Slinkys In Space!

Listen—I don’t know this whole story. I am not researching it either; not at all sure anything official would be anywhere that I could search. And I ain’t chatting up Shooter and I can’t find Janet. So this is only what I know about it.

Large Editor in Chief, Jim Shooter gathers my office people and says we have a special project—volunteers needed. Well! That was the right place! I was the Special Project Editor at the time.

The “high concept” was NASA wanted a Slinky that a teacher in space could give a practical physics lesson with. How Marvel Comics got involved is unknown. We did have some kind of a business relationship with the fabulous Slinky licensing people. [Not germane to this story was a strange day wherein I stood-in for Tom DeFalco (Editor and one of my bosses at the time). It seems Marvel’s Legal Counsel Joe Calamari, requested Tom but got me. We went to Toy Fair to visit with the extraordinarily lovely widow of the genius who invented the giant spring toy we all know as a Slinky! (the American Toy Fair is the annual gathering of all toy companies great and small, announcing any new this or that toy of theirs! It’s fun and it’s walking distance from Marvel’s 387 Park Ave offices.) Apparently “a” Slinky deal was not made at that time, but not too long later, Marvel was the go-to people for this project… ]

SPOILER: Maybe some of you can see where this is going.

This story takes place in early February, 1985 (spanning a Wednesday through to the weekend). On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger would breakup and parts would explode some 73 seconds after lift-off. You may also remember the ‘teacher’ involved was the first civilian picked from a large group of teachers and trained for two years to become a full astronaut. She was Christa McAuliffe.

On a similar inspirational note, the idea of using the shuttle as an educational platform was born out by having her back up “teacher” astronaut, a former math teacher named Barbara Morgan, would go on to carry that torch as a Payload Specialist , Teacher during a 2007 flight of the shuttle Endeavor.

But NASA needed a Slinky! Not just any Slinky mind you, because they could buy those at a store. No, they needed a beautiful, decorated and different Slinky. More than one of course, as mission back-ups are important.

Somehow… I still don’t know how—Marvel was the magical workshop to do this thing!

A crack team (I know, but if I say a ‘Crazy’ team, few will really—oh, never mind) was assembled. More like who was available on a Wednesday night. Even more mysterious, to me, was the speculative nature of the job. No monies were available for this. Truly volunteer work. For me, when NASA calls, I answer. So, in, my Crazy – err, crack team moved.

First thing was that a variety of Slinkys were needed. In its wisdom, Slinky had started diversifying by making that toy out of plastic. We all know the spring-steel version—so useful for repurposing into lock picks. In case the metal version was too difficult to color, the plastic version would be a lot more easily colored. The manufacturing process for the metal types involved the old hot dip zinc galvanizing. That did make an impervious shell that none of us kids could bite through. Don’t ask me how I know.

Some details of this enterprise escape me. I surmise we had some prep time because Jim called up his steel-workin’ dad to find out how to apply paint to a zinc surface. Apparently you have to strip it first. With muriatic acid. And someone produced a jug of the stuff. Also paints and stuff showed up

In hindsight, I guess Janet did many of those things. Ah! The Team. Well, the best associate in crime anyone could hope for is, was and always will be Jack Morelli. Jack was my #2 in the Special Projects world so his participation was the easy part. I’ve introduced Jack many times here; close and best friend, letterer and pretty much anything else in the comic world. Nickname: “Squid.” Wickedly funny person. That’s Jack.

Janet Jackson—I know; all too easy: Janet Miss Number One With A Bullet Wardrobe Malfunction How’s Your Brother? Jackson – was introduced as a former girlfriend of Jim’s and quickly was assimilated by the Bullpen. An earnest, soft-spoken Georgian lured up to the bright lights where she too could shine. Did I say ‘soft spoken’? There was a sweet southern accent that fell somewhere between the fuzz and the peach and, she was the only person I ever heard call Jim Shooter “Jimmy.” –Actually cute when she said it. I can also be the one to say that Janet was – is still – a top-notch designer and creative thinker. She knew print and modern methods. Perhaps it’s best to point out that not everyone would be ready to jump on a Slinky with a Magic Marker and get good results the very first time. She was that good.

