From: DCOBobW <[D--B--W] at [aol.com]>
Message-ID: <[b 00 d 9827 34 fc 13 da] at [aol.com]>
Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1998 09:29:44 EST
Subject: Archie Goodwin

Archie Goodwin Dead at 60 

The comic book industry has lost one of its dearest members with the 
death of Archie Goodwin, who passed away on Sunday, March 1 at the age 
of 60, following a long battle against cancer. A veteran of more than 30 
years in comics, Goodwin spent the past nine years as a group editor for 
DC Comics, overseeing a team of editors and personally editing titles 
including Starman, Azrael, and Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight.

Looking back over his long and distinguished career, it seems that he 
managed to work with almost every existing comics professional, either 
directly or indirectly, and inspire all of them to reach new heights in 
their chosen fields. 

Goodwin was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1937 and grew up in Tulsa, 
Oklahoma. After graduating from New York City's School of Visual Arts in 
1958, he began his comics career in 1965 as both a writer and Editor in 
Chief for the Warren-published black-and-white magazines Creepy, Eerie,
 and Blazing Combat. He would divide his time between writing and 
editing comics for the rest of his life, excelling at both and 
continually raising the standards for the medium as a whole. As an 
editor, in addition to his time at Warren and DC, he served a term as 
Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics, and went on to found and edit Marvel's 
groundbreaking anthology magazine, Epic Illustrated, and the Epic Comics 
imprint that followed it. As a writer, he worked on nearly every major 
super-hero character, including Batman, Wolverine, Spider-Man, and the 
Incredible Hulk, and also wrote for the syndicated newspaper comics 
strips Secret Agent X-9, Star Wars (with artist Al Williamson) and 
Tarzan (with artist Gil Kane). His last major writing project was the 
highly-praised graphic novel Batman: Night Cries with artist Scott 
Hampton. 

"Archie Goodwin was the consummate professional and as true a gentleman 
as anyone I've ever met," remembers DC's Executive Vice President & 
Publisher Paul Levitz. "His humor kept everyone around him from becoming 
too full of themselves, their problems, or every forgetting how lucky we 
all were to be here. 

"If the ultimate test of an editor is the quality of work produced under 
his auspices, Archie goes unchallenged as the ultimate editor. In almost 
four decades behind an editor's desk, the best talent in comics 
consistently did their best work for him, and asked for the opportunity 
to do more. And yeoman talent often rose to heights they would not equal 
in their careers. 

"As a writer, he stood atop his profession longer than anyone. He won 
the earliest awards bestowed by his peers, the Academy of Comic Book 
Arts' Shazam Awards, in 1975 for his work on Manhunter with artist 
Walter Simonson. And he won in the most recent awards voted by industry 
professionals, the Eisner Awards last summer, for his contribution to 
Batman: Black & White. 

"As both writer and editor, he taught and shared his gifts liberally 
with collaborators and co-workers. But try as we might to dissect his 
success, no amount of knowledge, craft, or ever talent could adequately 
explain it. He was simply Archie." 

Goodwin is survived by his wife, Anne T. Murphy, and his two children, 
Jennifer and Seth.