With Thanksgiving just around the corner, I thought it would be fun to list the many things I have to be thankful for, such as being born at the perfect time to witness the birth of the Marvel Universe, what happened the day in 1963 the first issue of both The Avengers and The X-Men were released and I could afford to buy only one,  how my belief in anti-nepotism scored John Romita Jr. his first Marvel Comics art assignment, the magical night I raved to Brent Spiner about Stan Lee (and what “The Man” himself had to say about it), the first and last Incredible Hulk sketches Marie Severin drew for me 52 years apart, how the most important lesson I learned from being in comics was that I wasn’t meant to be in comics after all, and more.

And here are a few things to help illuminate the anecdotes I shared with you in this episode —

Marie Severin’s first sketch for me in 1972

Marie Severin’s final sketch for me in 2014

Marie Severin at work in 2014

The splash page to John Romita Jr.’s first Marvel story

And you can find all the Ethics columns I mentioned having written for The Comics Journal here in reverse chronological order.

A regrettable reminder to wish a dead comic book friend happy birthday sent me down a Marvel memories rabbit hole, reminding me of what it was like to know Stan Lee before he had hair, the cherry pie that almost got me fired, the day Archie Goodwin did parkour across Bullpen furniture, Len Wein turning us into a Mickey Mouse operation, Marie Severin’s most inventive prank, my faux fight with Don McGregor, performing Time Square guerrilla theater with Steve Gerber, the time I was on Candid Camera (or was I?), and more.

And here are a few things which will illuminate the anecdotes I share in this episode —

A mid-’70s Marvel Bullpen pic
with Irene Vartanoff, Chris Claremont, Bonnie Smith, and Roger Slifer

Here’s Len’s full story of why I’m wearing a Mickey Mouse hat in the photo above.

Giant-Size Defenders #5 (July 1975) credits box