This is the fourth in my ongoing series of articles where I list where and when I first worked with other creators, mostly on inside pages, in chronological order based on cover dates of the comics. You can find the previous entries on the COMICS CREATION page of this blog.

Ground rules: I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I won’t count are relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist. Of course this lists only the first time I worked with someone, so anyone from the previous year lists will not be here. Entries are tagged as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), or inker (i). I did not often interact with colorists (c) in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. My credit is for lettering unless otherwise noted.

Carmine Infantino (p) ADVENTURE COMICS #479, March 1981

Larry Mahlstedt (i) ADVENTURE COMICS #479, March 1981

I loved Carmine’s work as a child, particularly on FLASH. I missed working with him on staff by a few years, and was delighted to letter some of his work at DC, particularly on FLASH, but the lead “Dial H for Hero” story in this issue was fun, too. Larry was a fine inker, I think we worked together elsewhere.

B. S. Watson (w) MYSTERY IN SPACE #117, March 1981

Bruce Jones (w) MYSTERY IN SPACE #117, March 1981

Rick Veitch (p) MYSTERY IN SPACE #117, March 1981

Dennis Jensen (i) MYSTERY IN SPACE #117, March 1981

This issue was the first of many collaborations with Rick Veitch. I confess I don’t remember meeting the others.

Bo Hampton (a) THE UNEXPECTED #208, March 1981

I’m surprised to see I worked with Bo this early, or at all, I didn’t recall it. His brother Scott and I collaborated often.

Dan Mishkin & Gary Cohn (w) WARLORD #43, March 1981

Greg LaRocque (p) WARLORD #43, March 1981

Phil Rachelson (c) WARLORD #43, March 1981

Mishkin & Cohn always worked as a team in their early days at DC, we met a few times. This was on an “OMAC” backup story.

Roy Thomas (w) GREEN LANTERN #139, April 1981

I only worked with Roy a few times. This first time, he scripted over Marv Wolfman’s plot.

Karen Berger (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #292, May 1981

Dan Spiegle (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #292, May 1981

In her earliest editing days on this title, Karen was writing the one-page introductions, some of which I lettered. Dan Spiegle and I later collaborated on OMEGA MEN #32, my favorite issue.

Bob Oksner (p) SUPERMAN FAMILY # 207, May-June 1981

A wonderful artist whose work I came to appreciate more later. This was a Lois Lane story.

Howard Bender (p) GHOSTS #101, June 1981

Tony DeZuñiga (i) GHOSTS #101, June 1981

Howard worked in the DC production department with me at the time. I don’t think I ever met DeZuñiga.

Joe Brozowski (p) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #293, June 1981

I remember talking to Joe at DC a number of times. He also worked under the pen name J. J. Birch.

John Severin (a) UNKNOWN SOLDIER #252, June 1981

As seen above, John was always a thrill to work with, and I didn’t have the chance very often. One of the greats. I don’t think we ever met in person.

Bob Haney (w) WORLD’S FINEST #269, June-July 1981

Brett Breeding (i) WORLD’S FINEST #269, June-July 1981

Long-time DC writer Haney was around the offices fairly often, but I don’t recall ever talking to him. Breeding was and is a fine inker.

Denys Cowan (p) THE FLASH #299, July 1981

I remember talking to Denys at DC, and we worked together on Batman stories a few times.

Ernie Colón (a) THE SPIRIT #30 (Kitchen Sink), July 1981

Ernie and I became friends when he started working at DC as an editor, and he was my editor on a few things I wrote. We often went to lunch together with Keith Giffen and others. This was the “Spirit Jam” issue with dozens of top creators. I lettered three pages. A rare instance of being allowed to letter for another publisher while on staff.

Laurie Sutton (w) GREEN LANTERN #143, Aug. 1981

Rodin Rodriguez (p) GREEN LANTERN #143, Aug. 1981

Laurie had been employed by the Comics Code Authority, and then became an editor at DC, where we worked together. I think I met Rodriguez, but I’m not sure. This was for an “Adam Strange” backup story.

Adrian Gonzales (i) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #295, Aug. 1981

Jimmy Janes (p) LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES #278, Aug. 1981

I met Jimmy Janes at DC and remember talking to him a few times.

Luke McDonnell (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #102, Aug. 1981

I worked with Luke on his SUICIDE SQUAD run and remember meeting him a few times.

Tom Ziuko (c) ACTION COMICS #524, Oct. 1981

Tom was another fellow production staffer. I enjoyed working with him until he went freelance full-time.

That’s it, more of this when I have time.

