by Sean Howe
108 “Are you crazy?”: “John Romita,” Jack Kirby Collector 33, November 2001.
108 “I thought they were going to close up”: Jon B. Cooke, “John Buscema Interview,” Jack Kirby Collector 18, January 1998.
108 “Marie Severin made”: Dave Sikula, “Wondercon: Kirby, King of Comics,” Comic Book Resources, February 28, 2008.
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111 “frenzied, frantic and frenetic”: Stan Lee letter to Ken Koch.
111 moving his family: Marvelmania 6, August 1970.
112 He made plans with the poet: WNYC interview, October 15, 1970.
112 “meets up with a New Orleans”: Comic Fandom Monthly 3, November 1971.
113 “when his contract is up”: Newfangles 39, September 1970.
113 “The comic book market”: Speech delivered at Lamb’s Club, New York, January 20, 1971, printed in National Cartoonist Society Professional Report 1, no. 2, March 1971.
114 “The Monster Maker is”: A. H. Weiler, “Alain Resnais: La Garbage Est Finnie?,” New York Times, May 2, 1971.
117 “probably has more”: Comics Fandom Monthly 3.
117 script sold for $25,000: Raphael and Spurgeon, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book.
118 “I don’t have the feeling of repression”: Bruce Hamilton, Rocket’s Blast Comicollector 81, 1971.
119 “near-paranoid delusions”: Comic Fandom Monthly 3, November 1971.
119 With the Marvelmania fiasco: “Marvel Comics to Go Audiovisual,” Billboard, Oct. 16, 1971.
120 A slide show spilled: Bob Lardine, “Superheroes May Sandwich America,” New York Sunday News, January 2, 1972.
120 “While the Surfer scored highest”: Don Geringer, “The Hulk Is Searching for a Place in the Sun,” Palm Beach Post-Times, January 29, 1972.
121 “But who’s going to become the editor?”: Gustaveson, “Fifteen Years at Marvel.”
121 “Stan tried to give”: Ibid.
122 He started to line up: Michael Kustow letter to Stan Lee, July 12, 1972.
122 Lee also turned: Will Eisner letter to John Doe, February 20, 1973.
123 “All the other people”: Jon B. Cooke, “Comix Book: A Marvel Oddity,” Comic Book Artist 7, February 2000.
124 “If we even talked about”: Daniels, Marvel.
124 “The waiting room was”: Mike Baron, “. . . and Now Spider-Man and the Marvel Comics Group,” Creem, April 1973.
126 “You must help me”: “Marvel Bullpen Profiles: Steve Gerber,” Foom 5, Spring 1974.
126 “I’d wish them well”: Duin and Richardson, Comics Between the Panels.
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130 “Martin Goodman always thought”: “Stan the Man & Roy the Boy,” Comic Book Artist 2, Summer 1998.
130 “There were some people at Marvel”: Gustaveson, “Fifteen Years at Marvel.”
131 “It’s kind of a shame”: Daniels, Marvel.
131 “much of Cage’s jivin’ slang”: Foom 2, Summer 1973.
134 “I was always too academic”: David Anthony Kraft, “The Foom Interview: Steve Gerber,” Foom 15, September 1976.
135 “For years”: Captain America 157, January 1973.
137 “The idea that the three”: Scott Brick, “Who Really Killed Gwen Stacy?,” Comics Buyer’s Guide 1647, November 2008.
138 “I told them not to kill”: Jim Magill, “POW! Stan (Speaker-Man) Arrives,” Daily Collegian, December 10, 1974.
139 “The office was flooded”: Kraft, “The Foom Interview: Steve Gerber.”
146 “By the time we finally”: David Smay, “Jim Starlin,” Amazing Heroes 98, July 1, 1986.
146 “I got five issues into it”: Peter Sanderson, “An Interview with Steve Englehart,” Comics Feature 5, September 1980.
146 “I swore up and down”: Ibid.
149 “When you’re used to”: Tom Spurgeon, “John Romita,” Comics Journal 252, May 2003.
149 “too much like a vacation”: Gustaveson, “Fifteen Years at Marvel.”
150 “By becoming publisher”: Ibid.
150 “Roy was very open to ideas”: Peter Sanderson and Peter Gillis, “Marv Wolfman,” Comics Feature 12/13, September–October 1981.
151 “unethical, immoral”: Gustaveson, “Fifteen Years at Marvel.”
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154 Cockrum, who filled: Tom DeFalco, Comics Creators on The X-Men, Titan, 2006.
155 “It was just another book”: Jim Amash, “Alienation Was What the X-Men Were All About,” Alter Ego 24, May 2003.
156 “I’m looking at this book”: Richard Howell and Carol Kalish, “An Interview With Bill Mantlo,” Comics Feature 17, June 1982.
