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An Excerpt from The Eye Collection

ORIGINATED IN 1955 ….
-INTRODUCED TO FANDOM IN 1964….
--ENTERED LIMBO IN 1977…
---RE-EMERGED IN REPRINTS IN 1997…
----LAUNCHED IN NEW ADVENTURES IN 1999!

FOLLOW THE STRANGE STORY BEHIND FANDOM’S MOST FASCINATING HERO, IN …

INSIDE THE EYE
By BILL SCHELLY

The Eye Collection represents the culmination of the amazing career of The Eye, Underworld Executioner that has thus far spanned forty-seven years. This article-an expanded version of the one in The Eye Special Edition #1-will acquaint you with each phase of the Ocular Operative’s development, which I hope will enhance your reading enjoyment.

His Singular Beginning
Our story begins humbly enough in 1953 when two high-schoolers in Fort Wayne, Indiana, met in gym class, and became best friends when they realized both loved comic books. Richard "Grass" Green and Ronn Foss turned out to be talented artists. Over the next couple of years, they frequently got together to chat about comics, and try to draw their own comic strips. Whenever either had an idea for an original costumed hero, he would draw (and usually color) the character on a 3" by 5" index card, with the name along the top. They called these "character cards."

"We never did anything more than a single drawing of most of those heroes," Foss told me in an interview many years later. "Many of them were variations of established professional characters, though a few were unique." One of the unique ones created by Grass Green was a weird-looking fellow with a huge eyeball for a head. He was named (appropriately enough) The Eye, and was garbed in a red tunic, blue jodhpur pants, white gloves and white boots.

That original character card somehow survived the vagaries of the ensuing years, and resides now in the Comic Fandom Archive, a gift from Grass Green himself. It’s a fascinating artifact. For one thing (miracle of miracles!), it’s dated. We know exactly when The Eye was committed to paper: November 4th, 1955-in the brief period between the establishment of the Comics Code Authority, and the appearance of the new Flash in Showcase #4. The Eye was originated a full year before the birth of the Silver Age of comics.

In the reproduction of that card, the dark coloring of the iris and pupil on the headpiece may be difficult to differentiate in black-and-white. Also the "whites" of the eye are colored in. This is the only significant aspect of the character’s design that was not carried over into the later comic strips.

And something else. What’s that odd-looking floating object in the background, behind The Eye? It’s a spherical hovercraft of sorts, ladder extended-proof positive that Grass also conceived the vehicle that has come to be known as the Eyeball in the new adventures. It’s the kind of detail that isn’t found on the other surviving cards in the set, which seems to indicate that Green had put a bit more thought into this particular creation than the others.

That’s how the saga of The Eye began: a somewhat crude but imaginative drawing by a precocious African American teenager in the American Midwest.

The Eye "character card" drawn and colored by Richard "Grass" Green
as a teenager in 1955.

Enter: Biljo White
Now we must jump ahead eight years, to early 1963, when Green’s buddy Ronn Foss was visiting prominent members of the new comic fandom movement that had coalesced with the publication of Alter Ego #1 in 1961. Foss had assumed the editorship of Alter Ego from it’s founder Jerry Bails, and was eager to meet some of the most active members of fandom in person. One of those people was a fireman living in Columbia, Missouri, by the name of Bill J. White. Just about everyone called him Biljo-or, Capt. Biljo for fun.

During their visit, Ronn and Biljo fell to discussing a drawing White had done for The Comicollector, another fanzine published by Foss. White had concocted an off-the-cuff drawing of a character he called The Eye. That’s when Ronn told Biljo about the hero by the same name created by Green. It’s unclear whether Foss had the actual character card with him at the time, or whether he drew Grass’s version from memory, but whatever the case, Biljo was immediately captivated by Green’s character design. He wrote to Grass for permission to develop a comic strip starring the hero with a single large eye-for-a-head. When he was given the green-light, he set about devising a suitable narrative.

