From Green Lantern #154 (July, 1982), it’s “A Matter of Snow,” another Tale of the Green Lantern Corps I wrote, this one with art by Paris Cullins and Rodin Rodriquez, lettered by Adam Kubert, colored by Anthony Tollin, and edited by Dave Manak.
Tags: Adam Kubert, Anthony Tollin, back-up story, Bronze Age, comic book story, Dave Manak, DC Comics, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Paris Cullins, Paul Kupperberg, Rodin Rodriquez, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
Once upon a time, DC Comics had this great children’s magazine published along with the Welsh Publishing Company called Superman & Batman Magazine, a mixed bag of comics and feature articles built around the DC stable of Superstars. Superman & Batman Magazine was edited by Charlie Kochman, who asked me to write a July 4th themed Hawkman story for S&BM #5 (Summer 1994).
So I did. “A Declaration of Independence” was drawn by Rick Burchett, lettered by Kevin Cunningham, and colored by Tom McCraw.
Tags: anthology, back-up story, Batman, Charles Kochman, DC Comics, Declaration of Independence, Fourth of July, Hawkman, July 4th, Kevin Cunningham, kids comics, magazines, Paul Kupperberg, Rick Burchett, short story, Superman, Superman & Batman Magazine, Tom McCraw, Welsh Publishing
From the script that made its penciller, comic book legend Don Heck call me a “Son of a bitch!”… “Fire of the Gods!” from Weird War Tales #75 (May 1979). The story was inked by John Celardo, colored by the wonderful Bob LeRose, lettered by Albert DeGuzman, and edited by Paul Levitz.
I happened to be up at DC’s offices the day Don picked up the script from editor Levitz. The art description on page one called for a two-thirds page splash showing Alexander the Great and his entire army marching over the mountains to attack a Chinese village. I definitely asked for lots of horses. I might have even called for elephants.
Artists have long pointed out how easy it is for writers to type a scene description in minutes that then takes them hours to draw. Don, who had just read my scene description, stepped out into the hallway to find the author of his discontent wandering blithely by, stopped in his tracks and, waving the script at me, hollered:
“The whole army, you son of a bitch? And on horseback?”
But Don was smiling when he said it, and I was a twenty-three year old newbie writer (and lifelong comic book fan) who had grown up on his Marvel work in the 1960s and couldn’t have been more thrilled than to be called a “son of a bitch” by him in his gruff Queens, New York accent.
And, as it turned out, professional that he was, Don knew that the secret to any difficult shot is all in how you work the camera angle.
Tags: Albert DeGuzman, Alexander the Great, anthology comics, back-up story, Bob LeRose, Bronze Age, comic book story, comic books, DC Comics, Don Heck, gun powder, John Celardo, Paul Levitz, Weird War Tales
Another Tales of the Green Lantern Corps I wrote, from Green Lantern #155 (August 1982), “Bxyl Tjyl’s Pan-Galactian Traveling Circus & Side Show!” with art by Mike DeCarlo and Frank Giacoia, lettered by Janice Chiang, colored by Anthony Tollin, and edited by Dave Manak.
The caption on page four, panel four, by the way, was actually the art direction mistakenly lettered into the story, Whoops!
Tags: Anthony Tollin, back-up story, Dave Manak, DC Comics, Frank Giacoia, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Janice Chiang, Mike DeCarlo, Paul Kupperberg, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
Last time on PaulKupperberg.com…this! Now, Part 2–“The Choice!” from Green Lantern #153 (June 1982). This Tale of the Green Lantern Corps was pencilled by Carmine Infantino, inked by Frank Chiaramonte, lettered by Adam Kubert, colored by Anthony Tollin, and blue-pencilled by Dave Manak.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Tags: Adam Kubert, Anthony Tollin, back-up story, Carmine Infantino, comic book story, comic books, Dave Manak, Frank Chiaramonte, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Paul Kupperberg, science fiction, superheroes, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
Part 1 of a 2-part Tales of the Green Lantern Corps back-up story from Green Lantern #152 (May 1982), another pencil and ink job by irascible Carmine Infantino. “Paradise World” was lettered by the cantankerous Milt Snappin, colored by the avuncular Anthony Tollin, and edited by the durable Dave Manak. And I wrote it.