156 “The problem at Marvel”: Richard Howell and Carol Kalish, “The Mind of an Editor: Len Wein,” Comics Feature 6, October 1980.
157 “There was a definite hierarchy”: Howell and Kalish, “An Interview with Bill Mantlo.”
158 “It’s not that I think”: Jon B. Cooke, “The Heir Apparent,” Comic Book Artist 2, Summer 1998.
160 “I never liked Mantis”: Glen Cadigan, “The Man Who Loved Comics,” Alter Ego 78.
160 When Englehart received: Sanderson, “An Interview with Steve Englehart.”
160 “Basically, Mantis was”: Diana Schutz, “Steve Englehart,” Fantaco’s Chronicles Series 4, August 1982.
160 “to be a slut”: Jon B. Cooke, “Marvel’s Third Wave,” Comic Book Artist 18, March 2002.
160 “By the end”: Jon B. Cooke, “Marvel’s Third Wave,” Comic Book Artist 18, March 2002.
161 “The Beast was a product”: Sanderson, “An Interview with Steve Englehart.”
161 “He got older”: David M. Singer, “I Deliver the Goods,” Comic Times, 2, September 1980.
164 “We never had a fight”: Rocket’s Blast–Comicollector 114, October 1974.
164 “I came up to the office”: Marie Severin at San Diego Comic-Con, July 19, 1997. Transcribed in John Morrow, “The 1997 Kirby Tribute Panel,” Jack Kirby Collector 17.
164 “Whatever I do at Marvel”: Nicholas Caputo, “A Shocking Story,” Jack Kirby Collector 10, April 1996.
165 “Stan told me”: Robert Gustaveson, “Gerry Conway Talks Back to the Comics Journal,” Comics Journal 69, December 1981.
166 “This doesn’t really work”: Craig Shutt, “The X-Men: A ‘Cool Concept,’ ” Alter Ego 24, May 2003.
166 “really didn’t feel”: Gustaveson, “Gerry Conway Talks Back to the Comics Journal.”
166 “I’m not all that great”: Howell and Kalish, “The Mind of an Editor: Len Wein.”
167 “Len was taking a lot of tranquilizers”: Peter Sanderson, The X-Men Companion I, Fantagraphics, 1982.
167 “We’re presently undergoing”: Comic Reader 129, April 1976.
167 “I was just speaking to our printer”: Scott Edelman, “Bullpen Bull,” Comics Journal 43, December 1978.
168 the publisher’s Los Angeles distributor: Comic Reader 113, December 1974.
169 $300,000 of Marvel’s sales: Comics Journal 64, June 1981.
170 there would be no more Marvel Comics: Chuck Rozanski, “Evolution of the Direct Market VI,” milehighcomics.com.
170 “I think by June 30th of the year”: Daniels, Marvel.
170 “The first thing I had to do”: David Anthony Kraft, “Jim Galton,” Comics Interview 1, February 1983.
171 “If Celebrity’s attitude”: James Monaco, Celebrity: The Media as Image Makers, Dell, 1978.
171 Now Lee enjoyed: “Super Stan the Comics Man,” Cue, 1974.
171 “What’s this—why is this here?”: Marvel Age 8, November 1983, p. 15.
171 not to make major changes: Howell and Kalish, “The Mind of an Editor: Len Wein.”
171 “not by Stan Lee as the top”: Singer, “I Deliver the Goods.”
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174 “My father had a beat-up old car”: Christopher Irving, “Jim Shooter’s Secret Origin, in His Own Words, Part One,” NYCGraphicNovelists.com, July 20, 2010.
175 “You
know who my inspiration was”: David Anthony Kraft, “Gerry Conway,” Comics Interview 13, July 1984.
175 he cruelly berated: David M. Singer, “Chatting with Jim Shooter,” Comic Times 4, 1980.
175 “He caused a kind of”: Harry Broertjes, Legion Outpost 8, Summer 1974.
176 By the time a couple of: Ibid.
176 “young, strange looking, and dressed”: Jim Shooter, “Marvel and Me,” The Comic Book Price Guide, 1986.
178 “I said, ‘What’s with this duck?’ ”: Mark Singer, “The Underestimated Duck,” New Yorker, February 7, 1977.
179 “one of the best written comics”: “Wise Quacks,” Howard the Duck 5.
179 “gruesome”: Comic Reader 129.
179 “I was working at that particular time”: Sanderson, “Marv Wolfman.”
180 “Thor, the fine fool’s gold”: Avengers 137, July 1975.
180 “Don and I used to be”: Kim Thompson, “An Interview with Marv Wolfman,” Comics Journal 44, January 1979.
180 “I believe in the fairy tales”: Jungle Action 20, March 1976.
181 “When a writer is specifically told”: Thompson, “An Interview with Marv Wolfman.”
