Tales From The Marvel Bullpen: Gregory Wright

Absolutely Marvelous

With the recent news that Marvel Comics is moving its editorial offices from its long-standing home in New York to Los Angeles, Tripwire’s contributing writer thought this may be a perfect time to reach out to one of our best friends.

Marvel Comics veteran Gregory Wright enjoyed a long career working for the company in New York. In what might be an ongoing series of interviews with similar creators, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to ask the gentleman for his thoughts and memories about Marvel Comics’ time in The Big Apple…

TRIPWIRE: You may have answered this question a few times, but how did you first come to have the opportunity to work at Marvel Comics?

GREGORY WRIGHT: My dear friend DG (Dan) Chichester was already working at Epic Comics as an assistant editor to Jo Duffy, Margaret Clark and Epic editor-in-chief Archie Goodwin. He recommended me for the editorial assistant position that had become available. As a recent NYU film school graduate, I had no intention of making comics a career. I wanted to make movies! But I was offered the position, so I accepted it and never looked back.

TW: Can you describe your first morning walking into Marvel Comics offices in New York? For example, what year was it? How old were you? Who greeted you that very first day? What were your very first impressions of Marvel Comics that day?

GW: That would be the day that I interviewed for the job. It was January of 1986, and I was 23 years old. I was greeted by the receptionist, Erica, who EVERYBODY loved. My friend Dan, who recommended for the interview came and got me at the receptionist desk and brought me back to the office inhabited by Jo Duffy and Archie Goodwin. At the moment only Jo was in the office, and she was the one who interviewed me and gave me a typing test and a proofreading test.

Midway through the interview, a short man with glasses and a bushy moustache came into the office with a bag of candy. He began filling a large empty jar on his desk with the candy. I really didn’t know who many comic book professionals were at the time, but I recognised THIS person. He was Archie Goodwin, writer of one of my favourite DC titles…Manhunter.

I was a bit starstruck…he looked at me and said “Don’t mind me, I’m just the guy in charge. I’m Archie!” He stuck out his hand to shake mine and I stuttered back my own name. “Nice to meet you…would you like a piece of candy?” I politely declined and finished my interview with Jo. She laughed at my FANBOY attitude. She offered me the position, and being the overconfident, cocky brash film school grad, I inquired if I might have a day to consider the offer. I could tell this was NOT the answer she wanted.

She took a breath and very politely informed me that I could indeed take some time to decide, but that she was interviewing some other candidates and if one of them accepted the position, I would be out of luck. I wanted to die. I quickly decided that I’d thought about it and accepted the position. She smiled and said I’d made the best decision ever. After this, she had Dan give me a tour of the office.

My first impression was dismay that it was an office…nothing like I’d imagined from Stan’s Soapbox or Bullpen Bulletins. Editors had offices with doors closed. The Bullpen was a bunch of folk sitting at drawing tables NOT drawing comics. They were making corrections to lettering and pasting up artwork. It wasn’t this rollicking group of folks all sitting together making comics. it was fairly quiet.

My second impression was that I was incredibly intimidated. Watching how the Epic department worked and how everyone at Marvel worked and understood the medium so well made me lose my cockiness. I knew NOTHING and that was a very uncomfortable thing for me. Luckily my position was a glorified receptionist and secretary who just had to do what I was told, which was not initially much fun.

TRIPWIRE NOTE: Gregory Wright by Hector Collazo.

TW: For those that may not be aware, can you briefly describe your role or officially your titles during your years working for Marvel Comics?

GW: I started as an editorial assistant for Epic, where everyone very kindly helped me learn how comics worked, let me in on the story process and taught me every technical thing I would ever need. I was never treated as a newbie who didn’t deserve to be part of the team. Epic helped me get my position as an assistant editor to Mark Gruenwald.

Mark was the editor of the Handbook of the Marvel Universe, the Avengers, the West Coast Avengers, Iron Man and Nick Fury VS. SHIELD and the soon to be Solo Avengers. Mark was an incredible mentor. Things on the Marvel side were very different. At Epic the editor was there to make sure the creators vision was supported and to make sure the books (some of which were painted) were printed as nicely as possible. On the Marvel side…the editor was in charge, and the creators had no say. The goal tended to be more orientated to getting the books out on time than making sure they were perfect.

