RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books pseudonyms of comics writers and artists

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I was just looking through a 1977 DC issue, and they had a DC profiles page for "Barry Jameson".
Which I know from prior experience is a pseudonym for the early work of writer David Michelinie.



https://viewcomiconline.com/our-fighting-forces-issue-177/



I love the part about: "Barry Jameson was created to write. He almost has no other life besides his typewriter."

And especially: " 'My greatest personal pleasure', Barry told DC Profiles, 'came when I met my favorite writers: Virgil North, Sergius O'Shaugnessy, Wesson Smith, and Bart Regan.' "

Names that back in that time only a few insiders would know, are all pseudonyms for pro comics writers, and not actual names !

"Virgil North" = Mary Skrenes
"Sergius O'Shaugnessy" = Dennis O'Neil
"Bart Regan" = Robert Kanigher

And the last, "Wesson Smith" kind of threw me and I didn't have any knowledge of, but is clearly a pseudonym as well, a play on Smith & Wesson firearms.

I did several searches online for that last one.
No listings on Comics.org
And I kept initially just pulling up listings for guns, when searching for Wesson Smith.
Finally, I tried going to IMDB, where a search for "Wesson Smith" showed as the screenwriter for 3 movies, "The Hot Oven" (1975), "Rollerbabies" (1976), and "Double Your Pleasure" (1978)
https://mubi.com/en/us/films/the-hot-oven
https://mubi.com/en/us/films/rollerbabies
https://mubi.com/en/us/films/double-your-pleasure-1978

All three directed by someone named Carter Stevens. From the titles alone, they appeared to either be comedies, porn, or some combination of the two.
And looking up Carter Stevens confirms this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carter_Stevens

So I'm guessing "Wesson Smith" is Dave Michelinie's porn screenwriter pseudonym for a few of his early years.

In a text page interview, probably on a DC editorial page, I recall Barry Jameson in 1977-1978 interview saying he was a "huge fan of David Michelinie."
Great stuff !

Many writers and artists use pseudonyms for a variety of reasons.
Some to later distance themselves from early work, to kind of separate it from their later more developed professional work.
Others, particularly in the 1960's era, used pseudonyms at Marvel or DC, because they were exclusively contracted to work for one company, and used a pseudonym to hide when they were picking up extra work at other companies.
Female writers, in comics, SF and other genres of fiction, use a male-sounding pseudonym, because they feel, at least until established, that readers and professionals will respect their work more if they think it is written by a man. D.C. Fontana (a k a Dorothy Fontana), writing and script-editing for the Star Trek TV series, used initials to hide her gender, to get started in writing, for just that reason.
Some just use other names for fun. French artist Jean Gireaud, a k a "Moebius", described it as one of many names he used, drawing under a different style with each new name, until he finally liked one style the best, and settled on the Moebius name and visual style.

Apparently Dave Michelinie (who began his career at DC in 1975, taking over SWAMP THING from Len Wein, and also doing stories in HOUSE OF SECRETS and other DC mystery titles, and on later titles and new creations) used the name for stories he maybe wasn't so proud to be writing, such as KARATE KID. Because he was simultaneously doing work under his real name for DC, he was clearly proud enough to display his name at the same time on other work, so maybe compartmentalizing other work that he felt wasn't either his forte, or maybe was work he reluctantly did at an editor's request for just a paycheck.

Michelinie jumped ship at DC because of the DC implosion in late 1978, along with Al Milgrom, Bob Layton, Jerry Bingham, Bob Wiacek, Pat Broderick, Bob Mcleod, Terry Austin, Michael Golden and many others, who suddenly found a complete absence of available freelance work at DC, and ended up revitalizing Marvel on the titles they became regulars on. And by that time, the ones who'd been using pseudonyms felt accomplished enough to drop using them.
Michelinie's best for me will always be his work on IRON MAN 115-156, AVENGERS 181-191, and his later AMAZING SPIDERMAN 298-328 run with Todd McFarlane. Leaving his porn days far behind.

https://viewcomiconline.com/iron-man-1968-issue-115/

https://viewcomiconline.com/avengers-v1-181/

https://viewcomiconline.com/the-amazing-spider-man-1963-issue-298/

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The guy I saw with the most pseudonyms was DC editor Murray Boltinoff, for anthology titles such as GHOSTS that he edited. I don't know if he just enjoyed writing under another name, or if he did it as sub-par filler when he couldn't get other writers to do the work.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Boltinoff

