twomorrows publishing comic books - don heck: a work of art

A Work Of Artby John Coates

Foreword by STAN LEE •Afterword by BEAU SMITH

A Work Of Artby John Coates

4 - Introductionby John Coates

6 - Forewordby Stan Lee

9 - Chapter OneFormative Years

13 - Chapter Two1949–1954: Early Days in Comics

21 - Chapter Three1954–1960s: Atlas Comics and the Marvel Age of Comics

65 - Chapter FourLate 1960s–1977: Marvel Comics, Gold Key, and DC Comics

77 - Chapter Five1970s: Final Days at Marvel—Leaving for DC

87 - Chapter Six1977–1988: DC Comics

109 - Chapter Seven1989–1994: Back Home to Marvel, and the Indies

115 - Chapter EightDon Heck Gallery

127 - Chapter NineProcess, Technique, and Style

139 - Chapter TenInking with Don

161 - Chapter ElevenMarvel Merchandise

167 - Chapter TwelveBy the Numbers

171 - Chapter ThirteenJim Fern Remembers His Friend Don

177 - Chapter FourteenRemembrances

189 - Afterwordby Beau Smith

CONTENTS

CONTENTS 3

Don was working on.The bulk of the interviews with Don contained in

the book are a combination of two—the first beingan extensive, until-now-unpublished interview fromJune 9, 1990, conducted by Will Murray and origi-nally transcribed by Brian K. Morris; and the secondbeing Richard Howell’s interview with Don originallypublished in Comics Feature #21, 1982. Further, I aug-mented these two interviews with segments fromthree other shorter interviews, as they contained in-formation or elaborations from Don not found in thetwo previously mentioned interviews.In organizing the book, I combined the interviews

and sources into a more chronological order-flow toform a single cohesive interview from its collective

parts. My intentwas to ensure thatwhen Don spokeon a specific topic(e.g., his early daysat Marvel Comics),his commentsfrom diversesources were col-lected together foreasier communica-tion of the topicbeing addressed. Regarding the

art showcased, themajority of the images contained in this book repre-sent Don both penciling and inking his work. Donvocalized that he felt his art was not complete unlesshe both penciled and inked. In highlighting Don’s“complete” art, readers can see Don’s art as he envi-sioned it, and any uncredited are is “pure” Don.Nevertheless, there is an entire chapter dedicated

to other professionals inking Don’s work, and he theirs.In that chapter, I intentionally show examples of thedrawn faces, as I think this area typically is the mostdistinctive when one artist’s pencils are inked by another artist. The intent is to showcase Don’s workwhen combined with another professional’s unique style.In reading this book, you’ll discover that Don was

born in a small, ethnic neighborhood in Queens, N.Y.on January 2, 1929. His parents—themselves first-generation Americans born of German immigrants—

DON HECK: A Work Of Art4

In developing this book, I felt a keen sense of responsibility. Don Heck has always been a personalfavorite, but is best known as an iconic comic bookartist who was present and heavily involved with—from the pre-conception through birth, and beyond—what became one of the most important developmentsin American comics history, the Marvel Age ofComics. Not to be neglected, Don also had a verylong and successful career at DC Comics from themid-1970s through to the late 1980s, totaling overforty years in the industry.Though Don did some interviews, it was challenging

to publish a biography of a person who couldn’t provideadditional insight, clarifications, or hindsight; had noimmediate family; worked alone in his home studiomost of his career;and lead a fairlyquiet life by hisown admission. Regardless,

given his place inthe pantheon ofAmerican comics,a book treatmentof his career waslong overdue.I began my

research by lookingto the obvious:Don’s publishedinterviews, few that they were. Secondly, I contactedDon’s contemporaries for reflections on Don, and alsoreviewed any of their previously published interviewsto glean any previous reflections on Don that mayhave been forgotten. Thirdly, I researched publishedinterviews of Don’s contemporaries who are no longerwith us, hoping that they might have provided someinsight. And finally, I researched published resourcesfrom over the last 40 years that contained firsthandaccounts of working with Don: the various fanzines,along with reviewing both Marvel Comics and DCComics in-house articles/columns, such as Marvel’s“Stan Lee’s Soapbox,” “Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins,”FOOM, and Marvel Age, and DC’s “Daily Planet” and“Meanwhile” columns and DC Direct Currents in-house fanzine, as well as letters pages in the books

INTRODUCTION

Above: The Avengers #37, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1967.

INTRODUCTION 5

Caniff’s Terry and the Pirates daily newspaper strip.In the late 1970s, Don would migrate over to DC

Comics to begin an eleven-year relationship that included being the regular monthly artist on such titles as Wonder Woman, Teen Titans, Flash, and JusticeLeague of America, as well as contributing to DC’s anthology titles Adventure Comics and World’s FinestComics, and as earlier with Marvel Comics, numerousother titles across genres. Also, while at DC Comicsin the 1970s, he co-created the Steel: The Indestruc-tible Man character with Gerry Conway.What I personally discovered was that Don was a

humble man with tremen-dous talent, who lived to draw; was admired, respected, and well-likedby his peers; was generouswith fans; had a sharp senseof humor; was a likeablebut “tell it like it is” kind ofguy; liked to tinker withelectronics around thehouse; considered photog-raphy a hobby; and was anavid sports fan.The end result of this

book—I hope—has beento collect together a wholefrom the sum of the parts,giving the reader a compre-hensive portrait of DonHeck the artist, peer,friend, and person.Most importantly, I

hope, with this book, I’vebeen able to give Don therecognition and respect hedeserves and earned, andthat I’ve given his fans addi-tional confirmation of whatthey’re already well aware.

And I hope that possibly, just maybe, this book willcreate a few new fans that either previously over-looked his work, or as yet haven’t been exposed to it.

Enjoy,

John CoatesSeptember 10, 2013

were both loving and supportive of Don and his sister,Joan. Don married twice but had no children.Don was in the National Guard prior to joining

Harvey Comics in 1949. In early 1952, he joinedComic Media and became their main artist acrosstheir crime-noir, Western, and horror comics. Hefound his way to then-Atlas Comics in 1954, wherehe became one of their main artists along with Jack“King” Kirby, Steve Ditko, Joe Maneely, Gene Colan,Joe Sinnott, and Dick Ayers. In 1957, he felt thesting of Atlas Comics having to cut back on the needfor new artwork, only to be one of the first artistscalled back by Stan Lee onceeconomic factors for thesmall publisher improved.The rest, as they say, is history. Don became an integral

part of the birth of what isknown as “The MarvelAge.” During that period, heworked on the “Ant-Man”strip, co-created Iron Man,co-created two of Iron Man’smain villains—The Man-darin and the TitaniumMan—and co-createdHawkeye and Black Widow.He also maintained a longstint on Marvel Comics’main non-family team book,The Avengers, where he co-created Wonder Man andguided the “de-powered”Avengers era, includingsome of the best-lovedAvengers stories. Don would go on to work

on such Marvel Comics titlesas The X-Men; Amazing Spider-Man; Nick Fury, Agentof SHIELD; Daredevil; The Defenders; Ghost Rider;and in fact most of the Marvel line of comics acrossgenres, along with co-creating the quirky 1970ssuper-team The Champions. From 1966–1971, Donwould alternate as the main artist on Lee Falk’s ThePhantom daily newspaper strip as well as freelance forDell Comics and Gold Key (a.k.a. Western Publishing).He also did a short stint as ghost artist on Milton

Above:SICK Magazine #109, page 39, splash,

Charlton Comics, April 1976.

chapter

1

Opposite:1930 U.S. Census, lines #18-20.

Above Inset:Queens, N.Y. Map, 1930.

Right:New York City, 1930.

On January 2, 1929, Don Heckwas born to proud parents John andBertha Heck. Don was born during thefinal hurrah of America’s “Roaring’20s,” just ten short months before thestart of the Great Depression. Don’s family made its home in the

neighborhood of Jamaica, in Queens,N.Y., a working-class neighborhood ofGerman and Italian immigrants. Jamaicalies just north of John F. Kennedy Inter-national Airport. It’s bordered by GrandCentral Parkway to the north, VanWyck Expressway (a.k.a. Highway 678)to the west, Francis Lewis Boulevard tothe east, and Baisley Pond Park and St.Albans to the south/southeast.Keith Dettwiler, Don’s nephew, elabo-

rated on Don’s parents: “John andBertha were both born in theUnited States. Their parentshad immigrated to the UnitedStates in the late 1800s;‘Heck’ being a German surname. My mother, Joan,was Don’s only sibling.“My grandparents [Ed.:

Don’s parents, John andBertha] were hard workingand supportive. John

worked in Queens, N.Y., for the company NeptuneWater Company until his death in 1959. After hisdeath, Bertha went to work for the ANS departmentstore at the Green Acres Mall in Valley Stream, N.Y.She worked there until her death in 1965.”Regarding Don’s early childhood, Keith said it was

a happy one. “My mother and Don talked about theirchildhood fondly. The neighborhood they lived inwas one big happy family. You know, people sitting ontheir porches, or walking the streets. You knew yourneighbors and they knew you.“Don was like a second father to me. I grew up in

Illinois until I was around twelve or so, when mymother and I moved to Queens, N.Y. It was funny because I liked comics and could always pick out myuncle’s work.“From a personality [standpoint], Don was always

a very humble guy and would only say something if itwas a necessity. Now, if you asked for his opinion…he’d give it! [laughs] Very matter of fact. He also had agreat sense of humor, always in a good mood. From awork standpoint, he was a workaholic, no question.

