Comic Creators Appearing in their own stories.

[phabox (RIP)]

Jack Cole turned up as a comics character on the printed page at least once in Police Comics_020 and it got me wondering how many other writers and Artists showed up INSIDE the comics they created.

Jack Kirby appeared as 'himself' a few times in The Fantastic Four along with Stan during the Silver Age and I'm sure he and Joe Simon may well have 'guested' in one of their own GA strips but were there any others ?

-Nigel

[kusunoki]

I remember an issue of Claremont's X-Men early on in his run where Claremont and then-artist Dave Cockrum appear. I don't know the issue number offhand, but it's set at Christmas time and all of the X-Men are hanging out in the civvies around Rockefeller Center.

[NobbyNobbs]

Some JLA stories that are sentered around Gary Bates and Elliot S! Maggin.

[JonTheScanner]

Julius Schwartz (of Earth prime) appeared in a couple of Flash Stories.  Kanigher appeared in some Wonder Woman story.  I think at the end or beginning of the Emma Peel period.  An early Sea Devils story had several artists "auditioning" for the job.  I think Kubert and Heath were two of them.  Gardner Fox told us about his "What If" room in a Batman story in Detective when Batman was killed and the Earth-II Batman came to Earth-I to finish Robin's training.

[JVJ (RIP)]

Early Timely funny animal comics were rife with creator caricatures. There seemed to be an atmosphere of real playfulness and camaraderie in 1943 just before Stan Lee left for the the Service. A caricature of George Klein was even used as a character in one of the strips, as was, if I remember correctly, Ed Winiarasky. Mike Sekowsky, Stan Lee, Al Fago, even Martin Goodman ended up in the strips, as well as some production staff whose names/faces we don't recognize.

During the '40s there were several instances in other companies where cartoon characters would interact with their creators. The process of the artist putting himself into the strip apparently began early on.

Peace, Jim (|:{>

[JVJ (RIP)]

Joe Kubert and Norman Maurer in Tor and the early 3D comics, too.

(|:{>

[darkmark (RIP)]

Well, Dick Briefer appeared in a Frankenstein story in PRIZE COMICS, along with the editor and maybe some others.  Charlie Biro and Bob Wood made cameos in at least one CRIME DOES NOT PAY.  The Inkie strip sometimes featured its creators.  Schaffenberger frequently drew himself into his stories, usually as a bit player.  Jim Aparo did that, too.  Gil Kane did that for a whole story in HOUSE OF MYSTERY or SECRETS!  And one of the Harvey artists and an editor, unnamed, did that in a Wendy story.

[John C]

About the only items I can think of that I haven't seen mentioned were Aparo (I think) getting himself kidnapped by terrorists who then tried to force him to kill off Batman, and Kanigher joining the Creature Commandos in time to be blasted out into space with them.

Of course, the Flash left a Cosmic Treadmill in Julie Schwartz's office, and Julie also had an "It's a Wonderful Life" moment with Superman when he retired (via the Earth-1 Julie), which is how Maggin and Bates ended up crossing over with the JLA and JSA in the most bizarre summer event I can remember.

(That reminds me that there are also writer proxies.  Some are explicit, like Maggin telling Green Arrow that he's it.  Some are only found in the letter columns, like Roy Thomas suggesting that Tarantula miight be not-so-coincidentally similar to him in All-Star Squadron.)

Morrison, of course, was lauded for doing exactly the same thing, years later.  Oh, and Millar wrote himself into a Flash story as a writer of "true crime" comics starring the Flash.

An abundance of comic creators, I recall, also showed up on the fringes of all those stories set at the Rutland, Vermont, parade(s).

Oh, and don't forget the absurd number of indie comics that were either about the writers themselves or had sections where the writer stopped to inject himself into the story to explain the lame metaphor to the main characters...

[Geo (RIP)]

George Evans and Al Williamson drew themselves into the 1951's "When Worlds Collide" in Motion Picture Comics issue #110 too by the way.

Geo

[JVJ (RIP)]

Yeah, Geo,
Evans was a character in many of his own strips, and Al Williamson based Secret Agent Corrigan on himself - saved money on hiring models to pose for his camera.

(|:{>

[darkmark (RIP)]

If we're going with Silver Age and Golden Age here, let me see what I can think of:
SIMON AND KIRBY:  Appeared in one Boy Commandos story as themselves.  The one with crossovers from every other strip they drew (Sandman, Guardian, Newsboy Legion, etc.).
JERRY SIEGEL:  Cameoed in one issue of BATMAN in the Forties, though he didn't write or draw it.
BILL FINGER:  As Black Hand, the villain of the Silver Age Green Lantern.
GARDNER FOX:  In the Detective Comics story, "The Strange Death of Batman".
JOHN BROOME:  In the Detective Comics story, "The Secret War of the Phantom General."
BILL GAINES, AL FELDSTEIN, and MOST OF THE EC GANG: All over the place in their mags, and later, often in MAD.
DAN DE CARLO:  Along with Stan Lee, in at least one Kathy story in the Fifties.
JACK MILLER, E. NELSON BRIDWELL, MORT WEISINGER, MURRAY BOLTINOFF, MIKE SEKOWSKY, GIL KANE, MURPHY ANDERSON, and PROBABLY A LOT MORE:  In the last ish of INFERIOR FIVE written by E. Nelson Bridwell.
DENNY O'NEIL and NEAL ADAMS:  Cameos in "Night of the Reaper" (at the party) in BATMAN.
STEVE DITKO:  In "How Stan and Steve Create Spider-Man" in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN ANNUAL #1.
BOB HANEY AND JIM APARO:  In that BRAVE AND BOLD Batman / Sgt. Rock teamup that's been discussed.

That's about all I can remember right now.

[John C]

BILL FINGER:  As Black Hand, the villain of the Silver Age Green Lantern.

Hm.  Wow.  That seems like it should've been more obvious, in retrospect, but it somehow never occurred to me.

[moondood]

I appeared along with the rest of the creative team in an issue of Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters but it wasn't the golden age.

Did Eisner ever appear anywhere?  I always thought Dolan looked like an older Eisner.

I would see Eisner at cons later in his life and I could seeDolan standing there.


moondood

[darkmark (RIP)]

Yup.  Eisner appeared in at least two Spirit stories I can remember, one of them being "The End of the World", also in some gags in THE SPIRIT mag by Warren / Kitchen, and in a few other places.

[skybandit]

In "Sea Devils" #13, DC ran a "Sensational reader's poll" asking readers to choose a new artist for the series. Joe Kubert, Gene Colan, Irv Novick, Jack Abel, and the Ross Andru/Mike Esposito team took turns drawing pages and wrote themselves into the story.   Strangely enough, Howard Purcell did most of the artwork on the series after that, so I guess nobody won!