POP-A-LOOZA: AMAZING HEROES My Secret Origin As A Freelance Writer

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post looks back at my brief tenure with the first magazine to ever pay me for freelance writing, a comic book fan magazine called Amazing Heroes.

I've reprised a couple of my Amazing Heroes pieces as blog posts here: a history of the 1960s DC Comics series The Secret Six (my first freelance sale, written, sold, and published in 1984) and "Who's...WHO?!," an A-Z romp through some lesser-known DC characters. My AH experience was part of my freelance reminiscence "Money For Words," and it's a key element in The Road To GOLDMINE, my memoir of trying to survive the '80s, and the start of my twenty years (1986-2006) as a contributor to Goldmine magazine. Comics AND rock 'n' roll--I'm a Renaissance pundit.

I'm still writing, of course; maintaining a daily blog is evidence of that, right? I made my first fiction sales in 2019. In 2021, I finished writing my first book, a non-fiction work about music. That book has a tentative publication date in late 2022. My other big project, the long-threatened book The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1), is nearly done--a mere seven chapters (out of 175 +) shy of a complete first draft--but needs professional representation to get to a publisher. I will be shopping for an agent in the new year.

Every story starts somewhere. My story as a freelance writer began in 1984, when I made my first sale to a magazine about comic books. My freelance debut as a contributor to Amazing Heroes serves as the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

POP-A-LOOZA: Comic Book Retroview: BATMAN # 180

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my Comic Book Retroview look back at a comic book published in 1966, Batman # 180.

As its intro says, this piece was originally written as a (rejected) spec submission to Comics Buyer's Guide in the '80s. I'm not sure exactly when I actually wrote and submitted it--that was an awful lot of '80s fried eggs ago--but I'm pretty sure it was after I'd already sold a retrospective of the '60s Batman TV series to CBG editors Don and Maggie Thompson for use in a magazine called Comics Collector in 1985. Both CBG and Comics Collector were published by Krause Publications in Iola, Wisconsin; Krause also published the record collectors' tabloid Goldmine, and I betcha this celebration of Batman # 180 was written after I began freelancing for Goldmine in 1986. The Goldmine affiliation lasted twenty years, and is a large part of whatever notoriety I managed to establish as a rockin' pop pundit. That story is told in some detail in The Road To Goldmine, which is likely my favorite of all the things I've written for this blog.

Before writin' about records for Goldmine, and even before chronicling Batman's on-screen BIFFs, BAMs, and POWs for Comic Collector, my first freelance writing sales were to a magazine called Amazing Heroes, starting in 1984. A previous post talked about my short history with Amazing Heroes, and I've reprised a couple of my AH pieces here: a history of DC's '60s espionage series The Secret Six and an A-Z romp through some obscure DC characters, "Who's...WHO?!" 

But enough about me. Let's talk about Batman! A Comic Book Retroview celebration of Batman # 180 gives us the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.

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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

I'm on Twitter @CafarelliCarl.

POP-A-LOOZA: The Secret Six

Each week, the pop culture website Pop-A-Looza shares some posts from my vast 'n' captivating Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do) archives. The latest shared post is my recent look back at my first-ever freelance writing sale: a history of the 1960s DC Comics series The Secret Six.

I originally wrote and sold that piece to Amazing Heroes in 1984, the first of a few things I wrote for AH, and the first of a bunch of things I placed with magazines over the next few decades. My second Amazing Heroes sale was a speculation about a combined DC and Marvel Comics universe; I'll be reprising that piece as a near-future blog post. I've already shared "Who's...WHO?!," my Amazing Heroes A-Z romp through 26 forgotten DC Comics characters. I've also written a reminiscence of my brief time as an Amazing Heroes freelancer, as well as "Money For Words," an overview of my professional freelance writing career (such as it was). That last piece was written in 2017, at a time when I had ceased doing professional freelancing; I have since returned to doing occasional work (and gratefully cashing those checks). 

(And, since I started this whole thing writing about The Secret Six, it's fitting that I also wrote an appreciation of The Secret Six's creator, the late E. Nelson Bridwell, when he was given a posthumous Bill Finger Award For Excellence In Comic Book Writing in 2019.)

But for now, we must answer THE CALL OF THE MOCKINGBIRD! My first-ever freelance writing sale was a history of a DC comic book called The Secret Six, and that's the latest Boppin' Pop-A-Looza.






TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download
Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 165 essays about 165 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

My First Freelance Writing Sale: A History Of DC Comics' THE SECRET SIX

You never forget your first.

