Articles by aaron-rosenberg
Sun Jun 15, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Neal Adams
The man who saved Batman, Green Lantern, the X-Men, and others
Born on Governors Island, Manhattan, New York in 1941, Neal Adams attended High School Industrial Art in Manhattan and then went to work in the advertising industry. He had actually applied to work at DC Comics but didn’t get a job offer — Adams did do some freelance work drawing Bat Masterson and Archie Comics but was not credited for it. In 1962 he was hired as an assistant at the Newspaper Enterprise Association (NEA), and worked anonymously on several comic strips before being given his own strip, Ben Casey.
In 1968 Adams approached DC Comics again and was immediately hired to draw a Deadman feature in Strange Adventures #207. Adams quickly became well-known for his DC covers. He moved to Marvel to work on X-Men with Roy Thomas, and after the title ended they moved to The Avengers together. In the early 1970s Adams returned to DC, where he and writer Dennis O’Neill teamed up to revamp Green Lantern and Green Arrow, and then Batman. Adams and Dick Giordano formed Continuity Associates to supply storyboards to motion pictures, and around the same time Adams worked on the science fiction stage play Warp, which ran in Chicago, Washington DC and (for one week in 1973) on Broadway.
Adams also helped push the comics industry to more creator-friendly practices, like returning original artwork to the artist. In the early 80s he formed Continuity Comics, an offshoot of Continuity Associates, to produce his own original comics. Adams has won several Alley Awards and was inducted the Alley Award Hall of Fame in 1969. He has also won several Shazam awards, and was inducted into the Harvey Awards’ Jack Kirby Hall of Fame in 1999.
Sat Jun 14, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Paul Kupperberg
Writer, editor, fan, and nice guy extraordinaire!
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1955, Paul Kupperberg got his start in comic fandom. He and Paul Levitz produced the comics fanzine The Comic Reader from 1971 to 1973, and Etcetera from 1972 to 1973. In 1975 Kupperberg sold several short horror stories to Charlton Comics, and then a few months later sold a World of Krypton story to DC for their Superman Family comic. He has written for many other DC comics since then, including Superman, Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, Justice League of America. He created the series Arion: Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion.
Kupperberg has also written a variety of books, ranging from The Atlas to the DC Universe to the Spider-Man novel Crime Campaign to an array of young adult nonfiction books like Spy Satellites and The Tragedy of the Titanic. He served as assistant editor at Video Action Magazine from 1981-82, and from 1991-2006 he was a staff editor for DC Comics. In early 2006 he left DC to become Senior Editor at Weekly World News—he had been writing for them since the year before. Unfortunately, WWN ceased publication in August 2007. At the start of the following year Kupperberg was tapped as Senior Editor for World Wrestling Entertainment’s new WWE Kids magazine, but the magazine was restructured a few months later. He is currently enjoying the life of a freelance prose and comic book writer and editor.
Fri Jun 13, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Jon D'Agostino
His inks are Sonic!
Born in 1929, Jon D’Agostino got his comic book start in the 1940s at Timely Comics. In the early 1950s he did work for several different publishers, including Story Comics, Master Publications, and Charlton Comics. D’Agostino continued to work for Charlton on a variety of titles throughout the '50s and '60s, though in 1963 he also did the lettering for the first three issues of Marvel Comics’ new title The Amazing Spider-Man.
In the mid-60s D’Agostino began contributing to Archie Comics and Gold Key Comics, and by the '80s he was working primarily for Archie and for Marvel.
During the '90s he inked exclusively for Archie, including work on Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Sonic the Hedgehog, and was still working for them as recently as 2006.
Thu Jun 12, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Two-Face
Gotham City's own bad--and good--penny
Harvey Dent was young, charismatic, idealistic, and driven—at 26 he was the youngest District Attorney Gotham City had ever had, and the press dubbed him “Apollo” for his good lucks and his meteoric rise.
Dent’s idealism was also flexible enough that he recognized the good Batman did, even if the Dark Night Detective didn’t always follow the rules. The two wound up becoming staunch allies, even friends, and their passions for justice actually complemented each other.
Until, one June 12th, Dent reached the high point of his career—prosecuting Sal “Boss” Maroni for murder. Unbeknownst to Dent, his own assistant Vernon Field worked for Maroni, and when Maroni was forced to take the stand Field handed him an antacid bottle filled with sulfuric acid. Dent got up to cross-examine Maroni, displaying his key evidence—Maroni’s good luck charm, a two-headed coin he always carried, which he had carelessly left at the scene of the crime.
Maroni then hurled the acid—Batman tried to intervene but only managed to deflect the attack so Dent caught the acid on the left side of his face and on his left hand instead of across his entire face. The attack did not kill him, as Maroni had planned, but did leave Dent permanently disfigured—in mind as well as body.
The horribly scarred D.A. snapped and turned to a life of crime and violence himself, scarring one side of Maroni’s coin and flipping it to determine his actions whenever presented with a choice between good and evil. And thus Two-Face, one of Batmnan’s most dangerous villains, was born.
