I’m not sure what the advantages are to knowing when our time is coming. Jim Shooter had been battling esophageal cancer for a while, and on Monday the world was informed that his battle was over.  He started his career early, as a teenager, and seems to have checked out early too. At just 73, that seems way too soon.

Jim was a guy who made an impact, that’s for sure. And by the way, our pal Rob Salkowitz had a nice write-up over on Forbes.  But my life crisscrossed with Jim’s a few times. For a guy who had a reputation for being difficult (remember: De Mortuis nihil nisi bonum), I have to say he was nothing but kind and encouraging to me.

When I was kid, I first met Jim Shooter at an early ITHACON. As regular readers of With Further Ado know, ITHACON is the second longest running comic convention. I’m very involved with it now, but in the old days, more than 40 years ago, I was just a fanboy attendee. I wasn’t a shy kid per se, but I would get a bit tongue tied around my comic idols. I quickly learned what the various professionals had accomplished and how they contributed.  I was generally awestruck.

Jim Shooter was Editor-in-Chief of Marvel when I first met him at ITHACON. He had big, bold ideas and was working hard to make a difference. You may not have agreed with what he was doing, but he clearly wasn’t there to maintain the status quo.

As a kid, I could kind of see the things he was trying to accomplish with the Marvel Universe, and I told him so. He was very patient with me. And having a grown-up conversation about comics—with someone more knowledgeable than me—was a fascinating experience.

He returned to many other ITHACON’s, but the one I remember most was an ill-fated convention in the nearby Triphammer Mall. That wasn’t the usual place that the Comic Book Club of Ithaca held their conventions.  As a result, not many comic fans attended that year.

Side note: My mom, who loved shopping, was beyond thrilled that this convention was at the mall. It made it so much easier for her to drop me off there and retrieve me (maybe – fingers crossed) later that day after intense retail-therapy.

Because the crowds were so small at this show, Shooter didn’t have any other fans to speak with. Boy, did I lean into it. I asked him every question I could think of and tried to get every story out of him I could. I think, if the tables were turned, I would’ve said something like “Ok, kid, that’s enough. Now scram!” But Jim did NOT say that to me.  He let me babble and was patient and pretended that I was his equal having an intelligent conversation.

Fast forward to the ‘90s and I’m working in marketing at Nabisco. I was in product management on the OREO brand. We were doing a lot of collaborative marketing efforts back then, and I was eager to pull together either a Marvel or a DC tie-in.  I finally did make it happen with a Marvel cross promotion, but that’s another story for another time.

Leading up to that program, I was already working with a “new” publisher; Valiant. Jim Shooter was the man in charge. Together, we eventually did create a program to satisfy some ad pages I had to fill in Disney Adventures Magazine.  It was a series of six single page ads featuring an OREO-loving family called The Dunkin’s. Jim had his team at Valiant create it all. My creative input, and Nabisco’s was minimal. That was fun, and it allowed me the opportunity to frequently drop into Valiant, where Jim treated me like royalty.

Years later, when Joe Ahearn and I brought back Captain Action (we later added Michael Polis to the team) I again reached out to Jim. He used to be involved with Captain Action comics. That old ‘60s DC Captain Action series was Jim’s first credited story.  Now, typically DC didn’t credit the artists and writers back then. But they did this time because the artist, Wally Wood, put it right onto the splash page. And, as the story goes, you didn’t mess with Wally.

As we jumped into our entrepreneurial venture, I asked Jim to provide us with an introduction for our first Captain Action issue. Again, he was a prince of guy and helped us right out.

About at that time, I was working at a consulting firm called Chadwick Communications. We were located in the top floor of the Radio Wave Building (where Marconi worked for a time) and that was a cool thing about it all.  Jim was offering his services as a Marketing Consultant, and we had a great lunch together as we tried to find a work together.  We never found the right project to collaborate on, but I remember my coworkers were so impressed with how quickly he “got it” all.

* * *

Now I’m living back in the Finger Lakes region and help run ITHACON with Bill Turner, Carmela Merlo, and some of the very best college students.  We recently  dragged Shooter back to the convention. He’s appeared many times as a guest, in fact.  And I had hoped to get him back again this spring.  He will be missed.

It all came full circle as we (the Captain Action team – Joe, Mike, and me – and Scott Dunbier) finally found a way to reprint those ‘60s DC Captain Action comics not long ago. They are in wonderful HC cover collection. I think that, in a small way, it serves as a reminder for me, and helps me remember how a pro like Jim always treated me with kindness and support.