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Hello from the roads of the Hawkeye State. I’m taking a day to visit family as I write this missive. While I worked on Mother’s Day, I wanted to visit my mom this week. With my kid out of school for a day, it seemed like a good time to make the trip.

As I edge closer to fifty, it’s a bit harder to take a four-hour round trip, but as I’m aging, so is my children’s only living grandparent. As I’m thinking about the loss of two influential creators today, it reminds me that my remaining parent is older than both. It’s never fun to think of mortality, but I am reminded to embrace the chances I get to spend with loved ones while I can.

I always encourage everyone to hug their loved ones. Let them know how you feel. Because we never know how much longer we have to do so.

It’s only been a few weeks since I wrote memorials for two comic artist influences, Sam Kieth and Sal Buscema. Today, I’m thinking about two writers who helped define what I wanted to write and create in the future.

When I talked about Buscema, I mentioned his introduction as the artist on Spectacular Spider-Man from the late eighties, well into the mid-nineties. The first issues of that run also saw the return of Gerry Conway to Spider-Man after years of working for DC Comics on books like Justice League of America and Firestorm (whom he co-created with Al Milgrom.) Exiting DC after Crisis on Infinite Earths, he returned to Marvel with a few New Universe books, but taking over as writer on Spectacular and Web of Spider-Man would be his significant work from Marvel during that era. He also had a lucrative workload in movies and television during this period. Coming off screenplays for the films Fire and Ice and Conan the Destroyer, he started to work as a television producer and writer for shows like Father Dowling Mysteries, Matlock, and Diagnosis: Murder.

His later Spider-Man work served as sequels to his previous era with the character, where he co-created Punisher and the future Ben Reilly and wrote the deaths of both Gwen Stacy and Norman Osborn. He also brought Carol Danvers into comics with Sal’s brother, John Buscema, and even wrote the first official intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

I knew none of this when I discovered his late eighties Spider-Man run. His run was built on a ton of innovation for the character and his supporting cast, introducing Tombstone, the Lobo Brothers, and revitalizing the Chameleon, the Puma, Rocket Racer, and more. He put the Daily Bugle staff through the wringer with storylines focused on Robbie Robertson’s criminal past and J. Jonah Jameson’s kidnapping by the Chameleon.

It was years later before I connected his writing to early issues of Firestorm, a character I fell in love with as part of the Super Powers line. Starting as a writer in his late teens, Conway spent decades writing about young adults. Impressively, he never lost that touch through all his years as a creator. Even his return to Firestorm in the mid-aughts saw him settle quite nicely back into the character's classic structure.

His work on young heroes inspired much of my writing when it comes to characters like Lightweight, who was built on the same archetype: a teenager reaching adulthood with superpowers.

I’m still chagrined at how much of his eighties work remains unavailable on Marvel Unlimited. Hopefully, we will see that change in the near future.

I’m sure Len wasn’t as famous a name for most of the readers here as Gerry’s. The vast majority of his writing career was limited to the end of the eighties and early nineties. His first major work actually came in the last few issues of Action Comics Weekly, which we will eventually cover here, but it was three distinct later works that made me a lifelong fan, and a fourth sullied by his co-writer.

I discovered Len as the writer of an eight-issue Justice Society of America series published in 1991. This was the first book to ever be titled after the JSA, fifty years after their first appearance. The book was a jam project by five artists and Strazewski. I didn’t know it at the time, but it also served as a prelude to the first comic line I’d actively try to follow.

The entire series featured covers by Tom Lyle, but it was issue two’s Black Canary tale that made me pick up a copy. Interior artist Grant Miehm didn’t disappoint, as I was presented with a cool and attractive superheroine perfect for a 13-year-old. I picked up a few issues of the book when I found them in those days of newsstand distribution. While I didn’t complete the book until years later, I learned that the creators responsible were developing an entire universe for DC.

The Impact line actually popularized an exclamation point for an “I” before Image Comics or Invincible were even a glimmer in anyone’s mind. While I made sure to buy all the book’s first issues, it was Strazewski’s two titles that drew me in the quickest. The Web was a fascinating superspies as a superhero story, built around decades of a mysterious organization. The Fly introduced a new teenage hero. (I think I’ve made my fandom of such clear by now.) Along with a cool character, I also found Mike Parobeck, who quickly became one of my favorite artists. His clean lines were beautiful, and I spent a lot of time emulating them when I was still questioning whether I could actually draw my own superhero comic.

The Impact universe didn’t explode in popularity despite my love for it. Strazewski stuck around to the end, but he and Parobeck picked up another project based on the series they made that sold the best: Justice Society of America. Their second JSA series was set in the modern day. Like the Impact titles, it told some killer stories while never letting anything get too dark for younger readers. Parobeck’s gorgeous pages kept the action moving along nicely. The title brought our retiree heroes back into action and introduced the first legacy hero to the team: Jesse Quick.

Strazewski would move over to Malibu to create another new universe: the Ultraverse. Most of his work there was co-writing, working on Prototype and Prime. The latter was a very good book, although several of its themes take a darker turn due to the revealed crimes of his writing partner. It does little to reduce the quality of Strazewski’s work or that of artist Norm Breyfogle, but it does give the work an unfortunate shadow.

Strazewski’s other major work was the second half of the Will Payton version of Starman, a run I found a bit lacking after Roger Stern’s early issues. But it does give me a chance to show off one of the book’s killer covers for its final issues, with Mike Mignola drawing some heroes and villains you might not expect.

I’m a universe builder at heart. As a teenager, I designed two entire separate universes for my characters. The first definitely drew from ideas in the Impact line, which was the first to use the legacy of heroes in the way that would define much of DC over the decades before and after the New 52. (The early writing of Mark Waid on Legend of the Shield and The Comet helped, but The Web was often the key, although both The Fly and The Black Hood had legacy aspects too.) One of the delays in bringing Witchblood to life has been clearly defining the setting, even as I’m inching toward the next generation of MHP Universe stories.

Hopefully, the inspirational work of both Conway and Strazewski will help carry me to the finish line on those projects.

Do you have any favorites in the work of Conway or Strazewski? I’d love to hear your thoughts on both.

Pulp Empire 70. Loss and survival

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