But no one knew how to paint a Slinky.

That’s where I came in. Who am I? Old “Nothing But Trouble” Brown. We must have dreamed up some  methods (after Jimmy called his dad—I know >tee hee< — Jim called his dad), we needed a way to handle the acid, wash it, prime it and paint it.

In these woefully few pictures, I see scraps of lumber, some hardware and my trusty old variable-speed Black & Decker drill pressed into service. My Manhattan lumber yard of choice was Metropolitan Lumber on uhh… 35^th and Third? Or was it 36^th… somewhere around there. Also convenient enough to pick up some 8-footers and walk them down to Marvel, which was on 28^th Street.

An additional mystery is the use of Polaroid prints. May have been what was to hand. Among my several stupidest decisions was to be “more serious” (note that I am wearing a collared shirt!) and to not “bother” people, to not take so many pictures. Thus leaving my camera home. This may have been a borrowed Rick Parker SX-70 (Rick—letterer, creator/artist, performance and fine artist—he loved the Polaroid SX-70. To this day, I do now know how Polaroid could let that device fall). The prints are their usual nebulous and odd visions of “sculpted” subjects. And exactly who operated that fine instrument is another mystery. So I am claiming the copyrights—got any beefs, let’s talk. One non-Polaroid image was definitely taken by the late Robbie Carosella—well, he was pretty quick with a camera and the slop sink pictured was located in the stat camera room.

First things first—

Those Slinkys aren’t going to strip themselves.  A long dunk in muriatic acid strips off the outer layer revealing the soft, chewy core… ah, yes; dinner time! I can tell my vast gut needs reinforcement. I believe what’s really happening is a process called “pickling” which puts microscopic pits on the surface. This gives paint something to hold on to.

Marvel offices’ back area by the freight elevators. Almost everyone used them. I think there were three out of four we could use. As opposed to only two in the front entrance. On the weekends, the perfect place to apply spray primer. Janet looks on in wonderment!

A true Brownian monstrosity. A long cross member of threaded rod and some nuts at either hand to allow Space Slinky to hang “touch-free.”

Space Slinky never looked so good! Ahem, some of that beard is high-contrast Polaroid shadow. But I am putting on the beauty pass—the final layer before brighter colors.

Now… just whathehell should Space Slinkys look like? I do believe Janet had a hand in figuring out colors and patterns. I believe at this point, we are working with the relatively new plastic version of the Slinky. I think Jack is using a paint pen to add details on the hard-to-reach spots…

…like this! Jack is sporting his punk look from the middle 80s, something I never let him forget!

The Brown Patented Space Slinky Painter Buddy! The Bullpen has almost everything a mad scientist could want for something mechanical! I added my variable-speed drill from home, made a cradle for it out of cardboard, a mailing tube—that threaded rod fits in an old, perfectly sized mailing tube! Add one part Janet, one part magic marker and two parts determined creativity! Now your dull Slinky can liven any party in space!!!

Dutch! One of the happiest dogs I ever met. Dennis Dwyer who was Publisher Liaison was in over the weekend. He lived not too far from the offices and brought Dutch!

Unfortunately, there is not much more to say beyond what’s in these pictures. I did not take any glam shots of the finished product. Which I find odd, so there must have been a reason. Perhaps they were zipped away as quickly as possible.

I do not know if they were included in the Payload Specialist cargo. Even if on board the ill-fated Challenger, I would be proud to have something that I laid hands on a part of that mission.

I try not to miss the opportunity to recall America’s first space borne astronaut casualties. Space travel is still inherently dangerous. The Challenger Disaster set back the space program for years. Later, The Columbia Disaster would halt America’s first reusable “space truck” altogether.

Francis Scobee, Commander

Michel Smith, Pilot

Ronald McNair, Mission Specialist

Ellison Onizuka, Mission Specialist

Judith Resnick, Mission Specialist

Gregory Jarvis, Payload Specialist

Christa McAuliffe, Payload Specialist and Teacher

And the Challenger herself, (OVA 099) STS 51-L

If you get a chance, the dream lives on, check out the Christa McAuliffe Foundation at

http://christa.org/