Long before I worked with or beside either of these guys as a comics professional, I interacted with them both in the role of annoying fan with a sketchbook. So to annoy them even further, I present two sketches I got from today’s birthday boys long ago and far away.

First up, a drawing by Neal Adams done at a July 4th Seuling con during those much more innocent days before he started charging $10.00 per sketch in ’72 or so. (And who knows what he’s charging now!)

(more…)

I’ve been so busy working on Wire this week I had no time left over to blog, so I thought I’d come up for air to post this quickie. (Well, maybe I had some time, but after a long day’s work, I often had no brain left over!)

Al Williamson, one of the great EC Comics artists, whose drawing style is extremely romantic and lyrical, turned 79 today, which means it’s once more time for me to dig into the portfolio I carried at comic-book conventions when I was an annoying kid with a sketchpad.

If you’re not familiar with Williamson’s work, these classic EC Comics tales will easily convince you of his greatness.

I wrangled the drawing below out of Williamson at the EC Fan Addict Convention in 1972. (Click if you’d like to see the lizard a little larger.)

Happy Birthday, Al!

Sy Barry, who drew the comic strip The Phantom for 33 years, from 1962 to 1994, turned 82 today. That wasn’t the only classic comic strip he was involved with—he also worked on Tarzan and Flash Gordon.

I only ever met him once that I can recall. (Though I guess I shouldn’t say it quite that way, as it makes it sound as if he’s no longer with us—but he’s still quite alive!) It was on September 26, 1971 in Central Park.

The Newspaper Comics Council of New York and the New York Daily News co-sponsored a 75th anniversary celebration for the comic strip. (I assume they were counting from the year Richard F. Outcault’s Yellow Kid first appeared in the New York Journal American.) It took place at the Bandshell, and many other cartoonists were there in addition to Barry, including Mort Walker, Tex Blaisdell, Irwin Hasen, and Bill Kresse.

I (you know me) tried to finagle as many sketches as I could. Here’s Barry’s, which you can click to view at a larger size.

The event was covered in the Daily News, which devoted its center spread to it the following day. No picture of Barry there, I’m afraid, though I can be spotted in the crowd. I’ll naturally (what did you expect?) inflict that photo on you someday.

But meanwhile—happy 82nd birthday, Sy Barry!

Not only do I want to wish Johnny Hart and Gahan Wilson each a happy birthday—but apparently my wall does, too!

As I read on various comics-related sites of the shared birthdays (though not shared birth years) of the two men, I realized that there was a party going on for them right here in my office.

Hanging over the door is this B.C. strip which originally ran June 26, 1973, and which Hart gave me either that year or the year after. We met at the annual Reuben Awards weekend run by the National Cartoonist Society where I had been a guest of Bill Kresse. Hart sent me this strip a few weeks later.

He didn’t know me save from our brief conversation, yet I don’t believe he could have given me a B.C. installment better suited to my personality had he known me for years. Give it a few clicks to bring it to a readable size and those who know me will see what I mean.

Unfortunately, Hart passed in 2007. Had he lived, he would have been 79 today.

Luckily, Gahan Wilson is still with us. He turned 80 today. (more…)

I missed wishing Ira Gershwin a happy birthday Sunday. But I guess that’s appropriate, because when I heard about it on yesterday’s installment of The Writers Almanac, what first came to mind wasn’t his birthday, but rather his death day.

Back when I still lived in New York, I was always alert for the death of a songwriter, because I knew that whenever a composer died, ASCAP—the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers—would rent out a Broadway theater and host a memorial, a celebratory concert that was free and open to the public.

Ira Gershwin’s was just one of the many I attended. Here’s the program that ASCAP handed out at the event:

(more…)

Roy Thomas, the first editor-in-chief under whom I served at Marvel Comics, turned 69 today. If he hadn’t brought me on board for my first position working on Marvel’s British reprint books, I likely wouldn’t have ended up where I am today.

