I’ve already shared a few ancient superhero character descriptions with you that were written decades ago by someone at Marvel Comics—presumably Stan Lee, though until there’s some evidence that’s more than just the opinions of me and a few fellow former Bullpenners, we’ll leave that word “presumably” in there.

So far, you’ve seen the X-Men, Captain America, and Thor. (Who knew that the Thunder God was supposed to sound like Richard Chamberlain AND Richard Burton?)

Yesterday, I asked you to try to guess which famous actor Prince Namor, the Sub-Mariner, was meant to sound like in the word balloons of your mind. Did you come up with one? Give the scan below a read and see if you were right.

So … how far off were you?

Now it’s time to give some thought to whose voice comes out of Doctor Strange’s eldritch mouth. Tune in tomorrow to see how close you come!

By now you’ve probably heard the story of how Gary Friedrich recently lost his lawsuit against Marvel Comics over the rights to Ghost Rider, and how he’s now not only required to pay the company $17,000 it claims he earned from selling signed merchandise over the years, but also, he can no longer even state that he’s the character’s creator. Neal Adams, who helped get a degree of justice for Superman’s creators, has said that, “Gary is sick, and he’s about to lose his house, and though he will tell you he is not destitute, he needs help.”

Steve Niles has set up a fund to help Gary, and I’d been meaning to send a few bucks his way, because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of what you think about the merits of his lawsuit, but I’ve been busy and/or dithering since Steve got the ball rolling Friday. A few minutes ago, though, I finally got off my butt and sent $100 Gary’s way.

What riled me up enough just now to make me click that donate button? A glimpse at the Bullpen Bulletins page which appeared in all August 1972 Marvel titles announcing the coming of Ghost Rider.

What does it have to say about “a far-out new feature which we think you’re gonna dig”? Several things, but most important, it describes Gary Friedrich as the guy “who dreamed the whole thing up.”

Let me repeat that.

In 1972, Marvel Comics described Gary Friedrich, who’s now legally prevented from calling himself the creator of Ghost Rider, as the person “who dreamed the whole thing up.”

You can see for yourself below. (more…)

I’ve already shared with you who Stan Lee thought the X-Men and Captain America were supposed to sound like—at least in character guides he apparently wrote back in the ’60s. (A date based not at all on hard evidence but instead entirely on when and where in the Bullpen I discovered these, internal clues in the characters’ arcs, and some opinions of old Marvel pals.)

And now we come to the bifurcated Thunder God, with one voice as Don Blake, and another as the mighty Thor.

But before you click below, stop and think for a moment. Which actor’s voice do you imagine coming from each personality?

Done pondering?

OK, check it out and see if you were right.

So how close did you come?

Tune in tomorrow to find out whose dulcet tones should echo in your mind when you read the Sub-Mariner’s word balloons!

As you learned yesterday, someone—I always assumed Stan Lee, and Roy Thomas has since agreed with me on that assumption—felt that Professor X should sound like Leslie Howard … without an English accent.

But how about Captain America? What was he supposed to sound like?

Would you believe … Rock Hudson?

From discussions with others who worked with me in the Bullpen (and some who worked there long before I arrived), I’m leaning away from these having anything to do with educating the writers who’d come after Stan or arming the merchandising department with the ammunition it would need to better sell the characters, and toward them having been written to pitch the characters for cartoons, maybe even the 1966 Marvel Super Heroes series.

I could be wrong … but that’s what my gut’s saying for now.

Check back tomorrow to find out which two actors are supposed to come to mind when you hear the voices of Don Blake and Thor!

Those who’ve visited me at home know I’ve evolved into the opposite of a hoarder. I’m doing my best to live a stripped-down life. But I’ve made an exception for all the paperwork I collected at Marvel Comics in the ’70s, because I think it doesn’t really belong to me; it belong to you. And while digging through a file folder in search of something I’ve yet to find, I instead found something, well, marvelous.

Sometime during my years in the Bullpen I discovered a dozen or so carbon copies of descriptions of Marvel’s central superheroes buried in the back of a file cabinet, barely visible because the sheets had slipped between the drawers. And you know me—I made sure to keep my own copies, of course.

