Gardner Fox
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| Gardner Fox | |
 Portrait of Gardner Fox by Gil Kane |
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| Birth name | Gardner Francis Fox |
| Born | May 20, 1911 Brooklyn, New York |
| Died | December 24, 1986 (aged 75) |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer |
| Pseudonym(s) | Jefferson Cooper Bart Sommers Paul Dean Ray Gardner Lynna Cooper Rod Gray |
| Awards | Alley Award
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Gardner Francis 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.
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[edit] Biography
[edit] Early life and career
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, took work writing for DC Comics editor Vin Sullivan. His first story was for the feature "Steve Mallone, District Attorney". He later contributed scripts for many DC characters, including Zatara, Batman and especially Starman. He was also a frequent contributor of prose stories to the pulp science fiction magazines of the 1930s and 1940s.
[edit] Golden Age of comic books
Fox, along with writer Bill Finger, was instrumental in the evolution of Batman, introducing such crimefighting tools as the Batarang and the Batplane. He also co-created numerous DC characters including the Sandman with Bert Christman, Starman with Jack Burnley, and Doctor Fate with Howard Sherman.
Though he continued to script for Detective Comics, Inc., Fox became the head writer for the affiliated All-American Publications. There, Fox created such iconic superhero characters as the Flash (with artist Harry Lampert), and Hawkman (with Dennis Neville). With editor Sheldon Mayer and artist E. E. Hibbard, Fox created the first superhero team, the Justice Society of America.
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.
[edit] Silver Age of comic books
In the late 1950s, editor Julius Schwartz revived many Golden Age heroes, including The Flash. Fox's script for "Flash of Two Worlds!", from The Flash #123 (Sept. 1961), introduced Earth-Two, and more generally the concept of the Multiverse, a decades-long recurring theme of the DC Comics universe. Fox's other contributions to this revival period included reinventions of the Atom and Hawkman, and reviving the Justice Society as the Justice League of America.
A true polymath, Fox sprinkled his strips with numerous real-world historical, scientific, and mythological references. 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, just to name a few.
Fox also wrote scripts for Batman, reintroducing villains such as The Riddler and The Scarecrow, who would go on to become some of the Caped Crusader's most famous foes.
[edit] Return to novels
Fox stopped receiving work in 1968 when DC Comics 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 briefly worked for DC's rival publisher, Marvel Comics, writing scripts for features such as Dr. Strange and Red Wolf.
Fox wrote over 100 novels in genres such as science fiction, sword and sorcery, espionage, crime, fantasy, romance, western, and historical fiction. His pen names included Jefferson Cooper, Bart Sommers, Paul Dean, Ray Gardner, and Lynna Cooper.
[edit] Death
Upon his death, Fox was survived by his wife Lynda, his son Jeffrey, his daughter Lynda, and four grandchildren.
[edit] 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).
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.[1]
[edit] Legacy
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.
[edit] Footnotes
[edit] References
- Gardner F. Fox at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- SciFan: Gardner F. Fox Bibliography
- The FictionMags Index: Fox , Gardner F(rancis)
- JSA Members: The Sandman
- Don Markstein's Toonopedia: The Sandman
- Once Upon a Dime (Spring 1997): "Enter the Sandman"
- Who's Who of American Comic Books
[edit] External links
| Preceded by None |
Justice League writer 1960–1968 |
Succeeded by Dennis O'Neil |
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