Category: 03 Marvel Comics Page 7 of 10

A Little Back Story

Sergio Aragonés came to visit me one day to pitch an idea for a humorous comic book starring a funny, cheese-dip-loving barbarian character.  Just one thing—he said he knew that Marvel had to “own everything,” but he wanted to retain some small interest in the character.  He knew Marvel had to own and control it, but he would like—he held his thumb and forefinger an inch apart—a  little piece.

I told Sergio we could do better than that.  No reason he couldn’t own it lock, stock and cheese dip.  Marvel would be perfectly willing to publish his comic book series under a normal, real world publishing agreement, that is, specified rights, all negotiable, for a specified term.

He didn’t believe me. I introduced him to Publisher Mike Hobson. Mike assured him that I was empowered to make such a deal. We were willing to draw up a deal memo on the spot that Sergio could take to his legal advisors.  Sergio said he had no time right then because he had an appointment somewhere else, after which he was going back to the Coast, but he’d be back in New York in two weeks.

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First, this….I’m very grateful for your comments. I appreciate your knowledge, wisdom and insight. I love it when you fill in details that I leave out, when you deepen the discourse and especially when you catch me if I slip up. You’re the best editors anyone could hope for. I look forward to reading what you write. It’s a highlight of my day, every day. Thanks.An EPIC Deception

Late 1979.  We needed an Editor for a new magazine we had in the works, working title Odyssey.  It was intended to appeal to the adult readers we already had, attract others and open the door to creators worldwide who wanted to work on properties they owned rather than do work for hire on Marvel’s established properties.

I spoke with Stan about it.  Getting the right editor was critical.  I suggested that we offer the position to Archie Goodwin.

I didn’t think Archie would take the job if it meant reporting to me.  First of all, working for someone who used to be your assistant is usually awkward.  Given the drama that arose from my replacing him as Editor in Chief, I figured it was a non-starter.

Unless….

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Reinforcements arrive.  And NO GREEN BACKGROUNDS!

When I was promoted to Editor in Chief, I was supposed to move from the small office I was in to the larger, nicer Editor in Chief office down the hall. I couldn’t take the time to move, though. I was too busy being overwhelmed. After that office sat empty for a few days, Sol Brodsky, by no one’s leave, pounced on it and moved in. I didn’t care. The little room I had was in a corner of the big editorial room and closer to the bullpen. In the middle of the action, you might say. Except, since we were short-handed, only a couple of assistant editors and me, there wasn’t a lot of “action” in the editorial area besides my frantic scrambling around.

Besides, that small room had been good enough for Roy, Len, Marv and Gerry. Only Archie had occupied the bigger office. Why? He had been editor of the black-and-white magazines, and that room had formerly been the B&W editorial office, where Archie and one or two or other editorial people sat. Like me, after he’d been promoted, he hadn’t the time to move, and so he stayed put, and thus, the big room became the EIC office. I had been installed in the little room along with the B&W editor who replaced Archie. Roger Slifer, as I recall.

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Early 1978. Dark days for Marvel Comics. Bad sales, late books, bad books, waste, corruption, contentions over the new copyright law, general unrest, chaos in the ranks….

Stormy seas.  The ship was sinking.  I was the captain.  It was my job to right the ship.

One big problem was that some of the sailors didn’t know I was the captain.

A little back story. If you’ve been following along, you know most of this:

Stan was the publisher, but only ceremonially.  He had no business responsibilities, no day-to-day management role.  His job was being Stan.  He was the resident creative guru, the face of Marvel, number one pitch man and ambassador.

I’m not saying Stan was powerless. If he chose to weigh in on something, people listened. I was hired on his recommendation.  But, it was the President of the company, Jim Galton, who hired me, and he was the one to whom I reported.  Stan’s authority came from being Stan, not by virtue of his title.

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As previously mentioned, Marvel was a mess throughout the mid-1970’s and during my two years as “associate editor,” from the beginning of 1976 through the end of 1977.  Almost every book was late.  There were unscheduled reprints and fill-ins, and we still just plain missed issues here and there.  Many books, despite my best efforts to shore up the bottom were unreadable.  Not merely bad.  Unreadable.  Almost all were less than they ought to be. 

There were a few exceptions.  Roy’s color Conan and B&W Savage Sword.  Master of Kung Fu by Moench and Gulacy.  Wolfman’s Tomb of Dracula, with Gene Colan and Tom Palmer art.  Those were good books.  Len’s Fantastic Four, I think, was enjoyable, too.  A couple of others, maybe. 

A few books had parts that were great and things not so great about them that crippled them. 

We can debate the above at length….

However, what can’t be debated is that sales were bad and falling.  It was almost all newsstand sales then, by the way.  This was before the Direct Market was a significant factor.  The comics overall were breakeven at best.  Upstairs, the cheesy non-comics magazine department was losing millions.  It seemed like the company as a whole was in a death spiral.

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