Wed Jun 11, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Susan Van Camp
Painting with a touch of Magic
Born in Flint, Michigan in 1959, Susan van Camp has always loved art and doodled pictures on all her school notes as a child.
Her first commercial work was in roleplaying games, on Steve Jackson’s Car Wars. She worked on Tales from the Aniverse for Arrow Comics in 1984, and then Varcel’s Vixens for Caliber Comics.
In 1994 Van Camp began doing artwork for a brand-new card game, Wizards of the Coast’s Magic: The Gathering. She has also worked for several other game publishers, including Flying Buffalo, FASA, Pinnacle, and Alderac.
In 1996 Van Camp produced her own roleplaying game, Dragon Storm. Today she continues to do artwork for various roleplaying games and to produce and sell Dragon Storm as well.
Tue Jun 10, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Charles Vess
A master of fantasy art
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1951, Charles Dana Vess fell in love with comic books and art while still a child—he drew his first full-length comic when he was ten years old.
He attended Virginia Commonwealth University and graduated with a BFA in 1974, then went to work as a commercial animator for Candy Apple Productions in Richmond. In 1976, Vess moved to New York City to try his hand as a freelance illustrator. In 1980, he joined Parsons School of Design as an art instructor.
He was getting regular comic book work, and drew books for Dark Horse, Marvel, Epic, and DC, but it was in 1989 that Vess became truly well-known in the field. He collaborated with Neil Gaiman on one of the issues of the original Books of Magic mini-series and also drew three issues of Gaiman’s Sandman series for Vertigo. One of those issues, #19 (“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”) won the World Fantasy Award for Best Short Story.
In 1994, Vess moved back to Virginia and organized The Dreamweavers, a traveling exhibition of 15 fantasy artists. Since then he has had many other showings and worked on many other comic books.
Another Vess-Gaiman collaboration, Stardust, won an Alex Award from the American Library Association, a Mythopoeic Award, and a World Fantasy Award for Best Artist. Vess has won a Will Eisner Comics Industry Award three times. He has also won a Comic Creators’ Guild award, a Silver Award, and an Ink Pot. He has won numerous children’s book awards as well, primarily for his collaborations with Charles de Lint.
Mon Jun 9, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Johnny Cloud
Three Cheers for the Navajo Ace!
Flying “Johnny” Cloud was a member of the Navajo tribe but little is known about his early life. He enlisted in the U.S. Air Force at the start of World War II and overcame racial prejudices with his superior skill as a pilot, quickly becoming known as “the Navajo Ace.”
When the commander of his unit died in battle against a squadron of Nazi bombers, Cloud became his successor and the unit was dubbed "The Happy Braves."
Cloud led the Happy Braves for several years, but during one failed mission his plane was shot down. He was rescued by the Haunted Tank, which picked up several other stray soldiers on the same run, and the strays banded together to form the misfit military unit the Losers.
They fought together until their final, fatal mission near the end of the war.
Sat Jun 7, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Graham Ingels
It's simply Ghastly!
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1915, Graham Ingels began work early, joining the work force at 14, shortly after his father died. At 16 he began doing art jobs. He married at 20 and entered the Navy at 27 in 1943. After WWII, Ingels worked for Fiction House, Magazine Enterprises, and several other comic book and pulp magazine publishers.
In 1948, he began drawing Western and romance stories at EC Comics. He switched to the horror line—Tales from the Crypt, The Vault of Horror, and The Haunt of Fear—as soon as they began and was quickly dubbed “Ghastly Graham Ingels” for his facility with the genre. By 1952, Ingels was even signing his work as “Ghastly.”
After the horror line was canceled in the early 1950s, Ingels contributed to other EC lines, and then did some work for Classics Illustrated after EC folded in the mid-1950s.
He later taught art in Westport, Connecticut, and then became an art instructor in Florida. Ingels died in 1991.
Wed Jun 4, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Weather Wizard
May it always rain on your parade!
Mark Mardon was a petty career criminal whose capture was, ironically, the best thing that ever happened to him.
On his way to prison, Mardon escaped and fled to the home of his brother Clyde. Clyde was a scientist and had just created a wand that could control weather in its immediate vicinity.
The brothers fought over the device and Mark killed Clyde using the wand itself. With the device, Mardon became the Weather Wizard, a member of Flash’s Rogues Gallery. In later years Mardon died, went to Hell, came back as a soulless demon, and then was restored to full life.
He also internalized the wand’s powers, and can now control weather without any devices.
Tue Jun 3, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Shrinking Violet
The littlest Legionnaire of all!
Salu Digby was born in the 30th century—though she was born on Earth, her parents are actually from the planet Imsk.
Like all her people, Salu had the power to shrink herself to microscopic size. As a teenager she heard about the Legion of Super-Heroes and decided to seek them out. She applied for membership and was initially rejected but applied again and was accepted, adopting the name Shrinking Violet.
The name is only partially due to her powers—Salu was one of the quieter, shyer members of the Legion. She is a stalwart heroine, however, and has been one of the Legion’s most steadfast members.
Over the years, she grew in confidence, particularly after begin kidnapped and held captive by Imskian freedom fighters. After that incident, Salu became considerably more aggressive and more outgoing. She also became one of the Legion’s most skilled hand-to-hand combatants.