I've been a freelance writer since 1984. I have never been a terribly successful freelance writer, but I wrote some stuff, made some sales, collected my meager paychecks, and got some notice. My widest notoriety was connected to my rockin' pop journalism for Goldmine magazine 1986-2006, for Rhino Records' 1997 CD collection Poptopia! Power Pop Classics Of The '90s, for contributions to books like Bubblegum Music Is The Naked Truth and Shake Some Action, and for my proudly biased proselytizin' on behalf of The Flashcubes. Since 1998, I've co-hosted (and written weekly commentary for) This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. Since 2016, I've pursued the cockeyed notion of daily blogging right here at Boppin' (Like The Hip Folks Do). I'm currently writing a book called The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1). I'm at least as active now as I've ever been. 

But before I ever started getting money to write about rock 'n' roll, I was paid to write about comic books.



My very first freelance writing sale was to a magazine called Amazing Heroes. In 1984, AH editor David W. Olbrich bought my history of The Secret Six, a DC Comics title which had run for seven issues in 1968-69. 



Success! MONEY! Nearly enough money to buy dinner for two, and a movie! Nearly. But the best thing was seeing my byline in Amazing Heroes # 58 (11/1/84), and knowing that whatever happened or didn't happen next, I had been paid for writing. I really liked that idea.



I did a little more work for Amazing Heroes over the next couple of years, and branched out to Krause Publications with a 1985 retrospective of the 1960s Batman TV series for Krause's Comics Collector magazine. Krause also published a music magazine called Goldmine. That history was told elsewhere, in a lengthy reminiscence called "The Road To Goldmine."

My freelance writing story started here, with a fond look back at a 1960s comic book about five adventurers being blackmailed by the sixth member of their team. But none of them knew which teammate was doing the blackmailing. Until they figured that out, they were obliged to answer the call:






DC did eventually do a sequel series to The Secret Six, published in the late '80s in the pages of Action Comics Weekly. The "Secret Six" title was later appropriated and repurposed for an unrelated group of DC super-villains, and while some of those stories have their moments, they weren't about my Secret Six. 



My Secret Six was important to me. I wrote about them. I sold what I wrote. And I kept writing after that.

In 2019, I sold four short stories to AHOY Comics. I'm working on my book. I'm blogging. I'm writing. And I'm not done writing just yet.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl airs Sunday nights from 9 to Midnight Eastern, on the air in Syracuse at SPARK! WSPJ 103.3 and 93.7 FM, and on the web at http://sparksyracuse.org/ You can read about our history here.

The many fine This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio compilation albums are still available, each full of that rockin' pop sound you crave. A portion of all sales benefit our perpetually cash-strapped community radio project:

Volume 1: download
Volume 2: CD or download
Volume 3: download
Volume 4: CD or download

Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio:  CD or download

Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 155 essays about 155 tracks, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1).

UNFINISHED AND ABANDONED: The Comic Book Telephone Pitches, Part 1

Unfinished And Abandoned digs deeeeep into my unpublished archives, and exhumes projects that I started (sometimes barely started) but abandoned, unfinished. I am such a quitter.

WARNING: this blog piece contains no actual Batman content. Holy bait and switch!

I don't think I've ever mentioned these two (admittedly nondescript) sequences, but it occurs to me they're worth documenting in all their unexceptional glory.

By the end of the 1980s, I'd begun to have a tiny bit of success as a freelance writer. My triumphs were meager, but they were sales, paychecks (however paltry) for stuff I'd written. I'd begun with writing about comics in Amazing Heroes from 1984 to '86 or '87, added a sale to Comics Collector in 1985, and commenced my two-decade stint as a freelance pop music journalist for Goldmine in 1986. Somewhere in there, I also started freelancing (very) occasionally for The Comics Buyer's Guide.

My association with Amazing Heroes publisher Fantagraphics ended unpleasantly in 1987. A friend of mine knew a publisher just getting started with a new magazine about comics; I met with the guy informally, we established mutual interest, but I never completed anything to submit there. That magazine was itself short-lived, and I confess that the amateur level of writing on its editorial side may have dissuaded me from pursuing it. It may be a sin of pride or just outright arrogance, but I believe in my writing; I always aim to be among the best writers involved in any collaborative project, while expecting that the other writers will also be accomplished and capable, our collective prowess spurring all of us to be at the top of our game. I had that experience with Goldmine and a number of subsequent endeavors, but I didn't see that as likely in this particular comics zine.

