Steelmaster! Sounds like one of the Marvel “monster books” throwaway names. But it was the brand of unbelievably tough and strong office furniture. The design and look was just-acceptable industrial chic. If you ever see The Apartment (1960, Jack Lemmon, Shirley MacLaine, dir: Billy Wilder) the office where everyone works is wall-to-wall Steelmaster desks. Not one little bit exaggerated, by the way; I saw such offices as a kid.
As far as I can tell, Magazine Management, the big publishing company that owned Marvel Comics got a couple’a truck loads of these things. Every office had one. They looked like they went through World War II and came through without a scratch. Beautiful in their ugliness. At a guess, dropping them from the roofs of building would give them a dent but the ground below would be more damaged.
Marvel Editorial offices, c: 1980, 575 Madison Avenue, 6th Floor. Just a decade after Mad Men and right on the very stretch of Manhattan that inspired the name… Mad Ave! Of course, office furniture was moved around and parked in the halls all the time.
But park it outside the office of remarkably talented Artist/Creator Dave Cockrum and who is oft visited by his pal, Staff Colorist and accomplished model-maker, Andy Yanchus—
Andy and Dave! Good chums and really good at what they do. I believe Dave is neglected when discussing the artists of The New X-Men. Dave established a real-world style that brought some gravity to any storyline. He also co-created Storm, Colossus and oh yeah, Nightcrawler (with Writer/Creator Chris Claremont). Dave sadly passed, way too young in 2006. Andy may have been Marvel’s most accomplished colorist and staff color correction artist. I say that because he did the majority of his work when photostat paper was the medium colored on. Watching Andy cut around a shape with an X-Acto knife, peel up the photographic emulsion and tape down an identical but newly colored one into that space, was a lesson in exactitude and patience! And he was a really, really good model maker. He spent his pre-Marvel years at old modeler’s touchstone of greatness, Aurora Modelling!
Did I mention these two guys were militaria gear heads of the day? Putting a table outside Dave’s door was an invitation for mischief. Besides, this was a weird desk—not obvious from my pix is that one side hung out over empty space. Looking like a…
So satisfying. Especially when not caught by the Boss!