Yesterday's News Today!
When I first heard they were doing it, I almost couldn’t believe it. Last year, Marvel announced that they were going to publish the MARVEL AGE OMNIBUS VOL. 1 — a hardcover collecting that unforgettable news ‘n’ fun magazine of the 1980s and beyond!
MARVEL AGE was where I got my start in this business we call comics. Yes, I had published a couple of things before I got involved with MARVEL AGE, but it was here that I learned the basics of writing to promote a product, as well as learning about comics and magazine production — not to mention meeting people who I still consider friends to this day.
MARVEL AGE first appeared on newsstands and in comics shops everywhere in April of 1983. It was a little odd, to say the least — it ran a slim 16 pages (at the start, at least), with a cover price of just $0.25. The cover of issue #1, drawn by Walter Simonson, featured that Marvel stalwart…Crystar, Crystal Warrior! Well, it was an era of licensed properties at Marvel, which at the time included the Conan, Micronauts, Indiana Jones, and more, and would soon include the blockbuster G.I. Joe and Transformers series. Still, for as auspicious a debut issue as this one, wouldn’t you have thought the cover would have featured, say, Spider-Man? You know, someone a little more…Marvel.
By issue #6, Jim Salicrup took over as editor, where he would reign for the next hundred or so issues (not to mention a bunch of annuals); by issue #7, the page count would double to 32, the same number of pages as any standard comic book, still with a cover price of just two bits! (For the sake of comparison, at that time most comics like, say, THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #245, published the same month as MARVEL AGE #7, cost $0.60.)
And if you wanted to look at it this way, that issue of AMS would have featured a 22-page story, a letters column, a Bullpen Bulletins page, and some ads. That’s nothing to sneeze at, but for less than half that price, MARVEL AGE #7 delivered an editorial, Marvel Coming Attractions listing all comics for the following month, plus articles on Machine Man, that year’s annuals, the Falcon’s new miniseries, the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe, a map of the Bullpen, a preview of Peter Porker, the Spectacular Spider-Ham, The X-Men/Micronauts crossover series, the Dazzler graphic novel, the New Talent Department (this month’s future star: Tim Sale), three-pages of fas letters, lots of behind the scenes artwork, and several other columns.
Of course, in the tradition of Marvelmania magazine, F.O.O.M., and DC’s The Amazing World of DC Comics, all of this promoted Marvel. Not everyone liked having to pay for promotional material, no matter how cheap. When I posted about this book on social media a few months, a retailer responded by saying he still couldn’t believe they were charged for these issues.
So where do I fit into all of this? I started writing for MARVEL AGE with issue #26, thanks to my friend and then flat-mate Kurt Busiek, who was the assistant editor on the book. Here’s a rundown of my writing for MARVEL AGE reprinted in this omnibus:
“The World of the Sectaurs,” issue #26, four pages
“Star Spotlight on Planet Terry,” issue #27, one page, cowritten with Sandy Hausler
“Michael Carlin and Archie Goodwin Talk about The Dazzler,” issue #28, three pages
“The Marvel Age — 1968 (Part I),” issue #28, two pages
“The Marvel Age — 1968 (Part II),” issue #29, two pages
“The New Talent Department,” issue #30, three pages
“The Marvel Age — 1969 (Part I),” issue #31, two pages
“Packing in the Power,” issue #32, two pages
“The Marvel Age — 1969 (Part II),” issue #32, two pages
“The Marvel Age — 1969 (Part III),” issue #33, two pages
“Who the Heck Are Romita’s Raiders?”, issue #34, three pages
Issue #34 is the last one in this omnibus — and it’s the first issue where I served as assistant editor. (Issue #47 would be my last issue in this role.)
On top of that, starting with issue #27 I contributed to MARVEL AGE as a colorist. I had learned a bit about comic book coloring while attending the School of Visual Arts, and picked up more by hanging around the Marvel Bullpen from staff colorists George Roussos and Paul Becton. Having me color some of the pages was super convenient, since I was in the office every day and could take home pages that might include, say, a big logo, a character design, and a panel of artwork, color and code it that evening, and bring it back the next day.
I also learned that I really liked telling the stories of these comics. Even the Marvel Age part number whatever articles summarizing old issues helped me find ways to tell those stories in a breezy, engaging way. (And those articles were a lot of work!)
That was the start of a skill, and a passion, that would carry me through a career at DC Comics and beyond — and we’ll look at more on that in the weeks to come!