I used to have a pretty decent Silver Age comic book collection—that is, until working in the business burned me out on comics altogether. Eventually, I couldn’t bear to look at them, and sold all save a few of the more valuable ones, which I hung onto in a safe deposit box purely for investment purposes.

But as I’ve mentioned here before, there’s one comic I later regret letting go of—a comic I wasn’t even sure of the title and issue number of at first—but which thanks to one of you I learned was Tales of Suspense #69.

And thanks to Claudio Piccinini, who located and kindly sent me a copy, Tales of Suspense #69 is mine again. (more…)

Remember the Merry Marvel Marching Society mystery I asked for your help in solving two months back? The one about how I’d thought my name had appeared as an M.M.M.S. member in an issue of Tales from Suspense which featured Titanium Man on the cover, though one of you thought my name was actually published in Strange Tales instead?

Well, it turned out I was right all along!

According to Claudio Piccinini, my named appeared (along with 24 other M.M.M.S. members) in Tales of Suspense #69 (September 1965), which featured the first appearance of Titanium Man. I would have been 10 years old.

Mystery solved!

Last month, I expressed my regrets for having gotten rid of whichever Marvel comic book it was that had included my name as one of the early members of the Merry Marvel Marching Society. (Printing 25 different names in each issue every month was a thing Marvel made a habit of back then.)

I had a memory of my name appearing in an issue of Tales from Suspense which pictured Iron Man battling the Titanium Man on its cover, and I asked for your help in tracking it down. Well, some has tracked down my name—though where exactly it was tracked down from remains to be seen.

Over on LiveJournal, Doc Hermes posted the following scan, and if you look at the box of names, you see mine in the third column, four up from the bottom.

So if I now have a scan of the page containing my name, then why did I state in the header above that my mystery wasn’t fully solved, but “almost” solved?

Well, first of all, if you click on the image above, you’ll see that as of yet, I don’t have a full-sized scan.

But the real reason the mystery remains is because Doc Hermes scanned the page without making a note as to where it originated. Also, he thinks “this was from an issue of STRANGE TALES, early on in the Nick Fury run (before Jim Steranko),” which completely contradicts my Tales of Suspense/Iron Man memory.

So—I’ve got the puzzle partially completed. Any chance these additional clues will help you fill in the final piece?

When I was a kid, I joined the Merry Marvel Marching Society the moment its existence was announced in the pages of the comics. Yes, I was that much of a Marvel fanboy, even though the term fanboy hadn’t been invented yet. But considering how I joined, it’s surprising I ever became a member.

I gathered my pennies, nickels, and dimes, shoved them into an empty Junior Mints box, taped it shut, shoved that into an envelope, taped that shut, and mailed the chunky package off to 625 Madison Avenue. After what seemed like a millennium of waiting, and wondering whether the mess I’d mailed ever made it, my membership kit arrived … including this snazzy button, which I still own, and which I often think of wearing to Comic-Con, stopped only by my fear of the heartache I’d feel if I lost it.

But there’s another momento of that membership I’ve lost over the years … and I’m hoping you can help me regain it. (more…)

I was contacted last week by a reporter for Back Issue magazine. He wanted to interview me about an obscure short feature I wrote starring the X-Men character the Angel when I worked for Marvel Comics in the ’70s. In addition to picking my brain about the creation of that story, which appeared way back in Marvel Treasury Edition #27, he was hoping I might still have my written Marvel-style plot or some of the original artwork. It turned out that I had neither of those, but during my search through the dusty Edelman archives, I did find two other bits of Marvel memorabilia which took me way back—ID cards which marked two very important stages in my life.

The first was my membership card in the Merry Marvel Marching Society, the fan club created by Stan Lee back when I was nine years old. I can still remember packing my pennies, nickels, and dimes into an empty Junior Mints box and then taping it shut before sealing it inside a envelope. I’m amazed that my lumpy, jingling package made it through the mail all the way to Madison Avenue.

Weeks later, after I received my kit of Marvel paraphernalia, I carried that MMMS card wherever I went. My membership number was 3656, and I memorized the Merry Marvel Pledge that was printed on the back. (more…)