181 He was arguing: Amash, “Writing Comics Turned Out to Be What I Really Wanted to Do with My Life.”
181 He was publicly predicting: Comic Reader 129, April 1976.
182 “It was a job that was just impossible”: Sanderson, “Marv Wolfman.”
182 “It was like being caught”: Comic Reader 147, p.13.
184 He immediately called: Comic Media Showcase, Conway letter.
185 “I tried to read the ‘good’ stuff”: Gary Groth, “Pushing Marvel into the 80s: An Interview with Jim Shooter,” Comics Journal 60, November 1980.
186 “It seemed like the thing to do for the bicentennial”: Sanderson, “An Interview with Steve Englehart.”
186 “I found myself”: Singer, “I Deliver the Goods.”
186 “I just said”: Sanderson, “An Interview with Steve Englehart.”
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189 “I think in most cases”: Comic Reader 147.
189 based part of his onstage costume: Gene Simmons, Kiss and Make-Up, p. 65, Random House, 2002.
189 Aucoin’s VP went ballistic: David Leaf and Ken Sharp, Kiss Behind the Mask: The Official Authorized Biography, Grand Central, 2003.
190 “the first bit of sophisticated ad copy”: Gary Groth, “An Interview with Steve Gerber,” Comics Journal 41, August 1978.
190 “I wonder if the basic idea”: Letter to Richard Kane of Marden-Kane agency, December 1, 1976.
191 Shooter, the perpetual second in command: Letter from Sol Brodsky to Barry Kaplan, April 20, 1976.
191 Goodwin, furious: Bell, I Have to Live with This Guy.
191 royalty payments for reprinted stories: Memos, courtesy Scott Edelman.
191 a letter from Sheldon Feinberg: Joe Brancatelli, Eerie 87, October 1977.
192 “I’m the most famous”: Jerry Lazar, “A Duck Is Born,” Circus 154, April 28, 1977.
194 “We felt, or maybe Stan felt”: Quoted in Gary Picariello, “The Equation for Success,” Jack Kirby Collector 41, Fall 2004.
195 Roger Stern had to rewrite: John Byrne, post to Byrne Robotics forum. July 28, 2006.
196 “I was supposedly”: Video interview at Virginia Tech, November 1977.
196 the Kiss special sold: “Newswatch,” Comics Journal 45, March 1979.
196 “For a while”: Groth, “An Interview with Steve Gerber.”
197 “I don’t want to say anything bad”: Sanderson, The X-Men Companion I.
197 “the phoenix-force”: The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe 14, March 1984.
197 “quite active in the New York City demimonde”: Cat Yronwode, post to alt.magick, June 8, 2003.
198 “I made it known at Marvel”: Peter Sanderson, The X-Men Companion II, Fantagraphics, 1982.
198 “John was the heir apparent”: Jim Amash, “We Kicked the Whole Thing Around a Lot,” Alter Ego 24, May 2003.
198 “I had become obsessively”: Roger Slifer, “Len Wein,” Comics Journal 48, Summer 1979.
199 He told Wein that he would: Kim Thompson, “Roy Thomas Leaves Marvel,” Comics Journal 56, June 1980.
201 “Among other things”: Gustaveson, “Fifteen Years at Marvel.”
201 Lee took Shooter out to lunch: Marvel Fanfare 1, March 1982.
201 “I helped clean out his office”: Dwight Jon Zimmerman, “Danny Crespi,” Comics Interview 9, March 1984.
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205 “Stan wants me”: Kim Thompson, “An Interview with Marvel’s Head Honcho,” Comics Journal 40, June 1978.
205 “Everything that has”: Gary Groth, “Birth of the Guild,” Comics Journal 42, October 1978.
205 sales of the Hulk comic: Jean-Paul Gabilliet, Of Comics and Men, University Press of Mississippi, 2010.
206 Gerber’s lawyer informed: Groth, “An interview with Steve Gerber.”
206 “I would just say”: “Marvel Fires Gerber,” Comics Journal 41, August 1978.
206 “Once I was gone”: “Souped Up,” Village Voice, September 4, 1978.
207 “imaginative but undisciplined”: Hoy Murphy’s account of the Moncon II convention appeared in Comics Reader 157, June 1978.
207 “The editorial staff . . . had”: Jon B. Cooke, “Starlin’s Cosmic Books,” Comic Book Artist 2.
208 an editor went through: John Byrne post to Byrnerobotics.com, July 28, 2006.
208 “I didn’t really get a shot”: Howard Zimmerman, “Kirby Takes on The Comics,” Comics Scene 2, March 1982.
208 The poster for the Comics Contract Meeting is reproduced: Gary Groth, “The Comics Guild,” Comics Journal 42, October 1978.
209 “If we really want”: “John Byrne: The Interview,” Comics Feature 27, January–February 1984.
