I have been friends with my fellow writer Tony Isabella for around 48 years, which is amazing when you realize we're both in our late teens — emotionally, at least. He wrote to ask…
Was there one special moment or one special comic book that made you realize that you wanted to write comic books? For me, it was Fantastic Four Annual #1. I kind of sort of knew I wanted to be a writer. I had been writing since I was four years old, but it was that comic book that flipped a switch in my head.
No, no one in particular. As I've explained here about as often as comics and movies retell the origin of Batman, I decided when I was around five or so that I was going to be a writer. I just wasn't sure what I was going to be a writer of. At heart, I guess I wanted to do everything — books, TV, movies, plays, magazines, comics, cartoons, fortunes for fortune cookies, whatever — but I knew that couldn't happen. I kinda figured I'd wait and see which if any of those became feasible and then I'd be satisfied with any one of them. Little did I suspect I would eventually get to do most of 'em.
I loved comic books and had more than all the other kids I knew put together but I don't recall any particular longing to write them. Back in the sixties, the few times I came across articles or interviews that detailed how the business operated, I read that you had to live in New York and be able to go to the publishers' offices. That wasn't exactly true but I took it as true.
Living in Los Angeles, it just seemed more natural to stick with the kind of writing that was done in my city. It felt like I was living on a different planet than the one on which comic books were written, whereas TV was not all that far away. My family was not in show business but the lady who lived next door to us was a regular on The Andy Griffith Show and the man who lived across the street from us was the Technical Advisor on Dr. Kildare and we had brushes with others.
A life-changing force (in a way) was The Dick Van Dyke Show, which I watched with zeal. It made writing for television look like a great job and then when I got to go see an episode of it filmed, that really skewed my future plans in that direction. Hey, if you want to see the one I saw that night and don't mind sitting through some commercials, here it is. That thirteen-year-old kid you might hear laughing in the background? That's me.
Like you, Tony, I began writing letters to the letter columns in comic books. I did it, as I imagine you did, as a way of bonding with comics and feeling closer to them. I had a lot printed and I still remember a certain chill/numbness, such as I'd never felt before and have never felt since, when I purchased a copy of Aquaman #28 and found my letter printed. It was a dumb letter but it was mine and there was my name…and I recall thinking that it was an important moment in my life though why, I had no idea.
I had more printed and more…and even suffered the professional writer's dilemma of being drastically rewritten a few times. That annoyed me. I mean, you can rewrite me if you pay me but not if I'm writing pro bono and especially not if you change what I wrote so I seem to hold some viewpoint that isn't mine. I was giving up writing letters to comics when to my surprise, three East Coast comic book editors — Mort Weisinger and Jack Miller at DC, Dick Giordano at Charlton — individually wrote to invite me to submit scripts for their comics.
I tried it, doubtful it would lead to anything…and indeed, it did not. But it was a valuable learning exercise and soon after, I met Jack Kirby and then got recommended to write for Disney Studios and Gold Key Comics and one odd day, I realized I was writing 3-4 comic books a month without ever having imagined I could have a career in comics.
Because of this, I often tell beginning writers not to lock themselves into one conceivable career. If you have any talent at all, you can write many different things and while you can't pursue them all at once, you can be open to them. If you can envision ten different careers for yourself that would work for you, you have a much better chance of achieving success than if you have but one.
But you know that, Tony. Thanks for the question and I'll return the favor by suggesting everyone pick up a copy of Black Lightning, Volume 1, a fine collection of the ground-breaking comic you wrote for DC back in 1977. It's just been released and it can be purchased many places like this and it should be.
Do you have a question you'd like me to answer on this blog? If so, read this.