| Steve Skeates | |
|---|---|
 Skeates at the 2011Big Apple Comic Con | |
| Born | Stephen Skeates (1943-01-29)January 29, 1943 Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Died | March 30, 2023(2023-03-30) (aged 80) Rochester, New York, U.S. |
| Area | Writer |
| Pseudonym(s) | Chester Hazel Warren Savin |
Notable works | Aquaman Hawk and Dove House of Mystery Warren Publishing titles |
| Awards | Shazam Award 1972, 1973 Warren Award 1973 Bill Finger Award 2012 |
| Children | Melissa |
Stephen Skeates (/skeɪts/;[1][2] January 29, 1943[3] – March 30, 2023[4]) was an Americancomic book creator known for his work on such titles asAquaman,Hawk and Dove,T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, andPlop!. He also wrote under the pseudonymsChester P. Hazel[5] andWarren Savin.[3]
Stephen Skeates was born inRochester, New York, on January 29, 1943.[6] He and his parents lived in the attic of his maternal grandmother'sFairport home until he was four and a half, at which time they and his baby brother moved into a two-story home that his father and uncle had built. His parents tended to describe him as "a dreamer" because he preferred to play alone rather than interact with other children.[7] He enjoyed readingcomic books, preferringcartoon animal antics to thesuperhero titles.[8] From an early age, he wanted to become a writer, but he found that ambition hampered by the fact that he read very slowly. So, in junior high school and later atFairport High School,[6] he was drawn to humorists such asJames Thurber,Donald Ogden Stewart,S.J. Perelman, andRobert Benchley, who wrote short works.[7] He also loved the parody stories inEC Comics'MAD, subscribing to its comic book incarnation.[8] Skeates set his sights on becoming a humorist himself and writing for magazines, but the popularity of television in the fifties drove many publications out of business.
Still desiring a writing career, Skeates chose his college based on catalog recommendations that it was a good school for writers. However, when he enteredAlfred University in 1961, he chose math as his major, which he later called "a truly silly idea from the start." After a year, he changed to English Literature. Despite what the college catalogs had indicated, Alfred offered only one two-credit creative-writing course, in which the instructor, Dr. Ernest Finch, required the composition of only three short stories. As he approached graduation still undecided on a career, Skeates half-heartedly applied to various metropolitan newspapers for reporting jobs. It was at about this time that he discovered the newMarvel Comics being written byStan Lee and drawn byJack Kirby,Steve Ditko, andDon Heck. He became an instant fan. Then, "on a whim," he sent the four major comic book firms application letters in the form of comic book captions, "but with me as the central character rather than some superhero!" Marvel editor-writer Lee himself called with the offer of a job as his assistant.[9]
In 1965, Skeates moved to New York City to become Lee's assistant editor, which largely required him to proofread finished comics. His lack of skill for this quickly became apparent, and Lee grew frustrated when obvious artwork errors were overlooked. Within two weeks,Roy Thomas became the new assistant, and Skeates was assigned to writewesterns as compensation.[8] Using his brief term as Lee's assistant as a calling card, Skeates picked up work atTower,Charlton,DC,Gold Key,Red Circle,Archie, andWarren Publishing (for whom he wrote 72 stories from 1971 to 1975). His stories were illustrated by such artists asJim Aparo,Dick Ayers,Gene Colan,Alex Toth,Gil Kane,Ogden Whitney,Ramona Fradon,Mike Grell,Wally Wood, andDick Giordano.