Because the pages only referenced the earliest of Marvel’s characters—the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, etc.—and because all of the references as to which famous actors’ voices we should imagine coming out of their mouths were of a previous generation, I always assumed these were written by Stan Lee. The only other person I could possibly imagine having been responsible for these based on when they were discovered is Roy Thomas, but I’m pretty sure that if he had created these, he’d have come up with a more contemporary set of actors.

There’s also the fact that (though I’m no typography expert) these seem to have been written using the same typewriter on which Stan composed his Soapboxes for the Bullpen Bulletins pages. (more…)

Todd Klein recently posted a wonderful report about a visit to DC Comics in the ’60s, which included a floor plan of the company’s offices at 575 Lexington Avenue, and made me realize—Hey! I have a map of Marvel’s 575 Madison Avenue offices from the ’70s.

A map unseen for more than 35 years.

And mine was drawn by Mirthful Marie Severin!

I can’t say for sure exactly when this map was sketched, but it was obviously begun when Roy Thomas was still Editor-in-Chief (since his name is visibly crossed out), but finished before Len Wein resigned and ceded the position to Marv Wolfman, which to me places it somewhere between late 1974 and early 1975.

This map was created to figure out where to put all the warm bodies, and not as a guide to the famous cover Marie drew around a year later for FOOM #16 (December 1976). (more…)

Remember my mysterious October mission? We’re almost at the end game.

As I told you back then, Irene decided to sell her copy of Amazing Fantasy #15. You know … the comic that introduced Spider-Man. She got some wild idea in her head that she should sock money away for our retirement so we’re not forced to eat cat food a few decades from now. Crazy, huh?

Anyway, if you’d like a shot at a beautiful copy of the book, Heritage will be auctioning hers off starting on February 3, 2012. Check out more details about the auction here.

If Amazing Fantasy #15 is too rich for your blood … (more…)

Steve Thompson, aware of my strong feelings about the paintings of Sharon Moody, alerted me to the comics-inspired art of Vin Vicini. Funny thing is, in spite of what could be seen as superficial similarities, the new images I saw didn’t bother me at all. So let’s take a look at a couple of Vicini’s paintings, and then I’ll explain why.

First, a 12″ x 12″ oil painting titled “Chapter 7: ‘Catch the Hero.’”

This first example includes details from the covers of Amazing Spider-Man #19 (December 1964), Batman #219 (February 1970), and Avengers #35 (December 1966), all of which I’ve rotated so you can more easily compare them to how they were used above.

Here’s one more, “Batman and the Crate,” an 11″ x 14″ oil painting. (more…)

Looks like there’ll be a few further examples of my ancient comics career excavated and put on display during the coming months. So if you’re interested in checking out some of my Bronze Age Marvel back-up features, but don’t want to go through the hassle of tracking down the original comics, here’s where you’ll be able to find them.

First out, on February 22, is Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Volume 8, which will apparently reprint my solo Angel story that originally appeared back in 1980 in Marvel Treasury Edition #27.

(more…)

I recently ran across an interview I did way back in 1976 for a newspaper called Compass, and while I’m surprised by what I’ve forgotten since then, I’m also a little surprised by what I remember now that I didn’t seem to remember then.

Let’s see what those forgotten facts are/were, shall we?

I said: “I remember picking up Fantastic Four #1. I guess I was bored by comics before then—I can’t remember anything before that. There may have been others, but if there were, I’ve forgotten them.”

And yet … how could that be? Because today I remember, among other things, reading copies of pre-Fantastic Four issues of Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, and The Brave and The Bold, particularly the issue of that latter title that included the first appearance of the Justice League of America. Did I only read them as used copies traded for or bought later? But surely I read comics before FF #1. Am I misremembering now or was I misremembering then? There’s no way to know now!

And what’s this? I sold a story to Marvel the year before I went on staff there as an editor? And Craig Russell was going to draw it? Really?

I have zero memory of this, but apparently, five years before my short horror story “Picasso Fever” appeared in the DC Comics’ title Secrets of Haunted House, Tony Isabella had accepted it to appear in an issue of Monsters Unleashed—to be drawn by Craig Russell! When I now tell the story of how I got into comics, it all begins with my job in Marvel’s British reprint department. If I hadn’t read this anecdote with the words quoted as coming out of my own mouth, I’d never have believed it! But man, I sure would have loved to have seen what Craig would have done with that story!

There was a lawsuit threatened over the Scarecrow? Really? (more…)