Mon Jun 2, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Scott Rosema
A truly August talent
Born in 1958, Scott Rosema started scribbling when he was only four years old. By his teens he knew he wanted to get into comic books and set himself to developing his art skills.
He began freelancing in 1979, right after graduating from the Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, and worked in commercial art for the first few years.
In 1982 Rosema started working for various newspapers, including a seven-year stint at The Muskegon Chronicle. Since then he has worked for Warner Bros. (Tiny Toons and Looney Tunes), Archie Comics (Space Ghost), Marvel (X-Men), Arrow Comics (August), Golden Books (Batman), Valiant Comics (Solar, Man of the Atom), Dragon Magazine, and many others.
Rosema and his wife own and operate Temujin Studios.
Sun Jun 1, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Carter Hall
The Golden Age Hawkman takes flight
Carter Hall was an American archaeologist with a particular interest in Egyptian history and relics. He was on a dig in 1940 when he discovered an ancient knife that the priest Hath-Set had used to murder Prince Khufu and his royal consort Chay-ara. Upon touching the knife Hall gained the memories of Khufu, discovering that he was the ancient prince reincarnated. Hall used the rare Nth metal to create a belt that allowed him to fly, and then crafted a winged costume so that he could confront Hath-Set’s reincarnation, Anton Hastor, as Hawkman.
Hall also encountered a woman named Shiera Saunders and recognized her as his reincarnated love Chay-ara. Hall became a member of the Justice Society of America and later its chairman. Shiera joined the team as well, using an Nth metal belt and wings of her own and adopting the guise of Hawkgirl. They put away their costumes for much of the 1950s after refusing to divulge their true identities to the Join Congressional Un-American Activities Committee, but returned in the early 1960s and restore the JSA to active duty. Hall and Saunders married and had a son, Hector Hall, who would become a hero in his own right years later. Ultimately Hall’s soul and consciousness merged with that of Shiera, his successor Katar Hol, and the hawk god, but the merge caused Hall to lose his sanity and his friends were forced to banish him to limbo. Years later he was restored to life by Thanagarian priests, and eventually returned to Earth and to the JSA.
Sat May 31, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Dean Haspiel
He's no quitter!
Born in 1967 in New York City, Dean Edmund Haspiel started in the comics industry as an assistant to such luminaries as Howard Chaykin, Bill Sienkiewicz, and Walter Simonson. In 1987 Haspiel created The Verdict with Martin Powell. He also created the two-man comics anthology Keyhole with Josh Neufeld. In 2006 Haspiel created the online comics studio ACT-I-VATE with several others, and began serializing the Billy Dogma Trilogy there. He was also a founding member of DEEP6 Studios. Haspiel worked on The Escapist with Michael Chabon, Brawl with Michel Fiffe in 2007 and The Alcoholic with Jonathan Ames in 2008 but is probably best known for his work on The Quitter and American Splendor with Harvey Pekar.
Currently he edits the comix anthology Next-Door Neighbor at Smithmag.net, produces more Billy Dogma stories at ACT-I-VATE, and has a new wecomic, Street Code, coming soon from Zudacomics.com. Haspiel was nominated for an Eisner in 2002 and an Ignatz in 2003.
Fri May 30, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Mike W. Barr
From Trekker to Outsider
Born in 1952, Mike W. Barr’s first comic book story was an eight-page backup in Detective Comics #444 in 1974.
In 1980, he started doing semi-regular backup stories in both Detective Comics and House of Mystery. He also wrote an issue of Captain America, which led to regular work with Marvel as well.
The following year, Barr picked up some editorial duties at DC and also started writing Star Trek for Marvel. In 1982, he wrote Camelot 3000, one of the first so-called “maxi-series.”
August 1983 saw the debut of Batman and the Outsiders, probably Barr’s best-known creation, and in 1987 he wrote Batman: Son of the Demon, which is often credited as singlehandedly restoring DC’s fortunes.
Since then Barr has done many more comic book projects, including more Batman stories, a two-parter for JLA: Classified, a relaunch of his Maze Agency series, and a piece for Star Trek: The Manga.
He also wrote a Star Trek novel, Gemini, which included some of the characters he created in the Star Trek comic book series.
Thu May 29, 2008 — by Aaron Rosenberg
Happy Birthday: Jack Kamen
His art is a true horror!
Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1920, Jack Kamen studied at the Art Students League and the Grand Central Art School and actually got his start in sculpture—his first professional job was on the Texas Centenniel.
His illustration career was just beginning when he was called up to the Army in 1942. After World War II, Kamen began drawing comics for Fiction House and Iger Associates, then started working for EC Comics in 1950. He quickly became one of their most prolific artists, particularly on their horror lines though he also worked on crime/suspense and weird science/fantasy books.
Kamen left comics in 1954 and did advertising art and supplemental illustrations for a wide variety of other clients—when Stephen King and George Romero created the horror anthology film Creepshow, an homage to EC’s horror comics, they tapped Kamen to do the artwork. He also illustrated the cover of the graphic novel adaptation.
