RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books RIP Denny O’Neil

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RIP. Hands-down the single most influential Batman writer after Bill finger. And for my money the best writer Batman ever had for any sustained period of time

Wow, this is a death I've anticipated for a long time, and yet it's still a shock and a loss.



As I described years ago, I started out early on reading comics with the Harvey titles like CASPER, RICHIE RICH, HOT STUFF, and LITTLE LOTTA from about 1970-1972.
The first DC comic I bought was BATMAN 241, with the cover story "At Dawn Dies Mary MacGuffin" by Dennis O'Neil, with art by Irv Novick and Dick Giordano.
I agree with you 1 billion percent, G-man, that Dennis O'Neil was absolutely the best writer the Batman series ever had. There is a sophistication to O'Neil's Batman, mixed with a nicely developed Sherlock Holmes-like detective element, and a strong sense of moral outrage and social conscience, whether the stories centered on grandiose villains or impoverished minor characters.

O'Neil was the essence of what made me a DC reader rather than a Marvel reader. The stilted overblown pseudo-Shakespearian dialogue that was played to death in Marvel's line of titles was mostly absent on the DC side. Mostly due to the efforts of O'Neil, with him at one time or another taking the helm of virtually all of DC's titles: DETECTIVE, BATMAN, GREEN LANTERN, a few scattered issues of BRAVE AND THE BOLD, WONDER WOMAN, SWORD OF SORCERY, WEIRD WORLDS, BEWARE THE CREEPER (as "Sergius O'Shaugnessy", probably because he was still doing work for Marvel at the time, not fully a DC staffer yet in 1968-1969), Nightmaster with Berni Wrightson in two SHOWCASE issues, writing SUPERMAN from issues 233-243 in that era's version of a "new" Superman, JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, WORLD'S FINEST, great stories with Michael Golden in BATMAN FAMILY, and many others.

On the Marvel side I admired O'Neil as much as an editor as a writer, as his titles were consistently among the best Marvel published from 1980-1985: during Miller's DAREDEVIL run, the BIZARRE ADVENTURES anthology series, AMAZING SPIDERMAN around the time (207-223) Stern and Romita Jr started their classic run, Moench/Day's MASTER OF KUNG FU 101-120, Moench/Sienkiewicz MOON KNIGHT 1-30, Duffy and Kerry Gammill on POWERMAN/IRON FIST 61-89, SPIDER-WOMAN, and Byrne's ALPHA FLIGHT run.

Then O'Neil went back to DC to edit the Batman line of titles from 1986-2000 or so, starting just before Miller's BATMAN: YEAR ONE storyline with David Mazzuchelli.

The last really great O'Neil-scripted series was his run with Denys Cowan on THE QUESTION from 1987-1991.
And less impressive for me, of the few issues I sampled, AZRAEL. Although O'Neil did a long run on that series, perhaps some great material I missed.

But for me, the material I'll always love O'Neil for are his late 1960's and early 1970's runs on DC titles, particularly on BATMAN and DETECTIVE.
And BEWARE THE CREEPER 1-6 with Ditko. I also loved several follow-up stories O'Neil did with the same character in DETECTIVE 418, a story by Len Wein in DETECTIVE 444-448, and then another by O'Neil in THE JOKER issue 3.

O'Neil's run on BATMAN 224-266 was unbeatable, a series I felt a great loss for when it ended, and there was no successor even near worthy on the Batman titles for many years after.
O'Neil did a more sporadic run of stories in DETECTIVE COMICS throughout the 1970's as well. As best I recall, in issues 395-411, 414, 418, 419, 422, 425, 431, 451, 457 and 481.

Plus as I said, at the end of O'Neil's 1970's tenure, a few great stories in BATMAN FAMILY 15-20 with Michael Golden.
And a one-shot "Batman Spectacular" in DC SPECIAL SERIES 15 with two O'Neil stories, an O'Neil pulp-like text story with Marshall Rogers, and the second a R'as Al Ghul story with Michael Golden.
Plus another O'Neil story in DETECTIVE 481 with Marshall Rogers in 1979. And then O'Neil left for greener pastures at Marvel.


