Don McGregor

Don McGregor
Don McGregor, circa 1978
Born	Donald Francis McGregor June 15, 1945 (1945-06-15) (age 66) Providence, Rhode Island, US
Nationality	American
Area(s)	Writer
Notable works	Sabre; "Killraven"; "The Black Panther"
Official website

Donald Francis McGregor^[1] (born June 15, 1945)^[1] is an American comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics, and the author of one of the first graphic novels.

Biography

Early life and career

Don McGregor was born Providence, Rhode Island,^[1] where as a young adult he worked a myriad of jobs including as a security guard, at a bank, at a movie theater, and "for my grandfather's company, [which] printed, among other things, the patches the astronauts wore on their flights to the moon."^[2] He additionally served as military police with the National Guard.^[2] His first appearances in print were in the letters-to-the-editor columns of various Marvel Comics titles, including The Amazing Spider-Man #77 (cover-dated Oct. 1969),^[3] and for The Providence Journal, where his work included reviews of books by authors including Evan Hunter, "who influenced me greatly as a writer."^[2]

McGregor broke into comics with stories in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics anthology magazines, beginning with the 10-page "A Tangible Hatred", illustrated by Richard Corben, in Creepy #41 (Sept. 1971). Over the next two years, he would write a dozen more stories for that magazine and its sister titles Eerie and Vampirella.^[3]

Marvel Comics

McGregor became a proofreader for Marvel Comics in late 1972,^[4] earning $125 a week,^[2] before establishing himself as a Marvel editor and writer. His first stories for the company were co-writing, with Gardner Fox, the six-page supernatural story "The Man with Two Faces" in Journey into Mystery vol. 2, #4 (April 1973; credited as "Donald F. McGregor"); and, solo, the six-page "A Tomb By Any Other Name" in Chamber of Chills #5 (July 1973).^[3]

He recalled in 2010,

I came to Marvel Comics because I loved Marvel Comics. As the line burgeoned, one of my jobs was to read all the reprint titles. One of the titles was Jungle Action, a collection of jungle genre comics from the 1950s, mostly detailing white men and women saving Africans or being threatened by them. I voiced a lament that I thought it was a shame that in 1973 Marvel was printing these stories, and couldn't we have a black African hero. ... Now, it was one of those unwritten rules that if you worked in editorial you would be given things to write, to supplement that $125 a week. It was at such a meeting that I learned I would be given [the recently launched feature] 'Killraven' (in Amazing Adventures) and Jungle Action, with the [existing African superhero the] Black Panther ... to write.^[5]

With those two features, which became among comics' most acclaimed,^[6] McGregor soon established himself as one of a 1970s wave of Marvel writers, including Steve Englehart, Steve Gerber and Doug Moench, who took often minor characters and helped create a writerly Renaissance. Former Marvel editor-in-chief Roy Thomas said in 2007,

[T]here was a lot of invention and experimentation going on during that period.... Steve [Gerber] and Don turned out be [writers] who advanced the field. ... I don't think Don's work sold terribly well, but I always thought he was doing some interesting things, and I thought, 'Well, the kind of stuff we put him on was the kind of stuff that we didn't expect to become great sellers anyway.... So let him experiment with it and see what happens'. And he certainly did a lot of interesting things with it.^[7]

McGregor wrote "Killraven, Warrior of the Worlds" in Amazing Adventures vol. 2, #21-39 (Nov. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for fill-in issues #33 and 38); and "Black Panther" in Jungle Action #6-24 (Sept. 1973 - Nov. 1976, except for #23, a reprint). Unusually for mainstream comics, the Panther stories were set mostly in Africa, in the Panther's fictional homeland Wakanda rather than in Marvel's usual American settings. As with the futuristic stories of Killraven, McGregor's settings were enough outside the Marvel mainstream that he was able to explore mature themes and adult relationships in a way rare for comics at the time.^{[citation needed]}

Artist Rich Buckler, his first "Black Panther" collaborator, called McGregor and fellow Marvel writer Doug Moench "two of my absolutely favorite writers. They had the same drive and enthusiasm, and just huge amounts of talent and energy."^[8] African-American writer-editor Dwayne McDuffie said of the 1970s "Black Panther" series:

This overlooked and underrated classic is arguably the most tightly written multi-part superhero epic ever. If you can get your hands on it (and where's that trade paperback collection, Marvel?), sit down and read the whole thing. It's damn-near flawless, every issue, every scene, a functional, necessary part of the whole. Okay, now go back and read any individual issue. You'll find seamlessly integrated words and pictures; clearly introduced characters and situations; a concise (sometimes even transparent) recap; beautifully developed character relationships; at least one cool new villain; a stunning action set piece to test our hero's skills and resolve; and a story that is always moving forward towards a definite and satisfying conclusion. That's what we should all be delivering, every single month. Don [McGregor] and company did it in only 17 story pages per issue".^[9]

Amazing Adventures vol. 2, #31 (July 1975) contained color comic books' first interracial kiss. Cover art by P. Craig Russell.

