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HANNA-BARBERA DYNOMUTT
Based on one of H-B's better shows of the time, Dynomutt was about a robotic dog who served as sidekick to a stodgy super-hero, The Blue
Falcon. The comic book ran six issues, though it took me many years to convince the folks at the Overstreet Price Guide of this.
They were certain there were seven, and I'm still correcting the occasional collector on this point. All six were drawn by Paul Norris, a
lovely man who drew the Brick Bradford newspaper strip for a few decades and never missed a deadline on it or anything. During an
earlier career, he drew Golden Age strips like the original Sandman for DC and was the artistic co-creator of Aquaman. Not too shabby.
LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE
When Jack Kirby was doing Jimmy Olsen, he and I co-plotted a storyline...then something that was changed in another DC comic rendered our plot
inoperative. Jack had completed a few pages of it so he changed them and incorporated them into a new scenario he devised. The notes for
the discarded story went into my filing cabinet and there they resided for years. One day a few years ago, I came across those notes and
suggested to the folks at DC that we do a comic based on that plot. They said yes and Steve Rude said he'd mud-wrestle anyone else who wanted
to draw it, so he drew it...and that's pretty much how this one came about. Hope we did your story justice, Jack.
BEEP BEEP THE ROAD RUNNER
First off, I don't know why he talks at all in the comic book, let alone talks in rhyme. Oddly enough, this was established in the first comic
book appearances of the Road Runner and the Coyote and these were written (mostly) by Michael Maltese and drawn by Pete Alvarado, both of whom worked
on the first Road Runner cartoons. Maltese may not have suggested the rhyming speech (another writer, Don R. Christensen thinks he may have)
but Maltese liked it...and, once I decided I wasn't trying to replicate the cartoons in the comic, so did I. Alvarado drew a lot of the scripts
I did for this comic but most were illustrated (appropriately) by one of the fastest cartoonists I've ever known, Jack Manning.
  
HANNA-BARBERA THE FLINTSTONES
Talk about your childhood dreams coming true: I always liked The Flintstones. Didn't much like the show its last few incarnations, but I always
liked Fred and Barney and Wilma and Betty and Dino and the whole ambiance, especially the little rock inventions and things like the bird that
functioned as a record player. So it was fun to write these comic books of the modern stone age family, which were drawn by Roger Armstrong and
later by Dick Bickenbach, for as long as they lasted. One problem: There was one guy back at Marvel who kept calling up, acting like he had
some editorial authority over them (he didn't) and demanding that I feature the Great Gazoo (I didn't).
WELCOME BACK, KOTTER
I worked for a time as Story Editor of the Welcome Back, Kotter TV show and, since DC was putting out the comic book, they asked me to write a
few issues. Oddly enough, I had more arguments with DC editor Joe Orlando about what was "in character" for Mr. Kotter and the Sweathogs than I
ever did with anyone who worked on the TV show, including the actors who played those roles. This comic didn't sell well because, I believe, DC
insisted that the art — by Ric Estrada and Bob Oksner — had to be broad. I admire both men but believe that, had they drawn the
characters as Gold Key might have (making the people look less cartoony), it would have been a hit.
WALT DISNEY MICKEY MOUSE
I only wrote one Mickey Mouse story for Gold Key. I wrote a number for the Disney Foreign Comics Department but this was the
only one that ever got published in English. Obviously, it's a big deal for anyone who grew up reading Disney comics to get a crack at The
Mouse. Obviously too, he's not all that interesting a character and after I recovered from the heady realization that I'd written Mickey, I
asked my editor if I could stick with Bugs Bunny and friends in the future. The editor sighed and said, "No one wants to write Mickey for very
long."
Stop. You have reached the end of this section. There are, believe it or don't, even more of these but enough is
enough. Thank you for reading this far, and now you can go find something more interesting on this site or, better still, on some other
site.
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