Drawing Bead on a Slurpee Interior art images from FOOM #7 (Fall 1974), with art by Dave Cockrum; and the 1975 Hawkeye cup using the Cockrum art. All Slurpee-cup photos were produced by Bill Worboys Photography. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
Distinguishing a 1975 Slurpee cup from a 1977 cup is a very easy task. The 1975 cups presented a single action pose of a character. A set of 60 was created, complete with a numbered checklist. The back of the cup had a head image of the character and a word balloon telling their origin and background. Today’s comics strive to have a “jumping on” point for the reader. The 1975 Slurpee cup gives its owner an immediate idea of who the character is. This was an elementary but effective marketing concept. The 1975 cups are primarily printed in two colors and black. The 1975 cups also come in two styles. Some are wide while others are slightly taller (I prefer to have the taller ones as they appear thicker and are more durable). The word balloons on the back of the cup are usually black ink on the white plastic surface. However, you will find some cups that had black ink in a yellow word balloon. The 1977 cups are wild in design. Paty was provided with a much wider color range to work with, and to say the least, she got very creative with background scenarios and even paneled sequences. The result is a panoramic scene with multiple characters which is not easily captured by the camera. With two more years of experience in production and many more images in her archives, Paty’s 1977 set is a very groundbreaking piece of work. Forty cups were issued in 1977. You probably wonder, if Marvel had a bigger budget with the second issue, whey were there not more cups? Each cup for the 1977 issue, with more color and multiple images on each, were simply more expensive. Paty explains, “If we wanted more color and more interesting possibilities with the designs, we had to go for less cups in the run.” Of course, Paty was working at Marvel with a budget of her own. “Any time I could get my hands on extraneous art,” she recalls, “like spots Dave [Cockrum] did for fun … or Buscema did on the back of pages, I would stat them and add them to the masters in my files.” People also ask if some cups are more sought after than others. I think that is a topic open to debate. Some have said the John Buscema 1975 Doc Savage cup is difficult to find, but I really see no scarcity in its supply. There is also a strong interest in the Dave Cockrum X-Men cup. Yes, it is the only one with a Wolverine image. There were multiple cups made of some of the more popular Marvel characters such as SpiderMan, Captain America, and Fantastic Four, but the X-Men had just recently relaunched its “new” lineup and Marvel was unaware that it would become such a major part of its universe. The image Paty uses for the X-Men cup was somewhat difficult to find. Dave Cockrum drew it for the letters page of a black-and-white magazine: Rampaging Hulk #2. The team is shown on the letters pages on page 40 and 41, but there is only an exploding cloud of brimstone signifying that
Nightcrawler has “bamfed” or teleported out of the picture. You’ll be somewhat amused to find the image of the teleported Nightcrawler on page 65 of this Hulk magazine. This gag took me over 30 years to figure out and Paty and Dave Cockrum both had a laugh at how slow I have been to discover the subtle humor involved. The X-Men cup is the only one you’ll find in either issue that is signed by the artist. Another unusual cup with quite a bit of history is the 1975 running Spider-Man. This image was originally done by Steve Ditko. It is a panel from one of the early Amazing Spider-Man comics. Marie Severin shared with me that a Marvel staffer cut out the image and reattached the arms to fit onto a poster in the 1960s. My guess would be the staffer might have been either Sol Brodsky or Frank Giacoia. The curves of the legs and the shinbones on Spider-Man are vintage trademarks of Steve Ditko. For the Slurpee issue, John Romita presented Paty with a similar image for marketing. Paty recalls, “John told me that is was a redo of a Ditko running pose that had been lifted from the books and monkeyed with to a degree. He just redid it so we could have a good vertical action pose of Spidey.” Of course, no marketing project could be complete without an image of the master of self-promotion: Stan Lee. Marvel’s head honcho adorns one of the 1975 cups with original art as an amalgamation of several of the Marvel characters under the guise of “Super-Stan.” His body image was created by John Romita. Lee, who has always had a fondness for the way Marie Severin drew his face, allowed her to create the head for his likeness.
DD Slurpee The Gil Kane-drawn Daredevil image from the cover to Marvel Two-in-One #3 was recycled for the Man without Fear’s 1975 cup. © 2009 Marvel Characters, Inc.
N e w
W o r l d
O r d e r
I s s u e
•
B A C K
I S S U E
•
5 5