He loved to draw. He even had three studiosset up in his home: his basement forpainting and photography, a patio,and a small back room on themain floor. I think Don wouldhave been happy just beingalone and drawing or workingon his hobbies. He reallyloved both.”

FORMATIVE YEARS

9

Left to Right:Danger #11, splash, Comic Media, Aug. 1954. Horrific #5, cover, Comic Media, May 1953. All-True Romance #13, cover, Comic Media, Sept. 1953. War Fury #1, cover, Comic Media, Sept. 1952.

1949–1954

EARLY DAYS IN COMICSchapter

2

MURRAY: Did you ever work in advertising?HECK: I did some when I first started out. I worked in advertising, not that Iwanted to. I took Advertising Design and Layouts, I remember that. Up to the firstnine months I worked [at an advertising firm], and then I said, “I don’t want this.”Somebody called me up on a Saturday and told me, “Harvey’s got a comic bookout, and they’re looking for somebody.”

MURRAY: Tell me whenyou got started in the business.HECK: I first worked forHarvey Publications backin December ’49, when Ifirst started in comics. I stayed there for about 2½years, and then I started tofreelance.

Above:Captain Gallant, page 8 panels, US Pictorial, 1955.

Right:Death Valley #6, cover, Charlton Comics,Aug. 1954.

13

and asked me, so I started to free-lance for him. I even did the logoson the magazines—everything youcould think of. [laughs]

••••••••••

HOWELL: Did you start drawingfor Harvey too?HECK: No, I didn’t. In fact, [AlanHardy] was there in circulation orsomething like that, and he wasleaving. About that time, [PeteMorisi], another friend of mine,was leaving too, and I thought,well, I was going to get all thegarbage stuff to do, so I decided I’dbetter go out and try to freelance. Imade some samples up, but they[Harvey] weren’t interested in mywork—which was normal. I wasonly a beginner. Then I decided I’dcall up three different outfits in oneday. I decided to go out and try tosee if I could sell anything.

Above:Danger Comics #7, cover, Comic Media, Jan. 1954.

Opposite:Death Valley #5, original art and printed

comic, Comic Media, June 1954.


RICHARD HOWELL: What wasHarvey publishing at the time?What sort of comics?HECK: Well, they used to put outTerry and the Pirates—they used toput out a lot of reprints. Dick Tracy,Terry and the Pirates, that one thatAlfred Andriola did, Kerry Drake….They were also the ones that putout Boys’ Ranch by Jack Kirby [andJoe Simon].

HOWELL: I know it well.HECK: Yeah, that was a beaut. Iwish I would’a grabbed a bunch. I wasright there in the office. [laughter]

HOWELL: Oh boy.HECK: But that’s life, y’know. Ifyou could only go back….

HOWELL: I guess. So they wereinvolved in quite a lot of differenttypes of comics?HECK: Yeah, quite a bit. They hadromance, they had Black Cat doneby Lee Elias. They also had JoePalooka, Little Max…. Now you’rereally loggin’ ’em.

••••••••••

MURRAY: What were you doingat Harvey? HECK: I was finishing off reprintsand stuff like that, doing ad paste-up,white paint, the usual garbage, youknow. There was somebody whoworked for Harvey named AlanHardy who decided to start somecomics. He started Comic Mediaback in 1952, and he called me up

GettingStarted AtHarveyComics

LOU MOUGIN: Who actually interviewed you[at Harvey]?

DON HECK: Leon Harvey interviewed me. It was a Saturday after-noon. I said to the guy,“I have a date tonight,its five o’clock in theevening, are you kiddingor what?” I said, “It’sgoing to take me an hourto get there.” I was inQueens and they were in

New York City. He said, “We’ll wait,” so I went anyway.

David Anthony Kraft’s Comics Interview #100, Fictioneer, 1991, page 94.

Interview conducted by Lou Mougin.

[Earlier Don had mentioned to Richard Howell that he was hired by StanLee at Magazine Management, a.k.a.Atlas Comics, on September 1, 1954.]

HOWELL: You’ve got a good memoryfor these dates.HECK: Only because I’ve got the bookin front of me. I would have known itwas September 1954, but I wouldn’thave known it was September 1st.

HOWELL: And what wereyou working on for Marvelat that point?HECK: “Werewolf Beware.” [laughter]

ATLAS COMICS AND THE

MARVEL AGE OF COMICS

HOWELL: Oh boy!HECK: Yes. “The Red Pirate.” I remember that one,that was one of those… [laughter] you know, [it] hadthe whale crashing into one of those whaling boats,[laughter] you know, the ones they throw the harpoonsfrom? Not the big ship, but the small jobs. And therewere Westerns, and then it says here that Decemberwas the first time I did a Navy Combat. That’s when Igot involved with…

HOWELL: War comics?HECK: Yeah. Well, I did a character in there calledTorpedo Taylor, who was—obviously—a submarinetype.

••••••••••

HECK: [Torpedo Taylor] had bright red hair, and[later I gave him] a beard. Stan Lee got one of the

chapter

31954–1960s

Atlas Comics“By 1955 it looked likeAtlas might be nearing theend of the line. Oddlyenough, it was a group ofrecent arrivals at Atlaswho eventually turnedthings around. Artist DonHeck had arrived in 1954and was soon enhancingwar books with his vigor-ous work on characterslike ‘Torpedo’ Taylor.”

Marvel: Five FabulousDecades of the World’sGreatest Comics, by LesDaniels, Harry N. AbramsPublishers, 1991, page 80.

Opposite Top:Rugged Action #3, Atlas Comics, April1955.

Opposite Bottom:Mystery Tales #25, Atlas Comics, Jan.1955. Don’s first known published workfor Atlas.

Right:Navy Combat #6, splash, Atlas Comics,April 1956, featuring “Torpedo Taylor.”

21

Left:Battlefront #29, splash,

Atlas Comics, March 1955.

Above:Love Tales #62, cover, splash,

Atlas Comics, June 1955.


guys who was in the Navy—I can’tthink of his name, but he used todraw a lot of this stuff too. He wasa speed demon up there. But [Stan]asked him if a commander couldhave a beard, because he hadn’theard about it. And [the guy] said,“When they’re out like that, theycouldn’t have anything.”

What was his name? He died in1956….

MURRAY: Joe Maneely.HECK: Maneely, yeah. Stan calledJoe in, and Joe said, “Aw, it looksgreat. Leave it.” [laughs] Like I said,Joe was great as far as drawing, andhe was so fast, it was unbelievable.

••••••••••

HOWELL: We must be into themiddle 1950s by this time.HECK: Yeah, about 1955.

••••••••••

MURRAY: Because in the fantasybooks, Lee basically got it down to

a certain line-up. [It was] alwaysKirby in front with Heck second,Reinman maybe third, and alwaysDitko in the back, although occa-sionally you’d be in the back. HECK: Yeah.

MURRAY: Occasionally, you’dtake the place of the Ditko story. Ijust thought that was just the waybecause the Ditko thing was alwayslike a Twilight Zone kind of story.HECK: Yeah, I had no idea why.

MURRAY: When you would dothose five-page fantasies, did [Lee]always slot them in advance forthe magazine, or did he do a wholebunch of them and then throwthem in the pot and just put themin whatever issue he wanted to?HECK: No, I’d just get, let’s see—one week, I’d get a script in themail.

MURRAY: Yeah, and you didn’tknow which issue of what it wouldgo into.HECK: I had no idea where it wasgoing. There were no Bullpen [Bulletins] that we read. [laughs]

MURRAY: Yeah, yeah, yeah.That’s amazing how he was able tocreate…HECK: That illusion. [laughs]

MURRAY: Well, he was a greatsalesman and he’s a great writertoo. He brought an emotional dimension to comics that certainlyhas transformed the industry.HECK: That is great. Like I say, Iwould put this whole thing togetherwith all the pictures and stuff likethat, and send it in, and when I’dget it back and read it, I’d say,“Gee, that works fine. It worksgreat.”

MURRAY: Was Stan a tough guyto work for or an easy guy to workfor?HECK: Easy. I never had any prob-lem with him. The only time I hadany problem with him was [onetime] I’d worked all night, deadtired, and I never did it, page oneto 13. I never did it so that the lastthing I did was on page 13. I hap-pened to have a couple of panelsand I just whipped them out there.I think one was on page 7 and [theother on] some other page, and hespotted those two. Meanwhile, I’d

gone in there, and he gave me ajob where he had Dick Ayersknock it out overnight, and so Ihad to repair that. So there I am,repairing this, and Stan’s alreadycomplaining about these two panels that are turkeys. I think theywere little panels, nothing, and I


HOWELL: When the Marvel super-hero explosion,such as it was, got going, did you work in the samemanner with Stan Lee as did Kirby and Ditko—contributing all the story’s pacing?HECK: You mean when they suddenly threw a synopsis at you?

HOWELL: Yes.HECK: Boy, that was a surprise. [laughter] I’d been soused to working from scripts, and then Stan said, “I’mgoing to give you a synopsis.” Well, Jack Kirby was

THE MARVEL AGEOF COMICS

Stan on the Successof the Marvel Age…

“To start things off, I had the unbelievablegood fortune to work with the most incrediblytalented artists of our time. There was JackKirby with whom I co-created the FantasticFour, the Incredible Hulk, the Mighty Thor,Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, NickFury: Agent of Shield, and the X-Men, toname a few. Then there was Steve Ditko, mycollaborator in the creation of Spider-Manand Dr. Strange. And lest we not forget DonHeck who toiled with me so mightily to bringforth Iron Man, while Bill Everett was mypartner on creating Daredevil.”

