Category: Uncategorized Page 1 of 4

The Origin of Harada 2007

On November 3, 2025

This is the script Jim wrote in 2007 for a special feature in the Harbinger hardback. An interesting insight into the background of the big bad of the VALIANT universe. -JayJay

COVER:

Scene: Heroic, glamour shot of HARADA—stark, bold, dramatic and heroic! He’s our star.

ALTERNATIVE: A “movie poster” shot with a dominant, noble, heroic image of Harada, perhaps holding or levitating a globe (♫ “he’s got the who-ole world in his hands…”♪), or standing beside a floor-stand globe; with subordinate images of NORIKO (Harada’s wife), Pete, Kris, the battle from issue #6 between the Eggbreakers and our protagonists in which Torque dies, and/or other prominent images from issues # 0-7. Please do not show Solar, since he’s irrelevant to the subject matter at hand.

Noriko is Japanese, born in Oakland, California like Harada. She’s several years older than Harada, very pretty, very Western, modern and worldly, but with a good bit of that traditional Japanese demureness, drilled into her as a young child.

(NOTE TO WALTER: Is the “cover” planned for a recto? If so, then I humbly suggest that you make page 1 a recto as well, and use the verso of the cover for an introduction by the editor or publisher. Just a thought. Always thinkin’….)

LOGO

HARBINGER

BLURB

The Untold Story of Toyo Harada

PAGE ONE:

Panel 1 (1/3 page-but bleed up, right and left):

Scene: HARADA flies/levitates toward his home in the Oakland area. Harada is foreground, full figure. Show the whole house, background. DO NOT CROP. Harada’s dressed as he was in Harbinger #7, perhaps with his tie loosened. He looks tired. His home is in the upscale Piedmont Pines section, but is unremarkable by local standards—worth only $1-2 million. There are lights on. NORIKO is waiting up for him.

Please bleed this panel, but DO NOT RUN THE ART BEHIND OTHER PANELS! NO OVERLAP! THIS IS NON-NEGOTIABLE!

(NOTE TO THE PENCILER: This is a full script, it’s your job to design to accommodate and PLACE THE COPY, that is, make balloon placement indications! I come from the Stan Lee school of thought regarding lettering and balloon placement:

Lettering and balloons should be as unobtrusive as possible

There should never be any question about which balloon comes next

As much as possible, balloons should stay out of the way of the art:

Anchor balloons to the panel borders when possible, unless that puts the balloon too far from the speaker or otherwise causes problems

Try not to cover anything important or interesting—especially light sources, signs, figures, critical details and especially heads

Characters shouldn’t be wearing balloons like hats or balancing them like trained seals—avoid “resting” the balloons on heads

If a balloon MUST cover part of a head, try to keep the coverage small. If it’s going to cover a head down to the eyebrows, it’s time to adjust the art

If you can overlap a head a smidge into the balloon to avoid covering the head or trained seal syndrome, please do

Try to have short, straight pointers aimed at the speaker’s mouth

Pointers should come from around the middle of the balloon. Avoid those cat’s claw pointers at the ends of balloons, especially long, narrow ones

Avoid “snakey” pointers

Consecutive balloons from the same speaker should abut, if possible, with a bridge connector between them

If a longer bridge connector is required, make it as straight and direct as possible.)

This entire book is material from my era at VALIANT (with the partial exception of #0, which was adapted from a plot of mine, but completed after I left). Stan’s rules for lettering, above, were part of our “house style” at that time, and should be observed for this story as well, which is meant to be part of that body of work. In those ancient days, because I was forced to have many panels and pages drawn before I wrote all the copy, some of the balloons ended up having to poke out of panels and into the margins. I hated that then, hate it now, and would prefer that you did not invade the margins with the copy.

LOGO

HARBINGER

TITLE

Failsafe

CAPTION

The Piedmont Pines section of Oakland, California. March 7, 1992, 4:30 AM.

Panel 2 (2/9):

Scene: Inside the house, establish a living room off of the foyer. Noriko—I’m seeing her in a fuzzy bathrobe and expensive silk nightgown—looks surprised to see him. Maybe she was drinking tea, reading a book and is just getting up to greet him, here. Somewhere in the BG, show at least one SERVANT, Japanese, please—probably bowing to greet Harada. All full figures.

SERVANT

Mister Harada! Good evening, sir.

NORIKO

Toyo. I didn’t hear the car pull in.

HARADA

There was a back-up on 580. An accident. The driver is probably still stuck in that mess. I brought myself the rest of the way.

Panel 3 (1/9):

Scene: Angle on Noriko and Harada. He’s pulling off his tie, maybe slumping in a chair, maybe levitating tea for himself from the servant’s tray with an appropriate gesture, please. He looks a little disheveled and exhausted. Noriko looks saddened, deeply troubled by his news.

HARADA

It’s been…a long, long day, Noriko. One of the renegades was killed—not Peter Stanchek, unfortunately. Three of ours were injured…badly.

NORIKO

More death. So many dead since this started. So many hurt.

Panel 4 (1/9):

Scene: Two-shot to intro Noriko and Harada. He’s gingerly touching the back of his head where Thumper thumped him in issue #6. Noriko seems less sympathetic than one might expect.

NORIKO

Are you hurt?

HARADA

I was hit from behind by one of ours. She felt a misguided debt of honor to the renegades. I’ll be fine. But I’m very tired. To bed, love?

NORIKO

I’ll be along soon.

Panel 5 (2/9):

Scene: Establish the master bedroom. Harada is asleep. I figure him for a sleep-naked kind of guy, so no jammies, please. The door is open and Noriko stands in the doorway, dramatically framed and backlit. There’s something ominous about the way she’s looking at Harada. Full figures.

CAPTION

5:29 AM.

PAGE TWO:

Panel 1:

Scene: Angle to include Noriko and sleeping Harada. She’s in a chair, now, staring at him rather balefully, lost in dark contemplations. The door is closed, the lights are out, but the sun is up (sunrise: 6:31 AM), so some light is leaking through the blinds and/or curtains.

CAPTION

7:19 AM

Panel 2:

Scene: Another angle on Noriko and sleeping Harada. Noriko is carefully sliding open the drawer of the nightstand.

