| Roy Thomas | |
|---|---|
 Thomas in May 2019 | |
| Born | Roy William Thomas Jr. (1940-11-22)November 22, 1940 (age 84) Jackson, Missouri, U.S. |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Editor |
Notable works | The Avengers Alter Ego Conan the Barbarian The Defenders Invaders Uncanny X-Men Thor Iron Fist All-Star Squadron Arak, Son of Thunder Infinity, Inc. Secret Origins Young All-Stars |
| Awards | Alley Award (1969) Shazam Award (1971 and 1974) Goethe Awards (1971 and 1973 x2 for best writer and editor) Inkpot Award (1974) Comic Fan Art Award (1974 and 1975 x2 for best writer and editor) Eagle Award (1977) Will Eisner Hall of Fame (2011) Harvey Awards Hall of Fame (2022) |
Roy William Thomas Jr.[1] (born November 22, 1940)[2] is an American comic book writer and editor. He wasStan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief ofMarvel Comics and possibly best known for introducing thepulp magazine heroConan the Barbarian to American comics. Thomas is also known for his championing ofGolden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940ssuperhero team theJustice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel'sX-Men andThe Avengers, andDC Comics'All-Star Squadron, among other titles.
Among the comics characters he co-created areVision,Doc Samson,Carol Danvers,Luke Cage,Iron Fist,Ultron,Yellowjacket,Defenders,Man-Thing,Red Sonja,Morbius,Ghost Rider,Squadron Supreme,Invaders,Black Knight (Dane Whitman),Nighthawk,Havok,Banshee,Sunfire,Thundra,Arkon,Killraven,Wendell Vaughn,Red Wolf,Red Guardian,Daimon Hellstrom, andValkyrie.
Thomas was inducted into theWill Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011 and into theHarvey Awards Hall of Fame in 2022.
Thomas was born inJackson, Missouri, United States.[3] As a child, he was a devoted comic book fan, and in grade school he wrote and drew his own comics for distribution to friends and family. The first of these wasAll-Giant Comics, which he recalls as having featured such characters as Elephant Giant.[3][4] He was enrolled at a parochialLutheran school[5] and attended St. Paul Lutheran Church in Jackson.[6] As an adult, Thomas is "not religious"[5] and has been described as a "lapsed Lutheran".[7][8] He graduated fromSoutheast Missouri State University in 1961 with a BS in education,[1] having majored in history and social science.[citation needed]
Thomas became an early and active member ofSilver Age comic bookfandom in the early 1960s.[9] Enthusiasm for the rebirth of superhero comics during that period ledJerry Bails to found thefanzineAlter Ego, and Thomas, then a high school English teacher, took over as editor in 1964.[10] Letters from Thomas appeared regularly in theletters pages of both DC and Marvel Comics, includingGreen Lantern #1 (August 1960),The Flash #116 (Nov. 1960),Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962),Fantastic Four #15 (June 1963),Fantastic Four #22 (Jan. 1964), andBlackhawk #211 (Aug. 1965).
In 1965, Thomas moved to New York City to take a job atDC Comics as assistant toMort Weisinger, then the editor of theSuperman titles. Thomas said he had just accepted a fellowship to study foreign relations atGeorge Washington University when he received a letter from Weisinger, "with whom I had exchanged one or two letters, tops", asking Thomas to become "his assistant editor on a several-week trial basis."[11] Thomas had already written aJimmy Olsen script "a few months before, while still living and teaching in theSt. Louis area," he said in 2005. "I worked at DC for eight days in late June and very early July of 1965"[12] before accepting a job atMarvel Comics. The Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" inFantastic Four #61 (April 1967) describes Thomas "admitting that he gave up a scholarship to George Washington University just to write for Marvel!"
