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 Writer
and co-creator of Ghost Rider and Son of Satan, Gary Friedrich passed away on
Tuesday (082818) at the age of 75. Friedrich was born in Jackson, Missouri in
1943 and it seemed that Friedrich was destined for a career in publishing when
he became a member of his high school newspaper. As a teenager, he was friends
with future Marvel writer and Editor-in-Chief, Roy Thomas while the two young
men were working at Jackson's Palace movie theater. The duo also played in rock
n' roll bands (Evetz Pretzel and the Transjordanaires) during their high school
years. After graduation he worked as the managing editor at the bi-weekly
Jackson Pioneer Newspaper.
In the mid-1960s, Roy Thomas, who had recently gone to work at Marvel Comics,
contacted his old friend and suggested that he give comic book writing in New
York a chance. Friedrich (no relation to at that time contemporary writer Mike
Friedrich) moved to the Big Apple and began freelance writing while brushing
shoulders with a number of folks that would go on to become comic book legends,
even sharing an apartment with Sub-Mariner creator Bill Everett. Friedrich
became attached to such notable brands as Charlton Comics (collaborating with
Jack Kirby). While there he scripted early issues of Steve Ditko’s Blue Beetle.
He also had a brief stint at Topps Trading Cards, where he became an assistant
to Woody Gelman and Len Brown, the team responsible for the cult favorite Mars
Attacks cards. While at Topps, he worked on Superman cards and was introduced to
a young Art Spiegelman, who would go on to write the award-winning Holocaust
graphic novel Maus.
Arguably his most prolific period began shortly thereafter in the spring of 1966
when Thomas got Friedrich on board at Marvel in an effort to lighten his then
expanding workload. Friedrich started on a number of assignments, including a
regular gig on Sgt. Fury and the Howling Commandos, which he stayed on until
1971. With the successful Commandoes run as his main title, he was assigned a
number of Marvel’s other titles including: Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, Captain
America, Daredevil and SHIELD.
While working on Marvels Western characters he came across their original
Western character: The Ghost Rider. He took the name and the basic idea (a lone
rider traveling across the plains righting wrongs) and married it to a surreal
spin of Marlon Brando's The Wild One. Friedrich also wanted to put a
supernatural spin on the motorcycle-riding greaser trope. All of this ultimately
went into Johnny Blaze, the Ghost Rider. At this time he collaborated with
artist Mike Ploog on Marvels adaptation of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein for the
companies just starting Horror line of titles. With Ploog’s designs, together
they co-created the Ghost Rider which first appeared in the anthology title
Marvel Spotlight #5 in August 1972. In just over a year Johnny Blaze’s
adventures quickly graduated out of Spotlight and into his own ongoing title in
September 1973 which Friedrich continued writing. During this time, he also
co-created the recurring character Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan.
Friedrich left Marvel and wrote for Skywald’s black and white horror magazines
in the mid-1970s. After being one of the writers for the rival comic book
company, Atlas/Seaboard Comics, that former Marvel owner Martin Goodman launched
in 1975, Friedrich left comics entirely in 1978. He returned in the 1990s
briefly to write Bombast for Topps Comics, reuniting with his old Sgt. Fury art
team of Dick Ayers and John Severin.
Ghost Rider received the cinematic treatment in 2007 with Nicolas Cage starring
as Johnny Blaze and a sequel — Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance — released in
2011. It was at this time Friedrich filed his lawsuit against Marvel, Sony
Pictures, Columbia TriStar Motion Pictures, Hasbro and other companies,
asserting that the publisher no longer owned the rights to the character, and
the other companies exploited the character without his permission. Friedrich
claimed that the rights to Ghost Rider had defaulted to him in 2001. He lost the
lawsuit in 2011 but the ruling was overruled on appeal in 2013. In September of
2013, Friedrich and Marvel agreed to a settlement.
Friedrich died from complications with Parkison’s disease which he had
contracted a number of years ago. Longtime friend and contemporary comic writer
Tony Isabella posted on Facebook:
“[O]ne of my oldest and dearest friends, Gary Friedrich, passed away last night,
from the effects of Parkinson's, which he had had for several years. That and
his near-total hearing loss had left him feeling isolated in recent years, and
his wife Jean seems content that he is finally at peace.”
Friedrich is survived by his wife, Jean, daughter Leslie, and nephew Chris.
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