Mike Carlin

Michael "Mike" Carlin (born October 6, 1958 ) is an American comic book writer and publishing editor.

Mike Carlin at San Diego Comic Con 2007

Life and work

Carlin began working as an editor for various US publishers in the 1970s. In this context, he was entrusted with the editorial support of various magazines and comics before he finally decided in favor of his work in the comic industry in the early 1980s.

For the Marvel Comics publisher , he soon hired himself for the first time as an artist in the form of work as an author and draftsman of stories for the humorous magazine Crazy Magazine , before being promoted as assistant editor to assistant to the publishing director of Marvel, Mark Gruenwald. After a few other writing jobs - including for the series Captain America (1985–1986) - Carlin finally switched to Marvel's main competitor, DC Comics .

At DC, Carlin took over the editorial management of the “ Superman department” at DC in 1986 as the successor to Julius Schwartz , which is responsible for the artistic design and coordination of the comic books about the famous comic book hero from the planet Krypton and thus control of one of the most important trademarks Sources of income of the entertainment company Time Warner , which DC Comics belongs to. The series that appeared under Carlin's aegis included Action Comics , Adventures of Superman , Superman , Superman: Man of Steel and Superman: man of Tomorrow , as well as the spin-off series Superboy, Supergirl and Steel . Among the most sensational decisions made by the Superman department under Carlin's leadership were the resolutions to let Superman die and resurrect (1993), to marry him (1996) and to elect his archenemy Lex Luthor as US President within the fiction of the Superman stories allow. The character was also marketed in television series such as Superman: The Adventures of Lois and Clark , Smallville and Superman: The Animated Series , in which Carlin - who was nicknamed "The great Carlini" because of his extensive control of the character in the 1990s - was always significantly involved.