If you’d like to know more about The Scarecrow, who I created for Marvel Comics back when dinosaurs still walked the Earth, pick up a copy of Back Issue magazine #60, which features a five-page article by Dewey Cassell focused on the character.

In addition to gathering and making sense of everything I’ve written about the Scarecrow on my blog over the years, Cassell also conducted new interviews, melding it all together to finally put in one place the story of the character’s creation, how he almost got his own book, and why that never came to pass.

So pick up a copy, if for no other reason than that it will satisfy your craving for the history of Marvel in the ’70s that you won’t get a full picture of until Sean Howe’s Marvel Comics: The Untold Story is published next month.

According to the latest issue of Roy Thomas’ fanzine Alter Ego, artist Odgen Whitney used himself as a young boy as the model for Herbie Popnecker, star of the wonderfully surreal comic published by ACG during the ’60s.

Which kinda boggles the mind.

I mean—have you seen Herbie Popnecker?

Which makes me ask—does anyone out there have a photo of a young Ogden Whitney? Because if Whitney really once looked like Herbie … this I’ve got to see!

I got back home from my Chicago Worldcon trip after midnight last night—or should I say, this morning—and while I’d love to write up right now how much fun I had, both at the con and elsewhere (like at Alinea!), it’s unlikely I’ll be able to compose my thoughts until the weekend.

After all, I did return from my trip to something like 5,000 emails!

So let these eight photos, one for each day I was away, stand in for the posts to come.

Wednesday
A note left on our table at the start of Next restaurant’s Sicilian meal

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With Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, beginning in Chicago just a few days from now, here’s a flashback to the 54th World Science Fiction Convention, L.A.con III, which took place in Anaheim, California. Life sure was a lot different back in 1996.

I’d been editing Science Fiction Age for four years by then, and was about to take over as editor of Sci-Fi Entertainment as well.

Sovereign Media was flying high, with a booth promoting those two magazines plus Realms of Fantasy, and as you can tell from my smile, I was having a blast. Because in addition to the pure joy I was having editing SFA, that was also the year I’d gotten my first Hugo Award nomination for Best Editor.

There’d be three more nominations to come, but the first was somehow the sweetest.

Here’s hoping you get to make some sweet memories of your own next weekend!

I’m so sorry to hear that Josepha Sherman, writer, editor, and owner of a vivacious laugh which echoed above the din of many a convention party, died yesterday. Unfortunately, her final years were not easy ones.

I’ll let others tell you of the charms of her writing (which included Star Trek and Buffy the Vampire Slayer novels) and of her editing skills, but as for me, my fondest memory was off the page and in the flesh—the time we sang “Great Green Gobs of Greasy, Grimy Gopher Guts” (because she’d co-edited a book on such songs) at one of the many parties in one of the many strange hotels in which our tribe gathers, part of the ongoing convention I’ve been attending with you all for decades. It was a moment of laughter and joy, and I wish she’d had more of them during her last years.

Here’s a photo I snapped of her at the 2007 Nebula Awards during happier times.

I’d prefer to remember her that way.

There will be a memorial on Wednesday, August 29 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the SoHo Gallery for Digital Art at 138 Sullivan St., New York, New York. Please RSVP to 212-228-2810 if you plan to attend. I’ll be in Chicago for Worldcon that day, but I’ll be sure to think of her. I’m sure you’ll be thinking of her, too.

I’m getting ready to head off to Chicon 7, the 70th World Science Fiction Convention, and thanks to my boss, Craig Engler, I’m thinking back to Discon II, the 32nd World Science Fiction Convention—and my first. (As to the reason Craig caused my thoughts to wander that way, see below.)

I was 19 when I attended my first Worldcon, and I drove there from Brooklyn with a group that included the gang of idiots below. Recognize us all as we sit in front of the White House? Give the photo a look for a couple of moments before you read on to see who’s who.

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I was doing a lot of smiling last night. That’s because I finally carved out some time to read Dewey Cassell’s book Marie Severin: The Mirthful Mistress of Comics. As I’ve told you many times, I don’t just like Marie—I love Marie.

And last night, I relived many of the reasons why. (I was about to write that I “remembered” many of the reasons why, but that would imply I’d forgotten those reasons … and no one could ever forget Marie.) (more…)

I’ve been thinking a lot about the past lately, one reason being that I had to try to re-create it so that Sean Howe’s book, Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, would be as accurate as memory would allow, the other being I’m trying to lead as uncluttered a life as I can, so whatever doesn’t seem absolutely necessary to own … goes.

Which means that not only did I have to recently explain when I was hired by Marvel Comics to be Editor of the British reprint books, how long I worked in that position, and when I moved over to work in the U.S. Bullpen, but I then ran across a document which proved that what I had told Sean … was wrong! Well, not 100% wrong … just wrong enough.

What I’d thought, from this vantage point of three decades after the fact, was that I’d worked on the British books for six months or so, yet a couple of pages I just ran across shows …

… I was only there for three! (more…)

I know that more photos from my strange Readercon journey were taken than I’ve seen and shared with you here and here, because there are a few people who told me they posed with me last month and had others take their (as yet unseen by me) pictures. But since those are not turning up in my inbox, it appears the flood is over, so I’ll share this one last pic I received.

David Lubkin and Filthy Pierre

If you’re in possession of any additional images, and you’ve yet to send me a copy, you know what to do.

Meanwhile, I’m sure you’ve heard the less frivolous Readercon news. I’m sad the events that led to such a statement being necessary occurred, but glad for the statement itself at the same time, because I do want to return to future Readercons for photos which will be of a more three-dimensional me.

I don’t know what comes to mind when you read the headline, Parkinson’s disease sufferer, 54, held by police at Olympic cycling road race ‘because he would not smile’, but what popped into my head was … well, let’s read a bit of the newspaper report first, shall we?

A father with Parkinson’s disease was arrested as he watched the Olympic cycling road race because he ‘failed to smile or look like he was enjoying himself’.

Mark Worsfold, a martial arts trainer and former soldier, claims that he was thrown to the floor and handcuffed just as cyclists passed by.

If you’re a certain generation of comic book fan, you’ll certainly think of the classic EC Comics story “The Patriots,” written by Al Feldstein and drawn by Jack Davis, which first appeared in Shock SuspenStories #2 (April-May 1952). “The Patriots” tells of another former soldier who was punished for his insufficient exuberance … though in a far more tragic manner.

Wally Wood’s powerful cover to that issue drew its scenario from that tale. (more…)