CAPTION

8:01 AM

Panel 3:

Scene: Close up to reveal what Noriko is fetching from the drawer—a knife. Not some awkward kitchen knife, but a serious, dagger-type-gonna-kill-somebody knife.

(no copy)

Panel 4:

Scene: TRICK SHOT! Angle on Noriko to make it look like she’s merely holding the knife, calmly examining it. What she’s really doing here is calmly, coldly SLICING HER PALM, but the angle is such that we can’t tell. Angle this to include sleeping Harada, i.e., shoot past him, cropped, foreground, slight upshot.

(no copy)

Panel 5:

Scene: Noriko stands over Harada, the knife held in a downward stabbing fashion in her un-sliced hand. Her sliced hand is clenched into a fist, as one would do instinctively. A VERY SUBTLE hint of blood from the slice may be (barely) visible. Be crafty! Not too obvious. The knife, of course, is bloody, but it’s too dark in here for that to be too apparent. I assume the nightstand would be beside the bed, and that Noriko would only have to turn or take a small step to be “addressing” Harada, i.e., standing in position to kill him.

(no copy)

Panel 6:

Scene: Medium. Noriko stands over Harada, now holding the knife with both hands, raised high—poised to stab him. Again, maybe there’s a tiny trickle of blood down her left wrist, or just an inkling of blood near her left hand. SUBTLE!

(no copy)

Panel 7:

Scene: Close up of Noriko, a face shot, though we should be able to tell her arms are still raised as if to stab. Tears are running down her cheeks—but she looks like she might do it—teeth clenched, intense, determined.

(no copy)

Panel 8:

Scene: A sliver? Blank—all black, all white or all red. You pick.

PAGE THREE:

Panel 1:

Scene: Foreground, Noriko stands at her vanity. She’s turning on one of those small, illuminated vanity mirrors for a little light. On the vanity, besides what you might expect, is a Dayplanner, open to March 6 (though we may not be able to discern the date here). Noriko still holds the knife in her sliced hand, since she’s using the un-sliced one to turn on the mirror. The knife is good and bloody (especially since she’s holding it in her bleeding hand), and now we’ll be able to see the blood—dripping, even. Also, now the blood from her sliced hand is more evident in general—it’s gotten on her robe, on her nightgown, etc.—though it should not be clear where all the blood is coming from. In the background, hidden in the general darkness too well for us to see clearly, is Harada, in a distinctly different position than when we last saw him. There’s blood all over the covers—all from Noriko’s hand, but we hope the readers will think it’s Harada’s blood. He’s still asleep, but if readers think he’s dead, that’s okay by me. Make this a big enough shot and show enough (shadowy) environs to reset the room.

CAPTION

8:07 AM

Panel 2:

Scene: Close up of the Dayplanner and Noriko’s hand as Noriko starts to turn the page. There is blood on her hand and on the Dayplanner where she touches it. We can see some of the ENTRIES for March 6, in her nice, neat script.

ENTRIES

(some may not be seen, or only partially seen, but get the point across—this woman is the charity queen)

7:00 AM: 7-8:30 Serving breakfast at the shelter

8:00 AM: 8:30 – Home to change

9:00 AM: Call Ray at P.Pines Neighborhood Assn. re: Earth Day plans

10:00 AM: Kim’s – nails, hair, makeup 10:15 – call S. Hayes to discuss points to cover in keynote speech at IAVE World Volunteer Conference

11:00 AM: 11:15 – call J. Hyland at bank re: wiring donation to CARE acct. # 090-71 (rest of number obscured)

12 PM: 12-1:30 Lunch w Debbie and Jan – Grill Room, Sequoyah Country Club (CROSSED OUT, REPLACED WITH) 12:30-3:00 Int. Red Cross fundraiser luncheon – they’re giving me a Circle of Humanitarians award!

1:00 PM:

2:00 PM:

3:00 PM:

4:00 PM: Nature Conservancy board mtg – S.F. office

5:00 PM:

6:00 PM: 6:00-9:00 guest lecture at Cal Berkeley – School of Social Welfare/Haviland Hall – don’t forget to bring the slides!!

7:00 PM:

8:00 PM:

9:00 PM:

10:00 PM: Conference call w IAVE Global Volunteer Council Asia-Pacific Regional board

Panel 3:

Scene: Match the previous angle, but Noriko has turned the page to March 7. The date, March 7, is circled again and again (in blue pen—too much red blood around to use red…no?). There is only one ENTRY. A drop or two of blood lands on the page.

ENTRY

9:30 AM – Madame Rowena

Panel 4:

Scene: Foreground, in the bathroom, Noriko is half dressed—possibly she has on a skirt and a bra and is brushing her hair. The top she’ll put on may be in evidence somewhere. Her clothes are casual but expensive. Show evidence that she has cleaned herself up—i.e., wet towels and/or washcloths with blood stains on them, whatever. Noriko’s sliced hand is now bandaged—and so, please place in evidence somewhere a roll of gauze, some adhesive tape, Mercurochrome (or a reasonably modern antiseptic equivalent. Unguentine? Dunno. God, I’m so old….). Please give a hint of the bedroom through the open bathroom door to cement the idea that this is the bathroom off the master bedroom. If possible, BG, show Harada still in bed, still sprawled in the same position as we saw him last time.

Okay, that’s a toughie. What we want to establish here is that Noriko has cleaned up, patched up her hand, is getting dressed and that Harada still appears to be dead. I can see a possible shot in my befuddled head, awkwardly described above, but do it any way you see fit. We don’t really have to see Harada here.

Panel 5:

Scene: Noriko, fully dressed now, is removing something from a wall safe that was hidden behind a picture (a Renoir or somesuch) in the bedroom. The readers can’t tell what it is, but I’ll let you in on it—it’s that teddy bear Harada was carrying when he murdered his parents:

Panel 6:

Scene: Medium to establish the area outside the master bedroom. (BTW, a good source of floor plans is www.architecturaldesigns.com .) Noriko, carrying a small shopping bag (with the teddy bear inside), is closing the bedroom door behind her. SERVANT 1 and another servant (neither is the one we saw earlier) are doing servant stuff. They are bowing, or at least looking like they’re acknowledging what Noriko is saying.

CAPTION

9:13 AM

NORIKO

Mister Harada is not to be disturbed.

