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You may have seen earlier last week on Facebook that I had the sad task of reporting the death of former Marvel UK London Bullpen supremo Ray Wergan, who left us at the age of 90.
It’s inevitable with any type of research project that
you’ll sometimes hit, what seems to be, an insurmountable dead end and become
becalmed.
But, with a fair wind behind you, sometimes you get
lucky.
As I’m sure I’ve recounted previously – and certainly
within the pages of the long overdue From Cents to Pence! – that was the case
when I finally tracked down Ray Wergan. The trail had gone cold after I
discovered he’d wound up his business and sold his photo library to Scope
Features (now themselves defunct, so that archive could now be anywhere). They
were unable to provide any contact details after such a long time. I later
learned that he’d slipped away into a happy retirement down in Devon.
Ray was a very private person, and had never been
interviewed, so there were no leads to be had there either. And that really
should have been the end of it. And it very nearly was if not for a single turn
of a page one morning in the Saturday edition of The Times.
As it still does today, the Saturday edition runs a half
page Feedback column once a week devoted to readers comments concerning
published items, queries about correct writing style, and other items of note.
On Saturday 29th January 2011, the then curator of the column Sally Barker,
opened that week’s feature with some knowledgeable, and witty commentary about
the way they were using photos of their journalists. The correspondent? Raymond
Wergan.
Cue hairs bristling on the back of my neck!
Even though I was looking for a Ray Wergan, this was too
coincidental – and knowing he’d worked with a press photo library, it just felt
right. Diving upstairs to quickly compose a letter to Sally, I asked if she
might forward a brief letter of introduction to that writer, explaining why I
was seeking to make contact if indeed he was the man I’d been seeking. She was
very happy to oblige.
After an anxious wait of a few days a message popped up in
my inbox. Entitled ‘Marvel UK’ – I’d found him!
This wasn’t my first contact with anyone from the London
Bullpen. That had come about after Scott Gray had kindly passed on contact
details for Alan Murray. But I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that finding Ray
was a whole other order of magnitude given his pin-sharp detailed knowledge of
the business side of the Marvel operation. It’s no lie to say that his every
word was gold dust. None of this was on record anywhere.
There had been previously published pieces on visits to
the Bullpen in contemporary fanzines, but none with any comments from Ray. He
was content to let his editors do the talking, as could be heard on various
radio programmes throughout the 1970s, sometimes coinciding with Stan Lee’s own
promotional visits to these shores for the latest new weekly comic launch.
Thankfully, soon convinced that I was on the level with
what I’d been writing and researching, Wergan cast an initial eye over what I
had, greatly expanding upon that, and then I began to ask questions based on
this new input. The next decade continued much in this vein as other (often
extensive) sources of fresh info came to light – such as the discovery of a
year’s worth of UK-related content within Stan Lee’s archive, including that
tantalisingly listed videotape of the Roundhouse evening as previously mentioned on this blog – all of which threw up fresh avenues of enquiry and
further questions that required answers.
This would often lead to metaphors around the action of my
continued ‘digging’.
It's predominantly for this reason that it’s taken so
much longer than anticipated to bring From Cents to Pence! to fruition. The
current brief extract concerning Dracula Lives, just published in #87 of the
online magazine Journey Planet, only scratches the surface of what you
can expect in the book. You’ll find much that’s new in the longer version
contained within the chapter this was filleted out of! And look out for another
exclusive extract in that magazine during late spring next year.
To be honest I’d completely forgotten about this feature,
which had been arranged back in April, so its publication now is strange, yet
absolutely apt, serving as a perfect tribute to Ray’s considerable efforts in
promoting and expanding the Marvel brand in Britain.
I could never persuade him of the merits of setting his
thoughts down on paper for a fully-fledged biography. Judging by those
anecdotes that I have featured, plus a few in confidence that I’m unable to
relate, this would have been an enthralling read; ranging across a career that
began in sports reporting, and later in managing syndication for the US office
of a major UK newspaper, before that drew him – with perfect timing – into Stan
Lee’s dream of a truly British Marvel operation.
Fortunately, what Wergan did reveal to me about his past
life and work makes for more than a fitting micro memoir, as already
incorporated into my book, so all is not lost by any means. And to have
thirteen years to draw from his extensive well of knowledge was truly a gift.
This was time well spent, just as with others I’d once
spoken to, and now lost to us, from Herb Trimpe to Frank Springer, Dave Hunt,
and David Anthony Kraft, to sadly name but a few. It just underlines how vital
it is to get the medium’s history recorded right now – tomorrow may be too
late.
On a personal note, I shall also miss our irregular
chats, which – as you may well imagine, after that number of years – had
widened considerably, far beyond just talk of eight years of toil at the Marvel
tiller. I shall also miss his humour, insight, and helpful encouragement in the
crazy task I long ago set myself.
Wergan was the original ‘true gentleman’ – the world is all
the poorer for his passing.
You'll find a companion obituary on Down the Tubes (with thanks to John Freeman for the additional links therein, as well as the additional images chosen).
