As I've written about before, when I first got into reading
comics I discovered the Justice Society of America before I really knew the
Justice League was more than SUPER FRIENDS. Soon after that I found a comic
called ALL-STAR SQUADRON. This book was written by Roy Thomas, and in one way
or another included every single 'Golden Age' hero that DC Comics owned.
For many years, Thomas had his hands controlling the
greatest of characters from both Marvel and DC.
Because as a kid he grew up reading all the original Golden
Age characters he maintained a passion for all of them when he became a
professional writer himself. I'd like to think I'm following in his footprints.
At the first ComicCon I attended, I was excited to attend a
panel on Roy Thomas and his books. Unfortunately, for one reason or another, he
couldn't make it to the panel but con personnel said he was there. So another
attendee and I mustered up enough courage to go to the info booth and ask to
have him paged. (Realize I was a very shy kid in my early teens. Of course I'm
still rather shy in my mid—never mind.) But Mr. Thomas never showed up. I was
disappointed, but didn't have any negativity against the man who controlled all
these great characters.
Years later after getting my first job in the comic book
industry, I met him extremely briefly while attending Pro-Con in Oakland.
(Anyone remember that?) But he and Marv Wolfman were in deep discussion that I
didn't want to disturb him.
(I lost a lot of opportunities over the years because I
didn't want to disturb people. Finally getting over that. That's a blog post
all into itself.)
Finally we reach this year. Shannon and I attended a couple
of spotlight panels. One on the artist George Perez, and the second was on Roy
Thomas. The panel was moderated by Jon B. Cooke (editor of TwoMorrow's COMC
BOOK CREATOR magazine), and they talked about Thomas growing up and reading
comics as a little boy, on to writing and editing for Marvel, and then doing
what he says is his favorite book for DC Comics ALL-STAR SQUARDRON.
Yay, me too.
(Here's the cover of the very first Issue I bought:
Getting to hear him talk about all that was really good, but
the day wasn't over. After a dinner at the hotel before heading to the Writer's
Guild of America gathering, we were coming down an escalator and knew we had a
limited amount of time. Standing in the corner by the Starbucks in hotel's
lounge stood Roy Thomas.
What feels like the first time in my life, I didn't hesitate
or think about what I was doing, and just went up to Mr. Thomas and introduced
myself.
He was extremely friendly as I told him how ALL-STAR
SQUADRON not only got me into comics, but also into enjoying history of World
War II. That pleased him, because he was always incorporating history into the
stories.
I told him how I later worked for Brian Murray who had been
one of the artists on the follow up series YOUNG ALL-STARS.
Shannon spoke up saying how as an editor at Marvel, Roy had
given a writing assignment to Christy Marx who later became a mentor to her
which lead to her own career in animation.
I thanked him and his wife once more and headed off to meet
more of our fellow writers. I was walking on cloud 9 almost crying with joy.
Nothing could have made this Con better, and yet there were other things that
we will be talking about for a long time to come.
Though most of those 'golden age' characters have dropped
back into the shadows as new generations of writers and characters take over,
Roy Thomas and the ALL-STAR SQUADRON will forever be the heart of what makes
comics special to me and why I write and draw them.
Thank you Mr. Thomas.
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