SERVANT 1

Good morning, Mrs. Harada. Hai. No disturb.

PAGE FOUR:

Panel 1:

Scene: Establishing shot—a small, (rather phallic) peninsula of land jutting into San Francisco Bay at the foot of Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. Here’s a Google Earth OH shot:

Noriko is parking her 1992 Lexus LS 400 in the adjacent parking lot. There is an 87-year-old Caucasian woman, MADAME ROWENA at the end of the peninsula. She’s in one of those motorized scooter/wheelchair/power chair things. Pix of such are available all over the web—there’s the Scooter, the Hoveround, Invacare and lots more.

CAPTION

Near the corner of Gilman and Buchanan in Berkeley, 9:37 AM

Panel 2:

Scene: Noriko approaches Madame Rowena, who’s sitting and looking out at the water. She’s dressed a little like a Gypsy fortuneteller, but don’t go overboard. Madame Rowena is blind, by the way—big, dark, blind-person shades, please. Prominently visible is her white, blind-person cane—a rigid one, since the collapsible ones are hard to recognize when they’re folded. She’s holding it, or it’s leaning against the handlebars.

MADAME ROWENA

(Not looking at Noriko, as if that would matter)

Noriko. You’re late.

NORIKO

Sorry, Madame Rowena.

Panel 3:

Scene: Two shot to establish Madame Rowena and re-establish Noriko. MR is still “looking” out toward San Francisco Bay. MR carps at Noriko. Noriko is mildly amused.

MADAME ROWENA

What do you mean I shouldn’t be coming down here by myself?

NORIKO

I didn’t say that…yet. But you are rather frail. And blind.

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

Screw frail. And I use other peoples’ eyes. I like the view.

Panel 4:

Scene: Madame Rowena zips away in her power chair, headed back toward Gilman Street. She has her cane in one hand, resting on her shoulder, the way a woodsman carries his axe. Noriko starts to follow, amused again at MR’s outrageousness and crankiness.

MADAME ROWENA

Let’s go back to my place. Leave the car. You need the exercise. You’re getting a little chubby.

Panel 5:

Scene: Exterior establishing shot of Madame Rowena’s home and place of business in an old, somewhat run-down residential neighborhood that begins ten or so blocks up Gilman. The street slopes upward slightly as you head east away from the Bay in this neighborhood, which is actually Westbrae. Madame Rowena’s modest, somewhat dilapidated house has no wheelchair access, so she parks her power chair by her doorstep. She’s entering, here, lugging her arthritic, old body along with difficulty, using her white cane as a walking cane. Noriko is well behind, out of breath, also struggling to complete this journey. There’s a small neon SIGN in one window. Make it groovy and tacky.

SIGN

MADAME ROWENA

Reader and Advisor

MADAME ROWENA

I get the feeling you’ve done something terrible.

NORIKO

Maybe…yes, I have. Maybe.

Panel 6:

Scene: Inside Madame Rowena’s “office,” a properly tacky fortuneteller’s den. MR is settling herself into her ornate chair. On the table in front of her is a crystal ball. Any other tacky fortuneteller paraphernalia you care to exhibit around the room is welcome. Noriko is entering, out of breath. There is, of course, a customer’s chair across from MR’s.

MADAME ROWENA

Tell me the whole story again…ut! Don’t you sass me. I’m eighty-one! I forget things. I can’t remember who I insulted an hour ago!

NORIKO

Why don’t you just read my mind? You’re doing pretty well so far.

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

I will…but if you’re talking about it, it helps me see what happened.

Panel 7:

Scene: Noriko is now seated. Madame Rowena is doing that hokey, Gypsy fortuneteller concentrating thing. Noriko begins the tale of Harada.

NORIKO

My husband was born in 1951 in Oakland, son of Japanese immigrants….

MADAME ROWENA

I’m getting nothing.

PAGE FIVE:

Panel 1:

Scene: Noriko pulls the teddy bear out of the shopping bag. Madame Rowena lights up.

NORIKO

Maybe this will help?

MADAME ROWENA

Aha! That’s the ticket!

Panel 2:

Scene: Close up of Madame Rowena, snuggling the teddy bear, melodramatically remembering.

MADAME ROWENA

Right away there were occasional flashes of strangeness – – things floating in the air above his crib, silent screaming inside his parents’ minds when he wanted something….

Panel 3:

Scene: Another angle to include (and feature!) the crystal ball, which now shows the scene described in the dialogue! Madame Rowena is smiling, remembering.

NORIKO

They took him to lots of doctors who just thought they were crazy. So, eventually, they brought him to you.

MADAME ROWENA

Yes! Ah, I was so young and pretty! Look at me!

(NOTE: “…young and pretty.” Madame Rowena is 43 in the CB! Harada is three.)

Panel 4:

Scene: Focus on the crystal ball—show enough of the CB to make it clear that’s what it is. What we see in the CB is toddler Harada, in his toddler PJ’s, clutching the teddy bear, lying on young, pretty Madame Rowena’s table (the same one) with young pretty MR touching his forehead, doing that concentrating thing. Remember, this takes place in the early fifties, long before those baby-buckets, or Pampers or anything modern was invented. Toddler Harada is weirdly calm—and has the beatific look of a toddler Harbinger having a revelation/being popped.

MADAME ROWENA

I read the kid’s mind…

Panel 5:

Scene: In the crystal ball—up-shot, close up of young, pretty Madame Rowena’s face with toddler Harada’s little hands reaching up toward it. If we happen to be able to see old, real-life MR’s face here, BG, it’s mimicking young MR’s expression.

MADAME ROWENA

I don’t know how, but my messing around in his mind opened up his power!

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

I realized he was like me, but…far greater! It scared me.

Panel 6:

Scene: Pull back, reset the room, Noriko and Madame Rowena. The teddy bear is lying on the table next to the crystal ball. MR is sincerely engaging Noriko, here.

MADAME ROWENA

We’re different. A new kind of people.

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

I think I was the first of us. You know, like that “Lucy” Doctor Leakey discovered, who was the “Eve” for all you regular people…?

Panel 7:

Scene: Angle on Madame Rowena, contemplating the teddy bear, musing.

MADAME ROWENA

I didn’t realize I was special till I was twenty-some. Till then, I was mostly just faking it, like mama – – except, like your husband, I had those occasional flashes till I opened up.

