Mindy Newell: Dear Supergirl…

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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4 Responses

  1. Martha Thomases says:

    You can cheer, Mindy. The show isn’t perfect, and I would like it more if she was younger, but a lot of the good stuff is there. Kara is there, earnestly trying to do her best. The “earnestly” is my favorite part of the character, and the show nails it.

  2. Craig Hinch says:

    Beautiful. I was nine years old when they killed her off. I was distraught. I cried. They wouldn’t even allow her to exist. Despite Superman essentially being the only Kryptonian again, that wasn’t enough. Barry Allen could be celebrated despite his sacrifice, but not Kara. I’ve been in mourning ever since. Granted, my inner child was healed when Kara Zor-El was Supergirl again after almost 20 years, despite her not being, well, herself. I don’t cry as hard when I read Crisis #7, but just reading the quotes have me feeling quite sick. 30 years after killing her off she’s now on TV, and the world again knows who Supergirl is. But, I do still mourn. I really miss “my” Kara, my “big sister” and “best friend.” It still aches that except for a few exception, I haven’t “heard” Kara’s dry sense of humour, seen her smile, and felt her determination and heroism for 30 years. Thank you for sharing.

    • mike weber says:

      Heh. My first wife read that issue of Crisis</i< and said "How DARE they make me feel so bad about a character i don't even LIKE?"

      Personally, i think Peter David's run on Supergirl was the best ever.