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56-708: Marvel Comics founder and Magazine Management publisher Martin Goodman left Marvel in 1972, having sold the company in 1968. He created Seaboard Periodicals, which opened its office on June 24, 1974, to compete in a field then dominated by Marvel and DC Comics . Goodman hired Warren Publishing veteran Jeff Rovin to edit the color comic-book line, and writer-artist Larry Lieber , brother of Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee , as editor of Atlas' black-and-white comics magazines . Rovin said in 1987 he became involved after answering an ad in The New York Times : I

112-474: A flashback to the Howlers' first mission, was co-scripted by Friedrich and Thomas. Following this inauspicious beginning came the first of several Friedrich "The" stories, "The War Lover" (#45, Aug. 1967) – a shaded exploration of a trigger-happy soldier and the line drawn, even in war, between killing and murder. Daring for the time, when majority public sentiment still supported the undeclared Vietnam War ,

168-587: A Marvel Comics staff writer in New York City, called his friend with the suggestion that freelance work might exist in the newly resurgent medium. Friedrich took a Greyhound bus the following day, and stayed with Thomas and a fandom friend, Dave Kaler , in Manhattan 's East Village . Shortly afterward, Friedrich and Thomas took an apartment on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village . This

224-404: A bite out of Marvel's profits, but I don't think it was done out of revenge. I think Martin was too smart for that." Marvel art director John Romita , however, believed, "Chip was supposed to take his place. But that part of it must not have been on paper, because as soon as Martin was gone, they got rid of Chip. That's why Martin started Atlas Comics. It was pure revenge". Although Chip Goodman

280-459: A driver/courier in the St. Louis area. In 1993, Friedrich scripted Topps Comics ' Jack Kirby-created Bombast #1 (April 1993), where he teamed once more with plotter Roy Thomas and Sgt. Fury artists Dick Ayers and John Severin. In the 2000s, Friedrich expressed public disagreement about the genesis of the supernatural Ghost Rider . In 2001, Roy Thomas claimed that: I had made up a character as

336-420: A first-look contract. Atlas appointed Goodman as head of publishing and executive producer, and Spike Seldin as president of production. On August 28, 2024, it was announced that Paramount will launch a cinematic universe based on characters from Atlas Comics starting with Devilina. Magazine Management Magazine Management Co., Inc. was an American publishing company lasting from at least c. 1947 to

392-479: A flame-thrower-equipped bike – in a namesake two-issue series (July–Aug. to Sept.-Oct. 1971). The following year, Friedrich worked with Thomas on the similarly motorcycle-mounted Ghost Rider. Additionally, Friedrich freelanced for the short-lived Atlas/Seaboard Comics , where he wrote the crime comic Police Action #2-3 (April and June 1975) and the feature "Son of Dracula" in Fright #1 (June 1975), and scripted

448-561: A great good sense of humor", Friedrich recalled. "I wrote things like 'Tears in My Malted' and 'Too Fat to Frug'...." With anonymous help and input from Thomas, Friedrich also began writing superhero stories, beginning with his backup feature "The Sentinels" (with penciler - inker Sam Grainger ) in Peter Cannon ... Thunderbolt #54 (Oct. 1966). He wrote the feature for two more issues before handing it off. Friedrich also dialogued

504-760: A hipper, more monied crowd. Magazine Management's publications included such men's adventure magazines as For Men Only , Male and Stag , edited during the 1950s by Noah Sarlat. As well, there were such ephemera as a one-shot black-and-white " nudie cutie " comic, The Adventures of Pussycat (Oct. 1968), that reprinted some stories of the sexy, tongue-in-cheek secret-agent strip that ran in some of his men's magazines. Marvel Comics writers Stan Lee , Larry Lieber and Ernie Hart , and artists Wally Wood , Al Hartley , Jim Mooney , and Bill Everett and " good girl art " cartoonist Bill Ward contributed. Gary Friedrich Gary Friedrich ( / ˈ f r iː d r ɪ k / ; August 21, 1943 – August 29, 2018)

