
Originally posted 14.12.2011
The Far-Flung Fellowship of FOOM
Time: 8.30 am (ish) GMTDate: 24th March, 1973.
Location: Wilmot Road, Carshalton, Surrey, UK.
Item: FOOM Membership pack.
The letterbox flap slammed shut and outside, a squeaky gate closed behind a bemused postman. The eager boy leapt from the breakfast table and ran towards the front door, unconcerned that his Puffa Puffa Rice™ was destined to become horribly soggy. On the worn coir doormat, something lurid and green lay there... just lay there, grinning. 50 new pence down and finally the wait was over; I had finally been accepted into the far-flung fellowship of FOOM and here was my membership card...
I have to admit that when I first saw the FOOM cover, I was just a little bit disappointed. The boy that I was at the time, wanted something a bit more comic-related, but when I opened the magazine, I just loved everything inside it. Seeing this cover 38 years later as an adult, I can totally appreciate it as another brilliant piece of Steranko graphic design. The fact that Stan and his fabulously verbose Shakespearean text graces the cover is completely justified, for he is and always will be, Stan the Man.
I've gained an immense amount of pleasure re-discovering these FOOM issues, and I'd forgotten just how much they'd inspired me as a kid. I happened to mention this to my long-time collaborator and friendly neighbourhood neighbour, Alan McKenzie, just the other day and he told me that it was actually him who'd mailed out all the FOOM issues back in the day.
To me this actually seemed pretty friggin' cosmic. The thought that a young Alan McKenzie had actually pasted my hand-written address label onto the back of that Hulk envelope and put it in the post to another kid who would then, ten years later, turn up for the design job in his editorial office at Marvel UK was a little bit, yeah... cosmic. Just to get the facts straight, I emailed him about it and he replied...
Hi, Steve,
Yep ... I did a few stints of holiday work at Marvel UK during my student days. This was when the offices were still in Holborn. I’m pretty sure the first stint I did was at Easter. Then I did the Summer and the next couple of holidays. I was doing all the mailouts. I remember some of the items I did – Sea Monkeys (honest!), Spider-Man Spinners (frisbies!) and of course FOOM packs.
I remember we ran out of Hulk envelopes (the FOOM thing was a massive success). So the tail end of the mailout went out in plain manilla envelopes. AM
Well, with this in mind, alongside an extensive list of eager kids who'd entered the FOOM Create-a-Character-Contest, who now seem to actually be working in the comics business throughout the land, it really does seem that birds of a feather flock together. Perhaps Stan was onto something; might it just be possible that he has inadvertently created a sort of comics cabal; a Prieuré de Sion for the modern age?
Read the cover and think about it...
BREAKING NEWS!
Yes, my suspicions were correct, it was indeed Superfly Guy and Heroic DJ, Mark Moore. This is what he said when I asked him. "Omigawd. Yes that's me! I came up with the lamest super-hero who was a gangster midget on jet-powered roller-skates. Looked like Jimmy Cagney in 'The Public Enemy'.... He was called Joe DaMidge >groan<". So, don't forget you heard it here first!
Coincidentally, Mark and S'Express actually made a guest appearance in 2000 AD, a few years back in the Bradley strip by Alan McKenzie and Simon Harrison. I also got to meet and photograph Mark and S'Express when I worked for Rhythm King Records in 1989. Small World, innit!
Create-a-Character-Contest winners.
I've gained an immense amount of pleasure re-discovering these FOOM issues, and I'd forgotten just how much they'd inspired me as a kid. I happened to mention this to my long-time collaborator and friendly neighbourhood neighbour, Alan McKenzie, just the other day and he told me that it was actually him who'd mailed out all the FOOM issues back in the day.
To me this actually seemed pretty friggin' cosmic. The thought that a young Alan McKenzie had actually pasted my hand-written address label onto the back of that Hulk envelope and put it in the post to another kid who would then, ten years later, turn up for the design job in his editorial office at Marvel UK was a little bit, yeah... cosmic. Just to get the facts straight, I emailed him about it and he replied...
Hi, Steve,
Yep ... I did a few stints of holiday work at Marvel UK during my student days. This was when the offices were still in Holborn. I’m pretty sure the first stint I did was at Easter. Then I did the Summer and the next couple of holidays. I was doing all the mailouts. I remember some of the items I did – Sea Monkeys (honest!), Spider-Man Spinners (frisbies!) and of course FOOM packs.
I remember we ran out of Hulk envelopes (the FOOM thing was a massive success). So the tail end of the mailout went out in plain manilla envelopes. AM
Well, with this in mind, alongside an extensive list of eager kids who'd entered the FOOM Create-a-Character-Contest, who now seem to actually be working in the comics business throughout the land, it really does seem that birds of a feather flock together. Perhaps Stan was onto something; might it just be possible that he has inadvertently created a sort of comics cabal; a Prieuré de Sion for the modern age?
Read the cover and think about it...

FOOMERS!
As alluded to earlier, the interesting thing I discovered when searching for my name among the other Create-a-Character-Contest entries in issue #4 of FOOM (below), were a few familiar names of people working in the comics biz today. Some are highlighted and I've chopped and pasted a few others from elsewhere on the spread. There may well be more, but right now I'm all scanned out. If anyone spots a familiar name that I missed on the full spread scan, feel free to mention it. Could that be Mark Moore of S'Express? I'll have to enquire...BREAKING NEWS!
Yes, my suspicions were correct, it was indeed Superfly Guy and Heroic DJ, Mark Moore. This is what he said when I asked him. "Omigawd. Yes that's me! I came up with the lamest super-hero who was a gangster midget on jet-powered roller-skates. Looked like Jimmy Cagney in 'The Public Enemy'.... He was called Joe DaMidge >groan<". So, don't forget you heard it here first!
Coincidentally, Mark and S'Express actually made a guest appearance in 2000 AD, a few years back in the Bradley strip by Alan McKenzie and Simon Harrison. I also got to meet and photograph Mark and S'Express when I worked for Rhythm King Records in 1989. Small World, innit!

Create-a-Character-Contest winners.




Fun Fact: Dan (Danny) DiDio was my boss when I joined DC Comics in Burbank, 42 years later.