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When Jim Shooter, Doug Polumbaum and Kathy Beekman All Made Marvel Comics Vice Presidents – The Jim Shooter Files

Published Sat, 11 Jan 2020 11:00:43 -0600

Last October's MCM London Comic Con had Jim Shooter as a guest. Former teenage writer of Legion Of Super-Heroes, Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics, writer of Secret Wars, founder of Valiant Entertainment, Defiant Comics and Broadway Comics, he is the co-creator of co-creator of Star Brand, Parasite, Archer & Armstrong, Eternal Warrior, Harbinger, Rai, Shadowman and X-O Manowar.

Shooter had many, many tales to tell and regaled fans at panels and at his table, often for hours, with stories of comic books past, present and even future. But he also had some folders with him, full of memos, sketches and pieces of artwork from his long career. He said he just grabbed a few on his way of of the door but he has many, many more. He graciously allowed me to take a few photos of some of them, telling undocumented tales of comic book publishing past, and last Thanksgiving, Bleeding Cool shared and transcribed a few of these (use this handy dandy tag), but these are but the tip of an iceberg. If Jim Shooter is a guest at a show that you can get to and will be 'tabling' there, as the Americans have it, do what you need to do to get to his table and look through his folders – and be prepared for a conversation, a story, that may last for a good chunk of the show but will stay well with you.

Such as one letter announcing his appointment as Vice President and Editor-In-Chief of Marvel Comics by James E Galton of then-owner Cadence Industries.

It gives me a great deal of pleasure to announce the appointments of three new Vice Presidents for the Marvel Comics Group.

JAMES SHOOTER has been appointed Vice President -Editor-In-Chief. Since Jim joined the company in 1976, he has made a very significant contribution to the furtherance and broadening of our publishing efforts.

DOUG POLUMBAUM has been appointed Vice President -Domestic Licensing. Doug, too, has made significant contributions to the Marvel Comics Group since he joined the company in 1979. He has expanded the Marvel licensing operation to include significant third party licensors, which have made major revenue contributions to the company.

KATHY BEEKMAN has been appointed Vice President -Subscriptions. Since joining the company in 1977, subscription revenue has trebled. We are currently servicing over 350,000 individual subscriptions. This increase has been due in large part to Kathy's hard work and dedication to her profession.

I am sure you will all join me in wishing them well in their new positions.

Well, we all know what happened to Jim Shooter – EIC until he wasn't and the founder of comic companies Valiant, Defiant and Broadway. But what of the others?

Doug Polumbaum is founder and CEO of Brand Licensing Inc since 1995. He does not list Marvel on his LinkedIn.

But Kathy Beekman does, she was VP at Marvel for 16 years, before moving into circulation marketing in 1998, including 11 years working on Opera News for the Metropolitan Opera Guild until 2013 – but where she still volunteers on backstage tours, education, and ambassadorial duties…