PAGE SIX:

Panel 1:

Scene: Focus on Noriko. Shoot past the crystal ball in which we see Harada murdering his parents—a different shot than seen on the Harbinger coupons, please.

NORIKO

Yes. Well, Toyo’s parents feared him more and more…and he feared them. They wished he’d never been born…even thought about killing him. He knew, of course.

MADAME ROWENA

He struck first. Too bad for them.

Panel 2:

Scene: Close up of Noriko.

NORIKO

He came to me. We were neighbors. He was six, I was eleven. He asked me to go away with him. Be his wife. Take care of him. He needed someone.

NORIKO

I don’t think he forced me….

Panel 3:

Scene: Another angle on Noriko, remembering. In the foreground, in the crystal ball, please show young Harada walking on the boardroom table—different angle than on the coupon, please.

NORIKO

I took care of him as best I could. He used what he could do to make us rich. He built a business empire, despite his youth.

NORIKO (2^nd)

But the older he got, the more he learned about the world, the more unhappy he was.

Panel 4:

Scene: Similar to previous. In the crystal ball show the classic image from the Tiananmen Square riots.

NORIKO

He began to intervene. He was instrumental in solving the Cuban missile crisis…Apartheid…Tiananmen Square…the fall of the Berlin Wall…so many more.

MADAME ROWENA

Hmf! Who appointed him God?

Panel 5:

Scene: Focus on Madame Rowena.

MADAME ROWENA

There are downsides of trying to manage the world.

NORIKO

(Possibly off-panel)

Yes. There have been failures. The Bay of Pigs, though he was still very young, then. Viet Nam. The Mideast mess. Manipulations gone wrong. Many have died. Now, this thing with the renegades….

Panel 6:

Scene: Two-shot, but feature Madame Rowena.

MADAME ROWENA

Our kind should lay low, let the old kind run their course. Interfering is stupid. Dangerous.

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

All right, now I remember all that crap. Anything new?

NORIKO

A young man was killed last night by his “Eggbreakers”…you know – – if you want to make an omelet…?

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

Yes, yes, very clever.

Panel 7:

Scene: Noriko pulls the bloody knife from her purse. Madame Rowena reacts with shock.

NORIKO

This morning, I thought to kill him. I took this knife….

MADAME ROWENA

You didn’t…!

PAGE SEVEN:

Panel 1:

Scene: Pull back to reset the room. Harada is entering, hale and hearty, if still tired.

HARADA

No. She didn’t.

MADAME ROWENA

(Disappointed)

Fiddlesticks.

Panel 2:

Scene: Madame Rowena scolds Noriko as she leaves with Harada. Harada has the teddy bear, holding it in a dignified, manly sort of way.

MADAME ROWENA

You should have done it!

MADAME ROWENA (2^nd)

Get out of here, Toyo, you sick freak! And take your chattel with you!

Panel 3:

Scene: Noriko looks back at Madame Rowena.

NORIKO

Next year?

MADAME ROWENA

If I’m still compos mentis.

NORIKO (2^nd)

“Still?”

Panel 4:

Scene: Harada flies himself and Noriko away (to her car, if you must know). They talk. Harada gingerly holds Noriko’s bandaged hand.

HARADA

I forgot what day it was till I saw your Dayplanner.

HARADA (2^nd)

You cut yourself again. I wish you wouldn’t do that. Blood everywhere…

NORIKO

I need to feel the pain and see the blood. It makes what I am contemplating real to me.

Panel 5:

Scene: Closer on Harada and Noriko.

NORIKO

I…still believe in you. But you know I can’t stand the deaths…the suffering.

NORIKO (2^nd)

You could just wipe away my doubts. And Rowena’s knowledge of them….

HARADA

No. There must be a control. When you stop believing in me…end it.

HARADA (2^nd)

As for the old woman – – who would listen to a fortuneteller?

Panel 6:

Scene: In the bedroom. Noriko sleeps. Harada sits in a chair, watching her sleep, lost in his dark contemplations—and clutching his teddy bear.

CAPTION

March 8, 2:34 AM.

Fin

How I Returned to Comics

By Jim Shooter

On October 9, 2025

In Uncategorized

by Jim Shooter

In 1970 the job market in Pittsburgh for eighteen-year-old comic book writers was pretty sad. I got some good interviews but nobody wanted to risk hiring me, a kid just out of high school. My background wasn’t exactly something I could sell. I did various little jobs and some freelance assignments, but I eventually had to get a normal job. I managed a Kentucky Fried Chicken store for about a year. I worked in advertising.

In 1973…or maybe 1974, dunno…a guy named Harry Broertjes called me and asked if he could interview me for a fanzine devoted to the Legion. The Legion Outpost. I think. Among the last things he asked me—might have been off the record—was why I wasn’t writing comics at that time. I told him that I was sure Mort wouldn’t want me back at DC, and that, having walked out on Marvel after only three weeks, I felt I’d burned my bridges there.

Harry told me, for one thing, that Mort had retired and wasn’t at DC anymore. He thought that people at Marvel and DC just didn’t know how to get in touch with me. I didn’t understand how that could be, but….

(Harry is now a mild-mannered guy who works for a great metropolitan newspaper. Hmm.)

The next day, I got a call from a guy named Duffy Vohland, who represented himself as an editor at Marvel. He wasn’t. I think he was an assistant in Marvel’s British Department. Harry had apparently given him my number. Anyway, he said that I would be welcome at Marvel, and that I should come to New York to meet with Editor-in-Chief Roy Thomas and other people.

Okay. I think I went the next day, which was my day off at the department store. I did meet with Roy, who offered me a regular book to start with, Manwolf. I hadn’t picked up a comic book for years, and I had no idea who Manwolf was, but….

After my meeting with Roy, I went to lunch with a bunch of Marvel staffers and freelancers. They all encouraged me to go over to DC and look for work there, too. Apparently, it was okay to work at both companies at once, at that point. Things had changed since the old days when Frank Giacoia, Gene Colan, and many others were forced to use pseudonyms when moonlighting for the enemy (as if you couldn’t tell it was their work). I went to DC’s offices—someone had to tell me where they were, since DC had moved from where I’d left them last, 909 Third Avenue.

