By now you’ve probably heard the story of how Gary Friedrich recently lost his lawsuit against Marvel Comics over the rights to Ghost Rider, and how he’s now not only required to pay the company $17,000 it claims he earned from selling signed merchandise over the years, but also, he can no longer even state that he’s the character’s creator. Neal Adams, who helped get a degree of justice for Superman’s creators, has said that, “Gary is sick, and he’s about to lose his house, and though he will tell you he is not destitute, he needs help.”

Steve Niles has set up a fund to help Gary, and I’d been meaning to send a few bucks his way, because it’s the right thing to do, regardless of what you think about the merits of his lawsuit, but I’ve been busy and/or dithering since Steve got the ball rolling Friday. A few minutes ago, though, I finally got off my butt and sent $100 Gary’s way.

What riled me up enough just now to make me click that donate button? A glimpse at the Bullpen Bulletins page which appeared in all August 1972 Marvel titles announcing the coming of Ghost Rider.

What does it have to say about “a far-out new feature which we think you’re gonna dig”? Several things, but most important, it describes Gary Friedrich as the guy “who dreamed the whole thing up.”

Let me repeat that.

In 1972, Marvel Comics described Gary Friedrich, who’s now legally prevented from calling himself the creator of Ghost Rider, as the person “who dreamed the whole thing up.”

You can see for yourself below. (more…)

I’ve already shared with you who Stan Lee thought the X-Men and Captain America were supposed to sound like—at least in character guides he apparently wrote back in the ’60s. (A date based not at all on hard evidence but instead entirely on when and where in the Bullpen I discovered these, internal clues in the characters’ arcs, and some opinions of old Marvel pals.)

And now we come to the bifurcated Thunder God, with one voice as Don Blake, and another as the mighty Thor.

But before you click below, stop and think for a moment. Which actor’s voice do you imagine coming from each personality?

Done pondering?

OK, check it out and see if you were right.

So how close did you come?

Tune in tomorrow to find out whose dulcet tones should echo in your mind when you read the Sub-Mariner’s word balloons!

A week or so ago, I downloaded a free Kindle edition of P. T Barnum’s 1880 book The Art of Money Getting or, Golden Rules for Making Money. (And you can, too.) I started reading it on our flight down to Florida last weekend, enjoying it immensely, and then, while visiting the St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts, in the midst of its exhibit on Sitter and Subject in Nineteenth-Century Photography, I came face to face with Barnum himself.

I was startled by the double dose of Barnum, and yet, serendipity has always been an active force in my life. So why not yet again?

Barnum’s advice book was published in 1880, so the photo below was of a much younger man, taken in 1855, and not yet looking like the huckster with which we’re familiar.

To convince you the book is worth your time, here’s one of my favorite passages, as you’ll see what happens when Barnum meets a man who puts his own selling skills to shame:

After securing the right vocation, you must be careful to select the proper location. You may have been cut out for a hotel keeper, and they say it requires a genius to “know how to keep a hotel.” You might conduct a hotel like clock-work, and provide satisfactorily for five hundred guests every day; yet, if you should locate your house in a small village where there is no railroad communication or public travel, the location would be your ruin. It is equally important that you do not commence business where there are already enough to meet all demands in the same occupation. I remember a case which illustrates this subject.

When I was in London in 1858, I was passing down Holborn with an English friend and came to the “penny shows.” They had immense cartoons outside, portraying the wonderful curiosities to be seen “all for a penny.” Being a little in the “show line” myself, I said “let us go in here.” We soon found ourselves in the presence of the illustrious showman, and he proved to be the sharpest man in that line I had ever met. He told us some extraordinary stories in reference to his bearded ladies, his Albinos, and his Armadillos, which we could hardly believe, but thought it “better to believe it than look after the proof’.” He finally begged to call our attention to some wax statuary, and showed us a lot of the dirtiest and filthiest wax figures imaginable. They looked as if they had not seen water since the Deluge. (more…)

As you learned yesterday, someone—I always assumed Stan Lee, and Roy Thomas has since agreed with me on that assumption—felt that Professor X should sound like Leslie Howard … without an English accent.

But how about Captain America? What was he supposed to sound like?

Would you believe … Rock Hudson?

From discussions with others who worked with me in the Bullpen (and some who worked there long before I arrived), I’m leaning away from these having anything to do with educating the writers who’d come after Stan or arming the merchandising department with the ammunition it would need to better sell the characters, and toward them having been written to pitch the characters for cartoons, maybe even the 1966 Marvel Super Heroes series.

I could be wrong … but that’s what my gut’s saying for now.

Check back tomorrow to find out which two actors are supposed to come to mind when you hear the voices of Don Blake and Thor!

Those who’ve visited me at home know I’ve evolved into the opposite of a hoarder. I’m doing my best to live a stripped-down life. But I’ve made an exception for all the paperwork I collected at Marvel Comics in the ’70s, because I think it doesn’t really belong to me; it belong to you. And while digging through a file folder in search of something I’ve yet to find, I instead found something, well, marvelous.

