Yeah, I ran the whole page. Few things:
1) ALAN WEISS! Also the subject of my favorite annecdote (so far; I’m not done reading it) in Sean Howe’s upcoming MARVEL COMICS: THE UNTOLD STORY.
2) Look at how Stan – and I’m assuming this was all Stan, which seems safe and fair – stokes the early fires of nascent Marvel fandom – “our fans all seem to write well, and intelligently” and insisting “We receive so much mail.” Social Networking comes out of a cave and finds a bone…
3) The hand-drawn 4. is replaced next month by a graphic. Still. I worked, for a time, producing a magazine in the dying days of analog prepress – rubber cement and x-acto blades until dawn, gentlemen – and I can promise you these were done literally by hand straight onto the board as somebody was coming to take the pages away.
4) The first bullpen, 655 Mad. Stan apparently didn’t think or feel Marvel was a ‘real’ publisher unless they were there (until, the story goes, Marvel work took him to Los Angeles and he stopped caring. Then they moved…) The Goodman magazines were the real moneymakers and were on the floor above. Flo Steinberg describes Mario Puzo coming down and making fun of all of 'em… and then, when Stan was Stan and Marvel was Marvel and there weren’t any more Goodman magazines, Mario Puzo dedicated one of his novels to Stan.
5) I learned all of 4) from Sean Howe’s book.
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