Mark gave me a lot more control over the art side of the books than most assistants got. He also handed over a graphic novel written by Archie Goodwin that was to be illustrated by Howard Chaykin. I was tasked with getting Archie to finish the script and get Howard moving on the art. Mark said, “You worked with Archie so you should know how to get that script out of him faster…and you know Chaykin so you can get him to work as well.” GULP. It worked out great and Howard and I became fast friends.

Mark got promoted to executive editor when Shooter was fired and Tom DeFalco became editor-in-chief. This left me in a strange position. I unofficially became an “associate editor” who was more or less ghost editing ALL of Mark’s books with him focusing mostly on the Marvel Universe. I was also tasked with putting together a LOT of reprint paperbacks of the Marvel Universe and many other titles because at Epic they showed me how to do that. When I mentioned that I knew how to do it…well that became my task, lol.

Within the year I was promoted to what was called a “managing editor” which meant I was supervised by Bob Budiansky and whatever projects he had. Now, I came into this position with a pretty full load of books. Most of Mark’s books had been given away to other editors, but I still had Solo Avengers, the new Nick Fury Agent of SHIELD book, a new Marvel Universe Update, the Goodwin/Chaykin Wolverine/Fury GN, a Hercules GN, a Bruce Jones GN and a slew of those paperback reprints. This combined with the work Bob had for me, which included the Marvel Masterwork as well as some custom comics meant I would be the first managing editor to get an assistant.

From there I became an official Marvel/Epic comics editor. In addition to the books, I brought with me to the Managing Editor job, I now had Robocop, Stalkers, Hollywood Superstars, Punisher POV, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, Punisher: Blood on the Moors, Punisher/Wolverine: Damaging Evidence, Wild Cards, Nightbreed…and several more GNs and other projects. I was a busy fellow.

TW: The term “The Marvel Bullpen” has become the stuff of comic book myth and legend. To your knowledge, who came up with those three words?

GW: Likely Stan Lee as he was the one doing most of the promoting.

TW: What was the Marvel Bullpen really like? Many fans may picture an idyllic, perhaps nostalgic image, of comic artists beavering away at their art boards to reach deadlines, and editors on the phones, and people running back and forth with parcels of original art, almost like The Daily Bugle offices. Is that idea false or was it really like that?

GW: It was nothing like that. The Bullpen consisted of paste-up artists, letterers doing lettering correction, a colourist doing corrections, a couple of page designers and Romita’s Raiders.

Now they were as close to what one might think of as the bullpen might get. They were art apprentices who worked under John Romita [Sr] learning the craft of comics and doing art corrections for all the books. A lot of talent came out of that group like Kevin Maguire, José Marzan, Tom Morgan, Mark McKenna and Greg Capullo, while editors stayed in their offices and the bullpen was surprisingly quiet.

TW: Out of genuine curiosity, was J Jonah Jameson based on Stan Lee?

GW: No idea.

TRIPWIRE NOTE: Gregory Wright by Steve Bucellato.

TW: You have detailed this at some length on social media, but can you briefly describe your usual day working in the Marvel Bullpen? Was there ever a typical day at Marvel? What were your day-to-day tasks?

GW: I worked in an editorial office. The bullpen was where corrections were made and books got paste up done. There was never a typical day. The bullpen was always VERY BUSY as they were working on dozens of books.

A day in editorial meant opening a lot of Fed Ex packages with art and scripts, xeroxing those, going over the material and determining what needed a change and what was ready to be sent out for the next step. Then I would also be calling creators to thank them and praise their work or calling them to find out why their work was late and whether or not they wanted to keep their assignment, and lots of discussions about the current books being worked on.

Some days I spent a lot more time on the phone, some days I would be in the Bullpen going between various people working on my stuff, sometimes I’d be at a desk recolouring something or doing my own paste up. And lots of creators would be in the office pitching ideas or delivering work.

It was glorious.

TRIPWIRE NOTE: The Marvel Bullpen during the 1990s

TW: What was the working atmosphere like in the Marvel Bullpen? Did everyone get on well or were creative differences commonplace? Was it a warm and pleasant workplace?

GW: The Bullpen had the most fun atmosphere. They were always joking and having fun conversations. They all seemed to get along well and socialized after work. For some reason editors seemed to avoid socialising with the Bullpen folks. Editors all got along really well for the most part and socialized separately. I really wanted to socialise in BOTH groups.

