Mindy Newell: Are You Typing?

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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5 Responses

  1. George Haberberger says:

    Great column Mindy and I love that Dorothy Parker quote!

    • Mindy Newell says:

      Thanks, George.

      And, yes, I have been known to spend at least 3/4 of the day in my jammies working on a comics script.

      I also have been known to have an occasional glass of wine–Merlot or Pinot Noir–sitting next to my keyboard. (But no doobies or blunts.)

      My one constant is tobacco–yep, I smoke a lot when I’m writing. In the morning accompanied by a big cup of tea. After 12 noon, a Diet Pepsi.

  2. Mindy Newell says:

    GREAT article in the Atlantic, Mike!!!

  3. Jen in Oz says:

    I’ve been reading a fair bit about how Diana Gabaldon (“Outlander”) writes, and if she’s not a Gardener then she would have to be a landscape designer at the very least.