CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPT

ITEM! As some longtime Marvelites may know, Yours Truly is often haplessly harangued for not distributing proper credit where credit is due on a few collaborative efforts over the years. That kind of character assassination by people who happen to suffer from the disease of functional long-term memory is exactly the kind of scandalous slander that I hope to cure with this bombastic blog.

For starters, there’s the craftily creative caricature of Ol’ Smiley that you can see glamorously grinning at you from the top-left-most section of this blog. That li’l firecracker of peerless portraiture was created by one of the greatest ladies in the biz, one wonderous Marie Severin. In fact, calling Marie the best woman artist in the business is an injustice. Marie is one of the best artists in the business, period.

Why did I select Marie’s somewhat out-of-date rendition of her fearless leader done some 30 years ago? I just always liked the twinklely twinkle that Marie put in my eye in that particular drawing. It’s as though she looked straight into the soul of Smiln’ Stan Lee and caught everything that was warm and generous and humble about me in just a few peerless pen strokes. That and she made my mid-70s disco rug look like real hair instead of the slicked-sideways roadkill that was the best hair replacement technology that 1975 had to offer. Thank God for the eventual advent of the Hair Club for Men.

And speaking of unsung heroes, I would be readily remiss if I didn’t also give proper credit to my technical assistant, my own personal blogger bullpen, the inimitable Irving Forbush! I certainly don’t know how to personally create anything visually or graphically pleasing without the direct intervention of those so gifted (see my bibliography). He's no Sol Brodsky, but Irving told me he actually scanned and color sampled a genuine Silver Age classic of mine to get just the right shade of yellowed wood pulp for the background color of this blog. Now that's dedication above and beyond, people! So it’s with heartfelt thanks that I give Irving his due for any and all creative graphics that you see on this blog. Never let it be said that I didn’t thank all the little people!

Excelsior!

Smiley