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Post by electricmastro on Apr 29, 2020 14:40:55 GMT -5
In researching DC’s history as of late, I was surprised to learn just how much Gardner Fox had contributed to DC’s foundation of what it sits on to this day, and how downplayed the level of his contributions seem to be. Really though, if I was asked to name which writer I thought was “the Stan Lee of DC,” my best answer would probably be him, and that’s keeping in mind Jerry Siegel’s contributions for Superman and the Spectre and Bill Finger’s contributions for Batman and Green Lantern.
To give an idea, among Gardner Fox’s contributions, they include:
1939 - Co-created Sandman
1940 - Co-created the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and the Justice Society of America
1941 - Co-created Starman
1958 - Co-wrote Adam Strange’s first story
1960 - Co-created the Justice League of America
1961 - Co-created the Ray Palmer Atom and the Multiverse and helped revive Hawkman as a feature
1963 - Wrote the first team-up between the Justice Society of America and Justice League of America
1964 - Co-created Zatanna and the Crime Syndicate of America
1965 - Helped revive Doctor Fate, Hourman, Starman, and Black Canary as features
1966 - Helped revive the Spectre as a feature
1967 - Co-created the Barbara Gordon Batgirl
1968 - Co-created the Ulthoon Red Tornado
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Post by chadwilliam on Apr 29, 2020 16:29:53 GMT -5
Though there are massive areas of the DC Universe I still remain unfamiliar with, Fox would have earned his legendary status for his work on Batman alone. He started on the character with his third appearance and introduced Batman's first memorable foe - Dr. Death. Though the Utility Belt had already been established and a silken cord along with it, it was Fox who introduced the gas pellets, bat-a-rang, bat-rope, bat-gyro, and a pair of suction cups with which to climb a building which paved the way for all sorts of other accessories down the road. He also supplied Batman with the second member of his Rogues Gallery in the form of The Monk and the first in a long line of romantic interests in the form of fiancee Julie Madison. Fox may have even come up with Batman's origin since he wrote the story in which it first appeared (Detective Comics #33) but since that two page sequence is separate from the main tale, it's also quite possible (perhaps probable) that it was Finger who came up with it. Cei-U would probably have the best idea as to its provenance.
Fox also reintroduced The Riddler and The Scarecrow (and came up the villain's fear gas), helped introduce The New Look with Detective Comics #327, handled the death of Alfred, and even introduced the concept of 'What if?' in Detective Comics #347 in addition to co-creating Barbara Gordon as already mentioned.
A seminal figure during the character's Golden Age (he wrote six of the first eight Batman stories ever) and a crucial element of his Silver Age.
And again, that's just Batman.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 29, 2020 16:46:02 GMT -5
He was also a prolific prose writer, working in the sci-fi, fantasy/sword & sorcery genres, westerns and other genres. He even got Frazetta covers for some of his work...  and did a Conan riff...  with Jeffrey Jones on covers. Plus some that seem to be more bodice rippers...  and a few more of his novels...   and this one behind spoiler tags...  plus he wrote a lot of prose for various pulps as well...     As prolific as he was in comics, he was an even more prolific prose writer whose output spanned several genres and mediums. -M |
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Post by tarkintino on Apr 29, 2020 17:48:23 GMT -5
In researching DC’s history as of late, I was surprised to learn just how much Gardner Fox had contributed to DC’s foundation of what it sits on to this day, and how downplayed the level of his contributions seem to be. Really though, if I was asked to name which writer I thought was “the Stan Lee of DC,” my best answer would probably be him, and that’s keeping in mind Jerry Siegel’s contributions for Superman and the Spectre and Bill Finger’s contributions for Batman and Green Lantern. To give an idea, among Gardner Fox’s contributions, they include: 1939 - Co-created Sandman 1940 - Co-created the Flash, Hawkman, Doctor Fate, and the Justice Society of America 1941 - Co-created Starman 1960 - Co-created the Justice League of America 1961 - Co-created the Ray Palmer Atom and the Multiverse and helped revive Hawkman as a feature 1963 - Wrote the first team-up between the Justice Society of America and Justice League of America 1964 - Co-created Zatanna and the Crime Syndicate of America 1965 - Helped revive Doctor Fate, Hourman, Starman, and Black Canary as features 1966 - Helped revive the Spectre as a feature 1967 - Co-created the Barbara Gordon Batgirl 1968 - Co-created the Ulthoon Red Tornado I think Fox being properly recognized depends on what source you're looking at; I have quite a number of comic history books published across the decades and I would say a bit more than half made direct references to Fox and his contributions. Where it gets dodgy (or disrespectful) is in any book that is glorified fan worship of any one company member (and/or figurehead) at the expense of the important work created by others. Unfortunately, I've found that some publisher-produced (or authorized) books are often more guilty of that than the work of independent historians. But the main point--yes, Fox is one of the key figures in the medium's history, to the point where a significant part of its course simply would not exist (along with anything his work influenced) without him. |
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Post by profh0011 on Apr 29, 2020 18:22:45 GMT -5
Thanks for the reminder of his massive Golden Age contributions to National Comics. A few years ago, I was noting how much MORE I enjoyed his work for Magazine Enterprises in the early 1950s than, frankly, ANYTHING he did for National in the 1960s. I believe the difference was, once the Comics Code came in, there were so many restrictions, and on top of that, so many MANIACAL power-mad control-freak editors making things too complicated and difficult for writers.
It's like, for the longest time, when I would think of the name "Gardner Fox", the 1st thing that would come to mind is "JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA" (with Mike Sekowsky & Bernard Sachs on the art, of course). I have the first 3 Archive books of that, and while I enjoyed reading them, I found it required a certain amount of effort to put myself into the right frame of mind for the excessively-stilted, stylized stories to "work".
