| Don McGregor | |
|---|---|
 McGregor in 2015 | |
| Born | Donald Francis McGregor (1945-06-15)June 15, 1945 (age 79) Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Area(s) | Writer |
Notable works | Sabre,Killraven,Black Panther |
| http://www.donmcgregor.com | |
Donald Francis McGregor[1] (born June 15, 1945)[1] is anAmericancomic book writer best known for his work forMarvel Comics; he is the author of one of the firstgraphic novels.
Don McGregor was born inProvidence, Rhode Island,[1] where he worked myriad jobs as a young adult, including as a security guard, at a bank, at a movie theater, and "for my grandfather's company, [which] printed, among other things, the patches theastronauts wore on their flights to the moon."[2] He additionally served as a supply sergeant in a military police unit of theRhode Island Army National Guard.[2][3] His first work in print was in theletters-to-the-editor columns of variousMarvel Comics titles[4] and forThe Providence Journal, where his work included reviews of books by authors includingEvan Hunter, "who influenced me greatly as a writer."[2]
McGregor entered the comics industry with stories inWarren Publishing's black-and-whitehorror-comics anthology magazines. His first purchased script, "When Wakes The Dreamer", did not see print untilEerie #45 (Feb. 1973), long after his first published script, the 12-page cover story "The Fade-Away Walk" inCreepy #40 (July 1971), credited as Donald F. McGregor, with art byTom Sutton.[5] Through 1975, he wrote more than a dozen stories for those magazines and its sister titleVampirella, drawn by artists includingRichard Corben andReed Crandall.[4] Of "When Wakes the Dreamer", he explained decades later, "[W]hat held it up was that [artist and Warren art director]Billy Graham was going to draw it and he'd done a spectacular opening page for it, but for one reason or another, it just didn't happen. ... I don't think we ever found the finished art for Billy's version of another early story of mine, 'The Vampiress Stalks the Castle This Night.'"[6] That story eventually appeared inVampirella #21 (Dec. 1972), with art byFelix Mas. After a stint with Marvel, McGregor returned to write another 18 stories for those Warren titles as well asThe Rook between 1979 and 1983, with artists includingPaul Gulacy,Alfredo Alcala, andVal Mayerik.[4]
McGregor became aproofreader for Marvel Comics in late 1972,[7] earning $125 a week,[2] before establishing himself as a Marvel editor and writer. His first stories for the company were co-writing, withGardner Fox, the six-page supernatural story "The Man with Two Faces" inJourney into Mystery vol. 2, #4 (April 1973; credited as "Donald F. McGregor"); and, solo, the six-page "A Tomb By Any Other Name", with art bySyd Shores, inChamber of Chills #5 (July 1973).[4]
He recalled in 2010,
I came to Marvel Comics because I loved Marvel Comics. As the line burgeoned, one of my jobs was to read all the reprint titles. One of the titles wasJungle Action, a collection of jungle genre comics from the 1950s, mostly detailing white men and women saving Africans or being threatened by them. I voiced a lament that I thought it was a shame that in 1973 Marvel was printing these stories, and couldn't we have a black African hero. ... Now, it was one of those unwritten rules that if you worked in editorial you would be given things to write, to supplement that $125 a week. It was at such a meeting that I learned I would be given [the recently launched feature] 'Killraven' (inAmazing Adventures) andJungle Action, with the [existing Africansuperhero the]Black Panther ... to write.[8]
With those two features, which became among comics' most acclaimed,[9][10] McGregor soon established himself as one of a 1970s wave of Marvel writers, includingSteve Englehart,Steve Gerber andDoug Moench, who took often minor characters and helped create a writerly Renaissance. Former Marvel editor-in-chiefRoy Thomas said in 2007,
[T]here was a lot of invention and experimentation going on during that period ... Steve [Gerber] and Don turned out be [writers] who advanced the field. ... I don't think Don's work sold terribly well, but I always thought he was doing some interesting things, and I thought, 'Well, the kind of stuff we put him on was the kind of stuff that we didn't expect to become great sellers anyway ... So let him experiment with it and see what happens'. And he certainly did a lot of interesting things with it.[11]
