Gardner Francis Cooper Fox
(May 20, 1911, Brooklyn
, New
York
– December 24, 1986) was an American
writer best known for
creating numerous comic book characters
for DC Comics. Comic-book
historians estimate that he wrote over 4,000 comics stories.
Early life and career
Gardner F. Fox was born in Brooklyn, New
York on the 20th of May, 1911. Fox recalled being
inspired at an early age by the great fantasy fiction writers. On
or about his eleventh birthday, he "had gotten
The Gods of Mars and
The Warlord of Mars" by
Edgar Rice Burroughs, which books
"opened up a complete new world for me." In a time before comics
existed, he "read all of Burroughs,
Harold
Lamb,
Talbot Mundy," maintaining
copies "at home in my library" some 50 years later.
Fox
received a law degree from St. John's
College
and was admitted to the New York bar in 1935. He practiced for about two
years, but as the
Great Depression
dragged on he began writing for DC Comics editor
Vin Sullivan. Debuting as a writer in the pages
of
Detective Comics, Fox "intermittently contributed tales
to nearly every book in the DC lineup during the Golden Age." He
was also a frequent contributor of prose stories to the
pulp science
fiction magazines of the 1930s and 1940s.
A polymath, Fox sprinkled his strips with numerous real-world
historical, scientific, and mythological references, once saying,
"Knowledge is kind of a hobby with me." For instance, in the span
of a year's worth of
Atom stories, Fox tackled the
1956 Hungarian revolution,
the
space race, 18th-century England,
miniature card painting,
Norse
mythology, and
numismatics. He
revealed in letters to fan
Jerry Bails
that he kept large troves of reference material, mentioning in 1971
that:
Books
During his career writing for (DC) comics, Fox also wrote novels
and short stories under a variety of male and female pseudonyms for
a number of publishers, including
Ace,
Gold Metal, Tower, Belmont,
Dodd Mead,
Hillman, Pocket Library,
Pyramid Books and
Signet Books.
During the mid-to-late 1940s, and into the 1950s, Fox wrote a
number of short stories and text pieces for
Weird Tales and
Planet Stories, and was also published
in
Amazing Stories and
Marvel Science Stories. He wrote for a diverse range of
pulp magazines, including
Baseball
Stories, Big Book Football Western, Fighting
Western, Football Stories, Lariat Stories,
Ace Sports, SuperScience, Northwest
Romances, Thrilling Western, and
Ranch
Romances for a number of publishing companies.
Between 1944 and 1982, he wrote at least novel a year (except 1950,
1951, and 1971), typically producing three per year - and published
twelve in 1974 alone.
Comics
Golden Age
Fox's earliest stories for
DC Comics
featured
Speed Saunders (with art by
Creig Flessel and, later,
Fred Guardineer) beginning at least with
Detective Comics #4.
(Speed Saunders was initially credited to "E.C. Stoner," which many
believe to be a Fox pseudonym.) As the
1930s progressed, Fox added writing credits
on Steve Malone and Bruce Nelson for
Detective Comics to
his workload (Malone would also appear in issues of
Adventure
Comics), as well as
Zatara for early
issues of
Action
Comics.
During
World War II, Fox took over a
variety of characters and books of several of his colleagues who
had been
drafted. He worked
for numerous companies including
Marvel
Comics' 1940s predecessor,
Timely
Comics;
Vin Sullivan's
Magazine Enterprises, where he created
Skyman; and at
EC, where he
served a brief stint as head writer. With the waning popularity of
superheroes, Fox contributed
western, science fiction, humor,
romance, and
funny
animal stories.
Sandman
In
1939, Fox co-created (with artist
Bert Christman) the character of the
Sandman, a
gasmask-wearing costumed crime-fighter whose first
appearance in
Adventure
Comics #40 (July 1939) was pre-empted by an appearance in
New York World's Fair
Comics (for which Fox also wrote a Zatara story).
Batman
In July, 1939, just two issues after the characters' debut by
artist
Bob Kane and writer
Bill Finger, Fox wrote the first of his several
tales of the Batman, introducing an early villain in "The Batman
Meets
Doctor Death." Alongside
Kane and Finger, Fox contributed to the evolution of the character,
including the character's first use of his
utility belt, which "contain[ed]
choking gas capsules," as well as writing the first usages of both
the
Batarang and the Batgyro (an early
Batplane) two issues later.
Fox returned to the Dark Knight in the mid-1960s.
(See
below)
The Flash
Launching in January, 1940, Fox is credited with writing the first
three (of six) stories in the inaugural issue of
Flash Comics, including the launch of the
titular character, the
Golden
Age Flash. Described as a
"modern-day
Mercury," the title
feature saw college student Jay Garrick imbued with superhuman
speed after inhaling
hard water
vapors.
