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I thought this might be a fun way to wrap up the July 4th week.

(Well, a day or two late!)

;-)

I'd love to find out exactly who was up on the roof with me and my friends, all those years ago...

I mean:

THIRTY-SIX YEARS AGO, COULD THE CREAM OF 1970s COMICS ALMOST HAVE PLUMMETED TO THEIR DOOMS?

You'll see!

;-)

(This just might be a neat sort-of footnote in comics history, that I don't believe has been written about, before!)

Best, Jim



The annual Phil Seuling New York comic book convention--in the late 1960s, through the early '80s--was sometimes held for FIVE days around July 4th, and could certainly be considered the predecessor to what San Diego has become.

(Was it not called "The International Comic Art Convention"?!)

In its time, the con was where the world of oomics in both its professional and most fannsh aspects came together for some joyous moments in an era that simply just can't, for a number of reasons, be recaptured.

(I had the pleasure of being what Phil called the line producer for the 1976 and 1977 shows...)

Now, imagine a great portion of some of the most important talents in comics being placed precariously upon the roof of a structure about to be condemned.

Well, I'm exaggerating.

...But only a little bit.

In 1976, Phil booked the Hotel McAlpin--at 6th Avenue and 34th Street (just up the block from where Kong encountered the Empire State)--in the final days of its long and illustrious history.

Across the next several months, the McAlpin would begin its conversion to an apartment building.

The hotel wasn't entirely decrepit.

In fact, in the last day or two of the convention, the televison networks were laying cable across the lobby floor, as one of the Democratic presidental cadidates--was it Jerry Brown?-- was using the McAlpin as his headquarters.

The 1976 Democratic Presidential Convention at Madison Square Garden, only an avenue away, was imminent.

This was the BI-CENTENNIAL year!

After President Gerald Ford had essentially told Manhattan, in the words of the NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, to "drop dead" (when facing its financal difficulties), the city was making the most of its opportunities in this national celebration.

For the first time, there was a gigantic flotilla of historic ships that had sailed into the city's shores, and a huge fireworks display was planned for the Fourth, above the metropolis' eastern waters.

Guests at the Seuling show, and some dealers, were informed that there'd be a lovely opportunity to view the gala from atop the hotel.
Now, maybe there was another access...

But a couple of days earlier, some of my more rambunctious convention friends had discovered what looked almost like a secret ladder from the hotel's top floor, to the outdoor exterior one flight above.

Did Barry Smith and Bernie Wrightson and Mike Kaluta and Jonni Levas and the hundreds of others all climb this odd, decades old ladder to the roof?

I don't know.

(I suspect, today, that my friends and I actually ascended to an EXTRA-high tower, one flight above the hotel's "upper deck.")

But there WERE gaps in the McAlpin's rooftop EVERYWHERE.

(And another thank-you to my old-time comics fan pal, Paul Jones, for literally grabbing my arm and saving me from FALLING through a twenty-stories-high hole in the flooring!)

The vista was ultmately neat:

Clipper ships of all sorts in Manhattan;s harbor, and an okay fireworks presentation.

But the clearest memory I'm left with, crystaline, really, is of all the fun we had:

So many folks in the comics scene of the time, HUNDREDS of feet above New York City, wine and soda glasses in hand--

Not seeming so terribly far from some of the more peaceful and enchanting elements of the '60s, in those rarified climes--

Enjoying a summer's night.


Jim Burns (James H. Burns)