Sam Glanzman

Sam J. Glanzman (born 1924) is an American comic-book artist, best known for his Charlton Comics series "Hercules", about the mythological Greek demigod, his biographical war stories about his service aboard the U.S.S.Stevens for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and the "Fightin' Army" feature "The Lonely War of Willy Schultz", a Vietnam-era serial about a German-American U.S. Army captain during World War II.

Biography

Early life and career

Glanzman, whose education ended after grade school, broke into comics in late 1939 during the Golden Age of comic books. At Centaur Publications, he wrote two-page text stories with incidental art for "Amazing-Man Comics". He created Fly-Man in Harvey Comics' superhero anthology "Spitfire Comics" #1 (Aug. 1941), writing and drawing the feature for at least two issues, and also contributed to Harvey's "All-New Short Story Comics" (where he published his first recorded war story), "Champ Comics" (doing the superhero the Human Meteor), and the radio-show tie-in series "Green Hornet Comics" through 1943.

Following his WWII military service in the U.S. Navy, stationed on the USS Stevens (DD-479), he was discharged in 1946. Glanzman eschewed comics ("I was getting $7.50 a page for [Fly-Man] , pencils, inks, story, and coloring. ... I figured, 'Hell, that's not much money.'" [Glanzman interview, "Comic Book Artist" #9 (Aug. 2000), p. 90] ) and began a peripatetic career doing manual labor in cabinet shops, lumber mills and boat yards. After getting married in the 1950s, he worked at Republic Aviation in Farmingdale, Long Island, New York, installing machine guns on military jets.

Seeking to return to art, Glanzman had done some work for the Eastern Color series "Heroic Comics" and "New Heroic Comics" in 1950, and found better-paying assignments doing children's-book illustration. He additionally ghosted (working for pay but no credit for another artist in his or her style) for his brother, Louis Glanzman, on an aircraft hardcover-book series for children. Work was not steady, however, and Glanzman returned to Republic.

Charlton Comics

Still determined to work in art, Glanzman in 1958 answered a classified ad seeking comics artists, and began working with Pat Masulli, the Manhattan-based executive editor of Derby, Connecticut's Charlton Comics, a low-paying publisher who traditionally allowed its comics creators great creative freedom in exchange. He dove into war stories for the titles "Attack", "Battlefield Action", "Fightin' Air Force", "Fightin' Marines", "Submarine Attack", "U.S. Air Force Comics", and "War at Sea" producing a plethora through mid-1961, when he switched to Dell Comics. There he draw for the anthology "Combat", drew the movie adaptation "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (and the suspiciously similar, four-issue "Voyage to the Deep"), and a range of titles from lost-world adventure ("Kona") to heartwarming animal drama ("Lad: A Dog"). He occasionally still moonlighted for Charlton, using the initials "SJG" for his work on the 1962 "Marco Polo" movie adaptation and elsewhere.

Beginning mid-1964, Glanzman moved regularly between Charlton and Dell assignments, almost exclusively on war stories, but also on a Charlton Tarzan series. With writer Joe Gill, he created the Charlton hardboiled detective character Sarge Steel, which would go on to be acquired by DC Comics when a fading Charlton sold the rights to many of its characters in 1983.

At this point during what fans and historians call the Silver Age of comic books, Glanzman, with writer Gill, created the Charlton mythological-adventure series "Hercules", which would run 13 issues (Oct. 1967 - Sept. 1969), and showcase Glanzman's experimental side, where he might float Art Nouveau-bordered panels within action tableaux filled with Hieronymous Boschian nightmares. [Ibid., illustration p. 91]

He also during this time co-created, with writer Will Franz, "The Lonely War of Willy Schultz", a departure from most other combat features of this time, with its conflicted here caught between loyalties in the relatively clear-cut World War II. During combat in the European Theater, U.S. Army captain Schultz is falsely accused and convicted of murder; he escapes and blends into the German Army while seeking a way to clear his name and retain his Allied allegiance. The well-regarded feature, reprinted as late as 1999, ["The Lonely War Of Willy Schultz" #1-4 (May-Nov. 1999), published by Avalon Communications / America's Comics Group] was serialized in Charlton's "Fightin' Army" #76-80, 82-92 (Oct. 1967 - July 1968, Nov. 1969 - July 1970).

