Chris Cooper Is For The Birds

Of course, any old New Yorker knows that Central Park is NYC’s back yard. When that spiffy new One Vanderbilt is finished or the midtown Central Park Studios feels a little cramped, why those tired day traders and CEOs can relax in their backyard like any of us…

Few New Yorkers know that New York City is a major avian thoroughfare (I know Robert Moses was trying to get little toll-booths set up… )—an elevated migration station. With layovers in beautiful Central Park!

When I was growing up not too far away, there was this nasty little clump of real estate, in the park, right outside The Plaza, which was off limits! Then I learned it was a bird sanctuary. [More like Thunderdome after all those decades… –Mad Brown] After quite some time, it’s open and is now known as the Hallett Nature Sanctuary. My own sweet mother volunteered for the Central Park Zoo and was often found making her way out of the sanctuary, with a trusty chair and a well-worn .38 Special (blank shells, of course), battered but unbowed. Well, she often remarked, you never knew what wandered in.

This article is really about Chris Cooper, perhaps the most famous birder in the world since James Bond. This Chris Cooper is THE Chris Cooper, whose former fame was being a member of that somewhat small collective of Marvel Comic employees and creators. Now that fame has dwindled to a minor footnote attached to his modern-day fame.

But you knew that because he is that, internationally, famous. And deservedly so. His calm dignity was always a standout among the rowdies of the Marvel Offices. Still is today.

What my colleague-of-old never mentioned to me was that he was a “birder.” That’s no mere idea of someone who likes birds. I feed a swarm of those ungrateful bastards every morning and what thanks do I get? Hmmm. On the other hand, Chris prowls the regions of Central Park on the lookout for first sightings and out of place birds, etc. Taking notes and a picture if possible to confound his fellow birders (“The yellow-bellied sapsucker I observed at Strawberry Fields is about a week early– !” –and so on…). He is, no doubt, (asking him for confirmation of all this would be too much work) a member of various societies and groups associated with national bird institutions, etc.

To my delight, when I finally scanned a “grab shot” of Chris at his desk, around June of 1990, I spotted a clue. An early indicator that Chris was the real deal, birder-wise.

I present an average day in the Marvel Offices—to the right, Editor, Creator and all-round good fellow, Rob Tokar (who was an Assistant Editor at some point in my own Punisher Armory books, so I know) is interviewing the late-bloomer, but now seasoned and remarkably talented, Penciler, Inker and Creator, Jerry Acerno for consideration on some book.

To the left is Assistant Editor Chris Cooper!

I call your attention to the cork board just above Chris’ head. Most Marvel offices are distinguished by their bomb-disposal range look of wall drivel. But in this case—an early indication of Chris’ true interests:

Next time you visit New York’s lovely Central Park in early Fall, perhaps looking for a ruddy duck or common grackle, be on the lookout for all serious birders! Pause frequently, try for quiet and you might spot the rarest of aves, that former comic professional and sharp-eyed birder: Chris Cooper!