Eating the Fantastic moves on to Pittsburgh for the first of three episodes harvested due to this year’s StokerCon taking place in that city. My conversation this time around didn’t take place because of that main event, though, but only because I remembered my guest happens to live in Pittsburgh, and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to reminisce with him about the old days.

I met Howard Bender 49 years ago, the year we both began working in the Marvel Comics Bullpen. He worked as a letterer and artist in the Marvel Comics production department from 1974–1980, and then moved on to DC Comics in the same role, where he worked from 1981–1985. He’s drawn Superman stories in Action Comics, Dial H for Hero stories published in The New Adventures of Superboy, Ghostbusters for First Comics, and a variety of series for Archie Comics. He also collaborated with Jack C. Harris on a Sherlock Holmes comic strip in the ‘90s. These days, he can be found at markets and fairs all across Pittsburgh working as a caricature artist.

We discussed how desperate Marvel Comics must have been to have hired young kids like us, his role in founding the Pittsburgh Comics Club (and the way he paid homage to that club down the road in Dial H for Hero), the day he showed Stan Lee his art portfolio over dessert, how he started his career at Marvel using Jack Kirby’s taboret, the fact neither of us would have become who we turned out to be without Superman creators Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, how terrified we both were of production manager John Verpoorten, our first meetings with the late, great Johnny Romita, the important life lesson he learned from inker Mike Esposito, what he was glad he remembered you shouldn’t talk about with Steve Ditko, how Marie Severin inspired him in his current career as a caricaturist,  and so much more.

Here’s how you can join us at the Buca di Beppo in Pittsburgh’s Station Square —

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts — where I hope you’ll be tempted to sample a few of the 203 previous episodes.

2) Listen via the RSS feed of http://eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com/rss on the device of your choice.

3) Or simply use the embed below.

Here’s what we ate at Buca di Beppo —

Caesar Salad

Fettuccine Alfredo

Meatball

Chicken Parmigiani

Cannoli

And if you want to see what 48 years has done to us, here’s how we looked in the 1975 Mighty Marvel Con souvenir book vs. what we looked like the day of our lunch.

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Coming up two weeks from today you’ll be able to eavesdrop on my lunch with screenwriter, award-winning prose writer, and Halloween expert Lisa Morton who wrote the definitive reference book The Halloween Encyclopedia, and the multiple award-winning Trick or Treat: A History of Halloween.

Thanks for listening!