The Nerdz Lounge.

Rest in Peace, Gerry Conway







Gerry Conway — a remarkably prolific writer whose talent refused to be confined to any single publisher or medium — has died at the age of 73. Throughout his distinguished career, he played a key role in shaping many of the iconic comic book stories and characters that remain part of the medium’s enduring canon.

Born in Brooklyn on September 10, 1952, Gerry Conway was a comics fan from an early age. His first published comics work was a letter to the editor in Fantastic Four #50, which appeared when he was just 13 years old.

His first professional comics work came three years later, in 1969, with three stories (one text piece and two comic stories) in DC’s House of Secrets #81. For several years he wrote horror and Western stories for anthology titles at both Marvel and DC. He broke into the superhero genre in 1971 with Daredevil #72. While still scripting horror stories, he soon added Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and Thor to his repertoire. In August 1972, at the age of 19, he succeeded Stan Lee as the writer of The Amazing Spider-Man.

At 20, he wrote the landmark “death of Gwen Stacy” story in Amazing Spider-Man #121. When he was 21, he co-created the Punisher—originally introduced as a Spider-Man villain—alongside artists John Romita Sr. and Ross Andru.

For more than four decades, Gerry Conway moved fluidly between Marvel and DC Comics. At Marvel, he wrote The Amazing Spider-Man from 1972 to 1975, as well as a run on Fantastic Four from 1973 to 1974. At DC, he enjoyed an eight-year stint on Legion of Super-Heroes and also wrote notable runs on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.

In addition to co-creating the Punisher, Conway played a key role in the creation of several other iconic characters and concepts, including Peter Parker’s clone Ben Reilly (again with Ross Andru), the original Ms. Marvel, Power Girl, and Killer Croc.

Together with Roy Thomas, he co-wrote the groundbreaking 1976 one-shot Superman vs. The Amazing Spider-Man #1—the first major modern crossover between the two publishers. The pair were originally scheduled to write the Justice League of America/Avengers crossover in 1979, but the project was cancelled due to editorial conflicts and was eventually revived in 2002 with Kurt Busiek as writer. Conway and Thomas also collaborated on Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!. In the early 1980s, at the dawn of the video game industry, they wrote two miniseries—Atari Force and Swordquest—that were published by DC and included as pack-ins with Atari 2600 games.

Later in his career, Conway returned to DC for The Last Days of Animal Man and wrote a run on Carnage as well as Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1–9 for Marvel. He also scripted the syndicated Star Trek newspaper comic strip for most of 1983. Conway briefly served as Editor-in-Chief at Marvel in 1976, succeeding Marv Wolfman before being replaced by Archie Goodwin.

Beyond comics, Conway enjoyed a successful career as a television and film screenwriter. His TV credits include G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, My Little Pony, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Matlock, Diagnosis: Murder, Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. With Roy Thomas, he co-wrote the screenplay for the 1983 animated film Fire and Ice, produced by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta, as well as the 1984 live-action film Conan the Destroyer.

He also authored two science-fiction novels: The Midnight Dancers and Mindship.







Credit: ICV2