McGregor wrote "Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds" inAmazing Adventures vol. 2, #21-39 (Nov. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for fill-in issues #33 and 38);[10] and "Black Panther" inJungle Action #6-24 (Sept. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for #23, a reprint).[12] Comics historianLes Daniels noted that, "The scripts by Don McGregor emphasized the character's innate dignity."[13] Unusually for mainstream comics, the Panther stories were set mostly in Africa, in the Panther's fictional homelandWakanda rather than in Marvel's usual American settings. As with the futuristic stories of “Killraven”, McGregor's settings were enough outside the Marvel mainstream that he was able to explore mature themes and adult relationships in a way rare for comics at the time.[14] In 2010,Comics Bulletin ranked McGregor's run onJungle Action third on its list of the "Top 10 1970s Marvels".[15]
ArtistRich Buckler, his first "Black Panther" collaborator, called McGregor and fellow Marvel writerDoug Moench "two of my absolutely favorite writers. They had the same drive and enthusiasm, and just huge amounts of talent and energy."[16]African-American writer-editorDwayne McDuffie said of the 1970s "Black Panther" series:
This overlooked and underrated classic is arguably the most tightly written multi-part superhero epic ever. ... It's damn-near flawless, every issue, every scene, a functional, necessary part of the whole. Okay, now go back and read any individual issue. You'll find seamlessly integrated words and pictures; clearly introduced characters and situations; a concise (sometimes even transparent) recap; beautifully developed character relationships; at least one cool new villain; a stunning action set piece to test our hero's skills and resolve; and a story that is always moving forward towards a definite and satisfying conclusion. That's what we should all be delivering, every single month. Don [McGregor] and company did it in only 17 story pages per issue".[17]
He and artistP. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known dramatic interracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed tounderground comix),[18] between the "Killraven" charactersM'Shulla andCarmilla Frost, inAmazing Adventures #31 (July 1975). Three years earlier, McGregor and artistLuis Garcia had already presented the first known interracial kiss in any comics inWarren Publishing's black-and-whitehorror-comics magazine,Creepy #43 (Jan. 1972), in the story "The Men Who Called Him Monster".
More than two decades after the "Killraven" feature ended, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that,
It was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative ofArt Nouveau illustration, gave the landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles.[19]
McGregor's run onJungle Action ended when the series was canceled due to low sales.[20] He also wrote stories for the Marvel charactersLuke Cage andMorbius the Living Vampire, and created thedetective feature "Hodiah Twist", seen in the black-and-white magazinesVampire Tales #2 (Oct. 1973) andMarvel Preview #16: "Masters of Terror" (Fall 1978).[21] McGregor adaptation ofEdgar Allan Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado" as a backup story inMarvel Classics Comics #28 (1977) was artistMichael Golden's first published comics work.[22] A Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" page in 1975 announced McGregor's plannedradio drama series,Night Figure, that was to have run onWHBI-FM.[23]
Grant Morrison argues that McGregor's style of poetic narration was a strong influence onAlan Moore andNeil Gaiman.[24] They say that McGregor had a passionate fan base and that his writing style was "overwrought, stretched to the limits of conventional grammar, with a pained, self-analytical edge."[25]
With artistPaul Gulacy, McGregor created one of the first moderngraphic novels,Eclipse Enterprises'Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, a near-future,dystopianscience fictionswashbuckler that introduced the title character. McGregor's work premiered in August 1978, two months beforeWill Eisner's better-known pioneering graphic novelA Contract with God.Sabre was additionally the first graphic novel sold through the new "direct market" of comic-book stores.[26] It later spun off a 14-issue Eclipse comic-book series.[27]
