Mid-1983. A fertile and creative time at the Marvel Comics Editorial Offices, now located in the dusty stone canyons of mid-low, to lower Manhattan’s publishing district better known as 28th Street and Park Avenue South.
Your earnest blogger had recently been promoted from the Deluxe Tom DeFalco Spider Offices to the exalted and ethereal X-Offices (hmm, sounds like a new title… ). Editrixe Sublime Louise Jones who did a lot of business under the name: “Weezie,” had very nicely taken me on as her Assistant. It had already been a few months as I was still learning the ropes (they were French braided) from Weezie.
Did I say ‘fertile’? Heady and fecund could be said. The New Mutants were rising and the office was assaulted by Chris Claremont almost every day. I feel I don’t need to attach my usual modifications to somebody like Chris. Pretty much everyone knows that Chris was the stand-alone monster talent, striding the comic landscape, mostly of his own making, in an easy lope.
I was there for ish #1 – new characters, who isn’t excited. I delighted in the solid story-telling of Artist/Creator Bob McCloud – who essentially never came into the office, so no pictures to speak of. Bob’s strong pencils and inks set the ball rolling and with an interlude by Legendary Sal Buscema’s equally solid breakdowns, left soon after the momentum picked up.
Issue #8 showed what a comic book editor does by example. Weezie convinced a very reluctant Bill Sienkiewicz to take on a monthly book. But this time with the reins firmly in his teeth; anything goes. Indeed, anything went—Bill’s run on New Mutants remains a high-water mark in comic creativity and fresh world-making. At the time, I was most impressed by Bill’s remarkable effort to create a completely new look for an alien life-form, the character Warlock. It was most illuminating to be told that each page cost him at least a single inking pen point—such was the unusual artwork of that character.
Parenthetically, the recent new New Mutant issue, brought out to thrill a new audience by Chris and Bill, are still heads and shoulders above the rest of comicdom.
But never mind all that! I bring up The New Mutants because I have pictures of the start of it all and two examples of my involvement (sorry, Chris and Bill, this is my blog after all…) with them.
I managed to catch the casual get together of the Storm & Illyana Magik Limited Series creative persons. Adding weight to the deceptively simple story of demon girl being lured in by a Satan stand-in needed some serious delivery. Few people render the utterly insane ideas better than John Buscema. John had been honing his pencils on Conan The Barbarian for a long time, Conan was usually wrestling large snakes. It was time for a break and when Weezie suggested this tale of little demon girl, John said yes.
Chris Claremont needs little introduction but who better to untangle the complex story of a demon about to be dragged into evil than Chris! Here is the blurry first image—it is blurry because Marie Severin, artist beyond compare, did her nobody-expects-the-Spanish-Inquisition door kick-in as I was gathering my equipment.
I present this in spite of its flaws because I have so few pictures of Marie.
Exactly what Virginia, Terrifying Traffic Manager, was doing there is gone from memory. It is true that the Romitas lived not too far from the Buscemas out in Long Island. This might have been a nice time to get a little schmooze time in with some business. That’s what Editorial Lunches are for.
The sharp eyed among you might note that there are plastic models on the filing cabinet Chris is leaning on. One is the modified 747-200 used to flight test and transport the shuttle for NASA. But the open box is a model car that I used to draw a better version of the S.H.I.E.L.D Flying Car. This was the point I was at during my run on Marvel Universe (“S”). I chose a 68 Pontiac GTO.
So after securing this living legend of an artist, John Buscema to handle the storytelling. The inker chosen was Tom Palmer, who sadly did not show up in the office. Now we can advance forward in time. The oft-spoken of “Assistant Editors Month”—that time the Editors all whisked themselves away and frolicked and gobbled down endless free food while we actually did all the work…
Which was fine, really; government cheese gets a bad rap but it’s not so bad after the first week.
Below, is the second cover that I was left in charge of. I felt I had to restrain myself on some of the other titles as characters were dying, some of the books were licensed and could not be fooled with and then there was this! It stood apart from all else and simply needed to be shepherded through the Bullpen!
Or did it?
Well! Weezie called in, having looked up from her poolside Mimosas, signaled for staff to run a phone on a 100-foot cord over to her divan and dial the office. I was informed that a corner box needed to be made within the hour, put together the cover and have it colored now. Y’see, the cover was late. Very late. When books are late we all have to come up to ramming speed and make things happen. Or have a snack. Or both.
Of course, I was in charge so I could do anything I wanted. Weezie had let the phone slip from her nerveless fingers as the seagulls called over the static-filled telephone line… perhaps the clink of Mimosa glasses was heard… Right! Time for a snack.
Three candy bars later, I brought the book into the Bullpen. I was lucky that I knew all those guys and so having the cover put together very quickly was a simple matter of reminding them of certain events in their histories.
Here is where we could split the action. I had to get a cover box done. I sat down next to Jack Able and found he was not busy. Jack was a figure out of comic history. A good penciler and strong inker who had worked on years’ worth of major titles for most comic houses. A stroke had laid him low—but it was Bossman Jim Shooter who made a position on-staff for Jack that paid him and also kept him active. Proof Reader. Jack’s ancient schooling was different from what English Grammar we did—and he remembered it all. But I knew Jack still Inked. Shooter, also to his credit, gave Jack plenty of encouragement to pencil. And Jack tried very hard. For those reasons only known above, inking seemed to be not nearly as much strain. Apparently a different part of the brain was in use than when penciling. So I followed the first issue’s corner box style, a full frame shot with something of the character to show. Seems she had a different costume this book and was holding quite a knife. As a technical illustrator, I can draw people but I am slow. Lucky this was a postage stamp and I was done in a few minutes. Jack took it and in 15 minutes had made it much better.
During this time of wildly flashing paint brush ferules, I took reduced copies of the cover over to Staff Colorist, George Roussos, to have a color guide made. I have written about George before. Seeing George color must be similar to watching Michaelangelo take a chisel to a piece of marble. I suggested a spotlight. George handed me a pencil and said, indicate it. I did. He then took it back and in that act of legerdemain like watching a close-up magician, George dashed colors here and there as if by accident, but everything landed perfectly.
I stepped out to retrieve the corner box from Jack, thanking him profusely and visited my old comrade-at-stat, Robbie Carosella, who always responded so well to personal favors of mine. He ripped original art from the copy table and threw it on the floor. He placed my little postcard-sized original in its place. Buzz, blaze and sit around gossiping, then poof! A nice dry stat. Another round of thanks.
I made a xerographic copy of that and brought it in to George. It too had to be placed on the cover color guide.
It was then we noticed Tom Palmer’s little joke. George spotted me in the background. I was delighted to be one of Belasco’s fallen! (My demon name is Spex.) And there I have resided there to this day.
© Marvel LLC
Now it can be told! For all these years I have been abiding in your collection of the Magik Limited Series, watching over all who are good at heart and waiting for that next snack.