MINDY NEWELL: My Friend Kim

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.

You may also like...

9 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    Kim is only keeping you company? Kim is telling me to get off my ass and stop making excuses and write, or she’ll sic the Goddess on me.

    She was a pistol, that girl.

  2. What an amazing and moving tribute to Kim. I wish I could have met her. She sounded like an amazing friend and companion. I’ve heard jokes to the effect that the comic industry is one crazy family. It’s stories like these that make me believe it.

  3. George Haberberger says:

    A beautiful tribute to someone who must have been an amazing person. Thanks Mindy.

  4. Mindy Newell says:

    I could have said SO much more about Kimmy. But some of the memories are just too personal to share.

    God, how I miss her.

  5. John Ostrander says:

    Thank you thank you thank you.

    Kim still influences us, doesn’t she, and someone who has influence on you isn’t really dead, I think.

    Love you.

    John

  6. Michael Harper says:

    Great tribute, Mindy. I wish I’d known her; Kim sounds like a fabulous friend, and we need more like her in this sweet old world.

  7. Mary R. White says:

    Glad to know that Kim is still in our lives and when in doubt I always think “What would Kim do?” and then go forward.

  8. Kim (and John) made me feel like part of the comic book community the very first time I met them at my very first comic convention. I’ll never forget her. No one will, she is simply unforgettable.