Guest Blog Laurie Sutton: A FEW OF MY ADDRESSES ON MEMORY LANE
With great pleasure, we introduce you to Laurie Sutton, one of the comic industry’s first women editors! She handled the chores on The Great Darkness saga, considered one of the best Legion of Superheroes stories of all time! Her list of credits makes fanboys drool. And fangirls, too. She was the woman behind the Element Lad, the comic book hero who inspired my lifelong schoolgirl crush!
And consider this: she used to be Paul Levitz’s boss!
Thanks so much to Laurie Sutton for giving us this look at her life on Memory Lane.
A FEW OF MY ADDRESSES ON MEMORY LANE
# 0978 Memory Lane
As a newbie to New York City, I look in the Yellow Pages under “Comics” and see an entry for “The Comics Code Authority”. Having no idea what it is, I call the number. The cold call is fate in disguise. I’m hired. I read/review pre-publication Xerox copies of EVERY COMIC BOOK BEING PUBLISHED. (Well, the Code members, anyway.) I get to write such review copy as: “Breechclout too small. Please Revise.” To which editor replies: “What’s a breechclout?” I also have access to file cabinets full of Xerox copies of rejected art. (The file contains joke art drawn by Romance Comics artists that I wish I had copied at the time. O, but it still burns in my memory!)
# 0278 Memory Lane
I meet with Paul Levitz, who is editor of HAUNTED HOUSE and UNEXPECTED. He says he liked my query letter (hand-written in purple ink!) about writing for comics. He tells me to write a plot for a story.
# 0378 Memory Lane
Paul Levitz tells me he likes the plot, and says to write a script for the story.
# 0378 Memory Lane
I write the script and turn it in.
# 0378 Memory Lane
Paul says the check for the story is in the mail. (WHAAAT? I thought it was just a training exercise!) (And that is how I wrote my first story for DC Comics.)
# 0478 Memory Lane
I meet Mike W. Barr in the DC offices. I’m wearing a Deerstalker hat. He thinks it’s because I like Sherlock Holmes. It’s because I’ve been living in London and it’s the kind of hat I wear. No matter. We become BFF.
# 0878 Memory Lane
Mike Barr invites me to join a group of friends to play volleyball in Central Park on Sundays. I LOVE volleyball. I played in a high school league. I get to the Park and all his friends are comic book people: Jim Shooter, Frank Miller, Walt Simonson, Al Milgrom etc. etc. We play volleyball in the park every Sunday and go to Nathan’s for hot dogs and beer afterward. Best ’O Times!
# 0479 Memory Lane
I get stolen away from the Comics Code by DC. (Well, that’s how my boss at the Code saw it, even though he’d reduced my hours by two-thirds and knew I was looking for work.) My job at DC is to proofread captions, word balloons, and every bit of the art for panel-to-panel consistency: every capsule on Batman’s belt, the lines on Superman’s boots, details, details, details.
# 7980 Memory Lane
I get promoted to the DC Special Projects department and get to work with Joe Orlando. We do “Mad Libs” using vintage DC SF art! We oversee packaging and labels for Superman Peanut Butter! We put together the “Superheroes Super Healthy Cookbook”!
# 0081 Memory Lane
I get promoted to comic book editor. I’m now responsible for WARLORD, ARAK, WONDER WOMAN (for about a week), and LEGION OF SUPERHEROES. (Element Lad is mine!)
# 0081 Memory Lane
Control of Element Lad escapes my greedy grasp. Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen are brilliant juggernauts on “The Great Darkness Saga”. A classic comic is born. I am the midwife.
# 0582 Memory Lane (Penthouse Apartment)
Life and work at DC are great. But I want more. I want to write. My supportive boyfriend of three years encourages me to leave the steady job and go freelance.
# 1182 Memory Lane (Basement Apartment)
I’m blindsided. Boyfriend leaves me. I am now without job or apartment (the lease is in his name).
# 1282 Memory Lane
Thank goodness for volleyball. Word gets out that I need full-time work. Archie Goodwin is in charge of a Heavy Metal-style SF/Fantasy magazine at Marvel and needs an assistant. I get the job.
