Michael Fleisher, Dead at the Age of 75

nweathington

I just found out that Michael Fleisher passed away a few days ago. For my money, he was one of the best comic writers of the ’70s. His Spectre and Jonah Hex stories were always worth reading. I didn't know that when he left American comics in the late ’80s, he wrote for 2000AD for a while. Turns out he went back to college at that point and got his doctorate in anthropology, and then spent the rest of his career doing consulting work and research for humanitarian groups in developing countries around the world.

mwhitt80

Fleisher's DC work caught the gritty-grimy feel of the 70s.

His Spectre stories set the tone for the Ostrander run; they defined who the Spectre was. He wrote a ton of really good Jonah Hex stories, and his Hex series was even used in the Batman Brave and the bold cartoon.

Adam_Murdough

His exhaustively detailed three-volume Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Heroes was a tremendous boon to a generation of DC trivia wonks, both before and after the publication of Who's Who. For years, if you were a pre-Internet fan of DC's "Big Three" and you wanted to know the first appearance of Hocus and Pocus or the alter ego of Mr. Polka Dot, it was your only resource. Whatever worthy humanitarian work Dr. Fleisher may have done later in life, I'm still most grateful to him for the weeks of loving toil he put into compiling those encyclopedias.

nweathington

Adam_Murdough said:

His exhaustively detailed three-volume Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Heroes was a tremendous boon to a generation of DC trivia wonks, both before and after the publication of Who's Who. For years, if you were a pre-Internet fan of DC's "Big Three" and you wanted to know the first appearance of Hocus and Pocus or the alter ego of Mr. Polka Dot, it was your only resource. Whatever worthy humanitarian work Dr. Fleisher may have done later in life, I'm still most grateful to him for the weeks of loving toil he put into compiling those encyclopedias.

Those encyclopedias were actually how Fleisher got his start at DC. When DC accepted his pitch to do them, he hung around the offices all the time, doing his research in their archives. He got to know the editors and started getting writing assignments for their anthology books, and it took off from there. He had planned to do more of them, but left DC before he got to them. Paul Levitz wanted someone to pick up where Fleisher left off, but couldn't find anyone willing to put in the same amount of time and diligence Fleisher did to get the unfinished books up to date.

[Deleted User]

I just finished up the second volume of Showcase Presents Jonah Hex, and I was blown away by his writing. Each story was like a mini movie or an episode of a well-written tv drama. Sure, there were some reused plot points here and there (Hex being betrayed by a woman or a good Samaritan), bur he pulled no punches. He would create wonderful characters and they would be dead by the next page. Really keeps you on your toes.

nweathington

Tonebone said:

I just finished up the second volume of Showcase Presents Jonah Hex, and I was blown away by his writing. Each story was like a mini movie or an episode of a well-written tv drama. Sure, there were some reused plot points here and there (Hex being betrayed by a woman or a good Samaritan), bur he pulled no punches. He would create wonderful characters and they would be dead by the next page. Really keeps you on your toes.

Yep. I went on a binge in my early 20s where I bought up every Weird Western and Jonah Hex book I could find. Fleisher was a big western movie buff growing up, so he could knock that stuff out pretty easily. I know José Luis García-López really enjoyed working from his scripts.