I'm glad I got to meet Dennis O'Neil at the Florida Supercon in Miami in July 2012 (some others there were Neal Adams, Jose Delbo, Carmine Infantino, David Spurlock, Bill Sienkiewicz, Howard Chaykin, Kevin Maguire, Al Vey, Roy Thomas, and a few others, quite a collection of talent for such a small show.)
O'Neil was a bit irritable and maybe not so glad to see me, but I did get to meet him. His wife was much more cheerful and friendly. Perhaps I just got O'Neil on a bad day. But I'm glad I was able to thank him for all the work that I've re-read for almost 50 years now.

For all the accolades, I still feel O'Neil doesn't get enough credit for his contribution to the field.

He’s is probably the most influential comics writer in history after Stan Lee.

Well, I definitely share your love for Dennis O'Neil's work. But I do feel there's quite a few contenders in that category, including Roy Thomas, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Doug Moench, Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber, Don McGregor, and Alan Moore.

And also names I have a degree of contempt for, whose work doesn't speak to me, such as Neil Gaiman, Garth Ennis, Warren Ellis, and Grant Morrison.
It could be argued if not for O'Neil, a lot of these other writers would not have followed down the path O'Neil blazed. Or be working in the field at all. I still wonder how much of the writing on Miller's DAREDEVIL run can be credited to O'Neil's guidance, and perhaps uncredited plotting. O"Neil has said in modesty that it was all Miller. I'd love to ask Miller's account of that if I met him at a convention.

I loved his Question series. The rest I don't know much about.

I think O'Neil's greatest contribution was to the Batman line, with issues by both Neal Adams/Giordano, and Irv Novick/Giordano. But of course, the Adams issues are the most acclaimed. In order, they appeared in DETECTIVE COMICS 395, 397, 404, and 410 in 1970-1971. (Also by Adams with writer Frank Robbins, issues 400, 402 and 407, in the first Man-Bat storyline).
You can read the first one linked, and access all the other issues from there.

Then the O'Neil/Adams team moved over to BATMAN with issue 232 (first R'as Al Ghul), 234 (Two-face), 237, 243-245, 251 (the Joker).
Other stories with Adams art in issues 219 (a Mike Friedrich-scripted Christmas backup story), and 255 (a Len Wein-scripted werewolf story).


And one lone story in BRAVE AND THE BOLD 93 in 1971.
With Bob Haney, Adams also did BRAVE & BOLD 79-86 (1968-1969), Adams' first work on Batman.


O'Neil and Adams also got media coverage nationwide for their stories in GREEN LANTERN 76-87, and 89 (1970-1972), tackling social issues like black poverty, slumlords, pollution, overpopulation, feminism, Nixon and Agnew, drug addiction, racism, and even an allegorical modern Jesus-crucifixion in issue 89.

And after the series was cancelled for low sales, it continued as a 10-page backup in FLASH 217-219


The GREEN LANTERN series was revived in 1976, with O'Neil again doing the scripting, but without the social issues that caused the previous run's low sales and cancellation.
And with Mike Grell doing the art, O'Neil scripted 90-99, 106, and 108-110, beginning with GREEN LANTERN 90. Interesting, because the earlier O'Neil/Adams issues were Grell's inspiration to go to art school and become a comics artist. So he definitely continued the series in the O'Neil/Adams tradition.

Other than Moore, those are all talented writers but most of them were working under the basic "Stan Lee House Style" for most of their careers. Their work was therefore far less influential because it was "Stan lite."

What O'Neil did that Stan didn't was bring a "street level," quasi-reality to comics that was really the beginning of the "grim and gritty" movement: Speedy was a drug addict; GA lost his fortune and got political (and even killed someone [albeit by accident]); Batman, for the first time in thirty years, was back to being a "dark detective," whose obsessions stemmed from a childhood trauma. The Joker and Two-Face stopped being campy villains and became the ruthless kilers we've know since the 70s.

Moore had a lot of influence but a lot of his influence came from his working fusing a certain "realism" and grit to characters. That realism and grit was pioneered (in a less intense way) by O'Neil's above-described work. In particular, Moore's Batman was very much O'Neil's Batman. Same with Moore's Joker.



Gaiman is a great writer but his influence on the field has been minimal. His best known work is high fantasy and his greatest acclaim actually comes from his prose work. There really hasn't been anyone following in his footsteps.

The rest of the writers you mention do all tend, to one extent or another, to have at least one foot in the grim and gritty ground that, as noted above, O'Neil brought to the medium. Morrison, while he dabbles in a lot of high concepts, also goes for grim and gritty when it suits him. More significantly, perhaps, is the fact that his Batman run is best known for spinning of from two of O'Neil's most significant Batman creations: Ras and Talia.



