Part 37 (1/2)
The half-dozen coathered around a table at the back of the Excelsior that particularblack coffee in cups with a red stripe around the rim-Stan Lee, Frank Pantaleone, Gil Kane, Bob Powell, Marty Gold, and Julie Glovsky-agreed that, before the war, Joe Kavalier had been one of the best in the business They concurred that the treatment he and his partner had received at the hands of the Eh hardly unique Most could e to supply a story, an instance of odd or eccentric behavior on Kavalier's part; but when these were added up, they did not, to any of theso rash and desperate as a death leap
”What about that old partner partner of his,” Lee said ”I ran into hio He looked pretty down in the mouth” of his,” Lee said ”I ran into hio He looked pretty down in the mouth”
”Sammy Clay?”
”I don't know him very well We've always been friendly He never worked for us, but-”
”He's worked just about every place else”
”Anyway, the guy did not look good And he barely gave me the time of day”
”He is not a happy man,” Glovsky said ”Is old Sam He is just not very happy over there at Pharaoh” Glovsky drew the violent Mack Granite Mack Granite feature for Pharaoh's feature for Pharaoh's Brass Knuckle Brass Knuckle
”Frankly, he's never happy anywhere,” Pantaleone said, and everyone agreed They all knew Sammy's story, more or less He had returned to the co else he had tried His first defeat had been in the advertising gaed to quit just before he was going to be asked to turn in his resignation After that, he had tried going out on his own When his advertising shop duly died a quiet and unreazine business, selling well-researched lies to True True and and Yankee Yankee and one miraculous short story to and one miraculous short story to Collier's Collier's-it was about a crippled young boy's visit to a Coney Island stea- into a deep and narrow groove at the third-tier hty pulps
All along, there were regular offers from old funny-book friends, some of them seated around this table at the back of the Excelsior, which Sareat thing to be, after the war-and though his literary career was not advancing as quickly as he would have liked, at least he could ensure that he was notbackward He swore, to anyone ould listen and even on hisback to comic books Everybody who visited the Clays was taken to see so book By day, he wrote articles on psittacosis and proustite for Bird Lover Bird Lover and and Gem and Tumbler Ge, and had even written catalog copy for a seed co, and Sammy was at the e Deasey look like Deanna Durbin Then, one day, he heard of an editor's job opening up at Gold Star, a now-forgotten publisher of comic books on Lafayette Street The line was tattered and derivative, the circulation low, and the pay far froive him authority and room to maneuver Sammy's correspondence school for writers had enrolled only three pupils, one of wholish Sammy had bills and debts and a fa, he had at last thrown in the towel on his old caterpillar drea, and had even written catalog copy for a seed co, and Sammy was at the e Deasey look like Deanna Durbin Then, one day, he heard of an editor's job opening up at Gold Star, a now-forgotten publisher of comic books on Lafayette Street The line was tattered and derivative, the circulation low, and the pay far froive him authority and room to maneuver Sammy's correspondence school for writers had enrolled only three pupils, one of wholish Sammy had bills and debts and a fa, he had at last thrown in the towel on his old caterpillar dreaht,” Kane said ”He's never been happy anywhere”
Bob Powell leaned forward and lowered his voice ”I always thought he seeree with that,” said Gold ”He's got that thing with the sidekicks sidekicks It's like an obsession with him Have you noticed that? He takes over a character, first thing he does, no uy a little pal After he ca the Phanto around with this kid, as his na” It's like an obsession with him Have you noticed that? He takes over a character, first thing he does, no uy a little pal After he ca the Phanto around with this kid, as his na”
”Buck Naked”
”Buckskin The kid gunslinger Then he goes to Olympic, and what, now the Luets Little Mack the Boy Enforcer”
”The Rectifier Rectifier, that already sounds a little bit-”
”Then he coonaut and Jason The Lone Wolf and Cubby Christ, he even gave a sidekick to the Lone Lone Wolf!” Wolf!”
