Quite literally, the first “stories” I ever wrote when I was six and seven years old were comic book stories. I also drew then because obviously a comic book needs pictures to go along with the words. Neither my writing nor pictures from those days pointed to a career in the arts, but I was only just getting started with comics. And writing. But they’ll always be intertwined for me, even now, almost 60 years later when I work primarily in prose.
Writing for DC Comics wasn’t just an idea. It was my goal, my ambition. Even more than that. It was a dream. I didn’t have the easiest childhood and the world of Superman and the Martian Manhunter and the rest of the Justice League was where I went for solace. I wanted to be as close to them as I could get.
In 1975, the dream became a reality. Coming up through the ranks of fandom and fanzines I finally stumbled through the door of DC and never looked back. Until now, in Direct Conversations: Talks With Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators. Nearly 50 years and more than a thousand stories later I sat down with ten old friends and colleagues to talk about those good old Bronze Age days when we were first breaking into the business at a time when the business itself seemed to be on the verge of breaking apart. Another old friend, fellow DC, Weekly World News, and Crazy 8 Press pal Robert Greenberger wrote the introduction.
Included are conversations with: Writer/artist Howard V. Chaykin, writer/editor Jack C. Harris, writer/editor Tony Isabella, writer/editor/former DC president and publisher Paul Levitz, production artist/inker Steve Mitchell, writer/former DC production manager Bob Rozakis, artist Joe Staton, colorist Anthony Tollin, writer Bob Toomey, and writer/Batman film franchise producer Michael Uslan.
The Direct Conversations Kickstarter campaign went on October 5, 2022 at 12 noon ET and will run through October 25. CLICK HERE TO VIEW OR SUPPORT DIRECT CONVERSATIONS ON KICKSTARTER.
I’m offering signed copies of Direct Conversations: Talks With Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators paperback, either by itself or with a PDF e-copy, or in combination with signed copies of one, two, or all three of my previously published books about comics and PDF e-copies: Direct Comments: Comic Book Creators in their Own Words, Paul Kupperberg’s Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics, and I Never Write for the Money But I Always Turn in the Manuscript for a Check. I know backers have come to expect stretch goals and elaborate rewards in Kickstarter campaigns, but from the reaction I’ve been getting to this project’s made me think I don’t need a lot of frills to sell a book of conversations with Bronze Age creators about the history they’ve witnessed, or in a lot of cases, made.
Direct Conversations: Talks With Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators. It’s like eavesdropping on a bunch of old pros over lunch at a comic con!
