In fact, boy, I remember doing that head turn thing where Neal would really emphasize the big neck muscle that comes from under the ear at the back corner of the jaw down to the neck hole at the clavicle—think Cap on the cover of Avengers #93. It’s called the sternomastoid. That’s where I learned the name of that muscle, because he would do these great sternomastoids on these turned heads, with the awkward shaped mouth that was calling out, usually while the guy was waving his hand flatly through the air as if to say, “No way.” MM: I remember you saying that The Gauntlet was one of the projects that you enjoyed the most, for lots of reasons. When you got done with that, what did you want to go to next? That’s kind of a hard one to top. LEE: I don’t think it’s any coincidence two of my favorite projects were the first job with you, and this one with Bruce. When we got into comics as fans, what did we do? We hung out with our friends, dreamed up adventures, and talked about these guys, and it was a lot of fun. So, to be able to work on this stuff with your pals, it makes it special. Years later, I think it holds up. What was the question again? MM: Well, what did you want to do next? What I remember is that you pretty quickly decided you want to start to write some of your own material, but I don’t know if that was an immediate transition. I don’t know what you were thinking. When you got done with Gauntlet, what did you want to do next? LEE: At that time, I wanted to at least have a taste of doing everything. I was working on some ideas. But, again, that time is kind of a blur to me, so I don’t know the exact chronology. I pitched a couple little things here and there. Sometime after that I did the Thing story. It was 17 pages, I think. And I’m trying to think of why I even hooked up with those guys—Joe Andreani and— MM: Hadn’t you been approached to do a back cover or a pin-up page or something? It seems like you had a piece in there an issue or two before your Thing story. 73
Previous Page: “Page 26 [of The Gauntlet] was one where everything seemed to fall into place. Left: “Duck Soupers reunited a couple summers back at the Liberal Cup in Hallowell, just across the street from where we all met nearly 30 years ago. As far as we know, Duck Soup was the first comic shop in all of Maine.” (L to R): Howard Downs, Dave Peabody, Doug Thornsjo, Bruce Canwell, and Tom Field. Missing are Duds, Dean, Lam, and Walt. Below: A penciled panel from The Gauntlet. Batman, Robin ™ and ©2008 DC Comics.