Two years ago, at a comic con in downtown Albany, I had a lengthy and very enjoyable conversation with comic book writer Denny O’Neil. Joe Sinnott was also at the show, and I’m sad to say they died within a couple weeks of each other last year.
Almost 50 years ago, Alan Light, founder of The Buyer’s Guide of Comics Fandom, published this audio interview with Denny. At the time, O’Neil was white-hot as the writer of the highly praised Green Lantern/Green Arrow comic book series, and the equally praised post-TV show reboot of Batman. Both books were illustrated by Neal Adams.
As a sensitive 10-year-old kid, the first time I saw Jack Kirby’s art it looked, well, scary. As I liked to tell my dearly departed buddy Joe Sinnott, his “friendly faces” on Kirby’s art got me started buying the Fantastic Four.
My first comic book from the Marvel Comics Group was Daredevil #19. It was drawn by John Romita, who had previously worked for DC, drawing romance comics. In hindsight, this made the art less intimidating for me.
Daredevil #19, 1966, John Romita (penciler), Frank Giacoia (inker).
As a kid I thought of Stan Lee as a sort of Walt Disney, but saying that to anyone in Hollywood would have, at best, elicited a loud laugh. I say “at best” because that would have at least meant the person laughing knew who Stan Lee was. Much more likely would have been a puzzled expression and “who?” Forty years later, after Disney bought Marvel, that’s where Joe Sinnott’s retirement money came from. Joe would joke with me that he’d finally arrived as a Disney artist.
For most of my life, the question of who did what in creating the MCU (Marvel Comics Universe), as it’s now called, was a topic of heated debate only among comic book fans and the True Believers of the M.M.M.S. (Merry Marvel Marching Society). How times have changed. The New Yorker is weighing in with an historical analysis. I haven’t read it yet, so I don’t know what conclusions it reaches.
