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Post by Slam_Bradley on Jun 12, 2020 11:37:39 GMT -5
I posted in the R.I.P. thread but this is probably big enough to deserve its own thread here. It's being reported across Twitter and Facebook and at least one place online that Denny O'Neil has passed away at 81. I don't think it's hyperbole to say that he's the most important writer of Batman since Bill Finger. And while his work on Green Lantern doesn't, in my opinion, hold up well, there's no question it was important work that sounded a change in comics as a whole and DC in particular. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2020 11:49:00 GMT -5
It's rare that a celebrity death gets a vocal reaction from me, but this was an "oh, damn" moment. Maybe Vic was a super-hero and maybe not, but his Question run was one of the first non-traditional super-hero series that got me interested in comics outside of primary colors and gratuitous fisticuffs.
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Post by tarkintino on Jun 12, 2020 11:49:19 GMT -5
Very, very sad if true. It is not an exaggeration to say O'Neil was one of the most industry-changing, historic creators in comics' history. There's no way to properly measure where comics as an art form would have gone if he never graced the industry with his work. Few can say that their stories are among the greatest that two major titles ever had in their entire runs.
A personal creative hero now gone from this world.
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Post by DubipR on Jun 12, 2020 12:11:33 GMT -5
S**t. This one hurts.
I've had the pleasure working along with him for the Hero Initiative. He told the best stories, loved everyone that came up to him with books to get signed. When he first came into the booth, my friend and I were shaking visibly. He can see we were excited to meet him, as we all grew up on his work. He smiled at us, shake our hands and said "Hey, it's going to be a great day. Whatever you two have in your pile, I'll take of you guys." Sat down and made money for us.
He will be greatly missed
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Post by badwolf on Jun 12, 2020 12:13:37 GMT -5
A great writer and editor.  |
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Post by Icctrombone on Jun 12, 2020 12:14:00 GMT -5
This was a punch in the gut. I loved his GL and his Iron Man run.  |
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Post by brutalis on Jun 12, 2020 12:18:19 GMT -5
Sad news indeed. Glad I had the opportunity last May here at Phoenix Fan Fusion to meet him and his pals Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. It was fun listening to his stories and shake his hand while thanking him for years of great comic book reading. He is a very outspoken and intelligent person who enlightened us all with his writing. Lots of his stuff in my collection to savor and enjoy!
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Jun 12, 2020 12:18:41 GMT -5
Oh, man, I just read his Iron Man run last month, and his Daredevil run is on my list of things to read in the next 18 months.
RIP.
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Post by Farrar on Jun 12, 2020 12:56:18 GMT -5
Oh god, so sorry to hear this. He was a game-changer. RIP Mr. O'Neil.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2020 13:22:29 GMT -5
His legacy is undeniable. He will be missed, but remembered.
-M
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Post by badwolf on Jun 12, 2020 14:04:05 GMT -5
Walter Simonson on Facebook:
"Denny O’Neil has taken the last flight out via Power Ring. I’ve known Denny since shortly after I got into comics professionally, although I knew his work before that as comics reader. I think we only worked together once, early in my career. He was my editor. After I finished working on Manhunter, I did some oddball/one-off jobs. Then, out of the blue, Denny asked if I’d be interested in doing layouts for Wallace Wood to do finishes over on a book called Hercules Unbound. I already knew Woody slightly from hanging out at Continuity Associates. And in any case, Woody was really a legend, a brilliant artist early in his career. At that point, I’d never done layouts for anyone to ink; I’d always inked my own work. But this was Wallace Wood! I jumped at the chance. I was thrilled to do the armature drawing for Woody to polish off. And this meant that in hindsight years down the road, I would appreciate more than ever that Denny gave me the chance to check off two names on my bucket list. 1. Got to work with Wallace Wood. 2. Got to work with Dennis O’Neil. I’ll always be grateful. Thanks for everything, Denny. I sure hope that you and Marifran are together again. Godspeed, pal."
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Post by badwolf on Jun 12, 2020 14:17:20 GMT -5
Mike Grell:
"I'm still in shock from the news that Denny O'Neil has passed away. We were friends for almost fifty years and his death is a gut-punch that still has me reeling. He gave me my whole career, starting when I first read Green Lantern/Green Arrow when I was in Saigon in 1970. His writing woke me up to what comics could really be and started me on this path.
Meeting him for the first time was an absolute thrill, and working with him was an ongoing education. I learned more about good writing by drawing the stories Denny wrote than all the English lit classes put together. Everything I've done can be traced back to Denny's influence.