This came after his chafing under the notoriously difficult Weisinger, to a point, Thomas said in 1981, that he would go "home to my dingy little room at, coincidentally, the George Washington Hotel inManhattan, during that second week, and actually feeling tears well into my eyes, at the ripe old age of 24."[11] Familiar with editor and chief writerStan Lee's Marvel work, and feeling them "the most vital comics around",[11] Thomas "just sat down one night at the hotel and – I wrote him a letter! Not applying for a job or anything so mundane as that – I just said that I admired his work, and would like to buy him a drink some time. I figured he just might remember me fromAlter Ego."[11] Lee did, and phoned Thomas to offer him a Marvel writing test.[13]
The writer's test, Thomas said in 1998, "was fourJack Kirby pages fromFantastic Four Annual #2 ... [Stan Lee] had Sol [Brodsky] or someone take out the dialogue. It was just black-and-white. Other people likeDenny O'Neil andGary Friedrich took it. But soon afterwards we stopped using it."[13] The day after taking the test, Thomas was at DC, proofreading aSupergirl story, when Steinberg called asking Thomas to meet with Lee during lunch, where Thomas agreed to work for Marvel.[14] He returned to DC to give "indefinite notice" to Weisinger, but Weisinger ordered him to leave immediately and "I was back at Marvel less than an hour after I first left, and had aModeling with Millie assignment to do over the weekend. It was a Friday."[14] His employment was announced in the "Bullpen Bulletins" section ofFantastic Four #47 (Feb. 1966) under the heading "How About That! Department" ("Roy's a fan who's made it!"). Thomas later described his early days at Marvel:
I was hired after taking [the] 'writer's test', and my first official job title at Marvel was 'staff writer'. I wasn't hired as an editor or assistant editor. I was supposed to come in 40 hours a week and write scripts on staff. ... I sat at this corrugated metal desk with a typewriter in a small office withproduction managerSol Brodsky and corresponding secretaryFlo Steinberg. Everybody who came up to Marvel wound up there, and the phone was constantly ringing, with conversations going on all around me. ... Almost at once, even though Stan proofed all the finished stories, he and Sol started having me check the corrections before they went out, and that would break up my concentration still further. ... [and] they kept asking me to do this or that, or questions like in which issue something happened, or Stan would come in to check something, because I knew a lot about Marvel continuity up to that time. ... It quickly became apparent to them, too, that the staff writer thing wasn't working, and Stan segued me over to being an editorial assistant, which immediately worked out better for all concerned.[15]
To that point, editor-in-chief Lee had been the main writer of Marvel publications, with his brother,Larry Lieber, often picking up the slack plotting of Lee-scripted stories. Thomas soon became the first new Marvel writer to sustain a presence at a time when comics veterans such asRobert Bernstein,Ernie Hart,Leon Lazarus, andDon Rico, and fellow newcomersSteve Skeates (hired a couple of weeks earlier) and O'Neil (brought in at Thomas' recommendation a few months later) did not. His Marvel debut was theromance-comics story "Whom Can I Turn To?" in theMillie the Model spin-offModeling with Millie #44 (Dec. 1965) – for which the credits and the logo were inadvertently left off due to a production glitch, resulting in this being left off most credit lists.[16][17] Thomas' first Marvel superhero scripting was "My Life for Yours", the "Iron Man" feature inTales of Suspense #73 (Jan. 1966), working from a Lee plot as well as a plot assist from secretary Steinberg. Thomas estimates that Lee rewrote approximately half of that fledgling attempt.[18]
Thomas' earliest Marvel work also included the teen-romance titlePatsy and Hedy #104–105 (Feb.-April 1966), and two "Doctor Strange" stories, plotted by Lee andSteve Ditko, inStrange Tales #143–144 (April–May 1966). Two previously written freelance stories forCharlton Comics also saw print: "The Second Trojan War" inSon of Vulcan #50 (Jan. 1966) and "The Eye of Horus" inBlue Beetle #54 (March 1966).[19] "When Stan saw the couple of Charlton stories I'd written earlier in more of aGardner Fox style, he wasn't too impressed," Thomas recalled. "It's probably a good thing I already had my job at Marvel at that point! I think I was the right person in the right place at the right time, but there are other people who, had they been there, might have been just as right."[20]
