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A few days ago it was Valentine’s Day, so I wanted to tell you a little story about how I was finally able to ask my girlfriend to become my wife
It was back in 1985. I had just been given word that the first comic I worked on, was being cancelled, so after just a few months of being a ‘professional’ comic artist I was unemployed. I frantically sent out my recent work to all the people who had rejected me months earier…but had also given me good constructive criticism in their letters to me.
I was asked to work on as a fill-in artist
One of those i sent a package to was an editor/writer c Roy Thomas . Many of you may not know who he is, but he was the FIRST person to take over most of the books being written by Stan Lee over at Marvel Comics (titles like The Amazing Spider-Man, Thor, and the Avengers). Roy called me after receiving my package of art and told me the sad news that his current artist Don Newton had suddenly passed away.
Don worked at both Marvel and for DC Comics on books like the ‘Phantom’,Batman and Green Lantern (just to name a few).
Don had such an amazing grasp of human anatomy and I ADMIRED the way he could draw the human figure…and I still do. It was a tragic passing of a great man, but that unfortunate event meant that a comic book was without an artist. Roy asked if I wanted to help out for a few months while he looked for a regular artist to take over the book and I was glad to get work again.
If you look in the back pages of the title I helped on called ‘Infinity Inc.’ issue #13, you’ll see a pin-up I did to introduce readers to my art. Roy also included a letter about the passing of Don and an introduction of me as the ‘newcomer’. The next issue (#14), I was credited with being a “guest artist”, then halfway through drawing that issue, it happened…
I got my first full comic book gig.
Mr. Thomas said the person he thought was going to take over the book, had just bailed on him and wondered if I’d be interested in taking over INFINITY INC. full-time…with a pay increase too! So I quickly went from doing 10 pages at $60 each at Marvel, to now having a regular 25 page book at $75 a page. Life was really looking good, and though I had been dating my lovely girlfriend for seven years, I never felt like I had enough money to get married (yes, ladies, us men have this weird need to want to provide for our families. Silly, I know but we are dudes.)
The very next day, after getting that full-time job, I was on a walk with my girlfriend (Ms. Wanda Kolomyjec). we stopped and I got down on my knee and asked her to marry me. Her reaction wasn’t what I was expecting as she screamed in horror! I didn’t think living with me would be THAT bad…but a few moments later she told me a huge grasshopper had been sitting on my shoulder and right after asking her to marry me, the insect had jumped right at her. After calming down she took my hand and said “I would love to be your wife.”
30 years later, she still is.
Thank you comic books.
TODD
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