In which I unmask myself as the writer of even more uncredited ’70s Marvel Comics promo copy

Posted by: Scott Tags: Brian Cronin, comics, Len Wein, Marvel Comics Posted date: January 30, 2019 | 4 Comments

Thanks to a query from the prolific comics historian Brian Cronin, it’s time to step forward as the author of yet another piece of uncredited Marvel Comics promotional copy from the ’70s. He reached out to ask who wrote the one-line blurbs which appeared for awhile underneath the artwork at the bottom of most comics pages —

— which made me realize that though over the years I’d confessed to being the writer behind the Bullpen Bulletins pages (save for Stan’s Soapbox), the copy which appeared on top of the splash pages, a set of 60 Marvel Slurpee cups, and other promotional materials, I’d yet to out myself as being the author behind that particular project.

I have no idea who wrote those one-liners before I arrived on the scene in the Bullpen, moving over from the British reprint department, but during much of my time there, I was responsible for creating those distracting slugs.

The only writer I remember creating their own was Tony Isabella. I have no idea after all this time whether that was because he was the one who wrote them before I did and handed over his assignment, and so perhaps felt more invested in their creation, or was simply protective of the promotion of the titles he scripted. We are talking about more than 40 years ago! But … I don’t remember anyone else handing in each month’s content like that.

I also don’t remember exactly how or when the task was handed over to me — I assume it had to have been Len Wein who gave me the assignment — but each month, I would interview the writers about what they had planned and create catchy write-ups with that information. And not (while we’re on the subject of stepping out from behind the mask) just for a single purpose. I also wrote up the news for F.O.O.M. (which I’ve already admitted) and cobbled together the Mighty Marvel Checklists, those half-page promos which appeared each week across the entire Marvel line.

Here are two I definitely wrote —

As to why I’m sure I wrote them — I scanned them just a few moments ago from the portfolio I used to carry to job interviews in the late ‘70s when I was trying to get a post-comics job. As to the precise comics in which they originally appeared, well … I’ll leave that to historians like Brian Cronin!

4 Comments for In which I unmask myself as the writer of even more uncredited ’70s Marvel Comics promo copy

Cecil Disharoon

When you’re looking through a back issue, you find all these clues to what Marvel was. It’s endlessly full of advertisements for itself, after all, and personable peeks behind its professional environs.
You see, things like the blurbs, and the checklist, are a special part of the experience, for anyone looking for a spark to their imagination! When you have but one comic that came out in a given year, and you look at pithy descriptions of the multitude of published stories- you can’t help making up, in your head, what would that story be like? Of course, at that point, a comic’s the big colorful movie in your head that leaps off the pages. You don’t have the pages, don’t have more than, at most, a piece of promotional art- but you have a few exciting words! PLus, they were fun because you could still get interested in finding, one day, the things described. What was written for the monthly buyer becomes a map to comics past. ON top of that, your head is now full of a multitude of comics to imagine, together in one sprawling universe, populating racks and spinners all over.

People talk so fondly of things they can re-purchase on eBay. My own happy memories touch the texture- of what it’s like to mentally live in suggested Marvel, to engage in an imaginary world based more often on advertisements than experience. It’s that version of Marvel you made up in your own mind- how you came to it- that is what is unique in our young fan experiences. Discuss published stories with whom you will, but it was the excitement spurring you to your own imagination that still lights the caverns. We still care, really, because we’re keeping alive a part of us that could do something like read a blurb of evocative names, envision some costume or entire situation.

Some time-lost good times I had were spent trying to re-create a story out of some page-bottom slug or checklist item. So thank you!