I had not managed to sell any fiction to any market. Hey, see what I just said above about my nonfiction writing? Those rosy comments emphatically do not apply to the fiction I was writing in the '80s and '90s; that stuff was terrible. I got better, and I finally made my first fiction sales this year, to the good folks at AHOY Comics. But those earlier attempts? Yechh. Looking back on them now reminds that I should probably oughtta have a little more humility in mind before complaining about someone else's amateur writing.

Anyway. In the late '80s and (maybe) the early '90s, I attempted to pitch comics ideas to two different publishers. The first was Harvey Comics, famous publisher of such characters as Casper the Friendly Ghost and Richie Rich. I read a notice in The Comics Buyer's Guide that Harvey was looking to re-start its comics line, and was in need of writers. Wikipedia says that would have been 1986, but I think it was '87 by the time I called Alan Harvey to pitch the idea of hiring ol' CC as a freelance member of the mighty Harvey bullpen.



Harvey was pleasant and professional during our short conversation. We went over my resumé (which was modest, but not empty), and he told me what he needed. As I recall, he was looking for single-page gag strips, to be submitted via a proposal detailing the setup and the punchline. I had written humor in the past, so it wasn't completely out of left field for me to attempt to craft some hilarious hijinks for the Harvey cast. We exchanged closing pleasantries, and he wished me luck.

I started trying to come up with something I thought Harvey could use, but I just couldn't execute anything. I'm not sure what I was thinking to begin with when I contacted Harvey, other than yeah, I was looking to break into comics. I didn't have any gag ideas. Knowing me (then and now), I betcha I was looking to bring some kind of continuity and longer-form storytelling into the mix, the sort of thing that was commonplace in superhero comics but not at all what Harvey would have wanted for its stable of stars. I'm also sure that I wanted to write Hot Stuff, the cartoon little devil who had been my favorite Harvey character when I was a kid, but I don't think Hot Stuff was among the properties for which Harvey was seeking new material in the late '80s.



(I had kind of a similar notion a few years before that, when Archie Comics attempted to revive its superhero line under the Red Circle Comics imprint. I scribbled some vague notions of a back-up strip starring the obscure hero Blackjack--figuring I wouldn't face any potential competitors looking to be the official Blackjack scribe--in a story called "Murder In Riverdale." Yeah, that Riverdale, as our hero solves the mystery when everyone's pal Archie Andrews is accused of murder most foul. Although it would have been played straight and remained respectful of Archie and his pals and gals, there was no way in hell Archie/Red Circle would have considered buying that story.)

The Archie gang and superheroes? I was just ahead of my time.

Ultimately, my Harvey Comics ambitions were misplaced and unrealized, unfinished and abandoned. But I still had one more comic book publisher I would pitch over the phone. We'll talk about my pitch to Revolutionary Comics next time. Here I come, walkin' down the street....




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You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Fans of pop music will want to check out Waterloo Sunset--Benefit For This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, a new pop compilation benefiting SPARK! Syracuse, the home of This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio with Dana & Carl. TIR'N'RR Allstars--Steve Stoeckel, Bruce Gordon, Joel Tinnel, Stacy Carson, Eytan Mirsky, Teresa Cowles, Dan Pavelich, Irene Peña, Keith Klingensmith, and Rich Firestone--offer a fantastic new version of The Kinks' classic "Waterloo Sunset." That's supplemented by eleven more tracks (plus a hidden bonus track), including previously-unreleased gems from The Click Beetles, Eytan Mirsky, Pop Co-Op, Irene Peña, Michael Slawter (covering The Posies), and The Anderson Council (covering XTC), a new remix of "Infinite Soul" by The Grip Weeds, and familiar TIRnRR Fave Raves by Vegas With Randolph, Gretchen's Wheel, The Armoires, and Pacific Soul Ltd. Oh, and that mystery bonus track? It's exquisite. You need this. You're buying it from Futureman.

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made! (Volume 1) will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus two bonus instrumentals, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can each be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: THE GREATEST RECORD EVER MADE! (Volume 1)

Our most recent compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is still available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.

E. Nelson Bridwell

I was delighted to read in Mark Evanier's News From ME that the late E. Nelson Bridwell will be recognized at this year's Comic-Con. Bridwell and writer Mike Friedrich will be 2019's worthy recipients of The Bill Finger Award For Excellence In Comic Book Writing. Here's a brief description of what that award means:

The Bill Finger Award was created in 2005 thanks to a proposal by the late comic book legend Jerry Robinson, who knew and worked with Finger. As Evanier explains, "We need to point out those wonderful bodies of work by writers who have not received their rightful reward and/or recognition...When this award began, the late Bill Finger received almost no credit for his role in the creation of Batman. He does now, but there are still plenty of writers who have not received their proper rewards and/or recognition."

