CBA Interview
Going with the Flo Herb Trimpe, Linda Fite & Barry Windsor-Smith talk with Florence Conducted by Jon B. Cooke Transcribed by Brian K. Morris What follows are excerpts from a November 10, 2001 dinner party held by CBA in a New York City West Village Italian restaurant in honor of Flo Steinberg. We started out talking to the Fab One and were quickly joined by her old friends and co-workers Herb Trimpe, Linda Fite, and Barry Windsor-Smith. You will no doubt find some of the same anecdotes in other interviews in this section, but we hope this gives you a good sense of the jovial atmosphere experienced at this delightful get-together also attended by Ye Ed, his brother Andrew D. Cooke, and Andy’s lovely fiancé Patty Willett. Comic Book Artist: Can you describe the Bullpen, Flo? Flo Steinberg: It was 655 Madison and 16th Street. It was a huge room with partitions and each [magazine] group had their own little partition. We were right next to the men’s mags. The partitions didn’t go to the ceiling. I mean, you could hear everybody. Stan had a little office and I had a little office. The freelancers would come in and drop off stuff. If they needed any production work, like the house ads, Sol Brodsky would come in and do them. All of the lettering was mostly done by Artie Simek or Sam Rosen. Stan Goldberg did all the coloring in the beginning. CBA: Did he do any cartooning at the time? Flo: He was drawing Millie the Model, as I recall. The freelancers all worked at home so they would come into the office and go have lunch. CBA: Did you ever go to lunch with any of the guys? Flo: Not much, you know. It’s hard for people to realize now but everyone really liked everybody but it was a job and you didn’t immediately become intimate friends. No, mostly it was just the guys who would go out for lunch. CBA: Oh, really? The guys wouldn’t flirt with you at all? Flo: Oh, a little but it was frowned on then. Nobody dated in the office. I mean, a little flirting took place at work—even today—so everyone would always flirt a little. But then, I dated someone in the men’s mags and it was a big secret. It was just considered bad form. [chuckles] It was so funny. Once I went out to lunch with Chic Stone, just as friends. This was a festive lunch, and I had a couple of martinis —a real mixed drink—and I came back to work and was sort of wobbling around… so Stan was really annoyed with Chic over that. [laughs; Herb, Linda and Barry enter the restaurant] CBA: [After they settle in, to Herb] When did you first meet Flo? Flo: [with mock pride] See, it’s all about me! CBA: It is about you. Herb Trimpe: [to Flo] I must have talked to you on the phone because I got set up with Sol Brodsky. Sol was the first person I showed my work to. So it must have gone through you. Flo: Or John Verpoorten. Was he there then? Herb: Yeah, I knew him already, but John wasn’t taking phone calls. He wasn’t in the production… I don’t know what he was. Was he the head guy in the production department? Flo: Not then. Herb: I have no idea. I can’t really remember. But it was 1966. Barry Windsor-Smith: ’66? I didn’t know you were there two years before me. Herb: October of 1966, I got freelance work. Then they hired me in Spring of ’67 to work in the office, in the production department. [to CBA] You know all this. We went over the dates. [laughs] March 2002
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CBA: I just assumed it was just before you. Barry: I thought it was a year before me. I came in the Summer of ’68. Herb: It was a year from the time I started working in the office. I started out inking Westerns. CBA: Was inking “The Hulk” over Marie’s pencils your first regular gig? Herb: I don’t remember. I guess I did ink a couple of her stories. CBA: Then you got switched, right? You penciled and she inked you? Barry: [to Herb, referring to Jon] Does he know more than you do? That’s what worries me about him. I had lunch with him once. That was appalling. [laughter] Like, he knew everything! Makes you feel really creepy, you know? [laughs] Oh, geez. Flo: [to Barry] I haven’t seen you in a long time. You look fantastic. Herb: This is going to be a very long dinner. [laughs] Flo: You look so good to me. Barry: Oh, you lying, lying thing. [laughs] Do I look well? Flo: I wouldn’t say it if it wasn’t true. Barry: Actually, Flo, you do look very good. Herb: Flo looks very healthy…. CBA: Barry, you used to live in the city, right? Barry: Yeah, I lived here for 11 years, all over places around here: Midtown, Upper West Side—I was there for seven years or something like that—and I do miss this place. [to Herb and Linda] To hear you say, “We come here all the time.” Well, don’t rub it in! [laughs] Up in Kingston, we’ve got Burger King! [laughs] We’ve got one decent restaurant so you have to forgive it for everything. Herb: [laughs, then referring to Jon] Did you know, Linda, that he was born in Kingston, New York? Linda Fite: [disbelieving] No! [laughs] CBA: [to Barry] And you’ve been in Kingston for a bit now, right? Barry: I’ve lived on Front Row Street, which runs center of town, off the brook. Lovely little planet, there. Linda: We hang out there all the time in the Summer. Barry: I just moved to a big house in Kingston. But the restaurants haven’t improved and there was no Burger King in Woodstock. [laughs] They’re so prissy in Woodstock. They want everything to remain au naturel. There is nothing au naturel in bleeding Woodstock.
Below: Two of Flo Steinberg’s best friends—and former Marvel Bullpenners themselves!—the husband-&-wife team of Linda Fite and Herb Trimpe. Linda has long been a journalist for a New York newspaper and Herb currently volunteers at the site of the World Trade Center. 1970s picture courtesy of Linda and Herb.
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