I was honored to have the opportunity to work with him one last time for the Green Lantern 70th Anniversary book on a short story featuring Green Arrow that he wrote especially for me. I noticed that, in the last panel, he wrote the words: THE END.
Right now all I can think of is how fortunate I was to have had him for a mentor, collaborator and friend.
He was my hero."
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Post by EdoBosnar on Jun 12, 2020 14:24:30 GMT -5
Like DrakeTungsten, I said 'oh, no!' out loud as soon as I saw his photograph appear on a friend's fb post (because I knew it probably meant only one thing). This one really hurts - he was one of the all-time greats and a giant of my beloved Bronze Age. RIP.
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Post by Prince Hal on Jun 12, 2020 14:43:14 GMT -5
You all have spoken so well about the man and what he did for comics.
I'll simply add that in his early days at DC, his letters pages often included (or were entirely) letters from him to the readers. His was a new, unique, and dare I say it, young voice that for a teenaged comic reader like me was a refreshing change from the condescending tone of Weisinger, the polite, but unemotional Schwartz, and the self-aggrandizing, bombastic Stan Lee.
O'Neil sounded like a guy who cared about and respected the medium and what he was contributing to it, and that alone was a refreshing change. And he also took it all seriously. Those were turbulent times in the world and in comics. The staid and safe DC model was teetering, and though the GL-GA road trip was a last resort in the face of falling sales, O'Neil, as he had done with Batman, used the characters' pasts in order to reinvigorate them. He may have been the first exponent of the kind of post-modern deconstructionism in comics, but he did not throw the baby out with the bathwater. He looked at the past with respect, not disdain.
He wore his heart on his sleeve in those days, and I loved him for it.
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Post by brutalis on Jun 12, 2020 14:45:23 GMT -5
From Bill Sienkiewicz:
The great Denny O’neil has passed away.
Late last night. QUIETLY, peacefully, at home, with home health care nurse holding his hand.
He was a kind man with an acerbic edge, a giving soul, wickedly funny, and an incredibly talented writer who penned some of the greatest comic stories ever told.
He was also my first comic book editor on Moon Knight, which, as a fan of his work, made me up my game. More, he took time out of work life to become a friend, one who generously gave of his personal time to talk from experience and of demons, to a young farm kid from New Jersey about the path of self-destruction farm kid was heading down because of farm kid’s drinking. Not many folks will step up like that. Denny did, and I will be forever grateful.
He helped make me a better professional, and better artist and storyteller, a better person, and to take what i do very seriously as a responsibility. Of course, in doing so, he also helped create a monster who butted heads with him about any number of creative issues on MK, but in the end , he was a dear friend, a wonderful colleague and mentor. I learned so very much from him.
You will be missed, my friend. Rest in Peace.
From Paul Levitz:
Denny’s gone, brought social conscience to comics. He was a journalist at heart, and knew his obit would have Batman in the lede, but I think he’d have been prouder of this way of looking at his life. Not that he was the first, much less the only one, but damn it he was the loudest. Not personally, he wasn’t a shouter. But the stories he told and edited screamed for justice for the causes that mattered to him. From GREEN LANTERN/GREEN ARROW to SEDUCTION OF THE GUN, and in subtle moments as well as the loud ones, he set the standard for giving a damn.
He was a teacher, maybe the best of his generation teaching writing and editing in comics. He taught me copy editing, and how to parse my dialogue for comics to be effective. His disciples filled the field.
He was the most economical of writers, communicating with his collaborators in the briefest of art directions but getting great work from them, offering tight dialogue that was precisely on point.
He was a philosopher, searching for ways to make the world better…even exploring how a new religion might be necessary for a time when it was no longer about man mastering the Earth, but learning to live in harmony with it.
And having buried the lede, he made Batman what he is, writing the stories and editing others that set the tone for the post-camp Dark Knight on through everything that Tim Burton and Christopher Nolan leaned on.
Denny got a second lease on life from his marriage to MariFran, and they shared amazing years until her passing. Once she was gone, it was only a matter of time until he followed.
This is the second of my poker buddies to cash in their chips in about a month. He lived a full life, was shocked at the recognition he achieved, and leaves behind his son Larry, with whom he shared many personal and professional joys.
But most of all, and ever so relevant at a moment like this, he taught us that we could…no, we should…damn it, we must use our podiums as writers, editors and teachers to push the world to become a better, more just place.
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