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— (more…)

In 1975, when I was working in the Bullpen at Marvel Comics, I flew to Toronto to appear on a panel at CosmicCon along with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and … someone whose name I no longer remember.

Neither does Marv.

And since the reason I dug out this photo was as part of my mourning process for Len, we’ll never know if he might have remembered.

When I recently shared the image on Twitter and Facebook in the hopes someone could identify the face at the far right, suggestions included Bernie Wrightson and Howard Chaykin (I blame the sideburns), but … it wasn’t either of those two.

If you happen to know who that is, please let me know!

UPDATED 9/26/2017: Thanks to Ron Kasman, who wrote this article about the history of CosmicCon, I learned that’s Jim Craig, who worked for Atlas Comics at the time, and went on work for Marvel on such titles as Master of Kung Fu and The 3-D Man.

Here’s a photo of him which appeared a couple of years later in FOOM.

Thanks, Internet, for solving this mystery!

Each day of this past weekend was split between the Baltimore Book Festival and Baltimore Comic-Con, and while that first event felt forward-thinking, the second was all about the past. Not only did I wander a dealers room in which I recognized every comic published or piece of original art created before 1980 or so, I also managed to catch up with seven people I’d worked beside during my time as a professional in the field.

And some I hadn’t seen in more than thirty years!

My nostalgia ride began with artist Ramona Fradon, whose work I’d loved as a child on titles such as Metamorpho and Aquaman.

Here we are posing with a copy of House of Mystery #273 opened to a story of mine which she drew in 1979! Not only was it a thrill to work with one of my idols, I couldn’t and still can’t imagine any artist more perfectly suited for that particular story. (more…)

If you were here to peruse the knick-knack shelves in my office, you’d eventually come across a bent key.

Why is it bent? Who bent it? What door does it no longer open?

I guess the title of this post gives away the answer to my last question. But as for the other two questions … (more…)

Over at eBay, someone just picked up a bound volume of Incredible Hulk 167-182 which had my name embossed on the cover in gold. (The cognoscenti among you will recognize that run as including the origin of Wolverine.) And he wondered … what’s up with that?

I’ve only been asked about this sort of thing once before, by someone who wanted to know whether receiving bound volumes of comics was a perk regularly given to Marvel Bullpenners in the ’70s. (As if!)

So why does this artifact exist? The short answer is … it seemed like a good idea at the time. (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…)

Back in 1975, while on staff at Marvel Comics, I edited the company’s official fan magazine, FOOM. One of the things I did as editor was to change the format of the news section. Rather than just running unadorned information, I decided I’d print interviews with the various writers and editors about what was upcoming on their titles. That way the fans would not only get facts, but also an insight into Bullpen personalities.

Some of those interviews were more successful than others.

As you’ll hear in the clip below—if you can even make out what I’m asking through the thick Brooklyn accent I had back then—my inability to get anything useful out of Archie could just as easily have been the fault of my goofy questions as anything else.

Keep listening for a special guest star—because the brief clip includes an even briefer cameo by Marv Wolfman.

And if you happen to remember why I would have made a joke back then about out-of-work police officers, please let me know—because I remember nothing!

(Thanks to Alan Light for the use of the photo I married to my audio. It’s a 1982 pic with a 1975 voice, but I hope you won’t find it too jarring.)

This will be my last post based on old issues of FOOM, I promise. But I couldn’t resist, especially since in this case, I have more than just one piece of the puzzle.

I loved the writing of Don McGregor, first in Warren’s black-and-white comics, and then at Marvel with Black Panther and Killraven. He was then, and remains now, one of my favorite comic-book writers. But even those of us who were his fans had to admit that he could be a bit … well … wordy.

Which will explain the tweaking he received in FOOM #9 at the hands of Marv Wolfman and Marie Severin, who collaborated on “The Harmony Factor Syndrome Beneath Wakanda.”

And as for that other piece of the puzzle—here’s Marv’s original script for that feature. (more…)

Since this has been a tumultuous couple of weeks in comics, I thought I’d share a second Stan Lee memo regarding personnel changes, in addition to the one I showed you several days ago.

Though the following item is signed, it’s undated, so I can’t tell you exactly when it was written. What I can tell you is that in my orderly file folder of memos from that period, it was between a memo dated March 24, 1976 (from me to John David Warner with due dates for upcoming issues of Son of Satan) and one dated April 20, 1976 (from Sol Brodsky regarding Jim Shooter’s … well … I’ll let that be a post for another day).

Yet another souvenir from Marvel’s revolving-door editor-in-chief position of the mid-’70s.

First Disney buys Marvel …

… then Paul Levitz is out at DC …

… and now this!

Where will it end?