I don't think anyone denies, including Miller, that he was O'Neil's protege. O'Neil hired him at Marvel and served as his editor. When O'Neil went back to DC Miller eventually made his way there as well. And can anyone deny that "Daredevil," even if it was "all Frank," isn't a direct outgrowth of GL/GA and bronze age Batman? And, of course, TDKR wouldn't have existed if Denny hadn't pulled Batman back from the days of Silver Age camp.

Basically, Lee brought comics into the space age while O'Neil brought them back down to earth.

Their respective works are the main genres of modern comics: science fantasy and gritty street level vigilantes.

I mostly agree, or at least think you voice persuasive opinions, but I do disagree on some minor points. Len Wein, for example, I see as early on achieving a distinctive voice and superstardom with his acclaimed SWAMP THING run with Wrightson. They pretty much cleaned up in the awards or nominations for best writer, best artist, best series for the three years the series ran. I could agree with you that for much of Wein's period at Marvel, he mostly wrote in a Stan Lee style. Wein was even editor-in-chief at marvel briefly (as were Wolfman, Thomas, Conway, and Goodwin, until Shooter came along.)

On the Batman front, it was actually Neal Adams (working with Bob Haney and Murray Boltinoff on BRAVE AND THE BOLD in 1968-1969) who started altering scripts and bringing Batman back to his late 1930's avenger-of-the-night roots. Adams would take a script and change a day scene to a night scene, so that he could give Batman more mystery and atmospheric shadows. It was after Adams did this that readers sent letters to DC asking why this atmospheric version of Batman wasn't also appearing in BATMAN and DETECTIVE, at which point in 1970 editor Schwartz paired up O'Neil and Adams. And I think both O'Neil and Adams had similar ideas of taking Batman back to his earliest avenger-of-the-night roots. I don't wish to shortchange O'Neil, just to give Adams some partial credit.
From what I read in an interview (COMIC BOOK ARTIST, or COMIC BOOK MARKETPLACE, Adams had interviews in both, they blend together in my memory) Adams let on that he and O'Neil got along very well in the 70's, but that in the 80's and 90's while friendly, their views on comics storytelling had diverged and no longer had the same shared vision.

Also Doug Moench, as one example, in either his Deathlok/ASTONISHING TALES series, or his 100-plus-issue MASTER OF KUNG FU run, I see as having a much more cinematic style of writing, and not in the same template or house style as Stan Lee.
Wolfman, or Claremont, or much of Wein, or Mantlo, or especially Gerry Conway, I think conformed to a Stan Lee brand of overplayed deadpan melodrama, and pseudo-Shakespearian dialogue, ad nauseum.

The other new school of writers you list from the last 30 years or so I see as a different breed from O'Neil, although perhaps evolving from O'Neil into the contemporary dark cynical style.
The core elements of O'Neil's writing I see as 1) commentary on the human condition, 2) contemporary issues, social relevance, 3) eloquent but direct language, not stilted language or pseudo-Shakespearian dialogue, and 4) social conscience, and philosophical introspection. And 5) a lot of humor, and humorous irony in the mix.

In contrast, I see the work of Ellis, Ennis, Morrison, Millar and the like as nihilistic. Not just "realistic", but dark and cynical. I find their work repellant, and have wondered for 30 years why anyone would read it.
I don't see those elements in O'Neil's work. Again, I guess it could be argued they went a few steps, or miles, beyond O'Neil into the darkness. But I don't see them as kindred spirits with O'Neil that follow in his style.


The one exception to that is O'Neil's Batman from 1986 on. I thought O'Neil wrote Batman so well in the 1970's, the perfect balance, with the character rooted in his parents' death, and his war on crime built from that experience, a deeply personal vengeance. Batman in O'Neil's 1970's work was the perfect balance, vengeful, a creature of the shadows, relentless, but also completely in control, the world's greatest detective.
From 1986-forward, I see the O'Neil-edited Batman line as presenting him as a character losing control, both of himself, mentally cracking, but also losing control in his lack of restraint and impulse-control with others, pointlessly belligerent, intimidating, a character who all of a sudden was an intimidating jerk who didn't play well with others, perhaps even losing his mind.