During the 1960s we well, Glanzman freelanced for "Outdoor Life" magazine.

DC Comics

War-comic editor-artist Joe Kubert brought Glanzman, a veteran in dual senses, to work on "G.I. Combat" (for years illustrating the feature "Haunted Tank"), "Our Army At War", "Star Spangled War Stories", "Weird War Tales" and other combat titles at DC Comics, one of the two industry leaders. Glanzman would also occasionally draw stories for DC's supernatural-mystery anthologies. By late 1979, with most of DC's war titles either canceled or converted to character series with established teams, Glanzman remained solely on "G.I. Combat" and began freelancing again for Charlton. Following his last "Haunted Tank" story, in "G.I. Combat" #288 (March 1987), Glanzman drew two more stories for DC a year later, in "Sgt. Rock" #420-421 (Feb.-April 1988). He would return to ink penciler Tim Truman on the Western miniseries "Jonah Hex: Two Gun Mojo" (Sept.-Dec. 1993), "Jonah Hex: Riders of the Worm and Such" (March-July 1995), and "Jonah Hex: Shadows West" (Feb.-April 1999).

USS Stevens

*1970::Our Army at War 220 223 225 ::Our Fighting Forces 128
*1971::Our Army at War 227 230 231 232 235 238::Our Fighting Forces 132 134 136
*1972::Our Army at War 240 241 242 244 245 247 248 ::Our Fighting Forces 136 138 139 140::Weird War Tales 4::G. I. Combat 152
*1973::Our Army at War 256 257 258 259 261 262::Our Fighting Forces 141 143 ::Star Spangled War Stories 167 171 174
*1974::Our Army at War 265 266 267 275
*1975::Our Army at War 281 282 ("I am Old Glory") 284
*1976::Our Army at War 293 298
*1977::Sgt. Rock 308

Later career

Glanzman also contributed a handful of war stories to Marvel Comics from 1986-1989, in the black-and-white adventure magazine "Savage Tales", the Marine Corps series "Semper Fi", an issue of "The 'Nam", and most notably "A Sailor's Story" / "Marvel Graphic Novel" #30 (March 1987), a 60-page true account, which he both wrote and drew, of his time on U.S. S. Stevens during World War II. Unusually for Marvel's graphic-novel line, it was released in hardcover rather than as a trade paperback. A trade paperback edition followed, together with a sequel, "A Sailor's Story, Book Two: Winds, Dreams, and Dragons", which continued the story up to the war's end.

Other work in the 1990s includes inking some issues of "Turok Dinosaur Hunter" for Acclaim Comics and "Zorro" for Topps Comics, and writing and drawing a serialized feature in Flashback Comics' "Fantastic Worlds" #1. His last known works are in two anthologies: Writing and drawing the 10-page, true-life story "On the Job: Cooks Tour", in the graphic-story trade-paperback "Streetwise" (TwoMorrows Publishing, 2000, ISBN 1-893905-04-7), and the donated, four-page "There Were Tears in Her Eyes" in the squarebound benefit comic "9-11: The World's Finest Comic Book Writers & Artists Tell Stories to Remember" #2 (2002).

From 1999-2001, the Avalon Communications imprint America's Comic Group / ACG (not to be confused with American Comics Group / AGC) reprinted copious amounts of Glanzman's Charlton Comics work in a number of mostly one-shot titles, including "Hercules", "Flyboys" "Nam Tales" , "Star Combat Tales", "Total War" and "ACG Comics Presents Fire And Steel".

In 2003, Glanzman began working on webcomics, writing and drawing the 19th-century nautical adventure "Apple Jack" and reteaming with his "Willy Schultz" writer, Will Franz, on the Roman centurion series "The Eagle". [ [http://www.comicstories.com/index.htm Comic Book Stories] (webcomics site)]

Footnotes

References

* [http://lambiek.net/artists/g/glanzman_sam.htm The Lambiek Comiclopedia: Sam J. Glanzman]
* [http://www.comics.org The Grand Comics Database]
* [http://www.toonopedia.com/kona.htm Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Kona, Monarch of Monster Isle]

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/ussstevens/ Sam Glanzman's U.S.S. Stevens]