Julius Schwartz
Julius "Julie" Schwartz ( born June 19, 1915 in the Bronx, New York, † February 8, 2004 ) was an American publisher of comic books and pulp magazines, as well as Agent of science fiction writers such as Ray Bradbury and HP Lovecraft.
Life
In 1932, Schwartz began his career as a journalist and publisher: Together with Mort Weisinger and Forrest J Ackerman, he began in that year the acclaimed science fiction fanzine Time Traveller issue, one of the first institutions of this magazine type at all. Together with Weisinger he founded in 1934 Solar Sales Service (SSS ), an agency which sought the works of unknown science fiction writers to publishers to mediate and lasted until 1944.
At Schwartz clients in SSS included, among other things, the writer Alfred Bester, Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, HP Lovecraft and Stanley G. Weinbaum. Especially Lovecraft's last and Bradbury's early works are among the most mediated and influenced by chat works.
1939 Schwartz participated in the organization of the first World Science Fiction Convention. 1944 Schwartz began to work with the later DC Comics merged, for which he worked until his retirement in 1986 at the age of 71 years a total of 42 years. Than head of editorial at the comic book publisher All American Comics 1952 Schwartz married his secretary Jean, the marriage lasted until her death from emphysema in 1986. Schwartz himself died in 2004 at the age of 88 years as a result of pneumonia.
Working as an editor at DC Comics
At DC Schwartz conducted in the late 1950s, the revival of numerous popular comic substances which had enjoyed great popularity during the war, but had later lost popularity and were accordingly disappeared " into oblivion ." The re- launched by Schwartz's order in reconditioned form on the market figures and rows included, among others: Flash, Green Lantern, Hawkman and The Atom. The rows were led by Schwartz, in particular, for its originality, praised their unspent freshness and creativity. In the 1960s, Schwartz began to edit the also appearing at DC series to the comic book hero Batman. Here became famous of Schwartz commissioned "New Look " of the bat man - the Schwartz did miss the now famous yellow oval, which years the bat - emblem emblazoned on the chest of the hero clasped - shortly afterwards by the ABC produced Batman television series starring Adam West, the adapted New Look, was popularized.
From 1971 to 1985 Schwartz led as head of the Superman department at DC the fate of the most famous figure in the possession of the publishers, by the Superman series " Superman ", " Superman in Action Comics ", " Superboy ", " Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen, "" Superman Family " and other regulated. In this area it among other things, move away from " gimmick " stories that overly focused on certain objects or ideas in favor of "character driven", the interaction of the figures is attributed to the forefront Vice border stories.
Among the funded Schwartz during his time at DC authors and illustrators include Gardner Fox, Dennis O'Neil, Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino and Gil Kane. As editor Schwartz usually took considerable influence on the contents of the book edited by him Comics, which sometimes meant that he rewrote stories with which he was not personally agree to a large extent.
Working as a freelance sci-fi editor
As a freelance editor of science fiction novels Schwartz edited a total of seven novels by Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Ray Bradbury and others.
Awards and Honors
Throughout his life Schwartz has received numerous awards, such as the 1962 Alley Award for Best Comic Editor of the past year or 1972 " Shazam Award" for the greatest achievement of an individual in the field of comics. Since 1997, named after Schwartz " Julie Award" will be at the instigation of Ed Kramer, chairman of Dragon * Con trade show awarded
Works
- Julius Schwartz / Brian Thomsen: Man of Two Worlds: My Life in Science Fiction and Comics, 2000 ( Schwartz's autobiography).