Alex Segura Jr.
11-07-2002, 01:27 PM
<a href="http://classic.newsarama.com/general/Ws2.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://classic.newsarama.com/general/Ws2_t.jpg" width="175" height="108" border="0" align="right" alt="Busiek's reward - an original Don Caballero and El Fuego by Walt Simonson"></a>In what could easily be dubbed The Feel Good Story of the Year in the comics community, intrepid writer Kurt Busiek (Power Company) came to the rescue of writer/artist Walt Simonson (Wonder Woman) in his time of need.
It all starts during Simonson's youth, where a young Walt sat back and read a story about a Zorro-esque hero and a dastardly villain named El Diablo. The comic left an indelible impression on the future Thor writer/artist, and every so often he'd think back fondly and remember the story. Unfortunately, Walt couldn't remember the comic that the story originated in, or many specifics about the comic. Enter Busiek.
"Walt Simonson remembered a comic from his childhood, but didn't know the title or even the hero of the story," Busiek said. "Just a few details of the plot and the name of the villain. He'd been looking to find this comic again for decades, so he could find out what it was and reread the story."
Busiek stumbled upon Simonson's plight through the message boards on AOL and soon after decided to take on the task of unearthing the long lost comic. To entice possible helpers, Simonson offered up a hefty prize, at least to comic fans.
"A few months back, he asked in his AOL folder (and elsewhere) for any information anyone could dig up about the story," said Busiek. "And promised that he'd draw a piece of art for whoever could steer him toward the comic in question, of whatever subject they chose."
Pinpointing exactly why the story continued to come back to him was difficult, Simonson said, but of all the bits and memories that popped up, the villain was a constant.
"It was a rather romantic swashbuckling story that started off as a ghost story and then turned into a mystery. But the villain, a red masked bad guy named El Fuego seemed pretty cool, at least when I was 10 years old," Simonson recalled. "And I always like the Zorro milieu which this story was. Curiously enough, now that I've found and read a copy of the comic, I find that I don't remember any of the other three stories in the issue, including one that was drawn by Alex Toth!"
Though the chance to win an original piece of Simonson art was certainly appealing, Busiek dove into the search to help a fellow pro and to see if he could actually find the issue in question.
"I wasn't shooting to win the art, but I figured I'd see if I could find the story, and thanks to a DC continuity database supplied to me by a longtime DC historian, the Grand Comics Database (at <a href="http://www.comics.org)" target="_blank">www.comics.org)</a> and the DC Who's Who, I was able to figure out that the story Walt was looking for was a Don Caballero story from All-Star Western, probably #60," Busiek said. "Walt checked out the story in DC's bound-volume library, and that was the one."
While the issue remained a constant, almost haunting memory for Simonson, he was never really enthralled by the characters. But the time between having actually read the comic and the present made rediscovering the issue all the more interesting.
"I was never crazed about it. Hey, it was just a comic book. But I hadn't seen it since I was 10 and I never forgot about it. Every so often, it would float to the mental surface and I would look around for it a bit," Simonson recalled. "However, since all I really remembered about it was the name of the villain and the plot, there wasn't much to go on. But I'd post a note on the web about it. In the past, there was suggestions but nobody really came up with the answer. However, eventually I figured that the web would develop the search engines necessary for the job and even if I didn't know where they were, somebody would. This time, when I posted a note, Kurt got back to me within maybe 12 hours! Pretty good service!"
Still, the visuals of the story remained ingrained in Simonson's memory.
"I think the villain's appearance -- pretty spooky along the lines of the original Ghost Rider -- and the whole 'Zorro' type atmosphere made it memorable for me," Simonson said. "Heroes buckling their swash and all that. And even though it turned out not to be a ghost story, it had a bit of that frisson in the first half."
Busiek was also not very familiar with the issue, or series, in question.
"I've never so much as read an issue of All-Star Western," Busiek said. "I just figured it was worth a shot to see if I could find any reference to the story. I looked up 'El Fuego' in a DC character database my friend John Wells had put together, which I use for Power Company research. The list indicated there was an El Fuego in All-Star Western #60. So I went to the Grand Comics Database and looked up the issue, and the story that seemed mostly likely to be the right one was the Don Caballero story, since it was called 'The Sword of Flame!' A quick check of the 'Don Caballero' entry in DC's Who's Who confirmed that, listing El Fuego as one of the Don's villains."
