Part 10 (1/2)
The actual current occupants of Palooka Studios, Jerry Glovsky, Marty Gold, and Davy O'Dowd, came home around ten, with half a roast chicken, a bottle of red wine, a bottle of seltzer, a carton of Pall Malls, and Frank Pantaleone They walked in the front door boisterously quibbling, one of the a muted trumpet; then they fell silent They fell so quickly and completely silent, in fact, that one would have said they had been expecting intruders Still, they were surprised to find, when they came upstairs, that Palooka Studios had been transformed, in a matter of hours, into the creative nerve center of Empire Comics Jerry s? Who said you could come in here? What is this shi+t?” He pushed Julie's head to one side and picked up the piece of board on which Julie had been penciling page two of the adventure he and Sa tale of that Stalker of the Dark Places, that Foe of Evilness himself, ”The Black Hat,” ”The Black Hat,” said Jerry said Jerry
”I don't re you could use my table Or my ink” Marty Gold came over and snatched away the bottle of India ink into which Joe was about to dip his brush, then dragged his entire spattered taboret out of their reach, scattering a nu, and co hiy, sweated a lot, and was, Saht, kind of a priss But he could fake Caniff better than anyone, especially the way he handled blacks, throwing in slashes, patches, entire continents of black, far ning his ith an extra-big letter 0 in Gold ”Or my brushes, for that matter”
He snatched at the brush in Joe's hand A pea of ink fell onto the page Joe was inking, spoiling ten e at the Empire Palace Theatre Joe looked at Marty He smiled He drew the brush back out of Marty's reach, then presented it to him with a flourish At the same time, he passed his other hand slowly across the hand that was holding the brush The brush disappeared Joe brandished his eet in here?” Jerry said
”Your girlfriend let us in,” Sairlfriend” It was stated not defensively but as a matter of fact Jerry had been sixteen when Sairls at a ti of a novelty for him, and he had talked about them incessantly Rosalyn, Dorothy, and Yetta: Sa since worn off; three was a dry spell now for Jerry He was tall, with vulpine good looks, and wore his kinky, brilliantined hair combed into roreat deal of encourage a fine sense of huly in Sam-foot” coar and McManus, and Saht adventure
”If she's not your girlfriend,” said Julie, ”then as she in your bed naked?”
”Shut up, Julie,” Sammy said
”You saw her in my bed naked?”
”Alas, no,” said Sa,” said Julie
Joe said, ”Do I smell chicken?”
”These are not bad,” said Davy O'Dowd He had close-cropped red hair and tiny green eyes, and was built like a jockey He was froht when he elve; that was about all Saht of the pink nubbin of his left ear alwaysthe sheet of tracing paper that covered each page, he stood perusing the five pages of ”The Legend of the Golden Key” that Sae over, he passed it to Frank Pantaleone, who grunted Davy said, ”It's like a Superot down off his stool and went over to help them admire his work
”Who inked this?” said Frank, tall, stooped, froh not yet twenty-two, losing his hair In spite of, or perhaps in concert with, his hangdog appearance, he was a gifted draftsman who had won a citywide art prize in his senior year at Music and Art and had taken classes at Pratt There were good teachers at Pratt, professional painters and illustrators, serious craftsht about art, and of hiot a job as a set painter on Broadway; his father was a big ehands' union He had worked up an adventure strip of his own, The Travels of Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, a Sunday-only panel on which he lavished rich, Fosterian detail, and King Features was said to be interested ”Was it you?” he asked Joe ”This is good work You did the pencils, too, didn't you? Klayman couldn't do this” a Sunday-only panel on which he lavished rich, Fosterian detail, and King Features was said to be interested ”Was it you?” he asked Joe ”This is good work You did the pencils, too, didn't you? Klayman couldn't do this”
”I laid it out,” Sammy said ”Joe didn't even knohat a co” Sammy pretended to be insulted, but he was so proud of Joe that, at this word of praise froiddy
”Joe Kavalier,” said Joe, offering Frank his hand
”My cousin He just got in from japan”
”Yeah? Well what did he do with my brush? That's a one-dollar red sable Windsor and Newton,” said Marty ”Milton Caniff gave gave me that brush” me that brush”
”So you have always clai on his puffy lower lip, his eyes cold and lively with more thanthat, given a chance, he could do better Sammy couldn't believe his luck Yesterday his drea comic books had been merely that: a dreas Today he had a pair of costuht soon include a talent like Frank Pantaleone ”This is really not bad at all, Klayain He shook his head ”What is he, criain He shook his head ”What is he, criht, haberdasher by day?”
”He's a wealthy playboy,” said Joe gravely
”Go draw your bunny,” Julie said ”I'ht, Sam?”
”Absolutely”
”Seven-fifty!” Marty said With mock servility, he scooted the taboret back toward Sammy and Joe and replaced the bottle of ink at Joe's elbow ”Please, Joe-san, Joe-san, usethat kind of money?” Jerry wanted to know ”Not Donenfeld He wouldn't hire you”
”Donenfeld is going to be begging me to work for him,” said Sammy, uncertain who Donenfeld was He went on to explain the marvelous opportunity that awaited them all if only they chose to seize it ”Now, let's see” Sammy adopted his most serious expression, licked the point of a pencil, and scratched some quick calculations on a scrap of paper ”Plus the Black Hat and the Escapist, I need-thirty-six, forty-eight-three es, plus the inside covers, plus the way I understand it we have to have two pages of just plain words” So that their products azines, and therefore be mailed second-class, coes of pure text required by postal law-usually in the forht short story, written in sawdust prose ”Sixty-four But, okay, here's the thing Every character has to wear ato be called Masked Man Masked Man That s” That s”
”All immick”
”Empire, huh?” said Frank ”Frankly-”
”Frankly-frankly-frankly-frankly-frankly,” they all chimed in Frank said ”frankly” a lot They liked to call his attention to it
”-I'm a little surprised,” he continued, unruffled ”I'e Are you sure that's what he said?”
”Sure, I' Adolf Hitler on the cover That's the other gi at his cousin but looking at Frank, ”is going to draw that one all by himself”
”I?” said Joe ”You want azine?”
”Getting punched in the jaw, Joe” Sa an inch shy of his chin ”Whae fro-paper flap ”He looks just like Superoing to be Adolf Hitler” Jerry looked at Sah, his amazement not entirely respectful
”Just on the cover”
”No way are they going to go for that”
”Not Jack Ashkenazy,” Frank agreed
”What's so bad about Hitler?” said Davy ”Just kidding”
”Maybe you ought to call it Racy Dictator,” Racy Dictator,” said Marty said Marty
”They'll go for it! Get out of here,” Sa therabbed the pages away from Jerry, clutched them to his chest, and climbed back onto his stool ”Fine, listen, all of you, do ood, then stay out of it It's all the same to me” Hehigh in a big silk suit, taking a look around the cold-water flat where his goody-goody boyhood friend has ended up ”You probably already have more work than you can handle”
Jerry turned to Marty ”He's e sarcasm”
”I noticed that”
”I' bossed around by this wiseass I've been having problems with this wiseass for years”
”I can see how you ht”