Mark Gruenwald, boyish Marvel Comics Editor, was always looking for slightly risque activities or pranks. Someone must’ve given him a paddle-ball as a gag-gift. That was all it took– the Marvel Bullpen was never the same! After the traditional stagger to the bank to cash our paychecks, we reassembled to move furniture around to make room for the Only Annual Wack-Offs!
Who could get three wacks in a row? The results will surprise you! Okay, maybe not you, but it sure surprised us. Mark went to the trouble of giving each of us personalized paddles!
These two rolls begin as many did– just a roll of film in the camera. I would walk around and take pictures of my friends and colleagues doing whatever we did. For example, this roll starts off with us cashing our paychecks in the bank.
What is hard to relate about this entry is that this Friday was the very day of the weekend that Marvel moved its offices from 575 Madison down to 387 Park Avenue South! A testament to the hard work of Bernie Shacktman, an old hand from Marvel’s “Magazine Management” days, we moved down to nearly complete facilities. That Monday morning, we simply opened up our boxes, picked up the still-tacky artwork and finished the paste-ups, made the lettering correction or typeset an indecia!
Click on any photo to see a larger version.
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- This was a trypical bi-weekly run to the bank. Harry Candelario’s back is to the camera, Robbie Carosella is looking at Jack Morelli– both with glasses on. Lance Tooks is standing behind the nice lady whose stance suggests nervouseness! The gentleman with the prominent mustouche is Barry Shapiro. Just behind Barry is Nora Maclin (Marvel’s Black & White Magazine Production Wizard) brining up the rear is Judy Sotille (I forget what she did!)
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- Talkin’ to the Big Guy– Jim Shooter in the doorway. L-R: Deb Highly, Carol Jazwinski and the back of Nancy Golden. Not sure who is obscured by Danny Crespi in the foreground– could be Allan Weiss?
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- Morrie Kuramoto talking to Alice Gordon. To the rear, swimming in the murk, are Tom DeFalco and Jim Salicrup. The back belongs to Linda Florio.
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- Morrie sits down at someone else’s desk to pick a few ponies.
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- Work never stopped! Despite a small party, artist Bill Sienkiewicz uses Ron Zalme’s desk to do some quick fixes. Robbie Carosella looks on.
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- Some preliminary chit-chat. Linda Florio in front of a sitting Rick Parker. Jack Morelli and Jack Abel (in the white shirt), to the rear in the murk, Danny Crespi talking to some unidentified gal.
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- Jack Morelli, Lance Tooks and Robbie Carosella. Lance is working the controls to the — believe it or not!– “FREE” coffee machine. Whoah, baby! Free!!! This act of corporate magnanimity allowed us to guzzle coffee the likes of which were indescribable by the human mind. Marvel was “The House of Ideas” and so we could try to describe this stuff. Pretty much wet, warm and available in several shades of brown. Since we remembered what coffee tasted like, these visual aids served as a prompt. This machine inspired my “Coffee Club.”
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- Jack and Lance in a short-lived dust up. Probably over that fan. Rick Parker about to step in.
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- Frankie Sienkiewicz lounges while Frank Miller kibbitzes. Bill Sienkiewicz defends his art.
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- Rick Parker warns of dire consequences. Barry Shapiro blithely walks through the shot. Lance seems to be getting the upper, uh, leg on Jack!
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- Bob Layton tirelessly fills out art vouchers.
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- “This is the way I found it!” claims a cherbuic Jack Morelli! This was the Marvel Comics Library. If you needed to look something up, we all wished you good luck.
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- Paul Becton sits, Ralph Macchio protests, Jim Salicrup wryly comments and Ron Wilson beats a hasty retreat.
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- Wendy Miller (Production VP Milt Schiffman’s secretary) and John Romita, Jr strike a pose.
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- Joe Albelo, Ron Zalme, Mike Carlin, Rick Parker sitting. Bob Camp (who was serving as on-staff art-repair guy, while John Tartag was off penciling the book about the Pope!) blocks the door. They’re all waiting either for more food or the Wack Offs to start.
