A Story I've Always Wanted to Share . . . DC offices, Midtown Manhattan, Late Spring of 1987 1 1

[OuterboroGuy]

So, I was a senior in high school in New York City in the fall of 1986.  I went to a private, all-boys Catholic scholarship school.  (This story is NOT going where you think it is going.)   We all had a choice to make for our spring trimester -- do full-time Christian Service (i.e., volunteer work), stay in school and take electives, or participate in something called the "NYC Executive Internship Program" where the city placed high school seniors in internships in businesses they were interested in. 

I was planning on just hanging around school and playing a lot of hoops with the massive free time we'd have, but then one night as I was re-reading Watchmen #1 or 2, I had a flash of inspiration -- both Marvel and DC were in Manhattan -- maybe I could work there?  Our school's Headmaster looked a little askance at my proposal to intern in comic books, but they put the application through and I ended up interviewing with Marvel and DC and eventually decided on DC (because of Watchmen, Swamp Thing, Crisis, etc.).  Plus the DC offices were much more corporate than Marvel, which suited my more conservative and introspective nature.   I ended up getting hired for the summer of 1987 as well, until I went off to college at the end of August.

I was brought on as an intern in the editorial department, and my job basically was to photocopy scripts when they came in from the writers and then send them out to the pencillers, photocopy the big boards when they came in from the pencillers and send the photcopies to the writers (to do dialogue) and the originals to the inkers, etc. etc.  I worked with editors like Denny O'Neil, Mike Carlin, Robert Greenberger, and Karen Berger.  Giordano was executive editor, but I didn't interact with him much.  I met a lot of artists and writers who would come into the offices, including Len Wein, Bernie Wrightson and others.

One day I was given the task of sorting and cleaning out some large file cabinets.  At the bottom of one cabinet I found the fully inked and lettered boards for a Batman story that I didn't recognize.  The art was immediately eye-catching.  The layout of the story panels seemed familiar . . . where had I seen that style before?  I went back to the first board, saw the author and immediately understood why it seemed familiar.  I finished reading the rest of the boards, put the boards back in the cabinet and asked Mike Carlin about it.  He said to check with Denny, who said it was going to be published, they just didn't know when.  I told him it was the best Batman story that I'd ever read. 

I went off to college, discovered girls and forgot about comics for a while.  Some years later (in law school when I started buying again), I saw a cover in the same style and immediately recognized it as the book I had found at the bottom of that file cabinet. 

Can you guess?

 

[faster friends]

[Old_Man_Adam]

As “ the dark knight “ was already published by 1987- i was going to guess the other big 2 storylines 

Killing joke 

death in the family 

[OuterboroGuy]

8 minutes ago, Old_Man_Adam said:

As “ the dark knight “ was already published by 1987- i was going to guess the other big 2 storylines 

Killing joke 

death in the family 

Here's one of the boards . . .

[Bronty]

wow, very cool

[shadroch]

Thanks for sharing.

[theCapraAegagrus]

Yup - I was gonna say The Killing Joke.

[Park]

Very cool story. 

[Blastaar]

Mike Carlin seems like a really good guy. How was he to work for?

[OuterboroGuy]

1 hour ago, Blastaar said:

Mike Carlin seems like a really good guy. How was he to work for?

He was very nice and very funny.  There was a break room, and once or twice a month, they'd restock the fridge with sodas.  He'd immediately run and get 2 or 3 cans of his favorites -- usually everything except diet 7UP was gone by the next day.  Every day I'd sit on the couch in his and Denny's office and read the Daily News until Pat Bastienne (who was Managing Editor) would come in and tell me to get back to work.   

Oh yeah -- we were all waiting for the lettered Watchmen #12 to come back in.  Writers and artists were calling trying to get an advance photocopy.  One inker, Al Gordon, was so relentless in calling Mike that when it finally came in, he asked me for a photocopy of the book, and then did a mock up with jokes and fake dialogue to send to Al.  I still have a copy!! It's great.  Can I post a PDF doc in here?  If so, I can scan it in when I get back to the office on Monday.

 

 

Edited January 3, 2020 by OuterboroGuy
added "to send to Al"

[OuterboroGuy]

I should add that everybody at DC was really nice.  Bob Rozakis (The Answer Man!) was a great guy -- he basically ran the production department (where the colorists and other on-site artists worked).  Karen Berger was awesome, took me to lunch with Bernie Wrightson when he came in one day.  Bob Greenberger was really nice-- kind of like an ubernerd who was living his dream job.  There as a mild-mannered junior editor, Jon Peterson, who shared the office with Bob, and who was funny and very nice.  Denny O'neil was kind of aloof.  

Overall, it was a great experience -- I got a lot of free comics for 6 months straight, from DC, Marvel and all the Indy's.  Sometimes I look back and wish I had gone back into the business after college -- the law is a lot more boring!

Edited January 3, 2020 by OuterboroGuy
typo

[rjpb]

Great story. 

[JollyComics]

Excellent story upon your eye-catching experience. My experience on that story was stunningly shocked.  Thanks for sharing your story with us.

Edited January 3, 2020 by JollyComics

[theCapraAegagrus]

This story is one of the best things to happen in Comics General in a while.

[Krismusic]

Great story! That must of been a great experience and even though your in law now, at least you have this awesome, fun and cool story to remember of when you interned at DC. 

[OuterboroGuy]

11 hours ago, theCapraAegagrus said:

This story is one of the best things to happen in Comics General in a while.

 

8 hours ago, Krismusic said:

Great story! That must of been a great experience and even though your in law now, at least you have this awesome, fun and cool story to remember of when you interned at DC. 

Thanks.  Yeah, it really was a nerdy comic kid's dream.  Even though it was 30 years ago, the memory still makes me happy.  Meeting comic legends, softball games in Central Park against Marvel (followed by being treated to hamburgers and beers by the editors), the free comics, being able to pull books from DC's comics library (they had mechanized movable stacks like you see in some public library, and every comic DC ever published was in a bound volume -- although I think someone had ripped out and stolen Action Comics #1).