by Earl
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The Collected Stories
Earl Binder and Otto Binder
(custom book cover)
Jerry eBooks
About Earl Binder and Otto Binder
Pseudonyms
“Meet the Authors”
“Meet the Authors”
“Meet E(and)O Binder!”
“Introducing the Author”
“Meet the Author”
Bibliography
Short Fiction Bibliography: chronological
Short Fiction Bibliography: alphabetical
Fiction Series
1932
THE FIRST MARTIAN
1933
THE MOON MINES
MURDER ON THE ASTEROID
1934
THE SPORE DOOM
THE ANCIENT VOICE
THE GREEN CLOUD OF SPACE
ENSLAVED BRAINS (Part One)
ENSLAVED BRAINS (Part Two)
ENSLAVED BRAINS (Conclusion)
COSMOS: Chapter 16—Lost in Alien Dimensions
EIGHTY-FIVE AND EIGHTY-SEVEN
THE THIEVES FROM ISOT
DAWN TO DUSK (Installment One)
DAWN TO DUSK (Installment Two)
1935
DAWN TO DUSK (Conclusion)
THE ROBOT ALIENS
SHADOWS OF BLOOD
SET YOUR COURSE BY THE STARS
IN A GRAVEYARD
SHIPS THAT CAME BACK
1936
THE CRYSTAL CURSE
SPAWN OF ETERNAL THOUGHT (Part One)
SPAWN OF ETERNAL THOUGHT (Conclusion)
THE HORMONE MENACE
THE GREAT ILLUSION
THE TIME ENTITY
STATIC
1937
S O S IN SPACE
THE ELIXIR OF DEATH
LIFE DISINHERITED
THE CHEMICAL MURDER
THE JUDGMENT SUN
STRANGE VISION
DIAMOND PANETOID
THE CHESSBOARD OF MARS
CONQUEST OF LIFE
VISION OF THE HYDRA
THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
WHEN THE SUN WENT OUT
A COMET PASSES
VIA ETHERLINE
QUEEN OF THE SKIES
BLUE BEAM OF PESTILENCE
THE TIME CONTRACTOR
1938
WAYWARD WORLD
THE ANTI-WEAPON
VIA ASTEROID
LIFE ETERNAL
EYE OF THE PAST
RAYS OF BLINDNESS
FROM THE BEGINNING
THE SPACE PIRATE
VIA DEATH
THE ATOM SMASHER
ORESTES REVOLTS
THE MASTER OF TELEPATHY
THE METAL OCEAN
1939
“I, ROBOT”
SCIENCE ISLAND
FLIGHT OF THE STARSHELL
VALLEY OF LOST SOULS
THE IMPOSSIBLE WORLD
MARTIAN MARTYRS
TRAPPED BY TELEPATHY
THE FLAME FROM NOWHERE
THE JULES VERNE EXPRESS
PRISON OF TIME
ROPE TRICK
THE INVISIBLE ROBINHOOD
WHERE ETERNITY ENDS
THE BLACK COMET
GIANTS OF ANARCHY
MOON OF INTOXICATION
THE LIFE BATTERY
THE TRIAL OF ADAM LINK
THE MOGU OF MARS
THE MAN WHO SAW TOO LATE
LORDS OF CREATION (Part One)
LORDS OF CREATION (Part Two)
VIA VENUS
LORDS OF CREATION (Part Three)
LORDS OF CREATION (Part Four)
LORDS OF CREATION (Part Five)
LORDS OF CREATION (Conclusion)
MYSTERY FROM THE STARS
THE MISSING YEAR
THE THREE ETERNALS
1940
ADAM LINK IN BUSINESS
VIA PYRAMID
WATERS OF DEATH
ADAM LINK’S VENGEANCE
SON OF THE STARS
GUYON 45X
THE LITTLE PEOPLE
THE NEW LIFE
THE TIME CHEATERS
VIA SUN
ADAM LINK, ROBOT DETECTIVE
GEMS OF LIFE
DOOM FROM THE VOID
ADAM LINK, CHAMPION ATHLETE
FIVE STEPS TO TOMORROW
THE POISON REALM
POLAR DOOM
THE SECRET OF ANTON YORK
VIA MERCURY
ONE THOUSAND MILES BELOW
VIA CATACOMBS
WORLD OF ILLUSION
ADAM LINK FIGHTS A WAR
MOMUS’ MOON
VIA INTELLIGENCE
1941
AND RETURN
ARTIFICIAL UNIVERSE
ADAM LINK IN THE PAST
THE WINKING LIGHTS OF MARS
THE TEACHER FROM MARS
