AT 14, JIM STEELE HAD A LETTER PUBLISHED IN ‘THE ATOM’ NO. 2, BUT HIS STORY DIDN’T END THERE
By Jim Steele • Photos by Josh David Jordan
In the summer of 1961, I was an avid 14-year-old comic book collector. At the time, DC was the dominant publisher of superhero, supernatural, war and adventure comics, and I collected them all. To much fanfare and success, DC had already begun to resurrect and update some of their Golden Age superheroes from the 1940s – The Flash (1956), Green Lantern (1959) and Hawkman (early 1961) – and in the summer of ’61, they reinvented another superhero, The Atom, in their “tryout” title Showcase.
A precedent had been set with The Flash’s appearance over four issues of Showcase in 1956-58 before he got his eponymous title in 1959. Green Lantern and Hawkman followed with their tryout appearances before earning their own titles. The updated superheroes were my favorite read, and I was equally enthusiastic about The Atom, so much so that I wanted DC to know he, too, should get his own ongoing series.
In the spring of 1962, the editor of ‘The Atom’ No. 2 included in the comic book’s ‘Inside the Atom’ letters column a letter from a 14-year-old Jimmy Steele (pictured here around that time). Years later, artist Gil Kane signed Steele’s copy of the issue, writing, ‘To Jimmy Steele – Good Luck Gil Kane.’
In 1960-61 the readers’ letter column in The Flash began rewarding the most interesting missives with original art pages by The Flash’s popular artist Carmine Infantino. The Flash was a favorite, and the reward of actual original art prompted my first ever letter to any publication, but, alas, my letter didn’t get published. Undeterred, after the first two Atom tryout issues, I wrote again, then anxiously waited through the third and final tryout issue of Showcase and the first issue of The Atom, which hit the comic racks in the spring of 1962. I was glad to see The Atom had gotten his own mag but disappointed that I didn’t find my letter in the “Inside the Atom” letters column. Knowing that the content of comics and their letter columns were set several weeks before the issues hit the newsstands, I held out hope that maybe, just maybe my letter had been received too late to make the deadline for the first issue of The Atom, so I waited impatiently for The Atom No. 2.
Steele today with his copy of ‘The Atom’ No. 2
The second issue came out in the summer of 1962. I recall helping my cousin with his newspaper route that summer, then stopping by the local drugstore for a soft drink. As I had been for several weeks, I was also checking for the latest issue of The Atom. It had finally arrived! Excitedly I opened the comic book to the letters page, and time stood still when I saw the letter from one Jimmy Steele! My cousin wasn’t a big comics reader, but he did think it was neat that I had a letter published in a national publication. His father, a no-nonsense blue-collar man, seemed both puzzled and astonished that I could be so into comic books that I wrote to the editor and that I could be so proud my letter had been published. (A cool side note: In the same letters column was a letter written by a teenage Dave Cockrum, who would later distinguish himself as the artist of the “New X-Men.”)
A closer look at Steele’s letter. Turns out he was in good company as his missive was printed opposite a letter from future comics artist Dave Cockrum.
Some 17 years later I attended a comic book show where Gil Kane (The Atom’s artist) was a guest. When Mr. Kane ventured out into the comic dealers’ room where I had a table, he stopped, introduced himself and then seemed bemused that I immediately asked him to please wait right there for a few minutes. Frantic, I went up and down the rows of dealers’ tables until I found a copy of The Atom No. 2, then ran back to my table to show Mr. Kane. He looked at my letter, looked at me (now 32 years old), smiled and got out a pen to sign the letters column. By 1979 I was going by Jim or James, but Gil Kane signed the book to the 14-year-old Jimmy who wrote the letter. And at that moment I was 14 again.
JIM STEELE is Chief Cataloger of Comics & Comic Art at Heritage Auctions.