Because the search involved a DC comic, it was not as hard as some might think, Busiek said.
"It didn't take that long -- I just figured I'd take a look and see if I could find it," said Busiek. "Had Walt been remembering a story from a Dell title, or a Marvel Western of the Fifties, there's no way I'd have found it, but I figured it was worth looking to see if it was a DC story."
While he was very pleased to be the lucky recipient of the original art, helping out a fellow comics pro was reward enough, Busiek said.
"So I won the art, though I'd have been happy to put Walt on the right track for free. Still, I'm not idiotic enough to turn down a free piece of Simonson art," Busiek said. "I figured I should share it, at least, with the guys who'd helped me do the research. So rather than just pick my favorite Simonson character, I figured it would be appropriate to pick the characters Walt had been looking for all that time -- Don Caballero and El Fuego."
Rediscovering the issue flooded Simonson with memories of his comic reading youth.
"It was exciting to find it again. It was interesting to me to see how 'golden age' it was in panel layout and appearance. It was actually published in 1951 and had that earlier aesthetic," Simonson notes. "It was also interesting to see how small the panels were. I remembered some of them much larger but then, I've had that experience before when I've come across something I haven't seen since childhood and frequently, stuff's bigger in memory! Of course, I was smaller too."
"It was an unexpected treat to discover that Gil Kane was the artist of the original story," Simonson said.
"I think it depends on the story in question -- I've had fond memories of books and movies, and when I tracked them down, thought they were awful," Busiek remembered. "But in some cases, I've found things that were just as good or even better than I remembered them."
The opportunity to help out a fellow comic pro is not something rare or new for Busiek, who has helped many a writer and has received help as well.
"In general, I've found other comics pros to be very helpful and generous, with both time and effort. I've supplied Geoff Johns and Mark Millar with continuity information," Busiek said. "Mark Waid and Karl Kesel helped me look for characters to use in Power Company, and so on. As a general rule, comics pros like comics, and like talking about comics, and it shows."
Finally getting to re-live reading the issue was a worthwhile experience, Simonson said.
"It was a gas," Simonson exclaimed. "I may have to see if I can do an actual El Feugo story some time!"
In the end, aside from the free artwork and fun facts involved with finding the missing art the best part was the simplest for Busiek: Being to help someone else.
"It was nice to be able to help out -- he'd been looking for it for decades, after all, so I'm glad to have been able to point him in the right direction," Busiek said.
It all starts during Simonson's youth, where a young Walt sat back and read a story about a Zorro-esque hero and a dastardly villain named El Diablo. The comic left an indelible impression on the future Thor writer/artist, and every so often he'd think back fondly and remember the story. Unfortunately, Walt couldn't remember the comic that the story originated in, or many specifics about the comic. Enter Busiek.
"Walt Simonson remembered a comic from his childhood, but didn't know the title or even the hero of the story," Busiek said. "Just a few details of the plot and the name of the villain. He'd been looking to find this comic again for decades, so he could find out what it was and reread the story."
Busiek stumbled upon Simonson's plight through the message boards on AOL and soon after decided to take on the task of unearthing the long lost comic. To entice possible helpers, Simonson offered up a hefty prize, at least to comic fans.
"A few months back, he asked in his AOL folder (and elsewhere) for any information anyone could dig up about the story," said Busiek. "And promised that he'd draw a piece of art for whoever could steer him toward the comic in question, of whatever subject they chose."
Pinpointing exactly why the story continued to come back to him was difficult, Simonson said, but of all the bits and memories that popped up, the villain was a constant.
"It was a rather romantic swashbuckling story that started off as a ghost story and then turned into a mystery. But the villain, a red masked bad guy named El Fuego seemed pretty cool, at least when I was 10 years old," Simonson recalled. "And I always like the Zorro milieu which this story was. Curiously enough, now that I've found and read a copy of the comic, I find that I don't remember any of the other three stories in the issue, including one that was drawn by Alex Toth!"
Though the chance to win an original piece of Simonson art was certainly appealing, Busiek dove into the search to help a fellow pro and to see if he could actually find the issue in question.
"I wasn't shooting to win the art, but I figured I'd see if I could find the story, and thanks to a DC continuity database supplied to me by a longtime DC historian, the Grand Comics Database (at <a href="http://www.comics.org)" target="_blank">www.comics.org)</a> and the DC Who's Who, I was able to figure out that the story Walt was looking for was a Don Caballero story from All-Star Western, probably #60," Busiek said. "Walt checked out the story in DC's bound-volume library, and that was the one."