560-414: A job at Jackson's two weekly newspapers, which were being combined into a single twice-weekly. "I was working about 80 hours a week for $ 50", he recalled in 2001. "I wrote, edited, and laid out the entire newspaper. I was the whole editorial staff without any help. It was driving me crazy". Friedrich had gotten married the year before and by now had a young son, but, "I didn't have time for anything because I

616-526: A magazine as Martin was apparently more impressed that one of his staffers was published in the premier men's magazine than with any insult made to his son." Circa 2010, Martin Goodman's grandson Jason Goodman announced a partnership with Ardden Entertainment to relaunch Atlas Comics starting with two "#0" issues featuring the Grim Ghost and Phoenix. With another character, Wulf the Barbarian, they were

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672-465: A position where they are gonna make a movie or make a lot of money off of it, I'm gonna sue them, and I probably will. ... It was my idea. It was always my idea from the first time we talked about it; it turned out to be a guy with a flaming skull and [who] rode a motorcycle. Ploog seems to think the flaming skull was his idea. But, to tell you the truth, it was my idea. Ploog recalled, in a 2008 interview: Now, there's been all kinds of dialog about who

728-487: A smattering of superhero stories for Marvel, Atlas/Seaboard Comics and Topps Comics , and eventually left the comics industry. In 2011, he lost a federal lawsuit over a claim of ownership in the character Ghost Rider, but in July 2014, three months after an appellate court reversed that decision, the parties said they had reached a settlement. Gary Friedrich was born on August 21, 1943, the son of Jerry and Elsie Friedrich. He

784-693: A variety of shell companies , Magazine Management served as an early employer of such staff writers as Rona Barrett , Bruce Jay Friedman , David Markson , Mario Puzo , Martin Cruz Smith , Mickey Spillane , and Ernest Tidyman . Subsidiaries of Magazine Management included Humorama , which published digest-sized magazines of girlie cartoons; and Marvel Comics. The company also published black-and-white comics magazines such as Vampire Tales , Savage Tales , and Unknown Worlds of Science Fiction that utilized primarily Marvel writers and artists. Founded by Martin Goodman , who had begun his career in

840-518: A very particular style ('man triumphant') that was not their own. This was not the style with which editor Bruce Jay Friedman felt most comfortable, and when editing publications for Martin Goodman he unsuccessfully tried to talk him out of running advertisements for trusses, an ad signalling the magazine's target audience: blue-collar yahoos. It would be years before he could raise his head at industry cocktail parties, when his acclaimed examples of 'black-humor fiction' were seen as appropriate material for

896-550: A villain in Daredevil – a very lackluster character – called Stunt-Master ... a motorcyclist. Anyway, when Gary Friedrich started writing Daredevil , he said, 'Instead of Stunt-Master, I'd like to make the villain a really weird motorcycle-riding character called Ghost Rider.' He didn't describe him. I said, 'Yeah, Gary, there's only one thing wrong with it,' and he kind of looked at me weird, because we were old friends from Missouri, and I said, 'That's too good an idea to be just

952-638: A villain in Daredevil . He should start out right away in his own book.' When Gary wasn't there the day we were going to design it, Mike Ploog , who was going to be the artist, and I designed the character. I had this idea for the skull-head, something like Elvis ' 1968 special jumpsuit, and so forth, and Ploog put the fire on the head, just because he thought it looked nice. Gary liked it, so they went off and did it. Friedrich responded: Well, there's some disagreement between Roy, Mike and I over that. I threatened on more than one occasion that if Marvel gets in

1008-754: The Ghost Rider character have been exploited and utilized in a "joint venture and conspiracy". The lawsuit states that the film rights and merchandising reverted from Marvel to him in 2001. The case was transferred to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on February 14, 2008, and Friedrich amended the complaint on March 25, 2011. The suit concluded on December 28, 2011, with Marvel prevailing on all but one count. U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled that Marvel Entertainment owned