'Yeah, but he's hired every one of you guys at one time or another, hasn't he?” Lee said He looked at Marty Gold ”He's been very loyal to you over the years, Gold, God only knohy”
”Hey, shut up, already,” said Kane ”That's hih the door”
Sam Clay stepped into the moist, steam-table warmth of the Excelsior and was hailed from the table at the back He nodded and waved, a little uncertainly, as if he didn't really care to join their party thatBut after he had purchased his ticket for a cup of coffee and a doughnut he started toward the way he had
”Morning, Sa a little dazed ”It took two hours” two hours”
”Seen the Herald?” Herald?”
Clay shook his head
”Looks like an old friend of yours is back in town”
”Yeah? Who would that be?”
”Tohed, and then Kane went on to explain that so's Herald-Tribune, Herald-Tribune, publicly announced his intention to ju at five o'clock that very afternoon publicly announced his intention to ju at five o'clock that very afternoon
Pantaleone dug around in the pile of newspaper in the center of the big table and found a Herald-Tribune Herald-Tribune ” 'Nu errors,' ” he read aloud, skih the article, to which were devoted three colue 2 ” 'Threatened to expose the ”unfair robberies and poor mistreatments of his finest artists by Mr Sheldon Anapol”' Huh 'Mr Anapol when reached refused to speculate publicly on the identity of the author ”It could be anyone,” Mr Anapol said ”We get a lot of nuts”' Well,” Pantaleone finished, shaking his head, ”Joe Kavalier never struck me as any kind of nut A little eccentric,errors,' ” he read aloud, skih the article, to which were devoted three colue 2 ” 'Threatened to expose the ”unfair robberies and poor mistreatments of his finest artists by Mr Sheldon Anapol”' Huh 'Mr Anapol when reached refused to speculate publicly on the identity of the author ”It could be anyone,” Mr Anapol said ”We get a lot of nuts”' Well,” Pantaleone finished, shaking his head, ”Joe Kavalier never struck me as any kind of nut A little eccentric, uys think it's Joe” Joe”
”Is he in town, Sam? Have you heard from him?”
”I haven't heard from Joe Kavalier since the war,” Clay said ”It can't be him”
”I say it's a hoax,” Lee said
”The costuarette-he still had not sat down-but now he stopped with the flame halfway to the tip ”He'll want a costuuy He'll want a costume”
”He could make one”
”Yeah,” Clay said ”Excuse ers, and walked back toward the glass doors of the Excelsior
”He just walked out of here with his meal ticket”
”He looked pretty upset,” Julie Glovsky said ”You guys shouldn't have been teasing him”
He was already on his feet He drained the last inch of coffee from his cup, then started after Sas could carry him, they headed over to the offices of Pharaoh Comics, in a loft on West Broadhere Sa to do?” Julie asked hi had not lifted Their breath issued froray gauziness of the
”What do you mean? What can I do? Soht”
”You don't think it's hi iron cage of the elevator When they walked into the offices, Sammy seemed to survey them with an ill-concealed shudder: the scarred cerease-blackened girders of the ceiling
These were not the first headquarters of the coe rooreen lacquer and ivory Bakelite, with everything from the washroom fixtures to the team of buxom receptionists trimmed in chrome, and all of it paid for with the money Jack Ashkenazy had pocketed in 1943 when Sheldon Anapol had bought him out Ashkenazy had next invested millions in a Canadian real estate venture predicated on his odd belief that, after the war, Canada and the United States would e into one country When, to his astonishone back to the source of all his still-considerable wealth: the costu offices on West Forty-second, hired away soed the a star out of a character of his own creation, the eponyyptian ruler, naturally, who sported an elaborate Tutankhamen headdress, metal armbands, and a loincloth made apparently of stiff ce evil with the mystic power of his Scepter of Ra The writers and artists had come up with a raft of even more unlikely heroes and heroines-Earthman (with his superhuman control over rocks and dirt), the Snoith his ”supersonic hoot”), and the Rolling Rose (with her shi+ny red skates)-to fill the pages of Pharaoh Coural titles Unfortunately, Jack Ashkenazy had bet heavily on the costuinning to flag The defeat of those actual world-devouring supervillains, Hitler and Tojo, along with their -underwear hero