There were times where some of us had some fairly major conflicts with each other, but they would usually get resolved pretty quickly by the editor in chief. I will share a story that tells you hope well everyone got along. New Universe title Merc issue #5 was late. Nothing on it had been done but the plot/script and some rough thumbnails. The editor, Jim Owsley (Christopher Priest) had been fired, and his assistant Adam Blaustein (later Maddie Blaustein) was told the issue had to leave house in 5 days or they were fired.

GW: Well, “Adam” pleaded his case with a bunch of us who were around and an assortment of folks including Walt, Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob Camp, the Raiders, Pat Redding, me and several editors and assistants rallied together to enlarge the thumbnails into rough pencil pages and began the task of inking them late into the night. We did this for a couple nights and Rick Parked did the lettering overnight.

Myself, “Adam” and John Wellington did the colour the final night and the book made shipping. It was a fantastic group effort to help “Adam” save the book and their job. I would say that was the moment I knew I would never leave comics. The book did not look good, but Pat and Bob did everything they could to make it passable.

TW: You must have brushed shoulders with so many comic book legends in those New York hallways. Can you briefly share just a couple of memories? Or did you have coffee with Jack Kiby every morning and think nothing of it? Surely not?

GW: I met and worked with pretty much everyone. After a while, they become your friends and just people you love working with. But at first, meeting Archie Goodwin, Walt Simonson and Berni Wrightson…wow. But then they became friends that I could have lunch with anytime, lol.

I will say that when I met Steve Ditko in the office that I was so awestruck that I went full on fanboy and he just looked at me like I was some pathetic bug. He thanked me for my nice words and just walked off.

Gil Kane was another one. I went overboard with him too. He smiled and patted me on the head “Well of course you’re happy to meet me m’boy” and walked away. One thing that was really awesome is I had access to so many amazing creators to ask questions of and get advice for my own work. They were all really supportive and it was not uncommon to see someone like Walt Simonson in the Raiders area holding court and looking at their work while he himself finished up a cover.

TW: I ask you to honestly reflect back on your time at Marvel just for a minute. In your era at Marvel, were there a great deal of female or black employees or colleagues? Would you describe it as an enlightened and friendly working environment that was ahead of its time?

GW: It’s an interesting question. At Epic, both editors were women. Over on the Marvel side, Ann Nocenti was the only female editor at the time, but there were a few female assistant editors. The Bullpen had several female and black employees. Owsley was the only Black editor, and Larry Hama is Japanese. Creators were a mixed bag of everything. It seemed like a decent mix, considering it was comics.

While I was there, there were more women who became both editors and assistant editors. And more black and hispanic folks joined the staff. Everyone seemed to get along and there wasn’t what I would call any bigotry aimed at anyone.

One thing I noticed is that we generally hired from the intern pool and there were very few female interns as opposed to male. But that changed at one point.

I hired two different female interns as my assistants. I’m not sure I’d say it was enlightened as much as I would say nobody cared what your background was as long as you were good at your job. It was a great place to work. That question might be better answered by someone who is either female or black…

TW: This may be stating the obvious but while you worked for Marvel you clearly didn’t have access to the technology most of us enjoy today. Were a lot of tasks completed using a photocopier? Did you rely on the postman for original art or scripts? How many things were cut and pasted using scissors and glue? Were you working with fax machines? Etc.

GW: Some creators brought their work into the office. Most used Fed Ex. Some plots and scripts arrived by fax as did some artwork that was just to give the writers to script from. I did have to colour some faxes of artwork when it was really late and that was not fun.

Marvel had a Photostat machine which made very good copies of art (both black and white and colour) when it needed to be copied or enlarged or shrunk down. We also used copy machines. Things were cut and pasted using Exacto knives, architectural tools and special glue. We made do with whatever was around and it all worked out pretty well.

TW: If you had photocopiers who in the office, changed the toner? What model of computers were you using?

GW: The guys in the mailroom handled that sort of thing as well. There was a typesetting computer, and a word processor called the WANG. That was it.

It wasn’t until later when Dwayne McDuffie was an assistant that he encouraged the office to look into getting some Macintosh’s to help with things. He showed Tom DeFalco how they worked and was instrumental in getting Marvel to adopt that tech. Editors could now type their own letters columns and such and not have to rely on the typesetter so much.

TRIPWIRE NOTE: David Tennant (Doctor Who no less) visits the Marvel Offices.

TW: What were lunch hours like in the Bullpen? Did someone rush out with an order for fifty different sandwiches and hotdogs? Can you share any memories? Did anyone have any specific orders to your knowledge?