1064-501: The police , Western [and] war [comics] , and color anthologies of horror stories. Lieber became editor of the color comics following Rovin's departure. Steve Mitchell was the comics' production manager, and John Chilly the black-and-white magazines' art director . Goodman offered an editorial position to Roy Thomas , who had recently stepped down as Marvel Comics editor-in-chief, but Thomas turned it down, recalling in 1981 that, "[I] didn't have any faith in his lasting it out. The field

1120-540: The " Black Widow " feature in Amazing Adventures . He was also given many non-superhero features, including such Westerns as The Gunhawks and co-created the Phantom Eagle with Herb Trimpe . Friedrich was the co-creator and initial writer of Marvel's motorcycle-demon Ghost Rider , and later teamed with that character's first artist, Mike Ploog , on Marvel's The Monster of Frankenstein –

1176-504: The 1930s with pulp magazines published under a variety of shell companies , Magazine Management existed as of at least 1947. By the early 1960s, the company occupied the second floor at 60th Street and Madison Avenue . It published men's-adventure magazines with such writers as Bruce Jay Friedman , David Markson , Mario Puzo , Martin Cruz Smith , Mickey Spillane , and Ernest Tidyman ; film magazines with writers including Rona Barrett ; and humor publications, among other types. By

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1232-1049: The Deadly Dozen ( June 1972 – Sept. 1973). Friedrich settled into the niche of utility writer. His first regular superhero series for Marvel was The Incredible Hulk vol. 2, for which he wrote a handful of issues starting with #102 (April 1968; the premiere issue, following the Hulk feature in the "split book" Tales to Astonish ), as well as the 1968 annual The Incredible Hulk Special #1. The series would not, however, launch him as Thomas' natural successor on Marvel's flagship titles, which went to such later hires as Gerry Conway , Steve Englehart , Len Wein and Marv Wolfman . Friedrich mostly would be assigned titles in transition or facing cancellation, including, variously, [Uncanny] X-Men ; Captain America ; Captain Marvel ; Daredevil ; Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. ; and

1288-489: The Western Ghost Rider – launched with debut-issue co-plotter Thomas, and running six issues, mostly co-scripted by Friedrich and series penciler Dick Ayers . Friedrich also contributed to the parody series Not Brand Echh . He began on Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos with #42 (May 1967) – co-scripted, as was the next issue, by Friedrich's Western partner, Sgt. Fury penciler Ayers. The next issue,

1344-519: The arms and the legs were there merely so I could make the character['s costume] as black as I possibly could and still keep track of his body. It was the easiest way to design him. On April 4, 2007, Friedrich filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois against Marvel Enterprises , Sony Pictures , Columbia TriStar Motion Pictures , Relativity Media , Crystal Sky Pictures , Michael De Luca Productions, Hasbro and Take-Two Interactive , alleging his copyrights to

1400-439: The board and the already insufficient sales dropping, Martin Goodman dissolved the company in the fourth quarter of 1975. A total of 23 comics titles and five comics magazines were published before the company folded. No title lasted more than four issues. Of the characters, Chaykin's Scorpion would inspire his Dominic Fortune at Marvel and Rich Buckler 's Demon Hunter would inspire his Devil-Slayer at Marvel. Some reports at

1456-539: The burgeoning 1960s Marvel after fellow Missourian Roy Thomas . Succeeding Thomas on Sgt. Fury , Friedrich and the art team of Dick Ayers and John Severin produced a World War II series for the Vietnam years, combining militaristic camaraderie and gung ho humor with a regretful sense of war as a terrible last resort. The humanistic military drama was noted for its semi- anthological "The" stories, such as "The Medic" and "The Deserter". Friedrich went on to write

1512-564: The case to proceed to trial, but as a result of Nemesis Group Inc. failing to file a brief on the case in the required time, the petition was dismissed with prejudice in 2013. Stevens assigned the trademark to Dynamite Characters LLC in August 2014. In February 2016, Nemesis Group filed a new Atlas Comics logo at the United States Patent and Trademark Office for a possible challenge to Dynamite's registration. A new Atlas company

