NOW AVAILABLE!
Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg
Cover by Rick Stasi
Buffalo Avenue Books
Paperback & eBook
288 pages
$16.00
Signed and personalized copies are available directly from me:
$19.00 (U.S. shipped)
$30 (Canada shipped)
Payable to PAYPAL.ME/PAULKUPPERBERG
Or on AMAZON.COM!
Comic book scripts aren’t written to be read. At least not in the way a short story or a novel is read. A script is work product, a blueprint for the finished comic book. Most of the words that go into a comic book script will only ever be read by three or four people; the dialogue is the only element that survives from the blueprint to be seen by readers.
But sometimes a script doesn’t make it all the way from the larval stage to full maturity as a published story. The reasons can range from cancellation to a change in editor or even format. Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg contains stories in all those categories, including a three issue Green Lantern story arc for DC Comics’ Legends of the DC Universe that was left without a home after the title was cancelled and a pair of issues of Batman: The Brave and the Bold that didn’t survive a change in both format and editor.
Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg also contains the original typed and hand-edited manuscript for an unused 1987 Green Lantern fill-in, as well as a never published “Elongated Man” back-up for The Flash, the script for a framing sequence for the short-lived Elvira’s House of Mystery, and stories written for DC’s Time Warp and the Warren Publishing horror magazines.
All scripts except for “The Eyes of the Beholders” are reproduced from copies of the original typed manuscripts or reformatted from surviving electronic manuscripts.
Son of the Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg
TABLE OF CONTENTS
A 3-issue story arc originally intended for LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE
Art by Peter Doherty & Joe Rubinstein © DCE
A never used late-1980s fill-in for GREEN LANTERN
Art by Rick Stasi & Bruce Patterson © DCE
Scanned from the original script, including hand edits by editor Julius Schwartz
Unused back-up story originally intended for The Flash #270
Unused script co-written for Warren Publishing with Bob Toomey
Unused script for Time Warp
Unused Batman and Guy Gardner script for BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD
Unused Batman and Plastic Man team-up for BATMAN: THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD
Still Available:
THE UNPUBLISHED COMIC BOOK SCRIPTS OF PAUL KUPPERBERG, Volume 1!
Available on Amazon.com!
Tags: Batman, Bruce Patterson, comic book scripts, comic books, Elongated Man, Green Lantern, Guy Gardner, Joe Rubinstein, manuscript, Paul Kupperberg, Peter Doherty, Plastic Man, Ralph Dibny, Rick Stasi, scripts, The Brave and the Bold, unpublished
Hello, Mr. Kupperberg,
I tried to email this to you but it was sent back, so I’m leaving this here, but also, I would love to get signed copies of Son … and JSA Ragnarok! Do I just pay through PayPal the amount and put what it was for there?
I want to thank you for your contribution to the comics industry as a whole and for being a cornerstone of my comic book fandom. I started reading and collecting comics when I was three years old, I’m 45 now. I do not remember my first Superman comic nor when I first “met” Supergirl, but I do remember the book that made the most impact on my life at age seven, what changed my world, and it was one of yours. I have always been a sickly individual, and to try to cheer me up my mother would allow me to get something to cheer me up. It was during one of thse visits to a clinic pharmacy that I found The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl #12. My mom read it to me in lieu of my usual bedtime story books, and I was instantly enthralled by Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers/ Supergirl. Even as a child I never had to relate to a character to enjoy them, but there was something Kara had that her cousin didn’t have. I do not completely recall if things like her bravery, hopefullness, determination, humour, firey disposition, and accessiblity being greater than her cousin’s – which are reasons why I still love the character today – were what drew me to her but in any case, through your writing, she became my favoirite fictional character. I had my mom read that comic over and over to me, and I was so happy to pick up the next issue, and I stared in awe over her “D)ynamic New C)ostume”. At this time there were the Blue Ribbon digests, and I was able to be educated in Silver Age DC, including Supergirl. Superboy also was (and is) a favourite of mine, and as a child I read and re-read your Superboy series. Although I had friends, I also enjoyed being on my own, and especially when I was sick, out in the country, a farm in the Canadian Prairies, I would often daydream of being able to join in on adventures with the Kryptonian cousins. Kara was like a best friend to me, so when I discovered when I was nine Crisis on Infinite Earths #7 that my hero died, I was devastated, and more so having her erased from continuity.
I continnued to read and collect comics but I never enjoyed them again until Kara Zor-El was “brought back;” my inner child finally had peace. Still, to this day, I miss the Supergirl I grew up with. It was many years before I read the final issues of your Supergirl, and I was distraught to find it ending on a cliffhanger. I searched for the first issue of the DC Double Comics only to learn that it never came to be. I was satiated somewhat through articles in Back Issue magazine which gave a glipse into what would come next, and I figured that would be the extent of it. Then I came across your The Unpublished Comic Book Scripts of Paul Kupperberg and I could not get over what an amazing gict I had in my hands. While “my” Kara has appeared a few times in the decades since she was killed off, they rarely captured the character as you wrote her. While in her publication history she displayed the characteristics you provided her, I feel that you were able to further round the character, and as I re-read the series, it’s when she’s Linda that I love to read the best. I think so many take for granted that “Clark” was the disguise back then while “Linda” was more her true self. I love(d) reading her as Linda, and I found that when I read your Power Girl mini-series; I especially loved reading about her as “Karen.” So, reading your unpublished scripts was sheer joy at being able to be “reunited” with Kara and Kal as I love them the best. Thank you so much for enabling my inner child even greater peace, and my outer adult true bliss. I also thank you for my appreciation of the Doom Patrol, and of course, because they were connected to Supergirl/Power Girl, that made me like them all the more. As I read through the many titles you have worked on, I realized just how many I loved reading were from you. One reason I read Life With Archie was because you were writing it. For Kara Zor-El, whle I’m happy she is the main Supergirl again, she’s never been written as good as you wrote her. It’s not that I don’t like your super hero action, I just find that the woman Kara/ Linda was as you wrote her beyond the cape is who I still cherish so much today. The same goes for Kal/ Clark as Superboy; I’ve never liked how that part of the character’s history for the most part since Crisis, has been lost. I liked that, despite knowing it would not last, that you wrote Clark as having a girlfriend, and that this alter ego was not just a disguise with him.