I found this rather odd and inconsistent from O'Neil, a writer who had handled Batman so perfectly in the 1970's, and now with O'Neil fully in charge of the Batman line, diverged from what made his own work so outstanding on the Batman line.
I see two possibilities: 1) O'Neil was editorially restrained in the 1970's, and this was the true direction O'Neil wanted to go in the 1970's, with Batman the deranged psycho.
Or 2) O'Neil either changed his view of the character, or for marketing purposes changed Batman to something he felt conformed to a new generation of readers, with Batman the deranged psycho. Either way, except for Year One and Dark Knight Returns, it was mostly a new Batman I didn't like or recognize.

You're equating critical acclaim with influence. By that argument, "Annie Hall" was more influential than "Star Wars."



I don't disagree that they a perfect team, playing to each other's strengths and giving us something greater than the sum of its parts. So, of course, Adams deserves credit.

That being said, O'Neil without Adams was still pretty much O'Neil. An O'Neil Batman story drawn by, say, Irv Novick or Dick Giordano, was still the same "Darknight Detective" we got (at least in terms of characterization and story quality) with Adams.

Adams, however, while he might have changed the art in B&B the stories were still more in the pre-O'Neil vein, heavy on sci-fi and fantasy elements and replete with Bob Haney's trademark "faux groovy" dialogue. And let us not dwell upon his more recent Batman work.

Finally, as you touch upon, Adams himself made it clear that O'Neil gave him the "realism" he wanted

• Many comic book writers come from being comic book fans. Not Denny. Denny was a news writer often on the night beat. His eyes saw reality and he wrote that into his work....So, Denny wrote comics of characters that emerged from reality. That being so, why would I need to ever question such a writer? And I never did. Denny made me shine because he gave me reality in a fantasy genre.

In fact, I think Adams touches on something that gets back to what I was trying to get at. O'Neil, brought a sense of naturalism and a journalist eye for realty to comics that hadn't been seen before. That injection of reality into fantasy was something that many writers later attempted with varying degrees of success but it didn't really exist until O'Neil came along.

One of my favorites of the more "naturalist" stories you cite by O'Neil with Novick/Giordano art was in BATMAN 224, about the murder of a black former jazz musician, who in his latter years became impoverished. In the story, Batman sought vengeance for someone who was considered unimportant, but who Batman himself was outraged by the loss of, and sought vengeance for his death, and the truth of what happened to him after the fact.


I thought I was the only one who felt the way you just expressed about the O'Neil/Novick Batman issues, but I too treasure the O'Neil Novick/Giordano BATMAN and DETECTIVE issues just as much as the O'Neil Adams/Giordano ones.
Stories like in DETECTIVE 418 with Batman and the Creeper.
Or the atmospheric "The Demon of Gothos Mansion" in BATMAN 227.

such as the above story in BATMAN 224.


I'm not sure I fully get your acclaim vs. influence point. Len Wein not only got acclaim for SWAMP THING for 3 entire years of outstanding work, but also created the New X-men in 1975, and Wein created multiple other enduringly popular breakout characters.
We both explored that, back in the topic when Len Wein died in 2017.

I think you're right that O'Neil had a higher ratio of trailblazing runs, such as on BEWARE THE CREEPER, BATMAN, DETECTIVE, WORLD'S FINEST, GREEN LANTERN, Edgar Rice Burroughs adaptations in WEIRD WORLDS (as did Len Wein), SWORD OF SORCERY, THE SHADOW with Michael Kaluta, a SHERLOCK HOLMES one-shot I enjoyed, A run on SUPERMAN 233-243, and a few issues of JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA, and many others.
I particularly liked O'Neil's "new WONDER WOMAN" run (issues 178-202) where she had lost her powers, and was a "wonder" based on her exceptional personal ability, on her wits and resourcefulness, rather than on having superpowers.
And a bit of eastern philosophy and mysticism added to the mix, with her older mentor I Ching, martial arts and eastern philosophy being another recurring trait of O'Neil's work in Batman, Wonder Woman, THE SHADOW, JUSTICE INC., RICHARD DRAGON, the "Last of the Dragons" series in EPIC ILLUSTRATED, in DAREDEVIL, and in other O'Neil-scripted series.