In The Eye’s debut in Star-Studded Comics #3 (1964), it was established that he was known as an underworld executioner on the payroll of a crime syndicate; however, he was actually an undercover policeman. "Introducing The Eye" gave us the first glimpses of the powers of that cool-looking headgear, which included hypnosis, a burning beam, X-ray vision and a blinding flash beam. For the strip’s atmosphere, White drew on his memories of the pulp magazines of the 30’s and 40’s, as well as the urban milieu of his favorite comic book hero, Batman. He envisioned The Eye as a nightmarish specter who would first terrify his victims, and then dispatch them. As it turned out, rather than killing them, the "executioner" used hypnosis to merely demobilize them, then spirited them away to an upstate rest home called Safe Haven.

The Eye debuted in Star-Studded Comics #3.

More details of The Eye’s techniques were revealed in the second strip of the series, "The Eye - Unmasked!" which appeared in Fighting Hero Comics #10. The first two strips were drawn on ditto masters for spirit duplication, an inexpensive process that produced its copies in purple printing.

The response to these features was resoundingly positive. The character and the setting White had chosen really clicked with the readers. From the very start, the Underworld Executioner took his place as one of the pre-eminent amateur heroes of the early fanzines.

A Comic Book of His Own
The Eye was so popular, in fact, that he was awarded his own small-press comic book in 1965, making him the first to achieve that distinction. The Eye #1 was printed by professional photo-offset with a color cover and black-and-white interior. Instead of being limited to the 200 copies that could be made from a single ditto master, White could print as many copies as he liked. While no record of the print run of this first edition exists (and Biljo doesn’t remember), it’s probable at least 500 copies were printed, and perhaps as many as 1,000.

Also in 1965, The Eye began appearing in small installments in each issue of Voice of Comicdom, a widely-circulated fan newspaper. His adventures were now reaching out to all corners of fandom. Fans began clamoring for an origin story. However, The Eye wasn’t Biljo White’s only enterprise. He was editor and publisher of Batmania, one of the leading fanzines of the day. The majority of the time he could devote to fan activities were directed toward this endeavor-especially after the TV show debuted in early 1966. For a time, Batmania appeared almost monthly, and The Eye was relegated to the back burner.

t wasn’t until 1969 when The Eye #2 (actually titled Capt. Biljo Presents #2) appeared-but it was worth the wait. In it was not only a clever origin story (which has been adapted to comprise the middle chapter in the new "Untold" origin in this book), but tantalizing previews of coming attractions: glimpses of The Eye’s headquarters on Observatory Hill, and the Eye-Plane. This only served to whet fans’ appetites for more.

Such was not to be. White was burned out from too many fandom projects. Also, by that time, the fan-scene had changed considerably. Many of the old-time fans became less active, and a whole new generation of names began cropping up in the fanzines. But it was one of those newer fans-Martin Greim, publisher of the offset fanzine Comic Crusader-who eventually instigated the return of the Underworld Executioner, however briefly.

As a final coda to the long run of Comic Crusader, Greim conceived a super-thick issue that would present new comic strips starring all the top amateur heroes, done by their original creators. He engaged Ronn Foss to draw The Eclipse one more time, and induced Grass Green to bring back Xal-kor the Human Cat who had created a sensation in Star-Studded Comics. Greim was persuasive, and somehow managed to coax Biljo into producing the long-awaited return of the Ocular Operative. The strip was titled "The Secret Lair of The Eye," and picked up exactly where the story had left off in 1969. In this tale, we met the lovely and feisty policewoman Lynn O’Flynn, and got to see the Eye-Plane in action. While Biljo’s artwork showed evidence of rustiness here and there, it was still a worthy and welcome addition to The Eye mythos.

Capt. Biljo Presents #2 (aka The Eye #2).

The issue was called Comic Crusader Storybook, and had an enormous print-run-perhaps as high as 10,000 copies or more, according to Greim. Unfortunately, that 1977 publication was to be the last hurrah for The Eye, who then entered the region of missing heroes that comic fans call Limbo.

