Don McGregor | |
---|---|
Born | Donald Francis McGregor June 15, 1945 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
Area(s) | Writer |
Notable works | Sabre , Killraven, Black Panther |
http://www.donmcgregor.com |
Donald Francis McGregor [1] (born June 15, 1945) [1] is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics; he is the author of one of the first graphic novels.
Don McGregor was born in Providence, Rhode Island, [1] where he worked myriad jobs as a young adult, including as a security guard, at a bank, at a movie theater, and "for my grandfather's company, [which] printed, among other things, the patches the astronauts wore on their flights to the moon." [2] He additionally served as a supply sergeant in a military police unit of the Rhode Island Army National Guard. [2] [3] His first work in print was in the letters-to-the-editor columns of various Marvel Comics titles [4] and for The Providence Journal , where his work included reviews of books by authors including Evan Hunter, "who influenced me greatly as a writer." [2]
McGregor entered the comics industry with stories in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics anthology magazines. His first purchased script, "When Wakes The Dreamer", did not see print until Eerie #45 (Feb. 1973), long after his first published script, the 12-page cover story "The Fade-Away Walk" in Creepy #40 (July 1971), credited as Donald F. McGregor, with art by Tom Sutton. [5] Through 1975, he wrote more than a dozen stories for those magazines and its sister title Vampirella , drawn by artists including Richard Corben and Reed Crandall. [4] Of "When Wakes the Dreamer", he explained decades later, "[W]hat held it up was that [artist and Warren art director] Billy Graham was going to draw it and he'd done a spectacular opening page for it, but for one reason or another, it just didn't happen. ... I don't think we ever found the finished art for Billy's version of another early story of mine, 'The Vampiress Stalks the Castle This Night.'" [6] That story eventually appeared in Vampirella #21 (Dec. 1972), with art by Felix Mas. After a stint with Marvel, McGregor returned to write another 18 stories for those Warren titles as well as The Rook between 1979 and 1983, with artists including Paul Gulacy, Alfredo Alcala, and Val Mayerik. [4]
McGregor became a proofreader for Marvel Comics in late 1972, [7] earning $125 a week, [2] before establishing himself as a Marvel editor and writer. His first stories for the company were co-writing, with Gardner Fox, the six-page supernatural story "The Man with Two Faces" in Journey into Mystery vol. 2, #4 (April 1973; credited as "Donald F. McGregor"); and, solo, the six-page "A Tomb By Any Other Name", with art by Syd Shores, in Chamber of Chills #5 (July 1973). [4]
He recalled in 2010,
I came to Marvel Comics because I loved Marvel Comics. As the line burgeoned, one of my jobs was to read all the reprint titles. One of the titles was Jungle Action , a collection of jungle genre comics from the 1950s, mostly detailing white men and women saving Africans or being threatened by them. I voiced a lament that I thought it was a shame that in 1973 Marvel was printing these stories, and couldn't we have a black African hero. ... Now, it was one of those unwritten rules that if you worked in editorial you would be given things to write, to supplement that $125 a week. It was at such a meeting that I learned I would be given [the recently launched feature] 'Killraven' (in Amazing Adventures ) and Jungle Action, with the [existing African superhero the] Black Panther ... to write. [8]
With those two features, which became among comics' most acclaimed, [9] [10] McGregor soon established himself as one of a 1970s wave of Marvel writers, including Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber and Doug Moench, who took often minor characters and helped create a writerly Renaissance. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas said in 2007,
[T]here was a lot of invention and experimentation going on during that period ... Steve [Gerber] and Don turned out be [writers] who advanced the field. ... I don't think Don's work sold terribly well, but I always thought he was doing some interesting things, and I thought, 'Well, the kind of stuff we put him on was the kind of stuff that we didn't expect to become great sellers anyway ... So let him experiment with it and see what happens'. And he certainly did a lot of interesting things with it. [11]
McGregor wrote "Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds" in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, #21-39 (Nov. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for fill-in issues #33 and 38); [10] and "Black Panther" in Jungle Action #6-24 (Sept. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for #23, a reprint). [12] Comics historian Les Daniels noted that, "The scripts by Don McGregor emphasized the character's innate dignity." [13] Unusually for mainstream comics, the Panther stories were set mostly in Africa, in the Panther's fictional homeland Wakanda rather than in Marvel's usual American settings. As with the futuristic stories of “Killraven”, McGregor's settings were enough outside the Marvel mainstream that he was able to explore mature themes and adult relationships in a way rare for comics at the time. [14] In 2010, Comics Bulletin ranked McGregor's run on Jungle Action third on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels". [15]
