Tony Isabella
| Tony Isabella | |
|---|---|
 Tony Isabella by Michael Netzer |
|
| Born | December 22, 1951 |
| Nationality | American |
| Area(s) | Writer, Editor, Critic, Penciller |
| Notable works | Black Goliath Black Lightning Justice Machine "Tony's Tips" |
| Official website | |
Tony Isabella (born December 22, 1951[1]) is an American comic book writer, editor, artist and critic, known as the creator and writer of Marvel Comics' Black Goliath, DC Comics' first major African American superhero, Black Lightning, and as a columnist and critic for the Comics Buyer's Guide.
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[edit] Career
[edit] Marvel Comics
Before he joined Marvel Comics, Isabella had many letters published in the company's comic book letter columns.[2]
He began his career at Marvel as an editorial assistant in 1972. With Marvel's establishment of Marvel UK in 1972, Isabella was assigned the task of overseeing the reprints used in Marvel UK's nascent comics line.[3] He also served for a time as an editor for Curtis Magazines, Marvel's black-and-white magazine line.
As a writer, Isabella scripted Ghost Rider; "It, the Living Colossus" in Astonishing Tales; Luke Cage in Hero for Hire and Power Man; Tigra in Marvel Chillers; The Champions; and Captain America.
During his mid-1970s run on Ghost Rider, Isabella wrote a story arc in which Johnny Blaze became a Christian, and in doing so, freed himself of the curse. In May 2007, Isabella said, "I’d written a story wherein, couched in mildly subtle terms, Blaze accepted Jesus as his savior and freed himself from Satan’s power forever."
"CCM Sightings" said on the subject, "According to Isabella’s account, the story arc took two years to unfold, and was approved by several editors. But when the story reached the big twist — and a certain mysterious drifter was going to be revealed as Jesus Christ — an assistant editor 'took offense' and intercepted the issue right as it was about to go to the printer and completely rewrote the story." Isabella says, "To this day, I consider what he did to my story one of the three most arrogant and wrong-headed actions I’ve ever seen from an editor."[4] In "Tony's Online Tips," Isabella revealed that the assistant editor who "rewrote the story" was Jim Shooter.[5]
[edit] DC Comics
For DC Comics, Isabella worked as a writer and story editor but is mainly known for his creation of Black Lightning,[6] writing both the character's short-lived 1970s and 1990s series.[7]
Isabella, along with artist Richard Howell, also produced the "Shadow War of Hawkman" mini-series, involving the characters of Hawkman and Hawkwoman.
[edit] Justice Machine
In 1987, Tony Isabella began writing the Justice Machine series for Comico, co-plotting with series creator and penciller Mike Gustovich. The new series picked up from the end of the Bill Willingham/Gustovich written limited series Justice Machine featuring the Elementals, which re-booted the series' continuity from the older Noble Comics/Texas Comics-published original series. The on-going book became one of Comico's best-selling series, selling upwards of 70,000 copies of each issue at its peak. Isabella wrote the first 11 issues of the Comico series before moving on to other projects.
In 1990, Isabella returned to the characters to write the series for Innovation Comics, with Gustovich pencilling once more. Gustovich editorialized that Isabella was the best writer (others including Bill Messner-Loebs and Doug Murray) Justice Machine had ever had.
[edit] "Tony's Tips"
Isabella wrote the Comics Buyer's Guide column "Tony's Tips" for over a decade. The last column was June 22, 2010.[8] The column continues as a regular online column/blog called "Tony's Online Tips".
[edit] Other work
During the 1980s, Tony Isabella operated Cosmic Comics, a comic book shop in the Colonial Arcade in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, started by Mark Stueve in 1976.
Isabella is the co-author with his fellow Comics Buyer's Guide columnist Bob Ingersoll of the short story If Wishes Were Horses... (which was published in The Ultimate Super Villains, ISBN 1-57297-113-4, in 1996) and the novels Captain America: Liberty's Torch (1998 ISBN 0-425-16619-8) and Star Trek: The Case Of The Colonist's Corpse (A Sam Cogley Mystery) (2003, ISBN 0-7434-6497-4).
He has also worked on translating foreign-language Disney comics and revamping the wording for the U.S. (such as Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge #354).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Tony Isabella. "Tony on Oni"; "Tony's Tips!"; Comics Buyer's Guide #1467; December 28, 2001
- ^ Smith, Stephen Scott Beau. "The LOCsmiths," Amazing Heroes #23 (May 15, 1983).
- ^ Wymann, Adrian. "The Mighty World of Bronze Age British Marvel (1972-1979) Part One, 1972–194: Setting Up Marvel UK," Panelology! (2009). Accessed June 5, 2011.
- ^ Ghost Rider: Vengeance Unbound, omegacen.com
- ^ Isabella, Tony. "TONY'S ONLINE TIPS". World Famous Comics. June 15, 2010
- ^ McAvennie, Michael; Dolan, Hannah, ed. (2010). "1970s". DC Comics Year By Year A Visual Chronicle. Dorling Kindersley. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-7566-6742-9. "Writer Tony Isabella and artist Trevor von Eeden provided the creative juice for Black Lightning."
- ^ Manning, Matthew K. "1990s" in Dolan, p. 269: "Writer Tony Isabella returned to his prized character, Black Lightning, in an ongoing series with artist Eddy Newell."
- ^ "Tony's Tips Online" (column), June 22, 2010. Accessed August 7, 2010.
[edit] References
- Tony Isabella at the Comic Book DB
[edit] External links
- Tony's Online Tips
- Coville, Jamie (May 2000). "An Interview with Tony Isabella". CollectorTimes.com. http://www.collectortimes.com/2000_05/Clubhouse.html. Retrieved 2007-07-23. WebCitation archive.
| Preceded by Gary Friedrich |
Ghost Rider writer 1974–1976 |
Succeeded by Gerry Conway |
| Preceded by John Warner |
Captain America writer 1975 |
Succeeded by Jack Kirby |
| Preceded by Steve Gerber |
Daredevil writer 1975 (with Bob Brown in late 1975) |
Succeeded by Marv Wolfman |
| Preceded by Bill Willingham |
Justice Machine (Comico) writer 1987 |
Succeeded by Doug Murray |
| Preceded by N/A |
Black Lightning writer 1995 |
Succeeded by Dave deVries |