THE LIFE BEYOND
ICE, F.O.B., MARS
MYSTERY WORLD
ADAM LINK FACES A REVOLT
LAND OF THE SHADOW DRAGONS
WE ARE ONE
WANDERER OF LITTLE LAND
MEMOS ON MERCURY
VASSALS OF THE MASTER WORLD
1942
VIA JUPITER
ADAM LINK SAVES THE WORLD
SPACE HITCH-HIKER
DOUBLE OR NOTHING
AFTER AN AGE
1946
ADVENTURE IN SPACE
LT. JARL ON MARS
THE SPACE OLYMPICS
1947
REVENGE OF THE SPACE HERMIT
VENUS, 23RD CENTURY
SATELLITE PRISON
THE DICTATOR OF SPACE
TREASURE ON SATURN
HUMAN PETS OF NEPTUNE
THE RING BONANZA
EXILE ON MERCURY
HITCHHIKER OF SPACE
MIND OVER MATTER
THE WORLD STEALERS
ROCKET RACE
1948
DUEL IN SPACE
THE SPACE TRAP
HOBO OF THE VOID
THE ATOM DICTATOR
THE INVISIBLE MAN OF MARS
THE FREEDOM ROCKET
THE GREAT RHEAN WAR
TINY TERROR
MENACE OF THE METAL MEN
WORLD OF TITANS
MYSTERY WORLD
JAUNT ON JUPITER
1949
WORLD OF YOUTH
EVIL BEYOND THE SUN
THE MIND EXCHANGE
INTERPLANETARY CENSUS
THE WORLD OWNER
VILLAIN OF TIME
ATOMIC EXPRESS MAIL
WANDERING WORLD
WORLD WITHIN
ASTEROID ADVENTURE
MAN FROM THE PAST
THE MAN WITHOUT A WORLD
1950
ROBINSON CRUSOE OF SPACE
THE SPACE BEACHCOMBER
INTERPLANETARY COLONY
THE TIME TRIP
THE NEW MOON
JON JARL LOSES HIS JOB
SPACE SCAVENGER HUNT
INVISIBLE DOOM
WANDERERS OF SPACE
THE OLD WEST LIVES AGAIN
THE CRIME GENIE
JON JARL SAVES 1950
1951
THE METAL WORLD
THE NOVA MENACE
THE SPACE MONSTER
THE GREAT SPACE PIRACY
THE DARKNESS DANGER
1953
THE TIME CYLINDER
THE COSMIC BLINKER
A WARNING TO THE FURIOUS
ON MARS WE TROD
1954
/> THE MONSTER—OR, THE MONSTER?
THE PAYOFF
SHIPWRECK IN THE SKY
TESTING, TESTING
THE VIOLATORS
1955
MAN IN THE MOONS
IRON MAN
1957
GALACTIC GAMBLE
The most famous of the joint pseudonyms used by sff authors, Earl Andrew Binder and Otto Oscar Binder, who was the more active (and ultimately better known) of the two; after approximately 1934, when Earl became inactive as a writer, Otto continued to sign himself Eando Binder, so that some Eando Binder books—they were all published after 1940; several contain pre-1935 material—are collaborative and some by Otto alone. They both used other pseudonyms as well; together, the brothers also wrote eleven stories as John Coleridge and one as Dean D O’Brien, while Otto alone also wrote as Gordon A Giles and, later, as Ione Frances (or Ian Francis) Turek (forms of his wife’s maiden name), did some work under the house name Will Garth, and finally published a couple of novels under his own name. A third brother, Jack Binder (whom see), was an illustrator who did much of the early drawing for Captain Marvel, which was regularly scripted by Otto. The brothers all retained the German pronunciation of their surname, with a short i.
Earl Andrew Binder was born on October 4, 1904 in Harkau, Hungary, Austro-Hungarian Empire. After ending his writing partnership with his brother Otto, Earl became Otto’s literary agent until Earl died in October 1966.
