Bob Rozakis
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Bob Rozakis | |
 Caricature of a youthful Rozakis by Dave Manak (c. 1976) |
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| Birth name | Henry M. Robert Rozakis |
| Born | April 4, 1951 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Editor |
| Pseudonym(s) | The Answer Man |
Henry M. Robert "Bob" Rozakis is a comic book writer and editor known mainly for his work in the 1970's and 1980's at DC Comics, and in particular 'Mazing Man.
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[edit] Biography
Bob Rozakis was born on April 4, 1951. He is well known as DC's Answer Man, answering trivia questions from readers in the Daily Planet back-up feature in many 1970s comics. He has also had an online presence in this capacity since the mid-1990s.
Among Rozakis' earliest credits, is that of editor (both managing and contributing) on DC Comics "Pro-zine" ("Professional fanzine") The Amazing World of DC Comics1 in between 1974 and 1978. In addition to editing, Rozakis wrote for the bi-monthly publication and also oversaw the letters page.
[edit] DC Comics
[edit] Comics credits
His first comics credit was in Detective Comics #445 (Mar, 1975), as writer of the back-up feature "The Touchdown," with back-up stories in Action Comics, The Flash and The Batman Family (among others) soon following.[1] He was co-editor (with Julius Schwartz) on the landmark issue Superman #300, and also served editorially on issues of Action and Detective Comics. His writing credits are largely comprised on back-up features, and in particular on dozens of "Action Comics Featuring:..." (Air-Wave; Hero Hotline, Aquaman, etc.), between #461 and 640 but he also wrote the 1985 4-issue miniseries Superman: The Secret Years (with art by Curt Swan and Kurt Schaffenberger), the comics adaptation of the movie Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987) and (with Mike Carlin) the bizarre Superman meets the Quik Bunny free team-up issue (also 1987).
Arguably his most well-known writing came in the 12-issue 1986 series 'Mazing Man, featuring the misadventures of self-declared homemade hero Sigfried Horatio Hunch III, which he co-created with artist Stephen DeStefano. The two returned to the character a couple of times, most notably for June 1987's Secret Origins #16, to tell "The Closest Thing To A Secret Origin of 'Mazing Man You Will Ever Get."[2] Rozakis also co-created the series Hero Hotline with DeStefano, on which Rozakis also providied the coloring, a job he also undertook on the "Action Comics Featuring: Hero Hotline" back-up features.
Among his other creations are Mister E, the Bumblebee and Duela Dent (of the Teen Titans, created during his run on the Teen Titans title in the late 1970s) and The Calculator (a character who was later to play a major role in DC's Infinite Crisis event). Overall, during his 25-year career with DC, his credits total "almost four hundred stories" featuring most DC characters, "plus dozens of features, puzzles, and activities pages."[3]
[edit] Behind the scenes
Between 1981 and 1998, Rozakis ran DC Comics' production department, and Executive Director of Production he was instrumental in the development of offset-printed comic books in a wide variety of formats. He was also the leading proponent of "computerized color separations and typesetting, electronic page preparation, and computer-to-plate printing", and as a result of his efforts on DC's behalf, the look of comic books across the entire industry changed, DC won "over one hundred awards for printing excellence," and Rozakis himself was profiled in Publishing & Production Executive on two separate occasions.[3]
[edit] Other
Rozakis is married to prolific author Dr. Laurie E. Rozakis PhD, "a professor of English," grammar-expert and "author of more than 100 books," and Rozakis' co-writer on Detective Comics #464 (Oct, 1976).[4][5] The two have collaberated on a number of books, including The Complete Idiot's Guide to Office Politics (Alpha Books, 1998) (ISBN 0028623975).[3] They have two children, son Charles "Chuck" (who wrote his Princeton University thesis on the business viability of webcomics2) and daughter Sammi.[6]
Rozakis has also taught creative writing courses "for the Farmingdale (NY) Youth Council and.. a Johns Hopkins University summer program for gifted students," served as Advancement Chairman for Boy Scout Troop #601 for seven years, and run a service called "Dad's Taxi Service."[3]
| Preceded by Bob Haney |
Teen Titans writer 1976–1978 |
Succeeded by Marv Wolfman |
[edit] References
- ^ Bob Rozakis: Bibliography by date. Accessed May 15, 2008
- ^ Secret Origins' #16 at the ComicBookDB. Accessed March 19, 2008
- ^ a b c d Bob Rozakis's homepage. Accessed May 15, 2008
- ^ "Test Success: Grammar, She Wrote," Dr. Laurie Rozakis' blog. AccessedMay 15, 2008
- ^ ComicBookDb: "Detective Comics #464". Accessed May 15, 2008
- ^ [http://rozakile.blogspot.com/2008/05/my-19-dress.html Dr. Laurie Rozakis' blog: May 12, 2008
