As I prepared to lunch with this episode’s guest, I was startled to realize I’d last interviewed him in 1974—43 years ago! Back then, I was an assistant editor in the Marvel Bullpen, while Marv Wolfman was (among many other things) scripting Tomb of Dracula and editing Crazy magazine, not yet having ascended to the role of Editor-in-Chief. And it was my job to report on his doings for the readers of F.O.O.M., Marvel’s official fan magazine.

Over the course of his career, Marv did a whole lot more than what I talked with him about back then. He went on to script the adventures of many legacy characters for both Marvel and DC, including the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, Superman, and Green Lantern, and during that time he also co-created the characters of Blade, Bullseye, Destiny, Nova, and many others. He wrote the Teen Titans comic for 16 years. There’s even more to Marv than that, of course, as you’ll find out when you give this episode a listen.

Our lunch took place on the Sunday of the recent Baltimore Comic-Con when we fled the convention enter for La Tavola restaurant in the heart of Little Italy.

We discussed his horrifying early job as a DC Comics intern destroying (and in some cases rescuing) original art, why he loves the science fiction writer Alfred Bester, how his writing back when he started out was a blend of John Broome and Stan Lee, what he learned from binge-reading 181 issues of Spider-Man before starting to script it himself, what it was like returning to DC after his years at Marvel, why he felt he could write Tomb of Dracula even though when he was handed the assignment he’d never read the Bram Stoker novel or seen any of the movies, his secret to making the Teen Titans seem like actual teens, why he owes his career to Gene Colan, and much, more.

Here’s how you can share some lasagna with us—

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3) Or simply use the this embed to listen here without leaving this page.

You’ll discover, as you listen, that I began by baffling Marv in repeating back to him something he’d said to me during the aforementioned long-ago interview—his claim that Marvel’s black-and-white books had always been meant to appear in color, were in fact sent to the printer in color, but that the printer erroneously put them out in black-and-white. He was pulling my leg in 1974 of course, and as you listen, you’ll see I returned the favor in 2017.

You can read that early interview for yourself right here.

And if you want to know what we looked like back when that interview took place, check out this photo of us from around the same time. That’s Marv on the far left, followed by the late Len Wein, then me with a shepherd’s crook (and yes, I did wander NYC with one of those back then—hey, it was the ’70s), and finally artist Jim Craig.

One of the things I questioned Marv about over lunch was his appearance on a 1969 Worldcon panel during which he and Harry Harrison discussed comics. Would you like to hear that panel? Well, you can!

And now—here’s what we ate during that sunny afternoon in Little Italy—

Bread and Olive Oil

Marv’s Crab Soup

My Frito Misto

Marv’s Lasagna

My Saltimbocca alla Romana

My Canolli

For Marv’s dessert of chocolate, vanilla, and espresso gelato, look no further than in his hands in the photo up top.

If after all that, you’re still hungry for more, come back in two weeks when the guest will be Irene Gallo—the Associate Publisher and Creative Director of Tor and Tor.com, who with her art direction makes you fall in love even more with the fiction you love to read.

And remember—if that two-week wait leaves you ravenous, you can join with others to work toward shortening that gap by making a small recurring monthly donation (with perks for all patrons) over at Patreon. I have expenses in pulling the show together, some of which, like equipment and bandwidth, occur for all podcasts, but others which are due to this unique format, such as scooping up my guests and shuttling them between hotels or convention centers and restaurants, plus the meals themselves which relax my guests and help loosen their tongues. You can help subsidize those and other associated costs—and perhaps even help me grow to where I can afford to deliver more frequent episodes.

If that level of commitment’s not for you, consider making a one-time donation of any size, no matter how small, via Paypal.me.

Think of either of these as being like helping to buy dessert for one of my guests!

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Thanks for listening!