Over at Diversions of the Groovy Kind, a blog devoted to “the far-out comics of the Groovy Age (1967-1980),” the “Groovy Agent” has just featured my character the Scarecrow as part of the site’s month-long Halloween Countdown 2008.

If you follow the link above, you’ll find that my second comic-book story about the Scarecrow from the December 1975 issue of Marvel Spotlight has been reproduced in full. So if you’ve never read any of my comics, here’s your chance.

I wish I could say that it’s improved with age. It hasn’t, but hopefully, I have. Hey, cut me a break—I wrote it when I was 20!

Sharp eyes will spot a reference to the late comedian Andy Kaufman. I wrote him into the story after I’d seen him perform many times at the New York comedy club the Improv. I spoke with him at the bar one night and got his permission (whether I needed it or not) to make the reference.

You can find my own write-up about the Scarecrow here.

It’s a good thing when you look back at old writing and shudder—isn’t it? At least I hope it is, because I’ve been given many opportunities to shudder lately.

More than thirty years ago, back when I was working at Marvel Comics, I created a character called the Scarecrow, who debuted in Dead of Night #11 (August 1975), continued his adventures in Marvel Spotlight #26 (February 1976), and then faded away as the horror explosion imploded, popping up only occasionally thereafter handled by other writers. I haven’t done any work for either Marvel or DC since the early ’80s.

Marvel has recently begun packaging some of my old stories as a minor part of its compilation volumes, and the latest of these is the hardcover book Legion of Monsters, which stars Morbius the Living Vampire, Werewolf by Night, Man-Thing and others on the cover, and relegates the Scarecrow only to the two tales inside. This is the fourth reprint volume I’ve been a part of lately, and they bring about mixed emotions. (more…)