— Stan Lee

Overstreet Price Guide #16, Overstreet Publications, 1986,

page A-82.

Left Inset:Tales of Suspense #55, Marvel Comics, July 1964.

Above:Tales of Suspense #16, Marvel Comics, April 1961.

CHAPTER THREE: 1954-1960s ATLAS COMICS and the MARVEL AGE OF COMICS 33

used to something like that because he was also awriter. I mean, some people might not have liked thestuff he did later, but he did some terrific stuff with allof these different characters, like back when he wasdoing Fighting American and all the rest of his earlystuff, so it was easy for him. For me it was suddenlythat someone says, “You’re going to do it!” I said, “I’lltry it, but, I mean, it’s your gamble, not mine. I’mgoing to get paid for this.” Then we started to workout the system, and then after a while Stan Lee usedto, like, give you the first three pages, tell you whothe character was you were fighting, and give you thelast couple of pages so you’d know how it ended. Andin between you’d put about 15 pages of stuff.

HOWELL: Sounds pretty loose.HECK: It was. It was. And at the time, I thought,“Oh my God! This’ll never work!” But then I’d sitdown and start to figure different things that thesetypes of characters could do. Then when I went back

Above (Left to Right):Strange Tales #80, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1961.

Tales of Suspense #13, splash, Marvel Comics, Jan. 1961.

Two-Gun Kid #66, cover, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1963.

to working from a script years and years later, some-times I felt like I was a little closed in. I got used tothe synopsis.

HOWELL: Do you feel that working from a synopsisopened up the possibilities of what you could do?HECK: Oh yeah, absolutely. I’ll tell you why: becauseyou’re not hindered by the amount of copy that’sthere, you’re not suddenly stuck with a six-panel orseven-panel page. You can suddenly throw a big panelin there, or a couple of small ones across the bottom,and then catch up with the story later on, or expandit out. You don’t feel, “I must put six panels on hereand I’ve got to have so many balloons.” It’s a freerway of working.

HOWELL: You prefer doing that, then?HECK: More or less, yeah. But, y’know, I’m at DCnow and they work differently. I mean, somebody like[Marv] Wolfman or somebody like that would probablyrather work with the synopsis, and I think I did acouple of stories with Gerry….

HOWELL: Conway? Would that be the Steel series?HECK: The Steel one, yeah. He sent synopses in andI worked from them. You can see the differences.There is an openness about some of those pages that

MURRAY: One of my favorite early Marvel super-heroes wasAnt-Man. You slid right into that after Kirby set that book up.You took a different approach to that character.HECK: I tried to do it like him, but…. [chuckles]

MURRAY: Kirby built him up larger than life. You drew it fromthe point of view of a normal-sized world with a tiny Ant-Man.HECK: Yeah, well, that’s the way I would see it. I would thinkof it as he’s so small, and occasionally I would try to draw him[with] something around the character. So it’s sort of like amatchbook, where you’d have the Ant-Man next to a match-book and then looking up at the [reader].

MURRAY: [laughs] When you got used to that; did you findyou liked it?HECK: No, it wasn’t that bad. When it first happened, it waslike somebody saying, “Oh, by the way, you’re going to fly thatairplane over there.” [laughs] Whoa, wait a minute!Well, I enjoyed doing The Wasp, and stuff like that, because

it was a pretty young girl flying around. And like I say, with thesmall characters who are—Giant Man suddenly turning intoAnt-Man, they’d go up and down. After a while, it became fun.In the beginning, like I say, it was tough when I first did “Ant-Man,” but after I got used to it, then it was something sort of likemaking the character that suddenly wound up with a whole bunchof little people around him—Gulliver’s Travels. Of course, whenI started thinking of it in that respect, then it was easy to do.

MURRAY:I guessyou’d donea few“Giant-Man” stories aswell as“Ant-Man”stories, andyou’d inkedthe first“Giant-Man,” and then Kirby drew that, as I recall.HECK: Yeah. You probably remember more of what he didthan I [do]. What happens is you finish something, and you putit in the mail or get rid of it, [and] it’s gone. [laughs] The reasonI still have the magazines from that time is because I alwayskept them. And I’d get an order, turn around and then anAvengers was behind me, or something like that, and Thor wasover here or all the issues of Daredevil or whatever I was workingon. So in one way, it’s good because I wanted to peek throughall those books.

Above:Tales to Astonish #43, splash, Marvel Comics,May 1963.

Right:Tales to Astonish #54, page 6 panel, MarvelComics, April 1964.

Below:Tales to Astonish #43, panel, Marvel Comics, May 1963.


Left Inset:Tales of Suspense #42, page 2 panel, Marvel Comics, June 1963.

Above:Tales of Suspense #39, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1963.

Opposite Top Left Inset:Tales of Suspense #39, page 11 panel, Marvel Comics, March1963.

Opposite Top Right:Tales of Suspense #45, page 11, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1963.Panel showing Tony Stark as rendered by Don Heck.

Opposite Below:Tales of Suspense #46, page 3, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1963. Another panel showing Tony Stark as rendered by Don.

MURRAY: I thought the covers were done last.HECK: No, because they had to print all that stuff up.

MURRAY: But it was unusual at that time for Kirbyto design a character, but not do the first stories. Tellme how you ended up doing “Iron Man” and whatyou and Stan Lee did to put a guy inside that armor.

“Although hedidn’t designthe Iron Manarmor itself,Don Heckdid justabout everythingelse to bringTony Stark’sadventuresto life.”

Creation of Iron Man

Iron Man: The Ultimate Guide to the Armored Super Hero, by Matthew K. Manning,

DK Children, Feb. 2010, page 11.

MURRAY: Let’s talk about Iron Man. That’s one ofthe characters you’re most linked with, and MarkHannerfeld tells me there’s quite an involved story onhow that character came into existence.HECK: There is? [laughs]

MURRAY: Well, all right, let me put it this way. AsI understand it, you and Stan Lee devised a characteror fleshed out the character, but Kirby designed thearmor and did the first cover, but that’s all Kirby did.HECK: Yeah. Well, if you look in the thing, it’s listedthat Kirby laid out the first story, which was, I think,#39, which is not true. I think he did #40.

MURRAY: He did, yeah.HECK: He did the layouts on that, but you’ve got tosee some of the layouts to appreciate it, because a lotof times it would be—which was fine because he wasn’tgetting paid that much for it—it would be almost likewhat Ditko did. He did stick figures sometimes.Sometimes Kirby would just put in things and say,“Tie them in.” [laughs] “This is so-and-so and he’sover here. This is a building,” or something like that.But no, #40 was good. He was good on that, I remem-ber. But the reason he did the character was becauseof the fact, as I said before, he was in the city and thecovers were always done first.


[Stan] told the guy, “I need it tomorrow and it’s sixpages—gotta have it.” [laughs]

MURRAY: Stan gave you a basic verbal plot, but youhad to flesh out what Tony Stark looked like.HECK: Yeah. Like I say, I knew what the costumelooked like because I got the cover in the mail.

MURRAY: So did you have a specific model forTony Stark and the other characters?HECK: No, I would be thinking more along the linesof some character I liked, which would be the samekind of character that Alex Toth liked, which was anErrol Flynn type.

HECK: We didn’t do anything that I know of. Hejust called me up and told me he was going to havethis character, Iron Man, and he said “Tony Stark,”and the way he wound up where he was over in Iguess it would be considered Vietnam. And he’dpitch this synopsis over the phone. We didn’t actuallysit down and work out the characters. It’s just sort oflike them talking about the Bullpen and the Bullpenwasn’t anything at one point. [laughs] The Bullpenwas this small office that Stan Lee had in there,where if you happened to walk in there, you wouldprobably have to repair somebody else’s job because

Don on the Creationof Iron Man

“Don, who spent the major portion of hiscareer chronicling the adventures of the Armored Avenger, recalled the beginning ofhis association with Iron Man sayingproudly, ‘I did the first one!’ He mentionedthat some believe that Jack Kirby did thelayouts for that first Iron Man story, but‘Jack did the cover and I did the inside.’Kirby did the layouts for the next job, because ‘I probably got behind again, asusual,’ he said, laughing. ‘Jack designed thecostume, because he did the cover first...otherwise, I’d have had to go all the way in[to the Marvel offices] just to showsketches.’”

Marvel Age #119, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1992, page 22.



Left:The Avengers #9, splash, Marvel Comics, Oct.

1964. Don’s first issue on Avengers. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks.

Above:The Avengers #9, page 8 panel, Marvel Comics,

Oct. 1964. Introduction of Wonder Man. Don Heck pencils and Dick Ayers inks.

found a way to use a tape recorder and wound upusing—in those days, it was not used that much. I hada Wollensak tape recorder, and I found somethingthat I could hook to the phone and save on tape. So Isaid, “Okay, now you can talk.” I could play it back.

MURRAY: Did you save any of those tapes? I wouldthink they would be—.HECK: I did, but the machine… it was a long time ago,and the new machine doesn’t play it because the old onewas a reel-to-reel. I would expect that it would be allright, but it was [a] different [format]. [laughs] Well, it’sjust sort of like our work. You never thought about it.

MURRAY: Let’s get back to The Avengers. Your firstAvengers story was the Wonder Man story. Some-where I heard or read a story that DC was unhappywith that story because they felt Wonder Man wastoo close to Superman.HECK: It’s possible. I had heard there was a WonderMan at DC, a Wonder Man character. In other words,in one of these other stories like Batman or somethinglike that. That’s what I had heard, and they know thecharacter was plagiarized, which it wasn’t.

