New nonprofit set to aid creators from comics' Golden, Silver ages

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Jan 14, 2001 by Bill Radford

They were the writers and artists who made comics' Golden and Silver ages shine in the '40s, '50s and '60s.

But over the years, many of those creators have faded into penniless obscurity or found themselves cast aside without so much as a gold watch and a thank-you.

A new nonprofit group, A Commitment To Our Roots (ACTOR), has been formed to help those who came before.

"You've got a lot of Golden Age or Silver Age guys who were probably working for page rate and nothing else, with no chance of ownership, with no pension plan, nothing like that," says Jim McLauchlin, who came up with the idea for ACTOR. "And one day, comics sometimes just dry up for these guys. Times change, styles change, whatever."

As an example, McLauchlin, a contributing editor to Wizard magazine, points to artist Herb Trimpe.

"Here's a guy who was working at Marvel for 29 years, doing 'The Incredible Hulk' that you and I grew up on," McLauchlin says. In 1996, after getting less and less work from Marvel, Trimpe was axed, receiving his termination notice via the mail. He was 56 at the time.

Trimpe returned to school, earned his teaching certificate and is now an art teacher at a New York high school. "The guy really did an amazing job of pulling himself up by his own bootstraps," McLauchlin says. "But it was also very difficult for him. ... There was a lot of worry on where he was going to be financially."

If ACTOR had existed then, it could have helped Trimpe through that time, possibly in the form of a scholarship, McLauchlin says. "Hopefully this fund will be able to provide a safety net for people who helped lay the groundwork that comics writers and comics artists work on today."

"At a certain point and time, your hand and your eye aren't as steady," notes CrossGen Comics publisher Mark Alessi, who helped transform McLauchlin's idea for ACTOR into reality. "If you have 40 years of comic-book experience, it doesn't generally allow you to do a whole lot of other jobs."

The big "coming-out party" for ACTOR will be at the Orlando, Fla., MegaCon in March. Organizers will donate a dollar off the top of every admission to the event. In addition, more than 120 artists and writers have committed to donate pieces of their work to a MegaCon auction for the group.

"It should be pretty massive," McLauchlin says. Neal Adams, Harlan Ellison, Joseph Michael Linsner, Alan Moore, George Perez, Alex Ross and Matt Wagner are among those who will be donating works.

McLauchlin, a former sportswriter, is modeling ACTOR after the Baseball Assistance Team, or BAT, which helps former players in need. McLauchlin heads ACTOR's board of directors, which includes CrossGen's Alessi, Image publisher Jim Valentino, Chaos Comics president Brian Pulido, Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada and others. A separate disbursement committee, which will determine where the money will go, consists of such comic-book greats as Joe Kubert, Roy Thomas and John Romita Sr.

Alessi expects ACTOR to raise more than a quarter-million dollars in its first year, with that sum going up significantly in following years. The MegaCon auction, he says, could end up being the biggest auction of comic-book art ever.

A lot of the creators donating to that auction are younger ones who are relatively new to success, he notes. ACTOR could serve as a wonderful bridge between new generations and old, Alessi believes.

"Isn't it kind of nice," he asks, "to see some of this industry come together instead of break apart?"

To help

Comic fans wanting more information on ACTOR or looking to make a donation can write to:

ACTOR (A Commitment To Our Roots)

11301 Olympic Blvd., No. 587

Los Angeles, CA 90064