There are a few plot threads with regard to Supergirl that were not addressed as I had hoped, one in particular that will bother me until my dying day, and I’m hoping you can end the mystery for me. I realize that you may not remember the original outcome, but if you could just make one up one the spot that would be amazingin itself, I would think of it as canon. It’s about Linda’s boyfriend, conductor Phil Decker. If you remember what I’m about to summarize, please skip to the end of it! So, Decker was being mysterious and In issue #18, Linda was faced with learning that Decker had been lying to her, that he was not actually rehearsing since that was a day off for musicians. Linda leaves and contemplates what this means, as a video camera is seen poking out of a tree, and a man in pink shadow is watching her.
“This is working out beautifully! I can watch their EVERY move in and out of the building! Most of them are interesting enough … But THIS one … There’s SOMETHING about her … Can’t quite put my finger on it yet … But she’s good for a couple of SURPRISES!”
At home she considers using her super-senses to spy on Decker but refuses to do so. In issue #21, Linda confronts Decker who was not expecting the truth to come out and he awkwardly tries to come up with an excuse. First that the man Linda spoke to was confused, to which he then claimed to be doing a partial rehearsal with the woodwind section, and that he had rented “some studo space across town and [was] working there … alone ALL DAY!” Linda then demands to know why he’d tell her to meet her at the symphony hall. “D-did I …?”
Linda replies “If you ‘re going to LIE, at least try to be CONSISTENT! When ou’re ready to tell me the TRUTH, Phillip, call me! But NOT before then!”
Decker tries to get her to come back but she is too upset and leaves, running into the Parasite. In #22, Decker calls Linda and things are fine between them until she suggests they get together later and he fails to convince her that he’s busy. Linda demands to know why Decker is lying to her and he resents it and she ends up hanging up on him, destroying the phone in the process. She then goes on a guilt trip about how she is lying to him because of the secret identity and tells herself it’s not the same thing unless he’s also a super hero, but she does not think that’s the case and is determined to find out, and contemplates going to see him at his campus and discuss it. Instead, Decker comes to Linda and confronts her and tries to put the blame on her and gives her the third degree about her whereabouts when he can’t reach her on the phone late at night and finding her coming home late at night. Linda breaks up with him. She agonizes about it and about him, and is so lost in thought she walks past her apartment and does not see him at the door of the building with Mrs. Berkowitz, who is encouraging him not to give up on her. That’s the end of Philip Decker.
So, please, I’ve eager to know these questions for decades: What was up with Decker? Was he the man in pink watching Linda from spy cams in the trees? If not, who was he? Also, had there been any thought as to what would have happened with the merged Linda clone? I read soewhere recently that DC never even allowed us to get the clone’s thoughts on her progenitor’s death. Had you thought of anything further with Linda II? With regard to Kara on Rokyn, do you have any idea what you might have had in store for her if she had gone back to Earth? With the Doom Patrol, when you created the New D.P., had there been any editorial direction given on who you could or could not bring back? Did you always know that she’d be revealed to not be married to Caulder? What do you think of seeing the characters you wrote and created in the live action series?
Thank you for your time. and again, thank you for giving this still sickly guy in the Canadian Prairies so many good memories and stories that I will re-read and feel the hope and escape.
All the very best!
Wow, thank you, Craig! I appreciate all the kind words and questions. I wish I had more to tell you, but after 30 years or more, I don’t remember what I had planned for Phil Decker, but I’m sure he had some deep, dark secret that was going to turn into a storyline…it’s the fate of every supporting character in superhero comics! As for Supergirl, the plans were to have her spend half a year or so in outer space before sending her back to Earth, but again, details are forgotten. I guess once DC turned Kara into a non-character, there was no point in thinking about what might have been.
There wasn’t any restrictions on who I picked for the cast of the New DP. It was my choice to have Cliff be the only survivor, it being logical that his robot body and well-shielded brain could survive the blast. The rest of them were newly created, with some consultation with editor Paul Levitz, I’m sure. As I recall, Arani WAS really the Chief’s wife, but he lied about their relationship for reasons that, again, are long lost to me.
I’m sending you an email with ordering information for the books.
Best,
Paul
Paul
Hello! I’m working on a blog that hasn’t gone live yet, focusing on unpublished comics. Any chance of an informal email interview about Emerald Interlude?
Update on my previous comment: I think maybe I’m asking for a much more wide-ranging informal email interview than I realized. You’ve got quite a collection of oddball comics stuff on here!