What ever happened to Robert Bernstein?

[Uncle Mxy]

He was the creator of Metallo, Pete Ross, Mon-El, the Phantom Zone, etc.
He did early Marvel work under the name "R. Berns".  
He seems to have vanished after the mid-60s or thereabouts.

[Lee Semmens]

Here is the little bit of information I have dug up on him, courtesy the Aquaman Archives Volume 1, and one other source:

Bernstein (b. 1919) began his writing career in the pulps of the 1940s before moving into comics. In addition to his work for DC on SUPERBOY, SUPERMAN'S GIRL FRIEND, LOIS LANE, GREEN ARROW, and AQUAMAN, among others, he also provided numerous scripts for Archie Comics, Dell, E. C., Hillman, and Marvel Comics.

Deaths in the Cartooning Community.
   "Bernstein Dead at 69" p. 23 (Comics Journal #127 February
   1989)

Plus this, by Bob Hughes:

Robert Bernstein is one of the great unsung heroes of the Silver Age of
Comics. While fans were busy tracking down every story by Otto Binder, Jerry
Siegel, and Ed Hamilton, Bernstein was ignored, overlooked, or worse yet, had
his stories inadvertently credited to one of the others. After a long career
writing for Lev Gleason and Stan Lee, Bernstein came to DC just in time to
help launch Lois Lane's own title and to participate in creating major
portions of the Superman legend; including Mon-El, Sun-Boy, Pete Ross, the
Superboy Revenge Squad and the Phantom Zone. On top of that he created
Aqualad and Congorilla. For Marvel, he wrote the second Iron Man story and a
bunch of early Thors, then went over to Archie Comics where he created the
Jaguar and wrote most of the Adventures of the Fly!

In John Corben, Bernstein created one of the most memorable rats in comics.
Corben had no redeeming values whatsoever. He didn't even want to conquer the
world! He was just a creep who thought nothing of killing, stealing, kicking
dogs or anything else that struck his fancy at the moment. In the end, his
own meanness killed him. The character must have struck a chord though,
because the fans wanted him back. Unfortunately, he was dead and Bernstein
was too good a writer to waste his time writing the same story twice.

In 1964 though, he split writing duties with Leo Dorfman, a writer with whom
he is often confused (Dorfman uses different sound effects), on an _Action
Comics_ two-parter: "Superman King of Earth" (#311, April) and "King Superman
vs Clark Kent- Metallo" (#312, May) both with art by Curt Swan and George
Klein. Leo started writing Superman in 1963 when he wrote "The Last Days of
Ma and Pa Kent" and a long-forgotten tale called "The Amazing Story of
Superman Red and Superman Blue". (His version was much better, and much,
much, *much* shorter!)

[Uncle Mxy]

Bernstein, Robert
b. 1919
writer-pulp stories, children's books
high school English teacher
wr cb-Congo Bill, The Shadow
wr cs "Judge Wright" 1945
               r. WWACB

Brent, Bob
(see Robert Bernstein)

http://hometown.aol.com/comicsproj/biogBB.html

[Klar Ken T5477]

I wonder if DC canned Bernstein in the great purge of 68 when various freelance artists and writers wanted benefits and DC fired them all.

Thanks a lot guys. :evil:

[TELLE]

I recently reread that Bernstein obt from the Comic Journal (by Bhob Stewart, I think --an old EC fan, anyway) --quite informative.  The issue is old enough that I wouln't have read the obit with any interest the first time around but now that both EC and DC have more centrality to my life (yes, I'm pathetic), his life reads as much more important and influential --especially as an EC writer.  Did more interesting stuff as well.