I’ve got yet another romance comic to share with you that deals with a woman whose size is judged by society to be less than acceptable, and this time around we finally enter the ’60s … while at the same time offering what turns out to be my favorite single panel from any story of this type.

If you’d like to play catch-up before diving in, check out “Was I Too Fat to Be Loved?” (June 1949), “Too Fat for Love” (Winter 1950), “I Was a Fat Girl” (February 1951), and a second “Too Fat for Love” (March 1952), which I present in chronological order of publication so you can follow the changing times, rather than the order in which I found and shared them with you.

Completists might also want to check out a few other comics which, though not romances, offer a lesson on the subliminal and not-so-subliminal messages being sent to readers, such as My Little Margie‘s “Chubby, But Oh My!” (Dec 1957), and two stories from the pages of Brenda Starr, in which the reporter’s cousin Abretha Breez, who in January 1949 is mocked for not being able to fit into a kitchen to get cake, in July 1949 gets a boyfriend who appears to appreciate her the just way she is.

But on to the new!

“Too Fat to Frug,” from the January 1967 issue of Love Diary #47, was written by Gary Friedrich—who would shortly thereafter write Marvel’s Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and go on to co-create Ghost Rider—and reportedly drawn by Tony Tallarico. I’m as uncertain as are the reference sites as to whether this is truly by Tallarico, as to my eye it looks little like the work of his with which I’m most familiar from the pages of Creepy and Eerie.

In this 8-page story which leads off the issue, go-go girl Sharon Carr is the top dancer at The Bird Cage. And she immediately falls hard for the club’s new singer Bus Wayne. One thing’s for sure—it probably wasn’t because of his lyrics! (more…)

Six years before I attended my first comic book convention, 44 other fans attended the first comic book convention. And as part of an article recapping the 2014 New York Comic Con panel “Survivors of the First Comiccon,” Alter Ego #137 reprinted a list of those who attended that July 27, 1964 gathering at Manhattan’s Workmen’s Circle Building.

Check out the first name on the roster published immediately after the event by Bernie Bubnis. It should be one you recognize.

And if you were reading Blastr back when I was editing that site, you’d already know he was also the first person to purchase a ticket to the con.

(Note that according to the caption accompanying this image, Jerry Bails didn’t actually attend that first con, while Pat Yanchus did, but was left off the list.)

To find out more, and read reminiscences from Len Wein, Howard Rogofsky, and others, why not order a copy of Alter Ego #137?

I’ve shared a number of firsts about the Scarecrow since I started blogging, such as who the first artist was supposed to be, the first (and perhaps the last) Marvel subscription ad featuring the character’s never-published stand-alone book, and Don Perlin’s first page to what was supposed to be Scarecrow #2.

And as I skimmed further through that 1974 issue of The Comic Reader which I told you about last week, I came upon another first—the first time fans would have found out such a character even existed.

In the Marvel News section, which included a blurb that “a Spider-Man live action film and a new TV series are being planned” (for which we’d all have to wait, as that TV show wouldn’t air until 1978, while a film wouldn’t hit theaters for another 28 years), readers wound find this item.

I’ve no idea when the August issue of The Comic Reader would have gone to press, but as I started on staff at Marvel on June 24 of that year, I obviously wasn’t there that long before then-editor Len Wein leapt on my idea … even though my name is never mentioned in that announcement.

And as those familiar with the history of the Scarecrow already know, it never did appear in the pages of Monsters Unleashed, nor in its next announced location, as a backup in Giant-Size Werewolf by Night, but instead ended up debuting in Dead of Night #11.

That wasn’t the only fascinating thing I found in this issue of The Comic Reader. Check out this curious factoid about Marvel’s Planet of the Apes series.

And now we know why Don McGregor never got that assignment.

ba-dum ching!

(I kid, Don, I kid! You know I love you.)

Two important comics events occurred on June 24, 1974.

It was my first day on staff at Marvel.

And it was the day Seaboard Periodicals, run by Martin Goodman—Marvel Comics founder and former Magazine Management publisher—opened its office.

Seaboard launched Atlas Comics, which I told you about five years ago when I shared a snarky memo I wrote in 1975 to Marvel’s publisher because he was worried our company was being plagiarized.

(For those in a TL;DR mood—no, it wasn’t.)