1568-456: The character, saying Friedrich gave up any ownership claim when he signed checks containing language relinquishing all rights. She said Friedrich had also signed a 1978 agreement with Marvel relinquishing rights. Marvel countersued with the parties reaching a settlement in which Marvel dropped the suit in exchange for Friedrich paying $ 17,000 in damages, ceasing to sell Ghost Rider-related items of his own creation and ceasing to promote himself as

1624-418: The color comics and put me in charge of the black-and-white books. It was an unfortunate thing, and basically what happened was that Jeff's books didn't turn out so well... Martin had to pay high freelance rates, because otherwise nobody would work for a new and unproven company... It didn't work out too well, and Jeff finally left angrily or something, and I had to take over all his books. At this point, business

1680-634: The debut and the next three stories of the Blue Beetle , plotted and drawn by Steve Ditko , in Captain Atom #83–86 (Nov. 1966 – June 1967). Friedrich's last recorded Charlton story was "If I Had Three Wishes", penciled by Ditko, in Ghostly Tales #60 (March 1967). By this time Friedrich had already begun writing Westerns for Marvel, including issues of Kid Colt, Outlaw ; Two-Gun Kid ; Rawhide Kid ; and his first regular series,

1736-436: The early 1970s, known for men's-adventure magazines, risqué men's magazines , humor , romance , puzzle , celebrity/film and other types of magazines, and later adding comic books and black-and-white comics magazines to the mix. It was the parent company of Atlas Comics , and its rebranded incarnation, Marvel Comics . Founded by Martin Goodman , who had begun his career in the 1930s with pulp magazines published under

Atlas/Seaboard Comics - Misplaced Pages Continue

1792-477: The even-numbered issues from #94–114 (Jan. 1972 – Nov. 1973). Issue #100 (July 1972) featured a present-day, fictional reunion gala. Friedrich also launched the 19-issue World War II United States Marines series Capt. Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders (Jan. 1968 – March 1970; changed to Captain Savage and his Battlefield Raiders with #9); and the nine-issue World War II U.S. Army series Combat Kelly and

1848-439: The first five issues of which (Jan.-Oct. 1973) contained a relatively faithful adaptation of Mary Shelley 's novel. As one critic wrote of issue #4: "Unmatched by anything else he'd written at Marvel, Friedrich's script ... had reached a point that perfectly captured the 19th-century cadences of Shelley's prose and lifted the strip far above any past or, so far, future attempt to adapt the character to comics". Friedrich co-created

1904-423: The first of many changes, mergers, and acquisitions that led to what became the 21st century corporation Marvel Entertainment . As writer Dorothy Gallagher reminisced in 1998, At Magazine Management, magazines were produced the way Detroit produced cars. I worked on the fan-magazine line. On the other side of a five-foot partition was the romance-magazine line. And across a corridor were the financial staples of

1960-489: The late 1960s, its men's-adventure magazines such as Stag and Male had begun evolving into men's magazines , with pictorials about dancers and swimsuit models replaced by bikinis and discreet nude shots, with gradually fewer fiction stories, and eventually into pornographic magazines . One division of the company was the Marvel Comics Group . As one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas recalled, "I

2016-528: The line was plagued by distribution problems which prevented the comics from reaching many regions. Moreover, readers quickly lost interest in the books, finding them to be obvious knock-offs of what Marvel Comics was publishing at the time; The Brute , for instance, was an obvious clone of the Hulk , while Blazing Battle Tales imitated Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos . With the Atlas line losing money across

2072-526: The mid-1970s, he also wrote the majority of the seven-page Captain Britain stories in the character's namesake Marvel UK weekly comic book following the departure of original writer Chris Claremont . Friedrich's work for other publishers includes writing for the Skywald line of black-and-white horror -comics magazines. For that company he created Hell-Rider – a Vietnam-vet vigilante motorcyclist with

