MINDY NEWELL: The Enemy Within

Mindy Newell

These days Mindy Newell knows that if she could do it all over again she’d have gone to college for screenwriting and film editing. Instead she became a nurse to please her parents and pleasing your parents was what it was all about for nice Jewish girls who graduated from high school in 1971. But the creative larva was in her soul, and when the cocoon broke and the butterfly emerged, it flew to DC’s New Talent Showcase program. Under the auspices of legendary editors Karen Berger, Len Wein, Julius Schwartz, Paul Levitz, and ComicMix’s own Robert Greenberger, Mindy learned the craft and art of writing comics, including Tales Of The Legion, V, Legionnaires 3, Amethyst, Lois Lane: When It Rains God Is Crying, and numerous other comics, including a Superman story based on a dream Mindy had as a child. She also worked on Howard Chaykin’s American Flagg! and other independent comics. All this time Mindy continued to work as a nurse while being a single mom to her daughter Alixandra, until the late and dear Mark Gruenwald hired her as an assistant editor at Marvel, while writing stories of the Black Widow and Daredevil. She edited NFL Pro Action, a licensed kid’s magazine about football with the NFL until Marvel imploded in 1996. Returning to full-time nursing, she she also co-wrote a story for 2000 A.D. with her then-husband, British artist John Higgins. A few years ago Mike Gold called and asked her to join the team of columnists here at ComicMix, where her topics freely range from comics to pop culture to politics; she even wrote a piece about the great American thoroughbred Secretariat, which caused editor Mike to tell her that she had won the prize for the most off-topic column ever written ComicMix.

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11 Responses

  1. I’ve actually been making notes on a story in which Concrete goes insane due to a mineral deficiency.

    And the next miniseries gives him a closed-head injury and amnesia.

    But you’re talking about being touch-deprived, sense-deprived…almost like Jose Padilla. You’re right, a lot could be done with that.

    Really, your whole list here is a great series of pitches!

  2. Jonathan (the other one) says:

    I recall an issue of X-Men from, I think, the Eighties, in which Jean Grey, during one of the times she was alive, went into a store in Westchester, and had to deal with the thoughts of everyone in there whenever they involved her. I thought it would have been an interesting theme for an issue, perhaps even a story arc, but they shut it down inside a page.

    The title of the article, OTOH, brought to mind a Rush song of the same title. Part of the bridge seems apropos for some reason:

    To you, is it movement, or is it action?
    Is it contact, or just reaction?
    And you – revolution, or just resistance?
    Is this living, or just existence?

  3. George Haberberger says:

    I sure would have liked to read that Wonder Woman treatment you mention. But then I think you don’t have to be cut off from the outside world for 3.000 years to believe that pregnancy, the unborn child, is ultimate, holy, sacrosanct, untouchable and inviolable. I guess Jenette Kahn and Gloria Steinem could not have had the premier female superhero take any position contrary to theirs. It might make people think.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Having known both, I think they’d different takes on Mindy’s story. I think Gloria would go for it — it raises provocative issues and a discussion of those ideas would be valuable. Jenette, whom I love dearly, I’m not so certain about. She dumped my AIDS story back in 1986. But ultimately, I think Jenette would have backed the story for the same reason I think Gloria would have… unless there was a Wonder Woman teevee show or movie going on at the time. Then the choice might not have been in her hands.

      • Mindy Newell says:

        No, Mike, Jenette would have said “no” because it is me proposing it. Remember when I told you that she told Louise Simonson–who told me– that the LOIS LANE mini-series I did was ghost-written?

  4. Mindy Newell says:

    Paul, how the hell are ya??!!!!!

    Really, really, REALLY honored and pleased that you’re reading my columns!

    Mindy

  5. Mike Gold says:

    That’s because some jealous asshole told her that. I know it’s hard to believe, but at the hole of the comics community donut shop lurks a rumor mill that powers the neurotics. Somebody didn’t want you to get his job.

  6. Mindy Newell says:

    Duh!

  7. Mindy Newell says:

    But she still either believed it or chose to believe it.

    • Mike Gold says:

      Which begs the unanswerable question “Who was her source?”

      Not that it matters, unless you have a compelling need to sell her a screenplay.