Jarrod Buttery, who’s interviewed me many times for Back Issue magazine on the comics I wrote in the ’70s, is now doing a piece on comics editing—specifically, the editing of Marvel’s reprint books. Which has sent me back to the vault in which I keep all the memos I sent and received during my days in the Bullpen. And the half dozen I’ve chosen to scan and share below prove one important thing—if you were pissed back then that the reprint books weren’t complete, I’m the guy responsible.

The fact I was even involved with those reprints is a thing for which I later felt a need to apologize to my wife—check out this column I wrote for The Comics Journal to learn why.

When cobbling together the reprint annuals, the number of pages from 3-4 old stories added together rarely matched the exact number of pages we had to fill, which meant cuts usually had to be made. Some of my memos reveal the number of pages that needed to be slashed, but not the specific cuts that would get us there …

While others explained what needed to be done …

And sometimes, I apparently thought I needed to draw arrows to explain.

But the Giant-Size Annuals weren’t the only comics I caused to be hacked and slashed. I also caused old stories to be cut for Treasury Editions as well …

So there you have it. If you’re still holding a grudge after all these years about how those Marvel reprints ruined your childhood, at least now you know where to place the blame!