Reading about the original Secret Wars from 1984 is fascinating on many levels. Between Sean Howe’s excellent retelling of the story behind the story (of Secret Wars) in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story and Marvel’s massive reboot of the saga, there’s a lot to be curious about. Thankfully, former Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief and Secret Wars writer Jim Shooter is joining the series penciller Mike Zeck and inker John Beatty for an upcoming convention convention circuit. Their tour was announced on the sly via Zeck’s website, here’s a look at Beatty’s website as well. With the imminent 30 Year Anniversary of Marvel Superheroes Secret Wars fast approaching, uncovering more news about the behind-the-scenes info that the panel may announce is going to be a must for comics historians. Here’s Zeck on the tour and a list of shows that the group will be attending:
It’s been about 30 years since I last appeared at a convention with Jim Shooter. Starting this summer we’re going to be tour buddies again! Once Shooter, Beatty, and I committed to appear at the Florida SuperCon, other organizers saw the benefit of bringing the Secret Wars team together again. This being the 30th anniversary of the original Secret Wars and this being the year that Marvel is publishing a new Secret Wars series, it only makes sense. So something of a “Secret Wars Tour” is forming!
For further reading start with Tom Spurgeon’s interview piece with Sean Howe, then go purchase Marvel Comics: The Untold Story.
Via Sean Howe’s invaluable Marvel tumblr, this photo of future Marvel editor in chief Jim Shooter at age 14. At that age he sent a spec script to DC editor Mort Weisinger and was hired to write the Legion of Superheroes at that age. While the world of superhero comics was not quite as harsh as it is now…it was still probably no place for a boy, as Howe writes in MARVEL: THE UNTOLD STORY:
Unfortunately, praise was limited to the occasional article in the Pittsburgh newspaper or segment on the local TV news. “My father probably said four or five words to me the whole time I was growing up,” said Shooter. “One of the greatest men to ever walk the earth … but not at connecting with people. He made no comment whatsoever.” And Weisinger didn’t just withhold praise—he cruelly berated his teenage employee, calling from New York every Thursday night, following the weekly Batman television broadcast, with a litany of complaints: It’s not on time. It’s over the page limit. How the hell can we get a cover out of this? Why can’t you write like you used to? He referred to Shooter as his “charity case.” “He caused a kind of pathological fear of telephones in me,” Shooter once told an interviewer. “I felt more and more inadequate … and my last chance to be a kid was slipping by.”
Holding down an adult job—and, at six feet seven inches, now towering above his classmates—scarcely anything about him, save a serious case of acne, marked him as a teenager. He tried to fit it all in, to “get good grades so I could nail down a scholarship, and have a little fun, like football games, dances, parties and stuff. But it was too much, and it all suffered.” He missed sixty days of his senior year of high school, his grades fell, and his productivity for Weisinger decreased.
That’s kind of f*cked up.
Along the same lines, future DC president Paul Levitz was hired, at a later period, at the age of 16 to assist at the DC offices by Joe Orlando. While funny books weren’t the serious business they were to become, one can only imagine the developmental crucible that allowed both these men to eventually run the two biggest superhero comic companies…and come to think of it hiring teenaged boys to work in the comics just has this weird vibe to it.
TweetThe Center for Jewish History hosted a celebration of the 2013 75th birthday of the seminal superhero Superman on January 27th with co-sponsorship from Columbia University Library. Though Superman’s cover-date advent in comics occurred in June of 1938, celebrations are gearing up early to take a look back at the Kryptonian’s origins and the impact [...]
I found “Secret Wars I” to be unreadable, although most people seemed to love it in 1984 (except for people who worked for the Comics Journal, of course).
Almost everyone hated “Secret Wars II” a year later, but I find it fascinating. It’s bizarre and surreal; Jim Shooter seems to have unleashed his id on this one. (Steve Gerber was one of his targets.) As Howe writes in his Marvel book, “SW II” mixes heavy-handed expository dialogue, which seems to have been written for young children, with references to drugs and prostitution. Who was this comic written for?
the band’s getting back together and going on tour? i used to go see these guys when they were the opening act for the stones. man, i hope they play all their hits. too bad, it looks like they ain’t gonna play the javits center. maybe i can catch them in baltimore.
the band’s getting back together and going on tour? i would see these guys when they would open for the stones. too bad tho’, it looks like they ain’t gonna play the javits center, maybe i can catch them in baltimore. man, i hope they play all their hits.
oops, sorry about the two similar comments , it seemed like the first one didn’t go through. apparently it did.