Artist Rich Buckler, his first "Black Panther" collaborator, called McGregor and fellow Marvel writer Doug Moench "two of my absolutely favorite writers. They had the same drive and enthusiasm, and just huge amounts of talent and energy." [16] African-American writer-editor Dwayne McDuffie said of the 1970s "Black Panther" series:
This overlooked and underrated classic is arguably the most tightly written multi-part superhero epic ever. ... It's damn-near flawless, every issue, every scene, a functional, necessary part of the whole. Okay, now go back and read any individual issue. You'll find seamlessly integrated words and pictures; clearly introduced characters and situations; a concise (sometimes even transparent) recap; beautifully developed character relationships; at least one cool new villain; a stunning action set piece to test our hero's skills and resolve; and a story that is always moving forward towards a definite and satisfying conclusion. That's what we should all be delivering, every single month. Don [McGregor] and company did it in only 17 story pages per issue". [17]
He and artist P. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known dramatic interracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed to underground comix), [18] between the "Killraven" characters M'Shulla and Carmilla Frost, in Amazing Adventures #31 (July 1975). Three years earlier, McGregor and artist Luis Garcia had already presented the first known interracial kiss in any comics in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine, Creepy #43 (Jan. 1972), in the story "The Men Who Called Him Monster".
More than two decades after the "Killraven" feature ended, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that,
It was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative of Art Nouveau illustration, gave the landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles. [19]
McGregor's run on Jungle Action ended when the series was canceled due to low sales. [20] He also wrote stories for the Marvel characters Luke Cage and Morbius the Living Vampire, and created the detective feature "Hodiah Twist", seen in the black-and-white magazines Vampire Tales #2 (Oct. 1973) and Marvel Preview #16: "Masters of Terror" (Fall 1978). [21] McGregor adaptation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" as a backup story in Marvel Classics Comics #28 (1977) was artist Michael Golden's first published comics work. [22] A Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" page in 1975 announced McGregor's planned radio drama series, Night Figure, that was to have run on WHBI-FM. [23]
Grant Morrison argues that McGregor's style of poetic narration was a strong influence on Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman. [24] He says that McGregor had a passionate fan base and that his writing style was "overwrought, stretched to the limits of conventional grammar, with a pained, self-analytical edge." [25]
With artist Paul Gulacy, McGregor created one of the first modern graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species , a near-future, dystopian science fiction swashbuckler that introduced the title character. McGregor's work premiered in August 1978, two months before Will Eisner's better-known pioneering graphic novel A Contract with God . Sabre was additionally the first graphic novel sold through the new "direct market" of comic-book stores. [26] It later spun off a 14-issue Eclipse comic-book series. [27]
Also for Eclipse, McGregor wrote Detectives Inc. , a pair of graphic novels set in contemporary New York City and starring the interracial private eye team Ted Denning and Bob Rainier. Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green (1980), with DC Comics artist Marshall Rogers, and Detectives, Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams, with veteran Marvel artist Gene Colan, who would become a frequent collaborator, comprised the series. The first of these two books included the first lesbian characters in mass-market comics. [28]
During this period, McGregor also wrote the two prose works Dragonflame and Other Bedtime Nightmares [29] and The Variable Syndrome. [30]
Other work includes the DC Comics' miniseries Nathaniel Dusk (1984) and Nathaniel Dusk II (1985–1986), both with Colan; and, for New Media Publishing's Fantasy Illustrated (1982), "The Hounds of Hell Theory", starring the husband-and-wife detective team Alexander and Penelope Risk, with artist Tom Sutton. [31]
