John Broome (comic book writer)

John Broome (born May 4, 1913 , † March 14, 1999 in Chiang Mai , Thailand ) was an American comic book author who also wrote under the pseudonyms John Osgood and Ray Meritt . Broome became famous as the spiritual father of the cartoon characters " Green Lantern ", " Guy Gardner " and " Flash ".

Life

Broome began his writing career as a writer of science fiction novels. At the urging of his friend and former agent Julius Schwartz , he finally switched to comics in 1945/46. In particular, he began to write for the American publisher DC Comics , for which Schwartz worked as an editor.

In the 1950s and 1960s Broome created the bizarre humor character " Detective Chimp ", whose stories he wrote for seven years, from 1952 to 1959, but also wrote numerous adventure and superhero series such as "Per Degaton" and "The Atomic Knights " . In addition, he invented the humorous superhero " Elongated Man ", a private detective with the ability to stretch and tug his body like clay or rubber.

However, Broome's most influential works for DC were undoubtedly the superhero series " Green Lantern " and " The Flash " , which he oversaw for many years . Both series had started extremely successfully during the Second World War and were extremely successful until the late 1940s. In the post-war period, however, they had been discontinued due to declining demand and gradually fell into oblivion. Broome took up the names "Green Lantern" and "Flash" as well as individual concept elements of the two old series in the late 1950s and integrated them into two new series that revived the old titles, but actually dealt with completely different characters . Broome added new minor characters and villains to the new Flash, Barry Allen ( Silver Age Flash ), and the new Green Lantern, Hal Jordan ( Silver Age Green Lantern ), two cartoon characters he designed and who have remained extremely popular to this day. He also embedded them in new settings and gave them distinctly different background stories than the previous bearers of the name. His main artistic collaborators were the draftsman Gil Kane , who visualized the majority of Broome's "Green Lantern" stories, and Carmine Infantino , who captured Broome's "Flash" stories in pictures.

In 1970 Broome ended his comic book writing career and started working as an English teacher in Tokyo .

Prices

The numerous prizes Broome received for his work include the Alley Award for Best Short Story "1964, which he received for the story " Doorway to the Unknown! " From Flash # 148.