Knowledge Waits is a feature where I just share some bit of comic book history that interests me.

Today, we take a look at a humorous "feud" between Marie Severin and Don McGregor.

Marie Severin was a staffer at Marvel from the late 1960s through the mid 1990s. She was there as the company slowly grew from an essentially "Mom and Pop" organization (although one without a, you know, mom or pop) into a major comic book publishing company. There was a time when Severin was the only woman on staff. Severin's way of getting along was by essentially busting chops with the best of them. She would do so by doing caricatures of her co-workers. We're not talking cruel stuff. Just funny stuff teasing her fellow Marvel Bullpen workers.

One of the most amusing examples of this was when Severin got into a "feud" with Don McGregor in the pages of Planet of the Apes. Marvel, in the early 1970s, started a black and white comic magazine line. The idea was to copy the great success that Warren Publishing was having with their horror line of black and white magazines and the tremendous success that EC Comics was having with their parody magazine, Mad.

The black and white line, though, never really took off for Marvel. Savage Sword of Conan lasted for many years and Crazy lasted until the early 1980s, but otherwise, their other magazines went in and out, with only a few sustained successes, like Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and Planer of the Apes. And even there, it wasn't like those magazines lasted even 30 issues each, ya know? Still, they did better than the other magazines. In fact, as you might have noticed, it was the non-horror stuff that lasted the longest. I guess the Warren readers just stuck with Warren?

In any event, due to the ever-changing situation in the black and white magazines department, editors were coming and going at a fast rate.

Eventually, Don McGregor took over as the editor on Planet of the Apes and Deadly Hands of Kung Fu. In the fifth issue of Planet of the Apes, he did an editorial, and Marie Severin did a cartoon poking a little fun at McGregor on the bottom of the editorial...

McGregor then responded, shocked (SHOCKED, I SAID) at Severin's cartoon in the next issue, with Severin having another cartoon to add to the gag...

This continued with the next issue, as well...

Well, McGregor was off of the book with the eighth issue, so he bid farewell to the book and to Severin...

But oh no, it did not end that easily!

Page 2: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='Don McGregor Returns!']

Less than a year later, McGregor took over as editor on Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and Planet of the Apes AGAIN! Severin was waiting for him...

His return was brief, though, so the feud ended in the pages of Deadly Hands of Kung Fu and Planet of the Apes.

Comic Book Artist did a bit on the feud years ago and they found this one, as well, which I don't know where it came from...

The great Scott Edelman (who recently did an interview with McGregor on his podcast here) shared this funny subscription ad that he and Severin did in FOOM #8 (FOOM was Marvel's fan magazine)...

Thanks, Scott!

In FOOM #9, Marv Wolfman and Severin got together to do a cartoon teasing McGregor for his verbosity in his comic book work...

I believe that is it for the feud, but if I missed any of Severin's cartoons that helped the feud along, please let me know and I'll add 'em in here.

It is great seeing two co-workers have so much fun with a gag like this. Good on McGregor and Severin. She'll be greatly missed.