Long, long ago, in a comic book company far away… there was once this shining citadel on a hill… a little place we like to call… Marvel Comics.
Let’s go back, way back to 1979. As of this writing, some 39 years ago. In the pile of images I keep, there is little way to place these pictures. I have a hard time associating some images with the actual office in which they were taken.
I was thinking that if I had a problem, imagine what anyone who either wasn’t there or is younger than 39 years old would have. What’s needed is a building floorplan.
This was a more difficult project than I’d contemplated. First and foremost the irritating software that is WordPress. Then there’s my sticky old rust-bucket, my brain. Armed with all the pictures, it is still hard to get things straight. I would leave film in the camera for weeks or — in a move so daring it savaged me in the backside more than once — I would take the film out of the camera and re-install it later. Confusing this 39-year-older fool in the process.
This gigantic mess is pretty much what you would see on an average day if you could walk through the halls of Marvel again. I have tried to describe the “sideways W” shape picked out here. The middle part of the W is Paty’s and Stu’s hallway that leads to the (male) bathroom (the ladies walk to the symmetrically balanced other side of the common hall).
To make things even more confusing, I tried to indicate which direction I was facing when taking the picture. I elected not to draw in doorways and such, as that would mean I’d still be drawing the plan. But you can easily guess.
Adding to my personal confusion, clouded by the unhelpful evidence of photographic evidence, is that at some point in 1979, we rebuilt the walls around the Bullpen. You can see much of the destruction in the shot featuring Gene Colan and Bill Mantlo (freelancers, but who came in to make use of the copy machines). About where Gene is standing is where a wall used to be. Those phantom walls and oddball half-walls are indicated with dotted lines.
The small “Editor” offices’ personnel changed so often, they all should have worn skates. Even with the “time telling” possible with strips of film (pictures are taken in order and the film is a good record of what happened (when taking film out of the camera, there’s usually a huge discontinuity in the negative strip itself, so that’s pretty obvious)) I have found myself easily confused as to what order “bigger” events happened.
Certainly who sat where, when. Important to note, I left out a bunch of Bullpenners like Ron Zalme and Rick Parker. Things were just too tight in that area for more type. I forgot the last names of Cliff (worked under Al Smith (who was so reclusive, I have not a single image of him) who kept printer’s negative flats and proof rolls) and Poppy (mailroom worker)– I may have only heard them once. I forgot which offices were Nel Yomtov’s and Sol Brodsky’s. I hardly spent time in either of them. I kept pretty much to the back end of the place– bouncing between my office and the Bullpen area.
There’s some overlap in the timeline presented– strictly in the interests of having a good picture, one that shows more. For example, Rick Marschall, Editor and his good chum and assistant, Ralph Macchio, were still in their large office. The image of them standing in front of the comic convention marquee is a good one. But over in the Madison Ave side of the building, Archie Goodwin is looking on at something Editor Al Milgrom is holding. Archie came in to replace Rick on EPIC Magazine not long after the point in time captured in this plan. So it’s not perfect.
Considering the state of my brain these days, that is my watch word! Not perfect! Watch words.
Editor’s Note:
This website was upgraded in September 2019. To my horror I lost about ten comments with the upgrade. I do, though, have the following screen capture(s) of the lost comments . I’m sorry Readers! — Arlene Puentes
Wow! Thanks for sharing this. It’s a cool bit of history for comic fans.