The celebrated Mr. K. pays tribute to the Bronze Age stalwart, who turns 79… By PAUL KUPPERBERG Jack C. Harris was my favorite kind of editor. The kind that gave me work. Back when I was getting started, when the grizzled old veteran editors like Julie Schwartz and Murray Boltinoff were working with their regular crews of experienced writers, and the New Wave editors like Dick Giordano and Joe Orlando were seeking out young talents with a lot more talent than this newbie, Jack was himself a relative newbie and more or less one of my contemporaries, as we discussed in our talk in my book Direct Conversations: Talks With Fellow DC Comics Bronze Age Creators. If you need proof that comics fandom was a career path to becoming a comics pro, Jack C. Harris — born 79 years ago, on August 30, 1947 — is one of the people who made the case. Like so many of us who came of age during the Silver Age, Jack started out on the reader’s side of the stories. He bought the comics, read the letter columns, followed the creators, attended conventions, and immersed himself in the growing community of fans who believed comic books were worth taking seriously, not just as entertainment, but as a craft. That enthusiasm eventually opened a professional door at DC Comics. Joining the editorial staff in the early 1970s, Jack arrived at a time when the company was changing. The veteran generation that had built DC was still in place, but younger editors, writers, and artists were beginning to leave their mark. Besides editing, he quickly became a dependable writer, turning out stories across a wide range of genres and characters, including Kamandi and Wonder Woman. Over the years, his credits would also include Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, The Flash, Blackhawk, and a variety of licensed titles, while his editorial work touched dozens more, including Black Lightning, Shade the Changing Man, and Firestorm. Whether developing new material with freelancers or scripting stories himself, he became a dependable member of DC’s editorial and creative staff during a period of change for the company. Later, he turned to teaching in the BFA Cartooning Program at New York’s School of Visual Arts, inviting me a couple of times to speak to his class of young comics creators. Along...