MURRAY: You did a long run on The Avengers. Thatmust have been a tough book, because team booksare so busy.HECK: [laughs] I also did X-Men quite a bit. Issue #9,I think, is the first one I did. Well, I just suddenly gota call and Stan said, “Oh, by the way, you’re going tobe doing an Avengers next month.” [laughs]

MURRAY: Did Stan ever offer you something youturned down?HECK: No. Like I say, the only one I ever turned downwas Kanigher, and he got pissed off at me. [laughs]

MURRAY: Tell me about working on The Avengers.You were largely working with Stan Lee, I guess, atfirst on that book.HECK: Yeah. As I say, it was mostly over the phone,and I was one of the first who’d come up with the idea[of recording the calls]. I said, “Jeez, he’s talking and Ican’t do shorthand or anything else like that.” So I

Don’s Buick Riviera…

“STRICTLY PERSONAL: By the way, if yousee the shiniest, brightest, most-fire-engine-red Buick Riviera you’ve ever seenscootin’ down a Long Island highway, wavehello as the dashin’ driver barrels by, because it’ll probably be dazzling DONNIEHECK with his latest pride ‘n’ joy! If wecould get him to spend half as much time atthe drawing board as he does polishing hisflivver, we could publish the AVENGERSevery week!”

“Marvel Bullpen Bulletins,” Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #29,

Marvel Comics, April 1966.

MURRAY: I thought it was the strangest decisionStan had ever made, because he brought in reallyminor, minor characters, and villains for that matter,and tried to build up The Avengers out of them.HECK: It seemed crazy at the time. [chuckles]

MURRAY: And then I think the first change he made


MURRAY: You did work on Spider-Manat one point.HECK: I did the in-between stuff in alot of cases. In fact, I think I did [Amaz-ing] Spider-Man Annual #3 or somethinglike that. John Romita roughed it outand then I tight-penciled it, and thenhe’d send it over to Mike Esposito [toink it], who was listed as “MickeyDemeo” at the time.

MURRAY: Yeah, that’s right.You did a run of Spider-Man aswell, where Romita would layit out, I guess.HECK: Right, right. He’d sendit out to me, and probably on

MARVEL COMICS, GOLDKEY, AND DC COMICS

Opposite:The Avengers #37, unpublishedcover, Marvel Comics, Sept. 1967.Art by Don Heck.

Above:Wonder Woman sketch by Don Heck.

Right:Amazing Spider-Man Annual #3,splash, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1968.Layout by John Romita, pencils byDon Heck, and inks by MickeyDemeo (Mike Esposito).

tracing paper with some pen drawings or somethinglike that, then I’d work it from that point.

MURRAY: The web lines must have driven you crazy.HECK: They did until John told me what they were.The things had to go a certain way around on thepage. Once you know what the pattern was, it waseasy.

MURRAY: Give Ditko credit, he didn’t skimp on hisdesign, even though he knew he had to draw everyissue and every webline.HECK: Yeah. [laughs] Well, I think in a lot of cases,it was sort of like stuff that you’d do. You’re only ex-pecting to do a couple of issues, or something likethat, and then all of a sudden, it winds up to be anevery month thing and, “Oh sh*t. I wished I hadn’tput this on there and that on there.” [laughs]

MURRAY: You did a charac-ter later on, but there was onebook that was always floun-dering around and that wasDaredevil. First it was BillEverett, and then it was JoeOrlando, then it was WallyWood, and then it was BobPowell. And I would thinkthat would have been a per-fect book for you to do, andyou never did it.HECK: Yeah, well, I did someDaredevil.

chapter

4Late

1960s–1977

65

that I always get the comment from[people] that say, “Yeah, the first story Iever did when I got in the business wasI inked your stuff.” And I thought,“Yeah.” My comment always used tobe—not to them—if a cleaning ladywalked down the hall with a tooth-brush stuck behind her ear, she wouldhave had a Don Heck job by the timeshe reached the end of the hall.” [Willlaughs] She [would say], “Aw, don’tworry. I can ink it.”

MURRAY: How do you maintain your sense of proportion and profes-sionalism?HECK: All you can do is the best youknow how in the pencils. When theyscrew it up, there ain’t a damn thingyou can do. You know, it’s sort of like ifyou write a story and they give it to somepenciler and he screws up your story,there’s nothing you can do with it.

Left:Iron Man #35, splash, Marvel Comics, March 1971. Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito inks. Image scanned from original art.

Above:The Man from U.N.C.L.E #2, page 6 panels, Gold Key, Oct.1965. Don Heck pencils and inks. Don did some freelancingwith Western Publishing, the publisher of the Gold Key imprint,during this period. Though the faces of the main characters—inthis scene Napoleon Solo—look redrawn, and to this authordon’t resemble Don’s work, Don’s style is evident throughoutthe book. Credits confirmed via the Grand Comic Database atwww.comics.org. ©NBC Television.

MURRAY: Yeah, they never ask your input, whoyou’d like to be inked by or anything like that.HECK: Yeah. “Don’t worry, I got just the guy. He’sgonna be good.” “What do you mean he’s ‘going’ tobe?” [laughs] “Oh, this guy, he’s going to be good.He’ll be [learning on you], but he’s going to be good.”

MURRAY: And how do you find the energy to doyour best when you never know—?HECK: I save the Xeroxes so that I know what itlooked like when I sent it out. They got it and theydid the garbage afterwards; this is what I’d sent. And I

CHAPTER FOUR: LATE 1960s–1977 MARVEL COMICS, GOLD KEY, and DC COMICS 67

MURRAY: Whom were you working with on X-Menwhen you took that over?HECK: At one point, I was doing breakdowns, and Ithink Werner Roth was tight-penciling in some cases.Then they had Vince Colletta inking, and in fact Idid some other work one time, and Stan Lee calledme in. He was complaining because—it could havebeen for that series too—I was doing breakdowns onsome stuff and pencils on some of it. He was com-plaining that I wasn’t doing as well as he thought thatI should be doing as far as panel construction andstuff like that, because he had this other guy inkingme, and it looked like sh*t when he was finished. Hewas complaining about that, so he was trying to find ascapegoat for the problems, and it had to be me.[chuckles] He had somebody else he said he wanted todo the breakdowns for me, and then I could pencil intightly so he could let this other guy ink it. I askedhim, “What’s wrong with the layouts?” I said, “It’s notthe layouts, it’s the inker. But you’re not looking atthat, are you?” [chuckles]

Left:Captain Savage #12, cover, Marvel Comics,March 1969.

Above:Captain Savage #13, cover, Marvel Comics,April 1969.

MURRAY: Who was that inker? HECK: [laughs] It was [Vince] Colletta.

MURRAY: Ah, yeah. I hear terrible things aboutColletta. He would erase backgrounds.HECK: He’d leave them out. [chuckles] Well, thatway, he could turn out that many more pages.

MURRAY: That’s right. But you’re cheating thereader, you’re cheating the editor, and you’re screwingthe artist.HECK: Yeah. As I often said, he’s a terrific guy, he’s awonderful person, but his stuff over mine just didn’tlook like anything. It looked like garbage, mostly. I


MURRAY: I guess you can’t win in some ways in thisbusiness.HECK: Yeah, well, it’s that kind of a business. Theonly good part about it is you get to draw all sorts ofstuff that you like to do. In other words, if you workfor an advertising place, you draw a lot of boring stuff,which you hate. But in comics, I mean, you can drawcharacters, people, scenes, everything you can thinkof. It can be great.

••••••••••

HOWELL: Have you done much work outside thecomic book industry? It looked like you were ghostingThe Phantom for a while….HECK: I did some of the pencil work on that, and Iwas just doing breakdowns at one point. Funny partis, you feel like you don’t have that much of a specialstyle, especially in those jobs where two or three peo-ple are going to be going over it, but for some reasonor other, your style comes through. Do you know[Mike] Tiefenbacher, the fellow who ran TheMenomonee Falls Gazette?

HOWELL: Yes.HECK: I was subscribing to that, and all of a suddenthey sent me a letter and asked me some questions.They wanted to know how much I was doing on ThePhantom, because they could tell I was doing some ofit. I was amazed. Because you figure nobody couldever tell.

HOWELL: Sorry. It looked pretty distinctively Heckto me, too.

Don on Jack Kirby Leaving Marvel:

“I remember going to the office and seeinga cigar stuck to the wall, and a little note under it saying, ‘I quit.’ Jack was living in California by then, so somebodyelse must have done it, but that’s how Iknew he’d left.”

— Don Heck

Marvel: Five Fabulous Decade of theWorld’s Greatest Comics, by Les Daniels, Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1991, page 145.

The “Marvel BullpenBulletins” touts Don’s return to The Avengers:Hey, and let’s welcome home DASHIN’ DONNIE HECK who just couldn’t keep away forever from the AVENGERS strip he used to draw a couple years ago.

Opposite Above:The Phantom newspaper strip, King Features Syndicate,Inc., Jan. 4, 1971. Art by Don Heck. ©1971 King Features Syndicate, World Rights Reserved.

Opposite Below:My Love #11, cover, Marvel Comics, May 1971. Art by Don Heck.

Above Inset:Tales of Suspense #80, splash, Marvel Comics, Aug.1966. Jack Kirby pencils and Don Heck inks.


