Over on Facebook recently, Steve Niles posted the front and back covers to the 1975 album Spider-Man: Rock Reflections of a Superhero, the rock opera which, unlike Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, never got any of its performers injured. (Well … as far as I know.) It brought back many memories, because I was on staff at Marvel then, and one of my assignments was to act as an advisor to the creators of the project, making sure they correctly understood the finer points of Spider lore.

Steve’s post sent me scurrying to find my personal copy of the album. Here’s the way most people saw the back cover.

But the copy I was given looks quite different.

I can remember long talks at a recording studio on Park Avenue during which I’m sure I was overly passionate about who the characters were and how their lives intersected. Though I never got album credit for my work, as you can see, the creators did thank me profusely for my efforts.

Terence P. Minogue wrote, “Thank you for your help with this album. You gave us an insight to Comic Art that was crucial and invaluable to completing this project.” And Tommy West and Terry Cashman also signed the album.

Who were these guys? To be honest, I wasn’t that musically inclined, so their names meant little to me, and I hadn’t realized the level of musician that was involved in the project. But by doing a search on their names now, I see that Cashman and West were producers of, and Minogue was a musician and vocalist on, the Jim Croce album I Got a Name.

If I’d realized that at the time, I would have been very impressed, and maybe in too much awe of them to propound so self-righteously about Marvel minutiae. Better that I didn’t know!

If you want a sample of how it all turned out, give a listen to a couple of cuts.

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…)

Yesterday was the 56th birthday of Gerry Conway, the writer who killed and then brought back Peter Parker’s girlfriend Gwen Stacy in the pages of Amazing Spider-Man—which makes this the right time to share another hidden bit of comics history.

When Gwen Stacy returned in the final panel of the May 1975 issue of Amazing Spider-Man, this is what readers saw in the published issue.

But what those who weren’t lucky enough to be working in the Marvel Bullpen at the time never saw was the alternate version originally handed in by artist Ross Andru. (more…)