Back in this article, I talked about a man named Phil Seuling who was very important in the history of comic books. People always write about folks like Stan Lee and/or Jack Kirby saving the industry but in a different sense, Phil really did. Back when the traditional method of marketing and distributing comics was taking a swan dive into oblivion, Phil was among those who pioneered a new way which has since become the norm. You really need to read the message to which I just linked to know more about this man and what he did for the field.
On July 28, 1977, Phil was a guest on The Mike Douglas Show along with Fabian, Jerry Lester, co-host Jamie Farr and at the end, a surprise guest. The surprise guest was my longtime amigo Wendy Pini, now best known as the co-creator and artist of the popular series, Elfquest. Back then, Wendy was known to dress up as the character Red Sonja at comic conventions and appear in a stage show with artist Frank Thorne, who was then drawing the Red Sonja comic books.
If you watch this entire ten-minute clip — and I suggest you do if you're interested in comic book history and can tolerate some "Bam! Biff!" gushing — you'll see Wendy come on at the end. She told me about this appearance years ago and wished aloud she had a copy of it. I did a little legwork and to her shock, managed to dig up a tape which the man in her life, Richard Pini, has transferred and posted.
By the Way Department: You may not know who Jerry Lester was. Mr. Lester was a comedian and a star of very early television. His most notable credit was to host Broadway Open House, which was a significant precursor to The Tonight Show. Based on the few existing clips, it looks like he did a pretty good job of it. I wish more of his work was around to view.
So let's go back to 1977 and look at the way we used to talk about comic books then. And note the way Phil Seuling handled (and pegged the value of) some rare issues that are now worth more than some folks' homes…