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Year: 2011 Page 9 of 23

Submission Hold

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On September 2, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics

In a corner of the Marvel Editorial office sat a huge pile of unopened mail. There was so much of it you couldn’t describe it as a stack or a pile. More like a weary mountain, sort of leaning into the corner for support. If someone walked by quickly the air turbulence might cause a small avalanche, one or two envelopes sliding and bouncing down from the summit to the piedmont.“What’s all that?” I asked.

Submissions, I was told. People were always sending in samples and submissions.

“What do you do with them?”

Nothing, someone said. Hold onto them for a while. Sometimes, when Stan was out of town and his secretary got bored, she’d return some, unopened. If the pile got too big, they’d just throw them all away.

I asked if I could take care of them. Answer, words to the effect, “Knock yourself out.”

It was 1976. I was brand new associate editor, fresh from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. All my friends were back in the “Burgh. My girlfriend was back in the ‘Burgh. I didn’t have a lot to do after work except more work. And, occasionally hang out with the other new guy, Roger Stern. So, every night, I took a dozen or three of those submissions home with me.

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Animal House

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On September 1, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics

Sometime in early 1978, Chris Claremont proposed that Spider-Man meet the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” in an issue of Marvel Team-Up.

For any of you who were born last week, the Not Ready For Prime Time Players are the cast members of Saturday Night Live. If you don’t know about SNL then ask mommy if you can stay up late one Saturday night or, better yet, check out the Saturday Night Live DVDs that contain classic material, like SNL The First Five Years or The Best of John Belushi.

SNL was the hipness barometer back in those days. If, on Monday morning, you weren’t guffawing about “Samurai Delicatessen” or “Weekend Update” around the coffee shrine you probably still wore white socks and put pennies in your loafers.

Son of Items of Interest

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On August 31, 2011

In 12 From Storage, Uncategorized

Here are some more things that turned up recently.What If George Pérez Drew the Legion of Super-Heroes…?
George gave me this. This is the original drawing done for George’s beautiful book PÉREZ* * ACCENT ON THE FIRST ‘E’. It was published in 1977, I think. Marvel gave George a license to use its characters for no charge (or, maybe a dollar). I presume DC did the same. George autographed a copy of the book for me.

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Items of Interest

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On August 30, 2011

In 12 From Storage

I came across some things that relate to previous posts and comments. JayJay, the brilliant Blog Elf will provide links to the discussions.

The Famous ROM #1 Cover That Wasn’t

Here is the unused cover for ROM #1 penciled by Michael Netzer:

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A Comment and an Answer About Gene Day’s Death

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On August 29, 2011

In 10 Questions / Answers

czeskleba commented:
Dave Sim tells the story about Gene Day’s health problems and death here:
http://tinyurl.com/4c8cw75

To summarize… Day came down to Manhattan to do a rush ink job on an issue of Master of Kung Fu. Marvel put him up in a roach-infested hotel, and when he complained he was told he could either stay there or sleep at the Marvel offices. He chose the latter, not realizing the heat would be turned off in the office at night. It was winter, and sleeping in the very cold Marvel offices caused him to develop a kidney infection, which was the beginning of serious health problems that culminated in his tragic death by heart attack.

I haven’t read Moench’s comments, but I would assume he blamed Shooter for the above incident with the infested motel/cold Marvel office (though Shooter was not directly involved in the situation or even aware of it as far as I know). Chronic kidney problems can be a contributory factor in heart disease, so I assume he then blames the situation for ultimately causing Gene’s death.

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A Recent Question and an Answer

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On August 27, 2011

In 10 Questions / Answers

ja commented on yesterday’s post:

“I must say it’s very impressive that you’ve saved so many items from your tenure at Marvel, and I assume, the rest of your career.

Is this some sort of an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder-kind of thing, or did you one day make a conscious decision to save everything for posterity?”

Toward the end of my time at Marvel, Marvel’s upper management duo, Galton and Calamari, along with Shelly Feinberg and a few other Cadence bigwigs (as “CMI” — Cadence Management Inc.) had taken Cadence, Marvel’s parent, private and sold the Marvel division to New World Entertainment (NWE).  Throughout the process, as they furthered their quest to cash in and line their own pockets on what we, the comics people had built, they took certain unethical and, I believe, illegal steps.