A Rare 1968Fanzine Interview

[This 1968 fanzine interview is the earliestknown non-Marvel Comics interview withDon. Conducted in 1968 by Gavin Roth,son of Silver-Age artist Werner Roth, itwas originally published in 1968 in Gavin’sfanzine Nine Penny Gnus. In 1969, it was reprinted in Gary Groth’s fanzine, Fantastic Fanzine Special #1, withGavin’s permission.The length of the original interview was

roughly a page-and-a-half, containing 17questions and Don’s responses. To avoidredundancy, I’ve removed any specific questions/responses that are already covered more fully elsewhere in this book:

For example, how Don got started in thebusiness, and comments on the process ofcreating comics. The remaining interviewQ&As are presented as originally publishedin 1968 and again in 1969.]

GAVIN ROTH: When they get fan-letters atthe bullpen—do you read any of them?DON HECK: I get some of them through.Generally the ones I get through are asking for original drawings…which is impossible to do.

ROTH: What I was getting at was, in gen-eral, what is the fan reaction to your inkingyour own work?HECK: I think sometimes it’s been favor-able—the reason I wind up doing mostly pencils is because they feel as though it’s


MURRAY: Did youfeel you’d been sort of a second-stringer atMarvel?HECK: I neverthought of it one wayor another.

MURRAY: In thesense that Kirby wassort of a—.HECK: Well, I alwaysfigured when Kirby wasthere, he was a creator.He created most of thecharacters. And to me,that was wonderful, because the charactersthat he normally wouldcreate were good. Theywere fun to do.

FINAL DAYS AT MARVEL –LEAVING FOR DC

chapter

5

Opposite:Iron Man #26, cover, Marvel Comics,June 1970. Don Heck pencils andJohnny Craig inks.

Above:The Champions #1, page 11 panel of Ghost Rider, Marvel Comics, Oct. 1975. Don Heck pencils and Mike Esposito inks.

Right:Sub-Mariner #67, page 32 panel, Marvel Comics, Nov. 1973. Introduction of Sub-Mariner’s new costume. Don Heck pencils and Don Perlin inks.

MURRAY: Well, whenI say “second-stringer,”it seemed to me thatKirby was almost on anequal footing withStan—HECK: Yeah, yeah.

MURRAY: —and Ditko seemsto have gotten a lot of choicesand options. And the way youtalk is Stan would call and say,“You’re doing this next,” andyou’d say, “Okay,” and off you’dgo. Yet at the same time, youseem to be willing to have givenStan a little bit of guff whenStan would say or do somethingthat you thought was—.HECK: Well, if I didn’t think itwas right, I’d say something. Butno, I never considered [myself]to be another—in other words,it’d be sort of like if I wereworking for you and you said,“How about doing this?” AndI’d say, “Sure.” It’s no big deal.

1970s

77

John Buscema on Don’s Situation Prior to Leaving Marvel

ROY THOMAS: Don Heck was theAvengers artist before you. You two werefriends, weren’t you?JOHN BUSCEMA: Oh yeah. We lived aboutten minutes away from each other. One ofthe things I remember about Don, he washaving a lot of trouble with a lot of the editors in later years. I don’t know why. Ialways thought Don was one of the bettermen in the business, and for some reason,these young editors wouldn’t give himenough work to survive.I was out to lunch one day with a

couple of the editors and some of the writers. And I brought up the subject ofDon, and I told the editors, “What thehell’s the matter with you guys? Why don’t

you use Don Heck? He’s one of thebest men in the business!” And youknow, one of them said, “You know, Ilove the guy’s stuff, but I never thinkof calling him.” And that’s murder.[laughs] I said, “The guy’s gottaeat.” What’s the matter with them?Give him some work. They never gavehim the work, anyway.

THOMAS: If Stan had told someonehe was going to keep them busy, evenif they were officially freelancers, hegot very angry if that person had timeon his hands because no one hadwork ready for him when he needed it!I continued that policy, and so did aneditor or two after me. But, over theyears, it went by the wayside. Andonce the company went to having awhole ream of editors a few yearslater, if one editor dropped you from abook, nobody else at Marvel felt anyobligation to find you a replacement.That horrible, inhuman departmental-ization was happening there, like ithad at DC earlier. Editors would forget about people.

BUSCEMA: And that’s a hell of a way totreat a guy after so many years, and hewas damn good.

THOMAS: Don had been very popular, especially in the ’60s, doing Avengersand “Iron Man.” Of course, he wasn’t really a guy who enjoyed doing super-heroes. I remember the back-up story youdid for an Avengers Annual, with humor-ous versions of you and me and Don Heckin it. Do you remember it at all? It had thefeel of Mort Drucker in Mad.BUSCEMA: [laughs] I couldn’t believe that Ihad done that. I didn’t think I could do it.

Alter Ego #13, TwoMorrows Publishing, March2002. Interview conducted by Roy Thomas.

Above:The Avengers #121, splash, Marvel Comics,

Sept. 1973. John Buscema pencils and Don Heck inks.


As shown in Chapter 4,Don first briefly worked afew assignments for DCComics’ war books back inthe late 1950s. During theearly ’70s, Don had a shortstint with DC Comics ontheir horror and romanceline of comics, including thepopular “Batgirl” back-upfeature then appearing in DetectiveComics. He would return to Marvelthrough to the mid-1970s, until leavingMarvel entirely for DC Comics in1977. Don would stay at DC Comicsfor eleven years, up to 1988.

chapter

6

Opposite:Teen Titans #52, page 17 pin-up,DC Comics, Dec. 1977. Don Heckpencils and Bob Smith inks.

Above Inset:Detective Comics #424, splash, DC Comics, June 1972. Art by Don Heck.

Above (Top to Bottom):Young Love #89, cover, DCComics, Nov. 1971. Don Heck pencils and Dick Giordano inks.

Young Love #91, cover, DC Comics,Jan. 1972. Art by Don Heck.

Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane#123, “Rose and Thorn” page 7,DC Comics, June 1972. Art by Don Heck.

MURRAY: You did a lot of romancework. Was that for Marvel or was thatfor DC or someone else?HECK: I did DC covers, and I thinkone of the first things I did for DC in along—I did something for them, like Isaid, in the ’50s. I did a lot more [in]

1971 or ’72 or some-thing like that. I thinkit was Roy Thomas[who] called me [atMarvel], and they weregoing to have somebodyelse take something Iwas doing—I don’t re-call, it may have been Daredevil—and theywere going to have thisother inker on me, andI said, “That’s okay. I’mdone.” [laughs] And Isaid, “Another ‘star’ isgoing to screw [up] thisstuff that I did, workingon it.” So I figured

maybe I’d have a betterchance over at DC. Youtake a shot. If it doesn’twork, you go back to theother one—the only wayyou can work at something.

1977-1988

DC COMICS

87

CHAPTER SIX: 1977–1988 DC COMICS 89

Opposite Inset:House of Secrets #85, page 3, DC Comics, Apr.–May 1970.

Above (Left to Right):Detective Comics #421, splash, DC Comics, March 1971.

Image scanned from the original art.

Detective Comics #421, final page, DC Comics, March 1971. Image scanned from the original art.

Kirby Recommends Don to DC Comics

“Jack was a huge fan of Don and his work. In fact, Jack was the person who suggested Don for the ‘Batgirl’ series at DC Comics. Carmine [Infantino] was speaking with Jack andmentioned he was having difficulty finding the right artist for the ‘Batgirl’ series. Jack told him, ‘Why not Don Heck? He draws the prettiest girls in comics.’”

Mark Evanier, personal friend of Kirby and comics historian, quoting Jack Kirby on how he suggested Don Heck for the “Batgirl” assignment.

Rumor of Don’s“Personal Tragedy”?One industry rumor regarding Don thathad been circulating since the mid-1970s is that in the 1970s “somethingtragic” happed to Don where he basically couldn’t draw, and/or had anervous breakdown, or the like. As withmost rumors, the “something” remainsundefined. In my research through Don’speers and those working in the industryat the time, no one seems to know anydetails other than they had also heardsecond-hand that “something tragic”happened where Don could no longerdraw for a period of time.

Keith Dettwiler, Don’s nephew, debunked this rumor entirely:

“Absolutely false! When I read that inthe questions you sent over, I thought,‘What!?’ There was nothing tragic orwhatever that happened to my uncle. Ido know that during the time you mention he became very discouragedwith his inkers. Don was a perfectionist.He started to draw less detail in thework because he felt the inkers wouldhack it up anyway. But no, there was notragedy. Nothing.”

When I mentioned Don spoke of beingdivorced twice, and possibly that gotpeople assuming some form of “tragedy,”Keith countered, “Sure, he was divorcedtwice, but he never, ever went into depression or anything like that. Hewasn’t the type to go off the deep end.And didn’t. Again, Don was Don. Therewas no tragedy or whatever that affected his drawing. I think he was just tired of working hard and turning in exceptional work and getting sub-par inkers.”

Note: See Chapter 13 where Jim Fern recounts how Don directly addressed this topic.

Don began as the monthly pencileron The Flash with issue #280, Dec.1979, and would continue through#295, March 1981 (16 issues).

MURRAY: You did The Flash?HECK: Yeah, I did that. It was about 16 issues onthat. I did about three issues of Green Lantern, and Iwas all over the place.

MURRAY: Did you like doing Flash?HECK: Yeah, it was all right after a while, but I wassort of hamstrung. I was told to do multiple-imageshots—he’s got this multiple-image shot, and I wantedhim done like you didn’t see these little individualfigures going, going. A blur [was] what he was sup-posed to be as far as I was concerned. And then, all of


Don’s Back to Inking His Own Pencils“I am glad to be back penciling and inking my own stuff—and I’m sure the inkers arehappy to hear that!”