# 0083 Memory Lane (First Floor Apartment)
I become Associate Editor of EPIC ILLUSTRATED. I get to work with John Bolton & Chris Claremont, Charles Vess, Mike Kaluta, and Jon J. Muth.
# 0084 Memory Lane (I’m back in the Penthouse)
Epic Illustrated expands to EPIC COMICS – the first creator-owned line of comics from The Big Two. I am one of the three founding editors. Wow. I get to work with Thomas Yeates, Doug Moench & Paul Gulacey, Mike Kaluta & Elaine Lee, John DeMatteius & Jon J. Muth. Double Wow.
# 0385 Memory Lane (Another Basement Apartment)
Once more I am blindsided. My co-workers demand that Archie fire me. He asks me to leave. I do so, but not before completing my last month of editorial commitments. (Later it is revealed that one co-worker had made up lies about me, the second co-worker believed them, and the two of them together had told Archie it was “me or them”. The poor guy never had a chance. I’m very glad I got to clear the air with him before he died.)
# 0086 Memory Lane (Change of Address)
Forced into freelance! O woe. At last I got what I’ve always wanted – the freelance life. But not so fast are the celebrations. I have no job. My NYC rent is more than I can afford. What to do? Move to New Jersey! (It’s okay, I have family there.)
To Be Continued…
© 2009 Laurie S Sutton. Used with Permission.
April 20th, 2009 at 4:12 am
“I meet with Paul Levitz, who is editor of HAUNTED HOUSE and UNEXPECTED. He says he liked my query letter (hand-written in purple ink!) about writing for comics. He tells me to write a plot for a story. “
See how easy it was back then, kids? “I want to write comics.” “You’re in.”
April 20th, 2009 at 11:48 am
@ Allan: Have I just been insulted? It was as difficult to get into comics back then as it is today. Maybe even more so. There were no portfolio reviews at conventions in those days. Heck, there were no major conventions in those days. Paul could have easily rejected my story plot. He could have never bought another story from me ever again. There was one advantage then, however, that doesn’t exist now: DC’s horror books were the “try out” books where new artists and writers were given a chance. Frank Miller started out in one of those books. Many others got the chance and crapped out. Paul liked what he saw in my query letter. I had written it well. I told him that I had written articles for newspapers and that my majors in college were art and creative writing. He saw my potential and opened the door. After that it was up to me.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:24 pm
Laurie — it was a joke.
April 20th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
Dry, sardonic delivery is so hard to hear over the internet.
Loving the stories, though, Laurie!
April 20th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
I had no idea Laurie had done some of the things she had done. She has always been so modest about her accomplishments and connections. Small time assistants make more ado about their credits, who they knew, and when. Laurie is the real deal.
Laurie also edited a book I worked on, but I did a terrible job, I must admit. It’s not even on my resume.
April 20th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Colleen writes
‘I had no idea Laurie had done some of the things she had done.’
Ditto.
I read all those books she mentions, Warlord, Arak, Legion (of course) and all of the Epic Illustrated line. I must admit my personal bias was towards the art and I remember more who was the artist than anyone else.
BTW what comic was your first story published in?
April 20th, 2009 at 9:43 pm
I wanna know what some of those joke sketches were by the romance comic artists! HOOHAH!!!
I’m trying to picture Frank Miller playing volleyball. It’s not happening.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:30 pm
@Allan: I totally did not get your joke. Scribblerworks is correct about tone not translating to text.
@Mik1: My first story published by DC was (groan) “Nightfeast” in Secrets of Haunted House #24, May 1980.
@Colleen: One of those joke pages was a complete splash page. The artist had drawn and inked and lettered a scene of a woman with her stripped tank top ripped open, her breasts exposed in full glory, running away from her boyfriend with typical fist-in-mouth angst. Her word balloon read: “No! I won’t kiss that evil way!”
@Colleen: Oh, Frank played volleyball. He was young and mighty limber back in the day!
April 20th, 2009 at 11:36 pm
>>>One of those joke pages was a complete splash page. The artist had drawn and inked and lettered a scene of a woman with her stripped tank top ripped open, her breasts exposed in full glory, running away from her boyfriend with typical fist-in-mouth angst. Her word balloon read: “No! I won’t kiss that evil way!”<<<
BUCKETS OF LULZ! Oh my goodness, I do hope you come back often and tell more stories. Lots and lots!