Hawkman
Describing the origins of
Hawkman, Fox
recalled:
Debuting as the third story in
Flash Comics #1 (Jan, 1940)
-- the second story, by Fox with art by
Sheldon Moldoff, featured Cliff Cornwall --
"Fox's imagination [transformed] that bird [into] the soaring,
mysterious Hawkman." With art by Dennis Neville, the origin of the
'Winged Wonder' saw archaeologist and collector Carter Hall
reliving his past life as
Prince Khufu in
ancient Egypt, creating a costume
(powered by
Nth metal), confronting the
reincarnation of
Hath-Set, his former nemesis, and meeting his
reincarnated love, Shiera Saunders. Shiera Saunders would later be
revealed as the first-cousin of Speed Saunders, Fox's first DC
credit.
The Justice Society of America
Regularly writing more than six stories in five titles per month,
every month throughout the early 1940s, Fox also continued
to create new features. In May 1940, with artist Howard Sherman, he
created the character of
Doctor Fate, in
the person of Kent Nelson, the son of an archaeologist, trained
after the death of his father by the
Lord of Order
Nabu.
At the time, DC Comics consisted two discrete sub-companies,
Max Gaines'
All-American Publications and
Harry Donenfeld &
Jack Liebowitz's
National Periodical
Publications. Though he continued to script for
National/Detective Comics, Inc., Fox became the head writer for
All-American. While Fox's Dr. Fate (and other titles) was published
by National; Sandman, Hawkman and the Flash were released by
All-American. In Winter 1940, the third issue of All-American's
All-Star Comics debuted the
Justice Society of
America, the first superhero team in comics. Fox had worked on
the Hawkman, Flash and Sandman features in
All-Star for
its first two issues (Summer and Autumn, 1940), but from issue #3
(Winter), he assumed full writing duties for the issue, with all
features (by different artists) working within the
framing device wherein the characters were
described as part of a "Justice Society."
In the pages of
All-Star Comics #3, under the direction of
editor
Sheldon Mayer and with artists
including
E. E. Hibbard, Fox
created the first
superhero team, the
Justice Society of
America.
Each character - Fate, Sandman, Flash and
Hawkman were joined by Dr. Mid-Nite,
Hour-Man, the Spectre, the Atom and Green Lantern - was introduced by
themself (or Johnny Thunder), and
related a solo adventure, before being charged at the title's end
with remaining a loose team by the Director of the FBI
. In
April, 1941, Fox created the character of
Starman with artist
Jack Burnley in the pages of
Adventure
Comics #61, and the character would also later join the
JSA.
Non-DC work
Between 1940 and 1941, Fox wrote for the Columbia Comic
Corporation, penning stories featuring characters including "Face,"
"Marvelo," "Rocky Ryan," "Spyman," and "Spymaster." For
approximately three years (1947-50), Fox wrote for
EC Comics, including scripts and text pieces which
appeared in the famous
The Crypt
of Terror,
The Vault of
Horror and
Weird
Fantasy titles, as well as in the lesser-known
Gunfighter,
Happy Houlihans,
Saddle
Justice and the new trend title
Valor, among others.
Towards the end of the decade, and the start of the 1950s, he
worked for
Magazine Enterprises
on features including "The Durango Kid," the first
Ghost Rider, "Red Hawk," "Straight Arrow" and
"Tim Holt," in whose comic the Ghost Rider appeared. Fox also wrote
some of the required text pieces for Magazine Enterprises, which
were required by the Post Office to qualify magazines and comics
for cheaper postal rates.
Throughout the 1950s, Fox also wrote stories for
Avon Comics, most notably tales of "Crom the
Barbarian", and of "Kenton of the Star Patrol."
Silver Age
In the early 1950s, Fox wrote
Vigilante in
Action Comics, as
well as Western stories in the pages of
Western Comics and
sci-fi stories for DC's
Mystery in Space and
Strange
Adventures. In 1953, he entered into correspondance with fan
Jerry Bails, which initially focused on
Bails' fondness for the Justice Society and
All-Star
Comics, but ultimately became a friendship that not only
informed and influenced the dawning of comics' Silver Age, but also
comics fandom, in which Bails played a
key role.
In the mid-1950s, in the wake of the crackdown on comics which
followed
Fredric Wertham's
Seduction of the
Innocent and the
United
States Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency hearings on
the dangers of comic books, the content of comics faced radical
overhauls and the imposition of the censoring
Comics Code Authority body. In partial
response to this shift, DC editor
Julius
Schwartz began a widespread reinvention/revival of many Golden
Age heroes, and "Fox was one of the first writers... Schwartz
called in to help." The
Silver
Age of heroes began in the pages of
Showcase #4 (Oct, 1956) with a
radically overhauled
Flash character
by writers
Robert Kanigher and
John Broome with penciler
Carmine Infantino.