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- Annie Nocenti, choking down some Bullpen cake and Danny Crespi looks concerned.
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- The Wack Offs begin! Joltin’ Jack Abel sends the ball rocketing off the ceiling, the floor and my foot! But not the paddle.
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- Jack’s getting serious now… nope, he still misses. Jo Duffy take in the action from under the Official Time Clock of the Marvel Bullpen.
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- Mike Carlin, with many minutes of hard practice, shows us how it’s done!
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- Mike “Keep Your Eye On The Ball” Carlin lays waste to the ceiling! The crowd is beginning to drift off…
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- Bullpen Production Manager, Super Talented Danny Crespi fires off a sneak attack on back-turned Bill Sienkiewicz– without even looking.
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- Danny “Slow To Anger” Crespi finally gets serious and actually hits the ball with the paddle once. The crowd erupts with excitement.
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- Archie Goodwin has much greater expectation for that ball, as evidenced by where he’s looking and where the ball is!
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- Archie asks someone to get his gun. The ball glides by, unimpressed.
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- Alice Gordon (VP Publisher, Mike Hobson’s secretary) lets fly!
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- Alice “Now Where Did That Go” Gordon shows off some style.
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- Mark Gruenwald, who really did practice, shows us how it’s done! Danny can’t believe his eyes. A dejected Shooter just leaves the room (to go to his office– this whole area is his ante-room).
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- “Wrong Way” Gruenwald heads South!
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- The Gruen of No Retuern, sends his ball rocketing into the stratosphere! Look at that sleek form, those sinewy thighs, the top-back-spin of his foregrip! What are sinews?
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- Lithesome Linda Florio makes paddle-balling seem possible!
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- Linda Florio shows off her dazzling “Answer The Phone” shot.
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- Morrie Kuramoto displaying the cool, calm collection that made him famous in the Marvel Bullpen. Rick Parker– the Man in Black– is holding a Polaroid instant print camera, but is not using it as those shots are expensive.
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- And the crowd goes wild! Morrie lets off a vicious cross-room attack. Mike Hobson (R) is warming up in the, uh, Bullpen!
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- Michael Z. Hobson, our Glorious Leader, the Vice President of Publishing, shows us why contract negotiator adversaries call him, “Fast Hands.”
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- Mike Hobson knocks the clock off the wall in a breath-taking display of paddle-ball-blasting!
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- Jack “The Squid” Morelli gets tangled up in his net!
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- Denny O’Neill demonstrates the rarely-seen “Kill The Intern” volley! (Sorry, can’t recall who they were! But they lived… this time!)
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- Rick Parker tries his damndest to take out the photographer! To the rear: on the left are unknown Interns, behind Rick is Harry Candelario, Virginia Romita, seated are Lance Tooks, Frankie Sienkiewicz and Linda Florio.
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- Nora Maclin, an immigrant from the former Soviet Union, shows us how they did it in the suburbs of Moscow!
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- Nora has way too much fun and is cracking up at how difficult this is. I think she just clocked Mark Gruenwald, on the floor!
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- Fiercely Focussed Frankie Sienkiewicz, takes up arms and shows the world! Look out downrange!
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- Lance Tooks swats the ball and laughs a winner’s laugh. Note the nail-biting of the unnamed Intern!
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- Lance Tooks, still Too Busy Looking Good! In the background, Mark Gruenwald’s wife Belinda, has joined in the fun and is taking in some free cake! Paul Becton reclines.
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- Blastin’ Bob Layton comes pretty close to getting the ball on the paddle. A sign of how times have changed is his brazen smoking right out in the open!
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- Bob “The Lob” Layton, shows his extraordinary precision at ball-whack-angle, yet missing the paddle completely, each time!
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- Belinda Glass-Gruenwald makes wackin’ the ball look good!
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- Belinda demonstrates coolness under fire, as only she is safe from the flying ball!
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- Editor, inker, artist Al Milgrom– it would take a far better photographer than me to reveal that the ball and string is actually wrapped around Al’s inkin’ hand! Al is sporting last year’s fashion in custom-made Bullpen T’s– first worn by the Marvel baseball team. Mark looks on aghast.
