Apparently, DC’s 1972 Tarzan Presents Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Weird Worlds was originally going to be titled Tarzan Presents, a tidbit that turns up in these old August 1972 DC Comics production schedules.
Continue reading about Obscurites: DC Comics Production Schedules-August 1972
For many (many!) years, I wrote a fairly steady stream of promotional material for DC Comics. In 1976, I was hired as assistant to the company’s public relations director and one of my duties was gathering the news for and writing copy for DC Coming Attractions, a monthly newsletter sent out to retailers, complete with shipping dates.… Read the rest
…Or, mail sent to Paul Levitz and myself at the fanzines Etcetera and The Comic Reader a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (aka Brooklyn).
Seventy years ago today, the German Third Reich surrendered to the Allies and the war, at least the one that had raged across Europe since 1938, ended. This is my “recreation” of VE Day 1945, excerpted from the unpublished (and likely to remain so) novel JSA: RAGNAROK, written for iBooks.… Read the rest
I don’t know how things are set up there now, but when I was still on staff at DC Comics, the company had a Special Projects department from which flowed a diverse variety of comic book and comic book-related product. Formalized sometime in the late-1970s/early-1980s under the supervision of artist and editor Joe Orlando, the department was responsible for everything from creating art and packaging for DC’s licensors to producing comic books in a range of formats for the promotion of those licensed properties and numerous social causes.… Read the rest
Custom comics are comic books created specially for (usually) corporate clients. DC Comics has been doing them for as long as I can recall. Back in the olden days, Joe Orlando’s department handled the creative end of these projects. Years later, in the late-1990s/early-2000s, I was an editor in the Special Projects department that produced them for DC, where I worked on comics featuring a variety of DC’s superheroes for clients including the U.S… Read the rest
I love the way the history of the comics industry is “debated” on the internet.
Proclamations are made. Decisions about who created what are boldly and confidently made. Judgments about individuals involved in said creations are passed.
“Great Artist is a god!”… Read the rest
Continue reading about Stan and Jack and Steve and Mort and Jerry and Joe
Back in 1989, DC Comics had procedures for getting proposals for new titles through what they called “the pipeline.” I assume they still have procedures; I wouldn’t know, since, with the exception of Karen Berger’s recent and reasoned rejection of a project I proposed to her, I haven’t tried to sell anything to DC in years.… Read the rest
I cried the day Julie Schwartz died. It was February 8, 2004, a Sunday, and Paul Levitz called me that morning to deliver the news. My then wife and I had family coming over later in the day for a visit, but I spent that Sunday in numb shock over the loss of that dear, dear man.… Read the rest
The other day, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez posted on Facebook some photos he took at DC Comics in the 1970s, when the company resided in 75 Rockefeller Center. Among them was this one, snapped in the production department. On the left is letterer supreme Todd Klein; on the right is production maven and king of covers and colorists, Bob LeRose (June 3, 1921 – August 30, 2006).… Read the rest
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