2128-419: The organization, the men's magazines — Stag , For Men Only , Male — for which, at one time or another, Mario Puzo , Bruce Jay Friedman , David Markson , Mickey Spillane and Martin Cruz Smith wrote, until they became too exalted and rich to do it anymore. I'm almost forgetting the comic-book line, where Stan Lee [co-]created Spider-Man , known to every connoisseur of classic comics. ... [Th]e decor

2184-556: The sole story of the character Man-Monster, co-plotted by Tony Isabella and penciller Rich Buckler , in Tales of Evil #3 (July 1975). He also wrote the second and final issue of The Cougar , the third and final issue of Morlock 2001 , with the rare art team of Steve Ditko and Bernie Wrightson; the third and final issue of The Brute ; and the fourth and final issue of IronJaw (all July 1975). Friedrich left comics in 1978 and returned to Missouri, where he eventually spent many years as

2240-593: The stars of a miniseries, Atlas Unified , announced in September 2011 for publication that November. Jason Goodman's Nemesis Group Inc. belatedly discovered that one Jeffrey Stevens had acquired the trademark "Atlas Comics" for comic books in October 2005. Nemesis filed suit in 2010, arguing that Stevens had no demonstrated use of the trademark. On March 13, 2012, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board allowed

2296-432: The story balanced present-day issues while demonstrating that even in what is referred to as "a just war", a larger morality prevails. His story for issue #72 (Nov. 1969) was heavily rewritten and partially redrawn due to concerns about possible copyright infringement of the film Casablanca . Friedrich continued through #83 (Jan. 1971), with the late part of this run having reprint issues between new stories, and again for

Atlas/Seaboard Comics - Misplaced Pages Continue

2352-486: The supernatural hero the Son of Satan in Ghost Rider vol. 2, #1 (Sept. 1973). Friedrich recalled in 2009 that Marvel editor-in-chief Stan Lee "had some idea that he wanted a character called Son of Satan. I have no idea why or where it came from. All he really had was the name and he wanted us to create a character based around that. I guess it just popped in his mind. He said "I want a title called Son of Satan. Do it!" In

2408-460: The time suggested Goodman was angered that Cadence, the new Marvel owners, had reneged on a promise to keep his son, Charles "Chip" Goodman, as Marvel's editorial director. Marvel and Atlas writer Gary Friedrich recalled: "I never really felt that [Martin] did it for that reason. I think he did it to make money and that he thought with Larry in charge and paying good rates that he could do it. Now, he probably wouldn't have minded if it would have taken

2464-743: Was a time of transition between the beat movement and the hippie era, when the Village flourished as a creative mecca. "The Village was a really neat place to be at that time. We went to the theater that was to become the Fillmore East ; it wasn't called that yet, but they were starting to have some rock concerts, like Chuck Berry . ... I began to let my hair grow and become a real New York hippie", he recalled. After Thomas recommended Friedrich to Charlton Comics editor Dick Giordano , Friedrich began writing romance comics for that low-budget publisher, where many pros got early breaks. "I did it with

2520-505: Was also in charge of the Seaboard comics, he had little to no interest in comic books, according to Rovin. Historian and one-time Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas recalled: "One of the problems was just being Martin Goodman's son. I don't think that Martin respected Chip very much—he put Chip in charge but would treat him with less than benign contempt in front of other people. Martin was a little cruel sometimes." This father-son conflict

2576-438: Was an American comic book writer best known for his Silver Age stories for Marvel Comics ' Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos and in the following era, the series The Monster of Frankenstein , as well as for cocreating the supernatural motorcyclist Ghost Rider and the supernatural hero the Son of Satan . Friedrich – no relation to fellow comics writer Mike Friedrich – was the first successful new writer brought into

