Portrayal of women in American comics qualities". Most of DC's Silver Age superheroes each had a major female supporting character. These included three career women: journalist Lois Lane, who worked at "The Daily Planet" with Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent; Jean Loring lawyer and girlfriend of Ray Palmer a.k.a. The Atom and aircraft manufacturer executive Carol Ferris, the boss of Green Lantern's alter ego, Hal Jordan. Iris West was the on-again, off-again girlfriend of the Flash's alter ego, Barry Allen. Batman's supporting cast, beginning in the 1950s, occasionally included journalist Vicki Vale and heiress Kathy Kane, whose alter ego was the motorcycle-riding masked crimefighter Batwoman. With
Alley Award The Alley Award traces its origin to "a letter to Jerry dated October 25, 1961" by Roy Thomas, in which he suggested that Jerry Bails' fanzine "Alter-Ego", which had debuted in March 1961, create an award for fandom's "favorite comic books in a number of categories." Initially suggested as the "Alter-Ego Award," the name evolved into the Alley Award after comic strip caveman Alley Oop, since, as Thomas reasoned, "surely a caveman had to be the earliest superhero chronologically." Comics historian Bill Schelly notes that no one "bothered to ask the NEA [newspaper] syndicate for permission to utilize V. T.