His first Marvel work was as a colorist for Werewolf By Night #22 in October of 1974. He colored a number of books in his early months with the company, including Avengers #129.
In the early going, Mantlo was assigned stories with a horror theme like the Morbius tale. He wrote The Frankenstein Monster #18, and when he got his first shot with a Marvel hero - it was the Thing teamed up with the Golem in Marvel Two-In-One #11.
Mantlo was already showing his proficiency, having only been with Marvel for about a year. He quickly took on a lot of work. By the latter half of 1975, he was writing multiple books per month and was involved with Iron Man, Marvel Chillers, Power Man, Marvel Two-In-One, Marvel Premiere (with Hercules), and Astonishing Tales (starring Deathlok). He also wrote issues of Thor and The Defenders.
At only 23 or 24 years old, Mantlo had made a name for himself as a quick study and also capable of quick turnaround for single issues and fill-in issues. In an era when the "Dreaded Deadline Doom" seemed to encroach on the monthly distribution for numerous titles, Bill Mantlo was cranking out story after story. He even plotted Uncanny X-Men #96 to be scripted by Chris Claremont.
His imagination and creativity knew no bounds during his prolific tenure. As I noted in a previous panel discussion, Bill Mantlo created the Jack of Hearts. Also along the way he created characters like the Soviet Super-Soldiers, the U-Foes, and even Rocket Raccoon. If you did not know, Rocket made his debut during Mantlo's run on the Hulk. His hand was also in the development of Cloak and Dagger.
As mentioned, Mantlo worked on The Hulk for a while. He also took over the writing chores on Alpha Flight when John Byrne left the book. In my opinion, those are lesser efforts as I felt that Mantlo was a more in depth writer who employed layered character development more frequently when the characters were of his making.
Here are some samples of of pages using his scripts and dialogues. I think that he bridged the hammy explanatory wordiness of the Silver Age with the eloquence and complexity of the Bronze Age nicely.
Shown below are just a handful of the hundreds of comic book stories that Bill Mantlo penned. From Tarzan to Howard the Duck, from Ghost Rider to Red Sonja, from Man From Atlantis to the Yancy Street Gang, Mantlo was there.
Among my favorites are the Iron Man issues depicted; they are from the conclusion of the Midas arc. I feel it set a mood for the book that was carried on during the Michelinie-Layton days. One criticism that I have heard about Mantlo is that he had so many ideas that it disrupted his execution; the ideas were flowing so fast that they did not have time to mature to be explored in full. I tend to disagree; I think he used language and the pace of the story to keep the reader enraptured. And I think he did it well. He didn't linger too long on the minutia. It may not have been "high art" but it was entertaining comic reading. Some of his stories are definitely better than others; sometimes it is very apparent he was under a deadline and cranking out the issue. But in other cases, I find the comics very compelling.
In the 1980s, Bill Mantlo attended law school and began work as a public defender. Unfortunately, he was the victim of a hit-and-run while he was rollerblading. He remains in assisted care to this day. Bill Mantlo definitely brought me hours and hours of enjoyable fantastic tales through Marvel Comics. I miss his input on the medium tremendously; and I wonder what he would have given us if he had continued writing. If you are curious about his comic impact, check out Mantlo, A Life in Comics. It was authored by his brother Michael and David Yurkovich (I believe some of the proceeds go toward Bill's care).
So what do you think about Bill Mantlo's influence on the Bronze Age of comics? Are any of his books in a stack of your favorites? How did his writing stack up against the greats - in your opinion? What would you have liked to have seen more of (or less of) from Mantlo? Share your thoughts on the man, his writing art, the comics he created, and his influence today at BitBA! Cheers!
7 comments:
Very nice write-up and summary of Mantlo's comics-writing career, Martinex.
Yeah, the guy was incredibly prolific. I know he has his detractors, but I'm not one of them, as there's very little that he's written (and that I've read) that I didn't at least like, and there's tons of stuff he wrote, like Micronauts, which I think are among the better if not best comics of the time.
By the way, I'm glad you mentioned his work on Marvel's Tarzan. Mantlo began writing for the series in the middle of this major, multi-issue story arc called "Blood Money and Human Bondage" which was started by until-then regular writer David Kraft. He wrapped it up without missing a beat, so that the young me never really noticed any shift in writers (although I really want to revisit that series to verify if that initial impression is correct).
One place where I'll disagree with you is about Mantlo's run on the Hulk; I think his 6 year run on the title, which counting annuals encompassed just over 70 issues, is nothing short of outstanding.
I consider myself a Bill Mantlo fan, although in later years, he sort of fell into the "guilty pleasure" category.
My early exposure to Iron Man and Hulk was thanks to Mantlo...my happiest Hulk memories were stories penned by him. (I loved that debut of the U-Foes).
I also really enjoyed the Rom issues of his that I picked up, and a lot of Peter Parker/Spectacular Spider-Man stories as well. And thanks to countless fill-in issues for so many series, I'm still discovering stories I enjoyed were actually thanks to Mantlo.
Some bloom came off the rose after John Byrne left Alpha Flight. I continued collecting out of loyalty to the team, but it was hard to ignore the very odd directions where he was taking the characters, and the wordy, melodramatic and expository dialogue suddenly stood out like a sore thumb.
Overall, I'd say he was a product of a certain era, and his particular style may not hold up as well today. But there's no denying that a huge amount of my enjoyment of Marvel is directly thanks to Bill Mantlo.
-david p.
I like (or love) some of Mantlo's stuff; others ... not so much. I really liked his Spectacular Spider-Man runs (which bracketed Stern's short run on that title); he had some great stories, including that Kraven one you showed.
I liked Rocket Raccoon, and Mantlo's looong Hulk run was pretty good, as was his Defenders run. He did some good MTU issues too, if I remember right.
I wanted to like his Alpha Flight, but it really wasn't great. I was never into Rom or Micronauts, so they weren't on my radar.
I liked most of what I read of Mantlo's work. Very nice overview, Marti.
His run on Spectacular Spider-Man was very good, one of the best in the series (incidentally, look for a review of a Mantlo Spidey story in the near future). Micronauts was excellent. Rom is a book I've only recently sampled, but it's been a pleasant surprise. Never read any of his Hulk or Alpha Flight stories, but remember his Marvel Team-Up stories. Overall, I'd opine that his fill-in issues were ok, but that his regular series work was quite good indeed. A credit to Marvel in the Bronze age.
Thanks for checking in guys.
Edo - you may be absolutely correct on the Hulk. My judgment is based on the handful of issues I was exposed to - so not a fair assessment at all. Mantlo seemed to do well on runs that he could carry for a while so it makes sense his Hulk run would be of nice quality. Where is HB when you need him?
One thing I forgot to mention is that Mantlo worked with Sal Buscema quite a bit. They seemed to be in synch on many of the stories they created.
I'm a big fan of Bill Mantlo, and his work. Though i much enjoyed his long run on Hulk and other works, like you, my big favorites were the universes he created when given toy lines that he spun into marvelous worlds. Micronauts and Rom were terrific titles with loyal fans for decades after they ceased telling new stories.
Now if only the Enigma Force would show up for Bill.
A correction on Rocket Raccoon: His first appearance was a half decade before he showed up in Hulk, back in one of Marvel's 1976 black & white newsstand magazines - Marvel Preview #7. At that point, he spoke with a British accent, what with being John's raccoon and all. I ran a chunk of it on his birthday.
I'm glad you ran the blurb for Mantlo: A Life In Comics. It's my understanding that most of the proceeds go towards Bill's care.
Most of my perennial love for Marvel comics come from Mantlo writings and ideas.
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