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!