2632-554: Was bad, and I tried to do what I could. One of the things I had to do was to cut rates and tell people they were going to make less money, which was not an enviable position. Atlas/Seaboard offered some of the highest rates in the industry, plus return of original artwork to artists and author rights to original character creations. These perks attracted such top names as Neal Adams , Steve Ditko , Russ Heath , John Severin , Alex Toth and Wally Wood , as well as such up-and-coming talents as Howard Chaykin and Rich Buckler . However,

2688-572: Was born and raised in Jackson, Missouri , where he graduated from Jackson High School in 1961. He was editor of the high school newspaper and a member of the marching band. As a teen, he was a friend of future Marvel Comics writer and eventual editor-in-chief Roy Thomas . Friedrich worked at a record store in Cape Girardeau, Missouri after high school, and in February 1964, obtained

2744-405: Was fictionalized by a Magazine Management staffer, Ivan Prashker , who wrote a short story with a thinly disguised, unflattering portrait of a character based on Chip Goodman. When this story, "The Boss's Son", was published in the February 1970 issue of Playboy , Prashker expected he might be fired, but instead, as comics historian Jon B. Cooke wrote, he "was rewarded with his own editorship of

2800-513: Was formed by May 2019 with SP Media Group owning a majority and Goodman retaining an interest. Source unless otherwise noted: After purchasing the Atlas characters and IPs from Nemesis Group in May 2019, the company announced plans for theatrical releases starting in 2021. Akiva Goldsman and his Weed Road Pictures were hired to run a writers' room to develop 10 story outlines with one to be selected for further development. Paramount Pictures signed

2856-582: Was insurance-company blah: grayish white walls and foam-tile ceilings, overhead fluorescent fixtures, gray metal desks. Except for the executive offices, which faced Madison Avenue and had carpets and windows, the space was divided into jerrybuilt bull pens with head-high partitions. Editors got a glassed-in area in each bullpen. Author Adam Parfrey , in his book about men's adventure magazines, described how, Most scribes laboring for Martin Goodman's Magazine Management firm and other repositories of adventure magazines spoke of feeling like well-compensated slaves of

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2912-432: Was one of several people Martin interviewed, and I got the job because I'd had experience not only in comics but in mail order, the latter of which was to contribute significantly to Seaboard's cash flow. Sharing editorial duties on the comics was writer-artist Larry Lieber, whom Martin had long wanted to transplant from under the shadow of Larry's brother.... Larry ended up handling about a quarter of Atlas' output — primarily

2968-550: Was startled to learn in '65 that Marvel was just part of a parent company called Magazine Management." In late 1968, Goodman sold all his publishing businesses to the Perfect Film and Chemical Corporation , which made the subsidiary Magazine Management Company the parent company of all the acquired Goodman concerns. Goodman remained as publisher until 1972. Perfect Film and Chemical renamed itself Cadence Industries and renamed Magazine Management as Marvel Comics Group in 1973,

3024-495: Was the creator of Ghost Rider. Gary Friedrich was the writer on it. ... The flaming skull: That was the big area of dispute. Who thought of the flaming skull? To be honest with you I can't remember. What else were you going to do with him? You couldn't put a helmet on him, so it had to be a flaming skull. As far as his costume went, it was part of the old [Western] Ghost Rider 's costume, with the Western panel front. The stripes down

3080-460: Was too shaky for a new publisher." Lieber recalled in a 1999 interview, When I went there, Martin put out two kinds of books. He was putting out color comics, and he was also going to put out black-and-white comics like Warren and Marvel. Now, I knew nothing about black-and-white comics, right? My only experience was in the color comics. Jeff Rovin came from Warren, and he knew nothing about color comics. Martin unfortunately put Jeff in charge of all

3136-474: Was working all the damn time". The marriage fell apart, "and even that wasn't a major problem for a while because I was so damn busy and I was either working, drunk, or both", Friedrich said, alluding to the alcoholism from which he began recovering on " New Year's night in 1979". When the newspaper ceased publication in late summer 1965, Friedrich began working a union job at a Cape Girardeau factory, installing heating elements in waffle irons. Roy Thomas, now

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