Apocalypse Now On my first official day as Editor in Chief, Tuesday, January 3rd, 1978, I arrived at the office extra early. Normal for me was between seven and eight AM. I think I was in my chair behind my desk at five. And I had a one hour commute in those days. I had […]
1. Julius Schwartz explaining his self-inflicted nickname: “They call me ‘B.O. Schwartz.’ B.O. for ‘Be Original.” 2. Artist Paris Cullens one late night at VALIANT when we were ordering burgers, regarding his life-long love affair with cheese: “I’d eat a baby’s butt if it had cheese on it.” 3. Marvel Production Manager Danny Crespi to […]
On Friday, I found out that Gene Colan had passed away. Gene was a great artist and a fine man. He will ever remain an honored and revered giant of our industry. I had the privilege once of visiting his home and seeing some of the non-comics art and illustrations he created hanging here and […]
JayJay here. Jim wrote the following in response to a comment from yesterday, but I wanted to post it here since it applies to more than just that specific comment. Jeff wrote: “For over 30 years, I have read numerous “Jim Shooter screwed me” stories in various interviews from, usually, The Comics Journal, plus other […]
The Plotting Thickens the Plot First, some backfill: I mentioned that, in a comic book I wrote that Stan went over with me, he asked, “What idiot wrote this line?” It was an issue of Ghost Rider. Gerry Conway plotted it, was supposed to write the dialogue, failed to deliver, and so Archie asked me […]
This part of the story hasn’t ever been told. I was hired by Editor in Chief Marv Wolfman in December of 1975. My first day on the job as “associate editor” was the first working day of the new year, Monday, January 5, 1976. Marv lasted only three more months or so before leaving to […]
I failed to mention it in the previous installment, but Knickerbocker Toys was a maker of “soft” toys—that is, plush toys and girls’ toys. They produced the famous Holly Hobbie dolls, for instance. In 1983, their business was sliding, though. Mysterions was a last-ditch attempt to get into boys’ toys, obviated when Hasbro acquired them. […]
In 1983, a toy company approached Marvel Comics seeking development of a toy property for comics, animation and other entertainment. The toys in question were cars and other vehicles that could be opened and unfolded into ROBOTS. Very cool. The toy company was KNICKERBOCKER TOYS. They called their toy property, based on technology licensed from […]
By the time I finally got Marvel’s board to agree to allow a royalty program (and that was a tough sell), DC had already announced theirs. Easy for them. Only three or four DC titles sold enough copies to qualify for royalties under their plan, and one, Superman, just barely, because royalties started after the […]
Trickeration Once the mystery of the benevolent lapping scam was solved, Financial V.P. Barry Kaplan made attempts to recover some of the money. A few creators who had benefitted from the advance-vouchering that had been going on actually worked off their debt, or paid the money back. Very few. Barry judged many to be hopeless […]