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Man, Fiancee Discuss Comic Book Proposal

Aired March 28, 2002 - 11:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: There are a zillion ways a man can ask a woman to marry him. These days, gents are getting a bit zany when it comes to popping the question.

Check this out: Todd McDevitt, who sells comic books for a living, got the publishers of a major series to go along with him. This was something we've clipped out of "Wonder Woman in the Land of the Lost": Harry, as you see him there, on bended knee, asking the love of his life for her hand. His marriage proposals appears, as we said, in this week's week's issue of the "Wonder Woman" comic book. You see the cover right there.

Let's show you these people in real life. Todd joins us from Pittsburgh along with his new fiance, Beth Castelli.

Thank you very much for taking time to talk with us.

I'm assuming that Todd is a Superman fan. Is that it, Todd?

TODD MCDEVITT, COMIC BOOKSTORE OWNER: A comic book fan in general, but today, I'm a Superman fan.

Beth, that's a Wonder Woman outfit you've got on.

BETH CASTELLI, TODD'S FIANCE: Most definitely. With a Christmas gift from him. I thought it would be very appropriate to wear.

HARRIS: Todd, you don't draw these, do you? You just sell these magazines, correct?

MCDEVITT: I have three stores north of Pittsburgh.

I approached the publisher with my crazy idea about a year ago now, and they went along with it, surprisingly enough, and here it is today.

HARRIS: Did it take you awhile to talk them into it, or what?

MCDEVITT: Initially, no. I went straight to the publisher first, a gentleman named Paul Levitz, who is very openminded, but he wanted to talk with the creative team and the editors working on the book, to make sure that they also approved of the idea. And luckily, they embraced it as well and made it happen.

HARRIS: Beth, did he ask you, and did you answer before he had the comic drawn up?

CASTELLI: At first, I had no idea he was going to ask me. He had been joking about asking me to marry him. But I didn't know until he gave me the black and white advance to read on just a regular Saturday afternoon. It is a review that's sent to distributors, comic book sales people, to review the issues before they go to print. And I sat down, I read the first page, it was fine; the second page, it had our picture on it. And I stopped reading because I just noticed the picture of myself and the picture of him in cartoon form.

He came into the room because he heard me react. And he said, Did you read it? I said, Not yet. So he today wait until I finished reading it. Then I said, Are you really asking me officially to marry you? And he said yes. And he asked me, and I said yes.

HARRIS: That's great. Now, if you would have said no, I assume they wouldn't have gone ahead with their plan to include this.

CASTELLI: There would have been a big smudge on the "Wonder Woman" number 179.

MCDEVITT: I think it was too late. I think it was on its way to press at that point no matter what. But I was pretty confident she'd say yes.

HARRIS: You had to be pretty confident, man.

What do you guys think about the way they drew you? I'm looking at you, Todd, and I'm thinking Tom Green here.

MCDEVITT: I don't know about that. I think I need to shave off the goatee then.

CASTELLI: Some people say he looks like Alan Alda, but he likes to think he looks like Pierce Brosnan.

HARRIS: OK. What about you, Beth?

CASTELLI: I don't know who I look like.

HARRIS: Todd, who do you think she looks like?

CASTELLI: She looks like Wonder Woman to me.

HARRIS: Oh, my God. You're in deep.

CASTELLI: He is my Superman, though. I think he looks a little bit like Superman.

HARRIS: Oh, my goodness.

I'm just curious about one thing. I know this is for two of the you. But do you that comic book readers are romantic enough to get what you guys just did?

CASTELLI: Oh, definitely. There are a lot more than surface people. I think they are very into what they read. They like more to life. They like the deeper topics, and they like it study things that maybe the normal person wouldn't think a comic book person would enjoy.

HARRIS: Todd, any of your friends try to talk you out of this?

MCDEVITT: No. In fact most of my friends say I made them look really bad because they all asked their wives to marry them in pretty traditional ways, and I kind of blew the tradition out of the water, and they say I embarrassed them a little bit. But they are happy for us.

HARRIS: I'd say you set the bar pretty high. We want to see what issue you guys decide to do the 10th anniversary one in or whatever, OK?

MCDEVITT: I don't think we should push our luck, but who knows?

HARRIS: Aim high, man. You already did to begin with, that's for sure.

Oh, wait a second. Daryn Kagan is whispering the most important question. We didn't ask yet. When are you getting married? Have you set a date yet?

CASTELLI: We decided, generally, 2003, the summer, maybe Fourth of July.

HARRIS: Good deal. Congratulations.

One last question. What in the world is the reference to the farmhouse in Jersey all about?

MCDEVITT: That's a bit of an insight to the readers of the comic book story. The character who says that is actually Wonder Woman's sister, and she had gotten married, and her and her husband had bought a farmhouse in Jersey, and shortly after, they had gotten a divorce. So that's her way of saying she doesn't wish us the same fate.

HARRIS: Good deal. We don't either. We wish you guys the absolute best. Todd McDevitt and Beth Castelli, good luck.

And Beth, make sure he doesn't just draw you the ring.

CASTELLI: Oh, wait, here, I've got to show you.

HARRIS: There you go.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, a real one.

CASTELLI: Isn't that beautiful? Leon: No joke there.

KAGAN: Beautiful.

HARRIS: That is no joke. That is no comic right there.

MCDEVITT: There's kryptonite in the stone.

HARRIS: Perfect. Perfect ending, too. Thanks, guys. Good luck to you.

CASTELLI: Thank you.

MCDEVITT: Thanks.

HARRIS: Take care.

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