Remembering Mark Gruenwald

Remembering Mark Gruenwald

Aug 12

Tom Brevoort has a great blog post up in memory of Mark Gruenwald and Mike Wieringo, two terrific comic book talents who passed away on this day. Tom shares a terrific piece Mark wrote for Marvel Age in which he shared 168 observations about himself and life.

I miss Ringo every time I see his artwork; he had already executed legendary runs on Flash and Fantastic Four, and it aches to think of the legendary runs-to-come that we’ll never get to see. Plus, he seemed like an awesome guy and so I mourn for those who knew him well and miss him.

Whether directly or indirectly, Mark Gruenwald played a small role in the early growth of my comics fandom, so I miss him even more.

His Quasar run in the early nineties is still one of my favorites, and it’s one of the first Marvel ongoing titles I followed religiously. As I’ve written about before, I was a dedicated letter hack throughout my teenage years, and one of the first letters I wrote was to Mark and his team on Quasar.

Yep, that’s a Mike Mignola cover there; good stuff. The issue before had a Todd McFarlane cover, which is the item I took to have him sign at the Chicago Comicon in 1991; I think that was the year they had that big tent out in the parking lot of the hotel for the Image superstars. Apparently this title wasn’t a bestseller so they probably tried to goose sales with some all-star covers. It did make it to 60 issues, so they must have been doing something right.

Anyway, I think I wrote in about that “Journey Into Mystery” storyline plugged on the cover; this was my first exposure to cosmic Marvel and it blew my fragile little mind. Naturally, I had to immediately write in and register my enjoyment.

Several weeks later, I received a large package in the mail. Inside was a paste-up board of the actual comics page which featured my printed letter, and a form note on Spider-Man stationery thanking me for being a great fan.

Words cannot describe the profound awesomeness of receiving such a package. I meant to take a few pics this morning (of course I still have it!); I’ll try to snap some tonight.

As I recall, the letter wasn’t from Mark Gruenwald; I don’t even know if he himself wrote the lettercols in that mag, or if it was the editor or assistant editor. He was just the writer, cranking out some great superhero comics for a neo-adolescent to devour on lonely Saturday nights.

But it was his work that inspired me to write in and engage the larger world of comics fandom, and receiving that package in the mail was such an amazing encouragement to me. It inspired me to continue writing letters and reading comics; more than both of those, it inspired me in some small way to feel comfortable being myself.

I’m not gonna be melodramatic and say it was some kind of light in the depressed darkness of my sad teenage years, but it was pretty cool. It was pretty Marvel. And based on what I’ve read about the guy, it was pretty Mark Gruenwald, too.

Rest in peace, Mark.