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Denny O’Neil, writer and editor of Batman and Green Lantern comics and author of “The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics” spoke on the morning of Oct. 14 in Broyhill Chapel at Mars Hill College. He provided tips on creativity to freshmen writing students  at MHC.  Daily Planet Staff Photo

From Superman to Wonder Woman, archetypes prove profitable

By JOHN NORTH

MARS HILL — Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, the highly touted reinventor of Batman with the “Dark Knight” books of the 1980s, expressed his views on creativity in the development of superheroes during a public talk on Oct. 14 in the chapel at Mars Hill College.

About 30 people attended the lecture. Earlier in the day, he shared ideas on how to write with freshman writing students.

O’Neil was a comic book writer and editor mainly for Marvel Comics and DC Comics in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s and group editor for the Batman family of books until his retirement. He is best known for his works on Green Lanter/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Mike Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan.

He was invited to the college by Dr. Marshall Angle, director of MHC’s Title 3 program and a lifelong comic-books’ enthusiast. Angle also teaches an MHC introductory writing course that uses O’Neil’s book, “The DC Comics Guide to Writing Comics” as a centerpiece.

MHC introductory courses, called Liberals Arts in Action, allow instructors to choose the themes by which to teach academic skills. Angle opted to have his students writing for comic books. Others use mythology or business.
Along with psychology and American history, Angle has had a lifelong interest in comic books. His collection totals 2,000 issues. Angle said he liked the way O’Neil tightly squeezed drama and dialogue, coupled with extensive story structures.

In introducing O’Neil, Angle noted that his works were hailed for their sophisticated stories that expanded the artistic potential of the mainstream portion of the medium. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. Today, he sits on the board of directors of the charity, The Hero Intiative.

He noted that it was O’Neil “who put the ‘dark’ back into the Dark Knight ... He’s been called a living legend.” However, Angle noted, O’Neil’s favorite compliment was being called “an erudite hippy.”

O’Neil began by noting, “I’m here to answer the big question on everybody’s minds: Why didn’t Superman get drafted into World War II?”

As the crowd laughed, O’Neal said, “It seems Clark Kent was called down to the draft board office and misread the eye chart, using his X-ray vision to read the chart in the next room,” thereby inadvertantly flunking the eye test.
To that end, the writer noted, “The creative person looks beyond and sees something in the next room” of one’s imagination.

Batman stands behind The Joker  in “The Dark Knight,” a 2008 film.

At that point, O’Neil said he would restrict his talk on creativity “to superheroes, which is what I know about.”
He added, “Writing sonnets is not a survival trait. But what is a survival trait is solving problems,” which is what a creative writer, whether of sonnets or comics, does.

“Everyone does it in a different way. I find that walking is almost a necessary part of my process.” He noted that singer-songwriter Paul Simon creates his musical works “by bouncing a ball against a wall.”

O’Neil also said, “Technology always precedes art.” As examples, he noted that “someone in France (in the Cave Man-era) figured out if you scratch a cave wall you can make a line.” Around 1850, he said “someone invented mass printing, so reading spread from the elite” to all classes of people.

In Homer’s time, “the most effective communication was with the lyre and the human voice ... Today, we have vastly complicated electronic media.”

The writer said he often is asked, “Where do you get your ideas?” In reply, he said, “There’s no simple answer.” However, O’Neil said “writers come from readers,” alluding to the tendency for writers to be well-read. Creativity “comes from everything — love, hate ... your experiences.”

O’Neil said the Green Lantern and Green Arrow superheroes were based “on real social problems. We didn’t offer solutions.”

After what he termed a senseless murder of a colleague in Greenwich Village in New York City, he wrote a story about how one could drive “a few hundred miles south to Virginia and fill your (vehicle’s) trunk with Glocks” and return to New York, where the law on gun sales is more restrictive.

“We did something on that. Soon, a law was passed (in Virginia) that allowed a maximum (purchase) of 12 guns per year.” O’Neil said he and his co-writer were invited to the ceremony when the bill was signed into law. He cited this as an example of stories that came about through social concerns.

Speaking of creativity, O’Neil said, “There should not be any restrictions on subject matter.”

On the Green Lanter and other works, he said, “We got complaints from some” who lamented that the writers should confine themselves to traditional comic book subject matter “and not deal with social problems.”

O’Neil also said many people have misconceptions about how comics are created. For instance, he said Superman was created in 1932 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, while both “were kids.” In almost an archetype of everything that followed, they were average students — and not demons with the girls.