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- VIRGINIA ROMITA!!! Wife of John Romita, Sr., mother of John Romita, Jr. and alternate mother to all us Bulpenners as Production Traffic Manager! She and she alone actually makes this look easy. Like a trained circus performer, balanced on a cue stick since birth, she bats off a dozen paddle-ball wacks in a row. Easy stuff.
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- Jazzy Johnny Romita, on staff Art Director, perhaps the greatest penciler/inker who ever took a magnifying glass to a page and generally regarded as the nicest guy in comics– cannot seem to see the ball for very long. His son, John “JR-JR” Jr., looks on from the doorway, with familial affection.
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- He’s got it! Yes! He’s slammed that ball all the way to the floor, right behind him! Okay, that’s not what’s supposed to happen, but John’s such a nice guy, we all agree that it’s a good hit.
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- It can now be revealed that it was indeed, Bob Layton who taught John Travolta and Denny Terio, how to disco freestyle. Not many people know Bob has an extra joint in his knees. That explains how he inked so many Hercules pages so quickly.
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- Now Bob is just showing off! Tom DeFalco, who knows better than to commit these actions to any recording medium such as photography, is just behind Bob. John, Jr., is looking out the window, bored to tears– his mother wiped up the floor with all of the contestants, fer cryin’ out loud. Jack Morelli is to his right– he’s seen it all. Jim Salicrup and Linda Florio are running for their lives as that ball ricochets all about them.
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- What an upset! Jim Shooter dives in to save all of us. Like throwing himself on a live grenade– he wrestles with Bob “Master of Kung Fu” Layton (no, he never inked MOKF, but it sounds great) to snatch the ball. Ron Zalme looks on aghast. Belinda is highly amused at these two’s antics. One can now see the “No Smoking” sign that Bob lights his matches on.
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- Jim, all too aware of the overwhelming advantage Bob has over him– he cannot risk injuring Bob, whose comic artwork production singlehandedly keeps the company afloat– is still trying to win! He braces himself against sturdy Ron Zalme for fighting leverage.
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- The All-Winners Squad! The Only Annual Wack-Offs comes to a thrilling close. No one knows who that Intern is at extreme Left, sorry. Back row: Ron Zalme, Mike Carlin, Joe Albelo, Tom DeFalco, Jim Salicrup. Middle-ish row: Rick Parker and Jack Morelli. Bottom row: Virginia Romita, Mark Gruenwald, Linda Florio and Lance Tooks. Congratulations all!
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- Frank Miller, Bill Sienkiewicz and his wife, Frankie. Bill devilishly shows us how he could have swept the Wack-Offs by just popping off enough for me to snap a pic. Frank, who I have actually seen with a smile on his face, is talking seriously about the profession.
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- Hard to believe, but the Wack-Off Games were the last Hurrah! of the 57th St. offices of Marvel. Held on a Friday, that weekend was Moving Day down to 387 Park Ave South! Here is Mailroom Specialist, Cliff, who was responsible for “stripping film flats” and storing them, surrounded by boxes filled with film.
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- The calm after the storm. A peaceful moment between Mike Hobson and Jim Shooter in Mike’s spacious corner office. That damned couch has been at Marvel since I was a downy-cheeked messenger boy– turning up in Stan’s offices like a bad penny, year in, year out. Mike must’ve lost a bet to have gotten that couch. I’m pretty sure it did not survive the trip downtown…
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- Frank sees the dramatic potential in a simple paddle, such a great story-teller is he. Bill and Frankie are spell-bound.
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- Suddenly, Frank bolts upright to make a telling point about comic panels and how important floating balloons are when used dramatically. Bill’s foot is asleep. Frankie is rebutting.
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- Ralph Macchio in a very typical pose. Ralph has an original Selectric typewriter in front of him, that never left him! Ralph refuses– to this day– to step up to any writing device more modern.
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- Linda Florio, who was (I think) Al Milgrom’s assitant editor, is yakkin’ it up with Helen Katz, secretary.