I'd say while these other series were interesting, O'Neil's enduring influence was mostly limited to his GREEN LANTERN, BATMAN and DETECTIVE runs. Most of the others were brief assigments where O'Neil provided some interesting twists, but series that once finished, were ideas not continued by others.
I'd say his last influential series was THE QUESTION. Where as we discussed before, O'Neil turned the series into a liberal manifesto that must have annoyed the character's objectivist/conservative creator Steve Ditko. I love O'Neil's THE QUESTION as much or more than Ditko's, just sayin'.

The clearest example of O'Neil's influence on another writer's work is Frank Miller's expansion on the Batman canon with DARK KNIGHT RETURNS and YEAR ONE. And their collaboration as writer/artist and editor on DAREDEVIL.

Much as I love O'Neil's THE QUESTION run, I don't see that series as inspiring others to do other work in the same tradition as O'Neil in other series. But regardless, a great run. Two mostly stand-alone issues I particularly love are issues 5 and 8.

Certainly, one of the highlights of O'Neil's work is his 12-issue run on THE SHADOW.

And concurrently, O'Neil's run in JUSTICE, INC. 1-4. Issue 1 with art by Al McWilliams, issues 2-4 with art by Jack Kirby, that used the Avenger character, who also appeared in issue 11 of THE SHADOW.

DC issued a poorly-colored harcover collection of the O'Neil/Kaluta issues (1-4, and 6), THE PRIVATE FILES OF THE SHADOW, in 1989.

And almost simultaneously with the hardcover reprint, a new THE SHADOW: HITLER'S ASTROLOGER Marvel Graphic Novel by O'Neil and Kaluta, that I was really looking forward to, but was very disappointed by. The new 62-page story was a bit uneven, and an oddly-paired Russ Heath as inker, mostly blunted the decorative linework of Kaluta's pencils.

Also, it ended very abruptly, to the point that I thought there was a printing defect and that the last page was omitted. Everyone I know who read the story said the same thing, they thought a page was missing at the end! But no, that's how it was written.

A virtually unknown O'Neil story, but a great one, is a PHANTOM STRANGER story, issue 8, August 1970, with art by Jim Aparo. I love it on a lot of levels, a race of creatures dormant for thousands of years, re-awakened by human civilization, with social conscience and environmental themes. And a race of creatures that have an almost supernatural aspect to them.

Like many of O'Neil's stories, a one-off story that could easily have been expanded into an entire series.


Also in this issue, the first house ad for Jack Kirby's move to DC from Marvel, and reference to the multiple new series he would be producing. Not specifically naming Kirby's Fourth World or NEW GODS or JIMMY OLSEN, but certainly whetting your appetite for whatever was coming.

O'Neil's single PHANTOM STRANGER issue was followed by one of the earliest series runs by Gerry Conway, who was still in high school writing these issues, that follow well the same compelling themes as O'Neil's story.

Roughly the same period Conway wrote a story in SAVAGE TALES 1, the first appearance of Man-Thing. Conway was only 16 at that point. I'm not a huge Conway fan, but that manifests a remarkable level of ambition and talent.
Likewise O'Neil. O'Neil modestly brought a level of elegance and sophistication, mature themes and social conscience to the titles he was assigned to take over. Whether DETECTIVE COMICS, WONDER WOMAN, SUPERMAN, BEWARE THE CREEPER, SHOWCASE, JLA, WEIRD WORLDS, THE SHADOW, GREEN LANTERN or whatever.

In the period from 1978-1982, DC used to run "DC Profiles" of its writers and artists on their editorial pages.
Here is Dennis O'Neil's, from WARLORD 8, Sept 1977 (and other DC titles the same month) :


"Sergius O'Shaugnessy" was the pseudonym O'Neil used at Charleton, and also his first year or so at DC. When I spoke to O'Neil about it at a convention, he said he selected that name because it was a character in Norrman Mailer's book Armies of the Night, a book that was a favorite of his, which he also referenced in his GREEN LANTERN stories. A pseudonym probably used because he was under contract at Marvel, and couldn't have his name appearing in Charleton and DC titles at the same time. A pseudonym he likely discontinued once his contract at Marvel ran out. BEWARE THE CREEPER ran 6 issues, and that pseudonym was used through the first 3 of those issues. He began transitioning to Denny O'Neil with issue 3.

Another good early O'Neil story is "Abra-Cadoom" , the second story in THE SPECTRE 9, April 1969, that was the second pro story done by Berni Wrightson. Another title edited by Dick Giordano.

