Mindy Newell: May The Force Be With Us

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...

11 Responses

  1. Steve Chaput says:

    I’m seeing the film in San Diego at 10:00 pm on Thursday evening. I believe there are earlier showings and this surprised me. I also thought that getting into the midnight seating would put me ahead of many of my fellow fans. Guess my step-daughter was smart to check.

    Still I think I’m going to have to limit my time on social media for the next couple of days, since it will only take one smug jerk or critic to spoil everything for the rest of us.

    Anyone taking bets on post-credit goodies?

  2. mike weber says:

    Let’s put it this way – the way o felt coming out of this one is closer to how i felt coming out of the advance screening of the first one, all those years ago than how i felt coming out of even “Return of the Jedi”

    • Mindy Newell says:

      I didn’t love RETURN OF THE JEDI, Mike. Walked out feeling very dissatisfied because there was SO much more that could have been instead of the too-many minutes of Ewoks.

      But walked out of THE FORCE AWAKENS totally thrilled…and feeling like I did when I walked out of EMPIRE the first time–THREE YEARS????? NOOOOOOOOOOO!….but at least this time we only have to wait 2 years.

      P.S.: And yes, the “NOOOOOOOOO” is a play on Annakin/Vader’s last pitiful scream.

      • mike weber says:

        You have to tell me about the “NOOO!”, because i haven’t seen that.

        So disgusted with “Phantom Menace” (“Episode 1” i will not call it) that we skipped the next two entirely.