And I’m not just talking about professionally, but personally as well, since otherwise I’d never have met my wife, Irene Vartanoff, who was hired just a couple of months before I was.

So thanks for everything, Roy!

Just to show my appreciation, here’s a blast from the past—a letter Roy wrote to Joe Brancatelli’s fanzine Comic Fandom Monthly that was printed in its April 1972 issue, in which he debated the merits of the famed Stan Lee at Carnegie Hall event.

(more…)

I love Jim Steranko. Always have, ever since he first appeared on the comics scene. His work immediately blew me away, and I became a Steranko fanboy, which is why I bought a copy of what Wikipedia calls “the extremely limited edition Steranko Portfolio One” as soon as I saw it.

Here’s the cover to the copy I picked up at one of Phil Seuling’s July 4th cons, either in ’70 or ’71. I think it was in ’70, the same con at which I paid for my copy of The Steranko History of Comics. (I write “paid for” because it wasn’t yet available except as an advance order. I can still remember paging through the thick mock-up of what it would eventually look like.) As you can see below, I made sure to have Jim sign his Portfolio.

I was still a kid when, not so long after, I read an article about him that appeared in the September 16, 1971 issue of Rolling Stone. For some reason, I was upset by the tales included there of his criminal youth, and decided to write him a letter about it to see if they were true. (more…)

In my ongoing efforts to make old friends feel even older, I’m wishing Gerry Conway a happy 57th birthday by posting an image he helped bring into being 38 years ago, when we were both a heck of a lot younger.

The year: 1971. I was 16, while Gerry was a seemingly ancient and much older 19.

The place: The basement of the Times Square branch of Nathan’s.

The event: A standalone dealer’s room without any convention programming surrounding it, dubbed Nathan’s Con, and organized by Phil Seuling. It was a precursor to the Second Sundays Phil set up each month so we’d have a place to spend our money between his annual July 4th cons. (more…)

Yesterday, Irene and I visited Marie Severin and whisked her away to Blackstone Steakhouse to celebrate her 80th birthday. As I’ve told you before, we both love Marie. She’s the nicest person we ever met in comics, one of the most talented, and easily the funniest. When Irene and I realized during our last visit that such a momentous milestone was moving toward her (uh-oh—one evening with Marie and I’m alliterating like Stan again), we decided that attention must be paid.

So we told Marie that unless one of her friends had already made plans, we wanted to take her out to dinner. Heck, if a friend had already made plans, we’d take the friend, too! But luckily for us, Marie was free last night, and so we had her to ourselves for a long and hilarious evening. Here we all are after having demolished an amazing meal:

Before heading to the restaurant, we spent an hour or so at her apartment, and one of the things we did was show her printouts I’d made yesterday morning of sites which had wished her a happy birthday. She was astounded by the outpouring of love, and astonished by some of them, particularly the lengthy write-up at fanboy.com of her career. When I read her part of it aloud, such as the sentences— (more…)

Happy birthday, John!

John Byrne and I met more than a third of a century ago, back when we were both just fans, before I’d started on staff at Marvel Comics. And since it’s traditional to embarrass old friends on their birthdays, here’s a blast from the past even he may have forgotten about! I know I almost had.

John’s first professional comic-book art was published in the Skywald black-and-white horror magazine Nightmare #20 (August 1974), just about the time I started in the Marvel Bullpen. My own first professional comic-book script appeared about a year later, in Dead of Night #11 (Aug 1975). It was the first story about the Scarecrow, which Marvel seems to be calling the Straw Man these days.

The character had gone through many incarnations before it saw print, incarnations which John had known about and, as you’ll see, even participated in. In May 1975, I received a fan letter from him in which he wrote—

Just got the first issue of SCARECROW (D. O. N. #11). Love it! Really tremendous. And I much prefer this version to my pumpkin rendition.

Enclosed is a subtle hint.

The letter was accompanied by the sketch you see below.

Now you might think as you read that note—what pumpkin version? And you know something … I was just thinking along those lines myself. (more…)