— Don Heck, commenting on being able to both pencil and ink his work on the Adventure Comics “Dial ‘H’ For Hero” series.

Superman Family #206, “Daily Planet Feature Page: DC Profile #73,” DC Comics, July 1981, inside back cover.


a sudden,they gotahold of meand said, “Bythe way,you’re off TheFlash becauseCarmine’sback. So, obviously, it’s his book.We’ll give it to himagain.” Sowhat didthey do?

They allowed him to do the same type of stuff that Iwanted to do. [laughs]

But one story [Flash #290] was whacko. The girl-friend next door and he were ringing the bell, and hecomes to the door as his normal self. But you’re supposed to see The Flash go into the apartment andcome back as this guy and meet himself at the door.[laughs] I did this shot, and the writer says to me,

“Gee, I was wondering how you were going to dothat.” And I thought, [exasperated] “God.” [laughs]

MURRAY: You didn’t read science-fiction.HECK: No, I didn’t. You know who was a science-fiction addict? When Jack Kirby was working, he hadall these science-fiction pocket books. He was a science-fiction addict.

MURRAY: Yeah, I can believe it.HECK: And I didn’t know how the hell he did it. Isaid, “How in the hell can you read all of this stuffand still do five pages a day?” [laughs]

MURRAY: You don’t sound like you have that highof an opinion of the business as it is today, or the people in the business as it is today.HECK: Well, [I don’t], particularly. I really miss theways of the old [days]. It was more fun. When you weretold, “I need this next Friday,” you knew the guy wasn’tgoing to say, “Oh well. I can pull this [other] guy in andtake three weeks instead.” Because if you did that,then you were out of the business. That’s the way itshould be.

MURRAY: In terms of characters, which is the specific series character you least liked working on? HECK: When I was doing The Justice League of America,I did quite a number—in fact, they wanted me to doit and I said I didn’t want to do it, because I didn’tlike the guy that was inking it. I said, “He’s the regularinker on it, and I don’twant you pulling himoff the story for me, soI’d rather not do it.”And then all of a sud-den, one day, they toldme, “You’re doing it,period.” But they got adifferent inker on it.

MURRAY: Whatdidn’t you like aboutJustice League?HECK: Just [that] it wasstrange to me. You know,different characters.

MURRAY: Yet I can’t imagine it would be that different than doing Avengers.HECK: No, after a while, you get used to it. To me,20 different characters running around—in fact, acouple of the stories was where it had Superman,you’d have Wonder Woman, you’d have somebody

Don began as regular monthly artist on the Justice League of America titlewith issue #201, April 1982.



“After nearly five years of Diana Prince’s non-powered super-heroics,writer/editor RobertKanigher and artist DonHeck restored WonderWoman’s… well, wonder.”

DC Comics Year by Year: A Visual Chronicle,

by Daniel Wallace, Matthew K. Manning,

Alexander Irvine, Alan Cowsill, and

Michael McAvennie, DK Publishing, 4th edition,

Sept. 2010.

HECK: That’s why I wanted to dosomething on Wonder Woman; I’ddo penciling and inking, becausethen I didn’t have to tight-pencil itthat much. I could spend more timefinishing it. In other words, when Igot it back, I could see mistakes,make corrections, and then ink it.And to me, that’s where I startedmaking the money for a change, because I wasn’t stuck with thisother thing.

MURRAY: You could make moremoney penciling and inking?HECK: And inking, yeah, becausein other words, instead of having totight-pencil every damn thing, [I could tighten it up when I] ink it,[and] there’s nobody who can screwit up. [I would] pencil it, but therewere certain areas you didn’t haveto tighten every damn thing.

MURRAY: Oh, I see, I see. I wouldhave thought that in considering theKirby way of doing things, which isjust pencil and that’s it, I would thinkthat you could make more moneyjust penciling and never inking.HECK: No, to me, it was the otherway. In fact, somebody says to me,“Where you’re penciling, it’s notthe same as when you ink it.” I said,“Why should it be? I know what Iwant to do with it; as long as thefinished product is there...”. RossAndru said something to me onetime; he says, “Gee, your inks looklike your pencils.” And I said to

Above:Wonder Woman #329, page 24, DCComics, Feb. 1986. Art by Don Heck.Stunning Amazon battle scene.

Left:Wonder Woman #204, cover, DC Comics,Jan.–Feb. 1973. Don Heck pencils andDick Giordano inks. Return of WonderWoman to her costume, death of I-Ching,and introduction of Nubia.

Don Helps Bring BackWonder Woman

MURRAY: Oh, so you went back toMarvel.HECK: Yeah, that’s why I had to comeback.

MURRAY: There must have been bigchanges at Marvel since—.HECK: Oh yeah. Like, my God. [laughs]

MURRAY: Yeah, that’s the thing that amazes meabout your work is I’d look at either if it’s a story youinked—a Hawkeye story, let’s say—and I’d compare itto a Hawkeye story you did in ’65, ’66—I don’t see abig difference, stylistically. You have maintained theedge, to an amazing degree, that you had then.Whereas Kirby became sort of a caricature of his ownstyle, that Ditko sort of super-simplified his style tothe point it lost some of its weight. But you’ve still

BACK HOME TO MARVEL,AND THE INDIES chapter

7

Opposite:Fantastic Four Board Game illustration,

Marvel Comics. Art by Don Heck.

Above:Mr. Fixitt #1, cover, Heroic Publishing,

June 1993. Art by Don Heck.

Right:Avengers Spotlight #28, cover, MarvelComics, Jan. 1990. Don Heck pencils

and Al Milgrom inks.

got the weight and you’ve still got the line, and I wonder, one: how you maintain that crispness of line, and two: how come you’re notappreciated, because you’re doing the same kind ofwork you’d done in the ’60s?HECK: I don’t know why I’m not. [chuckles] Theysometimes [say], “Oh, I love your stuff.” But then, likeI say, you don’t get the calls. I mean, as far as drawing,I always try to keep drawing. I was looking at the guyswho are good, guys like Caniff, or stuff like that. I’vegot the files here and I thumb through them. Or DanBarry, who was doing Flash Gordon. He was doinggreat work. And I keep [looking] back at what I consider is good artwork and hopefully, I’ll keepdrawing it. Sort of like the reason John Buscema is so good;

you see all these pages that he’d done for the books.But not only that, he draws all the time. If he’s notworking all day, he’ll fill a whole page of different figures. Just practice working, you know? Maybe acertain panel gave him some trouble. He’ll do it fouror five different ways, just as practicing stuff. That’swhy he’s so damn good.

MURRAY: So you maintain your edge by drawing,no matter what.

HECK: I draw all the time, yeah. I’vegot a whole bunch of pages whereyou’re just drawing figures there,[working] with that, trying differentmethods or trying different thingsthat you’re working with.

1989–1994

109

MURRAY: Do you still like the work?HECK: Yeah, yeah.

MURRAY: You still maintain your enthusiasm for it.HECK: Yeah, that’s surprising to me, because I did this for a long time, andafter a while in most cases, people wouldsay, [“retire”]. And then if you came inthe [office], you [see] you really shouldn’thave thrown in the towel. I guess I’m juststubborn. [chuckles]

MURRAY: Well, that’s a good way to be,to be a freelancer, to be stubborn. Do youever think of retiring? Does it ever enteryour head?HECK: I don’t have the money to dothat. [laughs] I don’t get these royalties.We don’t get stuff that’s going to do any-thing for you.

MURRAY: So you’ve got to keep working

Opposite Inset:Tales of Suspense #50, page 50 panel, Marvel Comics, Feb. 1964.

Above:The Destroyer graphic novel, page 143 panel,Marvel Comics, Oct. 1991.

Right:Marvel Fanfare #54 (Vol.1), page 4, MarvelComics, April 1991. A short story where a boy’sMarvel action figures come to life.

whether you want to or not.HECK: If you want to or not, yeah.

MURRAY: But you want to.HECK: Yeah.

MURRAY: You want to, that’sgood. That’s good because you stilldo good work.HECK: Well, I try to. All I can dois the best I know how at the time.And it also depends on the writing.If you get a decent story, then hell,you’ve got something to grab ahold

CHAPTER SEVEN: 1989–1994 BACK HOME TO MARVEL, and the INDIES 111

Reflecting on His WorkPAT CALHOUN: Going back a little, I reallylike that bullet in the head cover [Horrific#3]. [laughter] I always wonder if artistsare annoyed when somebody says their favorite thing is something the artist did atthe start of their career, when they’d muchrather be appreciated for more recent work.DON HECK: Oh, that’s okay. I mean, ifsomebody says that was the best thing Iever did, I’d be annoyed… because hopefullyyour best work is the one you’ve just done.But for somebody to like something you did40 years ago, that’s all right. If nobodyliked it, you wouldn’t be in the business inthe first place. In fact, there’s a Horrificcover that I like—the African one, #6[above]. I enjoyed doing that. There’s allsorts of color, with this big head staring atyou. Part of that came from National Geo-graphic, and the research made it evenmore fun.

Gold & Silver: Overstreet’s Comic BookQuarterly #4, Gemstone Publishing,

Apr.-June 1994, page 84. Interview conducted by Pat S. Calhoun.

Opposite Inset:NASCAR Adventures #8, page 17 panels, Vortex Comics, 1992.

Above Left:Horrific #6, cover, Comic Media, July 1953.

Above Right:Short interview with Don by David Watkins for a monthly newsletter published Oct. 1993 by the Minnesota Cartoonists’ League.

