The latest episode of Eating the Fantastic wasn’t recorded at a convention, but as you’ll learn if you listen to my introduction, there’s a very good reason you could, if you’d care to, pretend it was.

My guest this time around is Robert Greenberger, a writer and editor of more than 100 books and anthologies, many within the DC, Marvel, and Star Trek franchises. He started his professional career an editor for Comics Scene and Starlog Press, and in 1984, joined DC Comics as an assistant editor to Len Wein and Marv Wolfman. He was promoted to editor the following year, and assigned the titles Star Trek, Suicide Squad, and Doom Patrol. The adaptations of several Star Trek films he edited led to him working on the franchise’s novel series, such as the seven-book crossover miniseries Gateways, developed with novel editor John J. Ordover. He continued at DC until 2000, by which time he’d risen to the position of Manager-Editorial Operations. Over the years, he worked on such titles as The Warlord, Lois Lane, Action Comics Weekly, Time Masters, Secret Origins, The Hacker Files, and more.



In 2001, he joined Marvel Comics as Director-Publishing Operations under Joe Quesada, but soon rejoined DC Comics as a Senior Editor for Collected Editions, where he remained until 2006. Since that time, he’s freelanced as a writer and editor, working for such companies as Weekly World News (where he was Managing Editor in 2006 and 2007), Platinum Studios, Syfy, Famous Monsters of Filmland, and ComicMix.com. He’s also a co-founder of Crazy 8 Press.

We discussed our teen experiences at the first Star Trek convention in 1972, how TV taught him about the existence of Marvel Comics, the way George Reeves as Clark Kent made him want to be a journalist, the lecture Wonder Woman editor Robert Kanigher gave him after he dared give feedback, why so many DC Comics staffers walked around without their shoes on Fridays, how he convinced Cable News to launch Comic Scene magazine, the convoluted way Denny O’Neil was responsible for him becoming Len Wein and Marv Wolfman’s assistant, how his editing of Star Trek comics led to his writing Star Trek fiction, the differences he saw in corporate culture while working at both Marvel and DC, what Clark Kent would have thought of his gig at the Weekly World News, and much more.

Here’s how you can join us for lunch at Showroom in Frederick, Maryland — (more…)