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Title: Michael L. Fleischer TGSB author and more Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 28, 2005, 10:44:42 AM Evidently Mr Felsicher was active wrting comics during the mid 1970s as well as writing his voluminious encyclopedia .
Several of the first issues produced by then fledgling Seaboard/Atlas Comics upstarts in 1975 (including The Phoenix, Morlock 2001 and The Grim Ghost) were written by a "Mike" and/or "Michael Fleischer". He and and the Michael J. Flesicher of theTGSB fame are one and the same. Title: Re: Michael L. Fleisher TGSB author and more Post by: The Starchild on February 28, 2005, 01:02:14 PM Just to clarify, Michael L. Fleisher and Michael Fleischer are probably two different people. The former is the author of TGSB. Which one is the writer of the comic?
Title: Re: Michael L. Fleisher TGSB author and more Post by: Klar Ken T5477 on February 28, 2005, 03:10:06 PM Quote from: "The Starchild" Just to clarify, Michael L. Fleisher and Michael Fleischer are probably two different people. The former is the author of TGSB. Which one is the writer of the comic? Fleisher Also: The Spectre in Weird Adventure. I type bad. :cry: Title: Re: Michael L. Fleischer TGSB author and more Post by: TELLE on February 28, 2005, 06:33:36 PM They are definitely one and the same. I suspect Fleisher's initial work on the 3-volume Encyclopedia project seved as a sort of foot in the door for scripting work at DC.
I would be interested in hearing of any Superman stories actually written by Fleisher. In my opinion, and regardless of his artisitic contributions to comics, Fleisher has contributed some of the most historically important critical and scholarly writing to the subject of superhero comics. I think that he deserves at least equal consideration along with Elliot Maggin in terms of importance in the post-Weisinger era. Beyond the general importance of his encyclopedias, his actual articles/entries on Superman and Clark Kent are among some of the best and most insightful on those subjects. I would direct readers to section H of Fleisher's Superman article (TGSB pg 381) for an excellent essay on "The Man Himself (as Clark Kent)". I would love to know what Fleisher is doing now. Google turns up nothing since the early 90s. As mentioned on another thread, in the 1980s he was involved in a libel suit with Harlan Ellison and The Comics Journal over Ellison's comments about his comics work: Quote "I did an interview with Groth in the The Comics Journal," Ellison said. "I was asked what writers I like, and I said [Michael Fleisher]. I said he was bug[****], he's certifiable, like [H.P.] Lovecraft... but what I didn't know was that Michael Fleisher had been going to a psychiatrist three times a week for 11 years and he really was crazy." He explained how Fleisher filed a libel suit against Groth and Ellison soon after the interview was published, leading to a tenuous partnership between the two. (stars mine) --quoted from 1993 Ellison speech here: http://www.talkaboutpeople.com/group/alt.fan.harlan-ellison/messages/15966.html There is another controversial article about the case (written by Charles Pratt) here: http://www.ansible.co.uk/Ansible/c_platt.html Title: Re: Michael L. Fleischer TGSB author and more Post by: Spaceman Spiff on February 28, 2005, 10:11:44 PM Quote from: "Klar Ken T5477" Also: The Spectre in Weird Adventure. Whoo-boy! Now those were some great stories! So good that I bought the Wrath of the Spectre! miniseries just a few months ago. I used to have a few of the originals, but I read and re-read them so much they finally gave up the ghost! :lol: Seriously, Fleisher's Spectre stories were really edgy for 1974. And after reading them again, I'm surprised my folks let me read them at the tender age of ten. I mean, giant scissors chopping a guy in half, another guy turning to glass and shattering into a billion pieces. Whew! The "liner notes" in Wrath of the Spectre! confirm (as did TELLE) that the author of these stories and TGSB were the same Michael Fleisher. I don't think I ever read any of his other comic stories, however. |