Pseudonyms :
Woody Adams,
Blair Bolton,
Ray Bolton,
Al Case,
Anne Case,
Bill Dennehy,
Bob Donnely,
Evan Douglas,
Wesley Marsh,
and Sam Meade

GHOSTS
https://viewcomiconline.com/ghosts-issue-1/

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED
https://viewcomiconline.com/tales-of-the-unexpected-issue-119/

Another DC writer on these two titles, Carl Wessler, I also thought was a Boltinoff pseudonym, but it turns out he's a real name, and another person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Wessler

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Anton Drek, the alter ego of artist Don Simpson, when he did porn/underground work. From what I could observe, all done for Eros comics (an imprint of Fantagraphics by Gary Groth).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Simpson_(cartoonist)


I have one called ANTON'S DREKBOOK, a collection of mostly one-page gags and fake parody covers and story versions of romance comics, superheroes, horror, science fiction comics, etc.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=51701779

Juvenile, pornographic, silly, and often very funny.
Like the rest of Don Simpson's work.

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=51855934 (WENDY WHITEBREAD)

https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=megaton+man&pubid=&PubRng= (MEGATON MAN)
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?q=border+worlds&pubid=&PubRng= (BORDER WORLDS)
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=113051 (WASTELAND)

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"Francis X. Bushmaster" = Gerry Conway.

This is a pseudonym Conway used in issues of HOUSE OF MYSTERY and HOUSE OF SECRETS, circa 1970-1972.
Possibly because he was exclusively contracted at Marvel, so did work at DC under another name.

I wondered how Conway selected this pseudonym. Perhaps boasting about his prowess at scoring with women?
Or projecting a prowess at the time he wished he had?
I'm envisioning Sherman in the American Pie movie, who billed himself as "The Shermanator".
Although Conway on these issues intermittently wrote under his own name, as well as under the Bushmaster alias.

HOUSE OF MYSTERY (in issues between 188-200 or so. As Conway in 188 and 196, as Bushmaster in 193 and 200)
https://viewcomiconline.com/house-of-mystery-1951-issue-193/

HOUSE OF SECRETS (as Conway in 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, and 89. As Bushmaster in 94.)
https://viewcomiconline.com/house-of-secrets-1956-issue-94/

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Why did some artists working for Marvel in the sixties use phony names?

• by Mark Evanier
  
  
  Because DC editors sometimes frowned on "their" people working for the competition. There was a certain arrogance behind it, along with the fear that if you were working for someone else, you might not be spending every waking minute on your DC assignments. You'd lose stature around DC (where some liked to believe their standards were so much higher than any other company's) and the fact that you were willing to work for Marvel's lower rates wouldn't help you to get a raise if you continued working for DC. Ergo, until such time as you felt the Marvel work was steady, you might elect to hide behind a pen name.
  
  
  This was sometimes a sudden decision, as you can see from the credit box above, which is from Fantastic Four #39. Frank Giacoia was scheduled to ink the issue and from the spacing, it's obvious that when Artie Simek did the lettering, he inscribed Giacoia's whole name. Then Giacoia inked the issue and apparently chickened-out and asked to have his pseudonym — which he'd been using on all his previous Marvel work — substituted. Someone whited-out his last name and lettered in "Ray." A lot of the bogus credits are like this...last-minute substitutions of the fake name for the real.
  
  This whole topic, by the way, usually prompts the question, "Couldn't the DC editors recognize the artists' work?" And the answer to that one is ...
  
  1. Some could not. You'd be amazed how many people who've worked in comics — often in high-ranked positions — couldn't and still can't tell Kane from Kirby.
  
  2. Most DC editors didn't look too carefully at the Marvel books. (Some didn't even look at the DC books from other editors) and...
  
  3. The bogus names provided a certain level of deniability. If caught, an artist could say, "Oh, I was just doing some ghost work to help out a friend. I wouldn't work for Marvel."
  
  Here's a guide to some of the folks who elected to hide, at least at first, the fact that they were working there...
  