By comparison, I had no problem with his work on M.E.'s "GHOST RIDER" (art by Dick Ayers & Ernie Bache). Those stories, incidentally, totally blow away anything ever done with Marvel's rip-off version in 1967 and onward (even though they recruited Ayers to write & draw the stories-- the characters had nothing in common with the originals, except for the costume).
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Post by Cei-U! on Apr 29, 2020 18:50:15 GMT -5
Fox was also the sole writer on Columbia's Big Shot Comics for the title's first 3-and-a-half years, co-creating Skyman, The Face, and comics' first Islamic super-hero, Raja the Arabian Knight. There is some question about his involvement in the co-creation of Starman, as artist Jack Burnley once credited Murray Boltinoff with coming up with the character. Fox was also responsible for the many changes made to The Spectre in the second half of his Golden Age series, including adding the obnoxious Percival Popp the Super-Cop to the cast. Nobody's batting average is perfect.
And yes, chadwilliam, Bill Finger almost certainly scripted that first 2-page Batman origin sequence.
Cei-U!
I summon the titan of yesteryear!
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Post by Duragizer on Apr 29, 2020 19:00:05 GMT -5
So Fox effectively created the DC Universe. And true to form, DC shafted him.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Apr 29, 2020 19:03:02 GMT -5
Fox’s prose ranged from thoroughly mediocre to terrible. At least what I’ve read was. And I say that someone who is very forgiving of paperback originals and pulp prose.
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Post by chadwilliam on Apr 29, 2020 20:22:01 GMT -5
Fox was also the sole writer on Columbia's Big Shot Comics for the title's first 3-and-a-half years, co-creating Skyman, The Face, and comics' first Islamic super-hero, Raja the Arabian Knight. There is some question about his involvement in the co-creation of Starman, as artist Jack Burnley once credited Murray Boltinoff with coming up with the character. Fox was also responsible for the many changes made to The Spectre in the second half of his Golden Age series, including adding the obnoxious Percival Popp the Super-Cop to the cast. Nobody's batting average is perfect. And yes, chadwilliam, Bill Finger almost certainly scripted that first 2-page Batman origin sequence. Cei-U! I summon the titan of yesteryear! Those are two points for which I owe you my thanks. I wouldn't expect Fox to come up with an origin while awaiting the return of Bill Finger, but I thought it a possibility. And here I am doing a Spectre review elsewhere on these boards and you throw that little tidbit at me! M.W. Gallaher suggested that Fox was writing the Spectre tales in All-Star (at least with the third issue) and while I'm not certain myself, it never even occurred to me that such a switch would eventually occur over at More Fun.Thanks again, Cei-U! |
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Post by berkley on Apr 29, 2020 21:22:18 GMT -5
I know I've read at least one of his fanatsy books, probably from the Kothar series, and found it OK for what it was - a light, easily-digested piece of entertainment designed to be enjoyed and immeditately forgotten. But yeah, even knowing that, it was still almost too lightweight. Still, I've probably read worse. I'll most likely try something else somewhere down the road - and I can't help being attracted by some of those beautiful covers.
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Post by profh0011 on Apr 29, 2020 22:25:16 GMT -5
I've got it around here somewhere, but, without looking it up, it seems to me in the Golden Age STARMAN Archive book, the intro described how the character, unlike most at the company, was a "creation by committee", without 6 people involved! One can rather imagine a lunch where a group of editors sat around, and in between bites, tried to decide what a new character they could do would be like. "He should fly..." "He should have a cape..." "How about a helmet with a fin?" Etcetera.  Incidentally... ever since I read Starman's debut story, it struck me that it may have been an inspiration for the 1968 " SPIDER-MAN" cartoon episode, " Spiderman Meets Skyboy". Both stories involve a hero whose sole power seems to be a device that allows them to fly... and someone who's been kidnapped by a villain with lightning powers whose hideout is on top of a mountain. Gray Morrow, who did all the designs and storyboards for season 2 & 3 (working with producer Ralph Bakshi & uncredited writer Lin Carter), was apparently a big fan of old movies (and probably comics), as many of the new villains who appeared only in those episodes, I've found, were clearly based on actors and characters from the 1920s on up. ("The Master Technician", for example, is a dead ringer for the mad scientist "Rotwang" in the movie " METROPOLIS".) About a year before, Larry Ivie ALSO did a similar story in his self-published magazine " MONSTERS & HEROES", featuring his own hero, " Altron-Boy", whose sole power, again, was a belt that allowed him to fly, and who faced off against a villain who kidnapped his father, and hit out on a mountain-top. It seems almost certain to me somebody was borrowing ideas! I find it fun to figure out influences like this. |
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Post by electricmastro on Apr 29, 2020 22:36:33 GMT -5
I suppose also worth mentioning is that Fox helped write the first issue in which Superman and Batman personally appeared together in a comic story, as well as the first issue in which Superman and Batman were with Wonder Woman. I recall that this was rarely seen at the time though: All-Star Comics #7 (October, 1941):  All-Star Comics #36 (August, 1947):  |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Apr 30, 2020 3:17:52 GMT -5
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Post by MDG on Apr 30, 2020 8:48:06 GMT -5
He also wrote a porn spy series under the name "Rod Gray." You can read a kindle version for under a buck (w/o the great cover, though).  Also: I'm always dismayed how editors are often left out of these discussions. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Apr 30, 2020 9:04:16 GMT -5
I always mix up Fox with Julius Schwartz.
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