This is the third in my ongoing series of articles where I list where and when I first worked with other creators, mostly on inside pages, in chronological order based on cover dates of the comics. You can find the previous entries on the COMICS CREATION page of this blog. I’ve added comments about some of my collaborators this time, and may go back and do the same for the first two parts.

Ground rules: I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I won’t count are relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist. Of course this lists only the first time I worked with someone, so anyone from the previous year lists will not be here. Entries are tagged as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), or inker (i). I did not often interact with colorists (c) in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. My credit is for lettering unless otherwise noted.

Jose Delbo (p) DETECTIVE COMICS #489, April 1980

Jose was always a charming and talented man, as he is today. We did not work together a lot, but I liked what we did.

Tatjana Wood (c) DETECTIVE COMICS #490, May 1980

Tatjana, the ex-wife of Wally Wood, often visited the DC offices when I was on staff there, and I liked her and enjoyed her stories about “Wallace.” She mainly colored covers, so I’m glad we worked together on at least one story.

Tom Yeates (a) GHOSTS #89, June 1980

I love Tom’s work, still do. We worked together only occasionally.

Trevor Von Eeden (p) SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #25, June 1980 (a story I also wrote)

I worked with Trevor on the THRILLER series, and a few other times. I enjoyed talking to him when he visited the DC production department.

Dave Simons (i) SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #25, June 1980

Mimai Kin (w) TIME WARP #5, June-July 1980

Carl Potts (i) TIME WARP #5, June-July 1980

I’m actually surprised about this one, as Carl was mainly a Marvel guy.

Elliot S. Maggin (w) TIME WARP #5, June-July 1980

Jerry Bingham (p) TIME WARP #5, June-July 1980

John Celardo (i) TIME WARP #5, June-July 1980

Marv Wolfman (w) ADVENTURE COMICS #474, Aug. 1980

Marv and I worked together many times, from NEW TEEN TITANS to NIGHT FORCE and other projects. I got to know him well enough to consider him a friend, even though we only meet occasionally now at conventions.

Armando Gil (i) WORLD’S FINEST #264, Aug.-Sept 1980

Steve Mitchell (i) BATMAN #327, Sept. 1980

Steve was a fellow production artist at DC, and an entertaining person.

Anthony Tollin (c) GREEN LANTERN #132, Sept. 1980

Another staffer, Tony and I worked together for a few years before he went freelance full-time.

Charles Nicholas (p) DETECTIVE COMICS #495, Oct. 1980

David Allikas (w) GHOSTS #93, Oct. 1980

Tom Mandrake (a) GHOSTS #93, Oct. 1980

Tom and I had a long run on THE SPECTRE, and worked together on other things, too. We meet now only on Facebook, but I consider him a friend and love his work.

Alan Weiss (p) MYSTERY IN SPACE #112, Oct. 1980

This one surprised me. I didn’t think I’d worked with Alan until he became the regular artist on Young Tom Strong in TOM STRONG’S TERRIFIC TALES for America’s Best Comics.

Terry Austin (i) MYSTERY IN SPACE #112, Oct. 1980

I always loved Terry’s inking, glad we worked together at least a little.

Rich Buckler (p) BATMAN #329, Nov. 1980

Rich was always working on lots of things, and I lettered a few of them. A very nice man.

Jim Starlin (p) DC COMICS PRESENTS #27, Nov. 1980

Jim’s regular letterer was often Tom Orzechowski, but I did work with him a few times.

Gerald Forton (a) GHOSTS #93, Dec. 1980

A respected Belgian artist I only worked with on a few intro pages and never met.

George Perez (p, breakdowns), JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA #185, Dec. 1980

I always loved George’s work, and was happy to be one of the NEW TEEN TITANS letterers with him.

Leopoldo Duranona (a) SECRETS OF HAUNTED HOUSE #31, Dec. 1980

Bob Kane (p) THE RACING PETTYS, no number, 1980. I hesitate to even list this, it was a custom comic from Bob Kane’s studio in partnership with DC. Kane was famous for hiring others to work for him and taking credit for that work, but I have to say some of the pencils on this book were so crude and awful I can’t imagine him paying anyone for them.

That’s it, more of these when I have time.

Continuing my life-list for comics, a list of the writers, artists, colorists, and editors I worked with on story pages. 1977-78 is HERE. Ground rules: I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I won’t count are relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories, mostly. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist. Of course this lists only the first time I worked with someone, so anyone from the previous year list will not be here. Entries are tagged as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), or inker (i). I did not often interact with colorists in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. Editors will only be listed where I did not work with them in any other capacity. I base the date of first work with someone on cover dates of the issues, then alphabetically for ones with the same date, though they may not have been, probably weren’t, lettered in that order, but you have to have some system.

