…you were no good. Stan asked Archie to put together a list of Marvel’s writers, ranked in order. Archie left himself off. He was too busy to plot the strip, though, for my money, he was obviously the best choice, having written Secret Agent Corrigan for years. Archie’s list included…
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The Guild and Ditko’s Declaration Now, I know what you’re thinking…. That Jim Shooter was the champion of Work Made for Hire. Nah. I had been on the creator side of the desk too long before the Editor in Chief gig. I was the champion of Best Deal Possible for…
…bureaucratic broomstick up his ass. They don’t really want to lose hundreds of thousands off of their bottom line over nothing either. What I hoped for was clearance to go to the convention and deliver the script a day or two after I got back. Call their bluff. Galton’s secretary…
Batman/Hulk, Titans/Mutants and Are You Kidding? Superman and Spider-Man succeeded beyond expectations, launching the Marvel/DC crossover series in spectacular fashion. Next up, published in late 1981, I think, was Batman vs. the Incredible Hulk. Len Wein, DC’s top writer, who, of course, had written both characters, was the natural choice…
Plan “B” Once the contracts were buttoned up and signed we started work on Superman and Spider-Man. I picked Marv Wolfman to write the book for a number of reasons: he was a marquee name and deservedly so, he was in New York, conveniently, he was absolutely reliable, and most…
And Then Things Got Ugly Dick Giordano asked me to meet him for lunch on May 26th, I believe. He picked an Italian place on Madison Avenue near 42nd Street, about halfway between DC and Marvel’s offices. He had this news: Gerry Conway had quit the project. Okay. Apparently Roy…
There was a sniper in the sales department of the Marvel Comics office. We were hunkered down behind desks, chairs, filing cabinets but we were slowly getting picked off one by one. It was dark but a little light filtered in from the fluorescent lights of the editorial department behind…
Say the Secret Word The secret word is cacoethes. One of the first Steve Gerber scripts I remember editing was Howard the Duck #3, the “Master of Quack-Fu” issue. This would have been in early 1976 when I was brand-new associate editor. The plot for that issue had been done…
One morning in mid-1980, Jenette Kahn called and asked me to lunch to discuss an idea she had. In those days, I usually came to work wearing a sport coat with an open-collar shirt. When I knew I was going to have civilian visitors (“civilian” means non-comics people, in case…
First This My sincere apologies. This post was supposed to be yesterday’s. Yesterday’s was supposed to be Saturday’s. Prepping for the New York Comic-Con and some of the business I hope to accomplish there ate up a lot of time. Sorry. Jane’s Fighting Ships, the Marvel Encyclopedia and Where It…