McGregor revisited the Black Panther with Colan in "Panther's Quest", published as 25 eight-page installments within the biweekly omnibus series Marvel Comics Presents (issues #13–37, Feb.–Dec. 1989); and, later, with artist Dwayne Turner in the squarebound miniseries Panther's Prey (May–Oct. 1991). McGregor and Marshall Rogers crafted a two-part story in Spider-Man issues #27–28 dealing with bullying and gun violence. [32] Other comic book work in the 1990s includes Blade #1–3 (Nov. 1998–Jan. 1999), starring the Marvel Comics vampire-slayer; the 14-page Morbius, the Living Vampire story "Desiring Martine", with artist Mike Dringenberg, in the Marvel one-shot Strange Tales: Dark Corners #1 (May 1998); and various issues of such Topps Comics licensed properties as Mars Attacks! , James Bond, the Lone Ranger, and The X-Files . [4] McGregor wrote "Thin Edge of a Dime", a Batman Black and White backup story, in Batman: Gotham Knights #28 (June 2002) which was illustrated by Dick Giordano. [33]
As well, McGregor is one of the primary writers of the Zorro canon, with a dozen issues of Topps' Zorro (#0–11, Nov. 1993–Nov. 1994) and the spinoff Lady Rawhide #1–5 (Oct. 1996–June 1997; reprinted by Image Comics as Zorro's Lady Rawhide: Other People's Blood #1–4, March–June 1999); two years of the Zorro newspaper comic strip (with artists Tod Smith and Thomas Yeates, premiering April 12, 1999, with the first year collected in a 2001 Image Comics book); Zorro #1–6 (May-Oct. 2005), with artist Sidney Lima, from the NBM Publishing imprint Papercutz; and 2010's Zorro: Matanzas, a sequel to the Topps series, with penciler Mike Mayhew, for Dynamite Entertainment. [4] Returning to one of his signature characters, McGregor contributed a story to the Black Panther Annual #1, released in February 2018. [34]
A graphic novel is a long-form work of sequential art. The term graphic novel is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comics scholars and industry professionals. It is, at least in the United States, typically distinct from the term comic book, which is generally used for comics periodicals and trade paperbacks.
James P. Starlin is an American comics artist and writer. Beginning his career in the early 1970s, he is best known for space opera stories, for revamping the Marvel Comics characters Captain Marvel and Adam Warlock, and for creating or co-creating the Marvel characters Thanos, Drax the Destroyer, Gamora, Nebula, and Shang-Chi, as well as writing the acclaimed miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet and its many sequels including The Infinity War and The Infinity Crusade, all detailing Thanos' pursuit of the Infinity Gems to court Mistress Death by annihilating half of all life in the cosmos, before coming into conflict with the Avengers, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and the Elders of the Universe, joined by the Silver Surfer, Doctor Strange, Gamora, Nebula, and Drax.
Klaus Janson is a German-born American comics artist, working regularly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics and sporadically for independent companies. While he is best known as an inker, Janson has frequently worked as a penciller and colorist.
Killraven is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character has been depicted as a freedom fighter in several post-apocalyptic alternate futures. Created by co-plotters Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, scriptwriter Gerry Conway, and penciller Adams, the character first appeared in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, #18. The series featured the first dramatic interracial kiss in American color comic books.
Amazing Adventures is the name of several anthology comic book series, all but one published by Marvel Comics.
Vampire Tales was an American black-and-white horror comics magazine published by Magazine Management, a corporate sibling of Marvel Comics. The series ran 11 issues and one annual publication from 1973 to 1975, and featuring vampires as both protagonists and antagonists.
Eugene Jules Colan was an American comic book artist best known for his work for Marvel Comics, where his signature titles include the superhero series Daredevil, the cult-hit satiric series Howard the Duck, and The Tomb of Dracula, considered one of comics' classic horror series. He co-created the Falcon, the first African-American superhero in mainstream comics; Carol Danvers, who would become Ms. Marvel and Captain Marvel; and the non-costumed, supernatural vampire hunter Blade.
Black Panther is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist-coplotter Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Fantastic Four #52 in the Silver Age of Comic Books. Black Panther's birth name is T'Challa, and he is the son of the previous Black Panther, T'Chaka. He is the king and protector of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, a technologically advanced society drawing from a supply of vibranium, a fictional metal of extraordinary properties. Along with possessing enhanced abilities achieved through ancient Wakandan rituals of drinking the essence of the heart-shaped herb, T'Challa also relies on his proficiency in science, expertise in his nation's traditions, rigorous physical training, hand-to-hand combat skills, and access to wealth and advanced Wakandan technology to combat his enemies. The character became a member of the Avengers in 1968, and has continued that affiliation off and on in subsequent decades.
