It’s time once again to step into the time machine, as this episode’s guest, Paul Kupperberg, is one of the two people in comics I’ve known the longest. He, along with former guest of the podcast Paul Levitz, ran fanzine sales at Phil Seuling’s 1971 4th of July weekend Comic Art Convention. We were both 16 then.

Paul’s another one of those guests I’d planned to sit across the table from during a day trip north sometime during the past two years, but that couldn’t happen, so to prevent the state of the world from stealing from us the conversation we would have had in better times, this became another one of the remote episodes I started doing once our world narrowed in early 2020, urged on by my Patreon supporters, who felt as much of a need for community during this difficult period as I did.

A lot has changed over the past half century since Paul and I met, as he’s written more than 1,000 short stories and comic book stories during those years. Among the characters whose adventures he’s scripted are Superman, Supergirl, Superboy, the new Doom Patrol, Green Lantern, the Justice League of America, Aquaman, Conan, and many others. He also scripted something near and dear to my heart — the first appearance of Keith Giffen’s Ambush Bug character in DC Comics Presents #52 (Dec. 1982). He wrote the syndicated The World’s Greatest Superheroes newspaper comic strip with José Delbo from 1981–1985. He’s the author of more than three dozen books of fiction and nonfiction, including The Same Old Story, JSA: Ragnarok, Direct Comments: Comics Creators in Their Own Words, and Paul Kupperberg’s Illustrated Guide to Writing Comics. He’s been an editor at DC Comics, WWE Kids’ Magazine, and the Weekly World News.

Paul ordered in Butter Chicken from Curry & Hurry in Riverside Connecticut, I ran over to Spice Connexion in Martinsburg, West Virginia for take-out Lamb Rogan Josh, and I hope you grab some Indian food so you can better pretend to be part of the gabfest.

We discussed which superhero starred in his first favorite comic book, the reasons we’re in agreement when it comes to the Stan vs. Jack debate, why his introduction to Superman had nothing to do with comics, what we each felt was lacking in our own early comic book writing, the surprising identity of the DC editor whose books sold the best, what caused legendary artist Don Heck to curse him out, the special challenges of writing comic strips, how he needed to get ready (or not) before writing all those legacy characters, what it was like rebooting Doom Patrol, which Archie character’s death upset him so much he had to step away from the keyboard, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us — (more…)

Early last year, I shared a photograph of me in front of the White House, a visit which occurred while I was attending the 1974 World Science Fiction Convention in Washington, D.C.

That’s me on the far right, in the company of Carl Gafford, Paul Levitz, and Steve Gilary. When I first posted this image, I bemoaned the fact that no crisp, clear original print existed of this moment, just a fading photocopy I’d made while on staff at Marvel Comics.

I learned today that I was wrong. (more…)

I had a dream this morning in which I was hanging out at a hotel with the Jonas Brothers and the guys from Entourage, two sets of people I’d never want anything to do with in real life. (While I do watch the Entourage TV show, they’re far too self-absorbed to be trusted, and as for the Jonas Brothers, they seem nice enough, but they also seem rock lite, and little more than today’s edition of the Monkees.) Anyway, after awhile in the hotel bar, someone gets the idea to hop in a limo and drive around the city.

Once we do, the city which passes by outside our windows could be any big, generic megalopolis, so I can’t tell you exactly where we were. But eventually we pass one of those upscale gentlemens clubs the Entourage guys love to frequent on their show. Out front, half-naked woman covered with leopard spots and wearing cat-like face make-up are doing gymnastics to attract attention. The car is stopped, and Vince and the guys vanish inside.

I’m left with the Jonas Brothers, and they look at each other as if to say, “Uh-oh, we can’t get caught here,” out of fear that it would ruin their squeaky clean tweener image. They look back and forth from each other to the woman again, over and over, and then they, too, leap out of the car and disappear inside the club, leaving me alone in the back of a stretch limo. After a moment, I decide to head inside to track down my companions. (more…)