Side Gigs #5 –Dazzler #29 Photo Cover

Marvel was true to form when it figured out it should do something about disco. Not content with mourning the death of disco, it needed to invent a comico-musico cross-overo that sought out and captured that portion of the market (uhmmm… 22,000 people–?) still believing in the power of disco. It waited a decent amount of time after the official Death of Disco (which I am pegging as 1976) and got involved somehow in the pre-production of a “Disco Dazzler” movie.

I kid you not. They brought in John Buscema himself to prepare some movie ad art possibly to star Bo Derek—who was at the height of her remarkable career! I know, on rare occasions, some of you might suspect your faithful chronicler of these accounts of exaggeration or outright lies! Okay:

John Buscema toiling at a good Bo Derek likeness—perhaps at Rick Parker’s desk–? (I think that’s Morrie’s desk to John’s right) Back in late 1979 or early 80; not sure. Alas, it seems that the reason I could not find these in negative form was because I had taken them off to my chum’s apartment where I made the above prints. So these are prints and cannot be made much sharper than they are.

Ahh… the Disco Dazzler! Alison Blair, a young gal with a voice, a dream and with the undefined ability to control light in a LASER-ish fashion. No one quite saw the potential for this question-begging super power. If you can control photons, you have access to a series of fundamental forces that underpin the universe. You can affect “observer theory” and statistics… but I digress! [It’s hard to put down the righteous comic-book-shaking of the Marvel Universe days!]

In the meantime, Grand Editor of Yore, Ralph Macchio (yes, the Ralph Macchio!), struggled to exert any kind of control over this comic at all. Just a skim down the list of writers, starting with the able, solid guiding force of Creator-Writer Danny Fingeroth (I think he was an Editor at that point in time—we’re talking about September, 1983, I think… ), wobbling off to having Legendary Artist Frank Springer as a writer and then our own lovable Editor in Chief Jim Shooter taking up the writing task.

I gotta say, this does not speak well of the needed faith in the character/storyline. And, as Danny is a fellow freelancer, there’s no need to confer with him about the disruption of the flow of sweet, sweet freelance monies! But let’s not swell on that now. What did unite the several storylines around this central photo-cover, were the painted covers that Bill Sienkievicz did.

If you’ve lived under a rock, under the sea for many decades, you might not know Bill’s work. Let’s just say he’s a really interesting and exciting artist/painter who graces the world of comics with his talent. [But! I’ve also seen his work for movie posters and so have you! A delightful detail was seeing a piece that Bill was carrying along with a job to be dropped off at Marvel. He revealed that Clint Eastwood appreciated and knew of Bill’s work, referring to Bill as, “that Polish kid.” That’s a lot easier than trying to say Bill’s last name without coaching…]

©Disney/Marvel

Here then, is the finished cover. My involvement was the usual whirlwind of half-remembered and supposed activities. Such as having Ralph engage me as a photographer and what to shoot. The set piece of the cover was the record album of Ms Blair’s first solo effort, “Sound of Light and Fury.” Bill, of course had painted that up and a relatively huge effort by Marvel Cover Master, Ron Zalme, resulted in a very plausible album cover and mock-up. I think it was Bill who dreamed up going over to center-of-the-showbiz-universe, Broadway, to find a background for the set piece.

Intro: Frankie Sienkievicz— Bill’s then wife, if you didn’t catch that. It was hard to ignore Frank who was not just a shooting star of enthusiasm and niceness but had a great physical charisma. She also had feminine hands and a wrist—whose use improved on my initial plan of using my own gorilla-oid arm.

Times Square—so named for the newspaper of record, The New York Times, such was its power and reach at the turn of the previous-to-last century. Lazy, hazy 42^nd Street was only a short hop from Marvel’s 57^th Street offices. It seems likely we would have taken a cab only because I would be worried about lighting. As a wage slave, I would have had to left the office at 5pm. But a New York City Taxi Authority peculiarity over cab drivers having a shift change between 4 and 5pm, means actually getting a cab around then could be trouble. We may have walked.

You kids today might not recognize this Times Square. Several billion dollars later, 42^nd is a warm, wonderful confluence of food, entertainment and money. Several theatrical venues open their front doors there. It’s a very nice place. I’m not a big fan of shutting down the traffic that used to run through the few streets north of 42^nd Street, turning them into cow shuttle for advertising display– but that’s neither here nor there.

When I was a real kid (11) there was a corner walk-up shop that sold raw oysters. Of course, that was a time when you could catch them locally and eat them! The Times Square of my youth was a true cloaca of human characters of all manner and class, x-rated movie theaters (or so I hear), crowded stalls to sell of manner of oddity. Then there was a helluva lunch counter from two generations ago where you could get a swell hot dog and the last Howard Johnson’s restaurant… gone now, maybe 10-12 years… (snivel, too bad I don’t drink—this is the perfect time for a hit of hooch as an exclamation point).

Where was I? Ah yes, The Dazzler hits Times Square! Bill, Frankie and I wandered around, me fretting about the fading light, trying to find the right shot.

Hmm, Legal would have been turning various shades of red had we tried to run this through Production. Not to mention Calvin Klein, Ricoh and Panasonic…

Legal still caterwauling—but of interest to me now, is that I seemed to be trying to catch a bit of my flash on the face of the album. I may have been aiming for the record grooves (–and failing miserably!).

You can see the light dwindling before my camera meter! But as a ‘chrome photographer (ahem, Ektachrome), I am aware of trying to keep the exposure 1/3 of an f-stop under-exposed (which is a function of the film chemistry). I recall trying to “knock back” the background to de-emphasize it. The record itself is turning into a black hole.

This shot is facing south from about 43^rd Street. This white-clad building—the Union Carbide Building – contains the skeleton of the original New York Times building that was there (at that point in time, it was over on 44^th Street West of B’way).

This is not the shot that was used—like so many, the original was not returned. But this was from a series where I was trying to get Frankie’s arm and the album cover lit.

Comparing this image to the printed cover, does give an idea of how much work Bill did over this photographic image. He idealized and tightened up the background making it almost as though it was shot through a “cotton candy pink” filter. Nice. Also one of my favorite collaborations!

Finally, a sweet shot of the couple, reflecting happier times. I think Bill is smiling more from my getting the two of them to wait until “Psycho II” rolled around again on the pre-LED illuminated display behind! Of note among many other things, is The Evil Dead enjoying its wild success the first time around!