From the cool passion of sci-fi and occasional comics writer Harlan
Ellison to the soap opera explorations and genre twisting of X-Men
writer Chris Claremont and Howard the Duck creator Steve Gerber,
between 1966 and 1985 a generation of writers emerged that changed the
face of American comic books forever. Many were fans every bit as much
as they were professionals, creative artists working from an
understanding of what felt right on the comics page forged by years of
close scrutiny above and beyond the final sales figures. Some were
tempered by exposure to new waves in cinema, new voices in writing, and
new comics from Europe and Japan. Coming to comics at a time when the
financial awards were poor and the chance for ownership of what one
created was even poorer, these writers breathed new life into the dying
icons of the past. Writers like Len Wein, Steve Englehart, Gerry Conway,
Harlan Ellison, Marv Wolfman, Denny O'Neil, Mark Evanier, Mike Baron and
Alan Moore infused comics like X-Men, Captain America, and Swamp
Thing with a progressive social outlook that ran directly in the face
of decades of simplistic might-makes-right pseudo-moralizing. Some made
their careers in other writing fields but toiled in comics out of a
sense of loyalty and passion; others became comic book writers just out
of their teens and never left. They were America's comic book children
come home.
The Comics Journal Library: The Writers celebrates the ascendancy of
writer-driven mainstream comic books with a series of revealing,
in-depth interviews, many conducted at the height of their influence.
