Every such post of yet another death of someone who made my little corner of the world a better and richer place is written from a place of sadness, but this one is particularly so...
Comic book writer, editor... and transformative figure Dennis (Denny) O' Neil passed away on June 11, 2020, at the age of 81.
To call Denny O' Neil my favorite DC Comics writer Post-Silver-Age is easy... just look over his body of work.
To call Denny O' Neil one of my most favorite comic book writers of all is equally easy... just look over his body of work.
But, to call Denny O' Neil THE most significant comic book writer Post-Silver-Age - and ONE OF THE most significant comic book writers of ALL TIME (in a grouping that would include such names as Jerry Siegel, Bill Finger and Bob Kane, Stan Lee, and Carl Barks) - would also not be amiss... just look over his body of work.
Consider that THIS was the character (and popular image of) Batman before Denny O'Neil...
...And through O'Neil's guidance, aided and abetted by the magnificent visuals of Neal Adams, came things like THIS!
Of course, there are MANY who prefer a lighter comics Batman and, certainly in view of the extremes of the comics of the 21st Century, I count myself decidedly as one of them - preferring, via the greater perspective of hindsight and at least two decades of gratuitous comics excess, a Batman more like these...
C'mon... Admit it! Every one of those was GREAT!
But, "great" as they all were (and ARE), somewhere around this time...
...Batman needed a "bigger change" than Batgirl needed for her tights!
And Denny O' Neil was just the writer to deliver that change!
And did he EVER deliver!
Creating my favorite DC villain (...yes, even more than The Joker) Ra's Al Ghul in the process!
Not stopping there, he revitalized Superman...
...Paving the way for editor Julius Schwartz and his pack of young writing talents, Cary Bates, Elliot S! Maggin, and the recently-lost-to-us Martin Pasko, to carry the Man of Steel through the 1970s, and well into the 1980s!
And there was the historic (though, alas, unappreciated in its time)
GREEN LANTERN / GREEN ARROW!
These images simply speak for themselves!
One of the most iconic and oft-referenced series of panels in comic book history...
Caricatures can sometimes be tricky... Former Vice-President Spiro Agnew - or horror film star Vincent Price?
Cover by the great Neal Adams!
Honestly, back when I first read this issue, I thought it was supposed to be Vincent Price! But, some say differently. You decide!
Alas, we can no longer ask the author.
Nor, can we ask him about his early days... writing for (can you believe) Charlton...
...Under his pen name of "Sergius O' Shaugnessy"...
Or his days at Marvel...
...Or his time in the later 1980s thru 1990s as the editor of the Batman family of titles!
A period that began with elegance...
...Retaining that elegance amid a direction of market-driven image-distortion...
...And was the last period during which I truly enjoyed a contemporary Batman comic that didn't harken back to a previous time.
Mark Evanier has a wonderfully detailed Blog post on Denny O'Neil that you can read HERE!
Denny O'Neil was the writer most responsible for transitioning DC Comics out of the fanciful Silver Age and into the more grounded Bronze Age, laying the groundwork for the "Modern Age" to come! Anyone who disputes this can (...all together now)
... just look over his body of work!
Rest In Peace, Mr. Dennis O'Neil... An entire industry has YOU to thank for so very much!
The first TOP CAT comic book! (Late 1961)
