"Bullpen Bulletins" (originally titled "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins") was the news and information page that appeared in most regular monthly comic books from Marvel Comics. In various incarnations since its inception in 1965 until its demise in 2001, it included previews of upcoming Marvel publications (the "Mighty Marvel Checklist"), profiles of Marvel staff members, and a monthly column written by Stan Lee known as "Stan's Soapbox" or "Stan Lee's Soapbox".
With "Bullpen Bulletins", Lee created the friendly, chatty editorial voice of Marvel Comics — "a style that could be characterized as High Hipster — two parts Lord Buckley, one part Austin Powers",[1] putting "himself on a first-name basis with the readership at a time when the rival DC editors generally came across... as... stodgy adults".[2]
The "Bullpen Bulletins" page was where Lee rhapsodized about the Marvel "bullpen", the stable of in-house creators who produced the company's comics. He often bestowed colorful sobriquets on Marvel staffers and creators; nicknames such as Stan "The Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby permeated into mass culture. The fictional Marvel staffer Irving Forbush also appeared regularly — as the butt of Lee's humor. Similarly, phrases like "Excelsior!", "'Nuff said", "True Believer", and "Make Mine Marvel", as well as other company mainstays like the No-Prize, were popularized there as well.
Lee often used "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" and "Stan's Soapbox" to needle other comic book publishers,[3] which he referred to as the "Distinguished Competition" (i.e., DC) or, more disparagingly, "Brand Echh".[4] "Brand Echh" was a play on an advertising convention of the time, in which a competitor's product was not referred to by name, but simply as "Brand X".[5]
Publication history
Origins, 1965–1972
The tone of "Bullpen Bulletins" was inspired by a series of boys' adventure books Lee read as a child. Penned by Leo Edwards, the end of each Jerry Todd book had the unusual feature of printed letters from readers and the author's warm, informal responses to them. As Lee said in a 1992 interview: "I don't know if I consciously remembered those books when I set out to do the Bullpen page years later, or if I was unconsciously influenced and only afterwards realized where I got the idea from. I do know that talking to the readers informally and indirectly seemed like the natural thing to do".
What became "Bullpen Bulletins" started out as part of the letters section of Marvel's flagship title Fantastic Four.[6] This two-page section often concluded with a "Special Announcements Section" where Lee responded to general letters and promoted other Marvel titles. "The Mighty Marvel Checklist" appeared for the first time — embedded in the Special Announcements Section — in Fantastic Four #33 (Dec. 1964).[6]
A separate "The Merry Marvel Bullpen Page" appeared in comics cover-dated July and August 1965, but the checklist and special announcements were still on the letters pages. Finally, the first stand-alone "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" page, complete with checklist and special announcements, debuted in the issue's cover-dated December 1965.
Collected edition
In January 2009, Marvel Comics/The Hero Initiative published Stan's Soapbox: The Collection (ISBN 0979760291), a 144-page softcover containing all the "Stan's Soapbox" columns from 1967 to 1980, with commentary from Joe Quesada, Roy Thomas, and many others. The book was also published in a hardcover edition limited to 250 copies.
Quotes
Author Jonathan Lethem: "...a page of Marvel gossip and advertising featured in every issue of every comic, written in a style that could be characterized as High Hipster — two parts Lord Buckley, one part Austin Powers. Stan Lee was a writer gone Barnum, who'd abandoned new work in favor of rah-rah moguldom. He was Marvel's media liaison and their own biggest in-house fan, a schmoozer.[1]"
Writer Mark Evanier: "I... really liked the friendly editorial 'voice' [Lee] established in his letter columns, house ads and especially in the 'Bullpen Bulletins'. He put himself on a first-name basis with the readership at a time when the rival DC editors generally came across not only as adults but stodgy adults. He simultaneously bragged about the greatness of Marvel and expressed such humility that when they screwed up, as they occasionally did, you were willing to cut them a lot of slack.[2]"
The actual Marvel bullpen
In 1982, in an edition of "Bullpen Bulletins", then Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter defined and described the Marvel Bullpen:
"[I]n the old days, virtually every comics company had a big room where all the artists and writers sat together, creating their works of four-color wonder. Creative folks generally being the garrulous sort, typically, quite a bit of 'bull' got tossed around these legendary rooms, so the nickname 'bullpen' was a natural.... At any rate, these days, most comics artists and writers prefer to work in their own studios, but, still, here at Marvel, we have a big room, a production bullpen, where all of our art/production people work doing our paste-ups, lettering corrections, art corrections, and such — and even though the editorial folks are bunched in small offices off to the sides we still refer to the whole shebang as the Marvel Bullpen. It's a tradition dating back to the days when we actually were a one-room operation![19]"
See also
External links
- Note: As of April 4, 2008, dates given are off by one month: the December 1966 listing is for November 1966 comics, etc. See "The Mighty Marvel Checklist" in each for date confirmation.
- "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins" Index Blog
- Eye of the Bullpen "Bullpen Bulletins" archive for 1976 and 1982–1987, as well as a "Bull's Eye" cartoon archive for 1991–1994.
References
- Jonathan Lethem. Izations JonathanLethem.com, 2003, retrieved 2009-02-15^
- Mark Evanier. Notes from Me POVonline.com, October 31, 2003, retrieved 2009-02-15^
- "Marvel Bullpen Bulletins", in Marvel comics cover-dated June 1966.^