While digging through boxes of papers earlier this month in search of Clarion workshop manuscripts from 1979 which had been scrawled on by my instructors—needed for my Worldcon PowerPoint presentation “How to Respond to a Critique of Your Writing”—I came across a box containing photocopies of several pieces of artwork I hadn’t even remembered owning.

I’ll probably end up posting them all here eventually, but since I shared a a never-before seen drawing of the Scarecrow on John Byrne’s birthday last month, I thought—why not start off with a never-before-seen drawing of The Scarecrow by Don Perlin, an artist best known for Werewolf by Night, a title which had impressed me way back when.

According to the one page of script which was packed away with the photocopy, this was meant to be the splash page for Scarecrow #2, with room left at the top for one of Marvel’s introductory text paragraphs and at the bottom for the indicia.

(And forgive me if the top and bottom halves of the illustration don’t entirely line up—I don’t own a scanner large enough to fit the entire piece, and so scanned each half separately and put it all back together again with Photoshop.)

But (you may ask) whatever happened to Scarecrow #1?

After my first Scarecrow story appeared in Dead of Night #11 (dated August 1975), the character was immediately given his own bimonthly title. But before the first issue could appear, Marvel underwent a great implosion, and the book was canceled before its own birth. The story meant for the planned first issue was printed in Marvel Spotlight #26, so no second issue ever appeared. I can’t even remember whether it was ever written or drawn. As far as I know, this photocopy is all that exists of that second issue.

And as for the lettering which appears above the title, my script indicates that it was to read as follows:

In the dead of the night,
By the full of the moon,
The evil that drives us
will breath its last breath …

For the chase with the hell-fiend
is won by the swift—
However you look at him
the SCARECROW SPELLS DEATH!

Yeah, I know, it’s doggerel … but what do you want? I was only 20 years old!

If I ever get a chance script a comic again, I promise to do better!