As I’ve shared before, back in the late ’70s I wrote many 5- and 6-page back-up features for Marvel Comics. And as I’ve also shared before, I’ve recently been uncovering photocopies of ancient original art, some of which I’d even forgotten existed.

But today I get to combine the two!

Going through a box of papers, I discovered fading photocopies of pencils by one artist for a back-up story that was published as drawn by a second artist—and I had no memory of why this duplicate take on the tale had been created. You can compare the two versions below.

On the left, the published version of “The Coming of Captain Avenger” from Captain America #221 (May 1978) as drawn by Steve Leialoha (penciller) and Al Gordon (inker). On the right, the same story as pencilled by Mark Rice. [Click on any image several times to view at a more legible size.] It’s interesting to see the different ways in which the plot was attacked.

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For those of you hoping for more Stan Lee commentary on the recent sale of Marvel Comics, check this out:

“They want to make some real dynamite movies and TV shows based on all your favorite characters, plus any new, original ideas we come up with. And they know how to put excitement on the screen.”

You can check it out here as part of a Stan’s Soapbox on the sale.

Ooops! My mistake, folks! That isn’t Stan commenting on the recent sale of Marvel to Disney—that’s Stan writing in 1986 on the sale of Marvel to New World from the pages of the June 1987 Marvel Age.

As they say, the more things change …

Today was supposed to have been Steve Gerber’s 62nd birthday. In a just world, he’d still be with us. In a just world, when Steve was still alive, he would have participated financially in the success of Howard the Duck, instead of having to engage in legal battles which proved expensive and exhausting.

Sure, all most people remember now is the punch line that the Howard the Duck film became, but remember, too, there was a valid reason the film got made in the first place. Long before the film, the character had been a genuine hit. So on Steve’s birthday that might have been, should have been, let’s take a look back at a happier time—the moment Marvel Comics seemed to recognize exactly what it had on its hands.

There’s plenty of interesting info in this memo, but the two items of note today, the two things which would have thrilled Steve, are a note (on the first page) that “Howard the Duck will go to a monthly frequency, effective #9, December,” and a request (on the second page) to “Please schedule a new $1.50 special, (Treasury size) entitled HOWARD THE DUCK #1, 1976, 80 pages.”

Steve must have been thrilled that his creation had done so well in the marketplace that it went monthly and spawned a treasury edition.

Unfortunately, that joy wouldn’t last. A bitter battle was still to come.

But spare a thought for Steve on his birthday today anyway, OK?

Since this has been a tumultuous couple of weeks in comics, I thought I’d share a second Stan Lee memo regarding personnel changes, in addition to the one I showed you several days ago.

Though the following item is signed, it’s undated, so I can’t tell you exactly when it was written. What I can tell you is that in my orderly file folder of memos from that period, it was between a memo dated March 24, 1976 (from me to John David Warner with due dates for upcoming issues of Son of Satan) and one dated April 20, 1976 (from Sol Brodsky regarding Jim Shooter’s … well … I’ll let that be a post for another day).

Yet another souvenir from Marvel’s revolving-door editor-in-chief position of the mid-’70s.

First Disney buys Marvel …

… then Paul Levitz is out at DC …

… and now this!

Where will it end?

Happy birthday, John!

If I am remembered for nothing else from my relatively few years working in comics, it will likely be for having scripted your debut story. The six-page tale, “Chaos at the Coffee Bean,” appeared as a back-up in 1977’s Amazing Spider-Man Annual #11.

Here’s the splash page (click to view at a larger size):

Amazingly, up until the future star received this assignment, he was being discriminated against. No one would give him a shot because his Dad was Marvel Art Director and Spider-Man artist supreme John Romita (who had no need yet to be identified by a Sr. after his name). No one wanted to be seen as rewarding John, Jr. on the basis of his family connection alone.

I thought that was a stupid idea. Talent should out, and as I said at the time, the only thing worse than nepotism is anti-nepotism—not giving a shot to some who would otherwise have deserved it. (more…)

While digging through boxes of papers earlier this month in search of Clarion workshop manuscripts from 1979 which had been scrawled on by my instructors—needed for my Worldcon PowerPoint presentation “How to Respond to a Critique of Your Writing”—I came across a box containing photocopies of several pieces of artwork I hadn’t even remembered owning.

I’ll probably end up posting them all here eventually, but since I shared a a never-before seen drawing of the Scarecrow on John Byrne’s birthday last month, I thought—why not start off with a never-before-seen drawing of The Scarecrow by Don Perlin, an artist best known for Werewolf by Night, a title which had impressed me way back when.

According to the one page of script which was packed away with the photocopy, this was meant to be the splash page for Scarecrow #2, with room left at the top for one of Marvel’s introductory text paragraphs and at the bottom for the indicia.

(And forgive me if the top and bottom halves of the illustration don’t entirely line up—I don’t own a scanner large enough to fit the entire piece, and so scanned each half separately and put it all back together again with Photoshop.)

But (you may ask) whatever happened to Scarecrow #1? (more…)

Over at the wonderful ’80s comics site Blinded Me With Comics—which is a companion site to the great ’70s comics site Diversion of the Groovy Kind—a recent post highlighted Captain’s America’s run for the presidency.

This all took place back in a 1980 story arc by writer Roger Stern and artist John Byrne, though the post also reprinted the letters page from Captain America #250 in order to give credit to the two guys who first suggested that concept—Roger McKenzie and Don Perlin. (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…)

I discovered a wonderful site yesterday—The Marvel Comics Bullpen Bulletins Index, which reprints those gossipy pages which took us all behind the scenes at Marvel and enthralled me when I was a kid … and which I was eventually privileged to write!

You can see my first one, which appeared in all April 1975 Marvel Comics titles, here. (I was responsible for everything but Stan’s Soapbox, which he dutifully banged out himself each month.)

I can still remember sitting in the Bullpen typing away, and then going into Len’s office and reading it aloud to Len, my future wife Irene Vartanoff, and others, and how proud I was when they laughed as I read and then told me I’d nailed the voice.

But that’s not the Bullpen Bulletins page which I found the most interesting, at least not today. The one which just caught my attention came out the month before, in the March run of books. It included the first mention of me in a Bullpen Bulletins page, on the occasion of me making the move from my position as Associate Editor of Marvel’s British reprints to Assistant Editor on the U.S. titles. (more…)