Thomas took on what would be his first long-term Marvel title, theWorld War II seriesSgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos, starting with #29 (April 1966) and continuing through #41 (April 1967) and the series' 1966 annual,Sgt. Fury Special #2. He also began writing themutant-superteam title[Uncanny] X-Men from #20–43 (May 1966 – April 1968), and, finally, took overThe Avengers, starting with #35 (Dec. 1966), and continuing until 1972. That notable run was marked by a strong sense ofcontinuity, and stories that ranged from the personal to the cosmic – the latter most prominently with the "Kree-Skrull War" in issues #89–97 (June 1971 – March 1972). Additional work included an occasional "Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D" and "Doctor Strange" story inStrange Tales. When that title became the solo comicDoctor Strange, he wrote the entire run of new stories, from #169–183 (June 1968 – Nov. 1969), mostly with the art team ofpencilerGene Colan andinkerTom Palmer.[19]
As Thomas self-evaluated in a 1981 interview, shortly after leaving Marvel for rivalDC Comics, "One of the reasons Stan liked my writing ... was that after a few issues he felt he could trust me enough that he virtually never again read anything I wrote – well, at least not more than a page or two in a row, just to keep me honest."[21]
Thomas eloped in July 1968 to marry his first wife, Jean Maxey,[22] returning to work a day late from a weekendcomic-book convention inSt. Louis, Missouri. Thomas said in 2000 that Brodsky, in the interim, had assignedDoctor Strange to the writerArchie Goodwin, newly ensconced at Marvel and writingIron Man, but Thomas convinced Brodsky to return it to him. "I got very possessive aboutDoctor Strange," Thomas recalled. "It wasn't a huge seller, but [by the time it was canceled], we were selling in the low 40 percent range of more than 400,000 print run, so it was actually selling a couple hundred thousand copies [but] at the time you needed to sell even more."[23] He eventually did have aCaribbean honeymoon, where he scripted the wedding ofHank Pym andJanet van Dyne inThe Avengers #60 (Jan. 1969).[24]Thomas, who had turned overX-Men to other writers, returned with issue #55 (April 1969) when the series was on the verge of cancellation.[25] While efforts to save it failed – the title ended its initial run with #66 – Thomas' collaboration with artistNeal Adams through #63 (Dec. 1969)[26] is regarded as a Silver Age creative highlight.[27] Thomas won the1969Alley Award that year for Best Writer, while Adams andinkerTom Palmer, netted 1969 Alley Awards for Best Pencil Artist and Best Inking Artist, respectively.[28]
Thomas and artistBarry Smith launchedConan the Barbarian in October 1970,[29] based onRobert E. Howard's 1930spulp-fictionsword-and-sorcery character. Thomas, who stepped down from his editorship in August 1974, wrote hundreds of Conan stories in a host of Marvel comics and the black-and-white magazinesSavage Tales andThe Savage Sword of Conan.[19] During that time, he and Smith also brought to comics Howard's little-known, sword-wielding woman-warriorRed Sonja, initially as a Conan supporting character. Comics historianLes Daniels noted that, "Conan the Barbarian was something of a gamble for Marvel. The series contained the usual elements of action and fantasy, to be sure, but it was set in a past that had no relation to the Marvel Universe, and it featured a hero who possessed no magical powers, little humor and comparatively few moral principles."[30]
In 1971, withStan Lee,Gerry Conway andGray Morrow, Thomas createdMan-Thing and wrote the first Man-Thing story in color comics, after Conway andLen Wein had introduced the character in the black-and-white comics magazineSavage Tales.[19] Later that year, Thomas wrote the "Kree–Skrull War" storyline across multiple issues ofThe Avengers penciled variously bySal Buscema, Neal Adams, andJohn Buscema.[31][32][33] Thomas was the first person other than Stan Lee to receive a writer's credit forThe Amazing Spider-Man,[34] and he and artistRoss Andru launched the Spider-Man spin-off titleMarvel Team-Up in March 1972.[35]
Thomas, with Marvel writers and artists, co-created many other characters, among themUltron (including the fictional metaladamantium),[36][37]Carol Danvers,[38]Morbius the Living Vampire,[34]Luke Cage,[39]Iron Fist,[40]Ghost Rider,[41]Doc Samson,Valkyrie,Werewolf by Night,[42]Banshee andKillraven.[43] Thomas also co-created several characters based on pre-existing characters, including theVision,[44]Yellowjacket,[45] theBlack Knight,[46] andAdam Warlock.[47]
