Marvel.com recently posted a terrific article about Dwayne McDuffie’s work at Marvel Comics with Deathlok.
A Deathlok Retrospective
Writer Gregory Wright looks back at his classic collaboration with the late Dwayne McDuffie.http://marvel.com/news/story/20290/a_deathlok_retrospective
Highly recommended reading.
The annual Comic Con International in San Diego starts later this week. It’s one of the times of year when Dwayne’s presence is missed the most. So many great memories of buying books, meals, parties, panels, signings. Even just sitting in the lobby of the San Diego Marriott to stay up late and talk and tell stories.
Trying to think of the “best” Dwayne/Comic Con story to tell, but this is the one that pops to mind. It happened way before I met him. It took place when Dwayne was working for Marvel Comics – I’m guessing around 1987. It was when the San Diego Comic Con was nowhere near as big as it is now, and it was held back in the old San Diego Convention Center.
Dwayne told a story of a bunch of fans who came down to hang out at the Marvel booth – just wanting to talk Marvel comics. On Thursday, these fans had the greatest time simply chatting with anyone and everyone who made Marvel Comics. Most of them were fine, but there was one comic book fan in their group that had a problem.
His breath. His breath was awful.
It was so bad that no one wanted to speak to him. When he’d come around to talk, the person on the receiving end would immediately cringe and try to get away from him. It was just rancid. And he was apparently completely oblivious. It just made everyone who was working the Marvel booth miserable.
And that was just Thursday.
He came back on Friday. To chat and talk and ask questions and spend time around the entire staff of Marvel Comics. And his breath was just unbearable. Saturday rolled around, and sure enough, he and his friends came by to spend time with the people at Marvel – most of whom they knew now from three days of conversing with them.
On Sunday he returned. But this time Dwayne was ready for him. Before the guy could talk, Dwayne immediately shoved a toothbrush in the guy’s face.
The guy was stunned. He tried to stammer that he already had one, but Dwayne interrupted him and said, “You’re clearly lying.” Dwayne told the guy to take the toothbrush and use it.
The guy didn’t know what to say, so he looked to his friends to say something. Dwayne responded, “They know. Your friends know. They’ve just been too polite to say anything about it to you.” The friends turned red and looked away or down. Dwayne was right.
Dwayne continued, “Now it’s going to bleed the first time you do this. That’s normal because you haven’t been brushing regularly. But you have to brush your teeth. Twice a day.”
With that, the guy took the toothbrush and left. Since it was Sunday, we’ll never know if the guy took Dwayne’s advice. But I personally like to think that somewhere out there is a comic book fan who has better oral hygiene thanks to Dwayne McDuffie.
Okay, one last memory from Dwayne’s last Comic Con in 2010. It was late Friday night in the lobby of the San Diego Marriott. Dwayne was hanging out with Charlotte and Tom Kenny when they got a text from Yuri Lowenthal (voice of Ben 10) that he was coming by with a friend. Yuri showed up along with actor Aaron Douglas, aka Tyrol from Battlestar Galactica.
Dwayne was excited about getting to meet him. He was genuinely excited to chat with an actor from one of his favorite sci-fi tv shows.
With all the work Dwayne did over his career, he was such a giant in comics and tv. But even for a pro’s pro like Dwayne, there were times when it wasn’t just work. There were times when it was okay for him to just be a fan.
Even if it was only once a year every summer in San Diego.
One of my many regrets is that I didn’t pester Dwayne for more of his stories about his days working as an assistant editor at Marvel Comics. As I try my best to recollect the ones he told me, I’ll start with this one-
In the 1980s at Marvel Comics, there was an unused freight elevator area in the back of the building. It may have been the elevator shaft or just the lobby area (unfortunately I don’t remember exactly how Dwayne described it).
The area happened to be approximately the shape of a boxing ring. So during lunch breaks or when it was slow, Marvel employees would regularly head back there and fight and spar in the Marvel Comics boxing ring. Though Dwayne had boxed when he was younger, he didn’t participate at Marvel. But he would watch with the others, and because the way the area was built, there was lots of space for people to look down into the arena and watch the boxing action.
The undisputed champion of the Marvel Comics boxing arena was Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter. He had good pugilistic skills and he was tall. Really tall. With his length and reach, and the fact that he was your boss in charge of everything, Shooter was the most feared boxer in the ring. No one came close to beating Jim Shooter.
Until a new guy joined Marvel. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the name that Dwayne told me. Hopefully someone knows and will let me know. But whoever he was, the new guy was not intimidated by the idea of boxing the Editor-in-Chief.
Like all the other times, everyone gathered around to look down into the ring and watch the action. UNLIKE all the other times, Jim Shooter lost. The new guy tagged him with a punch that sent him to the ground.
Now… what are you supposed do you do when your boss just got punched? He’s still on the ground. Is he hurt? Is he dead? If he’s not dead, is he mad? Mad at the person who hit him? Or mad at EVERYBODY? Do you go and give him help? Or will he be mad at you if you try to help?
For a long moment, everyone stood there and didn’t move – didn’t make a sound. Finally someone shrugged and said, “Well, back to work!” The crowd quickly ran off and everyone went back to their desks to work.
Fortunately, Jim Shooter wasn’t hurt badly and he continued on in his comic book career. Dwayne never had anything bad to say about Shooter and said, “He was always really nice to me.”
Which is a good thing, since I don’t think I ever would’ve wanted to see two men the size of Dwayne and Jim Shooter throwing punches at each other…