trade as the war itself had been an abundant source of energy and plots; it proved to be hard for the cashi+ered captains and supersoldiers, on their return fro Zeros like es over the Coral Sea, to s of car thieves, rescuing orphans, and exposing crooked fight promoters At the same time, a new villain, the lawless bastard child of relativity and Satan, had appeared to cast its roiling fiery pall over even the er be entirely assured that there would always be a world for the GIs, who had becoular shi+p with candy bars and cigarettes, turned to darker, ue, followed by ro, in short, but masked men Millions of unsold copies of Pharaoh Coht companion titles came back fro six titles wascatastrophe, had moved don, fired the expensive talent, and retrenched, overhauling his line through a progra it into a modest success very like Racy Publications, the fourth-rate pulp-azine house, home of retreads, copycats, and cheap iun his career as a publisher in the lean Depression years before two foolish young men laid the Escapist in his lap But his pride had never quite recovered froenerally felt that Pharaoh's failure, along with the Canadian debacle, had started hio 1 and its eight companion titles came back fro six titles wascatastrophe, had moved don, fired the expensive talent, and retrenched, overhauling his line through a progra it into a modest success very like Racy Publications, the fourth-rate pulp-azine house, home of retreads, copycats, and cheap iun his career as a publisher in the lean Depression years before two foolish young men laid the Escapist in his lap But his pride had never quite recovered froenerally felt that Pharaoh's failure, along with the Canadian debacle, had started hio
Sarimy expanse of the workroo hi Saency, was absolute and closely observed He would ad His bursts of fevered coht knock out an entire year's worth of Brass Knuckle Brass Knuckle or or Weird Date Weird Date in a single night, were celebrated not only in the Pharaoh offices but throughout the sial world of the New York coed his intercom, took the telephone off the hook, soobbets of foaht, were celebrated not only in the Pharaoh offices but throughout the sial world of the New York coed his intercom, took the telephone off the hook, soobbets of foam rubber
He had typed stories for comic books for the past seven years: costumed hero, romance, horror, adventure, true-crime, science fiction and fantasy stories, Westerns, sea yarns, and Bible stories, a couple of issues of Classics Illustrated Classics Illustrated Sax Rohard imitations, Rex Stout imitations, tales of both world wars, the Civil War, the Peloponnesian War, and the Napoleonic Wars; every genre but funny animals Sammy drew the line at funny aniered imports fros and childish Sax Rohard imitations, Rex Stout imitations, tales of both world wars, the Civil War, the Peloponnesian War, and the Napoleonic Wars; every genre but funny animals Sammy drew the line at funny aniered imports fros and childish[12][12] antics, was one of the thousand little things to have broken Sammy Clay's heart He was a furious, even romantic, typist, prone to crescendos, diios, capable of ninety words a minute when under deadline or pleased with the direction his story was taking, and over the years his brain had becohly conventional, severely fore reat effort, write, talk, same, and keep an eye on the clock all at the same ti iron and springs since his return to coht his ed in its labor while he slept, so that his dreams were often laid out in panels and interrupted by surrealistic advertising, and when he woke up in the h azines antics, was one of the thousand little things to have broken Sammy Clay's heart He was a furious, even romantic, typist, prone to crescendos, diios, capable of ninety words a minute when under deadline or pleased with the direction his story was taking, and over the years his brain had becohly conventional, severely fore reat effort, write, talk, same, and keep an eye on the clock all at the same ti iron and springs since his return to coht his ed in its labor while he slept, so that his dreams were often laid out in panels and interrupted by surrealistic advertising, and when he woke up in the h azines
Now he ton to one side Julie Glovsky saw a little brass key lying in the center of a square patch of blotter that was free of ash and dust Saed up fro lab on a lower floor of the building