I didn’t know who to ask for. I figured that Nelson would probably still be there. Yep. Nelson was very glad to see me and escorted me right into the publisher’s office. The publisher was Carmine Infantino! That was a surprise. He’d been the art director for a while during my first stint, and had always liked my cover designs, so he remembered me, sort of. Carmine wrongly greeted me as the “kid who created the Legion.” Well, no, but….

No matter. Carmine summoned then-Legion editor Murray Boltinoff and told him to put me on the LSH again. Murray seemed pleased. Cary Bates, who was writing the series, had more work than he could handle. Murray needed a guy. Then Carmine walked me down to Julie Schwartz’s office, introduced me (we’d already met, years ago) and told Julie that I was his new Superman writer. Julie sort of grunted an okay.

So, DC offered me two strips with which I was familiar, and Marvel offered me Manwolf. I went with DC. A mistake, as it turned out.

I wasn’t very confident. How could I be, having been through Mort’s self-esteem meat grinder?
Jim

First of all, I wasn’t very confident. How could I be, having been through Mort’s self-esteem meat grinder? Yes, by that point, I’d figured out that I wasn’t a “moron,” but I sure wasn’t feeling like I was God-King of comics writers.

Julie wasn’t as verbally abusive as Mort (though ornery and acerbic), but he seemed to be deliberately hazing me. And, as I learned later, he was. He made me rewrite things two and three times for totally bogus reasons. I had no idea what was going on. Remember, I wasn’t all that confident, figured I was rusty, and for a long time I kept thinking, maybe it’s me. Nah.

Meanwhile, Murray was nicer (though crusty and sarcastic) but seemed to have early stage Alzheimer’s. Seriously. Ask his former assistant, Jack Harris. Murray would give me instructions, forget what he’d said, then be upset that I hadn’t followed some orders he’d never given me. I ended up doing rewrites because Murray misremembered things. Again, at first, I thought it was me. Maybe I was confused. Maybe I didn’t understand him correctly.

At one point, Julie asked me for a plot for a Superman story. When I came to the office to pitch it, he cut me off and said, “Forget what you came up with, here’s the plot.” He gave me a plot bit by bit, scene by scene. I took notes. I followed that plot to a “t.”

Julie’s assistant, Bob Rozakis, rejected the script because he didn’t like the plot! I pointed out that it was Julie’s plot, and appealed to Julie, but Julie said tough shit, if Rozakis didn’t like what I’d written, I should re-plot the story with him.

Okay. I did. Then, I rewrote the script according to the new plot.

Then, Julie’s other assistant, Nelson, rejected the story, again, because he didn’t like the plot! In his letter, Nelson said the dialogue was great, each scene was well-realized, everything was good—except the plot, which he found puzzling, since I was usually so good with plots.

I had to go to New York to see Murray anyway, so, while there, I went to Julie’s office and tried to tell him that I was being batted around like a tennis ball among him and his two assistants. The first thing he said was that he “stood by his assistants.” He added that if I had written the story well enough, I would have made the plot work. Either of them.

Angry, I went home and wrote a letter to Carmine, explaining what happened. The last paragraph of the letter said, “What do I expect you to do? I expect you to stand behind your editor. But I thought you ought to know what happened, and that I will never work with Julie Schwartz again.”

I got a letter from Julie a few days later. He had intercepted my letter before it reached Carmine! Julie’s letter said, “Dear fellow J.S., You shouldn’t have sent that letter to Carmine. You will never work in this business again.” Exactly that.

No great loss at that point. Curious, I called Murray and asked him if he still wanted me to write the last batch of stories he’d approved. He said, of course. Why wouldn’t he? No reason, I said.

That’s when I realized it wasn’t me. It was them.

Murray continued to be a little fuzzy-brained. One time he sent back a script to be rewritten because it “didn’t work” due to the fact that people could see Phantom Girl. “Jim, she’s a Phantom! How can they see her?” Well…she gets immaterial, not invisible. So I argued with Murray for the first time. And won.

Feeling, for the first time that I knew what I was doing, after that, I often argued with Murray and won. One time, he asked me to send him three “springboards,” which are one-paragraph ideas. I did. He sent them back with a scathing letter saying he asked for plots. What the hell was I doing sending him these paragraphs? So, I called Murray, told him I was happy that he liked the springboards and asked him which to write first. He seemed confused and asked me to “refresh” him regarding the springboards. I did. He specified which order he wanted them in and I wrote the scripts.

However, I also did do a few stories for Marvel during that same period. A Super-Villain Team-Up, an Iron Man, I think…maybe something else. Maybe a Manwolf. I forget.

It was kind of an adventure. I had no idea how to write “Marvel style.” I sent in plots, as requested—okay so far—then was stunned when finished pencil art came to me in the mail. Wh-wh-what?! What the hell was I supposed to do with that?

I tried calling Marv Wolfman, Editor-in-Chief at the time, but every time I called and asked for Marv, the receptionist transferred me to Dan Adkins, who worked in the black and white department. He didn’t know how to transfer calls, and eventually just started hanging up on me. I kept trying to explain to the receptionist what was happening, but no matter what, I got Dan. Click.

Finally, a fan, a member of the Pittsburgh Comics Club told me he thought what I was supposed to do was write dialogue and indicate on the pencil art where the balloons should go. So, I did.

Because I was clueless and couldn’t reach anybody who could explain things, I made some gigantic screw ups. Not all my fault. For instance, the penciler on the Super-Villain Team-Up was George Evans—and it was his first Marvel job, too. He’d always worked from full scripts before. The Marvel plot-pencils-then-dialogue thing was as much a mystery to him as it was to me. And he didn’t know the characters! At one point in the plot, I wrote, “Doctor Doom taunts his helpless captives.” George drew Doom dancing around with his thumbs in his ears, wiggling his fingers going nyah-nyah!

When I saw that in the art, I didn’t know what to do. See, I assumed that some editor had checked the art before it was sent to me. (Nope. Marvel didn’t do that. The writer was, to some extent, the editor. Who knew?) At DC, with Mort, questioning anything was death. I couldn’t live with that image, though, so I wrote the most polite note possible suggesting that perhaps, this was a mistake. There were lots of mistakes, by the way, but that one was over the top. I think Marie Severin fixed that panel when she saw it as the pages flowed like molasses through the office, but I know for a fact that everyone at Marvel thought I had called for that nyah-nyah.