While the issue remained a constant, almost haunting memory for Simonson, he was never really enthralled by the characters. But the time between having actually read the comic and the present made rediscovering the issue all the more interesting.
"I was never crazed about it. Hey, it was just a comic book. But I hadn't seen it since I was 10 and I never forgot about it. Every so often, it would float to the mental surface and I would look around for it a bit," Simonson recalled. "However, since all I really remembered about it was the name of the villain and the plot, there wasn't much to go on. But I'd post a note on the web about it. In the past, there was suggestions but nobody really came up with the answer. However, eventually I figured that the web would develop the search engines necessary for the job and even if I didn't know where they were, somebody would. This time, when I posted a note, Kurt got back to me within maybe 12 hours! Pretty good service!"
Still, the visuals of the story remained ingrained in Simonson's memory.
"I think the villain's appearance -- pretty spooky along the lines of the original Ghost Rider -- and the whole 'Zorro' type atmosphere made it memorable for me," Simonson said. "Heroes buckling their swash and all that. And even though it turned out not to be a ghost story, it had a bit of that frisson in the first half."
Busiek was also not very familiar with the issue, or series, in question.
"I've never so much as read an issue of All-Star Western," Busiek said. "I just figured it was worth a shot to see if I could find any reference to the story. I looked up 'El Fuego' in a DC character database my friend John Wells had put together, which I use for Power Company research. The list indicated there was an El Fuego in All-Star Western #60. So I went to the Grand Comics Database and looked up the issue, and the story that seemed mostly likely to be the right one was the Don Caballero story, since it was called 'The Sword of Flame!' A quick check of the 'Don Caballero' entry in DC's Who's Who confirmed that, listing El Fuego as one of the Don's villains."
Because the search involved a DC comic, it was not as hard as some might think, Busiek said.
"It didn't take that long -- I just figured I'd take a look and see if I could find it," said Busiek. "Had Walt been remembering a story from a Dell title, or a Marvel Western of the Fifties, there's no way I'd have found it, but I figured it was worth looking to see if it was a DC story."
While he was very pleased to be the lucky recipient of the original art, helping out a fellow comics pro was reward enough, Busiek said.
"So I won the art, though I'd have been happy to put Walt on the right track for free. Still, I'm not idiotic enough to turn down a free piece of Simonson art," Busiek said. "I figured I should share it, at least, with the guys who'd helped me do the research. So rather than just pick my favorite Simonson character, I figured it would be appropriate to pick the characters Walt had been looking for all that time -- Don Caballero and El Fuego."
Rediscovering the issue flooded Simonson with memories of his comic reading youth.
"It was exciting to find it again. It was interesting to me to see how 'golden age' it was in panel layout and appearance. It was actually published in 1951 and had that earlier aesthetic," Simonson notes. "It was also interesting to see how small the panels were. I remembered some of them much larger but then, I've had that experience before when I've come across something I haven't seen since childhood and frequently, stuff's bigger in memory! Of course, I was smaller too."
"It was an unexpected treat to discover that Gil Kane was the artist of the original story," Simonson said.
"I think it depends on the story in question -- I've had fond memories of books and movies, and when I tracked them down, thought they were awful," Busiek remembered. "But in some cases, I've found things that were just as good or even better than I remembered them."
The opportunity to help out a fellow comic pro is not something rare or new for Busiek, who has helped many a writer and has received help as well.
"In general, I've found other comics pros to be very helpful and generous, with both time and effort. I've supplied Geoff Johns and Mark Millar with continuity information," Busiek said. "Mark Waid and Karl Kesel helped me look for characters to use in Power Company, and so on. As a general rule, comics pros like comics, and like talking about comics, and it shows."
Finally getting to re-live reading the issue was a worthwhile experience, Simonson said.
"It was a gas," Simonson exclaimed. "I may have to see if I can do an actual El Feugo story some time!"
In the end, aside from the free artwork and fun facts involved with finding the missing art the best part was the simplest for Busiek: Being to help someone else.
"It was nice to be able to help out -- he'd been looking for it for decades, after all, so I'm glad to have been able to point him in the right direction," Busiek said.