After penning two tales for the second issue of Charlton's mystery anthologyThe Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves (July 1967) — one of which, "The Mystic Book," is a favorite of his — Skeates was given total control of the writing for the title, including introductory pages, through issue #12.[9] With cartoonistSergio Aragonés, he won theACBAShazam Award for the best humor story of 1972, which was "The Poster Plague," a tale that inspired DC's dark-humoranthologyPlop!,[10] the series about which Skeates professed to be the proudest because it "spoke quite emphatically to the disillusionment extant at least throughout this country during the so-calledWatergate era." In 1973, he shared the best humor story award withBernie Wrightson for "The Gourmet" (Plop #1), which has been reprinted more than any other Skeates-written work.[citation needed]
Of all of his artistic collaborators, Skeates named as his favoritesPat Boyette, with whom he worked at Charlton (his favorite employer);[11]Jim Aparo, his partner on a highly regardedAquaman run that lasted until April 1971;[12][13] and Steve Ditko, with whom he co-created the quirky teamHawk and Dove inShowcase #75 (June 1968),[14] despite the fact thatprogressive Skeates andObjectivist Ditko are politically polar opposites. During the 1970s he began a long-standing collaboration with fellow comics writerMary Skrenes.[15]
One of the series Skeates wrote at DC in the 1970s wasPlastic Man, for which he created the villain Carrot Man, an evil game show host who hit contestants on their heads with a toaster. When that character appeared on thePlastic Man animated show, his creator received no royalties, but the showrunners "tried to make good" by changing Carrot Man's true identity to Stephen Skeates. As a result, people would stop the writer on the street and say, "You were on TV!"[8]
In the early 1980s, Skeates was working for comics "from a distance," writing for Gold Key and Marvel through the mail. In 1984, while he was taking various story ideas into editors' offices, Marvel'sLarry Hama tapped him to script theGeneric Comic Book, which he did anonymously.[16][17] During the mid-1980s he also co-wrote a handful of episodes ofTransformers,G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, andJem.[15]
By the late 1980s, Skeates felt burnt out from trying to write comics for the more demanding hardcore fans and left the industry to take up bartending. This left him with a creative need that was going unfulfilled, so he finally went to the only daily newspaper in the area of his residence and presented its editor with the idea for a locally orientedcomic strip calledThe Adventures of Stew Ben and Alec Gainey, that Skeates would write and draw for theSunday Spectator, which was the Sunday paper for bothThe Hornell Tribune (Steuben) andThe Wellsville Daily Reporter (Allegany). While it looked like a humor strip, it was actually a continuing adventure story about two private eyes. Skeates was initially afraid that his little section of New York State wasn't ready for the "bizarre mish-mash of stuff that didn't quite mesh" which he was turning out, but readers caught on quickly. The newspaper's publisher did not, however, and wanted the strip canned, but the supportive editor convinced his employer to let the subscribers decide by way of a ballot placed in the paper. Skeates made a bundle of ballot photocopies and bribed his regulars with free drinks to save the strip. After a year (summer 1989-summer 1990) of producing "that very strange littleavant-garde entity," Skeates ended his "most interesting experience within the wonderful world of comics" by having hisprotagonists sacrifice themselves to save the Earth.[9]
Skeates moved back to Rochester in 1993 or 1994 to help his mother care for his father, who had developedParkinson's disease. In 2000, he began writing articles about comics for Charlton Spotlight, and he continued that until 2006. In 2011, Surprising Comics head Mark Davis found some of Skeates'sFacebook postings and asked him to write SC's water-based hero Depthon, Son of the Ocean,[9] so he produced a five-page story, with art and lettering by Kenneth M. Johnson,[18] that appeared inAll-Surprising Comics #1. He then scripted a seven-pager that was illustrated by Ron Stewart and appeared inMonty's World #1. The fate of a third Depthon script is unknown to Skeates. A number of smaller comics companies proceeded to contact Skeates, including Canada-based Red Lion, whose editor-publisher, Jonathan A. Gilbert, wanted to revive an unsold talking-animal property called Stateside Mouse, which Skeates and artist Joe Orsak had developed twenty years earlier as a World War II-era adventure series[9] (It remains unpublished, but Skeates and Orsak still have hopes for it). At the same time, Skeates self-published a 22-page magazine-sized comic called “Could I Have My Reality Check Please?” which was created in the style of theUnderground comix of the sixties and seventies and sold at conventions.
AtSan Diego Comic-Con in July 2012, Skeates received theBill Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing.[8] He began writing forThe Charlton Arrow anthology series in 2014.[6] In 2018, two unpublished stories originally written by Skeates and penciled byGeorge Wildman in 1978-1979 for theUnderdog comic series by Warren Publishing were completed and published inUnderdog 1975 #1 by American Mythology.[19]
From 1996 to 2012, Skeates was the editor of the PCBN (Peoples' Comic Book Newsletter). A fanzine that promoted upcoming comic books artists and writers.[20]
Canadian comics creator Jonathan A. Gilbert wrote of Skeates, "The reason Steve is such an influence on me creatively is because of his unique writing style. He is not what I would call a 'pretty writer' but rather takes a subject and puts a unique twist on it that no one else had even considered. He can make the old look new again which is a rare talent in our business."[21]
I honestly could think of no other artist I would have preferred being teamed with.
| Preceded by | Aquaman writer 1970–1971 | Succeeded by David Michelinie (in 1977) |
| Preceded by | Teen Titans writer 1970–1971 | Succeeded by Bob Haney |
| Preceded by Arnold Drake (in 1968) | Plastic Man writer 1976–1977 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
