An old friend of mine came into town a couple of weeks ago. He is a fellow comic geek (and the sole person I can credit for getting me into Doctor Who back in high school), and we were able to spend a day together catching up while scouring comic shops and flea markets. It was while we were exploring a veritable bounty of old comic issues at a large outdoor flea market that I came across issue four of the little known, and understandably forgotten, Marvel comic, The Comet Man.
I was obviously attracted by the Bill Sienkiewicz cover art, which is, as always, phenomenal. I mean, who wouldn’t want to read an issue of this unknown superhero getting his ass handed to him by She-Hulk and Sue Storm?! That’s just wonderful!
I pulled the issue out of the longbox, feeling that particular quality of grime and dust old unbagged issues have, as well as that distinctive smell of newsprint and ink decaying. I opened up to the splash page, just to get a sense of the story and interior art, and as my eyes scanned the page, I came across something interesting…
One of the listed writers was Miguel Ferrer. Huh, I thought, who knew someone writing comics in the 1980s was also named after the beloved actor, Miguel Ferrer! On a whim, I took out my phone and looked up the name in a the Marvel Database online just to see who it was.
Lo and behold, it is THAT Miguel Ferrer.
Son of Rosemary Clooney and José Ferrer, George Clooney’s cousin, and everyone’s favorite snarky FBI Agent on Twin Peaks, also had a career writing for Marvel Comics in the late 1980s. Famed comics legend Peter David writes briefly about his friend on his website, and reveals that his version of Spiderman 2099, Miguel O’Hara, was named in honor of his buddy “Miggy” Ferrer.
Ferrer tragically passed away in 2017, but not before he got to reprise his role as Agent Albert Rosenfield in the Twin Peaks revival.
Postscript: when I brought this discovery up on the comics podcast I co-host, the Next Issue Podcast (which you definitely should be listening to or, even better, watching live), my buddy Clay noticed that the other co-writer on this, Bill Mumy, was the child actor from Lost in Space. He and Ferrer were close and actually played in a band together.
I am sure this is one of those historical anecdotes most people know, but to me this was a little sliver of history—of world’s colliding—that just absolutely made me smile.
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