Writer of First Marvel/DC Superhero Crossover, Co-Creator of the Punisher, Co-Writer of ‘Fire and Ice’
Gerry Conway, a writer so prolific that he couldn’t be contained by a single publisher or medium, has died at the age of 73. During his long career he contributed to many of the comics canons that still stand today.
Born in Brooklyn on September 10, 1952, Conway was a comics fan from an early age, and his first published comics work was a letter in Fantastic Four #50, which appeared when he was 13. His first professional comics work came just three years later, in 1969, with three stories (one text and two comics) in DC’s House of Secrets #81. For several years he wrote horror and Western stories for Marvel and DC’s anthologies, then broke into superheroes in 1971 with Daredevil #72. While still scripting horror stories, he soon added Captain America, Sub-Mariner, and Thor to his repertoire, and in August 1972 he succeeded Stan Lee as the writer of Amazing Spider-Man. Conway was just 19 at the time; at 20, he wrote the death of Gwen Stacy story in ASM #121, and when he was 21, he co-created the Punisher who was originally a Spider-Man villain, with artists John Romita Sr. and Russ Andru.
For over 40 years, Conway went back and forth between Marvel and DC. He wrote Amazing Spider-Man for three years, from 1972 to 1975, and Fantastic Four from 1973-1974, and at DC he had an eight-year stint on Legion of Super-Heroes as well as runs on Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. In addition to co-creating the Punisher, he had a hand in the creation of Peter Parker’s clone Ben Reilly (again with Andru), the original Ms. Marvel, Power Girl, and Killer Croc, among others. With Roy Thomas, he co-wrote the 1976 crossover Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man #1, the first modern superhero Marvel/DC crossover, and they were slated to return with the JLA/Avengers crossover in 1979. That series was cancelled due to editorial disputes and revived in 2002 with Kurt Busiek as the writer (see “JLA/Avengers Crossover Announced”). Conway also collaborated with Thomas on Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew. In the early 1980s, at the dawn of the video game era, he and Thomas wrote two minicomics series that were published by DC and included with the Atari 2600 games, Atari Force and Swordquest. His later work included The Last Days of Animal Man for DC and a run on Carnage as well as Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows #1-9. He also did a bit of newspaper work, scripting the Star Trek syndicated comic strip for most of 1983.
Conway was briefly Editor in Chief at Marvel, following Marv Wolfman’s exit in 1976 and shortly thereafter being replaced by Archie Goodwin.
In addition to his comics work, Conway was a screenwriter for television and movies. His TV credits include G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, My Little Pony, The Father Dowling Mysteries, Matlock, Diagnosis: Murder, Law and Order and Law and Order: Criminal Intent, and two episodes of Batman: The Animated Series. Conway had worked with Thomas on the Conan the Barbarian comics, and together they co-wrote the script of Fire and Ice, the 1983 film created by Ralph Bakshi and Frank Frazetta (see “Dynamite to Develop Comics and Game Based on Frazetta and Bakshi’s ‘Fire and Ice’”), and the 1984 film Conan the Destroyer.
He wrote two sci-fi novels, The Midnight Dancers and Mindship.
Conway will be inducted into the Eisner Awards Hall of Fame later this year; he was one of 18 comics notables to be chosen by the judges for automatic induction (see “Eisner Awards Hall of Fame”).
Source: ICv2