CHAPTER SEVEN: 1989–1994 BACK HOME TO MARVEL, and the INDIES 113

DON HECK GALLERY

chapter

8

Opposite:Danger #9,cover, ComicMedia, Apr.–May1954. Art by Don Heck.Image scannedfrom original art.

Left:Gunsmoke Western #63,page 26, MarvelComics, March1961. Imagescanned fromoriginal art.

CHAPTER EIGHT: DON HECK GALLERY 115

HOWELL: Howwould you describe a“good script,” some-thing that you feelwould bring out thebest elements in yourstorytelling? Does ithave to have particularelements in it, like lotsof action, or particulartypes of characters?HECK: A little of each,actually. I mean, obvi-ously there has to be acertain part of a storywhere you sum up in theend, a good visual begin-ning, and there has to

chapter

9

be some action in-between. Otherwise,if there’s too muchtalk, it may lookgood on television,because they canbang one panel afteranother, or one picture after another,but it won’t work incomics. There hasto be some action.Nothing is, to me,worse than wherethe guys are insideone little roomtalking to one another for fourpages, y’know?

HOWELL: So you thinkcomics have their own particular requirements?HECK: Yeah, definitely,

Above:Don Heck,

pen to paper.

Opposite Above:Batman Family #20, page 10, DC Comics, Oct.–Nov. 1978. Tothe right is Don’s rough pencil layout of the page, prior to doingfull pencils, while to the left is the published page. Don Heck pencilsand John Celardo inks.

Opposite Below:Flash #282, splash, DC Comics,Feb. 1980. Don Heck pencils andFrank Chiaramonte inks. To the left are Don’s uninked pencils,while to the right is the publishedpage. Notice the revisions on thepublished page in the upper-rightto add dialogue.

PROCESS, TECHNIQUE,AND STYLE

127

Left:Superman Family #197,

page 10, DC Comics, Sept.-Oct. 1979. Don Heck pencils

and Vince Colletta inks. Aboveis Don’s rough pencil layout of

the page, prior to doing fullpencils, while below is the

published page.

different types of stories or anything,just with how you feel that day?HECK: Yeah, more or less. And asfar as technique goes, it also depends.I might run a stint of six months ofdoing roughs underneath, and thendecide, “Well, I’ve got to get achange away from that and dosomething different.”

HOWELL: Are you at all familiarwith On Stage?HECK: Oh, yes, yes. Good stuff.That guy’s super. [Ed.: LeonardStarr.] I got a whole bunch of thattoo. I used to save all the Sundaypages, and the dailies. That man’s agenius—a super talent, no questionabout it.

HOWELL: Were there any favorite writers you liked to workwith during the Marvel days? Iguess there weren’t as many backthen as there are now.HECK: Yeah, there’re so manynow, but then there was RoyThomas, and there was Stan Lee.Those are almost the only ones Iworked with. The one nice thingabout it, like I said, when theywere doing the synopsis, was I hadthe freedom. You’d send thesepages in, and then you’d see Stanput the dialogue to it, and it reallyworked out nice. It was a goodcombination, because he was greatfor looking at things, and beingable to put stuff in there.

HOWELL: Figuring out what youmeant?HECK: Yeah, well, you put downon the side that such-and-such athing happened, but he could—thecharacterization in a person is donewith the dialogue. The dialoguehas to be written so that it soundslike this is what the guy would bethinking or saying.

HOWELL: So you tried to put inattitudes and expressions that

Above:Justice League of America #214,

splash, DC Comics, May 1983. Don Heck pencils and Romeo

Tanghal inks. To the left are Don’s pencils for the page, while to

the right is the published page.

Opposite Above:Justice League of America #207, page 23, DC Comics, Oct. 1982.

Unpublished pencils. The published version has a different layout.

Opposite Below:Wonder Woman #315, page 3, DC

Comics, May 1984. Art by Don Heck.To the left is Don’s rough pencil

layout of the page, prior to doing full pencils, while to the right

is the published page.


that, because he could always getan inker to ink your pencils. Youhave to understand, I’m sure theirpoint of view is if the job doesn’tquite turn out exactly as high asthey want it, as long as it’s sort ofin-between, and it sells, thenthey’re happy.

HOWELL: Well. That’s not allthat encouraging, [Heck laughs] butI guess it makessense from the pub-lisher’s point of view.HECK: Yeah, yeah,but by the sametoken, at that point,then you start to getto the point wherethey all look alike—and that’s no goodeither, I don’t think,because who careswhich book you pickup? They all looklike they came out ofthe same flower pot.

HOWELL: Youthink that that’shappening? Youmentioned beforethat in the 1960s,there were four orfive different artistsat Marvel who eachhad very differentrecognizable styles.HECK: Right. Well, it had to hap-pen, because an inker is going to dowhatever amount of pages he cando, and he’s going to start inkingover three or four pencilers, and it’sgoing to start looking very muchthe same. Because the inker has acertain style, and he’s going to takeyour stuff, and make it look morelike his. And instead of your having,say, myself doing a complete job,and then this inker penciling and

inking another job, and having twodifferent styles, we have one style,and two people doing it.

HOWELL: You had mentioned before that the scratchiness of yourinking style was meeting with someresistance?HECK: Yeah. But I happen to likeit. That’s why I say I’d be more inclined to have war stuff or things

like that. I think it suits my inkingmore.

HOWELL: How would you describethe difference between your owninking style, which you said was“scratchy,” and….HECK: Well, it’s scratchier than,say, some of the new, slicker styles.Because, like I say, I like Caniff. Iwas also a big fan of Charles DanaGibson [from the turn of the

century], who used a pen type line.And I just loved that kind of stuff.Unfortunately I’m in the wrongera, I guess. [laughter] When I sayscratchy, I only mean sometimes. Itdepends. I like to use a lot of boldblacks if I can.

HOWELL: I’ve heard the term“scratchy” applied to variousinkers, including you.

HECK: Well, I wastold that, and then Iwas told by an editor—whom I can’t recallnow—but he said,“Kubert has the sameproblem,” and I said,“Well, if you put mein with Kubert, I’vegot no complaint.Thanks for the kindwords. If you don’tlike his stuff, then I’mnot too worried aboutthe fact that youdon’t think highly ofmine.” [laughter]

HOWELL: Kuberthas so many artisticdrawbacks, really.HECK: Oh, yeah,sure. He’s a fantasticartist. He’s got such asolid drawing style. I mean, it’s three-dimensional, but on

the other hand, there’s very littlestiffness in it. And he can drawanything, especially those charac-ters from back in One Million B.C.

HOWELL: Tor?HECK: Yeah, that’s the book, but Imean the mammals and dinosaurs.Fantastic.

CHAPTER NINE: PROCESS, TECHNIQUE, and STYLE 135

Over his long career, Donworked with many inkers as well as inked others; all wereprofessionals in their own right,blending their unique style with Don’s.

Don discusses some ofhis favorite inkers…

HECK: I remember I did a couple of jobsfor John Romita when he was doing thoseromance books for DC at a time when I wasat Marvel—there was no conflict of interestat the time. I did some roughs, and hetightened them up and inked them. Hemust have been behind or something. Any-way, you couldn’t tell that that work wasn’tall his.

HOWELL: Bet I could. I’ve seen some ofthose stories.HECK: [chuckles] Well, I thought I was sub-merged. John Romita submerges everybody,because he has that complete kind of astyle. That’s okay. As long as the guy inkingover you is a really good artist himself,there’s no complaint from me. When I was on The Avengers, I had

Romita, I had Wally Wood. Then aroundissue #30 or something, I go to [Frank] Gia-coia, who is a fantastic inker. He knowsanatomy so well, that if you don’t haveyours up to par, he just slaps it in automati-cally. That’s why some people say he’sslower, but he’s putting more into it. Youcan’t just whip this stuff out all the time. If

INKING WITH DONchapter

10you’re going to make it look good, you’vegot to put some time into it.

HOWELL: So outside of yourself andFrank Giacoia, who do you like inking yourpencils?HECK: Well, Romita did a good job. Wooddid a wonderful job. I guess the one who really came closest to me would be FrankSpringer.

HOWELL: Really?HECK: He did a Dracula Giant [Giant-SizeDracula #3].

HOWELL: Right. I remember those.HECK: I got the stuff back, and I thought,boy, he did a damn good job. And he likesthe same type of pen work I do.

HOWELL: He probably comes right out ofthe same school.HECK: Well, if you look at a lot of them,they’re almost all around the same age, usolder fellows. [laughter] I mean, you takeJohn Romita, Frank Robbins, who else?

HOWELL: Alex Toth?HECK: Yeah.

HOWELL: And Mort Meskin, whereverhe is.HECK: Yeah, he’s in the same era. Youknow, you’re talking about guys who didtheir learning in the late 1940s, early1950s….

HOWELL: An entire generation of artists?HECK: Well, what had happened is thatthese guys were the ones working, and then

139

comics had sort of gone down in the number ofbooks, and there weren’t that many publishers, and sothe same artists more or less stayed into it. So for along time, not that many new artists were coming in,and the predominant style stayed the same. Occa-sionally you’d get one or two new artists, but not toomany. Of course, some of them would be really good,like John Buscema or Neal Adams, and that sparksthe whole field. There’s nothing like that. It seemsthat everything is going along fine, then all of a sudden somebody comes in with a new style that’sterrific. I always like to see it, myself, because I like to see something good.

HOWELL: Makes you feel that the field is still progressing?HECK: And not only that, you look and you say, “Ibetter get my act back into gear,” because you start toget a little lazy now and then, and competition helps.

