FLAMING SKULLS AND OTHER THINGS

Chris Munn has a new book out called Wheels On Fire: An Unofficial Guide to Marvel Comics' Ghost Rider From 1972—1983.  As the title indicates, it's a detailed, issue-by-issue celebration of the flame-headed supernatural biker first brought to life by Gary Friedrich and Mike Ploog.  Chris was kind enough to ask me to write the foreword to his book and I present it below for your listening and dancing pleasure.  Enjoy!

Art by Mike Ploog

When you’re a young freelance writer, trying to establish yourself in a long-term career in comics, there’s one word that should always, always, be on the tip of your tongue:  “Yes.”  The phone rings.  “Hi,” an editor says, “I need a fill-in issue of Chipmunk Man and I need it by Friday.”  “Yes!”  “Would you,” another editor asks, “be interested in taking over the monthly Herman The Avenger book?”  “Yes!”  “Could you,” a third editor asks, “write a 60 page Ratgirl Annual in the next twelve minutes?”  “Yes!”  Always, always yes—because, let’s face it, you never know when the phone is going to ring again, you never know when the next job is going to appear.  One month you’re so busy you think you’re going to have a nervous breakdown, the next you’re staring at the walls, wondering how you’re going to pay the rent.

I exaggerate, just a little, to make a point; but, when I was starting out in comics, I religiously abided by the Rule of Yes.  So when, in the early 1980s, not long after I’d started working for Marvel Comics, the phone rang and Tom DeFalco—soon to be not just one of my favorite editors but favorite humans—asked if I wanted to take over the writing duties on the Ghost Rider book from the great Roger Stern, my answer, unsurprisingly, was a wildly enthusiastic “Yes!”

The truth is, I wasn’t a major Ghost Rider fan.  Oh, I’d read the early issues, and I was especially enamored of the stories illustrated by one of the true masters of the form, Mike Ploog (what a thrill it was, many years later, to collaborate with Mike on Abadazad and The Stardust Kid), but I hadn’t really followed Johnny Blaze’s adventures after that.  Looking over the recent issues by Stern and Bob Budiansky, I was impressed.  Roger, of course, never failed to deliver a compelling story with equally compelling characters.  Budiansky’s work was new to me, but his ability to provide crystal clear storytelling and expressive emotions—all wrapped in the requisite shadows, fog and bone-chilling mood required for a book steeped in the supernatural—made me an instant fan.

But it was Johnny Blaze himself who hooked me.  I’ve always been fascinated by duality, in the world, and, more significantly, in the human heart.  “Good and evil,” Dostoyevsky wrote, “are so monstrously mixed up in man.”  All of our psyches contain the purest of angels and the most maniacal of demons, the spires of Heaven and the pits of Hell, and our lives can often be a tug of war between those twin forces, as we seek a way to balance and, perhaps, transcend them.  The relationship between Blaze and Zarathos (that’s a name Bob and I cooked up together) literalized that war, but also allowed an opportunity to explore the subtleties within that duality:  Even a demon has an angel in his heart somewhere, and even angels might be tempted by the darkness. 

That all sounds heady and philosophical—and the deeper aspects of the character were certainly a major draw for me—but comics aren’t just about high concepts; they have to offer big action and larger than life characters.  The tug of war between Blaze and Zarathos supplied the ruminative meat, but Blaze’s supporting cast, from the denizens of the Quentin Carnival to the strange and deadly antagonists who rose up to challenge the Ghost Rider, provided the energy and fun.  Adding to that fun was the fact that Bob Budiansky and I were co-plotting the book.  It was the first time I’d actively co-plotted with an artist and it was, from the start, a wonderful experience.  No egos, no arguments:  We’d get on the phone and spend an hour or two throwing around ideas, I’d go off and develop those ideas into a fully fleshed out plot, Bob would pencil the story, bringing it to life in his unique and powerful way, after which I’d supply the finished script.  We could have gone on doing that for years.

That’s not the way it worked out.

The exhilaration of our collaboration didn’t translate into the necessary sales (in those days at Marvel, if a book dipped below a hundred thousand copies a month, it was on the chopping block; today, a book consistently selling in the ninety thousand range, as GR did, would be a runaway best seller) and Ghost Rider was cancelled.  The good news?  We were given significant advance warning, allowing us the time to create a Grand Finale that would write an end to the saga of Johnny Blaze and Zarathos, giving Johnny and his true love, Roxanne Simpson, the “happily ever after” we thought they deserved.

But our contributions to Ghost Rider were just one small part of a much larger tapestry, and the book you’re about to read will take you on a journey from the story’s beginnings to its untimely end—and surprising resurrection.