Robert Kanigher (w) G.I. COMBAT #212, Feb.-March 1979

Michael W. Kaluta (a) THE UNEXPECTED #190, March-April 1979 (1 page Doorway to Nightmare intro.)

Martin Pasko (w) THE UNEXPECTED #190, March-April 1979 (I colored his story)

George Evans (a) WEIRD WAR TALES #74, April 1979

Dennis O’Neil (w) DETECTIVE COMICS #483, April-May 1979

Bill Draut (i) GHOSTS #76, May 1979

George Ruppert (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #75, May 1979

Dan Adkins (i) WEIRD WAR TALES #75, May 1979

J.M. DeMatteis (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #76, June 1979

Gale Heimbach (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #76, June 1979

Murray Boltinoff (w) G.I. COMBAT #214, June-July 1979

Dick Ayers (p) MEN OF WAR #19, Aug. 1979

Michael Uslan (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #78, Aug. 1979

Curt Swan (p) ACTION COMICS #499, Sept. 1979

Don Heck (p) SUPERMAN FAMILY #197, Sept.-Oct. 1979

Dick Dillin (p) DC COMICS PRESENTS #14, Oct. 1979

Ric Estrada (a) WEIRD WAR TALES #80, Oct. 1979

Joe Orlando (a) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979 logo design from his sketch

Mike W. Barr (w) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979

Tom Sutton (a) TIME WARP #1, Oct.-Nov. 1979

Marshall Rogers (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #274, Nov. 1979

One thing I’ve discovered as I check these credits in the Grand Comics Database is that I worked with some of these writers without knowing it, as they used pen names, usually on short stories for the war or mystery titles. 

I will continue this series when I have time, it takes surprisingly long to list the stories from my Archives, cross reference with dates to get the date order, look up each job on the GCD for the creator credits, and put the blog post together, but I’m enjoying the trip down memory lane!

HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978. Image © DC Comics.

I’m a birdwatcher, or a birder as we like to say, and one of the things most birders do is keep a life-list. It’s a list of all the bird species you’ve seen in your life. Many birders keep other kinds of lists, but that’s the most common one. In a Facebook post recently, Paul Kupperberg was talking about all the comics artists he’d worked with in his career, many of them people whose work he’d grown up reading and admiring. That got me thinking. As a letterer for over 40 years now, I’ve had the opportunity and privilege of working with a vast number of writers, artists. colorists and editors. A letterer’s part of making comics generally takes the least amount of time, giving a letterer the chance to take on more projects simultaneously than writers and artists, for instance. So I had this idea…what if I made a life-list for comics? A list of the writers and artists I’ve worked with? It would be a pretty awesome list!

There had to be some ground rules. First, I worked on staff at DC from July 1977 to August 1987, and in that time worked with every staffer and many freelancers in some capacity, and did art and lettering corrections on a host of comics. I can’t count those just as, as a birder, I wouldn’t count birds I saw in a zoo. Some of the things I did in comics did not usually involve working directly with artists and writers: logo design, house ads, cover lettering and production work of various kinds. Another thing I wouldn’t count would be relettering foreign stories, as I did for HEAVY METAL early on. To be added to my comics life-list, I thought I should be part of the creative team making stories. That means I was the letterer (in most cases), occasionally the writer, and rarely the artist or colorist on story pages. It would leave out some creators I did interact with, but not many. I have a nearly complete record of all the comics work I’ve done on my website with only a few unidentified ones. If I used that as my primary resource, I thought it would still make a great comics life-list.

After each creator, I’m putting the first project I worked on with them, and tagging them as a writer (w), artist or penciller-inker (a), penciller (p), inker (i),  writer-artist (wa), colorist (c), letterer (L) or editor (e). I did not often interact with colorists in pre-digital days, as my work was finished before theirs began, but I’m including them as an important part of the creative team. Editors will only be listed where I did not work with them in any other capacity. There is one story here I wrote but did not letter, so I have added the letterer of that one. I plan to continue to build my life-list when I have time, a year at a time, and eventually will post the entire list. I will base the date of first work with someone on cover dates of the issues, then alphabetically for ones with the same date, though they may not have been, probably weren’t, lettered in that order. Okay, here goes!

