As an 18-year-old in 1942, Allen Bellman joined Timely studio as an artist. Now, 64 years later, he’ll be a guest at the Florida Supercon, and looks back at his brief career in comics, working on such characters as Sub-Mariner, Vampire Brats and Mike Trapp.

Bellman will be on hand to mingle, sign autographs and perhaps earn some money doing commissioned drawings. He’s happy to talk about his years in the business and, if anyone asks, why he dropped out. Sitting in his Tamarac kitchen, he looks back on the mix of personal and external circumstances that separated him from work he loved and put him on a different trajectory: a family-run auto parts wholesaling business in New Jersey, a move to South Florida, a stint doing ad design at the Sun-Sentinel newspaper and then retirement.

The article at Popmatters provides a touching look at what it must be like to be remembered for something after a lifetime in another field.

To call it a revelation, this flood of visual material from decades ago, is almost an understatement. Vassallo “added a new dimension to my life,â€? Bellman says. Nowadays he gives talks about his experience to community groups and convention audiences. At a “conâ€?—shorthand for comics convention—in Orlando, Fla., a man approached him with several back-issues drawn by Bellman “and he asked me to sign every one.â€?

“Do you know how that made me feel? I was remembered,â€? says Bellman.