210 “I was tempted to throw”: Sanderson, X-Men Companion II.
211 margin notes: “John Byrne in Dallas,” Comics Journal 76, October 1982.
211 “Chris’ idea of a perfect”: Mitch Itkowitz and J. Michael Catron, “John Byrne,” Comics Journal 57, Summer 1980.
211 “To me, . . . the fights are”: Margaret O’Connell, “Chris Claremont,” Comics Journal 50, October 1979.
211 “He used to call”: Lou Mougin, “Jim Mooney,” Comics Interview 103, 1991.
213 “Confidentially”: Dave Olbrich, funnybookfanatic.wordpress.com, December 18, 2008.
213 “In five years”: Gerard Jones and Will Jacobs, The Comic Book Heroes.
213 “His position was unique”: Avengers 175, September 1978.
214 “I was in the unique position”: Avengers 176, October 1978.
214 Stan’s salary: Raphael and Spurgeon, Stan Lee and the Rise and Fall of the American Comic Book.
214 “On his wrist”: Barbara Rowes, “Stan Lee, Creator of Spider-Man and the Incredible Hulk, Is America’s Biggest Mythmaker,” People, January 29, 1979.
214 “Comic books are like”: Jim Dawson, “Hello, Culture Lovers! Stan the Man Raps with Marvel Maniacs at James Madison University,” Comics Journal 42, October 1978.
215 “I didn’t know we had any Russian superheroes”: “Stan Lee Replies to Eric Leguebe,” 1978, published in Jeff McLaughlin, ed., Stan Lee: Conversations, University Press of Mississippi, 2007.
215 “Sol Brodsky got pictures”: Shutt, “The X-Men: A ‘Cool Concept.’ ”
215 “I should have gotten”: Ira Wolfman, “Stan Lee’s New Marvels,” Circus, July 20, 1978.
215 They convinced Cadence: Video interview at Virginia Tech, November 1977.
215 a budget was set: Ro, Tales to Astonish.
216 “With a new approach”: Comic Reader 128, March 1976.
216 Marvel’s nonreturnable sales: “Marvel Hires Specialty Sales Manager,” Comics Journal 54, March 1980.
216 he was now supplying: Comics Journal 37, February 1977.
217 The company was missing: Chuck Rozanski, “Tales
From the Database,” milehighcomics.com.
217 Within months, Marvel announced: “Spectacular Sales Prompt New Projects,” Comics Journal 52.
217 “With the other editors-in-chief”: Groth, “Pushing Marvel into the 80s: An Interview with Jim Shooter.”
218 “To: Anthony Stark”: Iron Man 127, October 1979.
218 “I don’t want to continue working”: “Magazine Line Reorganized; New Editor Hired,” Comics Journal 50, October 1979.
218 Lee stepped in: “Gene Colan Leaves Marvel,” Comics Journal 63, Spring 1981.
219 anonymous staffers grousing: “Superheroes’ Creators Wrangle,” N. R. Kleinfield, New York Times, October 13, 1979.
219 “garbage”: “N.Y. Times Article Blasts Marvel,” Comics Journal 52, December 1979.
219 The direct-sales market: “Direct Sales Boom,” Comics Journal 64, June 1981, and Rozanski, “Tales from the Database.”
219 “The old Marvel needed”: Joe Brancatelli, “The Comic Books,” Eerie 110, April 1980.
220 “Fourteen years ago”: Peter Sanderson and Dean Mullaney, “Comics Feature Interview: Denny O’Neil,” Comics Feature 4, July–August 1980.
220 Marvel’s most popular title: “TCR Top 100 Comic Books,” Comic Reader 175.
221 “When I brought in the one”: Amash, “We Kicked the Whole Thing Around a Lot.”
222 “They said, ‘let’s do’”: “Wizard One-on-One with John Romita Jr.,” wizarduniverse.com, December 23, 2006.
222 “At one point Casablanca”: Richard Howell and Carol Kalish, “Dissecting the Dazzler,” Comics Feature 7, November 1980.
222 “I swore that I”: Ibid.
223 he scanned GQ and Playboy: Frederick Marcus and Dean Mullaney, “Comics Feature Interview: David Michelinie and Bob Layton,” Comics Feature 2, May 1980.
225 Roy Thomas, also in Los Angeles: Negotiations between Shooter and Thomas were outlined in both an interview with and a letter from Roy Thomas, in The Comics Journal 61.
228 “Having a character destroy”: Phoenix: The Untold Story 1, April 1984.
228 “Shooter wanted Jean punished”: Sanderson, The X-Men Companion I.
228 It was the first time: Peter Sanderson, “The Many Alternate Fates of the Phoenix,” Comics Feature 4, July–August 1980.
229 So was Perez: Heidi MacDonald, “The George Perez Interview,” Focus on George Perez, Fantagraphics, 1985.
