Before you read this, you'd be a fool not to have read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8. In that order…
When we started doing the Detached Service Diary short stories in Blackhawk, other DC editors started calling to ask me to give Detached Service Diary assignments to certain artists drawing their comics. There was a reason for this.
Several DC artists had contracts that guaranteed them steady work. The minute they finished one assignment, they were to receive a script for their next job. Artists who only make money when they're drawing don't like to sit around with nothing to draw.
So one Tuesday, Len Wein called me and asked if I'd like to have Jim Aparo draw a Detached Service Diary. I thought Jim Aparo was a superb artist so of course, I said yes. Len asked, "Can you get me a script for him by tomorrow?" and he explained why the rush…
Aparo was drawing a book for Len. I think it was Batman and the Outsiders but I may be wrong about that. Whatever it was, Mr. Aparo was about to deliver the finished art for an issue — all 23 pages of it. All DC books then contained 23 pages of story and the next day, Len had to FedEx Aparo the 23-page script for the next issue. So what was the problem? Simple: Len didn't have that script. The writer of whatever book it was hadn't turned it in yet.
Sending Aparo a script to draw was not a problem. There were several editors there who had scripts that were as yet unassigned and they'd have been pleased to have Jim Aparo draw those scripts. The trouble was they were all 23 pages in length. The stories for my Detached Service Diary series stories were six or seven pages. They were at the moment the only stories being produced for DC that were less than 23 pages.
Jim Aparo was one of those dependable, like-clockwork artists. He penciled, lettered and inked one finished page per day. Len explained to me, "The next script I need him to draw will be in any day now. The way the schedule is, I can't afford to lose him for 23 work days." If Mr. Aparo drew a six-pager for Blackhawk, Len would only lose his services for six work days — and by that time, that next script would be in. Made sense.
Len's call came in about 3 PM my time. I was on my way to a 4 PM doctor's appointment so there was no way to write the script and get it to Federal Express by 6 PM, which was the cut-off time for overnight to New York. Ah, but I could get it to the post office out by the airport by 10 PM that evening. 10 PM was the deadline for Express Mail to be delivered the next day in New York City. Many a time back then before fax machines and e-mail, I made the drive to that post office to overnight something to a publisher in Manhattan. I usually got there at 9:59 and the same nice lady each time would take my envelope and sweetly tell me not to cut it so close next time.
I told Len he'd have a script to send Jim Aparo, then I figured out a story on my way to and from the doctor's office and as soon as I got home, wrote a script I thought would be perfect for Jim Aparo. It was a breeze to get it to that airport and into the hands of that lady well before 10 PM. I think I got it there at 9:58. The next morning, Len called to say he'd received it…
…but as luck would have it, he'd also received that next 23-page script for his book. Jim Aparo never did draw that script or any script for Blackhawk.
But that was okay because a few days later, I got a call from DC editor Julius Schwartz, who had the exact same problem Len had had, but with Curt Swan. The following day, Julie had to send Curt his next assignment and that next script was late. Julie asked if I'd like to have Curt Swan draw a Blackhawk back-up. Well, of course, I'd like that. Name me a writer who wouldn't have wanted Curt Swan drawing a script of his. I decided the script that was perfect for Jim Aparo was even more perfect for Curt Swan and I told Julie that Len had a script of mine that was ready-to-go…
..and Julie said, "I know. I have it in front of me. Len's the one who gave me the idea."
I told him it was fine to send it to Curt…and he would have except that the next day before he did, the 23-page script Julie wanted him to draw arrived. So Curt never drew a script for Blackhawk either.
But that was okay because it wasn't long before I got a call from Pat Bastienne, who was an editorial coordinator for DC, asking if I'd like Gene Colan to draw a Detached Service Diary for Blackhawk. I asked her whose script was late for whatever comic that Gene was drawing and she told me. Deciding the script that was perfect for Jim Aparo and more perfect for Curt Swan was super-perfect for Gene Colan, I told her, "Fine…send him my script. If Julie doesn't have it, Len probably does."
By now, I knew how this would go and so do you. Gene never drew a script for Blackhawk while I was doing it. (He actually did draw a Detached Service Diary tale once but not for me. He penciled the one in Blackhawk #211 back in 1965.) I think the script that Aparo, Swan and Colan didn't draw wound up being drawn by Don Newton. The script for whatever comic Don was then drawing for DC was really and truly late and mine was super-super-ultra-deluxe perfect for him.
In the meantime, Len or Marv talked Howard Chaykin into drawing a Detached Service Diary story which turned out quite well, I thought. I got one drawn by Dick Rockwell, who was then the ghost artist on Milton Caniff's Steve Canyon newspaper strip and I persuaded Will Meugniot, Pat Boyette, Mike Sekowsky, Doug Wildey, Richard Howell, Joe Staton, Ken Steacy and Alex Toth to all do short stories.
These were all artists who were not drawing a regular monthly book for DC so it was easy. The one Mike Sekowsky drew had been perfect for Irv Novick when I wrote it…and I wrote it because a script for another book Irv drew was running late, just as Pat Boyette's had been perfect for Gil Kane because a script for a book Gil drew was running late.
Also, there were a couple Detached Service Diary tales drawn by Dan Spiegle, one of which he finished and inked over my rough pencil layouts. He made it passable and professional in spite of that handicap. My time on Blackhawk ended before I could give scripts to Al Williamson, Ernie Colón and Murphy Anderson, all of whom wanted to do stories.
As I mentioned in the previous chapter, there came a day when DC was using Dan Spiegle for so many other assignments that he couldn't draw a certain issue of Blackhawk in time. So what we did was to have him draw a short sequence to introduce three Detached Service Diary stories from the pile of those that had been completed by then. The editor at that point was Ernie Colón…I think. Let me check…
Okay, I checked and it was Ernie Colón and it was Blackhawk #260, sporting a great, generic Howard Chaykin cover. Len, in his capacity as Cover Editor for DC, had had Chaykin do a few of those "it'll fit any issue" covers, just in case. Ernie and I picked the Detached Service Diaries that had been drawn by Chaykin, Dick Rockwell and Alex Toth for that issue.
I've written so much here about how happy I was with how those Blackhawk comics turned out, I should probably tell you about my least favorite story from that run. It was the one drawn by Toth and much of why it was my least fave was my fault. I'll tell you about that next time. This series is running way longer than I'd intended…longer even than my run on Blackhawk did.