Under the "creative guidance" of Fox and Schwartz, "
Hawkman and the
Atom were given new costumes, new
identities," and drew an audience of fans old and new. Fox also
penned the reinvention of the new Atom, who debuted in
Showcase #34 (Sep-Oct, 1961) with art by
Gil Kane three years after his creation of sci-fi
hero
Adam Strange, who debuted in #17
(Nov, 1958) with art by
Mike
Sekowsky.
Multiverse
Fox's script for "
Flash of Two
Worlds!", from
The Flash
#123 (Sept. 1961), introduced the concept that the Golden Age
heroes existed on a parallel earth named
Earth-Two. This event heralded more generally the
concept of the DC Comics
Multiverse, a decades-long recurring
theme of the
DC Comics universe, allowing
old and new heroes to co-exist and crossover.
The Justice League of America
Another of Fox's key Silver Age achievements saw him revive and
revitalise the concept of the
Justice
Society as the
Justice
League of America, debuting in
Brave & the Bold
#28 (Feb/Mar 1960). Swiftly spun off into their own title in
Oct/Nov 1960, the Justice League would become the backbone of the
DC Universe, and thanks to the concept of the multiverse, regularly
engage in annual "team-up"s with their 1940s counter-parts, the
Justice Society in tales written by Fox.
Silver Age Batman
Fox returned to writing Batman stories in 1964, some 17 years after
his last tales. Following the Silver Age trends, he reintroduced
characters including
The Riddler and
The Scarecrow. Fox's
"Remarkable Ruse of the Riddler" (with art by
Sheldon Moldoff) in
Batman #171 (May, 1965) not only
updated and refreshed the character launched in 1948, but
officially relocated the villain to the newly identified Earth-1
after his (now retroactively-labelled) Earth-2 debut. Eighteen
issues later, Fox and Moldoff similarly resucitated and relocated
Professor Jonathan Crane, launching the Earth-1 Scarecrow in
"Fright of the Scarecrow,"
Batman #189 (Feb 1967). Golden
Age appearances of these two villains number just two each. The
Riddler had been unseen since December 1948 (a bare two months
after his debut) and the Scarecrow had been unseen since 1943. The
revised and relaunched Earth-1 incarnations, however, would see
both characters become two of the Caped Crusader's most famous
foes.
Leaving DC
Fox stopped receiving work from DC in 1968, when the comics company
refused to give health insurance and other benefits to its older
creators. Fox, who had written a number of historical adventures,
mystery and science fiction novels in the 1940s and the 1950s,
began to produce novels full time, both under his own name and
several
pseudonyms. He produced a small
number of comics during this period, but predominantly focused on
novels, writing over 100 in genres such as science fiction,
sword and sorcery,
espionage,
crime,
fantasy, romance, western, and
historical fiction.
Among his output was the modern novelisation of the
Irwin Allen production of
Jules Verne's Five Weeks in a Balloon, two
books in the "Llarn" series; five volumes dealing with the
adventures of "Kothar" (beginning with the 1969 novel
Barbarian
Swordsman) and four books detailling the adventures of
"Kyrik," starting with
Warlock Warrior (1975).
For Tower Books, he produced between thirteen and twenty-five "Lady
from L.U.S.T." (
League of
Undercover
Spies and
Terrorists) novels between 1968 and 1975 under the
name Rod Gray. With
Rochelle Larkin
and
Leonard Levinson, Fox used the
pen-name "Glen Chase" to write entries in the "Cherry Delight, The
Sexecutioner" series.
His personal pen-names have included Jefferson Cooper, Bart
Sommers, Simon Majors, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, and Lynna
Cooper.
Later comics work
In the early 1970s, Fox briefly worked for DC's rival publisher,
Marvel Comics, writing scripts for
features such as
Dr. Strange, Dracula
and
Red Wolf. In 1971,
Skywald Publications reprinted some of
his earlier work on titles such as
Demona,
Nightmare,
Red Mask and
Zanagar, and Fox
also found work for
Warren
Publications on
Creepy and
Eerie during the same period.
Towards the end of his life, in 1985, he worked briefly for
Eclipse Comics including on the
science fiction anthology
Alien Encounters.
Hobbies and achievements
During the course of his career, Fox can be definitely credited
with around 1500 stories for DC Comics, making him the second most
prolific DC creator (after
Robert
Kanigher) by a considerable margin over his nearest rival. In
July, 1971, Fox estimated he had written "[f]ifty million words"
over the course of his career to date.
He was a member of a number of literary and genre organisations,
including the
Academy of
Comic Book Arts and both the
Authors
Guild, the
Authors League
of America and the
Science Fiction Writers of
America. As a lawyer, he was also a member of the prestigious
legal fraternity
Phi Delta Phi.
