Some time in early October of 1981, Super Creator, Writer, Straw Boss and apparently, Female Wrangler Par Excellence, Editor In Chief Jim Shooter asked me to take a picture of a gal. Not just any gal, but the spitting image of the Dazzler.
Anyone remember the Dazzler—the Disco Dazzler? A heck of a character name and one of those oddball characters that benefited from a lot of backstory writing. That writer was Danny Fingeroth—who created many of the ancillary characters in that book but who did not create the character! That was done by Mythologically Legendary Creator/Writer Tom DeFalco and also, Scion Supreme and Mighty Good Artist John Romita, Jr. It did not help that this book started life as a movie tie-in starring none other than Bo Derek (young people… go look her up, start with search term: “10”). The “disco” part was proof positive that Marvel could not smell a trend until it was dead for at least 10 years.
My problem was that I did not have the proper equipment to light a full-sized person. My brain was looping around this problem when Jim told me, we needed to set up some kind of lights for her light-blasty-power-thingies—like the ones that popped out of her hands.
What do you do when The Boss asks for additional lights–? You cry, “Great idea!” and take your week’s sandwich money and you haul ass to the Spiro-Tone storefront and buy some more lights! [Ahhh… the late, lamented Spiro-Tone! The low-budget photographer’s friend. Who started that place and why it had to die, I may never know. My guess is super-low-cost Chinese or possibly South Korean manufacturing – along the lines of today’s Harbor Freight – that made some pretty good stuff for a very little final cost. When it came time to outfit my 4×5 view camera with extras and lighting so as to be able to photograph everything from comics, artwork and Marvel ash trays for Marvel’s first coffee table book – I went there.]
My short stack of sandwich monies did not buy a lot of additional lighting. [My dreams of real dual-lighting electronic studio strobe lights remain unfulfilled.] But it was enough to get the job done. You kids today have no idea how expensive 1000Watt light bulbs were… I immediately realized that one helluva lot more production would have to be done to my image. Thus I did not feel so bad when I cheaped out and did not invest in a full portable backdrop with stand. I did invest in a whole lot of black chipboard. I figured it would be enough for someone to find an “edge” of the subject and eliminate the background.
Here are the basic facts. Jim had found this gal who would be a perfect superheroine. Come in on Saturday and we’ll take pictures then. She was a stewardess. And Jim had found her up in Canada somewhere, somehow. Oh yeah, we didn’t want to show her face…
I did not press that issue. I got a look at her face and it was a pretty durn good one. I assume that she didn’t quite want a good deal of North America to see that face featured in a comic book. Or dressed in a f-f-form f-f-fitting superheroine costume.
Plus I was never told her name. And Jim never addressed her by her name that I could hear. So security was tight!
One amusing detail, one which my memory serves up and thus could be delusional, is that she showed up in a trench coat. She had worn her Dazzler costume underneath it. Different shoes. I was guessing that she had stayed over at Jim’s place, out in Queens and rode the subway into midtown. Now, where the two of them found that slinky dance outfit, belt and silver pixie shoes, I do not know (well… this series was shot in October, so maybe there was enough Halloween stuff going on—also, this was New York City). I pretty much kept real quiet from the point at which she had opened up her trench coat on.
In fact I didn’t need to say much at all except to guide the placement of her hands. Y’see, we had those lights on stands so that as part of her dramatic, action pose, her hands could have a light beamy-blasty look. Just for safety’s sake, as you will see, we also covered that without any lights. I merely told her to raise, lower or move one hand thisaway, etc. Jim did all the direction.
Tell ya what—I’m just going to run the alternate pix and the one that was chosen for the cover (yes, early enough on that I got my slide back—I say ‘early’ because later, new hires at the separators didn’t know any better).
Much to my delight, I learned that Super Talent, Big Name Artist Bob Larkin would be handling the final work of the cover art. He would be working on a large print, airbrushing over this gal and making me look good! He did the final power-light-flashing-bursty-thingies from her hands to perfection! My small contribution for him to work with was that I put some “nose grease” (yes, that’s a real photographic term) on a plain lens filter—in order to make the hot lights behind her hands “streak” with a glow. Bob, of course, knew what to do!
Final note: a few months later, it was revealed in a Bullpen Bulletin that our model’s name was June MacDonald! I guess the world’s reaction to this rather tasteful cover was agreeable to her!