Special guest Steven Grant joins David and John to explain how measles, Flash of Two Worlds, and one very strange dime-operated comics rack rewired his childhood. His road into the business runs through Underground Comix, Michael Moorcock, Bob Layton, Roger Stern, John Byrne, and a surprise Marvel Two-in-One assignment that he never asked for. Along the way, Grant remembers learning from Gil Kane, surviving Marvel’s fill-in trenches, and writing an entire character’s dialogue in haiku just to satisfy a baffling series bible. Then an unusable Olympics treasury story gets rebuilt as Contest of Champions, Marvel’s first published limited series and an unlikely ancestor of Secret Wars. The issue closes with Grant and Mike Zeck rescuing the once-reviled Punisher, the brutal math of rejected pitches, and why Return to Big Nothing remains Grant’s near-perfect statement on Frank Castle. Captions: “I did not break into comics. I wasn’t even asked—I was told I was going to write comics.” — Steven Grant on his accidental Marvel debut “If anybody asked you to do a story, you did it. If you didn’t, you didn’t get asked again.” — Steven Grant on the freelancer survival rule “All of her dialogue is written in haiku.” — Steven Grant on solving an impossible Shogun Warriors character note “When we were doing Contest of Champions, we didn’t even know we were doing Contest of Champions.” — Steven Grant on Marvel’s accidental first limited series “I’d say of the things that I pitched, at least 94% never got done.” — Steven Grant on the reality behind a long comics career “When I did the Punisher miniseries, they said, ‘Well, f@#$, if he can do it, anybody can.’” — Steven Grant on his book’s less glamorous influence “I still view that as close to the perfect Punisher story as anyone ever got.” — Steven Grant on Punisher: Return to Big Nothing Splash Page: [01:09] – The Measles Origin Story: A sick week, an All-Star Western, and a Justice League ad turn Grant into a lifelong comics reader. [03:34] – Flash of Two Worlds, Third Comic Ever: David discovers that Grant encountered a multiversal landmark almost immediately—and bought it from a vending machine. [06:50] – Seventeen and Writing Moorcock: Grant casually contacts Michael Moorcock, gets permission to adapt Elric, and leaves David wondering what happened to teenage fear. [09:34] – Report to Marvel Monday Morning: Roger Stern offers Grant a couch and informs him that he’ll be writing Marvel Two-in-One after breakfast. [14:49] – Curves Are Static, Angles Are Active: A Gil Kane interview gives Grant a new language for understanding storytelling through art. [17:36] – The Haiku Defense: A vague Shogun Warriors character description inspires Grant’s most beautifully unreasonable dialogue solution. [22:13] – The Accidental Event Machine: A shelved Olympics project becomes Contest of Champions and helps establish the model for decades of giant Marvel clashes. [27:10] – Nobody Wanted the Punisher: A repeatedly rejected 1976 pitch finally finds Mike Zeck, Carl Potts, and the opening it needs to become Circle of Blood. Support the Corner Box: David Hedgecock (https://funtimego.com) - The Corner Box Co-Host John Barber (https://www.pugworldwide.com) - The Corner Box Co-Host The Corner Box (https://www.thecornerbox.club) - Official Website Dive Deeper Into the Back Issue Bin: Steven Grant (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Grant) - Writer of the first Punisher limited series and the guest tracing his unlikely route from fandom to Marvel. Gil Kane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Kane) - Grant’s childhood favorite and eventual collaborator on Edge, whose thinking about curves and angles shaped Grant’s view of comics. Mike Zeck (https://www.mikezeck.com) - Secret Wars artist whose involvement helped Grant’s long-rejected Punisher proposal finally get approved. John Beatty (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Beatty_(illustrator)) - Inker who worked with Zeck on Secret Wars, the Punisher limited series, and Return to Big Nothing. Roger Stern (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Stern) - Writer, editor, CPL publisher, couch provider, and the man who handed Grant his first Marvel assignment. Bob Layton (https://www.boblayton.com) - Artist, writer, and CPL co-publisher who became part of Grant’s formative comics circle. John Byrne (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Byrne_(comics)) - Artist Grant met before Byrne’s Marvel breakthrough, when the two attempted to develop a series together. Al Milgrom (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Milgrom) - Marvel editor praised for his story sense, artistic eye, and tolerance of Grant’s Shogun Warriors mischief. Bill Mantlo (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Mantlo) - Writer who brought Grant and Mark Gruenwald into the Olympics project that eventually became Contest of Champions. Mark Gruenwald (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Gruenwald) - Writer and editor who worked with Grant and Mantlo on the material repurposed for Marvel’s first limited series. Jim Shooter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Shooter) - Marvel editor-in-chief charged with getting late books moving and later approving both Contest of Champions and the Punisher gamble. Marv Wolfman (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marv_Wolfman) - Marvel editor-in-chief who heard Grant’s original Punisher pitch years before the project found a home. Carl Potts (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Potts) - Editor who championed Grant and Zeck’s Punisher proposal despite Marvel’s lack of faith in the character. Archie Goodwin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_Goodwin_(comics)) - Epic editor who gave Grant and Zeck the freedom to make Return to Big Nothing their definitive Frank Castle statement. Flash of Two Worlds (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_of_Two_Worlds) - The landmark Flash story that became one of Grant’s first comic-book purchases. Moon Knight (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_Knight) - Grant’s choice for his first Marvel Two-in-One co-star, partly because the character’s identity confusion gave him a storytelling joke. Shogun Warriors (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shogun_Warriors_(comics)) - The assignment Grant accepted despite disliking the book, producing his infamous all-haiku dialogue experiment. Marvel Super Hero Contest of Champions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marvel_Super_Hero_Contest_of_Champions) - The shelved Olympics material transformed into Marvel’s first published limited series. Secret Wars (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_Wars) - The massive follow-up success drawn largely by Zeck before he joined Grant on the Punisher. The Punisher Limited Series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Punisher_%281986_series%29) - Grant and Zeck’s influential solo reinvention of a character Marvel once considered nearly unusable. Return to Big Nothing (https://www.marvel.com/comics/issue/77954/epic_graphic_novel_the_punisher_-_return_to_big_nothing_1_1989_1) - The Epic graphic novel Grant calls his near-perfect expression of the Punisher. The Dark Knight Returns (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Knight_Returns) - Frank Miller’s landmark work, raised during the debate over which books most strongly influenced later creators. Watchmen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmen) - Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ defining series, compared with the Punisher limited series in terms of creative influence. American Flagg! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Flagg!) - Howard Chaykin’s influential series, invoked in Grant’s self-mocking comparison of how landmark comics were received.
