Marie Severin

Tough Old Bird

Marie Severin was one of the most important creators in Marvel Comics history. She was a hard-working journeyman artist, who also worked for the company as (often uncredited) art director in the 1970's. While she never got the accolades and big money other creators enjoyed, she was incredibly versatile and well-respected.

Art supplies from Marie’s place.

Many will tell you she was a nice old lady.

She wasn’t.

She was a tough old bird who would bite your head off at first meeting to see if you could handle the pressure cooker of working in mainstream comics. This was a really common thing for veteran creators to do.

Unfortunately, this scared off a lot of talent.

But even though Marie bit my head off right out of the gate, I didn't flinch.

Much.

Twenty years later, she told my agent "She's the only other woman in comics who can draw," and asked for a copy of the graphic novel Orbiter. I took that as the highest praise, (while realizing it wasn't a fair assessment to others).

Marie was from a generation that didn't take well to those who didn't have classic drawing chops. But I made the grade.

Many of Marie's art supplies came to me at/near her death. When she was moved to a community for older people, she could not take all of her studio with her, and frankly, she was a bit of a hoarder. A lot went into the trash.

Marie’s office stamps, now in my office.

Fear not: in the end, Marie was well taken care of.

She didn't really know how valuable her art was. She had stacks of it in her closets. When it came time for her to move into a new home to get care, her agent realized she was sitting on a small fortune, and was able to sell some of it off so she could live in comfort.

Some of the things I saved from Marie are above, boards on which Marie practiced her lettering. They're in terrible shape. I'm always telling people how important it is to use archival materials to make art, and you're looking at what happens when you don't. These date back to the 1950's and are very brown and crumbling to pieces.

Marie was a devout Catholic, and often did crafts and newsletters for her church. These boards show notes about "Poly Prep". Were these done for church, or while Marie was in school? Dunno.

Marie was smart and understood company politics like no one else. She had letters from the company (some that she shouldn’t have had) that would have blown the lid off Marvel Comics history. But in the end, the letters were destroyed. I begged for them to be sent to a library and sealed for a few decades so scholars would have access at some point.

But I was overruled.

Marie kept them while she was alive as leverage, but didn't want them to be used against anyone at her death.

You know, blackmail when she needed it, but toss it when she didn’t.

The old story about the art director who wanted to teach a creator a lesson about the dangers of using markers for original art (mostly because they bled through correction fluid and the production department had a difficult time during paste up,) so they spat on the art and smeared the lines around, destroying the page?

Hey, creator, stop using markers!

Like I wrote, tough old bird.

Can’t imagine anyone getting away with a stunt like that now.

Ah, the good old days of comics! What a mood.

In the end, the kinder choice was to throw the files of (pilfered) documents on the fire and let history die.

I have to make similar decisions about some of my own records someday.

Which are not pilfered, I rush to add. I never worked in the mainstream publisher offices.

Many of Marie’s Dr Martin’s watercolor bottles, some with color still in them, came to me as well. I distributed them to other creators who wanted a momento of her, and also gave some to Patreon supporters.

And some are in my studio to this day.

Momento Marie.