Otto Oscar Binder was born on August 26, 1911 in Bessemer, Michigan. He was the youngest of six children in a family that had emigrated from Austria a year earlier. He was born and raised Lutheran. The family settled in Chicago in 1922, during a period rich with science fiction, which enthralled Binder and his brother Earl. The two began writing in partnership and sold their first story, “The First Martian” to Amazing Stories in 1930; although it wasn’t published until it the October 1932 issue; under the pen name Eando Binder.
Not earning enough as a writer to live on, Binder and his brother worked at many jobs. Earl found employment at an iron works. In late December 1935, Otto Binder began working for Otis Adelbert Kline as a literary agent in charge of Kline’s New York City office most prominently marketing the stories of Robert E. Howard, although insufficient business during this Great Depression era forced Kline to close his company after a year and a half. At the time of Otto’s move to New York City, Earl Binder dissolved the writing partnership, and all new material produced under the name of Eando Binder from January 1936 on, was solely the work of Otto Binder. Concurrent with his agent work, Binder was writing for Mort Weisinger, editor of Thrilling Wonder Stories, and Ray Palmer, editor of Amazing Stories, for the latter of whom he created the Adam Link series.
He is best known as the co-creator of Supergirl and for his many scripts for Captain Marvel Adventures and other stories involving the entire superhero Marvel Family. He was prolific in the comic book field and is credited with writing over 4400 stories across a variety of publishers under his own name, as well as more than 160 stories under the pen-name Eando Binder.
Binder entered comics in 1939 on the heels of his artist brother, Jack, who moved to New York to work at the studio of Harry “A” Chesler, one of that era’s “packagers” who provided outsourced content for publishers entering the new medium of comic books. The following year, magazine publisher Fawcett Publications began its Fawcett Comics line, and Binder started writing the exploits of such characters as Captain Venture, Golden Arrow, Bulletman and El Carim. After a year, editor Ed Herron had Binder tackle Fawcett’s most prominent character, the superhero Captain Marvel. He soon wrote for the spin-off features starring Captain Marvel, Jr. and Mary Marvel, the latter of whom he co-created with Marc Swayze.
Binder spent from 1941 to 1953 with Fawcett, writing “986 stories . . . out of 1,743, over half the entire Marvel Family saga”, per comic-book writer-editor E. Nelson Bridwell. His first Captain Marvel writing was the “Dime Action Book” novel Return of the Scorpion, featuring the villain from the 1941 Republic serial The Adventures of Captain Marvel. His first Captain Marvel comic-book story was “Captain Marvel Saves the King” in Captain Marvel Adventures #9 (April 1942). He wrote for numerous other Fawcett features, as well as many two-page text fillers that were required in comics in order to be eligible for magazine postal rates. His text stories in Captain Marvel Adventures, under the “Eando” pseudonym, starred Lieutenant Jon Jarl of the Space Patrol. During his time at Fawcett, Binder co-created with Swayze and C. C. Beck such characters as Mary Marvel, Uncle Dudley, Mr. Tawky Tawny, Black Adam and Mr. Mind, as well as two of Doctor Sivana’s four children: the evil teens Thaddeus Sivana Jr. and daughter Georgia. Binder and Beck unsuccessfully attempted to launch a newspaper comic strip featuring Mr. Tawky Tawny in 1953.
Otto Binder left Fawcett when the company shut down its comic book division in 1953, but found no shortage of work. For Timely Comics, the 1940s company that would evolve into Marvel Comics, he co-created Captain Wonder, the Young Allies, Tommy Tyme and the patriotically themed superheroine Miss America, and wrote for stories starring Captain America, the Human Torch, the Sub-Mariner, the Destroyer, the Whizzer, and the All-Winners Squad.
For Quality Comics, Binder co-created Kid Eternity, and wrote Blackhawk, Doll Man, Uncle Sam and Black Condor stories. For MLJ Comics (subsequently known as Archie Comics), he wrote stories starring Steel Sterling, the Shield, the Hangman, and the Black Hood. At Gold Key Comics, Binder co-created Mighty Samson and other characters. His science fiction for EC Comics includes “Lost in Space”, illustrated by Al Williamson, in Weird Science-Fantasy #28 (March–April 1955).
In 1948, Binder began working for DC Comics, then known as National Periodical Publications, swiftly creating Merry, Girl of 1,000 Gimmicks, in the feature “Star-Spangled Kid”, whose place Merry soon took in Star-Spangled Comics.