Just a note of absolutely no importance whatsoever, the Green Lantern in this story was named after my high school girlfriend.
Tags: Anthony Tollin, back-up story, Bronze Age, Carmine Infantino, comic book story, Dave Manak, DC Comics, Green Lantern, Milt Snappin, science fiction, superheroes, Tales of the Green Lantern Corps
I see that today is the birthday of one of my favorite Scooby Doo artists, Fabio Laguna. And this is probably my favorite of the Scooby stories I wrote, illustrated by Fabio! It’s one of the few stories I snuck into the mix that broke from the standard Scooby story model, focusing on just a single member of the gang (Shaggy, in this instance) instead of involving them all in pursuit of a supposedly supernatural menace. I went on to propose solo stories for the rest of the gang (including Fred going out on a blind date in “Date Night!” and “Daphne’s Spooky Spa Day!”) which my editor liked but Cartoon Network rejected.
The the ten-page “Sunday in the Park With Scooby”–scanned from b&w Xeroxes of the lettering printout–appeared in Scooby Doo #143 (June 2009), and was lettered by Travis Lanham, (and colored for publication by Dave Tanguay), all under the editorial guidance of Harvey Richards.
Tags: Cartoon Network, Daphne, Dave Tanguay, DC Comics, Fabio Laguna, Fred, Harvey Rochards, Paul Kupperberg, Scooby Doo, Shaggy, Travis Lapham, Velma
I love Carmine Infantino.
Well, I love his art, anyway. To be honest, in person, he could be kind of crotchety and snarly. But as a young, early-1960s comic book reader, Carmine was the first artist whose style I came to recognize and could instantly identify from his work on Flash and Adam Strange. When I was a slightly older comic book writer, I could only hope that one day this legendary artist would draw one of my scripts.
As it happened, he would draw many of them. More than a dozen and half issues of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl and a bunch of miscellaneous stories and back-ups, including several Tales of the Green Lantern Corps for Green Lantern, starting with “E’sprit De Corps!” which Carmine both pencilled and inked for GL #151 (May 1982), lettered by Shelly Leferman, colored by Anthony Tollin, and scrutinized by editor Dave Manak. Carmine loved inking his own stuff; most editors didn’t (although Julie Schwartz would let him ink the odd Detective Chimp or Elongated Man feature every down and then). I’m in the camp of those who liked Carmine’s inks, scratchy and wandering though they could be.
Tags: Adam Strange, Anthony Tollin, Carmine Infantino, Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, Dave Manak, DC Comics, Detective Chimp, Elongated Man, Flash, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Julius Schwartz, Paul Kupperberg, Shelly Leferman
Who was Earth’s first Green Lantern? I think there have probably been about half a dozen stories about characters claiming that honor. Here’s mine, a (Pre-Crisis) tale of the Old West from Green Lantern #149 (February 1982), with art by the great Don Newton, inked by his (to my mind) best inker (other than Don himself), Dan Adkins. The story was lettered by P. Bernard Jr. and colored by the lovely Anthony Tollin, all under the editorial supervision of Dave Manak (a man I once hit in the face with a pie on a comic book convention panel. True story.).
Tags: anthology comics, Anthony Tollin, back-up story, comic books, Dan Adkins, Dave Manak, DC Comics, Don Newton, Green Lantern, Green Lantern Corps, Old West, P. Bernard Jr., Paul Kupperberg, Pierre Bernard Jr., Western
The second of a pair of Zatanna back-ups I wrote for World’s Finest #278 (April 1982), both illustrated by the late, great Dan Spiegle, one of those artists whose work I admired as a kid but whose name I wouldn’t learn until much later on. “Dog Day Afternoon” was lettered by Andy Kubert, colored by Tom Zuiko, and edited by Mike W. Barr.
Often, I can remember where the spark or inspiration came for a particular story, even almost forty years later. With this one, I have no idea what I was thinking. Woof!
Tags: Andy Kubert, anthology comics, back-up story, comic book story, comic books, Dan Spiegle, DC Comics, DC Dollar Comics, Dog Day Afternoon, dog show, dogs, Mike Barr, Paul Kupperberg, Tom Zuiko, Zatanna
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