If you were here to peruse the knick-knack shelves in my office, you’d eventually come across a bent key.

Why is it bent? Who bent it? What door does it no longer open?

I guess the title of this post gives away the answer to my last question. But as for the other two questions …

… a post today by Brian Cronin over at Comic Book Resources explains everything.

Back in 1976, when I was still on staff at Marvel Comics, “psychic” Uri Geller made an appearance in the pages of Daredevil …

But before that team-up occurred, Geller dropped by the Bullpen, as was explained by Marv Wolfman in that issue’s letter column, a visit that turned a certain unsuspecting Assistant Editor into a guinea pig.

It was then that Uri called, asking if he could come up to the offices to speak with me, to discuss the story. I said sure, hoping that this would be a chance to find out some things not in the book. He did come up the next day, and I found him to be a very likeable person, an avid Marvel fan, and not at all what one would expect a person with “special powers and abilities” to be like – in other words, the furthest thing from an egomaniac that you could hope to find. During the course of our talk, he asked for a key, which I gave him, then asked me to hold his fingers to see if he was pressing on the key. They were loosely around the heavy metal key, and slowly, as I held his fingers with mine, I watched the key bend.

Yeah, I may be a cynic, but I don’t ignore facts – the key had bent – I was holding his fingers so I know he couldn’t bend them with his hand, and it was my key. Whatever powers he had – were real. At that point, he asked me to draw a picture and not show it to him. He then began drawing his own picture, and as you can see from our two illustrations reproduced on this page, the sketches are very similar. Considering the rough drawing style from which Uri was trying to receive his psychic impressions, he was able to come very close to my own illustration – even duplicating the bizarre front view of the face on the side view of the body.

Afterwards, Uri bent another key for Sparklin’ SCOTT EDELMAN, with virtually the entire Marvel staff watching.

Asked for a key, and having no idea it was about to be rendered useless, I offered up my key to the Marvel Comics men’s room. Which meant that until I was given a replacement, I had to continually borrow keys belonging to other Bullpenners whenever I needed to … you know.

And as you can see from the photo up top, I still have that key. Which is far from the strangest souvenir of my days working at Marvel …