Anyway…somehow I struggled through.

I continued working for Murray, but there didn’t seem to be much of a future there. Then, one day in December of 1975, I got a call from Marv Wolfman, then Editor-in-Chief of Marvel. He offered me an editorial position. I agreed to come to New York to discuss it on Monday, December 29.

“The new guy’s here! Jim’s here!” It was as if they were overwhelmed, desperate for help.
Jim

I arrived on time for my 10:00 AM interview. Marv wasn’t there. When I walked into the editorial suite, however, I was happily greeted as if I already had taken the job by the rest of the editorial staff—Roger Slifer, Scott Edelman and Roger Stern. “The new guy’s here! Jim’s here!” It was as if they were overwhelmed, desperate for help. Um…they were. They asked me to proofread the lettered, inked art boards for an issue of Captain Marvel that had to go out that day. Okay. They were very happy to see me and deferential, as if I were the new boss. They came to me and asked me questions about finished art boards they were proofreading! “How should I handle this? What should I do here?” What da f**k? So I proofread Captain Marvel and answered questions the best I could.

The other two people who sat in that room were Marv’s secretary, Bonnie, and Chris Claremont, who wasn’t in. He did arrive later, but spent most of his time sitting in Bonnie’s chair with her in his lap, necking. They eventually got married. I was at the wedding.

I soon found out that, for years, since Stan had stopped being the one-man writing-editing-creative head guy, mostly Marvel writers were on their own. Writers sent plots directly to the pencilers, pencilers sent the pencils directly back to the writers, writers sent the script, pencils and balloon placements directly to the letterers, letterers sent the lettered pages directly to the inkers and the inkers finally sent the pages to the office. So, the first time the work was seen by someone in editorial was when the pages were finished, all but colored. Everybody on the editorial staff was a “proofreader”—trying to fix problems that were already committed to ink on boards.

So, if there were major problems with a story, or major mistakes, they had to be corrected on the inked, lettered boards! That’s hard. Much rewriting, re-lettering, redrawing and re-inking had to be done routinely.

Marv breezed in around noon, stopped in his office long enough to drop off his bag and breezed out again, going to lunch. Okaaay…so I went to lunch with the editorial troops at the local Brew Burger.

Sometime after we got back, Marv breezed back in, and finally we had our talk. Marv wanted me to replace Chris Claremont, who was going freelance. Chris occupied a position Marv called “pre-proofer.” What? Apparently Marv had come up with the “revolutionary” notion that if someone in editorial read the plots before they were drawn and checked out the scripts and pencils before lettering and inking, mistakes could be caught earlier when they were easier to fix, before they got to the “proofreaders” in a finished state.

I said, so you want me to be the editor? He said, no, I’m the Editor. I said, no, you’re the Editor-in-Chief. He was still uncomfortable with my title being Editor, so he offered the title “Associate Editor.” Okay. Whatever. The job was the same, the money was okay. I was to supervise the plots, scripts and pencils, head up the “proofreading” staff and be his second in command. Fine. Marvel was a train wreck at that time. I thought I could help fix it.

What a total lack of organization. What a mess.

When I took the job at Marvel, I still owed Murray a few stories. It was okay by Marv that I deliver them. I told Murray I’d finish what was on the docket, but then I was done. He seemed honestly disappointed.

Roger Stern, who had started at Marvel only two weeks before me quickly became a friend and volunteered to help me plot those stories. I think it was a good exercise for him—he wanted to become a writer—and he was a great help to me. That was all I had going with DC then.

I officially started at Marvel on the first working day of 1976, January 2, a Friday. Just like in my first try at Marvel, I showed up that day with a suitcase and no idea where I was going to sleep that night. Déjà vu. But, this time, I had some money in my pocket. I think I stayed at the Y again, at first, but at least I could afford to eat.

Thank you to JC Vaughn for allowing me to excerpt an article he wrote.

James C. Shooter, Curriculum Vitae

By JayJay Jackson

On September 23, 2025

In Uncategorized

JayJay here. I think a lot of people don’t know about Jim’s science background. He had a brilliant scientific mind and a boundless curiosity. This is a document that was created for a science-based project, but it includes some items that have not been generally known about his history.

Education

In 1969 I graduated with High Honors from Bethel Park Senior High School located in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh.

In high school I took every science course offered: Biology I and II, Chemistry I and II and Physics I and II. I also participated in a credited after school program called “Biology Research.” Participants were assigned an advisor on the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh and conducted research projects under his or her supervision.

I took every math course offered: geometry, algebra I and II, trigonometry, analytical geometry, calculus, probability and statistics.

In 1966 I won first prize in the Buhl Planetarium Science Fair for my exhibit that explained the process of photosynthesis. It included a model of a chlorophyll molecule built with colored marshmallows and toothpicks.

During my senior year I took optional “free period” classes in computer science. Bethel Park Senior High had a terminal linked to a mainframe at the University of Pittsburgh. We had a limited number of minutes per day of access to the mainframe. I learned the fundamentals of COBAL, FORTRAN and BASIC.

I was a National Merit Scholar. I also had a number of scholarship offers from various colleges. I accepted an offer from New York University to become a “University Scholar.” Only two new students were given that honor in 1969. In addition to a comprehensive scholarship that included a “cultural stipend” to pay for theater tickets, concerts and so forth, the program allowed University Scholars to design their own curriculum. There were no required courses.

I was unable to attend NYU due to a family emergency. I gave up the scholarship.

I was already employed as a writer and I continued on that path. I never attended college but I learned from hall of fame editors and I have extensive real world experience.

Relevant Employment History

1965-1969: Writer for National Periodical Publications/DC Comics. I wrote stories for Superman, Superboy, World’s Finest Comics (starring Superman and Batman) and other publications. Starting at age 13, I was the youngest professional comics writer ever. The record still stands.

1970: Quality control technician for Watson Standard, a producer of paints, coatings and plastics. The job required two years of college that I didn’t have. I badgered them into giving me a chemistry test. I aced it.