The Hamster Press Reprints
The Eye was MIA for two full decades, until he re-surfaced in a series of reprints from Hamster Press, the publishing company owned by Yours Truly. I had been an active participant in comic fandom starting in 1964, and a huge fan of The Eye and most of the other characters illustrated by Biljo White. I thought so highly of them, and those of other highly talented fan writers and artists, that I decided to reprint an assortment of the best strips in a thick trade paperback book that came to be known as Fandom’s Finest Comics. I had somehow managed to re-acquire most of the old zines, and soon was back in touch with the creators of such great characters as Doctor Weird (Howard Keltner), The Eclipse (Ronn Foss), Altron Boy (Larry Ivie), and-happily-The Eye (Biljo White). FFC was published in early 1997. Following on the heels of my earlier book The Golden Age of Comic Fandom, FFC sold briskly. A lot of comics fans seemed to dig the old fanzine heroes as much as I did, and I soon discovered that it wasn’t just the "old farts"-a sizable number of younger twenty- and thirty-somethings enjoyed the stuff too.

Fandom’s Finest Comics reprinted the offset version of "Introducing The Eye" from The Eye #1 and the "Origin of The Eye" from Capt. Biljo Presents #2, among other sterling items. The response was so encouraging that I followed up with a second volume of Fandom’s Finest Comics, a little over a year later. This one offered more Eye reprints, plus a special profile of Biljo White with lots of never-before-seen photos and artwork.

I found myself wondering: Wouldn’t it be great if The Eye could return in a series of brand new adventures? After all, the character had only made a handful of appearances; his potential had largely been untapped. However, these thoughts were tinged with melancholy, for I knew from recent conversations with White that he wasn’t able to undertake such an enterprise due to current commitments. Yes, he had written and drawn a brand-new Eye strip ("The Return of The Eye") which headlined FFC, Vol. 2… but a whole new series? No.

That’s when the light bulb lit up in my head. Of course! I had always wanted to try my hand at drawing The Eye. Maybe it would just be possible….if…. Whoa! It was a big if. Would Biljo allow me to adopt the character? Would he entrust his "baby" to me?

The New Adventures
Fortunately, White had been delighted with the Hamster Press books published thus far, and unhesitatingly gave me his approval. We ended up entering into an agreement that passed the rights of The Eye to me. All obstacles were swept away, and the stage was set for a new era of adventure. That’s when I rolled up my sleeves and really got down to work.

It wasn’t easy! Story ideas came quickly to mind, but the challenge of tackling the artwork was daunting. I had big shoes to fill, and I certainly didn’t want to let down the man whose work I respected and admired.

To cut to the chase, the result was "The Eye Confronts Myopia!" in The Eye - Special Edition #1, which is included in this collection. While I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my artwork, Biljo was extremely generous in his plaudits, and most of the readers also seemed to like the book too. Of course, it helped tremendously that the gifted and prolific Bill Black (of AC Comics) enthusiastically accepted the assignment of doing the inks; he certainly made sure the finished product looked better than the "naked" pencils. I resolved from that point forward to not only improve my own art, but to work in collaboration with Bill or other equally talented inkers.

Heroes Vs. Hitler followed the next year, bringing back not only The Eye, but a bevy of my favorite fanzine heroes. That book sold four times as many copies as The Eye Special Edition #1. I was further encouraged. True, those better sales numbers might have been due to the participation of such luminaries as Roy Thomas and Dick Giordano. Whatever the reason, it was clear that an audience existed for the kind of comics I wanted to produce, and I resolved to find a way to do more.

An Expanded Origin
When I sat down to write another Eye solo tale, my mind drifted back to the perplexing issue of his costume. I wondered: Is there any way to explain why the criminals who supplied him with that costume chose patriotic colors for their executioner’s togs? Was there a way to justify it within the context of The Eye saga?

What about Eric Drake, the undercover policeman whom fate chose to become this unorthodox crime-fighter? What sort of person was he? What was his background? What motivated him to fight so relentlessly against the dueling crime syndicates of Yorkton City? Then I realized what I wanted to do next: write an extended origin of The Eye that in one way or another answered those questions. An "Untold Origin," if you will.

And that, friends, brings you up to date!