RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Comic Books comics writer David Antony Kraft dies, of Covid-19

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


I liked Kraft best for his 1970's/ early 1980's comics scripting:


Atlas/Seaboard Comics :

Demon Hunter #1 (1975)



DC :

Blackhawk #247–248 (1976)
Kamandi, The Last Boy on Earth #44–46 (1976)
Richard Dragon, Kung-Fu Fighter #11–12 (1976)
Secret Society of Super Villains #2–4 (1976)
Swamp Thing #24 (1976)
Tarzan #254 (1976)
World's Finest Comics #293, 295–300, 302–307 (1983–1984)


Marvel Comics :

Captain America #265–266, 271, 273–274 (1982)
Creatures on the Loose #33–37 (Man-Wolf) (1975)
Defenders #44–56, 58–68, 89 (1977–1980)
Giant-Size Dracula #4–5 (1975)
Haunt of Horror #5 (1975)
The Hulk #24 (1980)
Logan's Run #2–5 (1977)
Marvel Comics Super Special #4 (The Beatles Story) (1978)
Marvel Fanfare #4, 17 (1982–1984)
Marvel Premiere #45–46 (1978–1979) --conclusion of Man-Wolf story, from CREATURES ON THE LOOSE
Marvel Preview #12–14 (1977–1978)
Marvel Spotlight #33 (1977) --concluding Deathlok storyline, from ASTONISHING TALES 25-28, 30-36
Marvel Super Special #4 (The Beatles), #7 (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band); #24 (The Dark Crystal) (1979–1983)
Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 #15 (1993)
Marvel Team-Up #109 (1981)
Marvel Two-in-One #41, 88–89, 94–95 (1978–1983)
Savage She-Hulk #2–25 (1980–1982)
The Spectacular Spider-Man Annual #3 (1981)
Tales of the Zombie #8 (1974)
Tarzan #12, 15–21 (1978–1979)
Thor #253 (Tales of Asgard backup story) (1976)
What If...? #37 (1983)


Particularly his Marvel work.
His DEFENDERS issues.
His LOGAN'S RUN issues.
The Man-Wolf stories with George Perez in CREATURES ON THE LOOSE 33-37, and concluded in MARVEL PREMIERE 45-46.
In THE HULK magazine 24.
The MARVEL COMICS SUPER SPECIAL 4 issue with the Beatles, (and an unpublished-in-the-U.S., only in an overseas French version of issue 7, also by Kraft and Perez, and something of a holy grail for its rarity).
His conclusion of the Moench-Buckler Deathlok story in MARVEL SPOTLIGHT 33.

And a few stories he did for DC that I bought as they came out in KAMANDI 44-46 (right after Kirby's run ended), and SWAMP THING 24 (the isue that concluded the 1970's run.)

This is to my knowledge the second comics industry death resulting from Covid-19.

Kraft was also the publisher of the long-running fan magazine COMICS INTERVIEW, from 1983-1995.


Like Len Wein and Berni Wrightson in the recent past, and Steve Lightle, way too young to die.

Sad to see this. I don’t think he was ever considered a “hot” writer but I enjoyed his Defenders run. It was different and he cemented the membership to being Hellcat, Nightwing, Valkyrie and Hulk in my mind. And it’s probably been retconned out but he gave Nick Fury a villainous gay brother. You knew he was gay because he liked Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, lol. In those days that was actually cutting edge. I have the latest Defenders Masterwork of his to read and will put that on top of the pile.

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A gay friend of mine from school told me that Judy Garland was very popular with the gay community nationwide, because in the 1960's when gays were much less well received, to support the gay community she would only perform her music in gay clubs across the country. And that she would always conclude her performance with "Somewhere over the rainbow".
He said the rainbow from that song is the partial inspiration (or perhaps the complete inspiration) for the gay rainbow flag. I don't know if that's the case, but he certainly believed that absolutely, and was informed of that from others in the gay world. He spent most of his life in the San Francisco area, before migrating to Florida. I don't know how to confirm or disprove that account.

