Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 26, 1994 TAG: 9406260079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
With those words, one of the most famous and enduring of comic book super heroes entered the world 54 years ago. Much has changed since then, including the hero himself, and Marty Nodell, creator of the original Green Lantern, has witnessed it all.
Nodell, closing a weekend appearance here, will sign comics and prints for fans at Star City Comics on Williamson Road today from noon to 6 p.m.
In the late 1930s, Nodell graduated from art school in Chicago and traveled to New York, where he sought a job in advertising. With the job market still hurting from the Depression, Nodell was about to give up when he saw some Superman and Batman comic books on a newsstand.
Thinking he would be good at drawing comics, he looked up DC Comics editor Sheldon Mayer. Mayer told the fledgling artist that he could have a shot at comic books if he could come up with a new hero.
Taking the subway home that night, Nodell glanced out the window, trying to think of an idea. "I noticed a train man in the trough of the subway waving a red lantern . . . to stop the train. Everything went well and then he waved a green lantern to go."
And Alan Scott, the 1940s Green Lantern, was born. As Green Lantern, Scott donned a mask and flew into the night to battle crime and injustice. He derived his powers from a ring (a nod to Richard Wagner's Ring cycle operas) and a mystical green lantern.
Nodell worked on the Green Lantern comic and "All Star Comics," in which Green Lantern appeared as a member of the Justice Society of America, in the early 1940s. From 1948 to 1950, he hung his shingle at Timely Comics (which later became Marvel Comics), drawing heroes such as Captain America and the Human Torch.
Like many comic-book artists of the time, Nodell worked under an alias (Mart Dellon). When the era of McCarthyism and Senate subcommittee hearings arose, he decided it was time to get out. Popular sentiment was growing against comic book super heroes, blaming the caped do-gooders for contributing to juvenile crime and violence.
Nodell took a job in advertising and worked at agencies in Chicago and New York. He is noted for creating the final design for the Pillsbury Doughboy.
He gained a new interest in comics in the mid-1970s, when he learned about Green Lantern's fan following. Since 1982, he has attended many comic book conventions, and he makes as many as 50 personal appearances a year, signing comics.
"I'm very appreciative of it; I'm very happy to see the fans," he said.
Today's comic books, he said, are "far more sophisticated in the way they are drawn and written . . . [but] some are very dark and serious in their presentation."
There are many Green Lanterns in today's comic-book world, and Nodell is proud that Alan Scott is still one of them. So proud, in fact, that he gave his wife his junior high school gold ring to be melted down and turned into a Green Lantern ring.
These days, Nodell lives in semi-retirement in Florida but keeps his feet wet in comics. He penciled a Green Lantern story for the hero's 50th anniversary in 1990, and this fall Dark Horse Comics will release an anthology in which Nodell collaborates with science-fiction author Harlan Ellison.
by CNB