Alfred Bester: Difference between revisions

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{{Creator  
{{Creator  
|name=Alfred Bester
|name=Alfred Bester
|image=
|image= [[Image:Bexter.png|200px]]
|Born= December 18, 1913
|Born= December 18, 1913
|Died= September 30, 1987
|Died= September 30, 1987
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|}}
|}}


'''Alfred Bester''' was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books. Though successful in all these fields, he is probably best remembered today for his work as a science fiction author, and as the winner of the first Hugo Award in 1953 for his novel The Demolished Man.
'''Alfred Bester''' was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books.  


In 1942, two of his science fiction editors got work at DC Comics, and invited Bester to contribute to various DC titles. Consequently, Bester left the field of short story writing and began working for DC Comics as a writer on Superman, Green Lantern and other titles. It is popularly believed that Bester wrote the version of the Green Lantern Oath: "In brightest day, In blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, green latern's light".
==Comic Books==
Spring 1941, Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff start working for Detective Comics (DC). From Standard Magazines they brought with them Alfred Bester. Bester, who knew absolutely nothing about comics, told that Bill Finger (with help from Mort, Jack and Murray Boltinoff) learned him about comic books and comic book writing.  
Bester wrote scripts for various figures, among them:  Captain Marvel, Genius Jones, Green Lantern, Hourman and Thorndyke, Starman and on. Late 1946, Bester left the comics industry and turned his attention to radio scripts.  


Bester was also the writer for Lee Falk's comic strips The Phantom and Mandrake the Magician while their creator served in World War II. It is widely speculated how much influence Bester had on these comics. One theory claims that Bester was responsible for giving the Phantom his surname, "Walker".
==Ghosting for Lee Falk==
Early 70’s [[Lee Falk]] was to write a series of The Phantom novels for Avon Publications in the U.S. As later remarked by Ron Goulart, ''Lee Falk didn’t keep up with things and was looking for a writer who could adapt old strip continuities into novels. During [[Spotlight on Lee Falk - The WWII Years|WWII]] Alfred Bester had ghosted Falk’s strip and without being aware that Bester had become a successful writer, Lee Falk first asked him to write a few novels.''


After four years in the comics industry, in 1946 Bester turned his attention to radio scripts, after wife Rolly (a busy radio actress) told him that the show Nick Carter, Master Detective was looking for story submissions. Over the next few years, Bester wrote for Nick Carter, as well as The Shadow, Charlie Chan, Nero Wolfe and other shows. He later wrote for The CBS Radio Mystery Theater.
Later on Bester confirmed that he had worked on both [[The Phantom]] and Mandrake during WWII with the anecdote:


== Mandrake the Magician Dailies by Alfred Bester(1942-1946) ==
''I had one funny experience during that time that I was writing comics. I also ghosted Mandrake and The Phantom for Lee Falk. Lee and I got together and he was telling me how one of the Sunday pages from Mandrake sold at auction in Paris for three hundred dollars. I told him, when we moved into our brownstone at 68th Street, the old Stephen Vincent Benét house we managed to get, I papered one entire wall of my workshop with the silver prints from Green Lantern. And he said, "My God, they're worth a fortune today, do you still have them?" I said "No, when we moved out I just left'em behind; I just put'em up with carpet tacks." I had no idea then that there would be this tremendous nostalgia vogue for the old comics. Had I but known ..''


{| {{table}}
===The ghost period===
!# !!Title !!Writer !!Artist !!Start !!End !!Weeks
Neither Lee Falk nor Alfred Bester told more detailed about the period, or which stories, Bester ghosted Lee Falk. 
|-
Reading the non-dated anecdote by Bester he said (to Lee Falk) he had moved out of the Stephen Vincent Benét house, where he had a wall of silver prints of Green Lantern.
|29 || "[[The Witch of Kaloon]]" || Bester || Davis || 12 Apr 1943 || 23 Oct 1943 || 28
|-
|30 || "[[The Earthshaker]]" || Bester || Davis || 25 Oct 1943 || 29 Jan 1944 || 14
|-
|31 || "[[The Dome]]" || Bester || Davis || 31 Jan 1944 || 24 Jun 1944 || 21
|-
|}


== Mandrake the Magician Sundays by Alfred Bester(1942-1946) ==
Stephen Vincent Benét died on March 13, 1943. And according to GCD Bester’s first Green Lantern story was in the shops fall 1943. The anecdote then must have taken place after fall 1943 and before March 7, 1944, when Lee Falk was enlisted as private at Fort Devens.
{| {{table}}
 
!# !!Title !!Writer !!Artist !!Start !!End !!Weeks
===The ghost stories===
|-
Two periods can be listed with possible ghosted stories:
|22 || "[[Pacifica]]" || Bester || Davis || 19 Apr 1942 || 1 Nov 1942 || 29
*Lee Falk as Chief of Radio of the Foreign-Language Division of the OWI: About spring 1942 to about September 1943.
|-
*Lee Falk in the army: March 1944 to about July 1945.
|23 || "[[Mystery of the Girls with Red Hair]]" || Bester || Davis || 8 Nov 1942 || 28 Feb 1943 || 17
 
|-
Neither the dailies with Mandrake or The Phantom shows some clear literary characteristics which may indicate that they are written by Bester. One would think that the Sunday was more equal to writing stories for comic book, but even in these stories nobody yet have found any clues indicating Bester as writer.
|24 || "[[Cloud City]]" || Bester || Davis || 7 Mar 1943 || 7 Nov 1943 || 36
 
