Comments on Comics Should Be Good: Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed #46!

Fine question, Chris. I'll check it out.

2006-04-17T16:44:00.000-04:00

Fine question, Chris. I'll check it out.

That letter in Iron man was printed during the big...

2006-04-17T15:27:00.000-04:00

That letter in Iron man was printed during the big upheaval at Marvel and the Creator Rights issues that were raging at the time.

makes me wonder if the Cockrum/Marvel relationship had something to do with their eluctance to give David any dollars for hsi creations when he became ill.

Oh, and Bob Layton was something of a prankster so I can easily imagine he inserted the letter. At least whomever did it didn't get fired (afaik) like Milgrom did when he slammed someone in the art.

Fleisher seems to have disappeared off the face of...

2006-04-14T21:30:00.000-04:00

Fleisher seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. I did hear he went back to college and became a professor of Anthropology- and there's a book on Tanzania by him that's on Amazon.

You'd think with the arrival of that TCJ book he'd have something to say... but nope, nothin'.

Whoever swapped in that letter must have done at l...

2006-04-14T18:44:00.000-04:00

Whoever swapped in that letter must have done at least a little editing, because you can't just substitute "Marvel" for "Avengers." I don't recall Marvel ever being "disbanded"--although it probably should have been around 1990.

you could substitute "the Bullpen," though (even though i don't think that was ever disbanded either.

Whoever swapped in that letter must have done at l...

2006-04-14T16:53:00.000-04:00

Almost forgot:Virtually every story written by Mic...

2006-04-14T16:43:00.000-04:00

Almost forgot:

Virtually every story written by Michael Fleisher in his first couple of years in the business, including several pieces for DC's "mystery" (read: horror) titles, had the Carley credit, though it did vary between "script continuity" and "art continuity" a lot.

Concerning Russell Carley's credit line on the Adv...

2006-04-14T16:38:00.000-04:00

Concerning Russell Carley's credit line on the Adventure/Spectre stories, not only did the text piece in the Wrath reprint mini quote Fleisher's description of the truth in 1988, but a Comics Journal interview with Mike in 1980 also did, so I had no reason to suspect that any significant number of people thought it was anything else, at least since the late 80s. However, there were a number of admittedly small anomalies in those three "newly drawn from old scripts" stories in Wrath #4, not the least of which was that the page counts were well off those of the three Aquaman stories that were published in their places in Adventure #s 441-443 (and the back-up at that time was a serialized presentation of a newly-drawn Seven Soldiers of Victory script left over from the 40s which would seem to commit the page counts well in advance), that when added up and combined with the fact that the interview stated no less than three times that TWO--not the Wrath-presented three--scripts were left undrawn, I couldn't help but suspect that at least the third of Wrath's stories was a phony. Over the years, however, I determined an almost satisfactory explanation for the differing page counts, and the other things were, as I said before, quite minor individually, so it never advanced beyond a slight suspicion. Then the archive edition of the first nineteen of the 40s Spectre/More Fun stories came out, and was so incompatible with many statements about that series attributed to Fleisher in the TCJ piece (and understand that the intro to the interview categorically stated that Fleisher had not only then-recently read the entirety of that run but written an article on it for his never completed comic book encyclopedia), that ITS authenticity was called into question in my mind. Throw in the fact that said interview was published in #56, just three issues after the one with Harlan Ellison that Fleisher sued both man and mag over, and I REALLY wonder. Anybody know if Fleisher's suit included a claim about "his" interview, or, for that matter, virtually anything else about it? My web search on the suit turned up only very superficial accounts stating that Mike lost, and referring those interested in more details to issues of TCJ, hardly objective. I repeat my question: Anybody know more?

Did Layton confirm it was Cockrum? Because the new...

2006-04-14T16:35:00.000-04:00

Did Layton confirm it was Cockrum? Because the new printing of the trade contains a Feb. 2005 quote from Michelinie saying he still doesn't know who it was.

Not only was it a crummy prank, but it's evidence ...

2006-04-14T10:01:00.000-04:00

Not only was it a crummy prank, but it's evidence in itself that Cockrum had a point.

-- James Moar

I just checked it out and those issues were writte...

2006-04-14T07:50:00.000-04:00

I just checked it out and those issues were written by the same guys, so that solves that mystery.

-Ben.

The Jonah Hex Showcase had a few issues in it with...

2006-04-14T03:27:00.000-04:00

The Jonah Hex Showcase had a few issues in it with a script continuity credit as well.

-Ben.

" Ah, but wait!There's a page about it in the back...

2006-04-14T02:59:00.001-04:00

" Ah, but wait!

There's a page about it in the back of the trade."

Now I must read this new collection!!

"Crummy" as in "Crummy thing to do to a guy."

2006-04-14T02:59:00.000-04:00

"Crummy" as in "Crummy thing to do to a guy."

Crummy prank?I just sat here laughing as I read it...

2006-04-14T02:51:00.000-04:00

Crummy prank?

I just sat here laughing as I read it. That is so much funnier than most of the stuff people try to slip into the backgrounds of comics.

Ah, but wait!There's a page about it in the back o...

2006-04-14T02:24:00.000-04:00

Ah, but wait!

There's a page about it in the back of the trade.

"Does that same letter appear in the IRON MAN: DEM...

2006-04-14T02:23:00.000-04:00

"Does that same letter appear in the IRON MAN: DEMON IN A BOTTLE trade paperback that came out yesterday?"

It's totally illegible in my copy.

Does that same letter appear in the IRON MAN: DEMO...

2006-04-14T00:38:00.000-04:00

Does that same letter appear in the IRON MAN: DEMON IN A BOTTLE trade paperback that came out yesterday? Did they fix it or just let it get reprinted again?

Wow. I've read that Iron Man issue at least 50 tim...

2006-04-13T23:57:00.000-04:00

Wow. I've read that Iron Man issue at least 50 times, and confess that the "showing the hired help who's Boss" line always struck me as non-Jarvis-y, and wondered if there was something deeper going on there.

Now I know! Thanks!

That resignation letter nails the Avengers pretty ...

2006-04-13T22:46:00.000-04:00

That resignation letter nails the Avengers pretty accurately.