Dave Manak (wa) SICK #118 Dec 1977

Sheldon Mayer (wa) ALL-NEW COLLECTOR’S EDITION C-53, Jan. 1978 (lettering and inking on puzzle pages)

Tom DeFalco (w) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Win Mortimer (p) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Joe Giella (i) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Jerry Serpe (c) SUPERMAN FAMILY #187, Jan.-Feb. 1978

Larry Hama (e) DC SPECIAL SERIES #9, March 1978 (Paradise Island Map)

Gerry Conway (w) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Al Milgrom (p) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Klaus Janson (i) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Joe Rubinstein (i) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Adrienne Roy (c) FIRESTORM #1, March 1978

Don Newton (p) DC SPECIAL SERIES #10, April 1978

Frank Chiaramonte (i) DC SPECIAL SERIES #10, April 1978

Bob Toomey (w) DC SPECIAL SERIES #12, Spring 1978

Vicente Alcazar (a) DC SPECIAL SERIES #12, Spring 1978

E. Nelson Bridwell (w) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Ramona Fradon (p) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Bob Smith (i) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Gene D’Angelo (c) SUPER FRIENDS #11, April-May 1978

Ken Landgraf (p) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Danny Bulanadi (i) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Bob LeRose (c) GHOSTS #64, May 1978

Michael Fleisher (w) JONAH HEX #12, May 1978

Jack C. Harris (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978

Steve Ditko (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #258, May-June 1978

Juan Ortiz (p) STEEL, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #3, June 1978

Bruce Patterson (i) STEEL, THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN #3, June 1978

Wyatt Gwyon (w) WEIRD WAR TALES #64, June 1978

Carl Gafford (c) WEIRD WAR TALES #64, June 1978

Bob Rozakis (w) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Dave Hunt (i) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Mario Sen (c) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-july 1978

Bob Layton (i) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

Paul Levitz (w) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

Joe Staton (p) BATMAN FAMILY #18, June-July 1978

David Michelinie (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Michael Golden (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Steve Clement (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Don Glut (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Cory Adams (c) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #259, July-Aug. 1978

Paul Kupperberg (w) SUPERMAN FAMILY #190, July-Aug. 1978

Romeo Tanghal (i) SUPERMAN FAMILY #190, July-Aug. 1978

David Vern (w) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

John Calnan (p) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Dick Giordano (i) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Julius Schwartz (e) BATMAN #302, Aug. 1978

Jack Oleck (w) UNKNOWN SOLDIER #218, Aug. 1978

Maurice Whitman (a) UNKNOWN SOLDIER #218, Aug. 1978

Mike Grell (wa) WARLORD #14, Aug.-Sept. 1978

George Tuska (p) WORLD’S FINEST #252, Aug.-Sept. 1978

Vince Colletta (i) WORLD’S FINEST #252, Aug.-Sept. 1978

George Kashdan (w) GHOSTS #68, Sept. 1978

Cary Burkett (w) GREEN LANTERN #108, Sept. 1978

Mike Vosburg (p) GREEN LANTERN #108, Sept. 1978

T. Casey Brennan (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #260, Sept. 1978

Jerry Grandenetti (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #260, Sept. 1978

Roger McKenzie (w) WEIRD WESTERN TALES #48, Sept.-Oct. 1978

Jack Abel (p) WEIRD WESTERN TALES #48, Sept.-Oct. 1978

Greg Potter (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Steve Skeates (w) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Arthur Suydam (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #261, Oct. 1978

Frank Miller (p) WEIRD WAR TALES #68, Oct. 1978

Carl Wessler (w) WITCHING HOUR #85, Oct. 1978

Bill Kelley (w) ARMY AT WAR #1, Oct.-Nov. 1978

Scott Edelman (w) HOUSE OF SECRETS #154, Oct.-Nov. 1978

José Luis Garcia-Lopéz (a) HOUSE OF SECRETS #154, Oct.-Nov. 1978

Cary Bates (w) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Irv Novick (p) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Frank McLaughlin (i) THE FLASH #267, Nov. 1978

Tenny Henson (a) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #262, Nov. 1978

Esphidy Mahilum (L) HOUSE OF MYSTERY #262, Nov. 1978

Kurt Schaffenberger (p) SUPERMAN #329, Nov. 1978

Frank Giacoia (i) SUPERMAN #329, Nov. 1978

Alex Saviuk (p) GREEN LANTERN #111, Dec. 1978

Len Wein (w) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

Murphy Anderson (i) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

Glynis Wein (c) SUPERBOY & THE LSH #246, Dec. 1978

There you have it to the best of my knowledge. More of these when I have time (and it took a lot more time than I expected!)

By the way, I’d be delighted to see the idea of Comics Life-Lists spread. If you’re a fan, not a creator, you could make one of creators you’ve met in person, corresponded with or bought something from. The possibilities are wide open!