- Tony Isabella
Infobox Comics creator
name = Tony Isabella
imagesize =
caption =
birthname =
birthdate = birth date and age|1951|12|22
location =
deathdate =
deathplace =
nationality = American
area = Writer, Editor, Critic
alias =
notable works =Black Goliath Black Lightning
"Tony's Tips"
awards =
website = http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/Tony Isabella (born
December 22 ,1951 ) is an Americancomic book writer and commentator, best known as the creator and writer ofMarvel Comics 'Black Goliath , as well asBlack Lightning ,DC Comics ' first majorAfrican American superhero .Career
Marvel Comics
Before he joined
Marvel Comics , Isabella had many letters published in the company'scomic book letter column s. [Smith, Stephen Scott Beau. "The LOCsmiths," "Amazing Heroes" #23 (May 15, 1983).] He began his career at Marvel as an editorial assistant in 1972. He also served for a time as an editor forCurtis Magazines , Marvel's black-and-white magazine line.As a writer, Isabella scripted "Ghost Rider",
It, the Living Colossus in "Astonishing Tales ",Luke Cage in "Hero for Hire " and "Power Man ",Tigra in "Marvel Chillers ", "The Champions", and "Captain America "."Ghost Rider" controversy
During his mid-1970s run on "Ghost Rider", Isabella wrote a story arc in which Johnny Blaze became a
Christian , and in doing so, freed himself of the curse. In May 2007, Isabella said, "I’d written a story wherein, couched in mildly subtle terms, Blaze accepted Jesus as his savior and freed himself from Satan’s power forever.""CCM Sightings" [http://www.myccm.org/ChrisWell/blog] said on the subject, "According to Isabella’s account, the story arc took two years to unfold, and was approved by several editors. But when the story reached the big twist — and a certain mysterious drifter was going to be revealed as
Jesus Christ — an assistant editor 'took offense' and intercepted the issue right as it was about to go to the printer and completely rewrote the story." Isabella says, "To this day, I consider what he did to my story one of the three most arrogant and wrong-headed actions I’ve ever seen from an editor." [Well, Chris. [http://www.myccm.org/post/ChrisWell/blog/what_if_ghost_rider_got_saved.html "What if Ghost Rider got Saved?" CCM Sightings (Feb. 27, 2007).] Accessed Oct. 1, 2008.]DC Comics
For
DC Comics , Isabella worked as a writer and story editor. In addition to two runs on "Black Lightning " (one in the 1970s, the other in the 1990s), in the 1980s he revampedHawkman andHawkwoman with artistRichard Howell in the mini-series "Shadow War of Hawkman ". The mini-series led to a regular series which he initially wrote."Tony's Tips"
Isabella writes a regular column for the "
Comics Buyer's Guide ", called "Tony's Tips". This has resulted in a regular (and, given the different demands of the medium, much more frequent) online column/blog called "Tony's Online Tips".Other work
Isabella is the co-author (with his fellow "Comics Buyer's Guide" columnist
Bob Ingersoll ) of theshort story "If Wishes Were Horses..." (which was published in "The Ultimate Super Villains", ISBN 1-57297-113-4, in 1996) and thenovel s "Captain America : Liberty's Torch" (1998 ISBN 0-425-16619-8) and "Star Trek : The Case Of The Colonist's Corpse (A Sam Cogley Mystery)" (2003, ISBN 0-7434-6497-4).He has also recently worked on translating foreign-language Disney comics and revamping the wording for the U.S. (such as "Walt Disney's Uncle Scrooge" #354).
Isabella recently announced in his column that he plans on doing new comic book writing, for
Heroic Publishing , probably working on that company's superheroine Tigress (not to be confused with the Marvel superheroine Tigra, mentioned above, or the DC characters).Notes
References
*comicbookdb|type=creator|id=920|title=Tony Isabella
External links
* [http://www.worldfamouscomics.com/tony/ Tony's Online Tips]
* [http://www.comicscommunity.com/boards/tony/ Official Message Board]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.