Here's a chronological list of O'Neil's other early credits.
http://mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/features/creator.php?creatorid=128

O'Neil was a real trooper, paying his early dues at Marvel, writing a ton of MILLIE THE MODEL stories for years (issues 138-153, June 1966-Sept 1967) , and a lot of western stories. The first thing I read of his early Marvel work were his Doctor Strange stories in STRANGE TALES 145-149 (June-Oct 1966), and 167-168 (April-May 1968), roughly coinciding with Steranko's "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD" stories running in that title.

It was over the next 3 or 4 years that O'Neil prolifically went on to :

BEWARE THE CREEPER 1-6, after the debut story in SHOWCASE 73 by Ditko and Segall, 1968-1969.
THE SPECTRE issue 9, "Abra-cadoom", art by Wrightson, 1969.
SHOWCASE 82-84 (Nightmaster), 82 with Granenetti/Giordano art. 83-84 with Wrightson art, 1969.
WONDER WOMAN (issues 178-181, 199-202), 1968-1969, 1972.
SUPERMAN 233-242, 244, 247, 1971-1972.
JLA 66-83 and 115, 1968-1970, 1974.

and ultimately
DETECTIVE COMICS (issues 395-411, 414, 418, 419, 422, 425, 431, 451, 457, 481) , 1970-1980.
BATMAN 224-266, 268, 1970-1975
and GREEN LANTERN 76-89. 1969-1972, and issues 90-110 with Grell, and 111-129 with Staton, 1976-1980.

.

Dennis O'Neil in his own words, in an interview from at least 14 years ago.

Denny O'Neil interview - by Comicology




During the interview, he talks about Will Eisner, a friend who died "a few months ago", so as Eisner died in Jan 2005, that would place this interview sometime in 2005, 18 years ago.

An often-overlooked issue by Dennis O'Neil is JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA 75, Nov 1969. The story where Green Arrow/Oliver Queen lost his fortune, and became more man-on-the-street socially conscious and liberal.
https://viewcomiconline.com/justice-league-of-america-1960-issue-75/

That was just 6 months before O'Neil and Adams began their famous run in GREEN LANTERN 76, April 1970. And kind of set up Green Arrow to be the liberal side of the conservative/liberal dialogue between the conservative Green Lantern, and the now more socially liberal version of Green Arrow.
https://viewcomiconline.com/green-lantern-1960-issue-76/

I doubt when O'Neil did JLA 75, that O'Neil imagined just 6 months later he'd be teamed with Neal Adams to do the GREEN LANTERN series that would expand on that.
I suspect that it just randomly evolved from editor Julius Schwartz pairing the two as writer and artist on GREEN LANTERN, in an effort to increase sales on the series by taking it in a new direction.

And happening just after Schwartz had paired O'Neil and Adams to do the same with Batman in DETECTIVE COMICS 395, cover-dated Jan 1970, just 3 months before beginning their new GREEN LANTERN series.

.
I recently was looking at GREEN LANTERN, and was surprised that O'Neil actually did a few sporadic single issues of GA, as a fill-in writer, before O'Neil and Adams were teamed up in issues 76-89.

These are the issues :

63 by O'Neil and Sparling/Green, Sept 1968
64 O'Neil and Sekowsky/Geilla, Oct 1968

68 O'Neil and Kane/Geilla, April 1969

72 O'Neil and Kane/Geilla, Oct 1969

Interesting to see O'Neil in these earlier stories, working with Silver Age artists, in a more conventional Silver Age style, before DC basically fired these older creators all overnight, because they were gently pushing for healthcare benefits and a better living wage. And at that point DC's management had a good reserve of hungry new writers and artists like O'Neil, Wein, Wolfman, Friedrich, Chaykin, Wrightson, Kaluta, Simonson and others who were just grateful to have the work and didn't ask a lot of questions about what happened to their predecessors.

I think it was in the Summer or Fall of 1969 that DC cut loose these creators like John Broome and Gardner Fox very suddenly and replaced them with all these new writers and artists. I don't know if their replacements even knew what happened to the folks they replaced. Comics grandmasters who created virtually all of the DC characters, craftsmen who who had been the backbone of DC's line for almost 30 years, then were abruptly discarded.

But as Dennis O'Neil said in the above lengthy videotaped interview, he spent his first few years doing stories on modest titles for Marvel, Charleton and DC, where there was no pressure, where O'Neil could learn the craft of comics writing for his first 3 years or so, before he emerged as a major talent.