Posts tagged Gerry Conway

Well, Martin never really went away. But he’s returned to our periphery to comment on and correct a whopping mistake I made in the previous post about Kobra: Resurrection credits. It’s the first time we’ve been in touch since I last saw him around 1978 at DC Comics. But first about the mistake:

FYI, my name is listed first in the solicitation because I am the character’s co-creator with Kirby. Kirby did not, in fact, write the first issue of KOBRA, nor was his original concept the basis of the series. Surely you must have known this at some point and simply forgotten it; didn’t you drew at least one issue of the original title before the story reprinted in this volume?

I actually drew the last two issues of the original Kobra series, #6 and #7. They were of my earliest comics work, after the Kamandi backups and a Legion of Super-Heroes fill in. Martin’s right though, and has reminded me, that I knew he was co-creator and writer of the original series with Jack Kirby.  It likely slipped my mind because I’d always instinctively associated it with Kirby creations… and it was done so early in my career and rarely mentioned with regards to my work. These 2 Kobra issues came at a very early stage of my learning curve as a comics artist. They stand in notable quality contrast to the DOA Conspiracy, co-starring Batman, which Martin also wrote, and was intended to be the next Kobra issue before the book was cancelled.

But then again, had I done a little minimal snooping around, it would have jogged my memory enough so as not to make such a misrepresentation. Sincerest apologies to Martin Pasko, who adds more info about Kobra’s creation in the comments thread.

Anyway, for your readers’ benefit: Gerry Conway was handed a single issue of something called KING KOBRA, which had been done for FIRST ISSUE SPECIAL and was considered unprintable. Gerry wanted no part of it and offered it to me, asking if I had any ideas about what to do with it. I did, starting with making the twins, who were 65-year-old men in Kirby’s original, a college student and a twin brother he never knew he had.

I requested stats of Kirby’s originals be made up with all the balloons whited out. Working with only the bare bones of Kirby’s story, I reworked it from the ground up, cutting up the stats, shuffling panels and pages, requesting art changes (which ended up being executed by artists other than Kirby and pasted up over the existing art), and writing all new dialogue. It was a desperate patch job, but management liked it enough to make an ongoing title out of it. The character caught on, as you know, in the sense that it has been a staple of the DC mythology ever since.

Good behind the scenes info for Kobra enthusiasts, and much appreciated. Kobra does remain a revered villain of the DC Universe. I’ve run across many comments on the web over the years from fans who’d like to see more of him. Not sure what you’re up to these days Marty, but if the new directorship at DC were to consider bringing back the Pasko/Netzer team for a new Kobra adventure, then at least the Netzer half of the team would certainly consider it favorably. Your connections are likely a little better than mine for advancing such an idea.

Martin also comments about his online presence in the comics community.

And now you know something else, too: I’m not as rarely “heard [from]” as you seem to think!

Right again. I should have looked around a little more before saying that, which wasn’t meant as a slight in the least. I simply haven’t seen or heard about Martin except for a Facebook friendship that neither of us advanced past the “accept” button. Which is understandable knowing Facebook and that we both sport more than 3,000 friends whom we can never keep track of. This is the place to say that though our acquaintance was relatively brief during the first few years of my career, Martin stood out amongst his peers in the good natured wit he exuded, which made my visits to DC Comics where we usually met an especially pleasureful affair. That said, Martin maintains a blog, Still Pesky… (named after a Julius Shwartz nickname given him back in the days), where he puts forth insightful commentary on comics and entertainment news, along with anything else that comes into his periphery. Good reading and worth a visit.

It’s good to hear [from] Martin Pasko again. Having learnt my lesson, I’ve done a little snooping around and found his Wikipedia biography also in need of a copyright free image. Along with an opportunity to add another entry to Portraits of the Creators Sketchbook, that’s good enough reason to have produced the image below.

Martin Pasko – Portraits of the Creators Sketchbook.