In the mid-1980s, we discovered Warlock. We’d been rocking out with Dreadstar and wanted to read more from this cat Jim Starlin. We liked the series, but it wasn’t until we got to 1000 Clowns that we realized Jim Starlin was talking to us. He was writing a metaphor about our lives. Yes, just for us, little Martians that we were.
In 1000 Clowns, Jim Starlin lays it on the line. The people telling you what to believe and telling who you are — they’re all tools. They’re clowns, and they are indoctrinating you into their ridiculous beliefs. Starlin further demonstrates the only way to overcome their programming is to confront the deepest, darkest side of yourself. Starlin cautions that although you will gain incredible self-awareness this way, it may also drive you a bit insane — this integration with what Carl Jung called The Shadow.
Jim, you just about drew the roadmap for our teens and twenties, and we’d like to thank you. It was a rough ride at times. But, like Warlock, we eventually found a way to alter our unalterable future.
Collector’s Guide:
– Originally printed in Strange Tales #181; Marvel,
– Reprinted in Fantasy Masterpieces #11; Marvel Comics, 1968.
– The complete Starlin Warlock epic was reprinted in 1982 as Warlock Special Edition and again in 1992 as the Warlock Limited Series. Both reprints are the same material, but with different covers.
Note: Starlin might have taken the title to this story about non-conformism from a 1962 play called A Thousand Clowns.
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Starlin’s Warlock blew my ever-lovin’ “tweenie” mind when it came out! It has to be my all-time favorite series, and “1000 Clowns” is definitely a highlight. I didn’t really understand what Starlin was saying (or smoking) at the time, but I sure dug the presentation. Still do!
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Thank you for dropping by, Groove! You know we always dig it when you rock Starlin at Diversions of the Groovy Kind. We’re still waiting for a college-level literature class that takes on the works of Jim Starlin, but its nice to know at least one educator on this planet has the vibe!
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My mind was officially blown way back when I realized that “Jan Hatroomi” was “John Romita” (the Marvel Art Director at the time) spelled sideways.
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Yes! Thank you for clearing that up for our readers, Patrick. A bit of Starlin’s humor we had not decoded!
Starlin also gave his own name the anagram treatment 3 different ways in the splash page of the Warlock installment called The Judgment.
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Also weren’t the Blue techicians/clowns Marvel bullpenners? Lead clown was named Len (Wein), heavyset one: Archie Goodwin, bearded one: Marv Wolfman, and Blond pie in face prisoner: Roy Thomas? Totally guessing that. Anyone know for sure?
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You know, you’re on to something here! Now we’re looking up all their pictures to check for resemblances. We always wondered about the guy getting pies in the face on the stylized cross. Is he a Starlin self-portrait? Roy Thomas, as you suggest? Or just a generic face? If we can ever track down an email address for Starlin, we’ll ask him!
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The Roy Thomas thing makes sense, for a couple of reasons! First, the long blonde hair and glasses seem to look a lot like him. And he had recently left as editor-in-chief when this came out after being in that position for less than two years, which fits the situation.
Here’s an article with a bit of info (towards the end) that seems to allude to the fact that his leaving fits this sequence well: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=18867
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Good call, Patrick! This has only been a mystery to us since, oh, the mid-1980s! Thanks to you and ‘Anonymous’ for expanding our knowledge of one of our favorite works.
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Does anybody know the full story on the anagram being used for the head clown—i.e., Stan Lee? The pages of Essential Warlock introduce the character as “Lentean” but later refer to him as “Lens”. While the pages shown in this article (presumably from the original comic) introduce the character as “Lens Tean”. Neither is a true anagram for Stan Lee, which would include 7 letters (not 8) and only a single “n”, as well as the requisite “s”.
I began to wonder if Starlin’s original anagram might have been “Lens Tea”, which would be a straightforward recombination of Stan Lee that might subsequently have been censored or misspelled. The Essential version sounds a bit like “Len Wein” (perhaps a compromise or substitute?), but the color version is just a hodgepodge. Believe it or not, there’s also a book, “Marvel Comics in the 1970s” by Pierre Comtois, which cites the name as “Nels Eta”, but it doesn’t show a sample of this in print, making it unverified.
It’s amazing how many stories on the internet repeat the same idea, that the character’s name is an anagram for Stan Lee, but don’t bother to consider the discrepancy in spelling. The reason I find this interesting is that the story seems fairly broad without the specific, coded references to Marvel, yet these would be hard connections for the average reader to make on their own, given how obfuscated the names appear.
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Good question! Comic Book Resources has a good page about the caricatures of Marvel staff in this story: https://www.cbr.com/meta-messages-jim-starlin-makes-clowns-out-of-stan-lee-and-john-romita/
The images at CBR come from the original pages in Strange Tales. You can see that the original speech balloon where “Len Teans” announces himself is in a different placement within the panels, and uses the spelling “Lentean”.
Clearly, the page was doctored for the reprint collection, from which my scans were made.
The biggest clue to the real identity of the clowns is their “real life” counterparts in the facility where Adam is imprisoned. CBR says Len Teans’ counterpart resembles Stan Lee, facially. CBR says that two other clowns, the ones throwing pies at the Roy Thomas character, are Len Wein and Marv Wolfman, based on the faces of their counterparts in the facility.
My guess is that the original “Lentean” was corrected to “Len Teans” for the reprint collection (Warlock Special Edition), but even the correction is flawed–because, as you point out, it still isn’t a true anagram.
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Sorry about the error in my previous comment! The “doctored version” in the reprint, as you point out, introduces the character as “Len Teans”. Two pages later, he is addressed by Warlock as “Len”. This is in contrast to the original comic and Essential reprint, where the character is introduced as “Lentean” but is subsequently referred to as “Lens”. There is also a panel on the page in-between where the character’s alter ego is wearing a uniform badge that says “Lens” (which I think is in both versions).
My current pet theory is that Starlin’s original anagram might have been “Lens Tea”, a recombination that still has a “Stan Lee” ring to it. Someone, perhaps Len Wein, decided this was too easy to decipher and would reflect badly on the company or upset the powers that be (e.g., Stan), so he either pleaded with Starlin to tweak it or simply had it altered after the fact, arriving at “Lentean” as a compromise (which sounds as much like “Len Wein” as anything else). For whatever reason, they didn’t bother to alter the other instances of the first name. This is all speculation, of course, but it does seem as if Starlin intended the character’s first name to be “Lens”.
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It’s fair speculation, Doug, given how they failed to produce a true anagram either time, and that the original speech balloon seems seriously screwed up (misshapen and colored over).
Starlin would return to anagrams of his own name in subsequent issues, on the title pages, so it’s clearly an idea he toyed within this series.
Later, in Dreadstar, he alluded to the Greek tragedy Oedipus by naming his cat-man Oedi (pronounced Eddie), though I see very little of Oedipus in Oedi and think it was more of a pun on Oedi being a “puss” or kitty cat. Oedi, for the record, is my absolute favorite comic book character of all time.
Thank you for dropping by and adding to our discussion here!
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Oedi’s wife, Cookie…I assume her name was chosen out of a love of Carvel’s ice cream?
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