Back in the mid-’80s, I wrote seven Ethics columns for The Comics Journal, which proved to be a very cathartic experience. But two additional columns were never published, both bounced by TCJ.

One of them, about my relationship with Jim Shooter, was in retrospect so personal that it was probably best that no one other then me and Gary Groth ever read it. The other, about a case of advertising censorship at The Comic Buyer’s Guide, was so of its time that it’s probably no longer of interest.

But one small part of that latter column shouldn’t vanish, and that’s a letter I received from Bill Gaines, publisher of MAD magazine. I wrote to ask what he thought about the banning of the word “sex,” considering that he once plastered it on one of his own covers, and this is what he had to say.

Gaines wrote:

“Well, I deplore it—but can understand CBG’s desire to avoid controversy. If, in fact, they followed their ad policy of censoring ads, you pays your money & takes your chances! Personally, I wouldn’t advertise there!”

My apologies to Bill’s ghost for not letting this quote out into the wild until now. (more…)

And here it is, the seventh and final Ethics column I published in The Comics Journal in the mid-’80s. This installment appeared in TCJ #109, the May 1986 issue, and dealt with the great dichotomy between what the superheroes I read about were doing with their lives and what I was doing with my own.

I also wrote two other columns for TCJ which were never published. One dealt with censorship over at The Comics Buyers Guide, for which I obtained a quote from Bill Gaines, and the other was about my relationship with Jim Shooter. If I can find the manuscripts, I’ll share them with you here.

I can no longer remember exactly why Gary Groth decided he didn’t want me to continue. Maybe it’s because I was growing more and more didactic.

Or, as in the case with the column below, maybe I was becoming dickish.

That’s right. Dickish.

Because this is the only one which, upon rereading, had me feeling l sounded like a dick. (Of course, you might have been feeling that all the way back at installment one.) (more…)

Below are scans of the sixth Ethics column I published in The Comics Journal back in the mid-’80s, after I’d left the field and was trying to make sense of it all. This one appeared in TCJ #107, the April 1986 issue.

This installment dealt with sexism in the comics industry, and the politics of privilege, how those of us who benefit from an unfair institutionalized situation often cannot see the workings of the machinery that acts in our favor.

If I could temper anything I wrote here, it would be … well, give the piece a read, and I’ll see you on the other side.

As I was saying …

I shouldn’t have allowed my disappointment with Women in the Comics, by Trina Robbins and Cat Yronwode, to cause me to damn it to the extent that I did. Yes, I felt, and still feel, that the many silences I noted should have been documented, still need to be documented. But I can see, as I could not see then, that I gave in to hyperbole, and it wasn’t the evil book I painted it to be. I didn’t necessarily need to trash their efforts to make the case I was trying to make, and I’m sorry.

Only one published Ethics column remains. There were two further ones written which The Comics Journal never printed. Will I share them here? We’ll see …

Here’s the fifth Ethics column I published in The Comics Journal back in the mid-’80s. This one appeared in issue #106, the March 1986 issue, and dealt with my realization that I’d spent my entire career in comics trying to be Stan Lee, rather than myself.

But by the time I realized that, it was too late.

That issue of Captain Marvel I mentioned? You can read more about it here. I see now that when I’d written that entry in August, I’d forgotten the Space Phantom was meant to be a part of the story. Was it him impersonating Wonder Man on that final page, which would have lead to a confrontation between Captain Marvel and the real Wonder Man the following issue?

We may never know. But I guess I should never say never, for who knows what else I might discover in the vault?

As for the main point of the essay, I do sometimes regret that I didn’t start to find my voice in the comics field until just as I was leaving it. Will I ever give comics a try again? It seems impossible now with all the many things I’m trying to get done each day, but as I’ve already written above … never say never.

Here’s the fourth Ethics column of mine which appeared a few decades ago in The Comics Journal. This one, focused on what we say about our friends when they die (well, after they die, since when they’re dying I hope we’re all calling 911 or giving CPR or something), appeared in issue #104, the January 1986 issue.

And if you’re still here after I’m gone—feel free to tell the truth about me. I won’t mind!

Here’s the third and final Ethics column of mine which appeared in The Comics Journal in 1985. I’d go on to publish four more of them in 1986, and write two more after that which were never published. Now that the decades have passed, I’m not sure why those final two never saw print. I’m sure if I dug out my correspondence with the editors, I’d be able to dredge up the memories, but I’m not in the mood to do that right now.

Give it a read, if the first two installments haven’t scared you away, and then join me on the other side for some thoughts my 2009 self had about what my 1985 self thought of my ’70s self.

And now, a few random comments: (more…)

Yesterday, I shared the first in a series of Ethics columns I wrote for The Comics Journal in which I attempted to make sense of the time I worked for Marvel Comics. Here’s the second installment, which appeared in that magazine’s September 1985 issue.

But first a few comments from the perspective of 24 years later—

1) One of the editors at TCJ—I can’t remember who it was, though I’m sure I have the correspondence around here somewhere—insisted on formalizing the names of all of the people I mentioned, changing Marv and Len and even my wife Irene to Wolfman and Wein and Vartanoff, not at all the way I thought of them or should have had to refer to them. They were adhering to a journalistic style I didn’t think fit a memoir or personal essay, and it still seems strange to me when I reread the pieces, as if I’m holding at arms length those whom I should be embracing. If I ever collect and republish these essays, I’ll give my friends (and my wife) back their first names.

As for my other two comments, I think I’ll leave them until after you read the following, if you do bother to read the following.

2) I have no memory whatsoever of the fear I described at the bottom of the first column of page two. I remember the CPL essay, but I have no memory that once it appeared, I was worried about the repercussions. I think that ties into something I said in response to a comment on my previous Ethics entry—that time does heal all wounds. Many of the negative memories I had of my Marvel experience are gone, and the bile you’ll see in some of these installments has vanished. Some of that cleansing, as you’ll see later if I continue posting these columns, came through the very act of writing, which had an extremely exorcising effect.

3) All of the highly emotional details I wrote about the circumstances of my departure from Captain Marvel are also gone. If asked today to tell you what happened then, I could sketch in the vague details of Archie Goodwin’s unhappiness, Jim Shooter’s betrayal, and my own ineptitude at stating my case, but they would be factual only, coming from the head and not the heart. I am truly a different person, and those ancient emotions no longer resonate. But I share them here because, well, they’re honest to who I was then, and those who’ll want to know what it once was like at Marvel will get a more honest answer out of the me of 1985 than the me of 2009.

Next up—”Opportunity Knocked.”

Sean Howe, writer/editor of the book Give Our Regards to the Atomsmashers!, has been in touch with me because he’s writing a book in which he’ll attempt to sort out the Marvel Comics of the 1970s, which means that I’m doing some sorting out of my own.

During the mid-’80s, after I was no longer working in comics, I tried to process some of what went in in the mid- to late ’70s by writing a series of Ethics columns for The Comics Journal. And since I’m scanning copies of them for him, I figure why should the two of us be the only ones who suffer?

So here’s the first installment, which appeared in the magazine’s June 1985 issue, and started to explain how my love affair with comics turned into a love/hate relationship. You’ll see, if you hang in through all the installments—including the final one, which has never before been published—how my ambivalent feelings were eventually exorcised.

Somewhere I have copies I’ve proofed to correct typos and editing errors, but since I can’t find those right now, I’ll let these stand as originally printed.

I’ll be interested to learn how these read to you, because sitting down today and reading my 1985 opinions of my 1974 sure seems odd to me!