Listen in as I look back half a century on what it was like being in the room with Len Wein and Dave Cockrum (or as much as I’m willing to admit) as they plotted Giant-Size X-Men #1, why my mid-’70s likeness still hangs on the wall at Marvel Comics HQ, my freelance income during the first six months of my life as a comics professional, the collaborative short stories my friends and I stayed awake 24 hours to write on Harlan Ellison’s 39th birthday, an article I commissioned for F.O.O.M. about collecting comics in 1975 which should make you weep 50 years later, how my meeting with Wicked Witch of the West Margaret Hamilton ended up being a Marvel Comics caption contest, and much more.

You can eavesdrop on all those memories via the embed below or download them at the site of your choice.

Here are some images which will enrich your listening experience, though they probably won’t make much sense without it —

My caricature on the wall at Marvel HQ

Marie Severin’s cover to F.O.O.M. #16
with her caricature of me circled

Call It Fate #1
with the first short story I ever wrote on the cover

(more…)

My old pal Sam Maronie, who took so many wonderful convention photos during the mid-’70s, many of which included me, just surprised me with yet another taken at the 1975 Mighty Marvel Comic Convention.

You’ve already seen the one of me and Moon Knight co-creator Don Perlin snapped during that same weekend. I don’t know whether this one was taken before or after that one over the March 22-24 1975 weekend, but it’s definitely a different day, because I’m wearing a different shirt and yet another hat loathed by my wife.

That’s bearded me in the back, looking down.

All of those around me — the ones I recognize, anyway — are long gone. That’s Len Wein to the far left, and Duffy Vohland looking back and up at him. On the far right are Michelle Brand and Marty Greim.

That long-haired guy with his thumb to his lips might be Doug Moench — but it might also just be yet another long-haired guy. There were a lot of us back then. I reached out to old friends who might remember young Doug better, and will update this post once I hear back.

I don’t recognize any of the others in the room. If you do, let me know.

Thanks, Sam, for letting me do some more time traveling!

Thanks to a query from the prolific comics historian Brian Cronin, it’s time to step forward as the author of yet another piece of uncredited Marvel Comics promotional copy from the ’70s. He reached out to ask who wrote the one-line blurbs which appeared for awhile underneath the artwork at the bottom of most comics pages —

— which made me realize that though over the years I’d confessed to being the writer behind the Bullpen Bulletins pages (save for Stan’s Soapbox), the copy which appeared on top of the splash pages, a set of 60 Marvel Slurpee cups, and other promotional materials, I’d yet to out myself as being the author behind that particular project.

I have no idea who wrote those one-liners before I arrived on the scene in the Bullpen, moving over from the British reprint department, but during much of my time there, I was responsible for creating those distracting slugs.

The only writer I remember creating their own was Tony Isabella. I have no idea after all this time whether that was because he was the one who wrote them before I did and handed over his assignment, and so perhaps felt more invested in their creation, or was simply protective of the promotion of the titles he scripted. We are talking about more than 40 years ago! But … I don’t remember anyone else handing in each month’s content like that.

I also don’t remember exactly how or when the task was handed over to me — I assume it had to have been Len Wein who gave me the assignment — but each month, I would interview the writers about what they had planned and create catchy write-ups with that information. And not (while we’re on the subject of stepping out from behind the mask) just for a single purpose. I also wrote up the news for F.O.O.M. (which I’ve already admitted) and cobbled together the Mighty Marvel Checklists, those half-page promos which appeared each week across the entire Marvel line.

Here are two I definitely wrote —

As to why I’m sure I wrote them — I scanned them just a few moments ago from the portfolio I used to carry to job interviews in the late ‘70s when I was trying to get a post-comics job. As to the precise comics in which they originally appeared, well … I’ll leave that to historians like Brian Cronin!

In 1975, when I was working in the Bullpen at Marvel Comics, I flew to Toronto to appear on a panel at CosmicCon along with Marv Wolfman, Len Wein, and … someone whose name I no longer remember.

Neither does Marv.

And since the reason I dug out this photo was as part of my mourning process for Len, we’ll never know if he might have remembered.

When I recently shared the image on Twitter and Facebook in the hopes someone could identify the face at the far right, suggestions included Bernie Wrightson and Howard Chaykin (I blame the sideburns), but … it wasn’t either of those two.

If you happen to know who that is, please let me know!

UPDATED 9/26/2017: Thanks to Ron Kasman, who wrote this article about the history of CosmicCon, I learned that’s Jim Craig, who worked for Atlas Comics at the time, and went on work for Marvel on such titles as Master of Kung Fu and The 3-D Man.

Here’s a photo of him which appeared a couple of years later in FOOM.

Thanks, Internet, for solving this mystery!

(I struggled Sunday to find the words which would explain how important Len Wein was in my life, but found I could’t bring myself to write the eulogy he deserved. All I could manage was the following series of tweets, which I gather here in lieu of a proper celebration which I hope will come later.)

I first met Len Wein at Phil Seuling’s 1970 4th of July Comic Art Convention. I was member #38. Len was member #65. I was only 15 years old.

A year later, at the Times Square Nathan’s, Len—who’d wanted to be an artist, not writer—drew this sketch of a character he’d created. (more…)

Instagram didn’t launch until 2010—but why should that stop me from Instagramming L.A.con IV, the 2006 Worldcon which took place in Anaheim?

And so … here are seven snapshots of who were were a decade ago.

Bob Silverberg

At breakfast in a shirt I can’t quite believe I ever owned. (more…)

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.)

Over at eBay, someone just picked up a bound volume of Incredible Hulk 167-182 which had my name embossed on the cover in gold. (The cognoscenti among you will recognize that run as including the origin of Wolverine.) And he wondered … what’s up with that?

I’ve only been asked about this sort of thing once before, by someone who wanted to know whether receiving bound volumes of comics was a perk regularly given to Marvel Bullpenners in the ’70s. (As if!)

So why does this artifact exist? The short answer is … it seemed like a good idea at the time. (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…)

Giant-Size Marvel Triple Action #1 was a 1975 reprint book that collected stories from mid-’60s issues of The Avengers, Daredevil, and Strange Tales. You wouldn’t think much could be learned from the cover of such a recycled Marvel comic. But there was always something more to be learned from Stan Lee.

Take a look at the preliminary cover to the left, and compare it with the published cover on the right. Notice anything different?

Aside from noting the obvious differences—color vs. black and white, a penciled word balloon and caption—take a look at Giant-Man’s face. Doesn’t he look fiercer in the printed version? How do you think he got that way?

Stan, of course!

In the memo to Len Wein that came attached to the preliminary cover, Stan gave a crash course in how to create a compelling cover.

About those scribbles on the cover, Stan wrote, among other things:

“Always look for, and try to recognize, these so-called ‘dead areas.’ By livening them up, either with addl. artwork, or zippy copy, you can often add a helluva lot more excitement to a cover. It’s one of the things that always gave, and will give us an edge over the competish.”

But—oh, no!—I now see that the “Avengers Assemble!” exclamation Stan asked for wasn’t added. Watch out, Len! If Stan finds out you ignored his request, he’ll come gunning for you! He doesn’t believe in the statute of limitations!

Luckily, Len did make sure that some of the heroes’ expressions were tweaked, based on Stan’s other comment:

I’ve told this to all our staff a million times over the years, but it can’t be mentioned too often. It’s VITALLY important. Often a story that seems dull could seem twice as exciting with more excitement being registered by the characters. Always look for, and try to remedy, such situations.”

There’s more detail in the memo itself, which I advise you read in full. After all, you wouldn’t want the competish to get the upper hand!