The 1992
issue -- Donald and Derek discover desktop publishing!
Pardon the personal recollection. But when I
first started really understanding that there was such a thing
as fandom, my big guide-post was the fanzine Once Upon A Dime.
But because I knew Feiffer was a cartoonist and a playwright,
he seemed like somebody I could never aspire to be. (Hey,
I was six.)
And then when my parents took me to a comic book store
for the first time so I wouldn't feel jealousy towards their
adopting my baby
brother, I saw an early issue of Donald Swan's Once Upon
A Dime. Here was the work of fans for fans, shedding light
on heroes long since gone (from my youthful perspective).
Who was The Burning Eye? The Green Llama? The Reverend?
Mary Medusa? I'd never seen those on the spinner rack at Rhonda
Rexall. Donald and his writing partner Derek Jensen filled
me in on their pasts, the successful heroes and some far less
so. All of them fascinated me.
Of course, none of those characters held a candle to Commander
Courage in Donald's eyes. Through Donald's dedicated fan scholarship,
I came to really understand a creator, the unfortunate Jackson
Whitney. People like Jack Kirby and Stan Lee were as much
characters as their creations; Whitney was the first to become
a real person to me.
So when Donald came to the San Diego Comic-Con this past
summer in his new role as technical consultant for the movie
Codename: Courage, I had to try and corner him for an interview.
Luckily, the guys at Creative
Light Entertainment were able to help me connect with
the fanboy writer (before they were called such) who inspired
this fanboy writer.
When the meeting occurred, it was shortly after a panel
that Donald and Derek moderated, featuring Stan Lee talking
about his recent video release
Stan Lee's Mutants, Monsters & Marvels . Earlier that
day, word had spread around the Con that Donald had also managed
to track down Jackson Whitney's now-adult grandson and was
introducing him to the world of comics.
The man
after a busy day of dealing with Hollywood suits...
Derek McCaw: Donald, you are to comics fandom
what Sal Piro is to Rocky Horror and Bjo Trimble is to Star
Trek.
Donald
Swan: That's very flattering.
DM:
How does it feel to be sort of the godfather of comics fandom?
DS:
Well, Derek Jensen and I have written a fanzine for years,
called "Once Upon A Dime." It's so sporadic, the
fans get mad because we were meant to be like a quarterly,
but as things catch up with you, you're not always on schedule.
But this
is like a dream come true for me. Because I always wanted
to know why I'm so enamored of sequential art, comic strips
and comic books, so many years after we were expected to leave
them behind. It's almost like a wonderful opportunity to figure
out why that is. What hold do they have over us? It's just
been really thrilling.
It's not
about me. It's really about the fans and about collecting.
Having said that, I get to rub elbows with Stan Lee and Ray
Harryhausen, and what's wrong with that?
DM:
You wrote The Dark Diamond (a comic book mini-series with
a decidedly critical eye toward superheroes) with Derek…
DS:
With Derek, right. We also wrote a book called Toon Tonnage,
about television animation.
DM:
Yeah, you mentioned that at the panel…
DS:
Oh, you were at the panel. Right. Again, it's a way to, and
I think you have discovered, a way to keep your hobby alive
and make it work for you.
And you
did, too, Derek, because now you're writing for Fanboy (Planet)
and you get to indulge all your passions.
I mean
I'd hate to have to be writing for the NRA, because I'm not
a gun enthusiast, or any specialty magazine where that wasn't
my passion. We're so lucky, I think, to be able to incorporate
what we love into what our job is. Actually, I'd really like
to sit down with Fanboy and really do it right.
DM:
Let's do that. We'll get into the particulars of Commander
Courage and Liberty Lad…
DS:
That's right. All of it. All of it.
DM:
I guess you're in control of the character now? Or have I
misunderstood what I've been reading?
DS:
Well, what they've done is they've asked me to be a technical
advisor, but the characters will be revamped. It's sort of
in flux now. I'm hoping I can bend them to my will, because
I obviously have a fondness for the Golden Age incarnations.
And this one is going to be a much more hard-edged…
An actor
hired to be Commander Courage for the Convention...
DM:
Grim and gritty?
DS:
Yeah…Liberty Lad is now Liberty Lass, and she's old enough
to have a relationship, and I'm going…See, partners,
I was taught…keep that outside of your work. Your romantic
entanglements can really derail you at your job.
But that's…really,
I have to sort of keep that under my hat. Because really,
it's not my…it's like Stan (Lee) was talking about, "I
had nothing to do with the Captain America movie; I was kind
of shocked." And I'm not even on par with Stan.
They're
just using me to, I think, give the project a little bit of
credibility, and then there's that human interest story of
discovering the grandson of Jackson Whitney. He had no idea
he was related to him. Leo Matuszak's his name.
DM:
That is really exciting.
DS:
Well, yeah. We were really trying to find the last place his
grandfather had been on the field of battle. We eventually
tracked it down to a little Czechoslovakian hospital, and
that's where it all came out.
DM:
Will he be here tonight as well?
DS:
Jackson Whitney passed away.
DM:
I mean Leo.
DS:
Oh. Leo. Leo Matuszak. Yes.
DM:
We all know about Jackson. Of course, please, I've read your
'zine.
DS:
You know obviously I can't assume that people are all…that
I'm preaching to the converted. I have to remember like when
the People Magazine article…well, it hasn't come out
yet, but I think they're going to do one on Leo, because it's
such a fascinating story.
He had
no idea, not only of who his grandfather was, but comic
books? He said, "I kind of remember a spinner rack
down at the Sunoco," but he doesn't even read them. We're
seeing through his eyes.
DM:
That's exciting. You're like a comic archaeologist…
DS:
I feel like it. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me.
DM:
We'll try to follow up after the filming is done, get how
you feel about everything that's happened.
DS:
I'd love to. I'm a big fan of your site.
The
filming, of course, refers to both Codename: Courage and the
documentary that Creative Light has been working on about
the behind-the-scenes struggles. We're holding Donald to that
promise as we get closer to the release date.
In
the meantime, for a
piece of Commander Courage's past, check out the recording
a fan sent us, an mp3 taken from a record (remember those?)
of the original radio show.