I was senior enough that all I had to do was keep my mouth shut, help them sell my troops down the river and I would have been handsomely rewarded. One executive on a lower level than I ended up with a $3 million payoff. Mine would have been bigger, if I had merely cooperated.  

I chose instead to become a “labor leader.”  As the pension plan was cashed out, benefits were withdrawn, health coverage was diminished, etc., all done to fatten cash flow to increase the value of CMI’s sale-price multiple, I resisted. They even tried to retroactively eliminate the royalty plan. That battle I won — by threatening a class action lawsuit. At the top of my lungs.
 

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SUPERMAN – First Marvel Issue!

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On August 26, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics

Sometime in February, 1984, my secretary (it was okay to say “secretary” in those days) the wonderful Lynn Cohen told me that Bill Sarnoff was on the phone. Not his secretary, Bill Sarnoff himself, holding for me.Great Scott!

Bill Sarnoff was the Big Cheese, I forget his exact title, of the publishing arm of Warner Communications. Among the operations under his purview was DC Comics.

Bill introduced himself, as if that was necessary. What he wanted to talk about was licensing the publishing rights for all DC characters to Marvel Comics.

Holy hegemony, Billman!

Bill said, more or less, that Marvel seemed to be able to turn a substantial profit on publishing comics, as opposed to DC, which consistently lost money, a lot of money, and had for a long time. On the other hand, LCA (Licensing Corporation of America), Warner’s licensing arm did very well with the DC properties, while Marvel “didn’t seem to do much licensing.”

I guess the few million a year we made from licensing, mostly from Spider-Man, seemed paltry to him, what with the fortune that just their big four, Superman, Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman brought in.

I told him I thought Marvel would be very interested, and that I would discuss it with Marvel’s President, Jim Galton.

So, I did. I told Galton about my conversation with Sarnoff. Galton said he’d give Sarnoff a call.

The next day, I went upstairs, poked my head into Galton’s office and asked whether he’d called Sarnoff and, if so, how that went?

Galton said he told Sarnoff we weren’t interested.

I was stunned. Why not?!

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Hurricane Delay

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On August 26, 2011

In Uncategorized

JayJay Here. Jim will be a bit late with the blog today. He’s helping out a friend with hurricane preparations. And he has to do his own! So, later today. 

Some Marvel Tales and Other Horror Stories – Part 4

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On August 25, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics, 09 Reminiscences and Tributes

My Favorite Hap Kliban Story The Hap Kliban story took place in San Diego, but the back story begins in Chicago. I believe this was in 1981. Could be wrong. Anyway, that year, the Chicago Con was the weekend before the San Diego Con. Because the trade show part of the San Diego Con started Wednesday (I think) it made sense to go directly from Chicago to San Diego, rather than return to New York in between.The San Diego Con was new Marvel Publisher Mike Hobson’s first convention, I believe. He was going to join me and the Marvel con-tingent there.

Chicago was a terrific show that year. Among other things, I remember meeting this aspiring young artist, a kid named Mark Silvestri. I liked his stuff. Claremont heard about it and swooped down on him like a mutant hawk.

When at conventions I often took con people and creators, especially Marvel creators, to lunch or dinner on Marvel. It was a little thank you for all they did, for representing Marvel at the con, for general good will and PR. You know. So, one afternoon, I asked a couple of Marvel guys if they’d like to have dinner at Lowry’s. Lowry’s is a classy Chicago joint famous for its prime rib, in case you are a vegan and therefore unaware of notable carnivore hangouts.

Len Wein and Marv Wolfman overheard me and asked if they could come along. Well…both were DC guys at that point, but, why not? They’d done plenty of dinners’ worth of work for Marvel, and…why not?

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Some Marvel Tales and Other Horror Stories – Part 3

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On August 24, 2011

In 03 Marvel Comics

Morality in ComicsIn 1980, or around then, at the San Diego Comic-Con there was a panel discussion on the program entitled “Morality in Comics.” I had no conflicting obligations so I went to see what that was all about.Usually, when I went to panels, I found a seat in the back somewhere. The room was almost full when I got there, though, and it was a big room…! Who knew “morality” would be such a hot topic? I found a seat six or seven rows back from the front. Not ideal.

I’d learned that, being Editor in Chief of Marvel, if I attended a panel, often I was asked to participate, though usually I just wanted to listen. So I tried to be inconspicuous.

Yes, it is difficult to be inconspicuous when you’re six-foot-seven. Stop laughing.

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