PAUL KUPPERBERG | 13th Dimension, Comics, Creators, Culture

Sep22

E. NELSON BRIDWELL SPEAKS: A Must-Read Vintage Interview With DC’s Unsung Hero

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 22, 2026

E. NELSON BRIDWELL SPEAKS: A Must-Read Vintage Interview With DC’s Unsung Hero

PAUL KUPPERBERG pays a BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE to one of the late greats of the Silver and Bronze Ages… — UPDATED 9/22/26: The late E. Nelson Bridwell was born 95 years ago! Perfect time to reprint this piece from his birthday in 2023. Dig it. — Dan — By PAUL KUPPERBERG Two years ago, in remembrance of his birthday, I wrote about MY 13 FAVORITE E. NELSON BRIDWELL PROJECTS, so this year, I thought I would let Nelson speak for himself through this interview from New Media Publishing’s Comics Feature #10 (July 1981) E. Nelson Bridwell (September 22, 1931 – January 23, 1987) is a name that should be familiar to every fan of DC Comics’ Silver and Bronze Ages. Starting at DC in 1965 as assistant to Superman editor Mort Weisinger, Nelson would spend the next 30 years helping shape the adventures of the Superman family of characters as both an editor and a writer. Nelson had an encyclopedic mind and was an expert on not only DC’s history and continuity, but the Bible and the works of Shakespeare as well, but we knew him mainly as the company’s Chief Continuity Cop. Nelson was one of the first professionals I ever met, in 1971 when Paul Levitz and I went up to DC to gather news for our fanzine Etcetera (which would become The Comic Reader). Later, he would serve as my collaborator or editor on two of my early high profile assignments, 1979’s World of Krypton (comics’ first miniseries) and 1981’s Secrets of the Legion of Super-Heroes. As a writer on his own, Nelson wrote for Mad (1956 – 1975), created the original Secret Six (1968), and the humor series The Inferior Five (1966) and the feature The Maniaks (1967), as well as writing the Batman syndicated newspaper strip and Shazam! (1974–78, 1982–83), the Legion of Super-Heroes, Supergirl, and countless other stories. For all his contributions, Nelson Bridwell kept himself mostly to the background. He was naturally shy and soft-spoken, a man who I sometimes felt wasn’t ever quite comfortable in his own skin (but who was also a practicing nudist), overwhelmed by his brasher and more bombastic bosses, first Weisinger, then Julius Schwartz, neither of whom, I’m sorry to say, treated him with the respect he deserved, not only as a person and employee, but for his...

Sep19

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite AQUAMAN Artists

Posted by Dan Greenfield on Sep 19, 2026

PAUL KUPPERBERG: My 13 Favorite AQUAMAN Artists

AN ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL: The Swift and Powerful Monarch of the Ocean made his first appearance 85 years ago… By PAUL KUPPERBERG When he first swam into the pages of More Fun Comics #73, on Sept. 19. 1941, Aquaman was just another back-up feature in a title that consisted of what was essentially a lineup of back-up features: Doctor Fate was on the cover, then came another hero who was making his debut, Green Arrow, plus Radio Squad, Johnny Quick, Clip Carson, and the Spectre. Of course, there was no way of knowing that three out of the six would grow up to one day star or be featured in big budget films (Aquaman and Doctor Fate) and long running television series (Green Arrow). But plucky, never-once-appeared-on-the-cover, talks-to-the-fishes Aquaman held on! The creation of editor and writer Mort Weisinger (who also co-created that issue’s Green Arrow debut with artist George Papp) and artist Paul Norris, the Marine Marvel not only survived the 1940s Golden Age but also managed to navigate the superhero doldrums of the 1950s as a back-up feature in Adventure Comics, until late 1960 when DC used its tryout title, Showcase, to see if he could anchor a solo book. Apparently, he could. And apparently someone had an underwater fetish because his four-issue run (#30-33) followed a three-issue tryout for the scuba diving Sea Devils, which would also be awarded its own title. And, oddly, in 1967, good King Arthur of Atlantis was selected to co-star with the Man of Steel in Filmation’s The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure cartoon series for CBS Saturday morning TV, which seemed a pretty random choice to me at the time. But it does give me an excuse to run this Alex Toth Aquaman model sheet for Super Friends, because who doesn’t want to see Toth art? Not that Aquaman ever lacked for good art. Just during my brief association with the character, writing Aquaman #62-63 (1978) and in Adventure Comics #460-463 (1978-79), I worked with Don Newton and Don Heck. There are many more such illustrators — but not too many to count! Here then, MY 13 FAVORITE AQUAMAN ARTISTS: — Paul Norris. It was a contractual complication that forced Paul Norris to leave his co-creation after about a year. Without realizing it had an exclusivity clause in it that prevented him...

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