Comic Book Creator #37 Winter 2025 (magazine review).

There are a lot of smaller articles in this ‘Comic Book Creator’, so I’ve focused on some of the more significant ones. Take the third part of an interview with writer Arnold Drake (1924-2007) back in 2002 by editor Jon B. Cooke. Drake’s observations about DC Comics and the failed attempt to unionise writers suggest that such an effort would not have succeeded at either DC or Marvel.

Looking objectively from the British point of view, freelancers tend to get their pay rates based on their value to any company and to stop them from going elsewhere. Newcomers aren’t likely to get more money until their star rises even today. Getting a uniform, let alone a basic rate, is harder because I doubt if either side, let alone all companies, would agree to anything. With DC, they got rid of the older writers simply by not giving them work, effectively firing them. That didn’t stop Drake from working, spending a year at Marvel before Gold Key and spending a decade on ‘Little Lulu’.

The interview with former DC editor-in-chief Dan DiDio presents an interesting examination of his career in the job and getting an older audience into buying their comics. Still puzzling how the word ‘Crisis’ can be copyrighted.

Of course, the real meat of this issue is the interview with Steve Englehart. There’s a lot of emphasis by interviewer Jon B. Cooke on Englehart’s political upbringing, mostly because of what he introduced into his stories much later. What I didn’t realise was him being a polyglot, speaking several languages, and smart across the board. He also got hooked on comics and drew before becoming a writer.

He was also Neal Adams’ first Crusty Bunker, with some valid art shown here. He was also a sub-editor at Marvel, filling in for Mike Friedrich when he was offered a script fill-in, and then worked through their other titles before being offered ‘The Beast’ in ‘Amazing Adventures’. The rest is history and a lot of travelling. Something that came from all of this is the amount of experience Englehart had that he could incorporate into his stories.

This review looks shorter than usual, but the three main pieces I selected here are quite long, and there’s plenty to read on other subjects as well, so you’re going to find a lot of areas covered.

GF Willmetts

July 2025

(pub: TwoMorrows Publishing. 114 page illustrated magazine. Price: $10.95 (US). ISSN: 2330-2437. Direct from them, you can get it for $10.95 (US)).

check out websites: www.TwoMorrows.com and https://twomorrows.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=98_132&products_id=1800