Artifacts

I've been going through a bunch of old paperwork in the past few weeks and found a bunch of my old contracts and letters from when I was first starting out in comics. I read a ton of biographies, and for whatever reason, I love seeing pictures of the actual artifacts from time gone by -- stuff like old telegrams, letterhead, check stubs, etc. It's the stuff no one sees unless they were around long ago or had similar careers. So, I thought I'd share some of the stuff I dug up.

Here's my first page rate at Marvel that good ol' Bob Harras set up for me. A lot of people badmouthed Bob after he was let go, but he was always true to his word with me and treated me well. And, he put me on Excalibur, so of course, I think he is truly brilliant.

And my first paycheck from Marvel. You have to love a company with John Romita artwork on all their stationary and checks.
You kids today don't know how lucky you have it with Marvel's new "direct deposit" accounting. Holy crap. I could write ten pages about how AMAZING this is. No more long walks to the mailbox to come back empty-handed -- no more being at the mercy of the postman! I was almost in tears when this went into place a few years ago. Go kiss Joe Quesada the next time you see him and say "thanks".