Sometime during my years in the Bullpen I discovered a dozen or so carbon copies of descriptions of Marvel’s central superheroes buried in the back of a file cabinet, barely visible because the sheets had slipped between the drawers. And you know me—I made sure to keep my own copies, of course.

Because the pages only referenced the earliest of Marvel’s characters—the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, etc.—and because all of the references as to which famous actors’ voices we should imagine coming out of their mouths were of a previous generation, I always assumed these were written by Stan Lee. The only other person I could possibly imagine having been responsible for these based on when they were discovered is Roy Thomas, but I’m pretty sure that if he had created these, he’d have come up with a more contemporary set of actors.

There’s also the fact that (though I’m no typography expert) these seem to have been written using the same typewriter on which Stan composed his Soapboxes for the Bullpen Bulletins pages. (more…)

I already told you about my wife’s current auctions, which are still ongoing. But my sister-in-law is also selling something amazing, so please forgive me for shilling for a relative yet again.

The page is from the story “Slaves of the Emperor Bug,” published in the penultimate issue of the first run of Teen Titans, issue #42 (Nov/-Dec. 1972), with art by Art Saaf and Nick Cardy.

Take a look.

You only have from now until Feb 24 to bid, so if you’re interested, check out the auction here.

So ends the commercial message. We now return you to our previously scheduled programing.

I got an email earlier today from Heritage Auctions touting its latest offerings, and the most interesting part of the message wasn’t the original art I could never afford, but an observation pointed out about a change made to the cover of Action #1 before the comic was released.

Here’s the published cover we all know.

But here’s the cover as it appeared in an ad in an earlier issue of Detective.

I wish I could find a better reproduction of the ad, but in any case—could you spot the difference? (more…)

Last week, I told you how my wife was selling her copies of Amazing Fantasy #15 and Amazing Adventures #1 so that in the far-flung future, we won’t be reduced to eating cat food. But … what if your tastes run more to original art?

Then how about the wonderful Green Lantern page below, drawn by Gil Kane and Sid Greene, which not only features an encounter between the Silver and Golden Age incarnations of the character—but is signed by Martin Nodell, who created Green Lantern back in 1940!

The page was published in Green Lantern #61 (June 1968), and if you’d like it to be yours, head on over to Heritage Auctions.

Now that January is over, it’s time (as usual) to assemble my dream tweets and see whether they gain any meaning from rubbing up against each other in one spot. My guest stars this month included Willard Scott, the parents from The Wonder Years, Woody Allen, John Kessel, Rick Perry, Woozy Winks, Keanu Reeves, and maybe you.

Let’s see, shall we?

JANUARY 2011

I dreamt I was at Shopsins and saw Mark Evanier at the next table, who wanted to know if I was was in town to see the restored Godfather 31 Jan

I dreamt I headed home from an office, and when I got in the elevator, realized, “Hey! I’m barefoot!” So I ran back to my desk for my shoes. 31 Jan

I dreamt I slipped a computer box over my hand and my arm transformed into Thor’s hammer, which I pounded while declaring, “I’m not worthy!” 30 Jan

I dreamt the bus I rode on was taken hostage, which happened so often it came equipped with board games to play until ransom could be paid. 30 Jan

I dreamt I wandered city streets at 2:00 a.m. looking for a decent restaurant, and couldn’t get Yelp to work. Tech always fails me in dream. 30 Jan

I dreamt two friends returned from a midnight visit to Mexico scraped up and with torn clothing, and as they cleaned up, I was very jealous. 30 Jan

I dreamt that as I explained to Rick Perry where his campaign went wrong, he draped an arm on my shoulders and lectured me condescendingly. 29 Jan

I dreamt that after a hoop-skirted woman had to pull a gun on an evil mining boss, I was called in as a union organizer to shake things up. 29 Jan

I dreamt I was visiting friends in China when my brother tried to videochat with me via Google+, but as in all my dreams, technology failed. 29 Jan

I dreamt that as I interviewed Woody Allen at his parents’ apartment, I suddenly realized … Gee, it might be a good idea to record this. 28 Jan (more…)

Back in 2003, I was standing on the lawn of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, chatting with pals Bill Shunn and Bob Howe at that year’s I-Con, when we spotted a camera crew in the distance. As usual, the spotlight was on the most colorful attendees, the folks dressed up as stormtroopers or wearing chain mail.

Understand that I’ve got nothing against cosplayers—I’ve worn the occasional costume myself.

See?

It’s just that reporters always seem to focus on the outrageously dressed, and not to celebrate or explore (which would be a nice change once in a while), but in order to give their stories a “hey, look at these weirdos” slant. So as the three of us chatted, we tsk-tsked this mindset and bemoaned the fact that cameras never got pointed at those less flamboyantly garbed.

We turned away and got back to catching up in the sunshine, when about 15 minutes later, we found that the crew had moved along and was now pointing its cameras … at us! (more…)