In 1972, when Lee became Marvel's publisher, Thomas succeeded him as editor-in-chief. Thomas also continued to script mainstream titles, including Marvel's flagship,Fantastic Four.[48] He launched such new titles as the "non-team"The Defenders,[49][50] as well asWhat If, a title that explored fictionalalternate histories of Marvel's existing characters and stories. In addition, he indulged his love of Golden Age comic-book heroes in theWorld War II-set superhero seriesThe Invaders.[19][51] He was instrumental in engineering Marvel'scomic-book adaptation of the 1977 filmStar Wars, without which, 1980s Marvel editorJim Shooter believed, "[W]e would have gone out of business".[52] In 1975, Thomas wrote the first joint publishing venture between Marvel and DC Comics – a 72-pageWizard of Oz movie adaptation in an oversized "Treasury Edition" format with art byJohn Buscema.[19][53] He and Buscema crafted a comics adaptation ofTarzan for Marvel in June 1977.[54]
In 1981, after several years of freelancing for Marvel and a dispute with then editor-in-chiefJim Shooter, Thomas signed a three-year exclusive writing/editing contract with DC. He marked his return to that company with a two-partGreen Lantern story inGreen Lantern #138–139 (March–April 1981), and briefly wroteBatman,[55][56]DC Comics Presents, and theLegion of Super-Heroes.[19] DC gave Thomas' work a promotional push by featuring several of his series in free, 16-pageinsert previews.[57][58][59][60]
Thomas married his second wife,Danette Couto, in May 1981.[61] Danette legally changed her first name to Dann[62] and would become Thomas' regular writing partner. He credits her with the original idea for theArak, Son of Thunder series drawn byErnie Colón.[63] WriterGerry Conway would also be a frequent collaborator with Thomas; together they wrote a two-part Superman-Shazam team-up inDC Comics Presents; a series ofAtari Force andSwordquest mini-comics packaged withAtari 2600 video games; and three Justice League-Justice Society crossovers.[19][64][65] Conway also contributed ideas to thetalking animal comicCaptain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew!, created by Thomas andScott Shaw.[19][66] Thomas and Conway were to be the co-writers of theJLA/Avengersintercompany crossover[67] but editorial disputes between DC and Marvel caused the project's cancellation.[68] During that era, Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway collaborated on the screenplays for two movies: theanimated featureFire and Ice (1983) andConan the Destroyer (1984).[69] The duo also worked on a live-actionX-Men film for production companyNelvana that never went into production.[70]
As a solo writer, Roy Thomas wroteWonder Woman and, with artistGene Colan, updated the character's costume and introduced a newsupervillainess, theSilver Swan.[19] His final work on the series, issue #300 (Feb. 1983), was co-written with his wifeDann Thomas,[71] who, as Roy Thomas noted in 1999 "became the first woman ever to receive scripting credit on the world's foremost super-heroine."[62]
Thomas realized a childhood dream in writing theJustice Society of America (JSA). Reviving the Golden Age group inJustice League of America #193 and continuing inAll-Star Squadron,[72] he wrote retro adventures, like those of The Invaders, set inWorld War II. In addition to the JSA's high-profile heroes, Thomas revived such characters asLiberty Belle,Johnny Quick,Robotman,Firebrand, theTarantula, andNeptune Perkins.[19] He used the series to address the complicated and sometimes contradictorycontinuity issues surrounding the JSA.[73]
In 1983, Thomas and artistJerry Ordway createdInfinity, Inc., a group composed of the JSA's children. The characters debuted inAll-Star Squadron #25 (Sept. 1983)[74] and were launched in their own series in March 1984.[75] Thomas wrote severallimited series for DC includingAmerica vs. the Justice Society,[76]Jonni Thunder a.k.a. Thunderbolt,Shazam!: The New Beginning, andCrimson Avenger as well as two issues ofDC Challenge.[77] From 1986 to 1988, Thomas contributed to theSecret Origins series[78] and wrote most of the stories involving the Golden Age characters includingSuperman andBatman.[79][80] In 1986, DC decided to write off the JSA from activecontinuity. A one-shot issue titledThe Last Days of the Justice Society involved most of the JSA battling the forces of evil while merged with theNorse gods in an ever-repeatingRagnarok-likeLimbo was written by Thomas, with art byDavid Ross.[81]Young All-Stars replacedAll-Star Squadron following the changes to DC's continuity brought about by theCrisis on Infinite Earths limited series. Thomas' last major project for DC was an adaptation ofRichard Wagner'sRing cycle drawn byGil Kane and published in 1989–1990. Since then, Thomas has written a trio ofElseworlds one-shots combining DC characters with classic cinema and literature:Superman'sMetropolis (1996),Superman:War of the Worlds (1998), andJLA:The Island of Dr. Moreau (2002).[19]
In 1984, Thomas sentJim Shooter a letter in which he hoped ...
