Gerry Conway

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Gerry Conway bigraphy, stories - Writer

Gerry Conway : biography

September 10, 1952 –

Gerard F. "Gerry" Conway (born September 10, 1952)"Gerard Conway" (capsule biography), FOOM #1 (Spring 1973), p. 4. Reprinted at Best, Daniel, ed., . from the original on May 3, 2012. is an American writer of comic books and television shows. He is known for co-creating the Marvel Comics vigilante The Punisher and scripting the death of the character Gwen Stacy during his long run on The Amazing Spider-Man. At DC Comics, he is known for co-creating the superhero Firestorm and others, and for writing the Justice League of America for eight years. Conway is also notable for scripting the first major, modern-day intercompany crossover, Superman vs. the Amazing Spider-Man.

Personal

Conway married Karen Britten, a psychologist who works with autistic children, in 1992. As of 2009, they reside in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles, California. Conway is the father of two daughters, Cara and Rachel, the former with first wife Carla (Joseph) Conway, at FilmReference.com whose own comic-book credits include stories in Vampire Tales #8 and #9, Savage Tales #10 and #11, Fantastic Four #170, and Ms. Marvel #1 for Marvel, and The Fury of Firestorm #19 and #24-27 and Superman #407 for DC. at the Grand Comics Database

Conway’s ancestral family background is Irish, as he described in his blog:

Biography

Early career

Born in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Conway grew up a comic fan; a letter from him appears in Fantastic Four #50 (May 1966), written when Conway was 14. He published his first professional comic book work at 16,Per Conway biographical capsule with the 6½-page horror story "Aaron Philips’ Photo Finish" in DC Comics’ House of Secrets #81 (Sept. 1969). He continued selling such anthological stories for that series and for Marvel’s Chamber of Darkness and Tower of Shadows through the end of 1970, by which time he had also published one-page, text short stories in DC’s All-Star Western #1 (Sept. 1970) and Super DC Giant #S-14 (Oct. 1970). He published his first continuing-character story in DC’s semi-anthological occult comic The Phantom Stranger #10 (Dec. 1970). and at the Grand Comics Database He attended New York University for a time.

Conway recalled breaking into Marvel Comics through Marvel editor Roy Thomas:

[[The Amazing Spider-Man #121: "The Night Gwen Stacy Died". Cover art by John Romita Sr..]]

Following his first continuing-character story for Marvel, with his script for the jungle lord Ka-Zar in Astonishing Tales #3 (Dec. 1970), Conway began writing superhero stories with Daredevil #72 (Jan. 1971). He quickly went on to assignments on Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and both "The Inhumans" and "The Black Widow" features in the split book Amazing Adventures. He scripted the first Man-Thing story, in 1971, sharing co-creation credit with Stan Lee and Roy Thomas. Conway would eventually script virtually every major Marvel title, as well as co-create (with writers Roy & Jean Thomas and artist Mike Ploog) the lycanthropic lead character of the feature "Werewolf by Night", in Marvel Spotlight #2 (Feb. 1972);Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 154: "Roy Thomas came up with the idea for a series called ‘I, Werewolf’, narrated in the first person by a teenager who transformed into a werewolf. Stan Lee liked the concept but decided to name it ‘Werewolf by Night’. The initial creative team on the series was scripter Gerry Conway and artist Mike Ploog." and write the premiere issue of Marvel’s The Tomb of Dracula,Sanderson "1970s" in Gilbert (2008), p. 155: "Following the revision of the Comics Code, Stan Lee was eager to do a comics series about the archetypal vampire, novelist Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Based on a few ideas from Lee, Roy Thomas plotted the first issue of The Tomb of Dracula, which Gerry Conway then scripted. The interior art was penciled by Gene Colan." introducing the longstanding literary vampire into the Marvel universe.