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- Those pages must be done! So claims some editor or other, shaking his blubbery hand at Bob “Inkin’ Fool” Layton, who has found a quiet corner in the Moving Day melee. Not many people know Bob has successfully inked a page on the back of a picket fence! And it looked great.
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- The typesetting computer! At the point of Marvel moving downtown, I was the guy who ran this thing. I had some prior experience at an ad agency– not much– but enough to convince the bosses that I knew enough! This was a painstakingly engineered monster made by Mergenthaller Linotype– the same guys who had made “hot type” — yes; molten lead set into lines of type!– but who wanted to try to enter the “cold type” world. For Marvel, it was a leap into a distant future. Prior, a dear fellow named Stan Aaron, used a special IBM Typesetting Selectric– which was used to make every Stan’s Soapbox and letter collumn for a generation! Also, every “CONTINUED NEXT PAGE” and page number plus all that legal junk on the first page. And yes; I was working right up to the last minute!
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- The supernaturally neat 9th Floor mailroom at 575 Madison Ave– packed up neatly in a box, like never before. Sharp-eyed Marvelites may note a certain duck head amid the boxes… Marvel had a line of costumes worn by poor devils who appeared in them at store openings and sporting events. Some crazy idea of Marketing! This was, of course, a Howard the Duck costume! The business end of Marvel was up on 9.
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- This was the 6th Floor mailroom– a little behind the 9th Floor… Marvel’s editorial offices were on 6. A ghostly Tony Matias and an all-too solid John Galvin continue to bulldoze!
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- Here’s a somewhat better exposed shot of the last-day mess!
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- And a better exposed shot of the 9th Floor mailroom. Things were being moved out at this point!
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- The Marvel Bullpen, minutes before the trucks were to take off! We knew how to work right up to the last possible second! Jack Morelli scrapes up an old “US 1” page from the floor, Barry Shapiro wipes his feet on a “Werewolf By Night” and Joe Albelo makes a quick correction to a current “X-Men” while standing up. Okay, maybe not, but we really did have to hustle.
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- The window wall of the Bullpen. We were clearly moving that day! Davida Lichter-Dale sports a horror mask– no doubt taken from Rick Parker’s desk which she is standing next to. Nora Maclin conducts.
Click on any photo above to see a larger version.
All these photos are © by Eliot R. Brown. Don’t copy them and don’t use them. Written permission may be granted. Ask.
Standard Disclaimer: I had a strong desire to become a photo-journalist. Not sure why– but I loved Life Magazine, National Geographic and Playboy. But I worked in the most interesting playpen a fellah could ever want, The Marvel Comics Bullpen. These pictures are presented, as much as legal and societal mores allow, “as is.” This means, since I often processed the film myself, they aren’t that good. But this was the way it was… These images are presented, as much as possible, as they were taken. They represent a timeline of sorts. Sometimes minute by minute, hour by hour or even week to week!
Thanks for preserving our youth, Eliot.
I loved collecting the original Marvel Universe issues as a kid in the 80s. As the editor, could you please point me in the direction of any links / old stories / photos of the Marvel crew putting this series together. No info is too trivial. Thanks, much appreciated!
Love it. Everybody young again!
I love the 1978 The Thing bank in the pick with Bill Sienkiwicz: That is so hard to find today! I love the pics of the staff, as well as the vintage background (art, furnishings, office equipment, etc.) Thanks always for your posts.
Very nice of you to say and I thank you back. The Hulk and Thing banks– just a few things we all wish we’d kept then. And, yes, usually we would have to buy them! There were only a very few “office copies.” There were also ashtrays! Despite never being a smoker, I would love one just because it was full of Marie Severin art. Someone told me they were “samples” and there were ever only a handful made… I wonder about that now only because it’s such a specific process to make a ceramic decal of the art. If you poke around here– perhaps on the Tom DeFalco number I did, you’ll find a pic of Tom in Stan’s Cali office– in the foreground is a different Marvel ashtray than I remember. So I do believe there was a production run, somewhere. Ah well! Don’t smoke!