Bridwell certainly deserves the honor. As a writer and staffer at DC Comics from the '60s to the '80s, E. Nelson Bridwell was a role model for fans who wanted to grow up (sort of) and have a hand in creating new adventures of the characters we loved. Bridwell had been one of us; he was a voracious reader, and he immersed himself in all manner of mythologies, including superhero comics, as a kid in the '40s. The things Bridwell learned and remembered--and he remembered everything--would serve him well when his early '70s editorial duties put him in charge of selecting reprints for DC's 100-Page Super Spectaculars.



The original Captain Marvel was Bridwell's favorite. Many years later, Bridwell would write a number of memorable Captain Marvel tales, and I hope the Marvel Family stories he created (especially those he did with artist Don Newton) will be reprinted some time soon. 



Even before his start at DC in 1965, Bridwell created one lasting contribution to pop culture: an often-imitated gag starring The Lone Ranger and Tonto, published in Mad magazine in 1958:



See, that's pop culture immortality right there.

But it's still just a footnote in Bridwell's career. Bridwell's knowledge of all manner of trivia and significa gave him an unparalleled mental resource of facts both well-known and obscure, encompassing an encyclopedic command of seemingly everything, including the Bible, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, the classics, the pulps, theater, movies, radio, and, I betcha, every comic book ever published. ENB knew stuff, a lot of stuff, and his enthusiasm for the many things he knew and loved never dimmed, never lost its exuberant, fannish luster. 

He is universally recalled as a nice guy, friendly and encouraging to other fans, eager to share his expertise and delight. I only met him once, when I was a 16-year-old wannabe comics writer at the Super DC Con in New York in 1976. But that brief meeting was sufficient to reinforce my impression of him from DC letters columns, and to agree with that universal assessment. A nice guy. Smart, likable, one of us. A comics fan made good.



As cool as all of that is, that's not what qualifies E. Nelson Bridwell for this overdue acknowledgement of his body of work as a comics writer. Bridwell's affection for these characters, his respect for the work of creators who came before him, ignited the sheer joy within his own stories. The Secret Six, a short-lived comic book he created in 1968, was the subject of my first freelance writing sale, a Secret Six retrospective I sold to Amazing Heroes magazine in 1984. His above-mentioned Captain Marvel work for the Shazam! back-up strip in 1980s issues of World's Finest Comics should rank among the World's Mightiest Mortal's all-time best. I still really need to dive into Bridwell's work on the Super Friends comic book. 




But my favorite Bridwell creation will always be The Inferior Five, a superhero parody that was proudly silly and infectious (as we discussed here). Bridwell passed in 1987, taken by cancer when he was only 55 years old. I wish he'd gotten more acclaim in his lifetime, and I wish he were still around to enjoy acclaim now...and to create more. More E. Nelson Bridwell would be nice. The Bill Finger Award is a step in the right direction. It couldn't go to a nicer guy.

TIP THE BLOGGER: CC's Tip Jar!

You can support this blog by becoming a patron on Patreon: Fund me, baby! 

Hey, Carl's writin' a book! The Greatest Record Ever Made will contain 100 essays (and then some) about 100 tracks, plus one bonus instrumental, each one of 'em THE greatest record ever made. An infinite number of records can be the greatest record ever made, as long as they take turns. Updated initial information can be seen here: https://carlcafarelli.blogspot.com/2019/05/the-greatest-record-ever-made-and-other.html

Our new compilation CD This Is Rock 'n' Roll Radio, Volume 4 is now available from Kool Kat Musik! 29 tracks of irresistible rockin' pop, starring Pop Co-Op, Ray Paul, Circe Link & Christian Nesmith, Vegas With Randolph Featuring Lannie Flowers, The Slapbacks, P. Hux, Irene Peña, Michael Oliver & the Sacred Band Featuring Dave Merritt, The Rubinoos, Stepford Knives, The Grip Weeds, Popdudes, Ronnie Dark, The Flashcubes, Chris von Sneidern, The Bottle Kids, 1.4.5., The Smithereens, Paul Collins' Beat, The Hit Squad, The Rulers, The Legal Matters, Maura & the Bright Lights, Lisa Mychols, and Mr. Encrypto & the Cyphers. You gotta have it, so order it here. A digital download version (minus The Smithereens' track) is also available from Futureman Records.