He then moved on to his best-known DC work, the Superman group of titles, including launching the Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen series in 1954. Binder and artist Al Plastino collaborated on the Superboy story in Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) that introduced the Legion of Super-Heroes, a teen superhero team from the future that eventually became one of DC’s most popular features. Binder and Plastino debuted the supervillain Brainiac and the Bottle City of Kandor in Action Comics #242 (July 1958) and co-created Supergirl in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). With various artist collaborators, he co-created Krypto the Super Dog, the Phantom Zone, and the supporting characters Lucy Lane, Beppo the Super Monkey, and Titano the Super Ape. In the first issue of Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, he introduced Jimmy Olsen’s signal-watch, and in #31, Jimmy’s Elastic Lad identity. He wrote the Lois Lane feature in Showcase #9 (Aug. 1957) which served as a tryout for the character’s own series.
DC writer-editor E. Nelson Bridwell credits Binder as creating the first “Imaginary Tale, for Lois Lane,” and of writing “most of the early” Bizarro stories, including at least the first “Tales of the Bizarro World” feature. The character’s first comic book appearance was in Superboy #68 (Oct. 1958) by Binder and artist George Papp and Bizarro World was introduced in Action Comics #263 (April 1960). Binder scripted what Bridwell calls the “classic [storyline] ‘Superman’s Return to Krypton.’ ” His last Superman story was “The Cage of Doom” in Action Comics #377 (June 1969).
Binder was featured in a story in the first issue of Shazam, DC Comics’ 1970s revival of the original Captain Marvel. The Binder character, drawn by C. C. Beck, meets a young Billy Batson and is astonished that the boy, who has been missing for 20 years, is still a kid.
Otto Binder was a proponent of the ancient astronauts theory, and a believer in extraterrestrial life. Binder’s theory is that human beings are “homo hybrid” an “interstellar crossbreed” (half human, half extraterrestrial). He first discussed this hypothesis in his 1968 book Flying Saucers Are Watching Us (later called Unsolved Mysteries of the Past, Tower Publications; reissue edition, 1970). He wrote Mankind Child of the St
ars with Max Flindt in 1974, discussing the concept of “astroevolution”. Erich von Däniken wrote a foreword for the book, which was revised and reprinted in 1999. He wrote extensively about UFOs in magazines, including articles detailing the experiences of claimed UFO contactee Ted Owens.
Binder became editor of Space World magazine, a move that ended in bankruptcy in the early 1960s. As he recalled in 1974:
blockqI’m far from retired, simply because I can’t afford it. All the money I made from the Marvels and had saved up went down the drain when, in 1960, I invested as junior partner in publishing Space World, a magazine about astronomics . . . I think it was a good job I did as editor-in-chief—although the public stayed away from it in droves . . . A loss every month on low sales. The mag lasted some 16 issues, during which time Bill Woolfolk and I had put in more money—I mortgaged my house—all paid up by Cap—and borrowed, etc., but we never got the lucky break. So that left me without money reserves, and it was back to the comics until 1967, when my daughter—our only child—was killed by a car at age 14. For reasons difficult to explain, my wife and I moved from Englewood, New Jersey, to upstate New York where Jack lived. I was pretty broken up and found it difficult to write again up here, but went back to sci-fi, this time as the market hit.
Otto Binder’s daughter Mary, had been on her way to school one morning when a car jumped the curb, went into the driveway in front of the school and killed her. As film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan, a family friend, recalled, “Otto never recovered. His wife never recovered. She had a breakdown, and Otto started drinking, and eventually he dropped dead of a heart attack. And the three of them were gone, like in a flash.”
In 1973, Binder worked for Vincent Fago’s Pendulum Press, adapting classic science-fiction stories into comic book format, including Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Time Machine, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.
He died in Chestertown, New York, on October 13, 1974, leaving behind, counted Bridwell, “almost 50,000 pages of comics” comprising “over 1,300 scripts for Fawcett” and “more than 2,000 for 20 other publishers”, including “some 93 heroes in 198 magazines.”
Otto Binder died of a heart attack on October 11, 1974 in Chestertown, New York.
Binder was posthumously inducted into the Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999 and the Will Eisner Hall of Fame in 2004. He was the posthoumous recipient of the Bill Finger Award in 2010.
PSEUDONYMS
Eando Binder
Otto O. Binder
John Coleridge
Will Garth