... to let bygones be bygones, and if possible, to avoid adverse comment on Marvel and its policies. I've even long regretted the fact that your elevation to the position of editor-in-chief, in which you've obviously done a fine job, came at a time after I'd moved to the West Coast. Perhaps if we'd had more personal communication from 1977 to 1980, we could have come to some sort of agreement at that time or at least parted under more amicable circumstances. I leave it to you to decide if we should ever make any attempt to rectify that situation; certainly I've never been a grudge-carrier in other cases. ...[82]
By 1986, Thomas wrote for Marvel'sNew Universe line, beginning withSpitfire and the Troubleshooters #5 (Feb. 1987), followed by a multi-issue run ofNightmask, co-scripted by his wifeDann Thomas. He scripted titles starringDoctor Strange,Thor, theAvengers West Coast, andConan, often co-scripting with Dann Thomas orJean-Marc Lofficier.[19]
Over the next ten years Thomas did less work for the mainstream comics press. For a series of independent publishers, he wrote issues of theTV-series tie-insXena: Warrior Princess,Hercules: The Legendary Journeys andThe X-Files forTopps Comics.[19] He also wrote for television, and relaunchedAlter Ego as a formal magazine published byTwoMorrows Publishing in 1999. In 2005, he earned a master's degree in humanities fromCalifornia State University.[1]
With Marvel's four-issue miniseriesStoker's Dracula (Oct. 2004 – May 2005), Thomas and artistDick Giordano completed an adaptation ofBram Stoker's novelDracula, which the duo had begun 30 years earlier in 10- to 12-page installments, beginning with Marvel's black-and-whitehorror-comics magazineDracula Lives! #5 (March 1974). They had completed 76 pages, comprising roughly one-third of the novel, through issues #6–8 and 10–11 andMarvel Preview #8 ("The Legion of Monsters"),[19] before Marvel canceledDracula Lives and later many of its other black-and-whites.[83]
Anthem, a comic book series by Thomas and artistsDaniel Acuña,Jorge Santamaria Garcia andBenito Gallego, about World War II superheroes in analternate reality, was published byHeroic Publishing in January 2006. Thomas returned to Red Sonja in 2006, writing the one-shotRed Sonja: Monster Isle forDynamite Entertainment. In 2007 Thomas wrote aBlack Knight story for Marvel's four-issue miniseriesMystic Arcana.[19][84]
From 2007 to 2010, Thomas wrote adaptations of classic literature for the Marvel imprintMarvel Illustrated, includingThe Last of the Mohicans (2007),The Man in the Iron Mask (2007–2008),Treasure Island (2007–2008),The Iliad (2008),Moby-Dick (2008),The Picture of Dorian Gray (2008),The Three Musketeers (2008–2009), andKidnapped (2009).[85] In 2010, Marvel Illustrated released a collection of all theDracula material adapted by Thomas and Giordano, originally published in the 1970s and mid-2000s.
In 2011, Roy Thomas wrote the one-shotDC Retroactive: Wonder Woman – The '80s with art byRich Buckler. In 2012, Thomas teamed with artistsMike Hawthorne andDan Panosian onDark Horse'sConan: The Road of Kings, which lasted 12 issues. In 2014, he wrote75 Years of Marvel: From the Golden Age to the Silver Screen forTaschen, a 700-page hardcover history of Marvel Comics.[86][87] The following year, he compiled three volumes of World War II-era comics stories featuring Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman forChartwell Books.[88]
Thomas had a cameo appearance as a prison inmate on the third season ofMarvel's Daredevil, released in October 2018 onNetflix, and wrote a blog entry about this experience.[89]
On November 10, 2018, Thomas visitedStan Lee at Lee's home inBeverly Hills to discuss Thomas' bookThe Stan Lee Story. Lee told Thomas' manager, John Cimino, "Take care of my boy Roy" before Lee and Thomas were photographed together. Lee died less than 48 hours later.[90]
On February 23, 2019,Jackson, Missouri, declared Roy Thomas Day. In a ceremony, he was awarded thekey to the city.[91]
On March 23, 2019, the finalAmazing Spider-Man newspaper comic strip was published. Thomas had been the ghost writer for Stan Lee on the strip since 2000.[92]
Thomas made a return toMarvel Comics in 2019 with the release of theCaptain America and The Invaders: Bahamas Triangle one-shot drawn byJerry Ordway,[93] wrote aWolverine origin page for theMarvel 1000 celebration issue and did a two-partSavage Sword of Conan story with artistAlan Davis. In 2020, Thomas wrote a 10-page story in the Marvel one-shotKing-Size Conan #1.[94]