Howard Victor Chaykin is an American comic book artist and writer. Chaykin's influences include his one-time employer and mentor, Gil Kane, and the mid-20th century illustrators Robert Fawcett and Al Parker.
Philip Craig Russell is an American comics artist, writer, and illustrator. His work has won multiple Harvey and Eisner Awards. Russell was the fourth mainstream comic book creator to come out as openly gay, following Andy Mangels in 1988, Craig Hamilton in 1989, and Eric Shanower in 1990.
Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was one of the first to offer royalties and creator ownership of rights.
Paul Gulacy is an American comics artist best known for his work for DC Comics and Marvel Comics, and for drawing one of the first graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' 1978 Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, with writer Don McGregor. He is most associated with Marvel's 1970s martial-arts and espionage series Master of Kung Fu.
Sabre is the title of a creator-owned American graphic novel, first published in August 1978. Created by writer Don McGregor and artist Paul Gulacy, it was published by Eclipse Enterprises, later known as Eclipse Comics. It was one of the first American graphic novels, and the first to be distributed solely in comic book shops via the direct market. The story is a science fiction swashbuckler in which the self-consciously romantic rebel Sabre and his companion Melissa Siren fight the mercenary Blackstar Blood and others to achieve freedom and strike a blow for individuality.
Rich Buckler was an American comics artist and penciller, best known for his work on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four in the mid-1970s and for creating the character Deathlok in Astonishing Tales #25. Buckler drew virtually every major character at Marvel and DC, often as a cover artist.
William Marshall Rogers III, known professionally as Marshall Rogers, was an American comics artist best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics in the 1970s.
William Henderson Graham was an African-American comics artist best known for his work on the Marvel Comics series Luke Cage, Hero for Hire and the Jungle Action feature "Black Panther".
Jungle Action is the name of two American comic book series published by Marvel Comics and its 1950s precursor, Atlas Comics. The Marvel version contained the first series starring the Black Panther, the first black superhero in mainstream comics, created by the writer/artist team of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in Fantastic Four #52.
Detectives Inc. is a series of two original graphic novels written by Don McGregor and published by Eclipse Enterprises in 1980 and 1985. The first, Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green, featured black-and-white art by penciler-inker Marshall Rogers. The second, Detectives Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams, was drawn by Gene Colan.
Dean Mullaney is an American editor, publisher, and designer whose Eclipse Enterprises, founded in 1977, was one of the earliest independent comic-book companies. Eclipse published some of the first graphic novels and was one of the first comics publishers to champion creators' rights. In the 2000s, he established the imprint The Library of American Comics of IDW Publishing to publish hardcover collections of comic strips. Mullaney and his work have received seven Eisner Awards.
Night Music is an American comic book anthology created by artist P. Craig Russell, published by Eclipse Comics. It consists of comic adaptations of operas, novels, classical music and poems, and followed an irregular publishing model that changed formats according to the needs of the material.
Marvel's 'War of the Worlds' series in Amazing Adventures became a true classic when Don McGregor took over as writer.
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)CB Jason: So it's weird because you were off in your own corner of the universe, but at the same time they were still paying attention to you.
McGregor: Well yeah, they were, yeah. I was called into the editorial office I don't know how many times.
[Gerry] Conway insisted that the decision was purely financial, that poor sales had combined with blown deadlines (and subsequent late fees charged by the printer) to create a money-losing endeavor.
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Gough: "In 1978, Sabre was the first graphic novel to be sold in comic stores."Writer Don McGregor and artist Marshall Rogers created one of the most original Spidey stories of the year with this two-part tale. The story told of events that happened after bullied 12-year-old Elmo Oliver found a gun dropped by a bad guy during a shootout ... Once again, a Spider-Man story provided a platform for real-life issues.
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has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)In 'Thin Edge of a Dime,' written by Don McGregor, the Dark Knight persuades a desperate older gentleman from taking his own life.