He also told me that Liza Minelli (Judy Garland's daughter) has an equal popularity in the gay world, and follows a similar performance touring of the country in many gay clubs.


Back on the topic of Dave Kraft's work, I remember 15 or 20 years ago, I picked up that whole Kraft DEFENDERS run (mostly drawn by Giffen/Janson, with two issues partially drawn by Michael Golden, some of his earliest published work) and I got them in perfect mint condition for 3 dollars each, and I thought that was a pretty good deal. But then I looked them up when I got home on mycomicshop.com, and they had the same issues in mint condition for $1.50 each.

Oh well... it was only an extra 1.50 per issue (times 12) and being good issues I've re-read a few times, I've definitely gotten my utility out of them, at any price.

I’m guessing those issues might be worth a little more now. Sounds like you still bought them at decent price.

Marvel had a nice page in the newest Defenders comic of Kraft btw. I didn’t read the issue yet but that was a plus.

It's always nice to see Marvel and DC give some appreciation to creators who built a lot of what we love in their companies. They're much better about that than they were in the 1960's and 1970's and into the 1980's.
I recall that when Stan Lee was running Golden Age reprints in FANTASY MASTERPIECES, and MRVEL COLLECTORS ITEM CLASSICS in the 1960's, he was leaving off the story credits to Human Torch reprints and Captain America reprints. The artists were not paid for these reprints, and they weren't even given credit as the creators of those stories. This was sad for Simon and Kirby, but especially sad for artist Carl Burgos who created and drew the Golden Age Human Torch, who really needed the money. He was still drawing stories for the early pre-Marvel issues of TALES TO ASTONISH and TALES OF SUSPENSE, and he stopped working for Marvel in disgust over that.

Marvel and DC would buy themselves more goodwill from the public if they gave more overtly fair credit and compensation to their most prominent creators, as I quoted others arguing in the Kirby topic.


I bought those Kraft/Giffen/Janson issues at 3 dollars each in VF/near mint, and a lot of those issues still seem to be selling at pretty much the same price.
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=174841

Although, Mycomicshop back then was selling them for 1.50 each in VF/mint, so I guess they have doubled or more in value, to at least what I paid for them back in the day.

Both Kraft and Perez have died in the last year, but Marvel just released a collected edition of all the Man-Wolf stories, including the 7 issues that Kraft and Perez did together.

It's a nice collection, I like it and I'm glad I picked it up, but to be honest I still prefer to read the issues in their original form. It also made me aware of a number of other Man-Wolf appearances I wasn't aware of before I purchased the book.

MAN-WOLF: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION
https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=49462790


For your reading pleasure :

CREATURES ON THE LOOSE 33-37
https://viewcomiconline.com/creatures-on-the-loose-33/

and concluded in:
MARVEL PREMIERE 45-46
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-premiere-045/

Plus a lot of other guest appearances in titles like AMAZING SPIDER-MAN, MARVEL TWO IN ONE, MARVEL TEAM UP and so forth, by other writers and artists.

In this series, Perez's first issue looks a lot like Rich Buckler, and that's because before he broke in at Marvel in late 1974, he worked as Rich Buckler's assistant.
Perez's story "War Toy" in UNKNOWN WORLDS OF SCIENCE FICTION magazine 2 (1975) also looks a lot like Buckler. But Perez developed his own distinctive style very quickly after turning pro.
https://viewcomiconline.com/unknown-worlds-of-science-fiction-issue-2/
Also reprinted in MARVEL PREVIEW 20 (the first BIZARRE ADVENTURES issue) Winter 1980.
https://viewcomiconline.com/marvel-preview-issue-20/

If you want to see the collected book and the other stories....

MAN-WOLF: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION
https://viewcomiconline.com/man-wolf-the-complete-collection-tpb-part-1/

https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Man-Wolf-The-Complete-Collection/TPB-Part-1?id=190588#1