Afterword: SLAM and The Marvel No-Prize
The many influences of SLAM, Alan Sepinwall's favorite Marvel comic book covers, and Mirin Fader's favorite magazine covers.
Hi everyone. Welcome to my newsletter companion to “Cover Story,” a basketball book I wrote which is set for release on October 19th and is available for pre-order here. If you want to tell your followers about my book, feel free to share this tweet or this Instagram post. If you’re not a newsletter subscriber, click here to make sure you get every post in your inbox. Before we get started, the winner of the SLAM #1 giveaway has been selected and contacted via email. We’ll have several other giveaways and exclusive merchandise drops soon.
Today, I want to talk about the Marvel No-Prize, comic book covers, and book writing (where’s my basketball newsletter?).
The idea of borrowing and sampling from other publications was commonplace on newsstands and is recurring theme across several chapters in “Cover Story.”Anyone who picked up an issue of SLAM in the 90s can see the influences of The Source and Vibe within the pages, the visual approach, the voice of the magazine, and even the magazine’s sections. “Slamadamonth” was the basketball version of a “Hip-Hop Quotable.” The “Punks” section which featured up-and-coming high school players was similar to the “Unsigned Hype” section where up-and-coming rappers were spotlighted.
SLAM was never trying to be the next Sports Illustrated, so it was no surprise when their editorial team started telling me about their magazine influences and none of them were sports-related. They included ego trip, Spy magazine and Surfer.
The backpages of Marvel comics also played a role as an original influence of SLAM. Cory Johnson, SLAM’s first editor-in-chief, was an avid Marvel fan growing up. When he discovered an error in a Spectacular Spider-Man comic, Johnson mailed a note to Marvel which appeared in the letter section at the back of the following month’s issue. He also received a Marvel No-Prize (pictured above), which was popularized in the 1960s by Stan Lee.
Any fan who pointed out continuity errors to Marvel received an envelope addressed to them with nothing inside—hence the name. Sometimes they would come with an illustration, like the one Johnson received, which included a Jack Kirby drawing.
When Johnson grew up and was tasked with brainstorming a basketball magazine with SLAM founder Dennis Page, he remembered the No-Prize and wanted a section where readers to engage with the editorial staff.
“I wanted that kind of connection with the reader,” he told me. “I wanted them to feel like this was their place. It’s not for everyone, but it’s definitely for someone.”
I would start typing paragraphs from my book but… read more about how SLAM ended up accomplishing this in so many different ways in “Cover Story.”
To switch things up from our usual “favorite magazine cover” format…
I asked Rolling Stone’s chief television critic Alan Sepinwall for his favorite Marvel comic book covers. I also highly recommend his book “The Revolution Was Televised” and his podcast “Too Long; Didn’t Watch,” where celebrity guests break down a television series by watching the pilot and the finale.
The first one he picked was Captain America Annual #8. “I could probably just do a list of great Mike Zeck covers from my childhood and not run out of ideas for a while,” Alan told me in an email. He called this a peak cover illustration from Zeck, calling it dynamic and beautifully rendered. “Plus,” he continued, “the image of Wolverine's claws going up against Cap's shield is irresistible.”
The second cover choice was Iron Man #182. “I love covers that tell stories by themselves,” Alan explained. This cover image took place during a 1980s story arc by Denny O’Neill and Luke McDonnell about Tony Stark’s alcoholism. "This is the first image that always comes to mind,” Alan says.
Alan owns a George Perez Avengers 30th anniversary poster which hung in his childhood bedroom which he has kept over the years. He calls the above Perez’s JLA/Avengers #3 cover “the poster on steroids.” “Crowd scenes were always a Perez specialty,” Alan explained, “and his ability to make every character clear and cool and exciting, even at the small scale here, is why he remains my favorite comics artist of all time.”
Before we wrap up, I also decided to hit up Mirin Fader for a Q&A about the book-writing process and her favorite magazine covers…
Mirin’s recently-released book, “Giannis: The Improbable Rise of an NBA MVP,” is a New York Times best-seller which you can order here. She’s also written some of the best long-form sports features in recent years, which you can find on her website.
I asked Mirin about the biggest challenge of writing a book about such a popular cover subject and her answer surprised me. I figured it would be about having to find enough storylines to tell but actually it was how so little was known about Giannis’s childhood. There was a storytelling gap between when he sold trinkets on the street to when he became the NBA’s Most Valuable Player.
Because of the pandemic, Mirin had to cancel plans to travel to Greece to report on the book. She instead hired a researcher there (in addition to interviewing 221 people) and “essentially had to re-create a portrait of this neighborhood and city in Greece from my apartment in Los Angeles.”
We also talked about the book-writing process (which I would love to dive into and answer questions at some point. Email me) and the difficulties of organization and working with so much information. Mirin also recommended using an anecdote book. “After every interview, I would write down whatever anecdote or gem I got that impressed me the most,” she explained. It was all about celebrating progress. “You might interview someone for two hours and get only one gem,” she continued.
Our conversation moved towards magazine covers. Mirin covered her walls with SLAM Ups posters growing up including Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Diana Taurasi. She also loved the design and layout of SLAM’s feature stories and would cut those out and put them on the wall and also on the cover of her diaries. Her favorite SLAM cover featured Chamique Holdsclaw (which is included in “Cover Story”).
“To see a woman on a SLAM cover was insane to me back then,” Mirin said (Chamique was the first woman to appear on the magazine’s cover). Also there was a personal connection because Mirin found Chamique’s biography in fifth grade at and became obsessed with her work ethic and dedication to the game.
Another favorite cover is a Diana Taurasi and Emeka Okafor Sports Illustrated cover which Mirin calls badass. “It felt like both of them were equals,” she added. As a die-hard UConn fan and someone who wore her hair in a bun like Diana Taurasi every day to be like her, this was a cover that spoke to a very specific fan (It should come as no surprise Mirin owns multiple copies of this issue).
I’ll be back on Tuesday to talk about Dennis Rodman and “Bad As I Wanna Be.”
Thanks for reading the newsletter. Feel free to subscribe if it’s your first time reading. You can pre-order “Cover Story” here and find me on Twitter and Instagram. Email me if you want to chat.