|-
There is also another possible explanation for stories ghosted by Bester. A situation similar to the Avon novels, adapting newspaper strips into novels. Like the "Better Little Book" series with [http://www.mandrakewiki.org/index.php?title=Better_Little_Book_1418 Mandrake] and [http://www.phantomwiki.org/Better_Little_Book_1468 The Phantom], or the book [http://www.phantomwiki.org/The_Son_of_the_Phantom The Son of the Phantom] by Dale Robertson.
|25 || "[[Gloria Golden]]" || Bester || Davis || 14 Nov 1943 || 23 Jan 1944 || 11
 
|-
==Sources==
|26 || "[[The Garden of Wuzzu]]" || Bester || Davis || 30 Jan 1944 || 21 May 1944 || 17
*Lillian III, Guy. 2007. ''What's it All About, Alfie? An interview with Alfred Bester. Challenger 25, Winter 2007''. Site accessed 17 June 2015. [http://www.challzine.net/25/25alfie.html ] (from fall 1974)
|-
*[http://www.comics.org/writer/name/bester/sort/alpha/ Grand Comics Database: Alfred Bester]
|27 || "[[The Circus Adventure]]" || Bester || Davis || 28 May 1944 || 27 Aug 1944 || 14
|-
|28 || "[[The Santa Claus Pirates]]" || Bester || Davis || 3 Sep 1944 || 3 Dec 1944 || 14
|-
|29 || "[[Fountain of Youth]]" || Bester || Davis || 10 Dec 1944 || 18 Mar 1945 || 15
|-
|30 || "[[Kingdom of the Wind]]" || Bester || Davis || 25 Mar 1945 || 17 Jun 1945 || 13
|-
|31 || "[[The Attalan Deep]]" || Bester || Davis || 24 Jun 1945 || 4 Nov 1945 || 20
|-
|32 || "[[The Twins of Karana]]" || Bester || Davis || 11 Nov 1945 || 3 Mar 1946 || 17
|-
|33 || "[[The Singing Devils]]" || Bester || Davis || 10 Mar 1946 || 30 Jun 1946 || 17
|-
|34 || "[[Roc Island]]" || Bester || Davis || 7 Jul 1946 || 3 Nov 1946 || 18
|}


Note: Bester wrote the ending of the story "Pacifica".


[[Category: Writers|Bester, Alfred]]
[[Category: Writers|Bester, Alfred]]

Latest revision as of 08:15, 3 July 2018

Alfred Bester
Bexter.png
Biographical information
Born: December 18, 1913
Died: September 30, 1987
Nationality: Mini usa.gif American
Occupation: Writer
Website: N/A


Alfred Bester was an American science fiction author, TV and radio scriptwriter, magazine editor and scripter for comic strips and comic books.

Comic Books

Spring 1941, Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff start working for Detective Comics (DC). From Standard Magazines they brought with them Alfred Bester. Bester, who knew absolutely nothing about comics, told that Bill Finger (with help from Mort, Jack and Murray Boltinoff) learned him about comic books and comic book writing. Bester wrote scripts for various figures, among them: Captain Marvel, Genius Jones, Green Lantern, Hourman and Thorndyke, Starman and on. Late 1946, Bester left the comics industry and turned his attention to radio scripts.

Ghosting for Lee Falk

Early 70’s Lee Falk was to write a series of The Phantom novels for Avon Publications in the U.S. As later remarked by Ron Goulart, Lee Falk didn’t keep up with things and was looking for a writer who could adapt old strip continuities into novels. During WWII Alfred Bester had ghosted Falk’s strip and without being aware that Bester had become a successful writer, Lee Falk first asked him to write a few novels.

Later on Bester confirmed that he had worked on both The Phantom and Mandrake during WWII with the anecdote:

I had one funny experience during that time that I was writing comics. I also ghosted Mandrake and The Phantom for Lee Falk. Lee and I got together and he was telling me how one of the Sunday pages from Mandrake sold at auction in Paris for three hundred dollars. I told him, when we moved into our brownstone at 68th Street, the old Stephen Vincent Benét house we managed to get, I papered one entire wall of my workshop with the silver prints from Green Lantern. And he said, "My God, they're worth a fortune today, do you still have them?" I said "No, when we moved out I just left'em behind; I just put'em up with carpet tacks." I had no idea then that there would be this tremendous nostalgia vogue for the old comics. Had I but known ..

The ghost period

Neither Lee Falk nor Alfred Bester told more detailed about the period, or which stories, Bester ghosted Lee Falk. Reading the non-dated anecdote by Bester he said (to Lee Falk) he had moved out of the Stephen Vincent Benét house, where he had a wall of silver prints of Green Lantern.

Stephen Vincent Benét died on March 13, 1943. And according to GCD Bester’s first Green Lantern story was in the shops fall 1943. The anecdote then must have taken place after fall 1943 and before March 7, 1944, when Lee Falk was enlisted as private at Fort Devens.

The ghost stories

Two periods can be listed with possible ghosted stories:

  • Lee Falk as Chief of Radio of the Foreign-Language Division of the OWI: About spring 1942 to about September 1943.
  • Lee Falk in the army: March 1944 to about July 1945.

Neither the dailies with Mandrake or The Phantom shows some clear literary characteristics which may indicate that they are written by Bester. One would think that the Sunday was more equal to writing stories for comic book, but even in these stories nobody yet have found any clues indicating Bester as writer.

There is also another possible explanation for stories ghosted by Bester. A situation similar to the Avon novels, adapting newspaper strips into novels. Like the "Better Little Book" series with Mandrake and The Phantom, or the book The Son of the Phantom by Dale Robertson.

Sources

  • Lillian III, Guy. 2007. What's it All About, Alfie? An interview with Alfred Bester. Challenger 25, Winter 2007. Site accessed 17 June 2015. [1] (from fall 1974)
  • Grand Comics Database: Alfred Bester