“In the 1930s, it’s a hot night in Cleveland (Ohio) and air conditioning is still far into the future.

Siegel said the Superman he conceived of was “like Sampson, Hercules and every strong man he thought of. He took it to Joe, who drew up Superman, essentially as he looks today.” It took several years for them to get set up with the comic, with the publication of Action No. 1, June 1938. He credited them with creating “today’s contemporary comic book genre.”

“Jerry started, basically, with science-fiction,” reflecting his time, O’Neil said. “If he had lived (been born) 10 years earlier, he might have made it in fantasy.

Superman has undergone changes through his years as a superhero.

“Superman could leap tall buildings at a single bound. Eventually, at his maximum, he could blow out stars.” The writer noted that, at first, Superman’s abilities were limited, but “eventually, he could fly.

“Pretty soon, Jimmy Olsen was invented because they needed a family theme, with Perry White as father, Clark (Kent) and Lois (Lane) as siblings and Jimmy as the son.” He said this family-style format worked “great” for the radio era.

However, he lamented that kryptonite “was grossly overused. When I took over the character, I knocked out kryptonite.”

As often is the case with artists, O’Neil said that “Jerry and Joe lost control of the character very early on. It was one of the great scandals of the comic book industry.”

There was much tampering with the character through the years, “but Superman was so popular, it didn’t seem to matter.”

O’Neil then cited the “one of the givens in the comic book industry” — that the audience completely changes every three years, “so nobody remembers what came before.”

“Very quickly, Superman became very powerful and imitations popped up,” he said. These included Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, among others.

Lawsuits sprang up from those who owned the rights to Superman, contesting copyright infringement from the creation of these rival superheroes, O’Neil said.

“There was a really good Captain Marvel movie,” he noted. “But Captain Marvel carried a gun — and that didn’t go over” well with the audience and parents.

He said Wonder Woman gradually was developed into “a female Superman,” played by Kathy Lee Crosby. “She was a very pretty actress, with a suggestive costume and she became kind of a female James Bond.”

When O’Neil took of Wonder Woman, he transformed her into “a non-superpowered woman in a jumpsuit. Boy, was that a bad idea.” Under his creativity, she “didn’t have power, but earned it.”

O’Neil’s rework of Wonder Woman earned him a stern rebuke from feminist Gloria Steinhem, who said someone (she did not name him in the article) “took the one powerful woman (in the comic book world) and reduced her.” As O’Neil winced, the crowd laughed.

Next, he spoke of his work with the Batman adaptation, noting that “early comics were almost entired a Jewish business because the one printer (at the time) was a Jew.

“Also, it was very hard for a Jewish writer to get work, even in the pulps, so they gravitated to the comics.”

As for the comic, he said, “Batman was not created; Batman was assembled ... He began as a gentleman avenger,” akin to “guys who drink martinis and consort around the world with slinky ladies. Then, original writer Bill Finger and artist Bob Kane introduced Robin, the Boy Wonder — the first of many boy sidekicks in the comics.”

In the 1960s, “along came camp,” O’Neil noted. “There was a twice-weekly Batman show that was big among the sophisticates. The joke was this: ‘I loved this stuff as a kid, but now look how silly it was.’”

Most comic book-writers tried to follow the “camp” humor movement, “but it was soon gone,” along with the Batman TV show.

When O’Neil took over Batman, “we went back to what Finger did in 1939 — the lone avenger ... and darkness.”

O’Neil brought back the death of Bruce Wayne’s parents in an accident, which “enabled us to bring him back to us the way he was meant to be.”

He added, “One of the things that gave Batman his durability was his good villains,” such as the Joker and the Penguin. McNeil added yet another memorable villain, Maxie Zeus.

Regarding another issue, he said, “Batman is probably the best athlete and the smartest guy on the planet, so who’s he going to marry? Sadie Hawkins? No, not likely. It had to be a beautiful woman, so they’d have the best genetic stock for their children.”

As he closed his talk, O’Neil noted, “This, obviously, doesn’t begin to scratch the surface on creativity, but it’s all you’re going to get from me today.”

During a question-and-answer session that followed, he was asked about his source of creativity.

“I don’t believe in divine inspiration,” McNeil replied. “I do believe in Jungian archetypes. The Joker was the trickster ... I believe we’re wired to have certain archetypes. The fire-bringer is an archetype. Someone goes up to heaven and brings it down to humanity, hopefully for their benefit.

“If you’re not going to look at superheroes as beings, then look at them as archetypes ... The Flash is the messenger god, Mercury.”