You’ve probably already heard this one. A couple, about to get married, go through their family albums in order to put together a wedding video and discover a photo of the two of them taken during separate family vacations at Disneyland long before they’d ever met.

Just in case this one passed you by, here’s the story:

The reason I’m bringing this up is because it got me to thinking about another photo which might exist somewhere out there—one taken of Irene and me long before we met.

Irene and I met my first day on the job at Marvel Comics—June 24, 1974. (Yes, that’s right. Thursday will be the 36th anniversary of the day we met.) But we were both present at Phil Seuling’s 4th of July weekend Comic Art Conventions in 1970, 1971, 1972, and 1973. Rather than meeting at Marvel, we could have first met during any of those four weekends … but didn’t.

Comic conventions were small in those days. As you can see from the 1970 Comic Art Convention membership list, when the program book was printed, there were only 146 attending members and 52 supporting members. So it was entirely possible that at some point over that weekend or any of the subsequent ones, Irene and I stood next to each other poring through boxes of comics, or sat in the audience near each other, or waited for the same elevator. And I’ve often wished for a time machine to see if there was ever such a missed meeting.

When I mentioned to Irene that this Disneyland story gave me hope someone might someday turn up a photo of the dealers room showing us side by side, Irene said, well, let the world know you’re looking for it.

So that’s exactly what I’m doing. Maybe that moment in which my wife and I unknowingly crossed paths long before we met exists only in my head. But just in case it actually happened—and in case, on top of that bit of serendipity, someone happened to snap a picture of it—I’m putting out the call. If there’s a cache of early ’70s NY con photos somewhere out there that hasn’t yet made its way to the Internet (because, believe me, I’ve searched), please let me know!