Archie Goodwin (comics)

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Archie Goodwin (comics) : biography

September 8, 1937 – March 1, 1998

In The Batman Adventures — the first DC Comics spinoff of Batman: The Animated Series — Goodwin appears as Mr. Nice, a super-strong but childishly-innocent super-villain. He is one of a screwball trio of incompetent super-villains that includes The Mastermind (a caricature of Mike Carlin) and The Perfessor (a caricature of Dennis O’Neil). Batman: Gotham Adventures #13 (June 1999) features the last appearance of the characters with Mr. Nice leaving the group to fulfill a prophecy, with the issue being dedicated to Archie Goodwin. at the Grand Comics Database

He is name-checked in issues of Marvel’s Star Wars comics including in the alien-language words "Niwdoog Eihcra," his name in reverse.

A character based on him appears in issue #82 of Cerebus. He stands at the foot of the giant, living stone statue Thrunk and repeats everything Thrunk says – as if he is passing Thrunk’s commands to the masses. Thrunk kills him when he steps on him.

The airport in fictional Gotham City, home of the Batman, is named Goodwin, after Archie.

In Marvel Comics’ What The–?! #5, Goodwin appears as King Archibald the First in the short story The Alien-Ated Legion, which parodies the mature approach of Epic Comics. In the last panels, King Archibald says that he had never been interested in superhero comics.

Awards

Goodwin’s work won him a good deal of recognition in the industry, including both the 1973 Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division), and the 1974 Shazam Award for Best Writer (Dramatic Division) for the Manhunter series running in Detective Comics #437 – 443, in addition to winning Shazam Awards for Best Individual Short Story for "The Himalayan Incident" in Detective Comics #437, "Cathedral Perilous" in Detective Comics #441 and "Götterdämmerung" in Detective Comics #443 (all with Walt Simonson; all for Manhunter episodes). Goodwin’s work on Manhunter, in which he both updated an obscure Golden Age hero, and, in the series’ last episode, took the daring approach of killing him off (one of the few comic book deaths that has actually "taken" and not been reversed or retconned away in the decades since it occurred) is very well regarded by both fans and other comics professionals.

Goodwin stated in his final interview, "I think that Manhunter is one of just several projects that I’ve worked on that I consider a highlight in my career. It is something that I may never be able to top in a lot of ways. To have done that and for DC to have given me the opportunity to do that was great."Cooke, Jon B. "Archie’s Comics – Archie Goodwin talks about DC in his last interview", Comic Book Artist #1, Spring 1998, TwoMorrows Publishing, p. 71

He won the 1992 "Bob Clampett Humanitarian" Eisner Award, and was named Best Editor by the Eisners in 1993. In 1998 he was entered into the Eisner Hall of Fame.

In 2007, Goodwin was inducted into the Oklahoma Cartoonists Hall of Fame in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma, located in the Toy and Action Figure Museum. ActionFigureMuseum.com Retrieved April 7, 2011