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…)

Todd Klein recently posted a wonderful report about a visit to DC Comics in the ’60s, which included a floor plan of the company’s offices at 575 Lexington Avenue, and made me realize—Hey! I have a map of Marvel’s 575 Madison Avenue offices from the ’70s.

A map unseen for more than 35 years.

And mine was drawn by Mirthful Marie Severin!

I can’t say for sure exactly when this map was sketched, but it was obviously begun when Roy Thomas was still Editor-in-Chief (since his name is visibly crossed out), but finished before Len Wein resigned and ceded the position to Marv Wolfman, which to me places it somewhere between late 1974 and early 1975.

This map was created to figure out where to put all the warm bodies, and not as a guide to the famous cover Marie drew around a year later for FOOM #16 (December 1976). (more…)

Steve Skeates—the comics writer responsible for the first Marvel/DC crossover, one that not only took place in the final issues of two titles he wrote, but was also basically done without the powers that be at either company being aware of it—turned 69 today. (Consider yourself awarded a No Prize if you know which two comics those were without having to look it up.)

Happy birthday, Steve!

Steve was of a previous comics generation than me—hey, he co-created Hawk and Dove with Steve Ditko!—so we never got a chance to work together professionally, but I did score an autograph from him during my snotty kid with a sketchpad phase of fandom.

The drawing below was probably done at a convention in 1971, but if not then, surely no later than 1972.

Want to prove yourself really worthy of that No Prize? Then explain the relevance of that rather anxious-looking fish without looking it up!

… I hope it’s with the same timing as shown by this couple, whose death notice I spotted in today’s Washington Post.

Considering the fact I spotted a similar story exactly two days ago, I wonder whether the universe is sending me a message that when the time comes, it intends to fulfill my wishes, and neither of us will be lonely for long.

It would be nice to think so.