1970-1973: Freelance writer and art director on the U.S. Steel account for the Lando-Bishopric advertising agency

1974-1976: Freelance comics writer

1976-1978: Associate Editor, Marvel Comics

1978-1987: Editor-in-Chief, Marvel Comics

1985: I developed the Titan Science Series intended to use graphic media to illuminate difficult scientific concepts developed by leading scientists including Stephen W. Hawking and Stephen Jay Gould. I spent a day with Gould at Harvard during which he showed me, among many other wonders, drawers full of fantastic Cambrian fossils from the Burgess Shale. It was a highlight-reel day of my life. Gould was an inspiration. His articles in Natural History were, in my opinion, the apogee of clear, effective scientific communication.

After I left Marvel the project was abandoned.

1987: I was hired by Western Publishing’s Golden Books Division to write a children’s book about ancient mammals. I wrote After the Dinosaurs, the Story of Ancient Mammals and Man. It remains the only children’s book on the subject of dinosaurs and ancient mammals that isn’t a “parade book,” that is, a book that simply shows animal after animal page by page and says what they ate, what they weighed, etc. ATD tells the story of evolution in a way that kids can understand. Dr. Lowell Dingus of the New York Museum of Natural History vetted the manuscript.

1988-1989: Freelance writer. I also served as a consultant to the Walt Disney Company where, among other things, I helped to found a new publishing division, Disney Comics.

1989-1992: Founder, president, publisher and editor in chief for Voyager Communications Inc. The lack of a comma between “Communications” and “Inc.” is intentional, as in Time Inc.

Voyager published comics under the VALIANT imprint and provided advertising services to a number of clients including Kraft General Foods and KFC. Voyager/VALIANT was hugely successful. Initially capitalized at $1.25 million it was sold to Acclaim Entertainment in 1993 for $65 million in stock.

1993-1997: Founded two more comics companies. One loss, one draw.

1998-Present: Freelance writer, including work for Pantone Color Systems, Inc.; Phobos Communications, a science fiction entertainment producer; TGS, Inc., an Internet entertainment company; and Illustrated Media, Inc. a producer of custom comics for advertising.

I also did technical writing. I wrote business plans for a film financing company, a provider of second-tier financing to Internet companies and others.

Between 1999 and 2003, I was hired as an expert witness by Marvel Comics, James Warren of Warren Publications, Archie Comics and others involved in legal disputes over intellectual property. I wrote devastating expert witness opinions on the subjects of copyright, trademark and ownership policies of publishers during the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s. The clients whose counsel I served all prevailed.

2003- present: Freelance writer.

I have worked on many interesting projects including one for Inter Corporation. Intel sponsors the “Tomorrow Project,” which brings together science fiction writers and filmmakers to create speculative fiction based upon current, actual research being conducted by Intel. Project Director, scarysmart Brian David Johnson, whose title is “Futurist – Principal Engineer and Director, Future Casting, Interactions and Experience Research” hired me to create a story based upon current research on artificial intelligence and genetic engineering. Mr. Johnson arranged to have scarysmart Andrew Hessel, a leading authority on genetic engineering, serve as my consultant on genetics. Mr. Johnson is an expert on AI, so he, himself, is my consultant regarding AI.

I am the only creator whose primary work has been comics to be selected for the Tomorrow Project.

Brian David Johnson’s interest in my work was sparked by my scripts for comic book stories for Doctor Solar, Man of the Atom and Magnus Robot Fighter. Doctor Solar is a nuclear physicist who invents a fusion reactor. Magnus guards his distant-future, robot-dependent world against AI robots that become threats.

Brian David Johnson was sufficiently impressed by my scripts that he used them as the basis for a lecture he gave at the University of Washington in 2010. He titled the lecture “The Scientific Process of Jim Shooter.”

Awards

1980: I received the Inkpot Award from the San Diego Comic Con. However, almost everybody gets an Inkpot.

1992: I was awarded a Diamond Comic Distributors “Gemmie” award for lifetime achievement. Marvel Comics legend Stan Lee was also so honored that year. Gemmies are voted upon by comic book retailers nationwide.

2009: I was inducted into the Overstreet Comic Book Hall of Fame alongside the creators of the X-Men and Spider-Man.

Competencies and Interests

I write every day whether I have to or not. I read when time permits, usually non-fiction, often books and articles on scientific subjects. I have the usual human skill set plus the ability to change overhead light bulbs without standing on a chair because I am very tall.

Piracy, Real and Virtual

By Jim Shooter

On November 18, 2011

In 10 Questions / Answers, Uncategorized

Tue Sørensen commented:

Great and interesting reading as usual, Jim. All this talk of the mob makes me wonder how things are today. Is there still a mob with significant influence on many aspects of show business (under which I include comics) or did all that fade away a few decades back?

Anonymous said…
“The fact that pretty much every comic ever published from 1938 up to yesterday can be downloaded for free right now has got to be having some kind of impact on the industry. I’m surprised anyone is still denying this.”

But is this a good thing or a bad thing? With easy availability, a lot of new young people are bound to discover a lot comics that they otherwise never would have seen (both old and new), and some of them will surely hang around as fans and collectors and be drawn to the print versions.

ANSWER:
Regarding organized crime having an influence on show business: I do not think things are the same as in Bobby Cohen’s heyday. I suspect mob corruption/influence is more street level these days, rather than all the way to the top. Less corporate, less big business, more drugs. The bad news at the top has more to do with corporate raiders, financial predators and modern-version robber barons. Yesterday, I spoke with a very wise, high-net-worth person involved in entertainment and entertainment finance about this very subject. The legal (but reprehensible) and quasi-legal financial manipulations that go on are stunning. Financial pirates, not mobsters, are the problem. And not just in entertainment.

Thanksgiving in Newark

By Jim Shooter

On November 6, 2011

In 09 Reminiscences and Tributes, Uncategorized

David Michelinie’s check didn’t come. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, 1978, I think.Marvel Comics was still sorting out its payment procedures, which went through several changes during the first year I was Editor in Chief. You can read about it here and here.

The deal was supposed to be if your voucher was received by the cutoff day one week, your check would be mailed Monday of the next week. By Wednesday, surely, you’d have your check.

But, no.

Dave lived in Newark, Delaware. He called me at the office that Wednesday to…umm…gently express his…umm…disappointment? What’s the politest way to say murderous rage?