Also for Eclipse, McGregor wroteDetectives Inc., a pair of graphic novels set in contemporaryNew York City and starring the interracial private eye team Ted Denning and Bob Rainier.Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green (1980), withDC Comics artistMarshall Rogers, andDetectives, Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams, with veteran Marvel artistGene Colan, who would become a frequent collaborator, comprised the series. The first of these two books included the firstlesbian characters in mass-market comics.[28]
During this period, McGregor also wrote the two prose worksDragonflame and Other Bedtime Nightmares[29] andThe Variable Syndrome.[30]
Other work includes theDC Comics'miniseriesNathaniel Dusk (1984) andNathaniel Dusk II (1985–1986), both with Colan; and, forNew Media Publishing'sFantasy Illustrated (1982), "The Hounds of Hell Theory", starring the husband-and-wife detective team Alexander and Penelope Risk, with artistTom Sutton.[31]
McGregor revisited the Black Panther with Colan in "Panther's Quest", published as 25 eight-page installments within the biweekly omnibus seriesMarvel Comics Presents (issues #13–37, Feb.–Dec. 1989); and, later, with artistDwayne Turner in the squarebound miniseriesPanther's Prey (May–Oct. 1991). McGregor and Marshall Rogers crafted a two-part story inSpider-Man issues #27–28 dealing with bullying and gun violence.[32] Other comic book work in the 1990s includesBlade #1–3 (Nov. 1998–Jan. 1999), starring the Marvel Comics vampire-slayer; the 14-pageMorbius, the Living Vampire story "Desiring Martine", with artistMike Dringenberg, in the Marvelone-shotStrange Tales: Dark Corners #1 (May 1998); and various issues of suchTopps Comics licensed properties asMars Attacks!,James Bond, theLone Ranger, andThe X-Files.[4] McGregor wrote "Thin Edge of a Dime", aBatman Black and White backup story, inBatman: Gotham Knights #28 (June 2002) which was illustrated byDick Giordano.[33]
As well, McGregor is one of the primary writers of theZorro canon, with a dozen issues of Topps'Zorro (#0–11, Nov. 1993–Nov. 1994) and the spinoffLady Rawhide #1–5 (Oct. 1996–June 1997; reprinted byImage Comics asZorro's Lady Rawhide: Other People's Blood #1–4, March–June 1999); two years of theZorro newspapercomic strip (with artists Tod Smith andThomas Yeates, premiering April 12, 1999, with the first year collected in a 2001 Image Comics book);Zorro #1–6 (May-Oct. 2005), with artist Sidney Lima, from theNBM Publishingimprint Papercutz; and 2010'sZorro: Matanzas, a sequel to the Topps series, with penciler Mike Mayhew, forDynamite Entertainment.[4] Returning to one of his signature characters, McGregor contributed a story to theBlack Panther Annual #1, released in February 2018.[34]
Marvel's 'War of the Worlds' series inAmazing Adventures became a true classic when Don McGregor took over as writer.
{{cite book}}:|first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)CB Jason: So it's weird because you were off in your own corner of the universe, but at the same time they were still paying attention to you.
McGregor: Well yeah, they were, yeah. I was called into the editorial office I don't know how many times.
[Gerry] Conway insisted that the decision was purely financial, that poor sales had combined with blown deadlines (and subsequent late fees charged by the printer) to create a money-losing endeavor.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Gough: "In 1978, Sabre was the first graphic novel to be sold in comic stores."Writer Don McGregor and artist Marshall Rogers created one of the most original Spidey stories of the year with this two-part tale. The story told of events that happened after bullied 12-year-old Elmo Oliver found a gun dropped by a bad guy during a shootout ... Once again, a Spider-Man story provided a platform for real-life issues.
{{cite book}}:|first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)In 'Thin Edge of a Dime,' written by Don McGregor, the Dark Knight persuades a desperate older gentleman from taking his own life.
| Preceded by | "Morbius" feature in Vampire Tales writer 1973–1974 | Succeeded by n/a |
| Preceded by | Amazing Adventures vol. 2 writer 1973–1976 | Succeeded by n/a |
| Preceded by | Power Man writer 1975–1976 | Succeeded by Marv Wolfman |
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