FRANK SPRINGER

Above:Giant-Size Dracula #3, splash, Marvel Comics, Dec. 1974.

Don Heck pencils and Frank Springer inks.

BOB MCLEOD

Above:Fear #29, page 11, Marvel Comics, Aug. 1975.

Don Heck pencils and Bob McLeod inks.

The “Fire Within” job was my very first inking assignment over another artist, way back in 1974. Iwas working in the production department at Marveldoing lettering corrections and art corrections, andasking the editors to give me a chance at inking. TonyIsabella graciously gave me this Don Heck inventoryjob for one of the black-and-white magazines, so Iwas also able to add ink wash tones to it. I was veryexcited to do it, but of course I knew almost nothingabout inking. That said, I loved inking Don’s pencils,because they were loose enough for me to add asmuch as I wanted. I liked the way he used a good variety of close-ups, medium shots, and long shots, upshots and down shots. I wasn’t very familiar with hiswork before that, but became a fan working on thatjob. I was disappointed when they didn’t print it. Ialso met Don briefly when he came into the office todrop off the job. He seemed like a good guy, but that’sthe only time I ever saw him.


A myththat has beenperpetuatedabout Don isthat while atDC Comics,the circula-tion of

monthly books where he was the regularartist fell sharply during his run—or insome cases it’s also been argued, becauseof it—specifically The Flash, JusticeLeague of America, and Wonder Womantitles.Obviously, there are numerous factors that con-

tribute to a book’s sales success, though admittedly in a creative industry, the writer and the artist are always integral to a book’s success, either collectivelyor separately. However, contemporaneous factors suchas the state of the comic book industry, changingconsumer tastes, creative direction, and the economyshould be considered as well. This applies when ana-lyzing both an increase in circulation as well as a reduction. Also, as with any creative industry, salesand popularity do not always equate to quality. Andfinally, during any period, it’s also important to considerthe then latest “hot” creative team being assigned.

chapter

12

Opposite:Montage of Heck’s DC work.

Above:Wonder Woman #319, splash,DC Comics, Sept. 1984. Heckpencils and Rick Magyar inks.

Right:“Flash Grams” letterspage logo.

The point: Though circulation numbers are absolute, the possible reasons behind them are not as easy to define.That said, some fans might be surprised with the

reality of the before, during, and after circulationnumbers of the books in question under Don.[Ed.: For the circulation numbers below I used the

average total paid circulation as reported by the respectivecompanies in postal records, which are recorded in theback of the respective issues listed: “10C Total Paid Circulation — Avg. no. of copies each issue preceding 12 months.”]In The Flash #285 letters column, a fan writes his

disappointment that Alex Saviuk was not assignedthe permanent artist on the book, though he pointsout, “I have nothing personal against Don Heck,” butthat he prefers Alex’s interpretation. He concludeshis criticism that the overall “constant shifting ofartists” on the title is “a little disconcerting and distracts from the continuity of the stories.” Editor Len Wein responds in the “Flash-Grams”

letters column of The Flash #285 (May 1980) thatAlex was unavailable and that, “The next logicalchoice for Flash was Don Heck, who had been pencilingthe Scarlet Speedster’s exploits in the dollar-sized Adventure Comics. And frankly, we’re as happy as can be about the turn of affairs. Don is breathing new life into the Fastest Man Alive, and we thinkyou’ll come to agree with us if you give him half a chance.”

BY THENUMBERS

THEFLASH

WONDERWOMAN

JLA

167

Do

D

e of fnO

NIERF

was

N

dsenir f frtesos cls’ Don

ODDIH

was

IS

enirow a f frhs

y I

c

ortsMoon Knighte hd ten

g.g

31rtepahc

nnkikin i wasy I

Doneetd you mdi: HSTEAATECONHJO

May 16, 2012. annp iihdsenirffro dic titasiushteniJtsitrawolleffe

Doe of f DonnO

?ow: H

May 16, 2012.ductew conviertn i and t an Donscusso diomsawmiJ.nreFmi wasdsenir f frtesos cls Don

ed onductreihd tnahtero

was

s anertcounn it itiso vit

upcomad anhduce hortn imih

ke a cabbiils’bera Mem

wal IenWh

aw jy jmd walanonit queseverated whwerse guy behh, tywaynce. A advanne anorte sh tg atnignig sni upcom

eck.” E H “Don asff aselsmiduce he casho tg tnpeakie cap, ske a cabbi

g a fnid wear, anackety jln Osder olsih te waserh, tnked i waly IMoon Knight

Iopped! drtusaw j, butked awayd walked ase was hehd tnie guy behedt wantusd je aney hltdenvieck.” Edear hd I, anerihe cas

ap cap orlg a f fln ianemlt gender

g.

y appoi morg f fornitwaice iffi of ffs’orte edioms

g outnitti sberemmob. Ick up a jo pitcsie DC Comh tateery car mny ilarEortck s you a quilelt ltsr: FiRNEFJIM

Doneetd you mdi

-tny appoice

deisg oute- rceiffi of ffcs

was, Ieer.yore met l

?

e pagesh tmm tiho ig tngoi

e ofoms, anfelysmerlaught[d h, anguyear htusjberememr

aw jy jm

kedd as ane pagesowedh sk, Ino i wask Ie worh t f f tad hce Inid s, an

ducedortn i I]ere.”er htghi rse’d h

sih td aboutearg, “Inkinihed tber Iopped! drtusaw j

oughhy tleal revernse’d hed, ane diffe diwihtd wi gooot nse’hke, “Nie ley werup. The camam nseck’ HDone, anlti a tue of f a tss iant arni-llig a f finitget

g aboutnkial tsortedid searh over. Itenm

n agait i of ftough

ciuid sed anses depr beensce hnie sorym anesni deadlh

,ahke, “Nee cam

de, anor f fortsit

g abouteomd s

.” Idal ex-sice h

day orA!eat grwas ant i atooksl

oniatper des of f, outerato l s day or

he, do ter hsih do taysd s ankin ilulffulounbackgrg jnkini wassiht expl” I?do!

, “Whmih

llit se I becauson

tc. Ie, eterh tatho, Dong. Snki

ever n butdsounead don hob. Ig j

lul f fultsriy f fi m wasathed tnai expld Ioulh sat, “Wh

vi was. Ivel MarorfforeffeadrawroffotsaF

oughhy tleal revern

op: TetiOppos Hen Doff Do ooto ph1970s

:tesn IeAbov.nrem FiJ

hc si comocaly lg mnitis viawInehwretalshtnomweffe

. n agait i of f itough

.eablg tnawi drsi hk atc He

oop tgnikrowsa

dne di hathto hace s plsihe hd h, anmihd wase anpeople arh tathe tm

e book!onphe book, anonph

noki chwas day orA

pepo se tmi tuchave m ht’dne poiome sve md gie coulo he t mored f forerffery of ffltantiese h

e book. Aone phh tn id wasy llualed actri adm Itsite arte imie th tt A]er]laught [e book!

, “Donoughe enurd se book, anooked h lo do, I tat whg onn

oniatper des of f des, outerato l s day or

o e, mord fd f for forennddaiaie s s. Hsertne poio te overo come t

edl cal, Iywayne book. Aalmorke nived liy l

or f forealrur s wasteh tn ieck” was H

eh tn up imiooked hllit se I becauson

:

mi

eAbov

l

DC Co AgendeloGTimeyrryeEvt IoDll ’yThe

n Do:tghi ro ttfem lorFhcnu lr fo fyllhhtmi

n motmeo, cstsitp arirt scmiocr “Beehd telald canlIs

m oor fdsneird f annDo

at

d areifitndein ud an an;tsit arscmisselg Fie Crp;irt srpapewsenTime

w te dro, whotaduc S Alk;c Henal talnoiascc od an, anksni, drhroatrrttssuulllld id i, an, anstsitk aro bocmi

a gr wassi.” Thgan Gtaso T Todtnrgsnite meylhtn moeh tf oenm o

p

: 1983. RNEF: WhSTEAATECO

p.iihhdsdseni

.

rffr haybe anm

tsitd ar,lesehw t

.eal tlalo wh

fsrrs

p ouo a grgn Lon o

be

: 1983. ?sih t was yearat: Wh

wele t becamourour hat. Thour h

ofsve yearwel

171

DON HECK: A Work Of Art

DON HECK remains one of the legendary namesin comics, considered an “artist’s artist,” re-spected by peers, and beloved by fans as the co-creator of IRON MAN, HAWKEYE, and BLACKWIDOW, and key artist on THE AVENGERS.Along with STAN LEE, JACK KIRBY, and STEVEDITKO, Heck was an integral player in “TheMarvel Age of Comics”, and a top-tier 1970s DCComics artist. He finally gets his due in this heav-ily illustrated, full-color hardcover biography,which features meticulously researched andchronicled information on Don’s 40-year career,with personal recollections from surviving family,long-time friends, and industry legends, and rareinterviews with Heck himself. It also features anunbiased analysis of sales on Don’s DC Comicstitles, an extensive art gallery (including published, unpublished, and pencil artwork), a Forewordby STAN LEE, and an Afterword by BEAU SMITH. Written by JOHN COATES.

(192-page full-color hardcover) $39.95(Digital Edition) $11.95ISBN: 9781605490588

http://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=1171

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS PREVIEW, CLICK THE LINKBELOW TO ORDER THIS BOOK!



twomorrows publishing comic books - don heck: a work of art

Documents

chapter nineprocess

chapter fourlate 1960s1977

dc87 chapter six19771988

style139 chapter teninking

entire chapter dedicatedto

marvel comics

don wasborn

pure don