I’m trying to picture Frank Miller limber. Not happening, either.
Element Lad is mine. Forever.
April 20th, 2009 at 11:48 pm
No, Colleen, you and I will have to fight each other for Element Lad. I saw him first.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:47 am
There was a time, in my early teens, when I only regularly bought two comics, one of which was EPIC (the other was Micronauts — a guilty pleasure).
The Legion’s “Great Darkness Saga” was, in no small measure, the run that got me back to collecting comics again in a big way. I was in London’s Forbidden Planet on the day LSH #294 came out, saw the big stack on the shelf and thought it looked interesting. After a 5-minute wander around the rest of the shop, I came back to pick up a copy — only to find they’d sold out! Armed with the knowledge that it must be something very special indeed I determined to track down a copy… and never looked back.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:31 am
I’d only been able to subscribe to two comics when I was a teen, and the first Legion comic I bought on the stands was either that big wedding of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl thing, or “Murder Most Foul” by Jim Starlin. So, I hopped on the Legion at jsut the right time! I’m pretty sure I was in the Legion APA Interlac back then, too.
April 21st, 2009 at 10:36 am
Holy cow, gave it some more thought. How could I forget? Not only was I in the Legion, but that was when I got this call from Keith Giffen out of the blue, asking me if I wanted to audition to be artist on the book. He’d seen my drawings in the APA. WOW, that was so exciting. I’ll never forget it. (EDIT: Except I obviously did forget it, but it was a temporary madness. A MADNESS, I say!)
April 21st, 2009 at 11:37 am
Somewhere, if someone digs diligently enough to find it, is a letter from a teenage me in a LSH lettercol. I was suggesting they add a character named “Watergirl” or something. LOL!
@Allan: I lived in London back inn the late 70s and the comic store I went to was Dark They Were and Golden Eyed. I can’t remember what street it was on. But it predates Forbidden Planet by some years, I think. It was rough finding American comics abroad.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Laurie, one of the achievements which you failed to mention was editing The Great Superman Comic Book Collection, which I believe was DC’s very first book produced in house (as opposed to being outsourced to Simon and Schuster).
April 21st, 2009 at 2:15 pm
The Great Superman Comic Book Collection was a nightmare production-wise, which is why, I think, all the other books we did were published through other companies thereafter!
April 21st, 2009 at 3:31 pm
I actually have, somewhere in my files, an folder containing a short story by one L. Sherwood Sutton, which was meant to be illustrated by Mike Grell for an anthology I was assembling in the mid-80’s.
Always thought Laurie was a genius. And she edited some of the classic stuff at both DC and Marvel.
April 21st, 2009 at 4:24 pm
@James: Was it titled “Whispering Knight”?
April 21st, 2009 at 6:11 pm
“I lived in London back inn the late 70s and the comic store I went to was Dark They Were and Golden Eyed. I can’t remember what street it was on. But it predates Forbidden Planet by some years, I think.”
Dark They Were… was gone by the time I arrived, but there were still a few signs of that near-legendary shop — pretty much the UK’s first comics speciality store — to be seen: the odd price label, or a shopping bag.
“It was rough finding American comics abroad.”
And you had access to a comic shop. You shoulda tried growing up in deepest, darkest Wales, where the sun rarely ventured from behind the chemical fog and if ever an American comic did appear, the first thing you’d do was check out the last page — if it was ‘to be continued’ you’d put it back on the shelf as there was absolutely no guarantee you’d ever find the next part.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:14 pm
@Allan: I feel your pain of a “to be continued”! I remember it well. Comics readers are so lucky these days, what with the internets and all.
@All: I want to thank everyone who posted in response to my little memoir. Your comments have warmed my heart. I’m glad I did something good and contributed to the medium.
April 21st, 2009 at 8:11 pm
Laurie wrote:
‘I want to thank everyone who posted in response to my little memoir. Your comments have warmed my heart. I’m glad I did something good and contributed to the medium.’
Thank you, Laurie!
I love hearing from the people who created some of my favorite comics.
I am eagerly awaiting part 2.
April 22nd, 2009 at 1:29 pm
@Laurie -
I’m not sure, but that sounds close! I’ll have to see if I can find it…