Most fans first learned of Atlas/Seaboard from a blurb in The Comic Reader #109 (August 1974), which quoted an unnamed source as saying that the new company would “change the look of the industry.”

(For those still in a TL;DR mood—no, it didn’t.)

(more…)

I was interviewed last night by someone writing a book about the early days of comics fandom and how it led to the rise of the dedicated comic book shop. As part of that, one of the things I was asked to recount was how and where I used to buy my comics when I was growing up in Brooklyn.

I remembered Joe and Morty’s candy store on Aveue P, in which I was unable to decide whether to buy X-Men #1 or Avengers #1, as I only had 12 cents in my pocket and they’d both come out the same day. But I also remembered an article I wrote years later for my high school newspaper about My Friends bookstore, where I’d been induced by my parents to sell all my comics because they felt I owned too many of them.

In any case, because my interviewer wanted to see the piece, and I went to the trouble of scanning it for him, I figured I’d share it here as well. Basically, this is me looking back on around 1968 from the perspective of 1972.

I certainly hope I’ve become a better writer since then!

I don’t know whether you noticed what I just noticed. But I was wrong when I claimed there that selling 300 comic books for $5.00 netted me “exactly three-fifths of a cent per comic.” It was actually 1.667 cents per comic. And it took me more than forty years to notice. (more…)

Oliver Willis and Kurt Busiek have been posting some wonderful PSAs which DC Comics ran back in the ’60s and into the ’70s, and I couldn’t resist sharing a few of them here. Based on the current state of our country, they seem to have as much relevance today as they did then.

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Thanks to Tom Heintjes, I just learned that Roy Crane’s comic strip Buz Sawyer debuted on November 1, 1943 … that is, 72 years ago today …

Though, as he reminds us, Buz himself didn’t make an appearance until the following day.

Why am I telling you this? (more…)

Each day of this past weekend was split between the Baltimore Book Festival and Baltimore Comic-Con, and while that first event felt forward-thinking, the second was all about the past. Not only did I wander a dealers room in which I recognized every comic published or piece of original art created before 1980 or so, I also managed to catch up with seven people I’d worked beside during my time as a professional in the field.

And some I hadn’t seen in more than thirty years!

My nostalgia ride began with artist Ramona Fradon, whose work I’d loved as a child on titles such as Metamorpho and Aquaman.

Here we are posing with a copy of House of Mystery #273 opened to a story of mine which she drew in 1979! Not only was it a thrill to work with one of my idols, I couldn’t and still can’t imagine any artist more perfectly suited for that particular story. (more…)

I was hoping to spend all day Saturday at the Small Press Expo in Bethesda—which I last attended two years ago, where I felt privileged to meet civil rights legend John Lewis—but life intervened, and I was instead only able to spend a few short hours there on Sunday. My abbreviated time that day was because I had to leave early to get to—and I’m sure you’ll understand—a ukulele jam. But my visit, though short, was still fun.

The high point this year was the brief time I got to spend with Bill Griffith, whom I’ve been reading since I was a young teenager.

I first encountered him through his cartoons in the pages of the East Village Other, which spoke more to my sensibilities when I was a kid growing up in Brooklyn than did the Village Voice. And I bought at least one of his underground comics at my first convention. Which means I’ve been reading stories of his most famous creation, Zippy, for about as long as Griffith’s been drawing him. (more…)

Mike Grell was born 68 years ago. So happy birthday!

Also, a little more than 42 years ago, when I was but a fanboy wandering conventions with a pad under one arm, begging artists for sketches, he drew me this. So add a thanks to those birthday wishes!

Based on the date—July 6, 1973—Grell would have been 26 and I would have been 18 when I approached him the Friday of one of Phil Seuling’s famed July 4th weekend comic conventions at the Statler Hilton Hotel.

I can no longer tell, from this distance of more than four decades, whether that’s supposed to be Green Arrow or Warlord, neither of which he had yet drawn professionally.

Warlord wouldn’t appear until two years later, in 1st Issue Special #8 (Nov. 1975), and I don’t think he had a chance to tackle Green Arrow until 1987.

Based on that beard and mustache, it could be either of them. But I’ll choose to believe Grell was giving me a glimpse of Warlord, long before the rest of you got to see him.

Hope you’re enjoying your birthday, Mike! And thanks again for putting up with the annoying fan I most certainly was.