescues the Invaders from the Nazi commander "The Face".

Ernie Chan, Tony Dezuniga and John Romita

The Golem is a character Marvel really had a yen to do. Not only do we get a WWII rendition of the character with a distinctly Hulk-like vibe, there had been a brief series a few years before of the creature from a distinctly supernatural perspective in the revived Strange Tales. The aforementioned Hulk ran into a version also in his own magazine, maybe the same one.

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott

The Invaders return to London just in time to meet the latest in the cavalcade of new superheroes, The Crusaders.

 The Crusaders are the Spirit of 76, Ghost Girl, Captain Wings, Thunder Fist, Johnny Lightning, and the diminutive Dyna-Mite.

Ernie Chan

This is one of those very fun unofficial crossovers the writers of Marvel and DC would do from time to time despite the constant newsstand war their bosses waged. The Crusaders are versions of DC's recently revived Freedom Fighters made up of Uncle Sam, Human Bomb, The Ray, Phantom Lady, Black Condor and Doll Man.

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott

It turns out though that these new heroes are being run by the other side as the Nazis have concocted the Crusaders as an elaborate ruse to kill King George and undermine the English threat from within. The Crusaders have no knowledge of this though and reject the powers they are given (those that needed powers) when the truth is revealed.

Rich Buckler and Jack Abel

For their part DC then created dopplegangers of the Invaders also called "The Crusaders" and featured them in the pages of Freedom Fighters. That team consisted of  Americommando, Rusty, Barracuda, Fireball and Sparky. For more information on both teams of Crusaders check this out.

Alex Schomburg

Then comes one of the most peculiar and indulgent comic books Roy Thomas ever wrote. The first Invaders Annual is a complicated affair with a variety of purposes. For one thing, Roy wanted to write a story in longer form, similar to the original Giant-Size format the series began with, and for another he wanted to stories to be like the Golden Age team tales where they are in fact individual hero stories connected by a frame in which all the heroes appear. He does this introducing three new/old villains into the mix - The Shark, The Hyena, and a character who will be a bigger deal later --  Agent Axis. Roy then  gets veteran talent to draw his chapters. Frank Robbins and Frank Springer, the regular team handle the frame story, Alex Schomburg drew the Torch tale and supplied the awesome cover, Don Rico handled the Cap yarn, and Lee Elias rendered the Subby story. After those were done, the trio (minus Bucky and Toro left behind again) end up in the time-traveling clutches of the Grandmaster.

Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger

Because one other thing Roy wanted to do in this complex story was to showcase the battle between the Invaders (not yet called that) and three Avengers (Black Panther, Yellowjacket, and Vision) in the pages of The Avengers #71 some eight years previous. Not that anyone but he would care, but Roy wanted to explain why Cap had a triangular shield and why Namor's swim gear was different. (Roy really got pretty anal about this stuff sometimes.) Despite its ornery complications this is still a lark of a story and I like the callback of one my all-time favorite Avengers stories with great art by Sal Buscema and Sam Grainger.

Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott

Then we begin the longest Invaders story yet. Just after the Crusaders events, Spitfire and her father Lord Falsworth (formerly known as Union Jack) had departed with Dyna-Mite to find Lord Falsworth's estranged son Brian. It turns out Dyna-Mite was his best friend Roger and he had no idea how he'd gotten to be so small. The Invaders did not know any of this.

William "Biljo" White

Instead in a story drawn by fill-in artist Jim Mooney with Springer inks, they attempt to save a kidnapped G.I. named "Biljo White". Named for the real-life the William "Biljo" White fan artist and creator of one of my favorite superheroes The Eye, this Biljo was a comic artist who had drawn the story of Major Victory before his enlistment and in that story had told a tale similar to the origin of Cap himself.

Jim Mooney and Frank Springer

The Nazis thinking he knew some secrets wanted to find out and so kidnapped him, sending a beautiful Nazi agent to do so.

  Gil Kane and Joe Sinnott

The Invaders travel into Nazi territory again (living up their names for a change of pace) to rescue Biljo but get captured themselves by Master Man who is back up and punching. He'd recently had a run in with the Liberty Legion, but I'll get around to that later. It turns out Biljo did know something about Cap's origin, and the Nazi woman who kidnapped him uses that info to make herself into the super-strong "Warrior Woman".

Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

Meanwhile Cap has escaped the clutches of the Nazis and has been helped by The Mighty Destroyer, a man who fights the Nazis behind enemy lines. Not too surprisingly, the Destroyer turns out to be Brian Falsworth who along with his buddy Roger Aubrey had fallen into Nazi hands some months before and had been used for propaganda purposes.

John Romita and Joe Sinnott

An attempt to rescue the Invaders goes awry and Cap is recaptured and the lot are sent to Berlin for summary execution. Only the Destroyer can save them, but he seems to have been killed. Spitfire and her father have arrived in Berlin themselves by other means looking for Brian.

Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

The stories in issues twenty and twenty-one of The Invaders are truncated ("Dreaded Deadline Doom" again)  and really form a single piece.

Gil Kane and Frank Giacoia

In that finale the Union Jack reappears to save the day and rescue the Invaders who raise a ruckus in Berlin and almost capture Adolph Hitler himself before the dictator barely escapes. By the story's end, the reunited heroes return to London where hopefully Dyna-Mite can be cured, and where the Union Jack and Spitfire will join forces with The Invaders for good.

To see how this new version of The Invaders works together, check in next week.

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Labors Of Love!

Giant Labors of Love is a cool collection of old-fashioned mimeographed fanzine features. As someone who briefly operated an APA-zine on mimeo, I get how hard it can be to create a handsome project on this tedious outdated medium.

The Eye created by Biljo White is one of my favorite heroes ever, a creation with a vigorous pulp vibe. Thanks to Bill Schelly's Hamster Press, I've been able to get hold of most if not all of The Eye's adventures. I recommend them to one and all fans of vintage comics.


The "Expanded" collection I own was developed from this 1990's edition.


The name "Labors of Love" has been used by Schelly a few times, once for a collection of writings about the beloved fan creations of Silver and Bronze Ages. Any of Schelly's Hamster books are solid reads, and solid entertainment.


And for good measure here's another vintage image, an ad for The Eye!

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