A sports fan, he liked both "
the Mets
and
the Jets," and (in 1971) had
"season tickets to the St. John's games." A voracious reader, he
stated that:
Awards
Fox won two 1962
Alley Awards — for Best
Script Writer and for Best Book-Length Story ("The Planet that Came
to a Standstill" in
Mystery in
Space #75), with penciler
Carmine Infantino) — as well as a 1963
Alley, for Favorite Novel ("Crisis on Earths 1 and 2" in
Justice League of America
#21-22, with penciler
Mike Sekowsky),
and the 1965 Alley for Best Novel ("Solomon Grundy Goes on a
Rampage" in
Showcase #55)
with penciler
Murphy
Anderson).
He was honored at the New York
Comic Art Convention in 1971, and
received an
Inkpot Award at the San
Diego ComiCon in 1978. In 1982, at
Skycon II,
he was awarded the "
Jules Verne Award
for Life-time achievement."
In 1998, he was posthumously awarded a
Harvey Award and entered into the
Jack Kirby Hall of Fame; a year later, he was
inducted into the
Eisner Award Hall of
Fame.
In 2007, Fox was one of the year's two recipients of the
Bill
Finger Award for Excellence in Comic Book Writing, given under
the auspices of
Comic-Con
International.
Legacy
In 1967,
Fox's literary agent, August Lenniger, suggested that Fox donate
his notes, correspondence, and samples of his work to the University of
Oregon
as a tax write-off. Fox donated over
fourteen boxes of comics, books, scripts, plot ideas, and fan
letters dating back to the 1940s. Today, his records comprise the
bulk of the university's Fox Collection.
In 1968,
Green Lantern
debuted a character named after him,
Guy Gardner. Another DC character,
Atomic Knight Gardner Grayle, was also
named after him.
Gardner Fox died on December 24, 1986. He was survived by his wife
Lynda, his son Jeffrey, his daughter Lynda, and four
grandchildren.
In 2002, the
Cartoon Network aired
an episode of the
animated TV
series Justice
League titled "Legends", an homage to Fox's Justice
Society and his annual Silver Age Justice Society/Justice League
crossovers. The episode was dedicated to Fox.
Quotes
Gardner Fox speaking at
Phil Seuling's New York
Comic Art Convention, 1971:
Footnotes
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "The Mystery
of San Jose Island" in Detective Comics #4. Accessed July 31,
2008
- Thrilling Detective: Speed Saunders. Accessed July 31,
2008
- From issue #8's "The Indian Prince," with art by Fred
Guardineer. See Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics. Accessed
July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "Sandman at
the World's Fair" in New York World's Fair Comics #1.
Accessed July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "The Batman
Meets Doctor Death" in Detective Comics #29. Accessed July
31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "Batman vs.
the Vampire" in Detective Comics #31. Accessed July
31, 2008
- Marx, Barry (ed.) "Gardner Fox: DC's Universe Expands" in
Fifty Who Made DC Great (DC Comics, 1985), p. 16
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "(The
Disappearing Plane)" in Flash Comics #1. Accessed July 31,
2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: Gardner F.
Fox. Accessed July 31, 2008
- The Who's Who of American Comics: Gardner
Fox. Accessed July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "Remarkable
Ruse of the Riddler" in Batman #171 (May, 1965).
Accessed July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "Fright of
the Scarecrow," Batman #189 (Feb 1967). Accessed July 31,
2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: Riddler of
Earth-2. Accessed July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: Scarecrow of
Earth-2. Accessed July 31, 2008
- Gardner F. Fox at Fantastic Fiction.
Accessed July 1, 2008
- Percy Trout, "The Lady from L.U.S.T.," May 20,
2007. Accessed July 31, 2008
- "Rod Gray" at Fantastic Fiction. Accessed July 31,
2008
- "Glen Chase" at Fantastic Fiction. Accessed
July 31, 2008
- Mike's Amazing World of DC Comics: "Top 25 DC
Creators by Category - Writers". Accessed July 31, 2008
- Seuling,
Phil (ed.) "Jim Steranko & Gardner Fox at the 1971
Comic Art Convention Luncheon - July,
1971" - Interviews by John Benson and Phil Seuling, (transcribed and
edited by Benson) in 1972 Comic Art Convention Programme
(Seuling, 1972) pp. 70-78
- Evanier, Mark. "This Year's Bill Finger Award," News from
Me, June 5, 2007.
- Gilbert, Michael. T. "The Fox and the Fans: Letters to Gardner
F. Fox From Future Pros, 1959–1965." Alter Ego, vol. 2,
no. 1 (Spring 1998), pp. p. 5-9.
References
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