On February 23, 2021, Thomas criticized Abraham Riesman's controversialStan Lee biographyTrue Believer: The Rise and Fall of Stan Lee. In a guest column inThe Hollywood Reporter, Thomas took issue with Riesman's assessment of conflicting accounts of the work of Lee andJack Kirby, who is credited with co-creating many classic Marvel characters. Thomas stated, "Something like 95 percent of the time, [the book] is a very good biography. However, the remaining (and crucial) 5 percent of its content, scattered amid all that painstaking research and well-written prose, renders it often untrustworthy...i.e., a very bad biography. Because the author often insists, visibly and intrusively, on putting his verbal thumb on the scales, in a dispute he seems ill-equipped to judge."[95]
In 2022, Thomas returned to write Wolverine, in the first two issues of a newMarvel Comics ongoing series calledX-Men: Legends which tells new in-continuity stories of early X-Men adventures. Thomas's two-part story takes place right afterThe Incredible Hulk #181 and right beforeGiant-Size X-Men #1 and reveals a missing link mystery about Wolverine's costume.[96]
Thomas serves on the Disbursement Committee of the comic-book industry charityThe Hero Initiative.[97]
I went to a parochial Lutheran school, but I'm not religious
It was held at the St. Paul Lutheran Fellowship Hall...on the grounds of the church Roy attended while living in Jackson.
I'm a lapsed Lutheran myself.
In the first issue ofThe Amazing Spider-Man to be written by someone other than Stan Lee ... Thomas also managed to introduce a major new player to Spidey's life – the scientifically created vampire known as Morbius.
We had been losing money for several years in the publishing. And y'know, actually a lot of credit should go to Roy Thomas, who – kicking and screaming —had dragged Marvel into doingStar Wars. If we hadn't doneStar Wars – what was that, '77? – well, we would have gone out of business.Additional .
The Yellow Brick Road from Munchkin Land to the Emerald City was also wide enough to accommodate DC and Marvel as they produced their first-ever joint publication ... Roy Thomas scripted a faithful, seventy-two-page adaptation of Dorothy Gale's adventure, while John Buscema's artwork depicted the landscape of Oz in lavish detail.
Batman #337 Gerry Conway was assisted by writer Roy Thomas and the pencils of José Luis García-López in this issue that introduced Batman to the new threat of the Snowman.
All-Star Squadron, DC's new World War II-era superhero series debuts in May in a 16-page preview insert inJustice League of America #193.
Arak, Son of Thunder, described as an 'Indian/Viking,' makes his debut in a preview insert inWarlord #48, on sale in May.
The hotly-debated new Wonder Woman uniform will be bestowed on the Amazon Princess in her first adventure written and drawn by her new creative team: Roy Thomas and Gene Colan ... This story will appear as an insert inDC Comics Presents #41.
| Preceded by | Marvel Comics Editor-in-Chief 1972–1974 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | (Uncanny) X-Men writer 1966–1968 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | The Avengers writer 1966–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | (Uncanny) X-Men writer 1969–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | Daredevil writer 1969–1970 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | The Incredible Hulk writer 1970–1972 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | Conan the Barbarian writer 1970–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | The Amazing Spider-Man writer 1971–1972 | Succeeded by Stan Lee |
| Preceded by Len Wein | Man-Thing writer 1972 | Succeeded by Gerry Conway |
| Preceded by Stan Lee | Fantastic Four writer 1972–1973 | Succeeded by Gerry Conway |
| Preceded by Steve Englehart | The Incredible Hulk writer (with Gerry Conway) 1974 | Succeeded by Len Wein |
| Preceded by Gerry Conway | Fantastic Four writer 1975–1977 | Succeeded by Len Wein |
| Preceded by | Captain America writer 1977 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by n/a | What If ... ? writer 1977 | Succeeded by Donald F. Glut |
| Preceded by Len Wein | Thor writer 1978–1980 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Thor writer 1994–1995 | Succeeded by |
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