Williesha Lakin

Roy Thomas was about to have an important New York business lunch - but he had Canada on his mind.

Thomas, then the editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics, told his lunch companion, writer Len Wein, "We had all these Canadian readers, (but) we didn't have any Canadian (comic) characters." So Thomas began to outline what he wanted.

"I want a character called Wolverine," he told Wein, "who's Canadian. I want him to be short, because a wolverine is small and real, like, feisty."

That lunch 30-some years ago began what Thomas had been hoping for - an "X-Men" revival. Soon, the comic began to outsell Marvel's flagship, "Spider-Man."

It's no wonder Thomas, 64, who will be the special guest at Saturday's toy and comic show, considers himself only "semi-retired."

"I'm not that retired," he said.

Although Thomas has been living in Calhoun County for about 12 years, he grew up and attended school in Cape Girardeau, Mo., a small town about 100 miles south of St. Louis.

He started creating his own comics characters when he was about 7, but didn't do anything with them. Eventually he graduated from college and taught high school.

But in between classes, he worked on something else - a "crude fanzine" called Alter Ego, now his trademark publication, "about the history and the people who put together heroic comics."

" (I) did the magazine to keep from going nutty with teaching," said Thomas, who had begun corresponding with comic-book editors.

At 24, he was about to enter graduate school to study foreign relations when he was offered his childhood dream job - as an editorial assistant with DC Comics. The job lasted less than two weeks.

"DC Comics was very much a suit-and-tie kind of organization at that stage (the early '60s)," he said. "I jumped ship to go to work for Stan Lee, the editor of Marvel Comics."

He worked with Lee for 15 years. "(Lee) was much more informal. It was a very small company."

This made Thomas' rise in the company a bit easier. By that time, the comics most people are familiar with today had already been created: "Fantastic Four," "Spider-Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Thor."

Thomas would create a place for himself in comics history. He had a part in rejuvenating "The Avengers" series. However his unexplainable passion was war heroes. He helped develop DC's "All-Star Squadron" and Marvel's "Invaders," which he described as "sort of the superheroes of World War II."

" (They) weren't big sellers" he said, "but I liked them. I did at least 200 to 300 comics of World War II."

Thomas' career took him to Los Angeles, where he met his wife. While living in L.A., he co-wrote TV series and movies, including "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Conan the Destroyer."

The Conan films weren't his favorite comic-inspired movies. In fact, nowadays he'd rather watch a Martin Scorsese or Woody Allen movie than an action flick.

"There's just so much posturing in the comics," he said. "Everybody's gotta be so tough and so cool, and I guess it just bores me."

Despite his change in tastes, he is proud of recent successful movies based on Marvel characters. His favorite? "Spider-Man 2."

Thomas called the box-office and critical favorite "wonderful" - even the action scenes. He said he gets offended when moviemakers make changes from the comic, but in this case, he was happy with the results.

"They really gave those (Dr. Octopus) tentacles a personality," he said.

Today, he still runs Alter Ego magazine and is working on several books. Then there's a renewed project: "I just completed the final part of the adaptation of Bram Stoker's novel 'Dracula' in comic form," he said.

The 180-page graphic novel was begun in 1974 with artist Dick Giordano, who agreed to help finish it. The magazine that was supposed to serialize the comic at the time no longer exists.

"It was a little strange picking up something 30 years after you last did it," he said.

It seems the world of comic-book superheroes will be a part of his life - and lunch breaks - for some time.

"I just work as much as humanly possible," Thomas said.