Most of us lived hand to mouth in those days. The business was struggling. Most of us were struggling. Dave was more responsible than most. A solid citizen. He owned a home. He managed pretty well, compared to some of us.

But he needed that check. It was the day before Thanksgiving. He had no cash and hadn’t been to the grocery store lately. What was he supposed to do, eat cat food for Turkey Day?

I looked into it. Somehow his voucher hadn’t made it into last week’s batch. Bookkeeping had put it aside because of some question about it.

Great.

I went upstairs and calmly, rationally, at the top of my lungs convinced the money tweezers to cut that check. Right now would be lovely.

Uncanny Divinations and Premonitions

By Jim Shooter

On October 25, 2011

In 09 Reminiscences and Tributes, Uncategorized

First This

This is the post that I meant to have up Saturday. Tomorrow’s will be today’s. You know what I mean. Sorry.

Stellar Horoscope

Early on during my time at Marvel, at a convention in New York City, I met a comics fan who was a part-time astrologer. He had a regular day job, some bookkeeping or accounting-type thing, but on the side, he did horoscopes. He liked what I had to say at some panel I was on, thought I seemed like an interesting subject and volunteered to do my chart. Free. Okay. I gave him my date and time of birth and the city where I was born.

A couple of weeks later, he stopped by the Marvel offices to deliver his work, a hand-drawn astrological chart and his analysis of same.

The chart was beautiful. Framable. I still have it, packed away somewhere in the storage space.

The analysis?

What he came up with was startling. His analysis detailed things about me that nobody knew but people very close to me, and a few things that only I knew. Things that, I assure you, would have been nigh impossible to find out.

ULTIMATE COMICS – All-New Spider-Man #2

By Jim Shooter

On October 20, 2011

In 18 Reviews, Uncategorized

An Apology

A number of people commented that my assessment of Brian Michael Bendis’s writing effort on All-New Spider-Man #1 was too harsh and too personal. I said that he phoned it in, relieving Marvel of “easy money.” I also referred to the Marvel editorial people involved as “bozos” who are “clueless.”

I’m sorry. I don’t know Bendis, and as Tom Brevoort pointed out, I wasn’t there. I don’t know how hard he tried and I don’t know if he was snickering when he cashed the checks.

I also shouldn’t have said the editorial people were bozos. Clueless, yes, I’ll stick with that. I’ll stick with my unfavorable assessments made elsewhere of the creative management at both Marvel and DC (Didio/Lee, Fine/Buckley, et al), and my negative opinions of the tippy-top brass at both companies who inexplicably allow the madness below.

But my remarks about Bendis? No excuse. It was over the top. But I offer this explanation.

I wanted to like that book. I really wanted to like that book. Bendis is Marvel’s top gun. I expected to like that book. But the writing really let me down. There wasn’t much of it, some of it was weak and there was not so much as a nod to the fact that the work was done for a serialized presentation.

And it was a Marvel book.

They—I almost typed “we”—should be better.

Somewhere in my dark little heart of hearts, I still have some Marvel in me. I remember the days I was Editor in Chief when DC out-promoted us, out-advertised us, had better production values, had movies while we had none, had more household name characters and we still outsold them three to one. Why? Because, in the words of our circulation V.P. Ed Shukin, we “beat ‘em between the covers.” We were better. We won with good stories, well told. Generally better than theirs, anyway.

ULTIMATE COMICS – All-New Spider-Man #1

By Jim Shooter

On October 19, 2011

In 18 Reviews, Uncategorized

First This

Video of the NYCC panel I participated in, “Screen Future: Gaming, Comics and TV Around the World and Five Years from Now” may be found here. The panel was moderated by Intel Corporation Futurist Brian David Johnson and included savvy SyFy Channel exec Craig Engler and renowned SF author/visionary Cory Doctorow.All-New Spider-Man #1

The Cover:

The “standard” cover features Spider-Man swinging through the city, a standard riff. Spider-Man’s pose isn’t distinctive. Make the web into a rope and it could be Robin just as easily. It is also nonsensical, in the sense that the figure doesn’t really seem to be swinging on the web-line. It’s as if he was floating past and reached out to grab it.

The Dead Can’t Pay the Paperboy

By Jim Shooter

On October 10, 2011

In 09 Reminiscences and Tributes, Uncategorized

First ThisYou probably noticed the Contributions request in the sidebar. I was reluctant to ask you for money, but economic reality has a way of asserting itself. To those of you who have already generously donated to help us keep going, thank you. To all who participate in this wonderfully collaborative blog, thank you. Together, I think we’re building something really special here, a tapestry of views and opinions from different perspectives. To everyone who stops by, thank you. All of you make a difference.

Who Can Explain It, Who Can Tell You Why…?

This is the introductory paragraph of the series overview I wrote for Dark Horse’s prospective re-launch of the Gold Key title Spektor (formerly Doctor Spektor) that, sadly, never made it to print.

“Have you ever met anyone who, at some time in his or her life, hasn’t experienced something inexplicable? Knowing the phone was going to ring a second before it did? A premonition that proved true? A horoscope that was uncannily accurate? Next time you’re at a party, ask if anyone has a “ghost story,” a tale of something spooky that happened to them. Almost everyone does.

“I have several “ghost stories,” and I’m the second most skeptical man on Earth.”

If you’re wondering, the most skeptical man on Earth, at the beginning, at least, was going to be Spektor.

Panel at the New York Comic Con Sunday

By Jim Shooter

On October 8, 2011

In 14 Events, Uncategorized

Jim will be on a panel at the New york Comic Con this weekend.

Screen Future: Gaming, Comics and TV Around the World and Five Years From Now

Date: Sunday, October 16
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Location: 1A15

Speakers:
Brian David Johnson, Craig Engler, Jim Shooter

Description:
Join moderator Brian David Johnson, Intel Futurist and author of
“Screen Future,” along with industry luminaries Craig Engler (senior
executive, Syfy channel) and Jim Shooter (legendary creator, Dark Horse
Comics), as they discuss the digital future of entertainment. The
conversation spans Bollywood to the comic con show floor regarding how
and what digital entertainment you’ll likely be enjoying five years from
now. Learn about how people, technology, and economics are shaping the
evolution of entertainment and smart TV. Expand your knowledge of the
technology influencing our rapidly changing world.