Marvel HQ Tour

I was fortunate enough to get a tour of the Marvel Offices. To say I was excited is an understatement. :)
Anyway, I got there a bit before 1pm and took the elevator up. Once up, I was greeted by the secretary. She took my name and called for Joe Quesada. Unfortunately, Joe wasn't in the office. I was told to take a seat and his assistant would be right up.
So, there I am waiting in the lobby for Marvel Comics. The lobby is very nice. Posters and art on the walls and there are Marvel comics there for you to read (though, they are older issues, they even had an issue of Avengers Disassembled there). From where I was sitting, it looked like the top level contained business offices. A huge Marvel banner was hanging on the glass wall and people were coming and going.
I waited for about 10 minutes before Joe's secretary came up. She informed me that Joe was still out of town due to the funeral for Jeph Loeb's son. So, she didn't know if someone could give me the tour since she couldn't. Anyway, I got lucky and Nick Lowe was around and willing to show me around. We went back over to the elevators, as the editorial section of Marvel was one floor down.
Cubicle city! I think this set up is referred to as the Marvel bullpen, I could be wrong though. There are also offices all around the wall. Most of the Editors share actual offices. The X-Men book guys in one, the Ultimate line guys in another, etc.
Nick showed me his office (he works with the X books). On the wall there are clipboards with printouts of the current issue that is being put together. He showed me a few of them (each board has the cover colored, cover inked, cover in pencils and the pages), very cool stuff.
Then, we went over to meet the Ultimate line Editors (pic of me with them later). Spoke with them for awhile. Very cool to meet Ralph finally. Next up were the Hero Editors. Only one was in, but she was very cool (sorry, I'm blanking on her name, she works on The Pulse though). We spoke for a bit and I got to see some cover art.
That was basically it. Nick walked me back through and I got to see inside some of the cubicles. Lots of posters and toys everywhere. It was a fun time! (see pics below)