So hop on your motorcycle and prepare to roar into the night.  And keep your eyes wide, because you never know what demons will be lurking around the next bend.

Foreword ©copyright 2021 J.M. DeMatteis

Ghost Rider ©copyright 2021 Marvel Entertainment

Art by Bob Budiansky

STAN BEFORE "STAN"

My son pointed me to this video—based on the comics in the background, it looks like it was filmed in 1966—of Stan Lee in the early days of Marvel's success, before he became the larger-than-life Stan we  came to know and love.  It's like seeing Peter Parker before he transformed into Spider-Man.  Fascinating!

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!

Although I'd dabbled in animation in the 1980s and 1990s, it wasn't until I started writing for the Justice League Unlimited TV series that I fell in love with the form.  JLU was the gig that really launched my animation career—I wrote seven episodes, including the adaptation of Alan Moore's "For The Man Who Has Everything"—and what a great launching pad it was.  The vision of the League that sprang from the creative minds of Bruce Timm, James Tucker, Stan Berkowtiz, Dwayne McDuffie and company was both a perfect distillation of the best elements from the comics and a fresh new take on these legendary characters.  

As time has passed, the show has become a classic—every day I see fans on Twitter clamoring for its return—which is why I'm happy to say that JLU is back.

But not as a TV show.

James Tucker (producer of JLU, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Legion of Superheroes and many more) and I will be co-writing a new series for DC Comics called Justice League Infinity, which picks up where the TV series left off.  Why Infinity?  Because our story is big—and takes our characters across the multiverse in search of...

Well, I don't want to give anything away.  But I will say that the art—by penciler/inker Ethen Beavers and colorist Nick Filardi—is extraordinary (see the pages below) and we're all thrilled to be working with this iconic cast, reviving and renewing the JLU universe.

The first digital issue of Justice League Infinity will be released in May, while the print version will hit comics shops in July.  Come join us on what we hope will be a memorable voyage across the DC multiverse, in the company of some old and dear friends.

SHAMBALLING

While going through old files, I came across this layout I did for artist Dan Green when we were working on our 1980's graphic novel, Dr. Strange:  Into Shamballa.

Dan and I created the story together, then I wrote up a detailed plot and, using my outline as a guide, Dan laid out the story, adding his own twists and turns, and creating thumbnail art for me to script from.  But sometimes, as I wrote from the thumbnails, the story would change (as stories tend to do) and I'd draw these goofy doodles to let Dan know what I was thinking, how I envisioned the new sequence.

Dan then turned my goofiness into breathtaking art.  (Most folks only know Dan as an inker, but his talents are vast.)

Doc never did say "Oy, vey" in the story, though!

IMAGINATION UPDATE

The Imagination 101 writing workshop originally scheduled for this month has been rescheduled for June.  Two weekends, ten hours, courtesy of the fine folks at Comixplex.com.  My first two online workshops—101 last November and 201 this past March—were a blast:  I had a fantastic group of students, filled with energy and ideas.  Looking forward to jumping back into the infinite pool of imagination in June.

Come join us!  

BONJOUR, SPIDEY!

Back in 1979 or so, when I was just sticking my toe in the door at Marvel, editor-in-chief Jim Shooter asked me to write some plots for short seven page Spider-Man tales that would be published exclusively in France, drawn by an artist named Gerald Forton (who, coincidentally, was also drawing the Black Lightning strip I was then doing for DC).  I never saw the finished stories—which were dialogued by French writers—and basically forgot that this chapter in my Spidey history ever happened.

This morning, for reasons that are beyond me, I started thinking about that early assignment and wondering if those stories ever even saw print.  The combination of Google and the hive mind of the Twitterverse returned the truth:  There was indeed a French magazine called TELEjunior that featured not just French-exclusive Spidey stories, but tales of Captain America, the Hulk and others.  I doubt if I'll be able to track down the exact issues where my stories appeared—I'm not even sure how many I wrote!—but it's nice to know they're out there somewhere and that my history with Spidey goes back even farther than I remembered!

La vie n'est-elle pas interessante?

Update:  Thanks to a fine gentleman on Twitter, I was able to locate one of my French Spidey stories.  (As soon as I saw the Alice in Wonderland riff, I knew it had to be mine!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CAPTAIN CRANE!

The great William Shatner turns 90 today!  (How is such a thing possible?)  If you want to know why I love the guy, read this.  And for a list of my favorite Shatner performances, click here.

I could have picked a Captain Kirk scene to post here in celebration, but the truth is, however much I love Kirk and Star Trek—and you know I do—Shatner will always be Denny Crane to me.