I was horrified to hear that David Anthony Kraft — whom I first met 40+ years ago when my comics career began and last saw at the 2019 Marvel Celebrates Stan Lee afterparty — died on May 19, 2021 of pneumonia induced by COVID-19.

Here he is with Jo Duffy and me at that latter event.

Saying I was shocked and stunned is too tame. Though I can’t be sure, I likely met Dave at Marvel the same day I met my wife. My first day on staff there was June 24, 1974. I was 19. Irene’s first day was April 15, 1974. And Dave began in the Bullpen slightly earlier than either of us, on March 25, 1974.

An additional reason David Anthony Kraft’s death felt and still feels unbelievable — aside from the fact the death of any contemporary seems shocking — is only 24 hours prior to learning of his death, I discovered the apoplectic paperwork sent by the Comics Code Authority censoring one of his stories, and was going to call him.

As those who’ve been following me know, I’ve been sorting through my late sister-in-law Ellen Vartanoff’s collection. She taught comics and art, and over the decades was donated artifacts which showed how the sausage was made. This particular find relates to Giant-Sized Dracula #4 (March 1975).

Dave’s lead story in that book was titled “Let It Bleed,” with pencils by Don Heck and inks by Frank Springer. It pits Dracula against — get this — “a giant, pulsating living heart.” The censorship of one part of their battle resulted in a ridiculous splash page.

At a pivotal part of the bizarre battle, the giant heart begins to bleed. There’s even an explosive caption telling the readers so. But do you see any bleeding there in the page as published? You were supposed to see that horror. But the Comics Code said — no way!

In fact, the Comics Code said in response to the photocopies of the original art from that issue sent for review: “This page is terrible!” The dripping blood was circled, and Marvel was told to remove it. But the CCA’s rhetoric didn’t stop there.

As you can see from the cover sheet, the CCA’s language was incendiary. They wrote (in part): “Page 37 is unacceptable in its current form. It could set back comics 20 years! It is gore complete and incarnate! … I hope the entire illustration will be removed and substituted.”

Well, Marvel didn’t remove and substitute that page. Taking out the bleeding ended up being sufficient. But fan who read that issue at the time found the contrast between those hyperbolic captions and the bloodless art ridiculous, and it was much talked during the mid-’70s.

When I came across that paperwork, my first thought was — I wonder if Dave has copies of these? I was going to give him a call to share what I’d found, and talk about old times. It feels strange we lost him the same day I made my discovery, that during the moments I was considering contacting him, he was already gone. So I share these with you in his memory.

One other thing about Giant-Size Dracula #4: In addition to the aforementioned Comics Code Authority tinkering, that issue also contains a Bullpens Bulletins page on which the two of us are mentioned together as “two stalwarts.”

And we were.