Juswuh

Mark Evanier made the Bullpen Bulletins page in early 1967 with his idea for "Ranks of Marvel."

Mark Gruenwald was in an early FF, 19 I think. There's also the letter in an AMAZING ADULT FANTASY supposedly from England and signed "Joan Boocock", i.e. Stan Lee's wife...

I've read that the reason Superman and Batman weren't on the early JLA covers is because Mort Weisinger and Jack Schiff weren't keen about "their" big characters being used in it at all - the DC editorial offices at that time being virtual fiefdoms, with almost no creative interaction. Presumably they changed their attitude when it became clear that the book was a success. (Ironic that a few years later, Batman DOMINATED the covers for a year or so.)

What a mean-spirited, nasty little man. And his artwork is pretty ordinary in my opinion.

It was on TV, in the NAKED CITY episode "Hold For Gloria Christmas." Burgess Meredith plays an alcoholic poet who sells his manuscripts then steals them back from the buyer. At the beginning of the show he has an altercation with a newsstand seller, and among the items hanging from the stand are those two books, which stay visible in the background most of the time they're talking - particularly the AF15. Of course this was 1962 so they were just comic books, but possibly those covers caught the eye of the show's art director. Incidentally, the same episode features early appearances by Alan Alda and Jessica Walter - and a very brief appearance by Candace Hilligoss of "Carnival Of Souls."

I did a search for ashcans, and by a long way the best-informed and most interesting thing it turned up was the thread about them here in Gold.