  Gene Colan worked under the name "Adam Austin"
  
  Jack Abel inked some of Adam Austin's work under the name "Gary Michaels"
  
  Werner Roth passed himself off for a time as "Jay Gavin"
  
  Gil Kane drew one Hulk story as "Scott Edward"
  
  Jerry Siegel wrote The Human Torch as "Joe Carter"
  
  Frank Giacoia was actually doing the work credited to "Frank Ray" (Once Giacoia was working primarily and openly for Marvel, he did some inking jobs for DC that were credited to "Phil Zupa.")
  
  Robert Bernstein wrote scripts as "R. Berns"
  
  George Roussos inked under the name "George Bell"
  
  Jim Mooney inked as "Jay Noel"
  
  Bill Everett was occasionally credited as "Willie Bee" or "Bill Roman." (Roman, of course, is "Namor" spelled backwards.)
  
  Jack Katz drew some stories under the name "Jay Hawk"
  
  Sam Kweskin worked briefly under the name "Irv Wesley"
  
  And Mike Esposito set the house record for pen names, working as "Mickey Demeo," "Mickey Dee" and "Joe Gaudioso"
  
  Also, Don Rico did a few pseudonymous scripts for Marvel under the name of "N. Korok"
  And Ernie Hart did a few as "H.E. Huntley." Rico told me he used the pen name because he was writing novels at the time and didn't want his publisher to know that he was taking on other work, and for low money. I have no idea why Hart so elected but it was probably something similar.
  
  Lastly, there were quite a few issues of Millie the Model and other teen comics signed by Sol Brodsky or "Solly B." Brodsky was the firm's Production Manager and an occasional inker, and he did ink a few of the Millie stories that bear his credit. But they were all at least pencilled by Stan Goldberg. At the time, Stan was doing occasional work for the Archie Comics people, and they didn't like to see their artists drawing in that style for other publishers. So when Stan drew teen comics for Marvel, they put Brodsky's name on them in the hope that the Archie editors wouldn't know it was him.

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Another I looked at recently, in the credits of STRANGE TALES 180 are several (i think pretty obvious) playful pseudonyms used by Jim Starlin. where he was taking on multiple duties on a single story as writer, penciller, inker and colorist, and for the hell of it, since his name was already on the credits once, he made up other acronyms for the additional credits.

Sam Jilttirn
J.L. Minirats
Ms. Natjril

https://viewcomiconline.com/strange-tales-1951-issue-180/

I picture Starlin with a scrabble board, moving around the letters over and over to come up with these.

In 181, and where the series continued in WARLOCK 9-15, Starlin would list the credits for the letterer, colorist, inker and editor, and then at the bottom just modestly list himself as "finisher", or "everything else", as if he were just the guy doing little add-ons to someone else's story, instead of the very talented guy who was the writer and artist on one of he best series in comics history.

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Another, that John Byrne used for his writer/artist debut on FANTASTIC FOUR in issue 232, John Byrne credited himself as writer and penciller, but then the inker was a mysterious "Bjorn Heyn", that a few issues later Byrne admited in the letters page was him too.
https://viewcomiconline.com/fantastic-four-1961-issue-232/

I can't recall if he was just having fun with the readers, or if Byrne for the first issue was trying out reader opinion of his inks (the first issue Byrne inked himself for Marvel), to solicit unrestrained initial reader opinion of the inking on 232, before later revealing the inker was Byrne himself.

Byrne had early on inked his own pencils working for Charleton in 1975-1976.
On the "Rog 2000" backups in E-MAN 6, 7, 9 and 10.
On DOOMSDAY +1 issues 1-6,.
On SPACE 1999 issues 3-6.
On EMERGENCY issue 1.
And WHEELIE AND THE CHOPPER BUNCH. But his art had vastly changed and improved by the time Byrne began inking again on his FF run in 1981.


https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/E-Man-1973/Issue-6?id=171774
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/E-Man-1973/Issue-7?id=171775
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/E-Man-1973/Issue-9?id=171777
https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/E-Man-1973/Issue-10?id=171769

https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-001-1975/
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-002-1975/
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-003-1975/
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-004-1975/
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-005-1975/
https://viewcomiconline.com/doomsday-1-006-1975/

https://viewcomiconline.com/emergency-issue-1/

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Wheelie-and-the-Chopper-Bunch/Issue-1?id=171742

https://viewcomiconline.com/space-1999-issue-3/
https://viewcomiconline.com/space-1999-issue-4/
https://viewcomiconline.com/space-1999-issue-5/
https://viewcomiconline.com/space-1999-issue-6/