Mike Friedrich

Mike Friedrich is an American comic book writer and publisher best known for his work at Marvel and DC Comics, and for publishing the anthology series Star*Reach, one of the first independent comics. He is also an artists representative.

The Spectre #3 (April 1968): Friedrich's first published work. Cover art by Neal Adams.

His notable works include runs as the regular writer of DC's Justice League of America and Marvel's The Invincible Iron Man.

Friedrich — no relation to fellow Silver Age comics writer Gary Friedrich — entered comics professionally after years of writing to DC letter-columns in the 1960s and developing a mail acquaintance with the famously responsive editor Julius Schwartz. "My letter-writing began around the time the 'new look' Batman was introduced, though I'd been a fan of Julie's for two or three years before then. A couple of years later it turned into a bit of correspondence as Julie began to send short replies," Friedrich recalled [1]. Schwartz, after rejecting an Elongated Man story Friedrich submitted, bought Friedrich's first professional script on May 10, 1967, a five-page Robin backup story ("Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders", drawn by penciler Chic Stone and inker Joe Giella) eventually published in Batman #202 (June 1968).

Friedrich used the $10-per-page payment to visit New York City the following month, after his high school graduation, and took a DC Comics tour in order to meet Schwartz in person. That summer, Schwartz worked with him on scripts, including Friedrich's first published work, the 10-page "Menace of the Mystic Mastermind", drawn by Neal Adams, in The Spectre #3 (April 1968) (reprinted in Adventure Comics Digest #496, Feb. 1983).

Friedrich wrote Justice League of America from #86-99 (Dec. 1970 - June 1972), including a much-remembered story (#89's "The Most Dangerous Dreams of All!") in which he broke the fourth wall at a time when such experimentation in the mainsream was rare. Moving to Marvel, Friedrich scripted every issue of Iron Man but three from #48-81 (July 1972 - Dec. 1975). In issue #55 (Feb. 1973), he introduced the popular characters Thanos and Drax the Destroyer, created by artist Jim Starlin.

Star*Reach #7 (Jan. 1977): Cover by Barry Windsor-Smith.

Other work includes issues of Marvel's Captain America, Captain Marvel (where he worked with artist Jim Starlin on the latter's transition to writer on a highly acclaimed run of that series), The Power of Warlock, "Ka-Zar" in Astonishing Tales, "Ant-Man" in Marvel Feature, and The Outlaw Kid, writing a short-lived revival of Doug Wildey's Western series from Marvel's 1950s predecessor, Atlas Comics. Friedrich also wrote for DC's Batman, Detective Comics, Green Lantern, The Flash and other series. For Pacific Comics, he scripted the sword and sorcery series Elric in 1983-84.

Friedrich's most notable contribution, however, may be his 1970s anthology series Star*Reach, an important forerunner to the independently produced comics that proliferated, beginning in the 1980s, with the rise of the "direct market" of comic-book stores. Eighteen issues were released between 1974 and 1979, with Friedrich's same-name publishing company expanding to other series and one-shot comics before closing down. For this and other efforts, Friedrich won an Inkpot Award at the 1980 San Diego Comic-Con.

In the 2000s, Friedrich was an officer of the Graphic Artists Guild, California/Northern chapter.

Quotes

Richard J. Arndt, "The Star*Reach Bibliography" [2]: "[I]t was an independent comic, long before anyone seriously mentioned or had even really conceived of an indy market that could challenge the major publishers. At its beginning, Star*Reach sold though the few comic shops around, as well as head shops, or via subscriptions and mail order. ... Star*Reach published mostly science fiction and fantasy stories, at a time when the conventional wisdom was that those genres didn't sell. Plus, they were intelligent science fiction stories. If you read Tolkien or Heinlein or Bester or Le Guin, these stories fit right in. ... Michael Gilbert, John Workman, Lee Marrs, Robert Gould, Dave Sim, Ken Steacy, Dean Motter, Gene Day and Paul Kirchner got their first major exposure here. ... Howard Chaykin's Cody Starbuck and Gideon Faust characters both demonstrated what Chaykin was really capable of, long before the mainstream allowed him the same creative freedom. Frank Brunner did some of his last and best work for comics here. Sim wrote (his art was still on a learning curve) some great stories for artist Fabio Gasbarri and illustrated at least one strong one himself."

References

• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• The Grand Comic-Book Database
• Challenger #20: "Julie Schwartz: The Memorial Service", by Mike Friedrich
• "The Star-Reach Bibliography"
• Adelaide Comics and Books: Jim Starlin interview
• Comic Book Artist Vol. 2, #2 (Summer 2003): Interview with Mike Friedrich (offline)