Ed Summer’s Comics and Movies
by Mike Gold and Martha Thomases
Ed Summer, the man who opened one of America’s first comic book stores and went on to a varied and significant media career, died Thursday from cancer.
A graduate of the New York University School of the Arts (his classmates included Oliver Stone, Jonathan Kaplan and Alan Arkush), Summer opened the Supersnipe Comic Book Emporium on Manhattan’s upper east side in 1971. The store was named after the Street and Smith comic book character who owned more comic books than anybody else in the world. In the late 1970s he opened a comic art gallery, also one of the first, near his store. His friend George Lucas was an investor.
Moving on to motion pictures, Ed wrote or co-wrote Conan the Barbarian (and also was associate producer), Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck cartoons for Disney, and Shinsha (a anime take on Little Nemo). He was marketing and script consultant for Star Wars: A New Hope and advised Lucasfilm Ltd on numerous projects over the years.
Summer also wrote comics for Gold Key, DC and Marvel and he wrote numerous articles for a wide variety of magazines, including Time, Skeptical Inquirer (a science magazine) and Video Watchdog. He also edited and published Walt Disney’s Uncle $crooge McDuck: His Life and Times, one of the first detailed retrospectives on the work of master storyteller Carl Barks, and was an adjunct professor at New York’s School of Visual Arts.
And that just scratches the surface of Ed’s vast media career.
A native of Buffalo New York, In 2005 Ed started the Buffalo International Film Festival, one of his proudest achievements. He told ComicMix’s Martha Thomases he did it not only to bring some tourism to his hometown, but also because there were so many fabulous old movie palaces there. The Festival continues to this day.
Ed truly loved the movies.
Correction. Ed Summer was not involved with the marketing of Star Wars A New Hope. While I realize Ed and many others would like to claim credit for assorted jobs on the spectacular success of Star Wars A New Hope, the truth of the matter is I am the man responsible for marketing Star Wars. Ed Summer was busy trying to keep his stores afloat while I worked on the marketing of Star Wars. I also worked with Marc Pevers, who was an attorney working for 20th Century Fox, licensing Star Wars merchandise. Given the number of comic book artists who have been ripped off by others appropriating their work, i.e. Roy Lictenstein, I would really hope you would give credit where credit is due.
This guy is BRAGGING about “marketing STAR WARS merchandise”? I can think of few more shameful assaults on the culture of film.
Good point!
Good point, Tim.