Like Jim Steranko, a direct influence^{[citation needed]} who had pushed similar boundaries in the late 1960s, McGregor often found himself at the limits of acceptability with both Marvel and the Comics Code Authority.^{[citation needed]} He and artist P. Craig Russell engineered color comic books' first known interracial kiss, between the "Killraven" characters M'Shulla and Carmilla Frost, in Amazing Adventures #31 (July 1975). Three years earlier, McGregor and artist Luis Garcia had already presented the first known interracial kiss in mainstream comics (as opposed to underground comix) in Warren Publishing's black-and-white horror-comics magazine, Creepy #43 (Jan. 1972), in the story "The Men Who Called Him Monster".

More than two decades after the "Killraven" feature ended, comics historian Peter Sanderson wrote that,

It was writer Don McGregor who transformed the Killraven saga ... into a classic. Of all of Marvel's writers, McGregor has the most romantic view of heroism. Killraven and his warrior band were also a community of friends and lovers motivated by a poetic vision of freedom and of humanity's potential greatness. McGregor's finest artistic collaborator on the series was P. Craig Russell, whose sensitive, elaborate artwork, evocative of Art Nouveau illustration, gave the landscape of Killraven's America a nostalgic, pastoral feel, and the Martian architecture the look of futuristic castles.^[10]

McGregor also wrote stories for the Marvel characters Luke Cage, Morbius the Living Vampire, and Spider-Man, and created the detective feature "Hodiah Twist", seen in the black-and-white magazines Marvel Preview #16: Masters of Terror (1973) and Vampire Tales #2 (1975).^[11] A Marvel "Bullpen Bulletins" page in 1975 announced his planned radio drama series, Night Figure, that was to have run on WHBI-FM.^[12]

Graphic novel pioneer

Sabre (1978). Cover art by Paul Gulacy.

With artist Paul Gulacy, McGregor created one the first modern graphic novels, Eclipse Enterprises' Sabre: Slow Fade of an Endangered Species, a near-future, dystopian science fiction swashbuckler that introduced the title character. McGregor's work premiered in August 1978, two months before Will Eisner's better-known graphic novel A Contract with God. Sabre was additionally the first graphic novel sold through the new "direct market" of comic-book stores.^[13] It later spun off a 14-issue Eclipse comic-book series.

Also for Eclipse, McGregor authored Detectives Inc., a pair of graphic novels set in contemporary New York City and starring the interracial private eye team Ted Denning and Bob Rainier. Detectives Inc.: A Remembrance of Threatening Green (1979), with DC Comics artist Marshall Rogers, and Detectives, Inc.: A Terror Of Dying Dreams, with veteran Marvel artist Gene Colan, who would become a frequent collaborator, comprised the series.

During this period, McGregor also wrote the two prose works Dragonflame and Other Bedtime Nightmares (Fictioneer Books, 1978) and The Variable Syndrome (Fictioneer, 1981).

Later comics

Other work includes the DC Comics' miniseries Nathaniel Dusk (1984) and Nathaniel Dusk II (1985–1986), both with Colan; and, for New Media Publishing's Fantasy Illustrated (1982), "The Hounds of Hell Theory", starring the husband-and-wife detective team Alexander and Penelope Risk, with artist Tom Sutton.^[14]

McGregor revisited the Black Panther with Colan in "Panther's Quest", published as 25 eight-page installments within the biweekly omnibus series Marvel Comics Presents (issues #13-37, Feb.-Dec. 1989); and, later, with artist Dwayne Turner in the squarebound miniseries Panther's Prey (Sept. 1990 - March 1991). Later in the decade, McGregor became one of the primary writers of the Zorro canon, with Topps Comics' Zorro and Lady Rawhide comic books; Image Comics' adaptation of the movie The Mask of Zorro; two years of the Zorro newspaper comic strip (with artists Tod Smith and Thomas Yeates, premiering April 12, 1999); and Papercutz's 2005 "American manga"-style Zorro series,^[15][16] which was collected in a book release the same year.

