Panel by Panel

Panel by Panel

A 1982 DC Comics house ad for the first issue of Arion, Lord of Atlantis proclaimed, “Written by Paul Kupperberg! One of DC’s Most Versatile Writers!” The next forty years of his career would confirm the ad’s label as the writer’s resume filled with credits that covered the spectrum of genres, mediums, and characters, from superheroes to romance, Batman to Betty and Veronica, Superman to Scooby Doo, and the Justice League to Johnny Bravo. A one-time editor for DC Comics and the fake news tabloid Weekly World News, he is the creator of Arion, Lord of Atlantis, Checkmate, and Takion, as well as the writer of the Eisner and Harvey Award nominated Life with Archie series, including the groundbreaking “Marriage of Kevin Keller” and “Death of Archie” storylines. He has also written more than three dozen books of fiction and nonfiction for kids and adults, numerous short stories, humor, color and activity books, online animation...even Mad Libs. When the young writer asked veteran DC Comics Silver Age scribe Bob Haney the trick to writing a good comic book story, the co-creator of The Teen Titans and Metamorpho told him, “There’s no trick. You just write them one page at a time, panel by panel.” Countless panels later, Kupperberg looks back at his secret origin as a comic book fan and his Bronze Age transformation into a working comic book professional.

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Author: Paul Kupperberg
Publisher: Crazy 8 Press
Publication Year: 2024
ISBN: 9798328038164
List Price: 20.00
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Paul Kupperberg

PAUL KUPPERBERG is the writer of more than 1,000 comic book stories (he long ago lost count) in a career that began in 1975 writing for the now defunct Charlton Comics, as well as the author of scores of books of fiction and non-fiction, short stories, and articles. He is the writer of the critically acclaimed LIFE WITH ARCHIE: THE MARRIED LIFE for Archie Comics (which was nominated for the 2012 Eisner Award in the Best Publication for Young Adults category, the 2013 Harvey Award, and the 2014 GLAAD Media Award), and his young adult novel, KEVIN (featuring Kevin Keller, Archie’s popular, first openly gay character) was published in April 2013 by Grosset & Dunlap/Penguin Books.

Paul was born in a little log cabin he helped his father build in Brooklyn, New York, and honestly has no memory of a life without comic books. An avid reader and collector, he met fellow fan Paul Levitz while in junior high school, and the two friends eventually launched the comics fanzine ETCETERA in 1971; several months later, they inherited the publication rights to THE COMIC READER, the Ur-zine, created a decade earlier by comics historian and fan Dr. Jerry Bails and fan-turned-Marvel writer/editor Roy Thomas. For TCR Publications, Paul also edited a second volume of ETCETERA and worked on several years of program books for Phil Sueling’s legendary annual July 4th New York Comic Book Convention.

While still a student at Brooklyn College, he made his first sale to Charlton Comics’ SCARY TALES #3 (December 1975) and never looked back. A few months later, he also began selling stories to DC Comics and, in 1976-77 served his first staff gig at the publisher of Superman, working as assistant to the public relations department. He returned briefly in the mid-80s as an editor, and, in 1991, began an editorial stint that lasted until 2006, when he left DC to become Executive Editor of the fake news humor tabloid, WEEKLY WORLD NEWS (with Crazy 8’s own Bob Greenberger as Managing Editor), and, in 2008, worked briefly (but not briefly enough to avoid the emotional scars) as Senior Editor of the WWE’s WWE Kids Magazine.

Paul has written countless comic book characters, including Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Peacemaker, Vigilante, Power Girl, Aquaman, Green Lantern, Doom Patrol, Captain America, Conan, Captain Action, Archie, The Simpsons, Johnny Bravo, Scooby Doo, and scores of others. He is the creator of the comic series ARION, LORD OF ATLANTIS, CHECKMATE, and TAKION, has written online web animation (Brilliant Digital Entertainment’s MULTIPATH ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN), the syndicated WORLD’S GREATEST SUPERHEROES STARRING SUPERMAN and TOM & JERRY newspaper strips, the feature “Trash” for England’s 2000 A.D. magazine, and humor and parody for Marvel’s CRAZY MAGAZINE and WEEKLY WORLD NEWS.

He has had stories in most of Crazy 8’s major anthologies, as well as anthologies for such IPs as ALIEN, PLANET OF THE APES, STAR TREK, DR. WHO, THE PHANTOM, BATMAN, THE GREEN HORNET, THE AVENGER, and THE LONE RANGER, plus stories for various fantasy and horror anthologies, critical and historic essays on popular culture subjects, more than a dozen young adult non-fiction books on subjects ranging from history and science to biography and pop culture, the Spider-Man novels CRIME CAMPAIGN and MURDERMOON for Pocket Books, the young adult novel WISHBONE: THE SIRIAN CONSPIRACY (with Michael Jan Friedman), the humor book JEW-JITSU: THE HEBREW HANDS OF FURY (Kensington Publishing), storybooks featuring Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman for Stone Arch Books, color & activity books featuring such DreamWorks properties as KING FU PANDA, PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR, PUSS IN BOOTS, AND MEGAMIND for Dalmatian Publishing, and even MAD LIBS starring BETTY & VERONICA, THE AVENGERS, and DC SUPERHOES (Price Stern Sloan/Penguin Books).

Paul is also the author of PAUL KUPPERBERG’S ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO WRITING COMICS (Charlton Neo Press), JSA: RAGNAROK, THE UNPUBLISHED COMIC BOOK SCRIPTS OF PAUL KUPPERBERG, THE SON OF THE UNPUBLISHED COMIC BOOK SCRIPTS OF PAUL KUPPERBERG, and DIRECT COMMENTS: COMIC BOOK CREATORS IN THEIR OWN WORDS (Buffalo Avenue Books), as well as his Crazy 8 Press titles, including THE SAME OLD STORY, THE DEVIL AND LEO PERSKY, DIRECT CONVERSATIONS: TALKS WITH FELLOW DC COMICS BRONZE AGE CREATORS, DIRECT CREATIVITY: THE CREATORS WHO INSPIRED THE CREATORS, and his memoir, PANEL BY PANEL: MY COMIC BOOK LIFE.

Paul is a columnist for the website 13thDimension.com (https://13thdimension.com/), and writer of the middle school nonfiction graphic novel THE STORY OF SPACEFLIGHT (2026, Mad Cave Studios).

You can follow Paul on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/paul.kupperberg/), BlueSky.social (@paulkupperberg.bsky.social), and Threads (https://www.threads.net/@paulkupperberg), and visit him at PaulKupperberg.net (https://www.paulkupperberg.net/) or on his Patreon page (patreon.com/PaulKupperberg).

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