Recently, I was invited by my good friends at Graham Crackers Comics to the Shazam screening. After the movie, I was introduced by one of the downtown managers to one of his customers that was also a reader of the reviews. After meeting the young man and his father, he mentioned that he had been told that I was a walking encyclopedia of comic knowledge. I laughed and asked him what he wanted to ask. He was interested in a character called Mr. A.
I asked for his email and told him that I did know of Steve Ditko’s infamous hero but that I would email him with the details. That was more than a week ago, so first I want to apologize for my delay in getting him an answer. So here (as promised) is what I remember about Mr. A without fact checking it on-line. Please feel free to correct me on anything or add to this.
Mr. A was created by comic creator icon Steve Ditko in 1967 and first appeared in a Wally Wood fanzine-ish book who name eludes me at the moment. The stories were in black and white. The character would (like many other heroes) leave behind a business card. Mr. A’s card was a half black/half white card with the words good and evil written on them. If memory serves me, Mr. A came after the creation of the Question from Charlton Comics but both heroes had a shared inspiration. Both wore a suit and tie along with a fedora style hat, left strange business card behind, and wore faceless masks. However, while the Question’s mask was literally faceless, Mr. A’s mask was made of metal and had fashioned into a generic expressionless face. He also wore steel gloves.
Mr. A’s general outlook on life could be found in the writings of Ayn Rand and her Objectivism that was popular around that time. (That you can google search yourself.) And although, Mr. A only lasted a couple of stories he still shows up here and there. I remember an independent title called Twilight Guardian that had a Mr. A reference.
Hope that answers your question. The best part of this is that while this young man or myself for that matter could have typed into a search engine and gathered a lot more information, all of my information comes from living through those times. Not to sound like a grumpy old man but we didn’t have an internet to look things up. Most of the information about comics (back in the day) came from fanzines, letters written and shared between fans and creators, and books available only through mail order. And to be honest, it was a lot more rewarding and fun back then. Well, enough of that. If anyone has any questions they’d like answered, feel free to contact me through Graham Crackers Comics or via the Facebook page at Doc Schaefer.
On an unrelated note, I have always wondered if An Ryd, the young woman supposedly killed by Ultra Boy during the epic Legion of Super-Heroes storyline where Brainiac 5 goes insane was named after the famed writer Ayn Rand?