See also

Novels portal

• List of African-American firsts

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b c} "Home of The Silver Screen Cowboys: Zorro Creators Page: Biography Information: Don McGregor". CowboyPal.com. undated. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. http://www.cowboypal.com/donmbio.html. Retrieved October 9, 2011. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} McGregor, Don (2010). "Panther's Chronicles". New York City: Marvel Worldwide. p. vi. ISBN 978-0785141983. 
3. ^ ^{a b c} Don McGregor at the Grand Comics Database
4. ^ Bullpen Bulletins: "Four or Five Phenomenal Flashes, Fitfully Fashioned to Fight Lethargy (Or: Those Wedding Bells are Waking Up that Old Gang of Mine)", in Marvel Comics cover-dated March 1973, including Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos #108.
5. ^ McGregor, Masterworks, p. vii
6. ^ In addition to contemporaneous reviews in the 1970s, latter-day reviews include:
   • Gage, Chris: "Don McGregor took over the 'Killraven' writing chores, and was joined soon after by P. Craig Russell. With their combined talents, and the freedom that comes with working on a low-selling book that could be cancelled at any moment, the two of them produced a groundbreaking series that explored philosophy, madness, love, violence, and the nature of freedom". — "Killraven [vol. 2] 1 (of 6)" (review), FeoAmante.com, 2002, n.d. WebCitation archive;
   • Sangiacomo, Michael: "Though quite a few folks had their hand in the original run back in Amazing Adventures, it was the words-and-pictures team of Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell that made my tentacles twitch. ...a classic". — "JiC: Looking Over the January Rack", Newsarama, January 25, 2003. WebCitation archive;
   • Vance, Michael: "As his work progressed, readers saw P. Craig Russell take artistic ownership of 'Killraven'. ... Much like Jim Steranko's work on Marvel's Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, events flowed through some pages in a style that was as reminiscent of fine art as it was of comic art. Also impressive was his sense of design. Russell arguably produced some of the most imaginative, and visually horrific, monsters and villains in Marvel's history. Don McGregor handled the writing for this issue-run, and credit must be given to his involved plots, as well as his ability to pack a lot of story into a 32-page pamphlet". — , "Amazing Adventures", "Suspended Animation" (column), SciFiDimensions.com, August 17, 2001. WebCitation archive.
7. ^ Alter Ego vol. 3, #70 (July 2007), p. 54
8. ^ Rich Buckler interview, Adelaide Comics and Books. Archive.org archive.
9. ^ McDuffie, Dwayne (circa October 1999). "To Be Continued". (column #3), Dwayne McDuffie official site. Archived from the original on February 26, 2010. http://homepage.mac.com/dmcduffie/site/TBC3.html. Retrieved October 9, 2011. 
10. ^ Sanderson, Peter. Marvel Universe (Harry N. Abrams, 1998) ISBN 0810981718, ISBN 978-0810981713, p. 175
11. ^ Nevins, Jess. "Hodiah Twist" at A Guide to Marvel's Pre-FF #1 Heroes. Archive.org archive
12. ^ Bullpen Bulletins: "A Gargantuan Gallery of Garulous [sic] Goings-On Guaranteed to Garner Your Gratitude!", in Marvel Comics cover-dated November 1975, including Fantastic Four #164.
13. ^ Gough, Bob (2001). "Interview with Don McGregor". MileHighComics.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2011. http://www.milehighcomics.com/interviews/donmcgregor.html. Retrieved September 13, 2011.  Additional WebCitation archive (October 9, 2011)
14. ^ "Alexander and Penelope Risk", ThrillingDetective.com. WebCitation archive.
15. ^ Zorro authors at Papercutz.com
16. ^ Zorro Returns to Comics in May, Newsarama, February 25, 2005

References

• Don McGregor at the Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators
• Don McGregor at Noirfictions
• The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe

External links

• Official website WebCitation archive
• Don McGregor at the Comic Book DB
• Gay League LGBT Comics Timeline
• "Interview With Don McGregor" AbsoluteWrite.com, 1999–2000. WebCitation archive, page 2.
• Don McGregor interview, "The Warren Magazines: Interviews" (requires scrolling down). February 3, 2010 update with nine interviews. Accessed 22 September 2010. WebCitation archive.

Persondata
Name	McGregor, Don
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	June 15, 1945
Place of birth	Rhode Island
Date of death
Place of death