{"id":26067,"date":"2019-07-05T08:50:10","date_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=26067"},"modified":"2019-07-05T08:50:10","modified_gmt":"2019-07-05T12:50:10","slug":"lunch-in-l-a-with-comics-legend-gerry-conway-on-episode-99-of-eating-the-fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2019\/07\/05\/lunch-in-l-a-with-comics-legend-gerry-conway-on-episode-99-of-eating-the-fantastic\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunch in L.A. with comics legend Gerry Conway on Episode 99 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

My first meal of the Nebula Awards weekend was with comics legend\u00a0Gerry Conway<\/a>, who\u00a0I\u2019ve known for at least 48 years, since 1971 — when I was a comics fan of 16, and he was 19, and yet\u00a0already a comics pro with\u00a0credits on\u00a0Phantom Stranger<\/em>,\u00a0Ka-Zar<\/em>, and\u00a0Daredevil<\/em>. Our paths back then crossed in the\u00a0basement of the Times Square branch of Nathan\u2019s (which, alas, no longer exists) where the late Phil Seuling had organized a standalone dealers room without any convention programming dubbed Nathan’s Con<\/a>,\u00a0which was a test run for his future Second Sunday<\/a> mini-cons.<\/p>\n

Gerry and I have a lot of history in those 48 years, including his time as Marvel\u2019s editor-in-chief when I worked in the\u00a0Bullpen \u2014 though his tenure was only six weeks long, two of those weeks my honeymoon \u2014 a tenure you\u2019ll hear us talk\u00a0about during the meal which follows. He\u2019s the creator of The Punisher, Power Girl, and Firestorm, and wrote a lengthy and\u00a0at one point controversial run on\u00a0Spider-Man<\/em>. But he\u2019s also worked on such TV series as\u00a0Matlock<\/em>,\u00a0Jake and the Fatman<\/em>,\u00a0Hercules: The\u00a0Legendary Journeys<\/em>,\u00a0Law & Order<\/em>, and many others.<\/p>\n

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At Gerry\u2019s recommendation, our meal took place at the Sagebrush Cantina<\/a> in Calabasas, California, where I invite you to take a seat and eavesdrop on our longest conversation in 40 years. <\/p>\n

We discussed how the comics business has always been dying and what keeps saving it, why if he were in charge he’d shut down Marvel Comics for six months, what it’s like (and how it’s different) being both the youngest and oldest writer ever to script Spider-Man, the novel mistake he made during his summer at the Clarion Writers Workshop, why he’s lived a life in comics rather than science fiction, what caused Harlan Ellison to write an offensive letter to his mother, the one bad experience he ever had being edited in comics (it had to do with the Justice League), the convoluted way Superman vs. Spider-Man<\/em> resulted in him writing for TV’s Father Dowling Mysteries<\/em>, how exasperation caused him to quit his role as Marvel’s Editor-in-Chief (while I was out of the Bullpen on my honeymoon), how he’d have been treated if he’d killed off Gwen Stacy in today’s social media world, and much, much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation —<\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at the iTunes store<\/a> — where I hope you’ll be tempted while you’re there to download some of the 98 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Listen using the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or check it out via the embed below.<\/p>\n