GW: The Bullpen did their thing. They’d go to lunch in groups and some would order in and just hang in the bullpen or work on freelance work during lunch. Editors either went out together or ate in their office. Editorial did have an expense account so we could take creators out to lunch to discuss the storylines in the comics they worked on. There really wasn’t a big lunchtime thing that went on. It was like any office.

TW: Did working for Marvel in New York involve many late nights in order to reach a deadline? Were the deadlines set in stone?

GW: Deadline were set in stone and if you didn’t get books out on time, you could be fired. Many nights you’d find editors and creators and Bullpen folks working late hours to get work accomplished. I generally stayed until maybe 8pm. There were times when we hid to avoid security and stayed overnight to get stuff done. Many of us also took work home with us to do.

TW: New York is famous for its sports teams. The New York Knicks especially this year, (I happen to be a fan), but were many of the writers, artists and editors you worked with especially passionate fans of any teams or sports? Was it ever a topic of discussion or debate?

GW: I was never big into sports. I honestly don’t remember anyone in the office being a big sports fan either. The only thing was the Marvel softball team and paintball team. There weren’t groups of folks going to any local games. We were more movie and bar goers lol.

TW: In which case I cannot resist asking. Please tell me a little about Marvel Comics softball and paintball teams. Who was involved?

The softball team was managed by Robbie Carosella and Paul Becton. Robbie worked in the stat room and Paul was the staff colour correction guy. We played other companies, including DC in friendly games that were a lot of fun. No real drama there.

The Paintball came about after I was gone, but it started when we would go to the under-construction floor after hours and shoot each other with these Nerf darts and later some sort of rubber dart.  We were eventually told this was not allowed…lol

We then set our sights on playing paintball. So a group of us bought paintball guns and masks and camo gear and went out to an outdoor paintball place and played against each other.  Eventually we started to play other groups. (I was terrible and got “killed” early). After I left staff, they did form an official team, I believe called the Punishers and they wore (I think I had one too) a camo shirt with the Punisher skull on it.  It was a fun way to hang out and let off some steam.

The softball team consisted of folks from every department, bullpen, editorial, secretarial, sales, marketing and even had some creators play on occasion like Al MIlgrom.

TW: What was the view like from the windows of Marvel Comics New York offices? What floor were you on? Did you ever get a view of the Maci’s Thanksgiving Day parade like the Spiderman balloon for example?

GW: We were on Park Avenue South. We had what you call city views, but nothing crazy. We were on the tenth floor. We couldn’t see the Macy’s Day Parade. We did dangle things out of the window with a fishing pole to annoy people below on occasion…

TRIPWIRE PHOTO NOTE FROM GREGORY WRIGHT:
On the Bottom l to r. Larry Hama, Al Milgrom, Tom Defalco, Ralph Macchio.

Middle Row: Denny O’ Neil, Mark Gruenwald, Carl Potts.

Top Archie Goodwin and Louise Simonson.
Standing in the back Jim Shooter.
Photo: Circa 1984.

TW: Finally, will it be a sad day when Marvel moves away from New York? Was it inevitable or is it a mistake? So many classic stories have been set in New York. Are Spiderman, Daredevil and Luke Cage moving to Los Angeles as well? They are a permanent fixtures to the city surely?

GW: Well…the Marvel that I worked at has been gone for a long time.

Creators used to be in the office wandering around all day, and there was tons of gorgeous original art everywhere. But after 9-11 security concerns and changing culture stopped folks from being able to just come hang out so the atmosphere changed. And then there were two massive layoffs when the industry took a nosedive.

Marvel moved into a new building where I believe everyone’s in a cubicle. And now everything is done digitally so people barely speak to each other. Email is how the communication seems to go mostly. At this point, most people could just work remotely, like freelancers have always done. The industry has evolved into something completely different. Not saying it’s better or worse. Just different.

I’m sad that with Marvel leaving there will be no possibility of the local NY artists having a place to work and hang out, like back in the day. But I’m missing something that no longer exists. I hope the staff will all be able to make the move or work remotely. I hope Marvel is prepared to help the staff with the move.

I don’t think it will change where stories are happening. I mean we have creators who live all over the world who write and draw stories that occur in NYC. I do think it was inevitable as everything else Marvel makes comes out of LA. I doubt if it’s a mistake for the company, but I fear they may lose some terrific staff along the way.

I definitely will miss the IDEA of Marvel being in New York.

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Tripwire finishes this trip down memory lane with a few extra images.
As is always the case, comments and feedback are very welcome.